Chapter Summaries

Zhong Yi and Mu Yawen entered an Illusion Realm game as Demon Path players, and Zhong Yi began killing and deceiving the other cultivators. After Player Nine called a meeting to discuss a body, Mu Yawen startled the gathering by refusing to reveal anything.

• Zhong Yi learned that he was a Ghoul Demon whose tasks were fake, then killed Wang Zhiyuan and devoured his corpse.
• Zhong Yi found Mu Yawen at the fountain and brought her along, warning her not to reveal that they were Demon Path players.
• Zhong Yi and Mu Yawen killed another player at the rockery, where Player Nine later discovered the body and rang his wind chime.
• At the ancestral hall, Player Nine suspected Zhong Yi and Mu Yawen, but Zhong Yi claimed they were a medium and a master detective completing tasks.
• When it was Mu Yawen's turn to speak, she shouted, "I'm not telling you!!!"

After dying in the first round of Demonic Murder, Zhong Yi explained the factions and their strategies to Mu Yawen, then joined a second match as the good-guy Saint. He began looking for a teammate and found Mu Yawen, who unexpectedly announced that she was Demon Path.

• Mu Yawen asked Zhong Yi why their identities had been exposed, and Zhong Yi explained that Constables and Swordsmen could attack while describing how each faction won.
• Zhong Yi urged Mu Yawen to practice lying and warned her not to reveal the truth to anyone in the Illusion Realm, even him.
• The Taotie won the first game, and the Righteous cultivators eagerly started another match.
• Zhong Yi drew the good-guy Class Saint, whose death would notify every good guy, and decided to use himself as bait after finding a trusted teammate.
• Mu Yawen approached Zhong Yi and, after he asked about her identity, grinned and said she was Demon Path.

Zhong Yi watched Mu Yawen get voted out after openly claiming to be Demon Path, only for the round to end with Mu Yawen winning as Dull Owl. In the next round, Zhong Yi received the Death Caster role and killed Number Seven, but Number Three exposed his act by revealing that Number Seven had exchanged identities with him and was a Scout.

• Mu Yawen openly claimed to be Demon Path, and Zhong Yi tried to distance himself while defending Mu Yawen.
• The players voted Mu Yawen out, triggering the results screen and revealing that Dull Owl had won because Mu Yawen was Demon Race.
• Zhong Yi spawned in the Dungeon as a Death Caster and killed the lone Number Seven near the exit.
• Zhong Yi pretended to grieve over Number Seven’s death and claimed he had found the corpse.
• Number Three revealed that Number Seven had exchanged identities with him and was a Scout, whose death automatically rang the bell.

Lu Ze completed his mission by introducing cultivators to Demon Path roles in “Demonic Murder,” then received a high-level illusion spell and began planning new games. As the game spread, Zhong Yi joined another match as a Hidden Demon, facing a roster full of troublesome classes.

• Lu Ze completed his mission after more than one hundred righteous cultivators grew eager to play Demon Path roles, and he chose the illusion realm category to receive the Fearful Soul Entanglement Array.
• Lu Ze set aside the idea of making a horror game and planned to finish more “Demonic Murder” maps and classes before developing an FPS or MOBA.
• Cultivators increasingly discussed “Demonic Murder,” while Mu Yawen told Zhong Yi that Lu Ze seemed like the real Demon Path member and called him Old Devil Lu.
• Zhong Yi hosted a fourteen-player match with Mu Yawen and Shen Yan as Zhou Yue was away on a Demon Path eradication operation.
• Zhong Yi drew the Hidden Demon identity and saw that the match included troublesome classes such as the scout, mole, and Evil Ghost.

Zhong Yi used his Hidden Demon role to kill during an invisible attack and frame innocent players, then killed Mu Yawen and was exposed by Shen Yan’s suspicion. After Number Five died to the Death Caster, Zhong Yi claimed to be the Scout and gambled that Number Five had guessed Number Eleven’s role incorrectly.

• Zhong Yi disguised himself as an innocent player and killed Number Eight while invisible, causing Shen Yan to mistake Number Ten for a traitor and kill him.
• Zhong Yi joined the crowd’s discussion, helped disperse the players, and celebrated that his attack had killed one player and framed another.
• Zhong Yi struck Mu Yawen when she approached him, but she was the Scout, so he was transported to the ancestral hall as the group gathered.
• Zhong Yi blamed Number Fourteen for Mu Yawen’s death, but Shen Yan called for Zhong Yi to be voted out after noticing his suspicious timing.
• Number Five was killed by the Death Caster, and Zhong Yi claimed to be the Scout, saying Number Five had mistaken Number Eleven for the Rotting Demon and that Number Eleven was the Medium.

Zhong Yi survived the vote by convincing Shen Yan that Player 5 was probably the Death Caster, then tried to coordinate the surviving Demon Path players. After discovering his teammates had all died, he faced an imminent vote-out but claimed that voting him out would cost Shen Yan the game.

• Zhong Yi persuaded Shen Yan to have the good players abstain and keep watch on Player 2.
• After reviving beside Player 3, Zhong Yi learned Player 3 was the Death Caster and ordered him to kill Player 1 while they forced the vote.
• Zhong Yi waited beside Player 4's corpse, expecting his teammates to have killed more players.
• Shen Yan told Zhong Yi that Player 13 had killed Player 6 and that Zhong Yi had been found beside another corpse, then announced the group would vote Player 2 out.
• Zhong Yi realized Shen Yan had mistaken Player 13 for Demon Path and claimed that voting him out would prevent Shen Yan from winning.

Zhong Yi manipulated Shen Yan into voting Zhou Qiaoling out, but the Dumb Owl won and ruined his victory. After returning to the Spirit Cloud Sect, Zhou Yue joined the Illusion Realm and found himself playing as Painted Skin alongside Zhong Yi.

• Guo Yunwen revealed that he was a Rotting Demon who had chosen to help the good side because he could no longer win.
• Zhong Yi convinced Shen Yan that Number 7, Zhou Qiaoling, was the Evil Ghost by claiming Number 13 had been a Death Caster and Number 3 his teammate.
• Shen Yan voted with Zhong Yi to eliminate Zhou Qiaoling, but the Dumb Owl won immediately afterward.
• After the campaign against the Demon Path subsided, Zhou Yue returned to the Spirit Cloud Sect and joined Zhong Yi and their friends in the Illusion Realm.
• Zhou Yue received the Painted Skin role and relaxed when he discovered Zhong Yi was his teammate.

Zhou Yue accidentally killed Zhong Yi during a chaotic blade fight, then won the crowd’s trust by grieving convincingly. Determined to honor Zhong Yi, he tried using his Painted Skin Class to kill again, but struck a Taotie and freed Mu Yawen and Guo Yunwen instead.

• Zhong Yi taught Zhou Yue how to use his blade, then chased Shen Yan when he overheard them; Zhou Yue joined the pursuit.
• Shen Yan accidentally killed Zhou Qiaoling, and Zhong Yi died when he entered Zhou Yue’s attack range.
• During the vote, Zhou Yue’s grief over Zhong Yi persuaded the crowd that he was a good person, and they abstained.
• Zhou Yue resolved to honor Zhong Yi and planned to use his Painted Skin Class to deceive others and murder them.
• Zhou Yue attacked the Gatekeeper Elder of Sky Profound Gate, only to reveal Mu Yawen and Guo Yunwen inside the Taotie.

Zhou Yue teamed up with Zhong Yi and Shen Yan in Demonic Murder, but his attempt to kill Zhou Qiaoling ended in disaster when she turned out to be a Taotie and released five swallowed players. After the good side won, Zhong Yi banned the Scout for the next round, and Zhou Yue discovered that he had become a Taotie.

• Zhong Yi, Shen Yan, and Zhou Yue cooperated as Demon Path players, killing three people while Zhou Yue hid their corpses.
• Zhong Yi and Shen Yan agreed to let Zhou Yue make a kill, and Zhou Yue killed Zhou Qiaoling, who was a Taotie and released five swallowed players.
• The players exposed the trio, and Shen Yan blamed Zhong Yi for letting Zhou Yue kill; the good side won the round.
• Zhong Yi banned the Scout for the next game, and Zhou Yue saw that his identity was Taotie.

Zhou Yue played Taotie, swallowed most of the players, and believed he had secured his first victory. The game instead ended with Zhou Qiaoling winning as Plague, leaving Zhou Yue devastated and wondering how she infected everyone.

• Zhou Yue lied to Mu Yawen about being the Medium, swallowed her, and took her role before establishing himself among the good players.
• After a meeting, Zhou Yue swallowed Zhou Qiaoling, whose loud racket inspired the other swallowed players to make noise in his belly.
• Zhou Yue swallowed Zhong Yi when Zhong Yi suspected he was Taotie, then learned Glutton time had begun with only three players left.
• Guo Yunwen offered himself to Zhou Yue after the other players had died, and Zhou Yue swallowed him as the last survivor.
• The results screen declared Plague the winner, and Zhong Yi explained that Zhou Qiaoling had infected Zhou Yue before he swallowed her, allowing her to infect everyone else.

Lu Ze agreed to join a Demonic Murder tournament after his system assigned him a mission tied to an upcoming Secret Realm competition. Meanwhile, Han Yiwen mistook the tournament for a chance to win a Nascent Soul-level Artifact and vowed that the Demon Cultivators would claim it.

• Zhong Yi praised Lu Ze’s Demonic Murder Illusion Realm and asked him to promote a tournament organized by several True Disciples.
• Lu Ze initially refused to appear in the tournament’s Final Battle, but changed his mind when the system assigned him a mission to compete under his Demonic Son System identity and win alone.
• Zhong Yi suspected Lu Ze had a split personality or a Heart Demon after he abruptly agreed to participate.
• At the southern branch of the Demon Cultivators, Han Yiwen read the tournament notice and learned that its winner would receive a Nascent Soul-level Artifact.
• Han Yiwen laughed at the Righteous cultivators’ challenge and declared that the Demon Cultivators would take the prize.

Han Yiwen entered the “Demonic Murder” competition expecting to outwit the Righteous Path, but his first match ended in defeat and his second plan unraveled when Mu Yawen exposed him. The vote began with Han Yiwen still believing he had manipulated her.

• Han Yiwen and his Demon Path underlings entered the competition, confident they could defeat the Righteous Path without practicing.
• In his first match, Han Yiwen drew the Good Guy Detective identity, loudly searched for Demon Path allies, and was tricked into being swallowed by another player.
• Han Yiwen began a second match as a Ghoul Demon and recognized Mu Yawen as a powerful player he had previously deceived.
• Han Yiwen urged Mu Yawen to recruit allies so they could kill together, then secretly planned to kill Number 11 while she went to find Number 4.
• Player Number 14 triggered a vote, and Mu Yawen claimed she was a Mole and accused Number 4, Number 7, and Number 11 of being Demon Path members.

Han Yiwen and the Demon Path cultivators repeatedly lost the Illusion Realm competition to Righteous Path players who used deception and ruthless tactics. After three days of defeats, they stayed to watch the final contest and wondered whether a Demon Path Grandmaster could restore their honor.

• Han Yiwen lost five rounds in a row after Genius Cultivator repeatedly accused him of being a bad guy, despite Han Yiwen insisting he was a good guy and later admitting he was Demon Path.
• Han Yiwen found that the Demon Cultivators he had brought had also lost, as Hundred-Faced Demon, Silver-Tongued Scholar, and Netherworld Guest described being deceived or attacked by other players.
• Han Yiwen urged the Demon Path group to learn the Illusion Realm classes and skills so they could win the next day.
• The Demon Path suffered total defeats on the second and third days and concluded that the Righteous Path players outdid them at deception.
• The defeated Demon Path group stayed to bet on the likely winner, while Han Yiwen lamented that none of them could rank and wished for a Demon Path Grandmaster.

Lu Ze entered the final battle of the competition as a masked Death Caster, hoping to use his Demon Path teammates to secure a solo victory. After Taotie accidentally killed the Hall Assassin, leaving Lu Ze’s side at a severe disadvantage, Lu Ze decided he had to act himself.

• Zhou Yue introduced the twelve finalists and announced that Lu Ze would join them, with contestants’ appearances and voices hidden for the first two rounds.
• Lu Ze drew the Death Caster role and learned that the other revealed Demon Path player was a Ghoul Demon, while the Hall Assassin was the Scout’s nemesis.
• The contestants tried to uncover one another’s roles and personal identities, and Lu Ze resolved to finish the game before the third vote exposed him.
• At the first meeting, Taotie revealed himself after possessing Player Nine and admitted he had eaten both a Scout and Lu Ze’s Number Twelve teammate, the Hall Assassin.
• The players voted Player Nine out, leaving the Demon Path with two players and the Demon Race with one against seven Good players, so Lu Ze decided to make a move.

Lu Ze and Guo Yunwen tried to turn the Demon Path’s losing position around, and Lu Ze used a convincing bluff to expose and kill No. 8 before getting Guo Yunwen voted out. As Guo Yunwen celebrated with the dead, he saw Shen Yan’s soul and realized the person he had mistaken for Senior Brother Shen was someone else.

• Lu Ze posed as Shen Yan to convince Guo Yunwen to help him kill good guys, then the two split up to search for opportunities.
• After Guo Yunwen was caught near a missing body, he claimed he had killed No. 4 as a good guy with a killing ability and accused a Ghoul Demon of eating the corpse.
• Guo Yunwen surprised No. 3, the Constable, and killed him, while Lu Ze killed No. 13 and called a meeting.
• Lu Ze pretended to be the Avenger, used Curse Kill to kill No. 8, then claimed he had been bluffing and was the Knight-Errant.
• The players voted Guo Yunwen out, and he celebrated until he saw Shen Yan’s soul and wondered who Lu Ze really was.

Lu Ze won the Demon Path team’s tournament match by deceiving the other players about his identity, then drew the Demon Cultivators’ attention. He tricked Han Yiwen into expecting a Nascent Soul-level Artifact delivery, setting up a dangerous encounter.

• After the meeting revealed No. 8 as the Avenger, Zhou Qiaoling recognized No. 2 as Lu Ze, and he killed her once his knife skill was ready.
• Lu Ze reasoned that Zhong Yi was No. 1, the Craftsman was No. 5, and No. 10 was the remaining Screech Owl; when No. 10 identified himself as the Saint and implicated No. 5, Lu Ze killed him.
• At the ancestral hall, Lu Ze revealed himself as the Death Caster and used Curse Kill on No. 5, securing a Demonic Faction victory.
• Han Yiwen and the other Demon Cultivators praised Lu Ze’s cunning, and Han Yiwen considered recruiting him into the Demon Path.
• Lu Ze recognized Han Yiwen as a Demon Cultivator and messaged him with a false promise of a Nascent Soul-level Artifact delivery, then contacted Mu Yawen.
• Han Yiwen believed Lu Ze was bringing him a prize and planned to capture Lu Ze and take the Artifact when he arrived.

After the Demonic Murder competition, Lu Ze abandoned his attempts to adapt FPS games for the Cultivation World and decided to develop a first-person MOBA. He believed cultivators’ Divine Sense Probe could solve the information problems that had doomed first-person MOBAs elsewhere.

• Lu Ze’s single match in the Demonic Murder Final Battle earned him more points than Zhong Yi scored across all three matches, completing his system mission and helping Mu Yawen understand a tribulation of the heart.
• A week after the competition, Lu Ze concluded that his FPS experiments failed because firearms were unfamiliar to cultivators and sword-based demolition gameplay felt unsatisfying.
• Lu Ze decided that FPS games would only work if firearms became established in the Cultivation World, while Battle Royale and tomb-raiding games would need to wait until he was closer to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Lu Ze turned to MOBA games and reasoned that cultivators’ natural use of Divine Sense Probe could provide the battlefield awareness missing from first-person MOBAs.

Lu Ze planned and spent a month creating Immortal-Demon Supremacy, a fictional-world MOBA Illusion Realm, while Cultivator Brawl kept cultivators playing. After testing the new realm with nine Cyber Souls, he confirmed it had no obvious bugs and launched it across all Illusion Realms.

• Lu Ze planned Immortal-Demon Supremacy, redesigned heroes and skills, and released Cultivator Brawl as an interim map that more than tripled Immortal Realm Supremacy's online players.
• Lu Ze entered secluded cultivation and chose fictional characters instead of historical figures to avoid controversy and simplify hero design.
• Lu Ze spent a month crafting Immortal-Demon Supremacy, creating nearly a hundred heroes and adapting traditional MOBA combat, levels, attributes, and equipment.
• Lu Ze tested the realm in practice matches with nine Cyber Souls and found the Divine Sense Probe solved the first-person perspective issue.
• Lu Ze updated the Illusion Realm Crystals on the Server and announced Immortal-Demon Supremacy's official launch as a five-versus-five battle in Immortal-Demon Gorge.

Lu Ze launched the competitive Illusion Realm Immortal-Demon Supremacy, drawing Zhong Yi and his companions in to try it. Zhong Yi completed a tutorial full of scripted deaths and entered the party room confident he could handle the game.

• Lu Ze released Immortal-Demon Supremacy with a promotional animation, and cultivators discussed the new Illusion Realm on the forum.
• Zhong Yi persuaded Zhou Yue to try the game, and Zhou Yue agreed as long as it was not luck-based.
• Zhou Qiaoling brought Li Moran to join Zhong Yi, Zhou Yue, and Mu Yawen in Nurturing Spirit Hall.
• The five entered Immortal-Demon Supremacy and learned that disputes on the Immortal-Demon Continent were settled through heroic spirits.
• Zhong Yi repeatedly died during the beginner tutorial, then met the others in the party room and boasted that he was good at the game.

Zhong Yi, Li Moran, Zhou Yue, Zhou Qiaoling, and Mu Yawen entered Immortal-Demon Supremacy’s simulated battle and chose Heroic Souls that transformed their appearances. They received their routes and headed toward battle, with Zhong Yi suspecting the new mode would be especially entertaining.

• The five entered the Heroic Soul selection altar, and Li Moran chose the Peerless Sword Maiden while Zhong Yi selected the Wind Sword Master.
• Mu Yawen chose the Berserker, Zhou Qiaoling picked the Swift Scout, and Zhou Yue was assigned Luban No. 7 after the game warned their team needed a marksman.
• The group appeared at their fountain, where Zhong Yi and Mu Yawen laughed at the tiny forms of Zhou Yue and Zhou Qiaoling.
• Zhong Yi examined the three-lane battlefield and assigned himself mid, Li Moran top, Zhou Yue and Zhou Qiaoling bottom, and Mu Yawen to the jungle.
• After the system announced that all troops would advance, the five followed their route prompts toward their battlefields.