With Li Moran's defeat, Zhou Qiaoling directly chose to signal surrender.

Usually, Zhou Yue would certainly not miss this good opportunity to beat up his own sister.

However, thinking about how Lu Ze had just mixed into the Righteous Path attack team to strike from behind, and also how he played like a ratty and went for foot-slashing when the two sides were sparring one-on-one...

Zhou Yue dropped that idea.

Otherwise, who knows how Lingxiao Sect would be judged outside...

In any case, Li Moran and Shen Yan admitted defeat and exited the game; just letting one ratty go wasn't considered excessive.

Zhou Qiaoling had found some big loot and tried to get away with it, but unfortunately, Lu Ze found it in a minion's box.

"Wow! This shield minion box actually spawned a 【Resurrecting Heaven-Bearing Tripod】? What a lucky shield minion~~"

Lu Ze feigned ignorance as he took the 【Resurrecting Heaven-Bearing Tripod】 out of the shield minion's box, deliberately waving it in front of Zhou Qiaoling, making the latter so anxious she almost hissed.

Zhou Yue was still 10 million short of the promotion line, and a 【Resurrecting Heaven-Bearing Tripod】 was worth 7 million, filling the gap in one go.

Lu Ze gave the 【Resurrecting Heaven-Bearing Tripod】 directly to Zhou Yue.

In return, the 12 boxes scattered in the garden were all eaten by Zhou Qiaoling on his behalf.

In any case, Zhou Yue and Zhong Yi were absolutely unwilling to touch these unclean packages.

"Junior Brother Lu, what were you thinking at the time? In such a formal sparring occasion, how could you..."

Zhou Yue stopped mid-sentence.

"It's fine, if I get caught, I'll just give it up~"

Lu Ze shrugged indifferently.

At the time, his First Saint value was already maxed out, so it didn't matter whether he won or lost; he wasn't chasing rankings anyway, so he chose the easiest method.

"Aren't you afraid that Junior Sister Li will..."

Before Zhou Yue finished speaking, Zhong Yi interrupted:

"How could she? Junior Sister Li is indifferent by nature and won't care about these things... You agree, right, Junior Brother Lu? Hmm? Junior Brother Lu?"

Zhong Yi called out twice, but saw no reaction from Lu Ze.

Turning his head, he discovered the other party was frozen in place.

After a moment, he suddenly transformed into a Righteous Path Alliance box.

【Realm Master Lu Ze has exited the Illusion Realm!】

"Hiss..."

Zhong Yi shivered instantly.

"Why does it feel a bit cold?"

...

Lihuo Peak.

Above Lingyu Pavilion, ice and snow gathered, illuminating the night sky as bright as day.

"Senior Sister Li, Senior Brother Zhong was just praising you for having a good temperament, saying you wouldn't mind what happened in the Illusion Realm... Uh, hehe..."

Lu Ze scratched his head with a forced laugh, quietly setting up various Magic Treasures and barriers around himself.

"Everything Senior Brother said in the Illusion Realm was the opposite of the truth."

Li Moran glared at him, and instantly, all the barriers Lu Ze had just set up shattered.

"Alright, alright... Same as usual, if I block all your ice swords, will you let me off?"

Lu Ze looked helplessly at the sky full of ice swords, resignedly protecting his head.

"Don't hit the face this time, okay?"

"I won't hit the face..."

A strange curve flashed across the corner of Li Moran's mouth.

With a "swish," an ice sword pierced toward Lu Ze's foot.

"???"

Lu Ze was shocked.

"Senior Sister Li, are you a foot fetishist?"

"?"

Li Moran's expression immediately soured.

Isn't that my line?

She clenched her fists slightly, and the number of Profound Ice Longswords behind her doubled again.

Lingyu Pavilion was instantly swallowed by an ice and snow storm.

"Damn, you're playing for real..."

...

The first stage ended, resulting in 201 promotion spots.

It is worth mentioning that apart from being killed by Lu Ze's foot-slashing in the first match, Li Moran withdrew from all other matches, and she went on a killing spree.

Her ranking shot straight to first, pushing 【Twilight】 down.

According to those who were matched with her, that night, Fairy Li was unusually irritable...

The second stage moved away from the random ranking point-grabbing mode and entered the team battle phase.

201 contestants formed teams freely, striving for points in squad mode.

The competition in this stage was even greater.

Because only 6 teams would eventually enter the final.

Compared to the randomness of the first stage, the competition content of the second stage added a mechanism for competing over Immortal Stones.

The Immortal Stone was the Mandel Brick from his past life.

In normal mode, taking the Immortal Stone out of the game allowed one to draw skins.

The official design for the competition in his past life was that the team that successfully decoded would win directly.

Those who successfully decoded twice would advance directly.

This was a design to force combat through breaking bricks, although, in actual practice, its effect was not as great as imagined.

Lu Ze made some modifications to this mechanism.

Unsealing the Immortal Stone—which was decoding the Mandel Brick in his past life—would not lead to direct victory.

Instead, like PUBG's airdrops, it would grant powerful equipment, namely the Liu Tao and AW.

At the same time, it would grant a team-wide buff.

In addition, the Immortal Stone itself was set as a high-value red item worth 2 million.

...

In the cultivation world, most players formed teams based on their Sect factions.

Fellow disciples teaming up, and Loose Cultivators teaming up, was almost a consensus.

"I am already very satisfied to have made it into the second stage using the Knife-Run playstyle! I won't participate in the battles from here on out... I wish you all, great martial luck!"

After leaving these words, Zhong Yi lightly exited the second stage.

He had participated in the competition to set a benchmark for Knife-Run players.

Now that the goal had been achieved, and the subsequent schedule was full of fierce battles, he naturally didn't want to drag others down.

Zhou Qiaoling was the same.

Upon learning that she couldn't happily loot, she chose to run away; she had already enjoyed herself anyway.

She could still get the first stage reward, a guaranteed win without loss.

Lu Ze, Zhou Yue, and Li Moran logically formed a team.

Originally, Li Moran did not want to be in the same team as Lu Ze.

She wanted to take revenge for the last time in the competition and compete with Lu Ze properly.

But Lu Ze wanted to be in the same team as Li Moran.

The reason was simple: convenience.

He could just go AFK after entering the match and still win, how great is that?

So Lu Ze privately opened a custom room and pulled Li Moran for a few rounds of direct sparring, which counted as fulfilling ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) her wish.

Finally, the three of them grouped up.

At first, Lu Ze intended to name the team 【Chu Sheng Sect】, but found the name was already taken.

This was enough to show that Chu Sheng disciples were widespread.

Eventually, they entered the competition under the name 【Cultivate Your Jade Feet】.

With two great experts like Zhou Yue and Li Moran in the team, Lu Ze didn't need to put in any effort.

At the start, he would just switch out to play Legends of the Three Kingdoms, and wait for the two of them to clear the map before switching back to loot.

That life was comparable to a boss who had ordered double protection.

...

Luofeng Continent, Illusion Alliance Base.

"Damn it!!"

Huang Yuwen exited the Illusion Realm, angrily punching the wall.

"Why is this great formation useless? I am simply no match for those two from Lingxiao Sect!"

He was the 【Twilight】 who dominated the Illusion Realm.

Before participating in the competition, he was a well-known Dao Protector, recruited by the Illusion Alliance with heavy rewards.

"Why is the little friend in such a hurry? The Ten Directions Spirit Descent Great Formation is currently operating at less than one-tenth efficiency..."

The Heart Demon, wearing a square mask, had a sharp and comical voice at this moment.

"It is enough to advance to the finals anyway; what is the difference between first or sixth?"

"If you expose yourself too early, it will be bad if someone notices the anomaly..."

"When the finals arrive, there will be as many opportunities as you want to teach Lingxiao Sect a lesson!"