"Me?"

Lu Ze pointed at himself, then shook his head with a smile.

"Of course I'm not participating."

Whenever the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao gets excited, it organizes a large-scale tournament just for fun.

Previously, after role-playing as the Devil King Teemo in the Nightmare AI mode of the immortal demon conflict, it held a competition.

Lu Ze figured that this time, Sayid and the old lady had also let it have its fill of fun.

Lu Ze not only knew about this tournament, but he even helped name it the Peak Tournament.

He knew the tournament rewards in advance; the highest-tier reward was merely the second-tier prize pool of the Illusion Realm rewards.

These rewards were considered treasures in the eyes of ordinary Cultivators, but in Lu Ze's eyes, they were somewhat ordinary.

"Why?"

A trace of loneliness flashed in Li Moran's eyes.

There are no custom rooms in operation xianyuan continent, so the tournament is a rare opportunity to spar with Lu Ze.

"I have no interest in smurfing."

Lu Ze stretched and casually made up an excuse.

Given the current level of players, his entry would be pure dimensional reduction strike.

With no System mission and no rewards that caught his eye, he couldn't be bothered to participate.

Upon hearing this answer, Li Moran appeared very dissatisfied.

"Then come to Wenjian Peak later..."

"What for?"

"I have an interest in smurfing."

Li Moran snorted coldly.

Lu Ze: "..."

Illusion Realm, main server world.

"...That's the general tournament format."

Lu Ze laid out his entire tournament planning proposal to the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao.

In his past life, the officials held quite a few Delta-style tournaments, but the viewership results were not ideal.

In terms of competition, the disadvantages of the multi-element scavenge-fight-extract mechanic quickly became apparent.

If it focused solely on scavenging, the competitive match would lack highlights.

If it focused solely on fighting, the game's unique characteristics would be lost.

It would always eventually devolve into a group of top-tier marksmen camping in one spot, moving silently and waiting to ambush each other, making for a terrible viewing experience.

What the audience actually found exciting were the solo-vs-trio smurfing challenge cups.

What Lu Ze handed to the Fragment of the Heavenly Dao was a modified plan based on various tournaments from his past life.

In short, it encouraged more fighting, so they wouldn't all just be camping and waiting for each other.

"Two stages? Hmm... interesting."

The Fragment of the Heavenly Dao nodded, then looked at Lu Ze.

"Are you not participating?"

"Why would I participate? I'm the one who gets the rewards every time; others will just get jealous."

Lu Ze waved his hand indifferently.

The Fragment of the Heavenly Dao turned around with its hands behind its back: "Then don't regret it."

"?"

Lu Ze looked confused.

He checked the rewards again, confirming that the prize pool didn't contain anything he needed.

"I, Lu Ze, will never regret it!"

With Lu Ze's tournament plan, the Heavenly Dao's competition officially began very quickly.

Every night, the Heavenly Dao livestream room would quickly rush to the top of the rankings; in terms of popularity, even Zhong Yi couldn't keep up.

When it came to competing and spectating, Lu Ze was very experienced.

The spectator perspective Technique provided for the livestream room was very well-executed.

Viewers could choose their own perspective.

They could either use a god's-eye view to overlook the entire situation, or attach themselves to a contestant to watch from their first-person perspective.

For exciting combat moments, it even provided replays.

The first stage of the tournament was created by Lu Ze based on the streamer Peak Tournament he liked in his past life.

Among officially held tournaments, this was one of the few modes that audiences actually liked.

Simply put, over a period of fifteen days, the maps would rotate.

The System would distribute a certain amount of guaranteed Spirit Stones every day for initial equipment.

During this stage, contestants could not form teams and could only match randomly.

Contestants who advanced to the second stage were selected based on the ranking of the supplies they successfully brought out.

The appeal of this mode was, firstly, seeing various experts teaming up or facing off, and secondly, it placed more emphasis on the contestant's individual skill, as the teammates in every match were random.

The first stage had high randomness, so the entertainment value was naturally very high.

Every night at the Hour of the Rooster, the livestream room was immediately filled with various bullet comments.

"Ascension Base again today?"

"Don't know if anyone is bridge-camping"

"Everyone is from a famous and reputable Righteous Path sect; who would bridge-camp on such an occasion?"

"Although, it seems like whoever bridge-camps wins"

"It's all anonymous Loose Cultivators doing the camping; they are in the minority after all"

"Is anyone taking bets today? Who can take first place?"

"It must be True Disciple Li of the Lingxiao Sect! Her momentum is too fierce; I haven't seen anyone beat her one-on-one yet"

"True Disciple Zhou of the Lingxiao Sect isn't bad either, right? They haven't met yet"

"True Disciple Zhou's ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) skill isn't bad, but he can't help having bad Luck! In my opinion, it'll be hard for him to qualify..."

"Among the Loose Cultivators, a few never-before-seen tough characters have appeared... the rankings are very tight"

"The dam is still the best to watch! Divine Beings are emerging everywhere!"

Among the countless spectators, Lu Ze was one of them.

However, he wasn't in the Heavenly Dao's livestream room, but staying in Zhong Yi's livestream room.

For no other reason than it being entertaining to watch.

The first stage was interesting because all kinds of unconventional players could participate.

Not only could technical experts participate, but you might also encounter ratty who loves Knife-running, or the bridge-camping enthusiasts.

As the Ancestral Master of Knife-running, Zhong Yi naturally participated as well.

He didn't care about the ranking, nor did he hope for rewards; he purely enjoyed the atmosphere of the competition.

"Oh no! Why did I get matched with teammates!?"

Zhong Yi looked at his matched teammates and slapped his forehead hard.

Usually, he would Knife-run solo and lose his gear; today, in his first match, he forgot to turn off the option to match with teammates.

"Fellow Daoist, I am a Knife-runner..."

"￥%&&...@#￥@!"

As soon as Zhong Yi opened his mouth, he was greeted with a round of "friendly" greetings; it was easy to see they were gamblers whose daily Spirit Stones were about to run out.

In the first stage of the tournament, all players' appearances in the Illusion Realm were replaced by the characters themselves.

Therefore, many contestants, if they didn't notice the 【Genius Cultivator】 ID and only saw the silly face of the Bee Doctor, would involuntarily start spouting profanities.

"Fellow Daoist, don't be anxious yet..."

Zhong Yi's temperament was always high, and he patiently explained that he had accidentally matched with teammates, but he would definitely try his best to cooperate with the team.

Of course, the person on the other side stopped talking after a while.

Lu Ze guessed that the other party had been muted.

In an environment filled with aggressive teams, Knife-running was indeed a reasonable playstyle.

Although Zhong Yi had clumsy hands, he was still proficient in Knife-running.

After ten days of playing, his assets were surprisingly ranked in the middle of the pack among the contestants.

If his Luck was better, he might actually qualify.

Zhong Yi was chased by various "rat-catching" squads until he was covered in sweat, and Lu Ze watched with great interest.

"Haha, finally extracted!!"

Zhong Yi hugged a Golden Gazelle and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He ran wildly all the way and finally made a million-value extraction.

Just as he returned to the Special Service Department, a notification appeared in the Illusion Realm:

【Total assets of contestants have reached 2 billion; tournament rewards have been fully upgraded!】

Lu Ze, who was in the livestream room, saw this scene, and the corner of his mouth twitched immediately.

"Fragment of the Heavenly Dao, you guy..."

His fist had just clenched.

The sound of a System mission rang in his ears:

【An ancient treasure has descended upon the Demonic Path Secret Realm! It has attracted countless Righteous Cultivators to fight for it!】

【The host recently seized the Luck of the Righteous Path to become a Saint, damaging the reputation of the Demonic Path. Now is the perfect opportunity to rebuild the reputation of the Demonic Path!】

【System Mission:】

【Slaughter Righteous Cultivators and seize the ancient treasure.】

【Mission Requirement 1: Kill 100 Righteous Cultivators】

【Mission Requirement 2: The methods must meet the standards of the Demonic Path and subvert the Righteous Path's perception of a "Saint"】

【Mission Reward: Random high-tier Medicinal Pill】