Chapter Summaries

After the Heavenly Dao expelled the cheating team [Last Dusk], Lu Ze, Zhou Yue, and Li Moran dominated the rest of the match and won. As they celebrated on the Immortal Bridge, the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao appeared as Old Granny and killed Zhou Yue and Lu Ze with impossible attacks.

• Lu Ze revived Zhou Yue and Li Moran after [Last Dusk] was eliminated for cheating, and the three agreed to compete for the most kills.
• Lu Ze, Li Moran, and Zhou Yue each wiped out a team, leaving no one alive and securing victory.
• On the Immortal Bridge, Zhou Yue taunted Lu Ze over a near-stolen kill, while Lu Ze suspected Zhong Yi was cursing him.
• Old Granny appeared within range of the Immortal Bridge, and her sniper shot left Zhou Yue with 10 HP before golden fireballs killed him.
• Lu Ze tried to snipe Old Granny, but the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao struck him with rapid red bullets and then golden-red fireballs.

After the Heavenly Dao tournament, Lu Ze collected the Dao Transformation Art and learned that the cheating array master had been killed, though the culprit appeared to be a Spirit Body. He struggled to master the art without its missing mental cultivation method, then spent hundreds of years of Enlightenment Insight reaching great perfection and prepared to torment Righteous cultivators in his Illusion Realms.

• [Your Jade Feet] remained in first place after [Last Dusk] was disqualified, while [Blood Crow] and [Rakshasa] lost their enormous bets on the cheating team.
• Lu Ze received a Void Soul Pill and claimed the Dao Transformation Art from the tournament’s champion reward chest.
• The Fragment of the Heavenly Dao told Lu Ze that the three cheaters and the Spirit Body array master had died, but it had not seen the array master’s face.
• After half a month of difficult practice, Lu Ze learned the Dao Transformation Art and discovered it had a complementary mental cultivation method that the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao did not possess.
• Lu Ze spent more than three hundred years of Enlightenment Insight to bring the Dao Transformation Art to great perfection, then resolved to torment Righteous cultivators through his story-driven Illusion Realms.

At the Illusion Alliance Base, [Heart Demon] planned to lure Lu Ze into a contest using a Void Soul Crystal as bait, hoping to obtain an Illusion Tower bearing Lu Ze’s spiritual sense and decipher his spell. The elders believed Lu Ze’s poor cultivation talent would make the crystal lethal if he won, leaving the Alliance confident that either outcome favored them.

• [White Crane] asked [Heart Demon] about the Heavenly Dao’s appearance, and [Heart Demon] said he had lost only a clone.
• [Heart Demon] recalled that the Heavenly Dao’s golden runes resembled the spell patterns in Lu Ze’s book, prompting the elders to suspect Lu Ze’s spell involved heavenly dao power.
• [Heart Demon] proposed obtaining an Illusion Tower touched by Lu Ze’s spiritual sense so the Heaven and Earth Four Symbols could analyze it.
• [Heart Demon] revealed a Void Soul Crystal and proposed holding an Illusion Alliance contest to lure Lu Ze away from the Spirit Cloud Sect and acquire one of his Illusion Towers.
• [Heart Demon] explained that the crystal could overwhelm an ordinary cultivator’s spiritual sense, and the elders concluded that Lu Ze’s poor roots made the plan favorable whether he won or lost.

Lu Ze learned that a Void Soul Crystal remained in Luofeng Continent and planned to retrieve it to support his illusion research. He discovered the Illusion Alliance was offering one as the first prize in a recruitment exchange, so he asked Nangong Yuan to accompany him to Tianshui City.

• Lu Ze found that refining his illusion spells made their Spiritual Sense requirements too demanding, and he considered using a Void Soul Crystal to solve the problem.
• The Fragment of the Heavenly Dao revealed that a trace of a Void Soul Crystal remained in Luofeng Continent, where it had killed a Formation Spirit.
• Lu Ze told Nangong Yuan he planned to travel to Luofeng Continent, prompting Nangong Yuan to suspect he intended to join the Illusion Alliance.
• Lu Ze checked the Forum and found the Illusion Alliance's recruitment exchange in Tianshui City, whose first prize included a Void Soul Crystal.
• Lu Ze decided to attend the exchange and asked Nangong Yuan to go with him.

Lu Ze entered the Illusion Alliance’s exchange gathering to compete for a Void Soul Crystal, despite recognizing that the alliance might try to sabotage him. As the gathering began, Sikong Che announced that the first competition’s theme was tower climbing.

• Lu Ze signed up for the Illusion Alliance’s exchange gathering, prompting the alliance’s leaders to prepare illusions intended to make him fail.
• Lu Ze traveled to Tianshui City with Nangong Yuan, Zhong Yi, and Chao Wendao to attend the gathering.
• Lu Ze told Zhong Yi he wanted the Void Soul Crystal and explained that the Heavenly Dao’s supervision would prevent the Illusion Alliance from cheating.
• At Leisure Cloud Mountain Villa, Rakshasa hosted the exchange gathering and introduced Sikong Che of the Myriad Dao Sect.
• Sikong Che announced tower climbing as the first theme.

Sikong Che and Rakshasa announced strict rules for the Tower Climbing Illusion Realm challenge, while Lu Ze’s rivals tried to block his path by filling the combat categories first. Lu Ze finally chose Board Games, leaving Heart Demon uneasy about what he planned to make.

• Sikong Che announced limits on category entries, scoring penalties for late choices, and a size cap for Illusion Realms.
• Rakshasa ordered contestants to select categories in registration-number order, leaving Lu Ze last; Lu Ze reassured Zhong Yi that he had nine ways to solve the problem.
• White Crane and Yun Tian praised Heart Demon’s plan to steer contestants into combat categories and restrict Lu Ze’s options.
• The first hundred contestants all chose combat Illusion Realms, while later contestants lamented their reduced choices and mocked Lu Ze for being last.
• Lu Ze teased Rakshasa before writing Board Games as his Illusion Realm category.

Lu Ze chose the Board Games type for the Tower Climbing challenge, while the Illusion Alliance elders believed their restrictions had secured their victory. After inspecting his Illusion Tower and finding no tampering, Lu Ze helped Zhong Yi realize that a Tower Climbing challenge could center on combat without presenting combat directly.

• Lu Ze's choice of Board Games surprised the cultivators and pleased the Illusion Alliance elders, who thought they had blocked his stronger options.
• Chao Wendao and Nangong Yuan challenged the Illusion Alliance to guarantee that its Illusion Towers would not malfunction, and [Rakshasa] promised competitors could switch equipment if one did.
• Lu Ze inspected Illusion Tower No. 749, found it unusually well made, and wondered what the Illusion Alliance was planning.
• Zhong Yi told Lu Ze he had chosen Strategy and planned to build a Tower Climbing challenge based on puzzles and escaping mechanisms.
• Lu Ze explained to Zhong Yi that combat was only an outward form and could be conveyed through plants, troop types, words, numbers, or Board Games, prompting Zhong Yi to grasp a new approach.

Lu Ze tested Zhong Yi’s polished, Magic Tower-style illusion, “Brave the Demon-Locking Tower,” and gave him advice on how to develop its combat systems. He then began creating his own competition entry, “Slay the Immortal Spire.”

• Nangong Yuan and Chao Wendao played chess while Lu Ze waited to give Zhong Yi time to develop his illusion.
• Several other Illusion Crafters released tower-defense and real-time strategy illusions during the first round.
• Zhong Yi emerged on the fifth day with “Brave the Demon-Locking Tower,” an eighteen-floor rescue adventure built around numerical combat and collectible Artifacts.
• Lu Ze praised Zhong Yi’s design and explained how skills and combat progress bars could make its battles more varied.
• Lu Ze entered Illusion Tower 749 and named his illusion “Slay the Immortal Spire.”

Lu Ze began building “Slay the Immortal Spire,” an illusion realm based on an early version of “Slay the Spire 2,” while cultivators discussed the other competition entries and speculated about his board game. On the eighth day, Zhong Yi reported that his illusion realm had drawn eighteen thousand players before someone mocked his results.

• Lu Ze chose an early version of “Slay the Spire 2” as the template for “Slay the Immortal Spire” and began constructing its world.
• Cultivators on the forum debated the new illusion realms, compared them with Lu Ze’s work, and guessed that he had chosen a board game.
• Nangong Yuan worried that Lu Ze’s unfinished illusion realm showed no activity, while Zhong Yi confidently predicted that it would win.
• Zhong Yi said “Brave the Demon-Locking Tower” had drawn eighteen thousand players and agreed with Lu Ze’s prediction that its appeal would fade after players finished it.
• An unidentified cultivator mocked Zhong Yi for being satisfied with fewer than twenty thousand players.

Lu Ze confronted Han Xian, who mocked the Spirit Cloud Sect’s Illusion Realm entry and challenged its chances in the competition. Lu Ze arranged a wager with Han Xian and had him sign a Spirit Contract, leaving the elders worried about what Lu Ze was planning.

• An Azure Peak Sect Elder and Han Xian taunted the Spirit Cloud Sect, and Chao Wendao’s warning with Purple Divine Thunder frightened Han Xian.
• Han Xian displayed the Exquisite Tower Wonderrealm’s figures, boasting that it had attracted one hundred thousand cultivators in three days.
• Lu Ze emerged from Illusion Tower No. 749, told Han Xian to get lost, and heard Han Xian warn him not to promote his entry using outside resources.
• Lu Ze proposed that the competition loser take a strike from the winner, and Han Xian agreed after consulting an Azure Peak Sect Elder.
• Lu Ze gave Han Xian a Spirit Contract to sign, leaving Nangong Yuan, Chao Wendao, and Zhong Yi dumbfounded and worried.

Lu Ze released “Slay the Immortal Spire,” and Zhong Yi eagerly entered it to explore its card-based tower climb. Zhong Yi studied the branching map and chose the middle route.

• Lu Ze finished polishing “Slay the Immortal Spire” and waited for it to pass review without contacting the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao.
• Zhong Yi worried that Lu Ze’s illusion realm had not appeared, and Lu Ze reassured him that Han Xian’s “Exquisite Tower Wonderrealm” was inferior to Zhong Yi’s game.
• When “Slay the Immortal Spire” went live, Zhong Yi started a livestream and entered its single-player mode.
• Zhong Yi selected the Iron Armor Sect Cultivator and examined the tower map’s branching paths and room types.
• Zhong Yi weighed the routes and room rewards before choosing the middle route.

Zhong Yi explored Lu Ze’s card-based Illusion Realm, learning its combat and deck-building mechanics as he fought monsters. After entering a random event, he repeatedly paid health to protect valuable cards and left furious at the room.

• Zhong Yi entered the Illusion Realm as a spirit observer and learned to control the Iron Armor Sect Cultivator by playing cards.
• He defeated the Little Gnaw Beast and added [Prepared Strike] to his deck, then beat three Slime Demons and chose the blue [Combustion] card.
• Zhong Yi defeated a Shrinking Beetle without taking damage and added the blue [Flame Barrier] card to his deck.
• He skipped a shop to enter a random room, where a slippery bridge threatened to remove one of his cards.
• Zhong Yi repeatedly lost health to reroll the card at risk, eventually losing 18 health and swearing never to enter the random room again.

Zhong Yi lost his first run against the Olden Statue after underestimating the elite monster, then started a second run to prove he could win. He discovered that the Spire’s map, monster rewards, and card choices changed with every run.

• Zhong Yi entered the Olden Statue’s room with 60 health and dealt 44 damage while it slept, but the statue awakened and struck back for 25 damage.
• Zhong Yi failed to deal enough damage before the Olden Statue killed him, then returned to the starting screen and unlocked the Silent Hunter.
• Zhong Yi rejected the viewers’ suggestion to try the Silent Hunter and restarted as the Iron Armor Sect Cultivator, convinced his earlier choices had caused his loss.
• Mother of Rebirth appeared and offered Zhong Yi three Artifacts, so he chose the Orange Incense Box and upgraded a Strike.
• Zhong Yi found that the map and available cards had changed, realizing that each run through the Spire was different.

Zhong Yi began a second climb through the tower, adapting his route as he discovered a valuable artifact and grew confident in his deck. He entered an elite fight against Ghost Eels, while Lu Ze watched his livestream and feared the enemies would punish his choices.

• Zhong Yi mapped a route through the Dark Harbor, but its tougher monsters cost him 14 health despite his [Golden Crow Bloodline].
• Zhong Yi chose the Sword in the Stone from the Sunken Statue event and revised his route to include more elite fights so he could unlock its seal.
• Zhong Yi grew confident after collecting several Vulnerable cards and entered an elite room to fight four Ghost Eels.
• Zhong Yi tried to kill a Ghost Eel with [Heavy Strike] and [Disassemble], but it gained 6 armor and survived with one point of effective health remaining.
• Lu Ze watched Zhong Yi's livestream, recognized the Ghost Eels as dangerous newbie killers, and remarked that the Crow's Mouth Spiritual Root was worth its weight in gold.

Zhong Yi lost his run in "Slay the Immortal Spire" but became eager to try again, while the illusion realm drew thousands of players and sparked heated discussion. [Rakshasa] believed Lu Ze’s poor reviews would make his own realm win, and [Heart Demon] saw the contest as a chance to eliminate Lu Ze.

• Zhong Yi defeated the Ghost Eels, gained the [Vajra Pestle] and [Demon Form], then chose a regular monster room over a Campfire and died to the [Fossil Tracker].
• Zhong Yi eagerly began another run despite his defeat and the rewards he had not yet used or unlocked.
• More than ten thousand cultivators tried "Slay the Immortal Spire," and Forum users complained about its difficulty and debated the characters.
• [Rakshasa] celebrated the poor reviews for Lu Ze’s illusion realm and claimed that his "Exquisite Tower Wonderrealm" had the advantage.
• [Rakshasa] told [Heart Demon] that Lu Ze had agreed to take one attack from Han Xian if he lost, and [Heart Demon] resolved that they must win.

Zhong Yi defeated the first-floor Boss and chose the powerful Hellraiser card, then entered the second floor and upgraded his bloodline for stronger healing. He planned his route through the floor as viewers watched and offered advice.

• Zhong Yi used Uppercut, Disassemble, and Bully to defeat the Endtime Deer and received three golden card choices.
• Zhong Yi chose Hellraiser, which automatically played Strike cards he drew, and resolved to collect more Strike cards.
• Zhong Yi met Living Rainbow on the second floor and chose Touch of Rainbow to upgrade his golden crow bloodline to nirvana bloodline.
• Zhong Yi studied the second-floor map, planned a route favoring Campfires and question-mark rooms, and set off as viewers commented on his play.

Zhong Yi built an oversized deck around Vulnerable and Strike cards, then entered the second-floor Boss room convinced he was invincible. The Great Demon’s repeated choices and his missing combo cards left him frustrated and in danger.

• Zhong Yi collected Strike cards and showed off his growing deck to his Live Streaming audience.
• Four Exoskeleton Bugs limited each hit to nine damage, cost Zhong Yi twenty-two health, and taught him to seek area attacks and defensive cards.
• Zhong Yi gained sixty-three Spirit Stones, bought several cards at the shop, and left with a deck of more than thirty cards.
• At the Campfire, Zhong Yi upgraded Perfect Strike instead of resting, then entered the Boss room with a little over fifty health.
• The Great Demon forced Zhong Yi to choose between losing health and drawing fewer cards, while [Hellraiser] appeared late and three [Perfect Strikes] disrupted his plan.

Lu Ze reassured Nangong Yuan that Slay the Immortal Spire’s approachable difficulty would keep players coming back despite their losses. He left the story mocking the “good-for-nothing rats” near the Floating Pavilion.

• Nangong Yuan gave Lu Ze a secret art that could transfer damage and suggested they use it if Lu Ze lost the competition.
• Nangong Yuan pointed out that players were struggling with Slay the Immortal Spire while Han Xian’s Exquisite Tower Wonderrealm had reached one hundred thousand players.
• Lu Ze explained that Slay the Immortal Spire’s challenge came from learning its monsters and cards, making players feel they could win on another run.
• Lu Ze pointed to Zhong Yi, who kept smiling despite repeated defeats, and said players would keep playing because they felt victory was within reach.
• Lu Ze glanced toward the Floating Pavilion and mocked certain people as good-for-nothing rats.

Zhong Yi cleared the Third Floor of Slay the Immortal Spire with a powerful Shiv Hunter deck, then discovered that the Architect was an unbeatable embodiment of the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao. Believing his damage total meant he had cleared the game, he joined Zhou Yue’s stream and urged him to pick Accuracy.

• Zhong Yi’s Silent Hunter deck assembled a strong Shiv build, letting him defeat the Banshee and her minion on the Third Floor.
• Zhong Yi used Blade Trap to unleash his stored daggers and finish the Banshee in a spectacular attack.
• Zhong Yi entered the Silent Hunter’s body and attacked the Architect, who revealed himself and killed Zhong Yi with a single blow.
• Zhong Yi saw that challengers had dealt the Architect a total of 1240 damage and celebrated, assuming he was the first to clear the game.
• Zhong Yi entered Zhou Yue’s livestream and told him to pick Accuracy, then revealed he had just cleared the game with an Accuracy-based Shiv Hunter build.

Zhou Yue’s unusually strong Silent Hunter run ended when the Swarm Cultivator filled his deck with Dazed cards, while other cultivators began clearing the tower and exploring its characters. Zhong Yi discovered Lu Ze’s Soul Rewind feature, which killed and reconstructed him before undoing a move, and Lu Ze quietly collected demonic value from the process.

• Zhong Yi guided Zhou Yue through a powerful Shiv deck, but Zhou Yue kicked open an elite room and was countered by the Swarm Cultivator’s Dazed cards.
• As more cultivators cleared the tower, the Forum filled with debates about character builds and their strengths.
• Zhong Yi tried the Regent and struggled to use the character’s Royal Family cards and Starlight mechanic.
• Lu Ze told Zhong Yi to try Soul Rewind, and Zhong Yi’s spirit body shattered before he was reconstructed with his move undone.
• Lu Ze explained to himself that he had made rewinding cost players a death so he could collect demonic value.