Chapter 1 Disturbance

The antique Buddhist temple was taking a beating. With each tremor, Master Wuhen's body trembled along with it, and the crying and laughter within his heart grew more intense.

The spiritual pollution contained within the sound could cause a level 7 Sovereign to emotionally collapse and descend into madness on the spot.

Clearly, the sudden attack disrupted his rhythm of digesting the item and ascending to demigod status.

As the tremors intensified, the Buddhist temple was quickly torn apart like a curtain, revealing a black, gaping crack that rapidly expanded. The entire illusion shattered, leaving only the golden Buddha, symbolizing Master Wuhen's unwavering state of mind.

Only a high-level illusionist could break into another illusionist's realm. The Patriarch of the Southern School arrived at the Buddhist temple. After he disappeared, a new illusion was born: a scarlet, molten landscape, bubbling and seething, with the scorching heat distorting the air.

Master Wuhen found himself in a sea of molten lava. For a Spirit God, illusions were reality; everything within the illusion was real, no different from reality.

The tattered robe on Master Wuhen melted, revealing his strong physique. Then, his lower body carbonized in the lava, exposing the white bones.

The bones quickly turned red, but Master Wuhen's expression remained unchanged in the face of the agonizing heat. He dragged his blackened heart with one hand and grasped at the void with the other.

A porcelain bottle filled with golden liquid materialized.

He looked up and gulped down the Origin of Life. His flesh, on the verge of disintegration, radiated golden light and rapidly healed. This too was illusion, but illusion was reality.

Master Wuhen continued to fuse with the black sphere, racing against time.

Suddenly, a shower of fire rained down from the ashen sky, meteors slamming densely toward Master Wuhen.

Without even a glance, Master Wuhen conjured walls of earth with a thick, luminous aura, like towering city walls from a celestial realm, blocking the falling meteors.

This wasn't true earth elemental power, but a defense constructed of illusions.

"Boom, boom." The thick, sturdy defensive walls shattered one after another under the meteor barrage, which was only reduced by a third.

Master Wuhen sighed softly and raised a finger: "All illusions shall return to nothingness." The meteors about to smash him to pieces vanished into nothing.

He pointed again, "Also nothingness."

The boiling lava extinguished, and the world returned to pure darkness. In a contest of illusions, the Patriarch of the Southern School was clearly superior to Master Wuhen, even with the latter's partial fusion with the demigod item. Therefore, he had to use the skill "Nothingness" to dispel the illusions.

In the endless darkness, a sharp sword light shone, a ray of dawn illuminating the night.

The sword light shot forth, wielded by a woman riding her sword, her features cold and exquisitely beautiful, her hair and eyelashes white.

Marshal Baihu. This was, of course, an illusion. Marshal Baihu, riding her sword light, charged straight at Master Wuhen. Hundreds of meters away, the sharp sword qi had already pierced Master Wuhen, bathing him in blood.

Master Wuhen dragged his heart with one hand and twisted in the void with the other, conjuring a kind and benevolent old man with a full head of silver hair.

The old man existed for only a second before vanishing. This old man was the Lord of the Center Court, the highest-ranking among the five alliance leaders. Master Wuhen's rank was insufficient to conjure him.

In a battle between high-level illusionists, illusions had to follow two rules: First, they had to adhere to the logic of reality. Things that existed in reality could be freely conjured. Things that did not exist in reality could not be manifested as illusions.

For example, if earth monsters were defensive professions in reality, then in illusions, earth monsters could not possess high agility and high output.

Second, there was the limitation of one's own level.

Spirit Gods could conjure people and objects of the same level, but a peak Sovereign could not conjure a demigod-level powerhouse.

At this moment, Marshal Baihu arrived.

At the critical moment, Master Wuhen figured out a way to resolve the situation. He conjured a tattered quilt and covered himself with it.

The magnificent sword qi, like a bolt of white silk, contained the destructive power to ruin all things. It crashed into the tattered quilt, creating a dazzling spectacle of sword qi light.

Master Wuhen, wrapped in the quilt, stood firm and unmoved. Coward's Quilt!

A rule-based Taoist item at the Sovereign stage. Once wrapped in the quilt, one became indestructible. No attack in the world could break through the quilt's defense, because that was the rule.

Marshal Baihu cast a deep glance at the tattered quilt and disappeared back into the darkness.

The Patriarch of the Southern School didn't continue to attack, seemingly having given up, waiting for the quilt's usage time to end.

Illusions had to conform to the logic of reality. The cost of conjured Taoist items was equivalent to that of the real thing. If Wuhen remained holed up in the quilt, he would be permanently sealed within it once the time was up.

The quilt's usage time was four hours.

"Ling Tuo, aren't you coming out yet?" A faint, deep voice echoed from the darkness.

The next moment, vast yin energy descended, condensing into yin clouds that rolled in layers high in the sky. Countless grotesque faces were faintly visible in the dark clouds.

The wails of ghosts reverberated throughout the illusionary space. As this cultivator of the Taiyin Night Wanderer arrived, he transformed the illusion into a ghastly netherworld.

A bright, flawless full moon rose from the vast, terrifying black clouds, its brilliant light breaking through the clouds, bathing the scene in silvery moonlight. Bathed in the moonlight, the vengeful spirits' auras surged.

Countless pairs of sharp claws extended from the clouds, waving and swirling above Master Wuhen, like hungry hyenas.

The moonlight shone on Master Wuhen, and the old quilt dissolved like foam, concealed by the supreme power of Taiyin.

The howling, enraged ghosts in the black clouds pounced, swarming like a school of piranhas that had caught the scent of blood, rushing to the front.

...

"Let me sort this out, sort this out." Zhang Yuanqing sat at the stone table, his mind racing.

According to the Old Ancestor, the end of each profession represented a certain level of permission within the game. In that case, the Musician should correspond to the potions and resurrection coins, the segment of code that manages the refresh of the spring.

The Scholar was the manager of each map, handling weapon creation, synthesis, material drop rates, and so on.

The Void (Merchant) profession was obviously the game's trading system, that Myriad Realms Mall, which was just the in-game store!

Each lawful profession "controlled" a segment of code. So, what permissions did the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, as well as the lawful professions from beyond the borders, represent? And what permissions did the Night Wanderer manage?

Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a few seconds, and his eyes lit up. The Light Compass's prophecy was: When the sun, moon, and stars are in their rightful places, the gods slumbering in chaos will awaken. The king enthroned upon the divine seat will lead the gods to restart the war, and the world will enter a new cycle of reincarnation.

Combining this prophecy, one could deduce that the Night Wanderer's position among the many administrators was that of a planner, a planner who could update the version!

As everyone knew, the third district hadn't been opened yet. The content of the Light Compass's prophecy referred to the planner going online, the version being updated, and the third district being ready to open.

Then, all the lawful professions would be in place, and the war against the evil faction would begin.

So, what role did the evil faction play in the Lingjing? Zhang Yuanqing had now figured it out.

Viruses!

Evil professions didn't have a demigod stage, meaning they didn't have any permissions, meaning they weren't administrators. In other words, evil professions were foreign organisms.

They were viruses!

With this, he could decipher most of the Lingjing's secrets.

The Lingjing game was born in ancient times. The Supreme Emperor was the first-generation administrator. Players (Earth creatures) continuously leveled up and evolved in the game. Then, one day, a meteor shower struck Earth, bringing viruses that devastated the Lingjing's ecological balance, leading to the death of Empress Wa, the extinction of ancient cultivators, and the shutdown of the Lingjing.

During that calamity, Empress Wa built a firewall that temporarily wiped out the Lingjing viruses, but not completely. The viruses stubbornly remained rooted in the Lingjing system, and that's how the lawful and evil factions came to be.

Therefore, the conflict between the lawful and evil factions was actually a war between the administrators of the lawful professions and the viruses.

The task was to collect the administrator permissions scattered throughout the Lingjing dungeons, regain control of the game, and then destroy the viruses.

The task of the evil professions was also easy to guess - to stop the administrators and then take control of the Lingjing game.

Currently, Zhang Yuanqing still had three unresolved questions. Why would the evil professions invest in the Night Wanderer? The Night Wanderer was a lawful profession, so logically, they should naturally stand on the side of the administrators, opposing the viruses. Unless the Night Wanderer profession had another secret behind it.

Second, who developed the Lingjing game?

Third, where did the viruses come from?

Thinking of this, Zhang Yuanqing glanced at Old Ancestor Xie.

"Don't look at me. The day you marry a Xie family girl and have a child, I'll tell you all the information," the child said indifferently.

"It's turned into having kids again!" Zhang Yuanqing curled his lips. "If I have a kid, are you going to say I have to have ten?"

"That won't be the case." The child stretched out his greasy hand and rubbed it on Zhang Yuanqing's shoulder, saying, "Once you have a child with the Xie family girl, I'll promise to let your child become the head of the Xie family, but they must be surnamed Xie! As for the children you have with other women, they can take your surname."

Zhang Yuanqing raised an eyebrow, finally realizing Old Ancestor Xie's wild ambitions. He wanted to use his bloodline to develop a Night Wanderer branch for the Xie family.

Imagine, with Yuan Shi Tianzun's talent, his future children would definitely be born as Night Wanderers. The more children he had, the more Night Wanderers there would be.

In this way, the Xie family would possess a considerable number of Night Wanderers, and the family's power would soar.

But this old thief was honest and forthright, sharing top secrets as he pleased, much better than those riddle-solving people he'd encountered.

Zhang Yuanqing quite admired the Old Ancestor's temperament. He was a demigod worth getting to know.

Having unlocked some of the Lingjing's secrets, he was in a cheerful mood. He didn't dwell on his impending doom anymore, raised his wine glass, and said, "Old Ancestor, from now on, you're my ancestor."

Drinking, drinking. In the future, when he married Little Green Tea and the Palace Master, this would be his solid ancestor.

Hmm, he would try to get some more out of the Old Ancestor before the crab feast ended. Perhaps he could get a few more bottles of Origin of Life. He said sincerely, "Oh right, Old Ancestor, I heard that Xie Su is still in the Lingjing?"

Zhang Yuanqing hadn't forgotten his promise to Little Green Tea. "Ling Xi said that the Sīmìng Palace isn't too difficult, and there's a dungeon guide. Logically, she should have come out a long time ago. Did something happen, like a hidden mission? According to my experience, the Sīmìng Palace is a dungeon that's already been cleared. And Xie Su's strength is sufficient. So, the only possibility is that she triggered a hidden mission."

The Old Ancestor said indifferently, "Anything is possible!"

That was too perfunctory, Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself.

The child chuckled. "Once you enter a dungeon, your life is in the hands of fate. It's best if you can come out alive. If you can't, then that's fate. Don't think about it. Drink, drink."

As one of the first Lingjing Xingzhe, he'd experienced too many similar things. He'd watched his lovers, children, and grandchildren return to the Lingjing one after another and had long since become indifferent.

"Old Ancestor is magnanimous. One should live in the present," Zhang Yuanqing said hypocritically, raising his glass. As the two of them raised their glasses, they both looked towards the courtyard gate.

The sound of hurried high heels approached, followed by Xie Qin's report from outside the door: "Old Ancestor, the Family Head has returned. He has an urgent matter to see you!"