Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Elder Ding Mingcang challenges Lu Ze to prove that he created the illusion realm “Demonic Path Escape” by making another one within a month.
• Lu Ze accepts, despite the crowd’s doubts. Ding requires him to remain inside the Artifact Forging Hall under Enforcement Hall supervision, preventing help from outsiders.
• Lu Ze counters with two conditions: if he succeeds, Ding must be punished for targeting him, and the sect must not interfere with his future illusion-realm trials.
• Ding agrees that he will spend a month in Repentance Valley if Lu Ze succeeds. If Lu Ze fails, Ding vows to cripple him and expel him.
• Lu Ze asks Grand Elder Chao Wendao to formalize their agreement as a sect covenant, making it binding. Chao warns him that he may be taking a serious risk but ultimately creates the covenant.
• Ding assigns Lu a narrow task: design an illusion realm that trains disciples in basic sword swings, with no combat functions.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze remains calm and confident under pressure. He recognizes Ding’s hostility and turns the challenge into an opportunity to protect his independence and potentially earn a larger system reward by defeating him decisively.
• Ding Mingcang assumes Lu Ze is bluffing and uses the challenge to try to expose him. His certainty makes him accept severe stakes, while his restrictions show how determined he is to isolate Lu Ze.
• Chao Wendao believes Lu Ze may truly have created the first realm and admires his ability, but worries that the one-month deadline is unrealistic. Though reluctant, he respects both parties’ decision and binds them to their words.
• The disciples are astonished by Lu Ze’s boldness. Many doubt his claim, especially when he accepts a seemingly impossible second challenge.

Significant themes

• Confidence versus skepticism: Lu Ze’s composure contrasts with the crowd’s disbelief and Ding’s overconfidence.
• Power, authority, and fairness: Lu Ze challenges an elder’s ability to target him without consequence.
• Commitment and risk: The sect covenant transforms a verbal contest into a binding, high-stakes obligation.
• Independence and ingenuity: Ding tries to constrain Lu Ze’s resources, while Lu Ze accepts the restrictions and prepares to prove himself on his own terms.

Key plot points and events

• After Lu Ze accepts Ding Mingcang’s Sect Covenant, Ding is furious but believes he has already secured victory by choosing the challenge: Lu Ze must create a sword-cultivation illusion without battle-related functions. Ding considers existing sword-training illusions too well established to surpass.
• Lu Ze is confined to a pavilion under Ding’s barrier. His master, Nangong Yuan, manages to speak with him and offers access to the sect’s sword-practice illusions for study, while carefully avoiding prohibited advice.
• Lu Ze’s confidence unsettles Nangong Yuan. They wager that, if Lu Ze wins, Nangong will make him a prop; Nangong promises an Immortal Artifact if he succeeds.
• After testing the sect’s illusions, Lu Ze recognizes their sophistication. His limited spiritual sense prevents him from creating a large environment, and Ding’s ban on combat rules out many obvious ideas. He decides to experiment rather than give up.
• At Sword Inquiry Peak, Zhong Yi predicts Lu Ze will struggle: sword cultivation seems inseparable from combat, where established illusions already excel. Mu Yawen remains optimistic, while Li Moran ends the chapter with a possible solution: perhaps Lu Ze can make the act of swinging a sword itself ingenious.

Character developments and interactions

• Ding Mingcang is confident and vindictive, using strict challenge conditions to corner Lu Ze and prevent outside help.
• Lu Ze stays playful and self-assured, even turning his predicament into a wager with his master, but he takes the creative challenge seriously.
• Nangong Yuan scolds Lu Ze yet supports him within the rules, showing loyalty beneath his exasperation.
• Zhong Yi is analytical but pessimistic; Mu Yawen is cheerfully confident in Lu Ze; Li Moran, normally so gifted that she has little need for training aids, contributes the chapter’s key conceptual possibility.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity under constraints: Lu Ze must innovate despite limits on space, combat, and outside assistance.
• Tradition versus invention: Established sword-training methods are highly refined, making a genuinely new approach difficult.
• Confidence and doubt: Lu Ze’s composure contrasts with others’ worry, while the chapter leaves open whether his confidence is justified.
• Support and loyalty: Nangong and Lu Ze’s peers cannot solve the challenge for him, but they remain invested in his success.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Ze struggles to adapt a game from his previous life to this world, finding Fruit Ninja uninspiring for cultivators.
• He experiments with various game designs, including upgrading weapons, skills, and monsters, but nothing satisfies him.
• Lu Ze realizes that the act of swinging a sword in games might not be as impactful for cultivators as in his previous life.
• He accidentally discovers a new game concept while trying to slice fruits in the illusion.

Character Developments

• Lu Ze shows dedication and persistence in finding the right game concept, demonstrating his creativity and problem-solving skills.
• He begins to understand the unique aspects of cultivators and their martial arts training, which influences his game design.

Significant Themes

• The struggle of adapting ideas from one world to another, highlighting the differences between Lu Ze's previous life and his current cultivation world.
• The importance of understanding one's audience and catering to their unique preferences and experiences.

Character Interactions

• Lu Ze interacts with the Illusion Tower, essentially designing and testing games within it, leading to his breakthrough idea.
• Although not explicitly mentioned, Lu Ze's interactions with the Spirit Cloud Sect disciples are implied, as he aims to create a game that would appeal to them.

Plot points and events

• During Lu Ze’s half-month absence, the Spirit Cloud Sect’s Enforcement Hall intensified its crackdown on disciples secretly playing Demonic Path Escape. The game nevertheless remained popular, and rumors about Lu Ze’s wager with Elder Ding Mingcang spread throughout the sect.
• Lu Ze spent the time creating a new Illusion Realm inspired by Plants vs. Zombies. He recreated the main story levels, adapted modern details into a cultivation-world setting, and added minigames and Survival Mode.
• The game’s central actions are cutting away unwanted plants and fruit, then placing useful plants to defend the field. Lu Ze changed collected sunlight into automatically gathering Spiritual Energy, making sword-swinging part of the gameplay.
• At the appointed public trial, Ding Mingcang arranged a major gathering at Lingxiao Plaza, where six Elders and a huge Illusion Tower awaited. Many disciples suspected the event was a trap or expected Lu Ze to fail, but the crowd gathered anyway.
• Lu Ze finally arrived, escorted by Enforcement Hall disciples. Despite the crowd’s scrutiny, he appeared relaxed and walked calmly to the center.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze shows confidence in his design and determination to win the wager. He is also practical: although the new game yields less Demonic Value because players die less often, he accepts the trade-off, expecting long-term popularity and reputation.
• Ding Mingcang turns the wager into a public spectacle, putting Lu Ze under pressure and drawing the sect’s attention.
• The disciples are divided between believers, skeptics, and those who simply want access to another game. Their continued attendance reveals how strongly Demonic Path Escape has captivated them.
• Lu Ze has not yet demonstrated the new Illusion Realm, so the wager’s outcome remains unresolved.

Significant themes

• Innovation and adaptation: Lu Ze reshapes a familiar game for a cultivation setting, changing its imagery and mechanics while preserving its appeal.
• Public reputation and risk: Lu Ze’s bold claim has made him the focus of sect-wide scrutiny, while Ding’s public challenge raises the stakes.
• Entertainment versus discipline: The sect’s crackdown cannot extinguish the disciples’ enthusiasm for gaming.
• Confidence amid doubt: Lu Ze faces widespread skepticism without showing visible anxiety.

• The challenge: Lu Ze meets the elders to prove he can create another successful Illusion Realm. Ding Mingcang sets three conditions: the realm must be inventive, focus only on sword practice, and attract broad, sustained use. Within a week, disciples must average at least two hours per day in it and perform at least three thousand sword swings daily.
• Ding’s confidence: He considers the targets nearly impossible, since existing sword-training realms fail to hold disciples’ interest. The elders share his skepticism, though some quietly hope Ding might lose the wager and be sent to Repentance Valley.
• Lu Ze’s response: Unfazed, Lu Ze asks whether those are all the requirements, believing the sword-swing target will be easy to meet. He adds that the Enforcement Hall must not confiscate Illusion Tower artifacts for a week. Ding agrees, reassuring eager disciples who have been unable to use their towers freely.
• The reveal: Lu Ze loads his prepared Illusion Crystal Stone into the tower. The gathered disciples enter the new realm, whose title appears: “Plants vs. Zombies.”
  Character developments and interactions: Lu Ze is calm and confident, while Ding is guarded and smug but accepts the terms. The elders and disciples watch with mixed skepticism and anticipation; the disciples especially welcome the temporary reprieve from confiscations.
  Themes: The scene pits rigid expectations against creative innovation, and highlights how engagement—not merely a worthy purpose—can make cultivation practice popular.

Plot points and events

• Zhong Yi enters Lu Ze’s new Illusion Realm, Plants vs. Zombies, and finds a tombstone-like menu with Adventure Mode and three locked options.
• In the trial, he can fly above a field while cartoonish Zombies shuffle nearby. The instructions explain that he is an ordinary farmer with some sword skill, tasked with protecting a Spirit Field by cutting fruit and plants falling from the sky.
• Zhong Yi easily slices through the fruit, enjoying the satisfying impact but judging the task too familiar and undemanding. He worries Lu Ze’s creation will fail.
• The Elders watch disciples’ trials through a projected display. Most condemn the game as childish and a waste of training time; several leave.
• Grand Elder Chao Wendao stays to observe thoughtfully. Ding Mingcang, convinced the trial proves Lu Ze has run out of ideas, mocks him and predicts no one will defend him.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhong Yi is open-minded enough to explore the unfamiliar interface, but his confidence in the trial quickly fades when its first challenge seems easy and conventional.
• Lu Ze is not present in the trial, but his reputation is at stake: the Elders compare this creation unfavorably with Demonic Path Escape.
• Ding Mingcang grows increasingly triumphant and contemptuous, taunting Lu Ze after the other Elders’ criticism.
• Liu Qingmei bluntly calls the trial poor, while Lin Qingxuan reacts angrily and leaves. Chao Wendao’s continued attention contrasts with the others’ dismissal.

Significant themes

• Appearances can mislead: the playful presentation and simple opening challenge lead observers to underestimate the game.
• Innovation versus tradition: the Elders measure the trial against familiar ideas of serious sword training.
• Premature judgment and rivalry: Ding Mingcang treats early reactions as proof of Lu Ze’s failure, setting up a possible reversal.

Key plot points and events

• A section of Zhong Yi’s barren farmland transforms into a Spirit Field, which produces spiritual energy. The display shows a resource total of 150.
• A prompt explains that spirit plants occasionally fall from the air. Zhong Yi initially chops one up, then—after being warned—uses the back of his blade to guide another onto the Spirit Field.
• The pea pod grows into a Peashooter, costing 100 spiritual energy. The field’s energy gathers into an orb and enters Zhong Yi, increasing his total by 25.
• Zombies begin advancing toward the farm. Zhong Yi discovers his sword cannot hurt them, and he can only move within a limited area while catching fruit and planting spirit crops.
• As the zombies reach the field, the Peashooter fires a pea at one, cracking its forehead. Zhong Yi realizes the plants are meant to defend the farm.

Character development

Zhong Yi moves from disappointment and confusion to curiosity and excitement as he works out how the Spirit Field, energy, and plant costs function. His initial mistake frustrates him, but he adapts quickly and begins to understand the Illusion Realm’s rules.

Significant themes

• Learning through trial and error: Zhong Yi pieces together the realm’s mechanics by observing what happens.
• Resource management and strategy: Spiritual energy must be spent to grow plants, which can then generate energy and provide defense.
• Unexpected potential: Zhong Yi suspects the Illusion Realm could transform not only the Spirit Cloud Sect but the entire Cultivation World.

Character interactions

Zhong Yi’s interaction is primarily with the Illusion Realm itself: its prompts instruct him, though sometimes too late, while its field and plants respond to his actions. His first direct encounter with the zombies establishes the threat, and the Peashooter’s attack reveals how he can fight back.

Key plot points and events

• Zhong Yi discovers the strategic side of Plants vs. Zombies: Sunflowers generate Spiritual Energy, which he uses to build up Peashooters and other defenses.
• As he advances through increasingly difficult levels, he unlocks new plants and encounters tougher Zombies, including a pole-vaulting Zombie that can leap over Wall-nut defenses.
• Mu Yawen repeatedly asks Zhong Yi for help, having mistaken the game for a direct sword fight. Zhong Yi explains how to plant and position the defenses.
• When Zhong Yi watches her play, he sees her use one superb sword stroke to clear the fruit-minigame—then place a Peashooter right in front of the Zombies. He explains that Peashooters belong in the back row and introduces the Wall-nut Taoist as a sturdier frontline defender.
• Across the sect, disciples gradually learn the game’s mechanics and share strategies through their Spiritual Sense channel, even as they joke that they came to practice swordsmanship.

Character developments

• Zhong Yi grows increasingly impressed by Lu Ze’s inventive game design and becomes a patient guide to other players.
• Mu Yawen is bold and confident in combat, but initially applies sword-fighting instincts where strategy is needed. She becomes interested once Zhong Yi explains how the game works, though she remains skeptical of its defensive plants.
• The disciples adapt through trial and error, learning to manage Spiritual Energy, arrange defenses, and exploit each plant’s strengths.

Significant themes

• Learning through play: Repeated failures teach the disciples a new kind of strategy.
• Different strengths suit different roles: Mu Yawen’s swordsmanship is impressive, but success also requires understanding positioning and specialization.
• Unexpected innovation: A tower-defense game feels foreign to the cultivators, yet they quickly find ways to relate its mechanics to cultivation.
• Humor and shared enthusiasm: The contrast between the disciples’ martial identities and their excitement over game tactics drives the comedy.

Character interactions

• Zhong Yi patiently coaches Mu Yawen, correcting her mistaken assumptions without dismissing her courage.
• Mu Yawen’s audacious approach repeatedly exasperates Zhong Yi, especially when she sends a ranged attacker into close combat.
• The disciples exchange advice and celebrate discoveries, turning the Inner Disciples’ channel into a lively community of players.

Plot points and events

• Lu Ze observes the sect disciples playing his cultivation-world adaptation of Plants vs. Zombies. Cultivators find its sword-swinging, planting, and combat mechanics intuitive, while the steadily increasing difficulty and new plants keep them engaged.
• Mu Yawen enjoys tending her plants despite playing inefficiently, while Li Moran learns quickly. Zhong Yi proves especially adept: he clears many levels before losing to an armored General Zombie and a sudden horde.
• Zhong Yi adapts by experimenting with plant combinations and ultimately defeats the armored zombie using a Hypno-shroom, which turns it against its fellow zombies. His admiration for Lu Ze earns Lu Ze another reward: twenty years of martial-arts experience.
• When the hour ends, the disciples are so absorbed that they do not leave the Illusion Realm until Second Elder Ding Mingcang calls them out. Grand Elder Chao Wendao is among those reluctant to stop, having failed to finish the game. Ding worries the deceptively simple illusion may be more difficult than it appears—and fears losing his covenant-bound bet with Lu Ze.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze quietly takes satisfaction in the game’s success and receives rewards from Zhong Yi’s praise, though he wishes for a more impressive ability.
• Zhong Yi reveals strategic skill beneath his talkative manner. His first defeat motivates experimentation rather than discouragement, and he repeatedly praises Lu Ze’s design.
• Mu Yawen finds pleasure in cultivating and watching her plants fight, even without mastering strategy.
• Li Moran remains a quick learner, though she does not pull far ahead.
• Chao Wendao becomes engrossed enough to resent being interrupted; his enjoyment surprises Ding Mingcang, who had assumed the illusion was merely a simple fruit-slicing game.
• Ding Mingcang grows anxious about the illusion’s true complexity and the consequences of losing his wager with Lu Ze.

Significant themes

• Progressive learning and design: Each stage introduces manageable challenges and new tools, rewarding experimentation and building mastery.
• Unexpected enjoyment: The pleasure of nurturing, planning, and watching defenses work captivates even experienced cultivators and elders.
• Ingenuity and adaptation: Players overcome stronger enemies by adjusting tactics rather than giving up.
• Appearances versus reality: What Ding dismisses as a simple illusion proves deep, absorbing, and potentially difficult to defeat.

Key plot points and events

• A day after Plants vs. Zombies launches, most disciples remain stuck on Levels 3 or 4, especially struggling with night, fog, and pool stages. Their frustration only makes the game more addictive.
• Zhong Yi becomes the first disciple to clear Adventure Mode, after repeatedly battling the final Demon God Zombie.
• Excited by his achievement, he visits the game’s Forum and relishes being able to give advice. He posts strategies, describes later levels and enemies, and draws a picture of the Demon God Zombie for other players.
• When Zhong Yi discovers that Survival Mode has unlocked, his master, Chao Wendao, catches him playing and accuses him of neglecting cultivation.
• Zhong Yi claims he played to support Lu Ze, who had been treated unfairly, but Chao Wendao recognizes his Forum identity—“Genius Cultivator”—and asks him for help beating Level 3.

Character developments

• Zhong Yi shifts from a player mocked for his poor performance in Demonic Path Escape to a celebrated expert in Plants vs. Zombies. His triumph brings out his pride and enthusiasm, though he genuinely shares useful knowledge with fellow disciples.
• Chao Wendao appears stern about his disciple’s gaming, but his immediate request for help reveals that he, too, is playing and struggling.
• The disciples become increasingly engaged with the game and its Forum, using nicknames, trading tactics, and eagerly anticipating new challenges.

Significant themes

• Games as a shared community experience: Players’ struggles and discoveries turn the Forum into a lively place for advice, competition, and storytelling.
• Reputation and status: Zhong Yi enjoys reversing his earlier humiliation by finally having expertise others respect.
• Addiction and neglected duties: The game’s appeal keeps disciples playing late, drawing the attention of their masters.
• Unexpected hypocrisy: Chao Wendao scolds Zhong Yi for playing, then asks for gaming advice himself.

Character interactions

• Zhong Yi advises and encourages the stuck disciples, earning their trust through practical strategies and vivid descriptions.
• Forum users who once might have dismissed him begin defending and praising him.
• Chao Wendao confronts Zhong Yi over his gaming; Zhong Yi tries to justify it as support for Lu Ze, but the exchange ends with the master asking him to help clear Level 3.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chao Wendao, the Grand Elder of the Spirit Cloud Sect, is revealed to be playing "Plants vs. Zombies."
• Zhong Yi guides Chao Wendao through the game, helping him clear the third level.
• Ding Mingcang panics about the disciples' obsession with the game and seeks to counter it by increasing their workload.
• Lu Ze observes the disciples' progress and prepares to release more challenging levels.

Character Developments

• Zhong Yi: Shows loyalty and humility towards his master, Chao Wendao.
• Chao Wendao: Reveals his competitive side and desire to outdo his peers.
• Ding Mingcang: Demonstrates his anxiety and desperation to maintain control over the disciples' training.
• Lu Ze: Shows determination to win the Sect Covenant and adaptability in adjusting game difficulty.

Significant Themes

• Competition and Rivalry: Among the elders and between Lu Ze and Ding Mingcang.
• Adaptability and Innovation: Lu Ze's ability to adjust the game to fit the cultivators' needs and expectations.
• Obsession and Addiction: The disciples' immersion in the game and Ding Mingcang's concern about it.

Character Interactions

• Zhong Yi and Chao Wendao: Master and disciple, with Zhong Yi helping Chao Wendao clear the game level.
• Lu Ze and the disciples: Lu Ze observes the disciples' progress and prepares to challenge them further.
• Ding Mingcang and Qian Yutang: Ding Mingcang seeks Qian Yutang's advice on managing the disciples' obsession with the game.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Players unlock new modes: Mini-Game Mode, Puzzle Mode, and Survival Mode.
• Survival Mode becomes the most popular, with players experimenting with various formations and strategies.
• Zhong Yi clears all Survival Mode levels and shares his experience on the Forum.
• Lu Ze plans to release new levels featuring Barbarian Zombies.

Character Developments

• Zhong Yi gains popularity and recognition for his gaming skills and strategies.
• Lu Ze continues to improve the game, planning to introduce more challenging content.

Significant Themes

• The joy of competition and shared experiences in gaming.
• The evolution of gaming strategies and formations as players adapt to new challenges.

Character Interactions

• Zhong Yi and Lu Ze interact indirectly through the Forum and the game updates.
• Players on the Forum discuss strategies, share experiences, and engage in friendly banter.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ding Mingcang learns about the new levels in the Illusion Realm and orders Qian Yutang to prevent further changes.
• Zhong Yi struggles with the new Hard Mode, causing an uproar on the Forum.
• Lu Ze's alt instigates Zhong Yi to take on the challenge, aiming to increase his Demonic Value.

Character Developments

• Ding Mingcang shows concern for the disciples' progress and wants to increase academic pressure to discourage them from playing in the Illusion Realm.
• Zhong Yi, initially frustrated with the difficulty, becomes determined to clear Hard Mode after seeing the Forum's call for help.

Significant Themes

• The struggle between fun and academic pressure, as Ding Mingcang tries to curb the disciples' enjoyment of the Illusion Realm.
• The addictive nature of games, as cultivators become hooked despite the high difficulty.

Character Interactions

• Ding Mingcang and Qian Yutang discuss the Illusion Realm and plan to add more courses to increase pressure on the disciples.
• Zhong Yi interacts with the Forum, expressing his frustration and ultimately deciding to take on the Hard Mode challenge.

Key plot points and events

• Over three days, Spirit Cloud Sect makes its classes more demanding while disciples also play the hard Survival Mode in the Illusion Tower. Far from giving up, they become more enthusiastic, improve at planning and resource management, and sharpen their control of Spiritual Sense.
• Ding Mingcang expects the difficult new stage to fail: he assumes disciples will find it too frustrating and have too little time to play, restoring the sect’s traditional academic atmosphere.
• He visits several peaks and discovers that teachers have incorporated Plants vs. Zombies into serious instruction:
  • At Sword Inquiry Peak, sword techniques are taught through the precision and speed needed to clear fruit and place plants.
  • At Danqing Peak, Third Elder Lin Qingxuan uses the Ice Peashooter to explain cultivating ice-element mutant plants.
  • At Quenching Gold Peak, Mu Yawen leads body training with boulders carved like Tall-Nuts, urging disciples to protect companions like Wall-nuts.
• Ding Mingcang then finds Grand Elder Chao Wendao teaching formation design through Survival Mode in the Sect Plaza. Though Ding initially objects to an unauthorized lecture, he backs down when he recognizes the instructor.
• Returning to Numinous Ascent Peak, Ding realizes even Elders who opposed the game are embracing it. Worried that Lu Ze’s reputation will rise and that he may be sent to Repentance Valley after losing a bet, Ding resolves to find a way to stop things.

Character developments and interactions

• The disciples turn difficulty into motivation, applying the game’s challenges to their studies and training. Their growing enthusiasm and skill make the game’s influence stronger rather than weaker.
• Ding Mingcang shifts from confident optimism to alarm. His inspections repeatedly undermine his assumption that demanding lessons will drive the game out of the sect.
• Lu Ze remains offstage but gains influence: teachers use his game as a framework for lessons, and some disciples regard his swordsmanship as highly accomplished.
• The instructors and Elders adapt the game to their specialties. Mu Yawen inspires fellow disciples through Wall-nut imagery, while Chao Wendao firmly challenges Ding’s interference with his lecture.

Significant themes

• Difficulty can foster growth: Hard challenges strengthen both gaming skills and real-world abilities.
• Learning through play: The sect transforms a game into practical instruction in swordsmanship, cultivation, body training, and formation design.
• Unintended consequences: Ding’s attempt to restore traditional discipline only helps integrate the game more deeply into sect life.
• Shared enthusiasm and adaptation: Disciples and instructors reinterpret the game according to their own needs, spreading its influence across the sect.

Zhong Yi, after two days of intense gameplay, is on the brink of clearing Survival Mode's Difficult Rooftop level. He shares his progress and strategies on the cultivation world's forum, inspiring and helping other disciples. Despite the increasing difficulty, Zhong Yi finds innovative uses for plants like Chili Peppers, Cherry Bombs, and Corn Cannons. After successfully clearing the level, he discovers 'Endless Mode,' which offers five new stages beyond the existing Survival Mode. Zhong Yi, confident in his skills, decides to explore these new stages, believing that the 'endless' claim is merely a gimmick.

Key plot points and events

• Zhong Yi is so absorbed in Plants vs. Zombies’ Endless Mode that he plays through the night. A momentary distraction during a run lets a Red-Eyed Barbarian Zombie break through his defenses, ending the attempt.
• He tells Mu Yawen that he cleared Hard Mode long ago but finds Endless Mode far more difficult, especially its powerful Barbarian Zombies and Juggling Zombies whose bombs can explode almost instantly. He promises to post a guide, then intends to keep trying.
• Endless Mode spreads through the Spirit Cloud Sect. Disciples, elders, and stewards debate strategies on the Forum, though no one has reached level ten. Some boast implausibly about unbeatable formations.
• Lu Ze reads the discussions and is pleased that players are enjoying the challenge. He realizes the game is generating substantial Demonic Value, but expects interest to decline once most players finish the regular stages.
• After nearly a week of playing, Zhong Yi’s game habits have spilled into daily life: he reflexively cuts a thrown Spirit Fruit in half and dreams about plants. At Quenching Gold Peak, he discovers the disciples have modeled their new training equipment on a Tall-Nut and now aspire to become Barbarian Zombies.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhong Yi becomes an intensely devoted Endless Mode player, taking pride in its difficulty while showing signs that the game has affected his reflexes and dreams. Mu Yawen worries about him after he disappears overnight, and he reassures her before returning to the game.
• Mu Yawen serves as the one who knows Zhong Yi’s true identity and checks on his wellbeing.
• Lu Ze is reassured by the disciples’ enthusiasm and begins imagining even more difficult games as a source of Demonic Value.
• The Body Forging Valley disciples adopt the game’s imagery as a real training ideal. Their transformation from admiring the defensive Wall-nut Taoist to wanting to emulate Barbarian Zombies leaves Zhong Yi wondering whether he is the only one whose mind has been affected.

Significant themes

• Escapism and obsession: A game’s challenge draws players in so deeply that it alters their routines and habits.
• Shared enthusiasm and community: Forum debates turn individual play into a sect-wide pastime, complete with competing strategies and exaggerated claims.
• Difficulty as motivation: The cultivators treat repeated failure as a challenge rather than a reason to quit.
• Reality blurring with play: Game characters and tactics begin influencing the disciples’ dreams, reflexes, and even physical training.

Key Plot Points and Events

• A week after the challenge, the results are revealed at Lingxiao Plaza.
• The average daily usage time of Plants vs. Zombies is three and a half hours, and the average daily sword swings are 7,328 times, both exceeding Ding Mingcang's conditions.
• Ding Mingcang accuses Lu Ze of cheating by adding new levels to the illusion.
• Lu Ze defends himself, and the disciples become divided in their opinions.
• Ding Mingcang tries to compromise, but Lu Ze refuses, challenging him to admit defeat if Endless Mode can be beaten.

Character Developments

• Lu Ze remains calm and confident throughout the event, showing no signs of backing down.
• Ding Mingcang becomes desperate and tries to manipulate the situation to his advantage, first accusing Lu Ze of cheating and then attempting to compromise.

Significant Themes

• The theme of integrity and honoring one's promises is explored through Lu Ze's refusal to compromise.
• The consequences of cheating and manipulation are highlighted when Ding Mingcang's accusations backfire.

Character Interactions

• Lu Ze and Ding Mingcang engage in a tense exchange, with Lu Ze maintaining his composure and Ding Mingcang growing increasingly desperate.
• The disciples become divided in their opinions, some supporting Lu Ze and others questioning his methods.

Plot points and events

• Elder Ding Mingcang challenges Lu Ze to prove that Endless Mode can be cleared, declaring he will concede defeat if Lu Ze reaches wave fifty in front of the disciples.
• Suspecting cheating, Ding orders the Crystal and Illusion Tower inspected. Once they are confirmed untouched, Lu Ze begins a public demonstration under close scrutiny.
• Lu Ze chooses Daytime Pool, the easiest level for his purposes, and deliberately avoids showing an obvious, easily copied strategy. He wants players to keep discovering tactics for themselves—and to preserve the game’s longevity and his Demonic Value.
• He selects an unusual No-Cannon Formation and enters the game. His cards include Sunflowers via Imitater, Potato Mine, Squash, Puff-shroom, Doom-shroom, and the puzzling Garlic, but no Peashooters or Tall-Nuts. The disciples and observers are baffled by his choices.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze remains composed despite the public challenge. He is confident he can clear far more than fifty waves, but deliberately limits what he demonstrates to avoid giving away an effortless farming strategy.
• Ding Mingcang is angry at Lu Ze’s defiance but restrains himself because others are watching. He shifts from challenging Lu Ze to monitoring him for any sign of tampering.
• Zhong Yi tries to interpret Lu Ze’s card choices, understanding the resource-saving early plants but finding Puff-shroom and especially Garlic inexplicable.
• Mu Yawen, who favors defensive plants, is unsettled by Lu Ze’s decision to bring no Tall-Nuts. The disciples likewise doubt he can survive even the early waves.

Significant themes

• Public proof and skepticism: Lu Ze’s claims are tested before the sect, while Ding and the crowd assume success would require cheating.
• Knowledge and strategy: Lu Ze’s choices reveal that success depends on more than simply selecting powerful or defensive plants.
• Control of information: Though confident in his ability, Lu Ze withholds a simple, replicable strategy to keep players experimenting and engaged.

Plot points and events

• Lu Ze begins the first level by prioritizing Sunflowers over immediate defense, using Potato Mines and Squashes to defeat early zombies cheaply.
• He plants Garlic in the outer lanes to redirect zombies toward the pool, where Doom-shrooms can hit groups with area attacks. His unusually large Sunflower economy leaves the watching disciples amazed.
• Zhong Yi recognizes the strategy and is impressed. His admiration triggers Lu Ze’s reward system, which grants Lu Ze the gold-grade Grand Dao Truth Incantation.
• Realizing that spectators can also earn him rewards, Lu Ze considers putting on a stronger display—but holds back somewhat so the disciples can still learn by discovering tactics themselves.
• For the next levels, Lu Ze chooses a mixed lineup of shooters, mushrooms, and throwers rather than relying on the disciples’ favored plants. He settles on a “97 No-Cannon Formation,” prompting confusion and debate among the audience.
• Lu Ze enjoys the disciples’ excitement at watching him play and imagines that the spectacle resembles live streaming. He hopes his master, Nangong Yuan, will help create the item needed to overcome a technical hurdle after Lu Ze wins their wager against Ding Mingcang.
• With abundant resources, Lu Ze steadily builds and upgrades his formation, replacing Sunflowers with Twin Sunflowers and improving his attackers and defenses.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze shows himself to be a highly economical, strategic player who understands how to funnel enemies and exploit area damage. He is also opportunistic: he recognizes that impressing spectators can earn rewards, and connects the wager with his future plans.
• Zhong Yi shifts from explaining Lu Ze’s moves to being genuinely stunned and inspired by them; his admiration directly earns Lu Ze a cultivation technique.
• Mu Yawen is increasingly baffled by Lu Ze’s tactics. Zhong Yi’s long explanations only confuse her further, so she gives up asking and watches for entertainment.
• The sect disciples move from skepticism to awe, but their expectations—favoring familiar choices such as Gatling Shooters and Wall-nuts—show how much they still have to learn. They cheer, argue over his lineup, and enjoy watching together.
• Lu Ze and his audience form an informal spectator-player dynamic: the disciples react to his decisions while he hears their comments and adjusts his performance with them in mind.

Significant themes

• Innovation through resource efficiency: Lu Ze succeeds by conserving energy, redirecting enemies, and using area attacks rather than following standard defensive habits.
• Learning through observation: The disciples begin to rethink their assumptions as they watch Lu Ze’s unconventional strategy.
• Recognition and reward: Admiration from others has practical value for Lu Ze, who gains a powerful cultivation method from Zhong Yi’s response.
• Entertainment and community: The shared spectacle hints at future live streaming and turns the game into a social event as well as a contest.

Key plot points and events

• Lu Ze uses an unconventional strategy in the zombie-defense game, including deliberately placing ladders so some Zombies climb past the backline rather than damaging it.
• He builds a “97 cannonless” formation: Gatling Shooters and Torches on the top and bottom lanes, Winter Melons and Doom-shrooms elsewhere, and two Ice-shrooms held in reserve.
• The formation has only enough firepower to get by and depends on Lu Ze’s manual control against dangerous enemies.
• At stage 20—the furthest the Spirit Cloud Sect disciples have reached—Barbarian Zombies and Ice Cart Zombies appear. The spectators doubt Lu Ze’s setup and suggest stronger plants, but he keeps his formation.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Ze shows confidence and expertise, treating ladder placement as a deliberate technique rather than a mistake. He understands the formation’s trade-offs and ignores the disciples’ advice.
• The disciples admire Lu Ze’s early resource management but wrongly assume their own preferred formations would perform better. Their increasingly frantic suggestions reveal how little they understand his strategy.
• Lu Ze chooses not to explain his decisions, preferring to let the disciples learn through experience. His real motive is to complete the run and send Ding Mingcang to Repentance Valley, not to teach the onlookers.

Significant themes

• Expertise versus surface-level imitation: Watching a strategy is not enough to understand why it works.
• Resourcefulness and trade-offs: Lu Ze’s modest formation relies on timing and control rather than simply maximizing firepower.
• Learning through failure: Lu Ze expects the disciples to discover the flaws in their assumptions for themselves.
• Playful cruelty: The closing note emphasizes Lu Ze’s enjoyment of challenging—and frustrating—players.