Chapter 1 The Beginning

"Stop talking nonsense and ruining my cultivation!" Hu Kai roared, then used illusion to conjure a ferocious beast that pounced on Ye Chu Xiao.

This beast was formed from illusion. If one regarded it as a gentle breeze and bright moon, it would cause no harm. But if one felt fear, it would take advantage, exposing the cowardice in one's heart and making it even more powerful.

However, according to the old eunuch Feng Yu, this method of using illusion to conjure a ferocious beast was a low-level technique.

Although it could control people's courage, it could only deal with mediocre people.

True heroes all possessed the determination to sail against the current. The more arrogant and fierce it seemed, the more it would stimulate their courage and heroic spirit. Such illusions could be broken in an instant.

Ye Chu Xiao stood still, not moving an inch.

He allowed the beast to pounce at his face, which Hu Kai controlled to grow larger and larger.

Looking up, he seemed to smell the foul odor emanating from the beast's mouth. Slimy saliva mixed with blood dripped down, threatening to soak Ye Chu Xiao.

"Although the method is inferior, the attention to detail is not lacking. The cultivators of this world are indeed extraordinary in their mental cultivation," Ye Chu Xiao thought.

Seeing the small in the great, Hu Kai was just an unknown soldier who already possessed this level of illusion. Magnified to the entire academy world, the true cultivation experts must be extraordinary.

This only increased Ye Chu Xiao's interest in this world.

The beast hovered over Ye Chu Xiao's head, baring its fangs and claws in a menacing display, but Ye Chu Xiao showed no sign of wavering.

It had no choice but to descend again, opening its mouth full of sharp teeth for one last probing attack.

As the fierce mouth descended, Ye Chu Xiao's heart remained unblemished, not even stirring the slightest ripple in his mental armor.

Like a gentle breeze caressing his face, the beast dissipated.

Revealed was Hu Kai's face in the distance, his eyes red with unwillingness.

"I thought you were just good at needlework, but I didn't expect your illusion skills to be so disappointing," Ye Chu Xiao said, further provoking him.

"Ahhh! Shut up!" Hu Kai roared, his body transforming into a ferocious three-headed serpent.

Each pupil of the serpent reflected a purgatory-like scene.

"It looks ferocious, but it's just a paper tiger. Is that all you've got?" Ye Chu Xiao blew a breath at the three-headed serpent that Hu Kai had transformed into.

The three-headed serpent struggled to resist, but when it encountered the breath blown by Ye Chu Xiao,

it seemed to encounter a heavenly tribulation. With a hiss and struggle, it dissipated its form.

Hu Kai revealed his true form, his mental armor forced out.

Ye Chu Xiao was originally on the defensive, but this move could not be considered an active attack. It could only be regarded as passively breaking his illusion.

The defender in the decryption competition was not completely standing still and taking a beating.

According to the rules, they were not allowed to attack proactively.

In the past, there was no distinction between attacker and defender in the decryption competition. It was a competition of mental cultivation, using illusions and other means to attack each other, and then defending with their own abilities.

However, many older cultivators not only had many tricks up their sleeves, but also had strong inner fortitude. Often, a battle between two people could last for days and nights without end, which was a waste of time. That was why the distinction between attacker and defender was introduced.

The purpose was to quickly determine the outcome in this asymmetrical duel.

Of course, there were also restrictions on the attacker. If the attacker could not break through the opponent's mental defenses within half an hour, they would be considered to have lost.

Therefore, in the competition, cultivators who were good at defending were not necessarily at a disadvantage.

Hu Kai's two consecutive strong attacks were easily blocked by Ye Chu Xiao.

On the contrary, Hu Kai himself was easily forced to reveal his mental armor by Ye Chu Xiao. The outcome of this battle was already decided.

Many of the watching cultivators shifted their gaze to other matches.

Hu Kai himself seemed to have given up and directly surrendered.

His figure disappeared from the mental duel stage, and in reality, Hu Kai unfastened his deep-diving device and left the arena in disgrace.

Ye Chu Xiao took the lead and won the first game, scoring one point.

According to the rules, he could choose to rest for two hours before fighting again, or he could choose to fight continuously.

If he won consecutive battles, his points would be doubled.

A competition ultimately compared total points, rather than a direct elimination system.

Take Hu Kai, for example. Although he lost the first game, it was still possible for him to continue competing if he wanted to.

However, if he lost three games in a row, he would be forced out of the arena to prevent such useless players from staying on the stage and continuing to give away points.

Ye Chu Xiao had not consumed much energy, so he naturally chose to fight again.

Soon after, another opponent appeared on the mental duel stage.

Ye Chu Xiao only knew his name from the host: "Yu Jing!"

This name could be either male or female. Ye Chu Xiao could not see what he or she looked like at all.

It was just that at this moment, 'she' walked out of the mist, draped in a faint veil, vaguely outlining all the beauty and grace of a woman.

In the stands, many gentlemen showed knowing smiles and looked forward to the spectacle.

The performer of the illusion might be a burly man, but who cared?

Just like people who play games, how many care that their paper wives are written by bald programmers?

"Are you testing me with this?" Ye Chu Xiao asked with a smile.

He had bad luck, and was still the 'defender' in the second round.

Of course, this was exactly what Ye Chu Xiao wanted.

He had come to 'stack armor' quickly. If he were the attacker, it would be somewhat contrary to his original intention.

As soon as Ye Chu Xiao finished speaking, the 'beauty', whose face was even hidden behind a gauze and mist, began to dance gracefully.

The light in the entire space also became dim and low.

Everything became ambiguous in the hazy and indistinct light.

The other party understood illusions!

And understood men even more!

A beauty with a 'fixed' figure and 'fixed' appearance was not perfect.

Because they would always meet someone they liked or disliked.

But as long as the atmosphere and environment became ambiguous, the brain, dominated by hormones, would automatically fill in all the places that needed imagination.

The dance continued, but the movements became hotter and hotter, and the charm of the eyebrows that were occasionally revealed was especially enchanting.

In the audience, some people were already swallowing their saliva.

If it were not in public, it would be hard to guarantee that someone would not take the opportunity to do something private.

Ye Chu Xiao did not want to admit that he was being tempted, but the beauty on the opposite side was actually dancing with a thin layer of white gauze wrapped around her 36E figure. How could he bear it?

Mental armor passively appeared, rippling with traces of ripples.

The other party had already begun to decipher it!

Once the armor was broken, Ye Chu Xiao's heart would be opened.

The thoughts at that moment would be manifested on this mental battle stage.

The things covered by the flesh and restrained by morality would be magnified here, and then revealed... directly dying socially.

The mental armor shook.

At this time, Xiong Mao Mao suddenly appeared beside Ye Chu Xiao, looking at him with a puffed-up expression.

"A Mu! You are too lecherous!" Xiong Mao Mao stomped her feet angrily.

Ye Chu Xiao stabilized his mind after this interruption.

The appearance of Xiong Mao Mao was a passive effect.

This was itself a mental armor formed from the 'shared memories' between him and Xiong Mao Mao.

"Eh!"

"What is this?" The male audience members, who had originally just been appreciating the illusion, showed interested expressions after seeing Xiong Mao Mao appear beside Ye Chu Xiao.

Ye Chu Yu was also watching Ye Chu Xiao's competition. At this time, she saw Xiong Mao Mao and murmured: "Is this his hobby? Heh! Big brother's hobby is quite special!"

As she spoke, she looked at her undeveloped chest and showed her small tiger teeth.

The attacking side's first attack was ineffective, so they set up another formation.

This time, they went all out.

It was no longer a solo dance, but a group dance.

Not only that, but there was also music to accompany it.

Light, dance, and music, these three combined together, had even greater lethality.

More Xiong Mao Mao appeared beside Ye Chu Xiao. They made various expressions and said the words they had said to Ye Chu Xiao before.

Angry Xiong Mao Mao, happy Xiong Mao Mao, frustrated Xiong Mao Mao, dazed Xiong Mao Mao...

Her emotions were written on her face, and her joys and sorrows revolved around Ye Chu Xiao.

As the master of the mental armor, Ye Chu Xiao only used it as a shield.

However, the audience in the viewing area unconsciously substituted themselves into Ye Chu Xiao's perspective and sighed: "What a cute girl! Who is she? I want to know all her information!"

"Ah...! The thought that such a cute girl has nothing to do with me makes me want to go crazy. I don't care... I want to cheer for her!"

In this world where everyone had a hobby and was crazy about it, some people's emotions could not be viewed with common sense.

At this time, Ye Chu Xiao, who was working hard to resist the illusionary invasion and the opponent's decryption of the armor, did not notice that all the Xiong Mao Mao had become 'a little' more real.

This was a rather difficult tug-of-war.

Yu Jing's attack was very fierce.

'She' would always change her approach and continue to attack after one or two probes failed.

Those temptations of beauty were just an appearance. In fact, 'she' was very skilled in probing and dismantling the mental armor. It was clear that she was an old hand.

If it were not for Ye Chu Xiao's extraordinary talent and the 'hobby' he had acquired after coming to this world, which could form a very good linkage effect with the mental encryption methods, his mental defenses would have been broken long ago.

When the referee rang the bell, Yu Jing's attack was declared a failure.

Ye Chu Xiao scored two more points.

He could choose to continue fighting or rest for two hours before entering the arena again.

This time, Ye Chu Xiao did not force himself.

He had indeed consumed a lot of mental energy in responding to Yu Jing's attack.

After leaving the mental battle stage, Ye Chu Xiao sat in place, smoothing his breathing and adjusting his breath to calm his mind.

Each mental attack was an effective and powerful forging for the mental armor.

Ye Chu Xiao recognized many shortcomings and made improvements during this time.

Two hours later, Ye Chu Xiao stepped onto the arena again.

This time, he was the attacker.

Ye Chu Xiao did not use a 'beauty trick', but simulated the atmosphere of the Heavenly Palace, a grand scene of all the immortals arriving.

He tricked his opponent into the middle of his ascent to immortality, first promising him longevity and immortality, like the sun and moon, to make him dizzy and fascinated. Then, he transformed into the Heavenly Justice God to judge his sins during his mortal cultivation, breaking his mental defenses.

Looking at his opponent who had his mental armor broken and was now standing on the stage, directly 'broadcasting' the scene of him peeping at a widow bathing when he was a child and stealing someone else's wife a few days ago, Ye Chu Xiao secretly resolved that he must not lose...

At the critical moment, even if he had to run away with his Dao rhyme, he could not die socially on the spot.

After winning twice in a row as the attacking side, Ye Chu Xiao was once again the defender.

However, his opponent's methods were ordinary, and Ye Chu Xiao easily defended against them, preventing his mental armor from evolving further.

In this way, Ye Chu Xiao fought in this decryption competition for two days, experiencing twenty-odd battles, some fast and some slow.

Several times, he was forced to reveal his mental shield, and Xiong Mao Mao would appear beside him full of energy, constantly cheering him on.

Each time Xiong Mao Mao was 'forced out', a small climax would erupt in the arena.

At some point, Xiong Mao Mao had even gained a group of followers.

They even held up Xiong Mao Mao's humanoid cutouts and portraits, cheering for Ye Chu Xiao's opponents in Ye Chu Xiao's matches.

Their goal was to make Ye Chu Xiao reveal Xiong Mao Mao so they could see their 'idol'.

At this time, Ye Chu Xiao finally discovered that Xiong Mao Mao was 'growing' imperceptibly.

This growth, on the surface, was that Xiong Mao Mao, as Ye Chu Xiao's fictitious friend, was becoming more and more real. But the core was that the mental armor built on the basis of Xiong Mao Mao was becoming more solid and stable.

And this solidity and stability was not directly related to Ye Chu Xiao's own progress.

"It's the Demonic Heart Skill!"

"Perhaps it's the strengthening of the deep-diving device. I'm actually unconsciously using the mental techniques of the Demonic Heart Skill in the arena."

"And the effect of this Demonic Heart Skill is not reflected in me, but is all leaning towards Xiong Mao Mao."

"In other words, Xiong Mao Mao will bear the advantages and disadvantages of the Demonic Heart Skill in my place."

"But if that's the case, it's actually equivalent to leaving a big flaw in the mental encryption method."

"Popularity is just a soap bubble, which will dissipate with a gust of wind. Those who are currently obsessed with Xiong Mao Mao as a virtual idol may forget her in a short time, and forgetting is just the best ending. What I fear most is that they will turn around and slander her," Ye Chu Xiao frowned.

Then, Ye Chu Xiao left the arena and stopped his competition journey this time.

He did not come for the championship, which was of little significance to him.

Ye Chu Xiao always remembered his original intention.

In the following days, Ye Chu Xiao stayed in the library, searching for a way out.

Xiong Mao Mao had already been bound to the 'Demonic Heart Skill'. Giving up the Demonic Heart Skill at this time would be equivalent to giving up all his previous efforts.

Ye Chu Xiao had less than a month left.

After spending four days in the library, Ye Chu Xiao finally thought of a solution.

He closed the book and began to meditate.

"Multiple layers of mental armor can offset the problems I'm encountering now."

"When the first layer of armor is broken, all its remaining energy will automatically collapse and strengthen the second layer."

"So, it doesn't matter if I suffer backlash, as long as I stack enough armor to repeatedly distribute the damage."

"I can't just have one Xiong Mao Mao!"

Ye Chu Xiao suddenly opened his eyes.

Then, he looked at the nothingness beside him.

Ye Chu Yu, who had been accompanying Ye Chu Xiao, was still dozing off. At this time, she felt Ye Chu Xiao's movements and opened her big eyes in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Ye Chu Yu asked.

Then, she found that Ye Chu Xiao was actually staring at the empty space, so she pouted: "Are you communicating with your fictitious little lover again?"

It was not that Ye Chu Yu was jealous, but she felt that it was inappropriate for her big brother to be in love with a ball of air.

Perhaps... those parents who were worried about their children being too attached to virtual game characters felt the same way.

"No! I have a new friend!"

"Come! Say hello to him! His name is... Joker!" Ye Chu Xiao turned his head and smiled at Ye Chu Yu, but the smile seemed a little strange.

At this time, Ye Chu Xiao truly mastered the special 'hobby' that appeared after he came to this world.

His hobby was 'creating friends', not 'being obsessed with Xiong Mao Mao'.

Xiong Mao Mao was just an unconscious product of his initial arrival in this world, not the only product.

Understanding this, Ye Chu Xiao could naturally create new characters.

Of course, it was a bit difficult to create something completely out of thin air.

So, Ye Chu Xiao borrowed some virtual characters from his previous life that he remembered deeply.

In order to pursue compatibility with the 'Demonic Heart Skill', the second 'friend' Ye Chu Xiao created after the initial Xiong Mao Mao,

was Joker!

"Joker?" Ye Chu Yu looked at a ball of air, a little confused.

She was not Ye Chu Xiao. At this time, Ye Chu Xiao was not in the arena, and he had not yet transformed the Joker into mental armor, so she naturally could not see anything.

In Ye Chu Xiao's perspective, the Joker, with his ink-green curly hair, his face covered with white powder, his big red lips, and his red suit, was sitting on a chair, crossing his arms and looking down at Ye Chu Xiao as if condescendingly.

"Your heart is full of fear, my friend!" the Joker said to Ye Chu Xiao.

"You are afraid of death!" the Joker continued.

Then, he adjusted his sitting posture: "Don't be afraid of it! That's the most wonderful gift."

"It will make you awake and wise. Embrace it."

Ye Chu Xiao looked at the Joker and was certain that he was just a personality image formed by his inner 'impression' of the Joker.

He was not a part of Ye Chu Xiao. He could only be regarded as the 'activation' of certain imprints in Ye Chu Xiao's memory.

Just like Xiong Mao Mao, she could actually only be regarded as the 'activation' of certain preferences of Ye Chu Xiao at certain times.

They were born in response to the rules of heaven and earth, and were Ye Chu Xiao's unique 'hobby'.

And a unique hobby could also be considered a kind of... talent in this world.

"You're right! I think we should spend some time alone!" Looking at the Joker, Ye Chu Xiao said to him.

The Joker smiled and then opened his arms to Ye Chu Xiao: "Look! That's very good. Don't be serious, my friend. If you can ignore even death, then there is nothing worth giving up your smile for."

"Life is just an absurd drama, and we'd better regard ourselves as clowns."

"That way, at least we'll laugh louder than others."

It was still the same process as when he was with Xiong Mao Mao.

Ye Chu Xiao's contact with the Joker was even more 'smooth'.

This 'character', who had already had a fixed impression in Ye Chu Xiao's heart, was surprisingly fast at transforming into a mental shield as his new imaginary friend.

After the Joker transformed into a new shield, Ye Chu Xiao stepped onto the arena again.

At this time, the twelfth round of the competition had not yet ended.

Although Ye Chu Xiao had not participated in the competition for several days, his points had not fallen to the bottom and been eliminated.

It was just that compared to being at the top of the ranks, he was now swaying at the end.

Perhaps in another day or two of competition, he would be eliminated due to the last-place elimination system.

Ye Chu Xiao, who stepped onto the arena again, was also greeted by a large group of Xiong Mao Mao's 'fans'.

Almost a week had passed, and the number of Xiong Mao Mao's fans had not decreased but increased.

They shouted unified slogans and asked Ye Chu Xiao to hand over Xiong Mao Mao, and not to refuse to participate in the competition or refuse to 'release' Xiong Mao Mao for personal reasons.

Halfway through the competition,

the incompetent had basically been eliminated.

Those who remained in the arena were all experts.

Ye Chu Xiao was the attacker in the first game, and his opponent's defense was very strict.

The mental shield was completely composed of a pile of garbled numbers, rather than a barrier formed by fixed memories in the conventional sense.

This showed that the other party had completely memorized a massive amount of garbled numbers, and used these numbers to seal off their true thoughts.

This approach was simple and crude, but it was surprisingly effective.

Precisely because it lacked deductive logic, it was impossible to quickly break through the defense. They could only grind it down with time or erode it with violence.

Ye Chu Xiao launched several attacks, but he failed to break down the opponent's defense. The attack was declared a failure.

After failing one attack, he was already on the verge of being eliminated.

Immediately afterwards, the second round of the competition after returning to the arena began.

This time, Ye Chu Xiao entered the arena as the defender.

Opposite him as his opponent was the celebrity player Si Dada.

From the outside, Si Dada was a legal loli, with a cute appearance and a small figure. At the same time, her development was also very moving. She did not have the usual settings of a loli with big breasts.

With her hair tied in twin ponytails and wearing a student uniform, Si Dada jumped out.

Her appearance brought the atmosphere in the arena to a higher level.

An old star chaser, over half a century old, even shed tears of emotion in the audience.

"Si Dada! Xiong Mao Mao! My two goddesses are finally going to be in the same frame!"

"I must record this game! And treasure it as a memory for the rest of my life!"

Many people who also loved chasing stars made the same decision as this middle-aged cultivator.

At this time, a large number of recording devices were aimed at the mental battle stage, the arena belonging to Ye Chu Xiao and Si Dada.

"You are Song Jia Mu? I heard that your mental armor is very special. It's a cute girl."

"Why do you use a cute girl as your mental armor!"

"Is it because there is also a cute little girl living in your heart?"

"I understand! I understand! Although you are a man, you have a woman's heart. This stinky skin is binding you."

"Don't be inferior! And don't give up! The current level of cultivation is very developed. There are many good transformation methods that you can try bravely!" Si Dada said playfully to Ye Chu Xiao, making a cheering expression.

I have to say! She was very good at making people break down.

Even though Ye Chu Xiao's heart was very strong, he was also speechless by her words.

"Perhaps! But even a virtual girl will be taller than you... in every sense of the word," Ye Chu Xiao responded lightly.

Si Dada had been through hundreds of battles and had long endured many taunts about her height and body shape. She was not flustered at all.

"Ah! Can't stand it anymore?"

"Did I hit the nail on the head?"

"Then I'll show you something good!" Si Dada said, waving her hand and conjuring an image.

She actually conjured up Xiong Mao Mao, and imitated Xiong Mao Mao's temperament, image, and speech and behavior almost one-to-one.

But the Xiong Mao Mao in the illusion was dating a strange... whose face was not clear, but who had yellow hair.

Even if there was no real intimate interaction between them, the sour smell of love that emanated from the atmosphere was very dazzling.

It was not known whether Ye Chu Xiao broke down.

Many of Xiong Mao Mao's fans in the audience broke down.

They began to shout and make painful questions.

Even Ye Chu Xiao's first layer of mental armor began to produce violent fluctuations.

The negative effects brought about by the fusion of the Demonic Heart Skill had already shown their edge at this moment.

Ye Chu Xiao suppressed the waves and allowed the second layer of mental armor to fluctuate.

In the midst of the turmoil, the Joker revealed his image on the mental viewing stage.

The Xiong Mao Mao fans who had been waiting for a long time saw that the person who appeared was not their idol, and they all shouted loudly to return their tickets.

But Ye Chu Xiao naturally could not hear these words.

"A child! Innocent, kind, naive, and... sentimental." The Joker looked in the direction of Si Dada, as if he was talking to Si Dada, but not quite like it.

He was more like facing everyone, all the audience.

At this moment, this was his stage.

"This is your prejudice. I have seen many children. They are all good boys, cold-blooded, cruel, cunning, full of simple chaos and violence. I like them. I even want to be their godfather! If one day, they stab me in the chest with a knife, I mean... if they can do it, then I will be very pleased." The Joker said to Ye Chu Xiao and also to the audience.

Such a statement full of evil and chaotic aura immediately attracted the attention of a considerable number of people.

The appearance of the Joker seemed to be equivalent to breaking the sweet love atmosphere created by Si Dada.

Compared with the Joker's evil and chaos, the love story that was still being staged on the other side seemed so pale and simple.

Si Dada released the illusion and revealed her figure again.

"This is your new shield?"

"An evil personality?"

"Or is this also a side of you?"

"How ugly!" Si Dada attacked with words and also probed with words.

She wanted to first probe out a trace of Ye Chu Xiao's sloppiness, and then pry open the flaws.

Coming up and hitting the face with illusions, of course, could take the lead, but it also lost the opportunity to directly target the real flaws.

Whether it was creating monsters to scare people or creating beauties to seduce people, these belonged to 'general' methods. They lost their pertinence, and no matter how strong the effect was, there was a limit.

Looking at the expressionless Ye Chu Xiao, the Joker said to him: "My mom told me to keep smiling at people, even if he's a jerk, a scumbag, a maggot that should go to hell. But what does it matter?"

"If you smile, life won't be worse."

He turned his head to Si Dada, bowed slightly, and made a very gentlemanly etiquette: "I'm sorry, beautiful lady, I used some inappropriate words to describe you, but please don't misunderstand. I didn't deliberately do this."

He paused for a moment, and then said: "Just... I wanted to use some simple words to make everyone feel happy."

Si Dada was obviously not happy.

No one would be very happy if they were described as a jerk, a scumbag, and a maggot that should go to hell.

However, the Joker's attitude was so sincere.

It was precisely this sincerity that pierced Si Dada, causing her to have a moment of self-doubt.

In the audience, the fanatical fans who were dissatisfied with Xiong Mao Mao's absence were still making trouble.

But there were also some people who looked at the Joker with his strange charm and suddenly blushed as if they had found their life's belief.

This feeling... this elegant and extremely evil and charming feeling was really... really great!