Zhong Yi took out a pen and crookedly drew his route on the map.

Three elite monster rooms, one shop, one treasure chest room, and two campfires.

"That's really strange. Why do they always choose two campfires? It's obvious that Junior Brother Lu is using them to trick people!"

Zhong Yi muttered to himself, stroking his chin.

In Lu Ze's previous life, players suffered greatly from Miyazaki's tyranny, and the sense of security brought by the concept of a campfire was completely natural.

However, in the cultivation world, no one understands the true value of a campfire.

After planning his route, Zhong Yi entered the first room.

The view slowly unfolded.

Contrary to Zhong Yi's expectations, he did not become a cultivator of the Ironclad Sect and engage in battle.

The Ironclad Sect cultivator stood in a dense forest, facing a green, lizard-like monster.

Zhong Yi, on the other hand, appeared as a transparent spirit, drifting along the edge of the battlefield.

Five enormous cards appeared before him.

A new user-specific tip appears:

【Playing cards triggers corresponding actions for your character. Defeat your opponent by playing cards!】

【Cards require Spirit Points to play. When your Spirit Points are depleted, end your turn.】

【At the start of each round, your Aura will be replenished, and you will draw new cards.】

"Oh? Using card games to control character actions?"

Zhong Yi raised an eyebrow, instantly understanding the meaning behind it.

He has five cards in his hand: three 【attack】 cards and two 【defense】 cards.

【Strike】 deals 6 damage, while 【Defense】 grants 5 armor.

"Isn't this similar to my 'Brave the Demon-Sealing Tower'? Great minds think alike, indeed!"

Zhong Yi couldn't help but feel a little smug.

After being enlightened by Lu Ze, he came up with a strategy of using numerical values ​​to replace fighting.

This means dividing a character's stats into health, attack, and defense.

Combat involves subtracting attack from defense, and the difference is the damage.

The underlying logic of damage in "Slaying Tower" is also like this.

Zhong Yi glanced at his opponent, the green little gnawed beast.

This thing has 42 health points and 12 attack power.

Zhong Yi currently has 3 points of spiritual energy. Both 【Attack】 and 【Defense】 require 1 point of spiritual energy, meaning he can only play 3 cards.

"Is there even a question? Of course, it's two defense cards and one attack card!"

Zhong Yi immediately figured out the answer and played his three cards in a flash.

The Ironclad Sect cultivator summoned two streams of spiritual energy to protect himself, increasing his armor by 10 points. Then, he slashed down, taking away 6 points of the little beast's health.

With his 3 points of spiritual energy depleted, Zhong Yi chose to end his turn and enter Little Beast's turn.

The little beast's turn was quite simple: a straightforward pounce and bite that tore through Zhong Yi's protective aura and dealt 2 points of damage.

As a tutorial level, the first monster players encounter has a fairly simple mechanic.

After three rounds, Zhong Yi had a general understanding of how to play the illusion.

This is a turn-based fantasy world where players and monsters take turns, and players cannot act during the other player's turn.

Players use cards to make their characters take corresponding actions. Each card requires Spirit Points, which can be 1 or 2 points.

However, players only have 3 points of spiritual energy.

"In other words..."

"How to plan the strategy for playing cards in each round is the most important thing in this illusion?"

Zhong Yi pondered for a moment, then pinched his chin with some doubt.

"However, aren't these cards a bit too limited?"

His deck has a total of 10 cards.

Five 【Strike】 cards, four 【Defense】 cards, and one 【Pain Strike】 card that costs 2 spirit points.

Although the mechanism is simple and easy to understand, it is the kind of thing that you can see the whole picture at a glance.

Even if you come up with all sorts of fancy tricks, it's still just about defense and offense, isn't it?

"This is a bit beyond Junior Brother Lu's usual level... Holy crap! How did this little thing's attack power increase to 14 points??"

The little beast buffed itself in the previous round, and its attack power soared in this round. Zhong Yi was so frightened that he quickly played 3 attack cards, which just depleted the little beast's health bar.

The little beast let out a whimper and collapsed to the ground with a thud. Two wisps of gray spiritual energy rose from its corpse.

"This is......?"

Zhong Yi touched it out of curiosity, and two options appeared in front of him.

Within a wisp of spiritual energy, twelve spirit stones were placed.

Within another wisp of spiritual energy were three cards whose faces were obscured.

"These are the spoils of war after we won?"

Zhong Yi immediately understood and quickly touched the second cluster of spiritual energy surrounding the card.

Three enormous card phantoms instantly appeared in front of him:

【Preparatory Strike (1 Aura): Deals 7 damage. Gain 2 Strength this turn.】

【Tremor (1 Aura): Grants 2 stacks of "Vulnerability" (Vulnerability: Target takes 50% more damage)】

【Blood Wall (2 Spirit): Lose 2 Health. Gain 16 Block.】

"I knew Junior Brother Lu's illusion couldn't be that ordinary!"

Zhong Yi's eyes immediately brightened.

After winning, you can choose one of the three cards to add to your deck.

What appears to be a deck of cards is actually about teaching your character new skills.

In that case, there are many more variables!

"The first attack is much stronger than a normal one, and it also increases subsequent damage..."

"The second one, two layers of vulnerability? So weak, it feels like it would be better to just use another strike..."

"The third one, 16 points of block? But it'll cost me 2 health points? No way, health is my lifeline..."

Zhong Yi studied it carefully and added 【Prepared Strike】 to his collection.

"Again!"

Zhong Yi had already gotten the hang of the gameplay of "Slaying Tower" and quickly entered the next room following the pre-designed route.

This time it's three clumps of mud monsters, which are the slimes from the previous life.

"Defense or offense...?"

"Should we attack this one first or that one first...?"

"Damn it, how can I reduce the amount of blood I lose..."

...

Zhong Yi, who has always pursued perfection, would think for a long time before making each move in chess, wishing he could bring arithmetic into his dream world.

This level wasn't too difficult either; Zhong Yi spent some time on it and easily passed it.

"Haha! The Golden Crow bloodline restored 6 points of health to me, which is equivalent to not losing any health at all! I'm so amazing!"

Zhong Yi looked at his health bar with satisfaction. After two rounds of battle, he had only lost 2 drops of health, and he was somewhat smug.

The monster dropped two more clusters of spiritual energy.

This time, one of the three cards was blue.

【Burn (1 Spirit): Gain 2 Strength.】

"Blue-tier? Ability card??"

Zhong Yi had just thought he had figured out the illusion, but now he was happy about something new.

Only then did he realize that the three cards from the previous round, along with the ten initial cards in his deck, were all white cards.

Thanks to Lu Ze's tireless efforts, the practice of color grading had long been popularized in the cultivation world.

Even when the remnants of the Heavenly Dao distribute rewards, the treasure chests are graded according to red, gold, purple, and blue.

"Blue is great! I'll definitely get blue!"

Zhong Yi didn't even look at the other two white cards before adding 【Burning】 directly into his deck.

After easily winning two consecutive battles, Zhong Yi's confidence soared.

"Again!"

He stepped into the third combat room and faced a monster called the "Shrinking Beetle".

This was easy; Zhong Yi launched a fierce attack and took it down without taking any damage.

"Holy crap, there's blue again!?"

Zhong Yi stared at the blue eyes and, without a second thought, took the 【Flame Barrier】 into his possession.

"Next is..."

"Random room?"

Zhong Yi looked at the small room marked with a question mark on the map, his heart filled with anticipation.

As Lu Ze's game concept spread throughout the cultivation world, cultivators always wanted to try their hand at this kind of random attribute thing.

What if I am the chosen one?

Of course, Zhou Yue is an exception.

"Hahaha! I'm not Old Zhou, of course I'm just going in to try my luck!"

Zhong Yi laughed and muttered to himself, then abandoned the shop option on the right and stepped straight into the random room.

The scene suddenly changed to a rainy night with torrential rain.

Zhong Yi stood on a dilapidated old wooden bridge.

【Random Event: Slippery Wooden Bridge】

【As you cross a rickety wooden bridge, a sudden downpour begins. Gusts of wind whip around you, seemingly intent on ending your journey.】

【Option 1: Cross ("Burning" will be removed from your deck)】

【Option 2: Hold on a little longer (Loss 3 health points. Randomly select cards from the options above)】

"Damn it!! I just got my blue card!!"

Zhong Yi's lips twitched, and he decisively chose option two.

With the deduction of 3 health points, the option changed from 【Burning】 to 【Flame Barrier】.

"You're eyeing my blue start, aren't you? Let's go again!!"

"...【Preparatory Strike】 works well too! Let's do it again!!"

“【Strike】...No, no, I only have this one Strike.”

"What the hell?! I've already lost 18 HP???"

"I'm never coming back to this awful room again!!"