"If You're a Cultivator, Descend a Hundred Levels"

Just as Yang Zhengxin's mind went blank, Lu Ze's voice came from outside.

"Elder Yang, why not project the illusion outside for everyone to enjoy?"

Without a second thought, Yang Zhengxin agreed. "Sure! Let everyone see how this old man clears every mechanism you designed in one go!"

"Elder Yang, that might be a little difficult."

Lu Ze tried his best to hold back his laughter.

Clear it in one life?

If you manage that, I'll give you the cheat directly. This system can go to hell!

After a few operations from Lu Ze, the image of Yang Zhengxin's illusion was projected into the air.

Not only could the disciples and elders participating in the Martial Arts Exchange inside Nurturing Spirit Hall see it clearly, even the Spirit Cloud Sect disciples watching outside the hall could see everything.

The crowd erupted into commotion.

"'If You're a Cultivator, Descend a Hundred Levels'? What does that mean?"

"Just reading the title makes me want to prove that I can... Junior Brother Lu really has a knack for naming things."

"It's just that the lettering looks a little ugly."

"How could there be a hundred levels? Didn't he make it in less than two hours?"

"It's probably just a gimmick. Does taking an Immortal Pill guarantee becoming an immortal?"

"Fellow Daoist, you're not from the Spirit Cloud Sect, are you? Junior Brother Lu's illusions don't rely on gimmicks. Forget a hundred levels—he's even made ones with infinite levels."

"Really? He's actually made illusions before?"

"Not only has he made them, they're also extremely popular among the sect's disciples."

"So that's why... I only arrived at the Spirit Cloud Sect this morning and saw disciples walking around with Illusion Towers in hand and their eyes closed. I was wondering what was going on..."

The lettering for "If You're a Cultivator, Descend a Hundred Levels" really was quite abstract.

Since the game's overall art style leaned toward the abstract, Lu Ze felt it suited the aesthetic better.

Even the game's name had been deliberately made more down-to-earth.

A game prompt appeared within Yang Zhengxin's illusion.

You accidentally entered a mysterious Secret Realm. Due to the influence of unknown rules, your cultivation has been greatly restricted.

Everything here is filled with strangeness.

Avoid all traps and mechanisms at all costs! The moment you touch one, you will die immediately.

Some locations contain Soul Gathering Arrays set up by experts. Once activated, they will allow you to revive there after death.

Find the exit while dying as few times as possible!

Looking at the prompt overhead, Yang Zhengxin snorted disdainfully.

"Ridiculous. This old man is a Refining Void Realm cultivator. The traps you made cannot harm me in the slightest! And you even set up revival arrays—what a needless addition."

Lu Ze smiled as he reminded him, "Elder Yang, this illusion suppresses cultivation. Cultivators of any realm are the same here."

"Hmph, it matters not."

Yang Zhengxin was brimming with confidence.

"Traps depend on whether you can see through them or not."

"As long as I can see through them, what does cultivation level matter?"

"With this old man's experience, how could the thoughts of you juniors possibly escape my eyes?"

Lu Ze continued holding back his laughter. "Elder Yang is right. As long as you can see through them... then let's begin!"

Thinking of what was about to happen, he felt that being able to hold back his laughter already made him something extraordinary.

"This old man can't be bothered to waste words on you!"

Yang Zhengxin clasped his hands behind his back and proudly chose to begin.

A line of text instantly appeared in the upper-left corner:

Random Level: One

In Lu Ze's previous life, the original version of "I Wanna" was called "iwannabetheguy," and there was only one official release.

However, fans created countless derivative fan-made versions out of passion, many of them exceptionally high-quality.

As the genre gradually matured, the three most popular directions in the "I Wanna" series became:

Jump Stab, endurance, and trap-focused.

Among them, Jump Stab was specifically meant to hone technical skill. Though it had the highest difficulty, it was unsuitable for tormenting people in the early stages.

As for endurance games, they were a type of bullet hell game with a niche audience in his previous life. After giving it some thought, Lu Ze decided that bullet hell games alone would not be popular in this world, so he was in no hurry to make them.

Trap-focused games were famous for their wildly imaginative, infuriatingly bizarre traps.

They happened to fit the theme Yang Zhengxin had proposed.

Lu Ze carefully selected over five hundred high-quality Trap I Wanna Maps he had played in his previous life, arranged them by difficulty, and randomly inserted them into the various levels.

Random Level: One was the least difficult. It contained quite a few beginner tutorial maps, as well as the openings of some high-quality maps.

Lu Ze glanced at Yang Zhengxin's level and inwardly chuckled.

The old man had randomly gotten the opening of a high-quality map.

It was not particularly difficult.

It was just a little unexpected for first-time players.

Yang Zhengxin looked around at his surroundings, his heart filled with disdain.

Huge blocks of color filled the entire illusion space. The flowers and grass all looked unbearably cheap.

"So this is the disciple of your sect who is supposedly gifted in illusion realms? Hah, even an Outer Disciple from my sect could do better than this!"

Yang Zhengxin scoffed.

At that moment, disciples from the other sects outside burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! That blue sky is far too childish."

"My younger brother, who only recently started school, draws at about this level."

"What is going on with the Spirit Cloud Sect? They actually let someone like this take on such an important task..."

"Absurd! Absolutely absurd!!"

Meanwhile, Chao Wendao and Nangong Yuan, at the center of the public criticism, looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Your disciple shouldn't be at this level..."

Chao Wendao's face scrunched up in utter confusion.

"Could it be... that he didn't have enough time?"

Nangong Yuan could not understand it either.

Lu Ze's previous two works had styles somewhat different from reality, but both had been genuinely high-quality productions with a distinct charm.

Why had If You're a Cultivator, Descend a Hundred Levels suddenly become so bizarre?

"That can't be right. He clearly still had more than two hours to refine it..."

After discussing it for a long while without reaching any conclusion, the two could only continue watching.

Within the illusion, besides Yang Zhengxin standing amid the bizarre scenery, there was also a small floating display in the air.

Lu Ze had deliberately designed it to show the game screen of an I Wanna game from his previous life.

The onlooking disciples outside began discussing it one after another.

"Why is there another, smaller image in the air?"

"It looks like a complete overhead view of this space."

"The little person inside seems to be Elder Yang? Look! When Elder Yang moves, the little person in that image moves too!"

"It should be there to make it easier for us to view the whole level."

"How strange. Why is Junior Brother Lu being so considerate? Shouldn't traps be as hidden as possible?"

"What is Elder Yang doing? Why does he keep running around?"

"Perhaps he is testing it."

Yang Zhengxin frequently entered Secret Realms.

He had seen no shortage of Secret Realms with all kinds of restrictions.

He possessed considerable combat experience and a flexible mind when it came to battle.

Since Lu Ze had said that cultivation would be suppressed and his movements restricted, Yang Zhengxin sensibly began testing things to figure out exactly what he was capable of doing.

"I can only run and jump? I can borrow force once more in midair to leap again... Heh heh, do you take me for a fool!? If you casually threw in a demonic beast like this, wouldn't defeat be inevitable!?"

Yang Zhengxin roared.

"Elder Yang, don't be hasty. I, Lu Ze, never make things difficult for others. The level you are currently in contains only traps. There is absolutely no need for combat."

Lu Ze said unhurriedly.

"Then I'll trust you this once!"

After thinking it over, Yang Zhengxin finally stepped forward.

Floating in the sky above him were three lines of large characters: "If you're a cultivator, descend one hundred levels."

He paid them no mind, taking them for nothing more than a title.

He continued forward.

He was still a little unaccustomed to controlling his body, but for someone as experienced as him, it was no big issue.

When he reached a massive earthen pillar, he looked up at it.

"Child's play!"

He snorted, utterly disdainful.

"Up!"

Yang Zhengxin leaped with all his strength, soaring three meters into the air.

This was the maximum height he had just tested himself capable of reaching.

At the peak of his jump, just as he was about to fall, he pushed off the air and jumped again.

With a double jump, his body cleared the platform!

"And this is supposed to count as a trap?"

The moment Yang Zhengxin's feet touched the ground, he impatiently scoffed.

Just then—

A gust of wind came from behind his head.

A tremendous sense of danger surged through his heart.

He turned his face.

Then he saw it.

The three huge characters, "If you're a cultivator," which had been floating in the sky, were hurtling toward him at incredible speed!

Yang Zhengxin had never seen anything like this before and froze where he stood.

The next second, he was smashed to pieces, reduced to a puddle of blood.

Yang Zhengxin respawned on the spot. Staring at the crooked characters in the sky—"If you're a cultivator, descend one hundred levels"—his bewildered eyes were filled with question marks.

He had roamed Secret Realms for more than a hundred years and been outwitted by traps countless times, walking the edge of death no fewer than thousands of times.

But—

who the hell could have imagined that he would be killed by three huge characters???