Over the next three days.
Classes at the Spirit Cloud Sect suddenly became much more demanding.
After a full day of grueling cultivation, the disciples returned to their rooms only to be tormented further by Survival Mode on hard difficulty.
Yet under this double torment, the disciples not only failed to break down—they grew more excited by the day.
New cards required Spirit Stones to unlock.
Different Zombie combinations demanded different ways to counter them.
Plants they had once thrown together at random now required careful allocation of Spiritual Energy, attack power, and defensive resources...
The more the disciples suffered, the more they loved playing. And the more they suffered, the stronger they became.
To save time, quite a few disciples even learned to split their attention while walking and enter the Illusion Tower to play.
Across the sect, their ability to control Spiritual Sense improved by leaps and bounds.
Ding Mingcang had felt much more at ease lately.
According to the intelligence Qian Yutang had gathered, the new Trial stage Lu Ze had released a few days ago was too difficult.
So difficult that the entire Forum was filled with complaints that clearing it was simply impossible.
It was nothing like the cheerful discussions of a few days earlier.
Ding Mingcang thought—
This was in the bag!
Why had Lu Ze's "Demonic Path Escape" succeeded in the first place?
Wasn't it because it was easy and entertaining?
Now, to stop the disciples from clearing the stage, Lu Ze had taken the exact opposite approach and made it brutally difficult. He was bound to fail.
Besides, every peak had recently intensified its classes. The disciples had nowhere near as much free time as before.
They were busy to death all day, and when they went back, they were supposed to face an Illusion Realm exercise riddled with difficulties?
Even the Spirit Cloud Sect's most relentless disciples probably couldn't keep that up!
At the thought, Ding Mingcang's spirits soared. He decided to inspect things himself and savor the return of a tranquil academic atmosphere.
His first stop was Sword Inquiry Peak.
That day, the Elder of Sword Inquiry Peak had strongly objected to "Plants vs. Zombies."
He believed practicing the sword by slicing fruit sullied the Sword Dao.
Sure enough, Sword Inquiry Peak had promptly answered the call and increased its disciples' workload.
From a distance, Ding Mingcang saw countless students in the lecture hall listening intently as a deacon explained the lesson.
"Excellent, excellent... Now this is the Spirit Cloud Sect I know."
Ding Mingcang praised them inwardly, thoroughly satisfied.
The students in the hall were all diligently taking notes.
When the lecture reached an exciting point, quite a few disciples even mimed the motions, utterly absorbed.
But as he drew closer, his brow suddenly furrowed.
The image the deacon had projected into the air...
It showed fruit flying everywhere, mixed with plants??
Listening more closely,
he realized the lecture was actually about how to plant the desired plant in a designated spot as quickly as possible??
From the trajectory of a sword stroke that severed useless fruit in one sweep to the fine control needed to adjust a plant's landing point with the back of the blade, every motion was analyzed step by step to teach the disciples proper basic sword technique.
According to the deacon teaching the class,
a sword swing that looked perfectly ordinary actually had to be exceptionally precise and swift to plant the needed plant in the shortest possible time.
Quite a few disciples even suspected that Lu Ze's swordsmanship was at least as accomplished as theirs, if not more so—its depths unfathomable.
Otherwise, he could never have devised something so ingenious...
Ding Mingcang's scalp prickled as he listened, but he could hardly object.
This wasn't his territory. Apart from its connection to "Plants vs. Zombies," the lesson really did teach something useful.
He left without a word and headed for Danqing Peak.
When he reached Danqing Peak, the sight in its lecture hall nearly made him cough blood.
Danqing Peak was holding class too. The enormous lecture title floated in midair, visible from far away—
Using the Ice Peashooter as an Example: How to Cultivate an Outstanding Ice-Element Mutant Plant
And the lecturer was none other than Danqing Peak's Third Elder, Lin Qingxuan. He spoke with flying brows and animated gestures about his plan to cultivate every plant from "Plants vs. Zombies" within the sect...
"Hiss—!"
Ding Mingcang drew a sharp breath.
His head hurt even more!
He changed course again, heading to Quenching Gold Peak, where body training had always been strict.
In Body Forging Valley, bronze-skinned Mu Yawen was leading a group of her junior fellow disciples in punching the brown boulders before them.
Their fists cut through the air with fierce force and struck the rocks before them, producing a steady chorus of dull thuds.
Ding Mingcang recognized the rocks. They were body-forging stones used by Quenching Gold Peak's disciples to temper their bodies, and they were extraordinarily hard.
"Finally, somewhere dependable..."
Ding Mingcang breathed a sigh of relief.
It made sense.
Mu Yawen was guileless and straightforward by nature, while "Plants vs. Zombies" demanded a great deal of thought.
He remembered how, at the plaza that day, Mu Yawen had died countless times on the very first stage.
It would only be natural for her to dislike it.
With a senior disciple like her leading them, he could rest easy about Quenching Gold Peak's training atmosphere.
"Wait. Something's strange about those body-forging stones..."
Ding Mingcang frowned and looked closer.
Every brown boulder had a pair of round little eyes carved into it. They looked exactly like the Tall-Nuts from "Plants vs. Zombies"!
A chorus of shouts rose from below.
"Keep it up, everyone! Strengthen your bodies and protect your fellow disciples-in-arms like the Wall-nut Taoist!!"
"If the Wall-nut Taoist can do it, we can't fall behind!"
"Yesterday, I wasn't strong enough and lost eight fellow Tall-Nuts. Today, I'll punish myself by smashing eight body-forging stones with my own hands!"
Ding Mingcang was dumbstruck.
How had even these body-training fanatics gotten sucked in???
Ding Mingcang wandered through several more peaks, his expression growing darker by the minute.
The Spirit Cloud Sect's workload had skyrocketed, and the disciples had grown to love their classes.
But somehow, the lessons always came back to "Plants vs. Zombies."
At this rate,
wouldn't Lu Ze's reputation only keep improving?
Ding Mingcang had a bad feeling.
Frustrated, he headed back to Numinous Ascent Peak.
On the way, he spotted a class being taught down in the Sect Plaza.
The Sect Plaza was fairly open, and the class wasn't on any official schedule. At a glance, it looked like some disciple had put together an impromptu lecture.
Ding Mingcang peered down and caught sight of the title hanging in the air—
Using Survival Mode as an Example: Analyzing the Essentials of Formation Design
Ding Mingcang was already in a foul mood. Seeing yet another class built around "Plants vs. Zombies" made his temper flare.
Worse, Formations were Numinous Ascent Peak's specialty. Someone teaching a Formation class here was practically slapping him in the face!
"Who dares teach a private class in our Sect Plaza without permission?! And a Formation class from my Numinous Ascent Peak, no less!"
With a furious shout, Ding Mingcang leaped straight down from the sky.
The moment he saw the lecturer's face, Ding Mingcang froze.
The lecturer was Grand Elder Chao Wendao.
"What, are lectures forbidden in the Sect Plaza now?"
His enjoyment of teaching interrupted, Chao Wendao spoke with a dark expression.
"No, no..."
"Then you think I'm showing off my paltry skills before an expert by teaching Formations?"
"I wouldn't dare..."
Back at Numinous Ascent Peak, Ding Mingcang felt that matters had grown grave.
The Elders who had originally disliked "Plants vs. Zombies" now seemed to have softened their stance, one after another.
Ding Mingcang was panicking.
He didn't want to be sent to Repentance Valley to contemplate his mistakes.
Never in the sect's history had an Elder ended up there after losing a bet to a disciple.
"No. I have to think of something..."
Before you continue