Limitless Sword Sect, Illusion Sword Peak.

Cups clinked and wine flowed.

Du Cheng, the Illusion Sword Peak’s Deacon, was beaming as he held his wine cup, accepting toasts from everyone.

All those gathered here were members of the Illusion Alliance.

The Illusion Alliance had simultaneously released dozens of new barrier types, but only the Limitless Sword Sect’s Heavenly Dao Secret Realm had the best effect.

So everyone came here early to celebrate the Illusion Alliance’s victory.

As the constructor of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, Du Cheng naturally became the focus of the entire banquet.

“Elder Jiang, Du Cheng toasts you!”

Facing his direct Elder, Du Cheng put away the smug look on his face and respectfully raised his wine cup.

Jiang Lingfeng, frowning, was out of place with the atmosphere of the entire banquet, thoughtfully staring at the Illusion Tower in his hand.

“You’re celebrating too early...”

Jiang Lingfeng’s tone was cold as he tossed the Illusion Tower in his hand in front of Du Cheng.

“The number of Cultivators in the Illusion Realm is continuously decreasing.”

In their concept, there were no terms like “new user acquisition” or “retention” yet.

But Jiang Lingfeng keenly realized that the prosperity of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm was false.

“Uh... Perhaps the Disciples are diligent in their Cultivation and have exited to Cultivate?”

Du Cheng’s wine cup hung awkwardly in mid-air.

Jiang Lingfeng glanced at him, thinking, who would believe that excuse?

When Disciples played Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm, they would forget to eat and sleep; how could they be diligent in their Cultivation?

Not to mention Disciples, even Li Jiujian, the Peak Master of the neighboring Yiqing Peak, was immersed in Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm all day long.

“That shouldn’t be? That day, I contacted several Elders and Deacons to test it together, and the feedback was quite good, wasn’t it?”

Du Cheng was immediately puzzled.

On the day of the test, Jiang Lingfeng took the lead and praised it greatly.

How could an Illusion Realm so highly recommended by an Elder not be liked by ordinary Disciples?

“Indeed... It still needs the Spiritual Qi nourishment of the Heavenly Dao!”

Jiang Lingfeng sighed, attributing Lu Ze’s success to the Spiritual Qi nourishment of the Heavenly Dao.

Heavenly Dao.

This was where everyone in the Illusion Alliance envied Lu Ze the most.

Lu Ze, with a terrible Physique, relied on the Heavenly Dao to continuously Breakthrough within two years.

If such Luck were to fall upon them...

To what Realm would their Cultivation reach?

Jiang Lingfeng did not directly participate but instead had his trusted Deacon create the Illusion Realm to test the waters.

After all, if he, a dignified Elder of the Limitless Sword Sect, personally competed with a Nascent Soul junior for Opportunity, it would be a joke if word got out.

“Elder, don’t worry, I’ll arrange for the Deacons of the other peaks to ensure Disciples must stay in the Illusion Realm for the full duration every day!”

Du Cheng patted his chest and guaranteed.

“I heard... that kid posted an announcement yesterday, seemingly also planning to create a free combat-style Illusion Realm?”

Jiang Lingfeng suddenly said.

“That is true.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Du Cheng nodded, unconcerned.

“But Elder Jiang needn’t worry...”

At this point, Du Cheng revealed a confident smile.

“For this type of Illusion Realm, which requires multiple people to participate, the larger the space, the better...”

“Lu Ze is only at the Early Stage of Nascent Soul, and his Illusion Realm’s maximum range is at most two thousand meters.”

“Based on this alone, he absolutely cannot be stronger than us!”

After hearing this, Jiang Lingfeng nodded thoughtfully.

Du Cheng was at the Middle Stage of Soul Transformation Cultivation, and the Illusion Realm he created with full effort could reach three thousand meters in size.

Just this point alone far surpassed Lu Ze.

“Then let him lose even more thoroughly... Otherwise, how will the Heavenly Dao notice us?”

Jiang Lingfeng sneered, standing with his hands behind his back.

“Starting tomorrow, this old man will help your Illusion Realm reach another level...”

“With an Illusion Realm ten thousand meters in size, let’s see how he can compete with us!”

...

...

Over the past half-month, discussions about the Illusion Alliance and Lu Ze on the forum had not ceased.

Especially Du Cheng of the Illusion Alliance, who spoke wildly, stating that Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm space was too small to contain the Heavenly Dao’s Opportunity.

He also spent ten days expanding the Illusion Realm to nearly eight thousand meters in diameter.

As soon as this Move was made, it caused a flurry of discussion among netizens.

“Eight thousand meters range? This is beyond the ability of a Soul Transformation Stage Cultivator, isn’t it...?”

“There’s likely an Elder-level figure guiding him from behind.”

“Shh, don’t speak carelessly.”

“What are you afraid of?! A bunch of old Soul Transformation and Void Refining Cultivators ganging up to bully a junior?”

“A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure makes him guilty!”

“What’s there to bully or not bully? When Old Devil Lu’s Illusion Realm comes out, it’s still uncertain who will bully whom!”

“Exactly! Even if Old Devil Lu’s Illusion Realm is only two hundred meters, I still like to play... mainly because it’s fun.”

“Old Devil Lu’s Illusion Realm, no matter what Cultivation Realm you are, you can play a few rounds... unlike that Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, where you go in to be a sandbag?”

“Heh heh, the few upstairs are probably too low in Realm... If you’re weak, practice more! Once you advance to the Nascent Soul Realm, you’ll naturally know how excellent the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm is.”

“Alright, alright, we know you’re a Nascent Soul bigshot... You wait, when # Nоvеlight # the Golden Core players quit, you’ll be the next batch.”

“I’ve already practiced more in reality, why would I go to the Illusion Realm?”

“Can the Illusion Alliance’s running dogs please get lost!”

“Free combat is only fun when the Illusion Realm is big enough; in this aspect, the Illusion Alliance will definitely win completely!”

“Agreed, only noobs like to play Lu Ze’s Illusion Realm.”

“Heh heh, noobs? Want to spar?”

“Alright! Report your Sect location, I’ll come and learn!”

“My name remains unchanged, my seat remains unchanged, Limitless Sword Sect, Li Jiujian!”

...

...

The debates on the forum were endless.

The Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, as Lu Ze had predicted, experienced a severe drop in online player count.

However, the free combat-style Illusion Realm indeed attracted most combat-crazed Cultivators.

Therefore, it still retained a considerable portion of its user base.

Everyone’s attention was focused on eternal calamity, which Lu Ze had announced earlier but had not yet launched.

Lu Ze did not participate in this fierce war of words.

Instead, he devoted himself to the creation of the Illusion Realm.

The construction of a ten-thousand-meter Illusion Realm space was the most massive undertaking he had ever done.

“Heavenly Human City, Senluo Valley, Hundred Refining Cave...”

Lu Ze floated above the world, overlooking the entire continent, and nodded with considerable satisfaction.

This was a map he created based on the Jukuzhou of his previous life.

Based on the original work, it was magnified several times, optimizing many details and scenes.

The gameplay and map did not require major changes.

The only somewhat taxing part was the action System.

The original work in his previous life was, after all, a computer game, and the actions were fixed.

If it were directly copied into the Illusion Realm, it would not be so “unrestrained.”

But Lu Ze had always adhered to one philosophy—

A game is a game; it must have clear rules.

If it were to develop like the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, with Cultivators bringing their own Cultivation Techniques and skills into the arena, the game would have no balance whatsoever.

Considering both, Lu Ze designed the “form” and “values” of the action System separately.

In terms of “form,”

Normal attacks were free actions, meaning the player’s light attack actions could be operated at will.

Special attacks, such as charged attacks, parries, and execution attacks, required players to perform the Move actions as instructed, otherwise they would be ineffective.

The “values” part was independent.

No matter how flashy the Moves a player performed during a light attack, the damage calculation would still be based on the number of hits.

There would be no situation where a special posture would allow for higher damage than others.

Of course, combos within the game could be developed independently.

With this design, Cultivators would not be too restricted in their actions, nor would the game become unbalanced due to a lack of rules.

As for the actions from his previous life that came with special effects, with Mu Yawen’s help, they were optimized and adjusted to conform to the core Moves of this weapon.

...

After the map and action System were perfected, Lu Ze dragged a bunch of cyber Souls in for a test.

As he expected, even the cyber Souls gave excellent feedback on this Illusion Realm.

Seeing that the Illusion Realm had no bugs, Lu Ze was about to exit when his alt account suddenly received a notification:

“Mo Ran has invited you to a custom match.”

Lu Ze immediately found it amusing.

Li Mozhan was not giving up and asked him to solo again in "Clash of Immortals and Demons".

He immediately replied:

“Did you forget what we agreed on last time?”

The other side replied instantly:

“Ghost Immortal difficulty... I’ve already cleared it.”

Only then did Lu Ze notice that Li Mozhan was wearing the title 【Human Emperor】.

This was the unique title given in ghost town to the first player to clear the Ghost Immortal difficulty.

He hadn’t expected her to be so persistent.

She had actually overcome her fear of ghosts just to defeat him in the Illusion Realm.

“Hiss, so cold...”

Lu Ze shivered unexpectedly.

For some reason, he could feel a cold, immense resentment through the internet, as if the other party wished they could have an offline solo right now...

“The new Illusion Realm is about to launch, let’s spar there.”