Wait, Weren't We Here to Practice Swordsmanship?

Zhong Yi's Illusion Realm.

At that moment, Zhong Yi could hardly describe his excitement.

After unlocking the true way to play Plants vs. Zombies, he felt as though a whole new world had opened before him.

Slicing fruit in the sky was only one part of it.

The game's true heart lay in the Spirit Field beneath his feet!

After clearing the First Level, he had obtained a new plant.

It was a Sunflower, which could increase the rate at which Spiritual Energy was produced.

Quick-witted as he was, Zhong Yi immediately understood: he needed to plant Sunflowers first to secure a basic supply of Spiritual Energy, then use that steady supply to grow more Peashooters for defense.

He cleared the Second Level with ease too.

Then came

the third level, Level 4...

Every level hit him with a fresh surprise.

He obtained more and more plants, while the Zombies grew more varied and more powerful.

He found himself marveling more and more at Lu Ze's ingenuity.

Peashooters could fire peas like arrows; mutated Ice Peashooters had ice attributes that slowed enemies; Wall-nut Walls could even serve as shields...

Zhong Yi even wondered whether these plants could actually be cultivated in a medicinal herb garden.

The Zombies were just as varied.

One in particular carried a bamboo pole and used it to vault right over the Wall-nut Walls. It gave him no end of headaches and cost him plants several times.

But the harder it got, the more fun he found it.

He kept searching for ways to arrange his forces and break through each challenge.

Just as he was engrossed, a miserable cry suddenly came through Spiritual Sense: "Senior Brother Zhong, why is this Illusion Realm so hard??"

Zhong Yi hadn't intended to answer him.

But Mu Yawen kept pestering him with messages.

He had no choice but to leave the Illusion Realm for the moment. "What's the problem?"

Mu Yawen looked miserable. "Senior Brother Zhong, why is this Illusion Realm so difficult? Every time, it tells me the Zombies ate my brains."

"...How are you fighting the Zombies?"

The corner of Zhong Yi's mouth twitched. A possibility he could scarcely believe had occurred to him.

"With my sword, of course!"

Mu Yawen mimed swinging a sword.

"But this Illusion Realm restricts my strength. My Sword Qi is far too short..."

"You can still unleash Sword Qi?"

Zhong Yi was stunned.

In a way, Mu Yawen really was in a league of her own.

"Yeah! But the Sword Qi couldn't reach the Zombies, so I threw my sword down to smash them... Only it didn't kill them, and I was stuck up in the sky... In the end, the Zombies got into my house..."

Mu Yawen sighed as she described what had happened.

Zhong Yi's fists clenched just listening to her.

You didn't read a single rule of this Illusion Realm!

But she was a good friend, so Zhong Yi patiently explained how to plant the plants and what each one did...

"Oh! I get it! I'll try that now!"

Understanding dawned on Mu Yawen.

It was a shame she couldn't fight the Zombies herself, but Zhong Yi had made it sound so vivid that she was intrigued.

Zhong Yi closed his eyes again and returned to his Illusion Realm.

He had barely made a few moves when Mu Yawen called for help again. "Senior Brother Zhong! Why are these plants so feeble? They're no match for the Zombies!"

"How could that be?"

Puzzled, Zhong Yi left again.

"Project your Illusion Realm outside so I can take a look."

"Okay!"

Mu Yawen entered the Illusion Realm, projected the scene outside, and began to play.

When Zhong Yi saw her sweep through every piece of fruit with one magnificent sword stroke, leaving a single pea pod with perfect Accuracy, he silently praised her: Excellent swordsmanship.

The next moment, Mu Yawen tossed the pea pod into the front row, straight into hand-to-hand combat with the Zombies.

"See, Senior Brother Zhong? This plant is too weak!!"

"..."

Zhong Yi rubbed his forehead, somewhat embarrassed.

"Junior Brother Mu, why... don't you put the Peashooter farther back?"

"A true man fears neither life nor death. When paths cross in a narrow pass, the brave prevail!"

"..."

For a moment, Zhong Yi had no idea how to respond.

He felt as though his junior had tempered her body until her brain broke...

"I was just as weak once. Perhaps dying a few times will do it some good."

Mu Yawen suddenly saw the light, her fighting spirit blazing.

"No, no, no... You need to put it in the back row. It's, uh... a cultivator specializing in spells. It only excels at ranged attacks."

Zhong Yi did his best to get his point across.

"Tch. No wonder it's so useless."

Only after Zhong Yi talked her through it and told her about the Wall-nut Taoist, a Body Tempering specialist who could withstand the Zombies with his bare body, did Mu Yawen return to the Illusion Realm, still half doubtful.

For the people of this world, the very idea of a tower-defense game was far ahead of its time.

But they were cultivators, after all. They weren't stupid.

After failing many times, the disciples gradually began to grasp the secrets of this Illusion Realm.

The Inner Disciples' Spiritual Sense channel was bustling.

"Why is this Illusion Realm so hard? I never have enough Peashooters! I'm desperately short on Spiritual Energy!"

"Fellow cultivator, don't tell me you haven't planted any Sunflowers?"

"That Zombie with a spittoon on its head is so hard to beat! It's too tough. One Peashooter can barely knock the spittoon off its head."

"How strange. What does Junior Brother Lu have against spittoons...?"

"Don't worry, fellow cultivator. Once you unlock the Wall-nut Wall, you can stop the Buckethead Zombie."

"Hahaha! I just unlocked the Ice Peashooter! This plant has an innate Ice Spirit Root, and the peas it spits out carry icy energy! Slowing them down makes fighting so satisfying!"

"Ice Peashooter? Marvelous, marvelous."

"Wait, weren't we here to practice swordsmanship?"

"Ahem, fellow cultivator, I must disagree! Look—have the swords in our hands stopped for even a moment?"

"Good point!"

"If this Illusion Realm had existed sooner, I could have swung my sword thirty thousand times a day!"