Chapter Summaries

Lu Ze’s save-and-load feature made “Slay the Immortal Spire” easier to clear while increasing players’ playtime, worrying the Illusion Alliance that its popularity might fade once players finished it. Zhong Yi began a difficulty-eight co-op climb with Zhou Yue, Mu Yawen, and Zhou Qiaoling, and immediately doubted he could carry them.

• Cultivators used the rewind feature to improve their runs, raising the clear rate and earning Lu Ze more demonic value from their repeated deaths.
• Rakshasa told Heart Demon that many players had cleared “Slay the Immortal Spire,” and Heart Demon argued that the Illusion Alliance’s endless tower structure would keep players climbing longer.
• Zhong Yi reviewed deck-building strategies on his livestream and prepared to show off the deck he had developed overnight.
• Zhou Yue invited Zhong Yi to climb the Immortal Tower with her, Mu Yawen, and Zhou Qiaoling.
• Zhong Yi joined the party, recognized his teammates’ troublesome habits, and remarked that the team would be hard to carry.

Lu Ze’s friends played Slay the Spire 2’s team mode, where their clashing strategies left the group nearly defeated despite Zhong Yi carrying them through the second floor. On the final floor, the map revealed that Zhou Qiaoling had secretly chosen a route converging on a treasure chest, prompting Zhou Yue to call her greedy.

• Mu Yawen, Zhong Yi, Zhou Qiaoling, and Zhou Yue chose characters and began a team run, with Zhong Yi planning to show Zhou Yue a new strategy.
• Zhou Yue played cards before Zhong Yi could apply Vulnerable, Mu Yawen used Fight Me to strengthen a multihit monster, and Zhou Qiaoling delayed attacks to use Hand of Greed.
• After resting at a Campfire, Zhong Yi found his teammates nearly out of health and complained that he could not carry them.
• Zhong Yi’s strong cards helped the team defeat the second-floor Great Demon, and he won the gold card Add Fuel from its reward.
• On the final floor, Zhong Yi saw that every route led to a treasure chest and accused Zhou Qiaoling of choosing the Treasure Map event.

Zhong Yi led Zhou Qiaoling, Zhou Yue, and Mu Yawen through the dangerous Immortal Tower, then prepared the group for the final boss. The chapter ended with the others secretly choosing to upgrade their cards instead of resting as Zhong Yi had ordered.

• Zhong Yi and the others cleared the second-floor Treasure Map room, and Zhou Qiaoling claimed its 600 spirit stones.
• The group reached the third-floor Great Demon, the Test Subject, and Zhou Yue looked forward to using its long fights to build up his magical orbs.
• Zhong Yi took the group to the final shop, removed cards from his deck, and told everyone to spend their spirit stones before the boss fight.
• Zhou Qiaoling bought several gold and discounted cards, including cards that also benefited her teammates.
• At the Campfire, Zhong Yi called for everyone to rest, but Mu Yawen rested while the other three secretly chose to upgrade their cards.

In the Great Demon's room, Zhong Yi completed an Infinite Loop build by thinning his deck to six cards and cycling [Resentment] repeatedly. He kept chipping away at the Test Subject while Zhou Yue and the others waited impatiently for their turns.

• Zhong Yi used [Add Fuel] and [Brand] to burn cards, aiming to thin his deck enough to complete his build.
• Zhou Qiaoling played [Hammer Time] and [Generous Donation], adding cards to Zhong Yi's hand and delaying his plan.
• Zhou Yue celebrated his Malfunctioning Spirit Puppet build as the Test Subject entered its defensive phase with Intangible and 900 health.
• Zhong Yi revealed that his deck held only six cards and used [Crimson Mantle] to trigger [Resentment]'s draw effect every turn.
• Zhong Yi repeatedly cycled [Resentment], dealing one damage at a time while Zhou Yue, Zhou Qiaoling, and Mu Yawen begged him to stop.

Zhong Yi’s Infinite Loop guide reignited interest in Slay the Immortal Spire, boosting player numbers and playtime. Players also began seeking out the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao in the Illusion Realm, and the Tower Climbing competition deadline arrived.

• Lu Ze promoted Zhong Yi’s livestream, where Zhong Yi used an Infinite Loop build to play nine hundred cards and defeat an incorporeal Great Demon.
• Zhong Yi posted Infinite Loop deck guides for all five classes, drawing players to the builds and driving up the game’s concurrent players and average playtime.
• Lu Ze chose to keep Infinite Loop builds powerful because their high ceiling encouraged players to keep playing.
• Cultivators began seeking out the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao in the Illusion Realm, treating encounters with it as an honor and sharing screenshots on the Forum.
• The Tower Climbing competition deadline arrived on the eighth day after Slay the Immortal Spire’s release.

Lu Ze arrived at the Illusion Alliance gathering as cultivators debated which illusion realm would win the tower-climbing contest. After Han Xian and Zhang Yuxian publicized their dangerous wager, Lu Ze remained confident as the results were about to be announced.

• Lu Ze appeared among the gathered cultivators and muted Wang Qingfan, who had mocked him, on the forum for a month.
• Nangong Yuan worried that Lu Ze's illusion realm would lose, while Zhong Yi assured him it was excellent.
• Zhang Yuxian announced Han Xian and Lu Ze's wager: the loser would take an unprotected blow from the winner.
• Lu Ze told Nangong Yuan that Han Xian was trash who could not beat him, and Han Xian argued that Lu Ze had released his illusion realm too late to catch up.
• Han Xian and Lu Ze agreed to leave life and death to fate as Rakshasa and a Myriad Dao Sect elder appeared to announce the results.

Lu Ze won the first challenge when “Slay the Immortal Spire” far surpassed Han Xian’s Illusion Realm in player count and playtime, then crippled Han Xian with a single strike during their wager. [Heart Demon] and the Elders planned to block the Heavenly Dao in the next challenge, believing that would guarantee their victory.

• Han Xian revealed “Exquisite Tower Wonderrealm”’s results, which initially led the spectators to expect him to beat Lu Ze.
• Lu Ze revealed that “Slay the Immortal Spire” had nearly eight million two-hour periods of playtime, surpassing every other Illusion Realm and winning the challenge.
• Han Xian tried to question the results, but [Rakshasa] silenced him and confirmed Lu Ze as the winner.
• Lu Ze reminded Han Xian that their Wager required no Artifacts and no holding back, then struck him so hard that his Divine Soul was severely damaged.
• [Rakshasa] raged over Han Xian’s injuries, while [Heart Demon] urged the Elders to shut out the Heavenly Dao in the next challenge.

Heart Demon proposed turning the Illusion Realm challenge into a Secret Realm to blunt Lu Ze’s advantage. The Illusion Alliance then announced its second challenge: competitors had seven days to run an auction Secret Realm for the Great Qian Dynasty and earn as much profit as possible.

• Heart Demon told White Crane to shift the challenge from illusion to reality by turning an Illusion Realm into a Secret Realm.
• Cultivators gathered at Leisure Cloud Lake and discussed Lu Ze’s defeat of Han Xian, while the Azure Peak Sect endured the public ridicule.
• Lu Ze arrived and spoke with Zhong Yi, who praised his speed and mentioned Li Moran’s assessment of his talent.
• Rakshasa introduced Qian Wancai, owner of the Flying Cloud Trading House, as the sponsor setting the second challenge.
• Rakshasa announced that competitors had seven days to create a Secret Realm auction open only to people of the Great Qian Dynasty, with scores based on profit.

The Illusion Alliance changed the second challenge from illusion realms to secret realms and arranged an auction restricted to the Great Qian Dynasty, hoping to prevent Lu Ze from winning. Lu Ze accepted the rules and revealed that he could adapt his auction-themed game, “King of Auctions,” to a secret realm.

• [Heart Demon] told the elders to prepare secret realms and have Qian Wancai arrange an auction in the Great Qian Dynasty, where valuable treasures could be sold to disadvantage Lu Ze.
• Cultivators at Leisure Cloud Lake argued over the change, and many Illusion Crafters withdrew in protest.
• Zhong Yi wanted to confront [Rakshasa], but Lu Ze calmly accepted the challenge and said the Illusion Alliance could set the rules on its own territory.
• Lu Ze explained that a secret realm could work like an illusion realm if its setting stayed close to reality and its designs could be created with spells.
• Lu Ze announced that “King of Auctions” could be recreated entirely within a secret realm.

Lu Ze planned to win the auction challenge by selling the warehouse’s remaining goods instead of competing over the Heaven-Piercing Talisman. After Blood Crow sold the talisman and other treasures at inflated prices, Lu Ze launched King of Auctions as a new mode in Immortal Abyss Continent Operation to attract buyers.

• Lu Ze inspected the Flying Cloud Trading House warehouse with Zhong Yi and claimed he had a plan to sell the Heaven-Piercing Talisman, though he later admitted he had lied.
• Lu Ze explained to Zhong Yi that the Illusion Alliance would likely arrange a buyer for the talisman, so he planned to sell the other seventy percent of the warehouse’s goods.
• Heart Demon ordered Blood Crow to prepare the Secret Realm and hold the auction the next day after learning Lu Ze seemed to have a plan.
• Lu Ze created the King of Auctions Illusion Realm to build momentum, but Zhong Yi arrived with news that the Heaven-Piercing Talisman had been sold.
• Blood Crow arranged for prominent clans to bid up the Heaven-Piercing Talisman and several other treasures, spending his own money to raise their total proceeds.
• Lu Ze launched King of Auctions as a new mode in Immortal Abyss Continent Operation, whose concurrent player count was approaching eight hundred thousand.

Zhong Yi entered the new King of Auctions mode and discovered how its auctions combined hidden loot, character skills, and changing sale rules. After winning the tutorial and studying the bidders, he tried to enter a high-stakes map but settled for Blind Box Pile, intent on turning his starting funds into a fortune.

• Zhong Yi entered King of Auctions and learned that players bid on a sealed shipping container using limited information and character skills.
• Using Mai Xiaowen, Zhong Yi recognized that inspecting the container worked like looting in Immortal Abyss Continent Operation.
• Zhong Yi learned that the winning bid requirements changed over five rounds and won the tutorial match, buying goods worth ninety thousand for forty-five thousand.
• Zhong Yi reviewed the characters and their skills, then bragged that he would be unbeatable in the strategy-focused mode.
• Zhong Yi could not enter the Deep-Sea Shipwreck map because he lacked the five million spirit stones required, so he entered Blind Box Pile with his two hundred thousand starting funds.

Lu Ze’s new King of Auctions mode gave players a way to spend their Spirit Stones, while Zhong Yi’s cautious strategy collapsed after he watched another player win big. After chasing the thrill of a huge score, Zhong Yi lost his funds and could no longer enter a match.

• Lu Ze used King of Auctions to drain Spirit Stones from players’ warehouses, allowing exchanges into auction currency but not back.
• Zhong Yi carefully valued a Shipping Container and bid 500,000, but another player won it for 800,000.
• The winner’s container revealed a red [Yongle Encyclopedia Fragment II], earning a million in profit and humiliating Zhong Yi after he mocked the bid.
• Envious of the winner, Zhong Yi abandoned his cautious approach and began bidding aggressively, repeatedly losing Spirit Stones.
• Zhong Yi ran out of Spirit Stones and could not meet the 100,000-Spirit-Stone entry requirement.

Zhong Yi watched other players stream King of Auctions after losing his spirit stones, while Zhou Yue entered a million-level auction lobby and gambled everything on a huge red collectible. Zhou Yue won the warehouse, only to discover the fifteen-slot prize was a low-value Bigeye Tuna, leaving him furious and ready to hunt a fish monster.

• Zhong Yi watched Zhou Qiaoling celebrate a jackpot, then saw Mu Yawen accidentally bid too much before rare collectibles turned her purchase into a profit.
• Zhong Yi joined Zhou Yue’s stream and watched him transfer one million spirit stones into King of Auctions and enter the million-level Quiet Mansion lobby.
• Zhou Yue used Deep Blue’s skill to spot a fifteen-slot red collectible and tried to disguise his information with a 380,000 bid.
• Zhou Yue raised his bids as the other players competed, then went all in with 1.91 million and won the warehouse.
• Zhou Yue watched the warehouse reveal its contents and discovered the giant red collectible was a Bigeye Tuna worth less than 20,000 per slot, then ended his stream to go kill a fish monster.

Zhong Yi entered King of Auctions hoping to avoid Zhou Yue’s bad luck, but discovered a Bigeye Tuna in the lot and tried to trick other bidders into overpaying. His bluff failed, leaving him with a million Spirit Stone loss and sending him toward the Soul-Burial Sea to kill fish demons.

• After watching Zhou Yue’s livestream, Zhong Yi exchanged two million for Spirit Stones and entered the Quiet Mansion auction.
• Zhong Yi used a Giant Object Sampler and revealed that the shipping container’s largest collectible was a red-rarity Bigeye Tuna.
• To make the other bidders think the lot held valuable goods, Zhong Yi raised his bid to 880,000 and then 1.4 million.
• Zhong Yi increased his bid to 1.6 million, expecting to withdraw in the next round, but he won the auction.
• Zhong Yi discovered the lot contained only the Bigeye Tuna, lost a million net, and quit the Illusion Realm in anger.
• Zhong Yi told Zhou Yue to wait for him and decided to go kill fish demons in the Soul-Burial Sea.

Zhou Yue used Luna and a lucky Treasure Scan to go all in on a Deep-Sea Shipwreck auction, only to lose money on worthless red collectibles after trusting advice from Genius Cultivator. Meanwhile, Lu Ze’s new game, “King of Auctions,” became a hit, and he prepared to transplant the Illusion Realm into a Secret Realm.

• Zhou Yue earned money cautiously in Shipping Container matches, then switched to Deep-Sea Shipwreck after drawing a gold Treasure Scan item.
• Zhou Yue bid all 5.16 million of his funds on a hold containing 86 slots of red collectibles and won it against a 3.2-million bid.
• Zhou Yue revealed a series of low-value red collectibles, lost 1.6 million, and realized the danmu user who urged him to go all in was Genius Cultivator.
• Lu Ze reviewed the game's strong player numbers and marked regular Great Qian Dynasty users as priority targets for bringing into “King of Auctions.”
• Lu Ze left the Illusion Realm and set out to transplant it into a Secret Realm.

Zhong Yi tried to use the French Gambling God's information and a feint to win a valuable container, but Mai Xiaowen outbid him and earned a huge profit. Back in the collection room, he received an announcement for a Great Qian Dynasty charity auction in two days.

• Zhong Yi used the French Gambling God's skill and a green item to reveal valuable outlines in a large container.
• Zhong Yi bid 886 to make his opponents think he had given up, planning to raise his bid sharply in the next round.
• Mai Xiaowen won the container for 2.8 million after the two Nameless players failed to raise their bids.
• Mai Xiaowen found three Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng and a Star of Africa, earning a profit of fifteen million and leaving Zhong Yi distraught.
• Zhong Yi returned to the collection room and received notice that the Great Qian Dynasty Charity Auction would take place at Leisure Cloud Mountain Villa in two days.

Lu Ze prepared a real-world Secret Realm auction and secretly drew ordinary people into the Illusion Realm to boost participation. As the auction approached, [Blood Crow] believed his scheme had secured victory, unaware that Chao Wendao and Nangong Yuan had helped over a hundred thousand people try the game.

• [Blood Crow] told [Heart Demon] that the warehouses had started with goods worth 170 million taels of gold, and that only 80 million remained after planned sales.
• [Heart Demon] noticed that Chao Wendao and Nangong Yuan were missing and wondered where the Spirit Cloud Sect elders had gone.
• Zhong Yi asked Lu Ze to let him join the auction, then worried about where his master and Elder Nangong had been.
• Chao Wendao and Nangong Yuan returned exhausted after helping more than a hundred thousand ordinary people enter the Illusion Realm at trial stations across the Great Qian Dynasty.
• Lu Ze explained that recruiting ordinary people had expanded the auction's audience, and Zhong Yi anticipated a spectacular event the next day.

Lu Ze opened his auction secret realm, but [Blood Crow]'s confidence that he could win the challenge collapsed when thousands of people flooded the venue. As [Blood Crow] realized the crowd treated the auction as a way to make money, he warned [Heart Demon] that something was wrong.

• [Blood Crow] arrived early to watch Lu Ze lose, but Qin Ming appeared and stopped him from threatening Lu Ze.
• Qin Ming asked Lu Ze to lend him money for chips, reassuring [Blood Crow] that the expert would not have funds to disrupt the challenge.
• [Blood Crow] saw a huge crowd enter Leisure Cloud Mountain Villa and realized Lu Ze had attracted far more participants than he expected.
• Lu Ze's secret realm offered rooms with different chip limits and required ten million chips to enter the ultimate [Secret Auction].
• [Heart Demon] was astonished by the enormous crowd, while [Blood Crow] heard commoners discussing their profits and warned [Heart Demon] that he had a bad feeling.

Lu Ze turned the “King of Auctions” Secret Realm into a profitable casino, earning 130 million and securing first place despite Blood Crow and Rakshasa’s attempts to prove he cheated. As the Elders worried about losing the Void Soul Crystal, Heart Demon insisted Lu Ze would fail the third challenge.

• Lu Ze explained that his group was trading with chips to stock a warehouse for another auction, while Blood Crow suspected them of cheating.
• Lu Ze profited by repeatedly auctioning goods and drawing wealthy participants into buying chips, then opened the Secret Auction that night.
• After the auction ended, Blood Crow challenged Lu Ze’s chip buybacks, but Rakshasa’s truth-detecting Formation showed that participants had joined willingly.
• The “King of Auctions” Secret Realm earned 130 million and took first place, giving Lu Ze his second point as Blood Crow lost his money again.
• The Elders worried that another loss would hand Lu Ze the Void Soul Crystal, but Heart Demon declared that Lu Ze could not complete the third challenge.

Heart Demon bribed Guo Yunfeng with a Mortal Tears Crystal to sabotage Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm challenge and praise the Illusion Alliance’s realm. At Leisure Cloud Lake, the Alliance announced a seven-day challenge to make Guo Yunfeng, who had severed her emotions, cry.

• Heart Demon offered Guo Yunfeng a Mortal Tears Crystal in exchange for giving Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm the worst rating and praising the Illusion Alliance’s realm.
• Guo Yunfeng accepted the requests, and Heart Demon revealed that the third challenge would require making her shed a tear.
• Two days later, Lu Ze and Zhong Yi discussed the Illusion Alliance’s increasingly difficult challenges at Leisure Cloud Lake.
• Rakshasa introduced Guo Yunfeng as the participant in the third challenge, which required contestants to move her to tears within seven days.