Douluo Mainland

The third reward followed. The stabilized data instantly gathered together, entering Zhou Liang's mental world and transforming into a sky full of stars.

Zhou Liang looked at the stars filling the sky of his mental world. He wanted to fly closer to them, but he instinctively knew that they were absorbing the substance of his mental space and gestating themselves. Once their gestation was complete, they would naturally emerge. Approaching them now would only disrupt the process.

After glancing at the star-filled sky, Zhou Liang exited his mental space.

He opened his eyes, looked at the endless white around him, and said to the air, "Use the world selection opportunity for cultivation."

"Request accepted. Scanning prospective traveler and matching suitable cultivation worlds."

As the mechanical voice fell silent, another pillar of light shone down on Zhou Liang. A few seconds later, the light vanished.

"Scan complete. The following cultivation worlds are suitable for the prospective traveler. Please choose from among them. Note: worlds with a compatibility rate above 80% are exceptionally suited to the prospective traveler. Choose carefully." Then, a light screen appeared before Zhou Liang.

"Douluo Mainland (Compatibility: 6%): The Martial Soul system of Douluo Mainland has an extremely high compatibility rate with the vast majority of people. At the same time, due to the special energy data within the prospective traveler, compatibility with this world has increased greatly."

"World of Contending Heroes (Game) (Compatibility: 1%): This is a competitive game world blending multiple worldviews. It combines the most famous chaotic eras of various nations into a game world. Those who descend into this world will automatically receive a Village-Building Token and an initial profession. The prospective traveler's special energy data has also greatly increased compatibility."

"Dark Tower Defense World (Compatibility: 4%): This is a world shrouded in darkness. Vast magical beasts and monsters are born within that darkness. They break through human strongholds and revel in feasts of flesh and blood. These endless magical beasts and ghosts can bury even the strongest people. However, over a hundred years ago, someone invented Defense Towers. This endlessly automatic means of attack gave the people of this world the power to protect themselves. Thus, every adult receives a Tower Spirit and heads to the front lines against the dark mist, where they acquire more Defense Towers and grow into Tower Lords."

"Dark Expansion World (Compatibility: 64%): This is a world watched by the Dark Abyss. Immense dark power schemes to claim every inch of this land, but the World Consciousness has not given up resisting. Instead, it divided its consciousness to form Springs of the Light Base, allowing every person in this world to receive one and head into the demonized lands to open up territory, even launching a counterattack against the Dark Abyss World."

"Only these four worlds have relatively high compatibility. The other worlds are all above 50%, but I'm only familiar with the first two among these four, and Douluo Mainland has the highest compatibility." Zhou Liang looked at the four options and raised his head.

"I choose Douluo Mainland."

"The prospective traveler has completed the selection. Teleportation will begin in ten seconds."

"Hey, where's my third reward?" Zhou Liang suddenly sensed that something was wrong and hurriedly asked.

"The third reward will be issued according to the cultivation results after the prospective traveler reaches a certain realm in the cultivation world."

After the mechanical voice finished speaking, a beam of light enveloped Zhou Liang. In an instant, he vanished from the white space.

In Douluo Mainland, within an orphanage funded by Lanba Academy in Tiantou City, a child opened his eyes.

"Hmm, an orphanage, Lanba Academy, Tiantou City." Zhou Liang rubbed his head with his little hand as he received the information in his mind.

"Five years old. I'll undergo Martial Soul Awakening next year. They gave me a year to prepare, and my Soul Power is guaranteed to be at least Level Six. That's good. If I ended up with zero Soul Power, what would be the use of Awakening a Martial Soul?"

After saying that, Zhou Liang closed his eyes, wanting to see whether he could sense his own abilities. If he could, he would have to find every possible way to raise his Soul Power to Tenth Level.

At that moment, several stars in his mental space suddenly shone brilliantly. They instantly descended and merged into Zhou Liang's soul.

Then, a massive amount of knowledge surged into Zhou Liang's mind. After some time, he opened his eyes, his face overflowing with excitement.

Those few points of light were actually several cultivation techniques. Moreover, they were techniques from a game on Zhou Liang's phone.

Could this data all be from the games on my phone? Are the data from those games where I used cheats also in there? What about the data from those cracked games? Zhou Liang grew excited at the thought.

He then calmed himself and began examining the techniques. After all, games and reality still had certain differences.

[Everlasting Spring Technique] [Myriad Poisons Spring Transformation Technique] [Yin-Yang Harmonization Technique] [Hundred States of Life Meditation Technique]

These are the techniques I got through top-ups. Zhou Liang looked at the four techniques.

The game that had provided these techniques was a text-based game called My Heroic Swordsman Life.

Its gameplay was fairly ordinary: wander the vast Jianghu map and live through the life of a heroic swordsman.

At the beginning, players only had basic techniques. To obtain Advanced techniques, they either had to join a sect and complete complicated, lengthy quests, or fight bandits and evil cultivators in hopes of getting lucky and having Advanced techniques drop.

Or, most simply, they could directly top up to obtain Advanced techniques.

However, this game had one special feature: age. Every character had their own lifespan limit. Once they reached that limit, they died, reincarnated, and started over.

At that point, all cultivation would be reset to zero. If players had bought a treasure chest, some items could be retained. If not, they could only turn into a treasure map.

Therefore, if one's lifespan was not long enough, some techniques could not be cultivated to their highest level, and certain stages naturally could not be cleared. This was when the Everlasting Spring Technique obtained through the first top-up became extremely important.

However, although the Everlasting Spring Technique could increase lifespan, its offensive power was not high. Even when paired with its auxiliary technique, the Myriad Poisons Spring Transformation Technique, its power was still far inferior to top-tier techniques.

Then came the second gift pack, which could grant the Hundred States of Life Meditation Technique. This technique allowed a heroic swordsman to cultivate multiple internal arts at the same time without creating conflicts.

The final technique was also the reason this text-based game had exploded in popularity—and the reason it had been taken down.

The game had a companion system. Finding a companion could increase certain attributes, and players could also cultivate together with them. Under normal circumstances, however, dual cultivation had no effect beyond adding a tiny amount of experience, and the page only displayed a short passage of a dozen or so words.

But several dual cultivation techniques could drop within the game. After obtaining those techniques and cultivating together again,

the text would change according to the technique's level, becoming 300 words, 3,000 words, or 30,000 words.

And the Yin-Yang Harmonization Technique, which required 698 to purchase, not only had a 100,000-word option, but also allowed players to choose an animated version.