Rebellious Disciple, Don't Push Your Luck!

After several days of cultivation, Lu Ze had more or less figured out the effects of the Heaven and Earth Unification Art.

Simply put, it could devour other Cultivation Methods to raise the rank of one's own Cultivation Method.

Furthermore, it inherited all the traits of the Cultivation Methods it devoured.

A few days earlier, he had demonstrated clearing Endless Mode before all the disciples and obtained quite a few rewards.

Among them were many Cultivation Methods.

It was practically tailor-made for the Heaven and Earth Unification Art.

"It really is a Cultivation Method suited to the Myriad Manifestations Xuan Demon Immortal Physique..."

Lu Ze cultivated as he sighed to himself.

The Heaven and Earth Unification Art did not devour Cultivation Methods the way one would feed skill books into something in a game.

Rather, the cultivator himself had to learn them.

Without the boost in Comprehension provided by the Myriad Manifestations Xuan Demon Immortal Physique, even the most gifted cultivator might not be able to fully maximize its effects.

Conversely, without the support of various cultivation arts, even if one comprehended the Dao techniques of different cultivators through the Myriad Manifestations Xuan Demon Immortal Physique, one might not necessarily be able to use them.

This was especially true of certain special moves, which required specific Cultivation Methods to perform.

Lu Ze had not found any record in that ancient tome of the Grandmaster ever cultivating the Heaven and Earth Unification Art.

In other words, his potential might be even greater than that legendary immortal's.

"Seems I'm thinking too far ahead."

Lu Ze smiled and shook away the stray thoughts in his mind.

He was just a lousy game developer.

Thinking about becoming an immortal now seemed a little premature.

The next day, at the Artifact Forging Hall.

"You rebellious disciple! I've only been gone for a few months, and you've already caused such a huge mess!"

Nangong Yuan glared at Lu Ze. Though he looked fierce, a smile hung at the corners of his mouth.

"Looks like Master already knows that your disciple won."

Lu Ze said cheerfully.

"These old geezers really are something. Every last one of them acted all mysterious and refused to tell me the result..."

Nangong Yuan muttered.

Some days earlier, when he learned about Lu Ze and Ding Mingcang, he had rushed back to the sect from beyond the Nine Regions overnight.

He had thought Lu Ze was doomed to lose.

After returning to the sect, he had headed straight for Repentance Valley.

When he saw Ding Mingcang sitting before the cliff with a dark face, reflecting on his mistakes, he had been overjoyed.

From now on, Glazed Fire Peak could hold its head high before Numinous Ascent Peak.

"Doesn't Master still owe your disciple something?"

Lu Ze coughed twice to remind him.

"Hmph. Since I promised it, I never go back on my word."

Nangong Yuan clasped his hands behind his back, putting on the air of an enlightened master.

"Tell me. What Artifact do you want?"

"There's no need for an Artifact. I won't be leaving the sect anytime soon anyway... What this disciple wants is an item for use within the illusion realm."

"Oh? What sort of item? Let me hear it."

Lu Ze explained his idea.

Within the Illusion Tower, there would be basic screenshots, Screen Recording, and even more advanced real-time image sharing.

In terms from his previous life, it was called "Live Streaming."

Nangong Yuan pinched his chin and fell into thought.

"Recording images wouldn't be difficult... We only need to copy over the key Spell from the Recording Orb."

After a long while, he finally said thoughtfully.

"As for sharing images in real time, so cultivators who aren't together can still see them... difficult!"

After quite some time, he finally squeezed out the word "difficult" as his answer.

"It's fine. This disciple believes Master can definitely make it."

Lu Ze hurriedly flattered him.

"Oh? You know it's difficult? Then tell me, what exactly is difficult about it?"

Nangong Yuan suddenly felt like teaching and asked without warning.

Lu Ze smiled calmly. After giving it some thought, he began answering.

"Merely transmitting images through a spell isn't difficult. Elders separated by thousands of miles usually use this sort of spell to attend Elder meetings."

"The difficulty is that the transmitter and the recipients aren't one-to-one, but one-to-many, perhaps even one-to-very many!"

"Therefore, we need a massive Relay Platform to first receive the transmitter's images, after which the recipients can retrieve them from that Relay Platform."

Lu Ze's answer greatly satisfied Nangong Yuan.

It was even more thorough than what he himself had considered.

"Not bad. Then what are the specific difficulties?"

Nangong Yuan continued asking.

"The difficulty is that this Relay Platform... would require an enormous amount of spiritual energy."

Lu Ze answered.

Nangong Yuan nodded. "Correct. At the very least, it would require the spiritual energy of an Elder or above to possibly meet your requirements... and even then, it would be limited to within the sect."

The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed that the way Lu Ze was looking at him seemed off.

"Master, you promised to help me make this item, didn't you?"

"??? There's no way I'm going to spend every day making some Relay Platform for you!"

"So doing it occasionally is fine?"

"...You rebellious disciple, don't push your luck."

After much persuasion, Nangong Yuan finally agreed to first make the key item Lu Ze needed for screenshots, screen recordings, and live streaming.

As for the Relay Platform—

Lu Ze would have to solve that himself.

Within the Spirit Cloud Sect, the craze for "Plants vs. Zombies" had yet to fade.

There wasn't even the slightest sign that it would.

The disciples were still engrossed in cutting fruit and planting spirit plants, having the time of their lives.

Even those who had already cleared Adventure Mode and ordinary Survival Mode still happily replayed the various stages over and over.

A small group of disciples had evolved into hardcore players.

Every day, they researched how to clear any stage of Endless Mode without difficulty.

The Endless Mode clear record had gradually risen from the initial twenty stages set by Zhong Yi to over a hundred, with faint signs of soon breaking through one thousand...

The Forum popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" remained sky-high.

Every day, disciples shared all sorts of lineups for clearing Endless Mode, making Lu Ze feel as though he had returned to the Tieba of that year.

Before long, these fanatical core players would probably, just like in his previous life, no longer be satisfied with simply clearing ordinary Endless Mode.

They would start adding all kinds of restrictions.

Things like no gods, no cannons, even no purple...

Lu Ze had seen every bizarre restriction imaginable in his previous life. Some even restricted the aesthetic design of the formation.

"Forget it, I won't wait any longer. I might as well make the first move."

Watching the steadily declining Demonic Value coming in, Lu Ze rubbed his chin and muttered to himself.

As their proficiency improved, Spirit Cloud Sect disciples often took a very long time to die even once while playing "Plants vs. Zombies."

The rate at which Demonic Value accumulated plummeted.

The output from "Demonic Path Escape" remained stable, since battle modes never lost their appeal.

But the problem was that cultivators of higher realms were less interested in "Demonic Path Escape" than in "Plants vs. Zombies."

As a result, the Demonic Value Lu Ze had received recently had been dwindling.

Seeing his cultivation progress remain stuck at the initial stage of Foundation Establishment, Lu Ze decided to speed things up manually.

He would directly implement the restricted lineup challenges that players in his previous life had spontaneously organized into the game.

Beyond Endless Mode, there was also a separate Advanced Endless Mode.

Only players who had cleared 500 stages in Endless Mode could participate.

The restrictions rotated once every week, adding constraints to players' troop formations and strategies.

Advanced Endless Mode featured a Leaderboard every week.

The top ten players would receive a Special Title and a Title.

A pile of settings commonly seen in his previous life produced immediate results in this world.

Players who had gradually grown numb to Endless Mode instantly rekindled their fighting spirit.

To compete for a place in the Leaderboard's top ten, the core players, as if pumped full of adrenaline, once again began dying without end...

Lu Ze was not idle either.

Although the Illusion Realm prompt had yet to appear, Chao Wendao told him not to rush and to prepare during the Martial Arts Tournament instead. He would also send people to help Lu Ze create the Illusion Realm.

But to be safe, Lu Ze still decided to prepare some materials himself first.

Such as monster designs, scene construction, and so on.

He did not intend to accept Chao Wendao's help.

What if someone else got involved and the Illusion Realm's ownership no longer counted as his?

If cultivators died in the Illusion Realm, would the Demonic Value count toward him?

No one could say for sure.

Lu Ze decided it was better to handle everything himself.

"No matter what, whether the sect succeeds or fails isn't important. What matters is how to make them die as many times as possible..."

Lu Ze pondered this question every day.

He had even come up with a great many plans for it.

Once the prompt appeared, he could take them out and use them at any time.