"Supreme Star of Tai Chu, adapt without halt. Expel evil and subdue demons, ensuring life and defense. Wisdom shines clear, heart and spirit at peace. The three souls eternal, spirits never fade…"

The young man silently recited the spirit spell for self-suggestion, while quietly visualizing an eternal and unchanging Big Dipper star above his spirit platform.

This is the Heart Clarity Spell. Although not a secret spell, almost every cultivator knows a little about it.

The function of this spell is to let the mortal heart enter tranquility, reflect upon the Dao heart, achieve clarity, protect the soul, expel outer demons, and discern reality from illusion.

Besides aiding cultivation, this spell is primarily used for breaking illusions.

After repeating this a hundred times, and confirming that his spirit platform was clear and his spirit was in no disarray, the young Lin Feng finally opened his eyes.

Then, the icon with the two seal characters "System" remained in the upper right corner of his vision.

In the past two days, he'd subtly asked several people, but none of them could see this floating icon.

But this wasn't an illusion.

—In other words…

"Is this truly a response from some Heavenly Immortal Great Ability to my wish?"

Lin Feng blinked, then looked around. After confirming no one was around, he reached out and gently touched the icon.

Although the icon looked like a flat image, it seemed to have a position, like a "paper" floating in the air. According to Lin Feng's estimation, the icon was slightly above his forehead on the right, within reach.

Upon clicking the icon, a large interface appeared before him.

The interface was simple, with only two or three functions. The topmost button was "Newbie Guide." Even though Lin Feng's knowledge was limited, he could roughly guess the purpose of this button.

Currently, both the "Mall" and "Instance" on the system's interface appeared with small locks, indicating they were locked. Lin Feng had a feeling—this was probably because he hadn't completed the so-called "Newbie Guide."

Now, there were only four lines under the "Task" interface.

[Main Task: Uphold Righteous Skill, Eliminate Heterodox]

[This realm has been occupied by heterodox for too long. Uphold Righteous Skill, eliminate heterodox, and you are the savior of this realm]

[Task Reward: Immortal Ascension]

[Progress: 0/100000]

When this "system" was inserted into his mind, there was a visual illusion. It seemed to be a summary of the 80,000-year Immortal Dao history of the Human Clan, a narrative of the Shenzhou Continent's history (though Lin Feng couldn't be certain, having never seen the continent). Over 80,000 years, the Shenzhou Continent had been vibrant, with the strong revered, as cruel as it was passionate. Yet, 2,000 years ago, a group of heterodox suppressed the continent of celestial beings with fake peace… and so on.

These, Lin Feng didn't care about. What he truly cared about was just two words.

—Immortal Ascension…

—Immortal Ascension…

Whenever he read the line [Task Reward], Lin Feng felt a dizzying sensation.

Ascend to immortality! Ascend to immortality! Ascend to immortality!

This is the highest goal for cultivators! Even the Holy Emperor Venerable couldn't achieve this goal!

(Due to limited insight, the vast majority of Ancient Method Practitioners never realized the true realm of the Holy Emperor Venerable)

Half a year into his initiation, Lin Feng was no longer the impoverished youth from Spirit Phoenix Island. He now harbored ambitions akin to a "cultivator."

—Since heaven didn't let me starve or beat me to death, I shall live as long as heaven and earth!

"Damn it, when humans die, they face the sky; not dying means living through eternity. Wealth lies in danger, let's go for it!"

Lin Feng gritted his teeth, his fist struck heavily on the "Newbie Guide" button.

Lin Feng didn't know that while he hesitated, another young man residing in the core area of Luochen Sword Palace was similarly confirming something called "system."

Xiao Zong was an Inner Chamber Disciple of Luochen Sword Palace and a beloved disciple of a Sword Palace Elder—at least he once was.

For some reason, after a mysterious incident a month ago, those Elders became peculiar, gradually distancing themselves from their previous disciples.

Xiao Zong, who achieved success early in life, once roamed Luochen Sword Palace boldly, relying on his Nascent Soul Stage master. Now, with the Elders becoming peculiar and neglectful, those he once offended naturally sought revenge for their grievances.

These days, Xiao Zong had truly suffered enough.

But now, everything was about to change.

"With this system in hand, let's see who dares to humiliate me and trample my dignity!" Xiao Zong's face was full of a sinister smile.

His main study in sword techniques was a technique called "Mirage Dragon Phantom Spirit Soul Calming Sword Technique," which was both a sword technique and an illusion technique. Moreover, this supreme Heart Sword Technique inherited from Luochen Sword Palace wasn't a mere mix of swordsmanship and illusions, but a genuine Illusion Sword Heart Technique. Xiao Zong also had his own understanding of illusion techniques.

Thus, he could be certain that this system was definitely not a product of illusions.

Illusions, by effect, could be divided into two types. The first kind makes one think they are seeing something "familiar," while the other allows one to see something they have never encountered before.

The principle of the first type is not about creating an image, but to provoke the heart, drawing out heart demons, inner demons, illusion demons from within the enemy's mental state, letting the enemy see illusions. This illusion is generated by the enemy's own mind, could be something the enemy has seen, or a combination of elements of things seen before.

If Wang Qi were to explain, he might say something like this—"You can let these Ancient Method Practitioners see the grand spectacle of Flying Swords clashing and spells intertwining. But, you can't make these people imagine an Alien."

For the former, you only need to extract their understanding of "spells" and "crowds," then magnify it countless times. In contrast, the elements that make up an "Alien" are things these Ancient Method Practitioners have never seen before.

It's actually easier to let them see "Candle Dragons" or "Pixiu."

These types of illusion techniques are quite powerful and difficult to distinguish between real and fake.

Another type of illusion technique is not used as often.

Because it's really difficult to let people directly see things they have never seen before.

In a broad sense, the ability of Spiritual Sense transmission to convey "visual" information could be considered this kind of illusion technique.

This kind of illusion technique finds it hard to make the false seem real.

Even if you forcefully project an illusion into someone else's mind, it's easy to reveal flaws. Moreover, this kind of projection struggles to have lasting effects. Unless that illusion can evoke the Heart Demon or inner demon in the Taker, it will quickly fade away.

For Xiao Zong, this "system" is certainly "beyond understanding." However, after observing these past days, he hasn't felt anyone casting illusion techniques on him, and although the system interface is crude, he can't spot any flaw either.

——This is real...

Xiao Zong's heart began to pound.

"Heterodox! You go against the natural order; even the Immortals, who have leaped beyond the mundane world and are free from cause and effect, cannot stand it!"

"The Shenzhou Continent will soon be mine!"

"I, Xiao Zong, will definitely show heaven and earth what kind of legend I can create!"

He moved with his thought, without using his hand, directly using his Spiritual Sense to activate the "Newbie Guide."

...

In the Firewood Room of Luochen Sword Palace, the servant disciple Chen Xiaozhong was chopping wood lightly while cursing, "Damn it, if I die, I die... Anyway, my life is worthless. I don't fear being schemed against..."

Under the watchful eye of the overseer, Chen Xiaozhong pretended to wipe sweat and activated the "Newbie Guide."

...

Outside Luochen Sword Palace, Outer Disciple Long Wuyang watched the graceful figure of Spirit Phoenix Island's top disciple, Qiao Fang'er, walking through the Sword Palace, restraining his lustful thoughts. He knew that the woman was not a mortal woman he could easily bully but a genius disciple of Divine Flame Industry Lotus Sect.

Even though Divine Flame Industry Lotus Sect's status is far below Luochen Sword Palace's now, it's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.

However, now he has a premonition.

With the system in hand, the Immortal Path is no longer the same!

The cold senior sister, the passionate female Immortal, the ethereal Demoness, the enchanting Witch...

Long Wuyang was so excited he could hardly contain himself, trembling slightly.

——Those beauties...

——are all mine!

He clenched his fist, stretched out his hand carefully, and tapped the "Newbie Guide."

...

In the Underground Palace of Luochen Sword Palace, the Golden Core Cultivator Bai Yecheng smiled slightly and said, "As expected, I'm favored by heaven and earth, a person bestowed with great Qi Fortune. The task of supporting Righteous Skills and eradicating heterodox is entrusted to me!"

He also activated the "Newbie Guide."

...

Within one day, a total of twelve people made similar decisions.

They did not know that their every move was being watched by others.

Wang Qi had already fully controlled the Tai Chu Sword God Array, along with the Heart Demon Curse and Divine Plague Curse Technique, and he could monitor every move within Luochen Sword Palace.

"Twelve people, and not a single one chose not to activate it." Wang Qi shook his head: "Even more, not one chose to report to the Sect to let Elders see if it's an illusion... I see that your Sword Palace, this is doomed!"

Elder Zhao Xiangshen muttered in his heart: Isn't it you who caused our Sword Palace's top brass to lose credibility?

Fourth Elder Sima Jue calmly said, "I think most cultivators would do the same... You especially selected twelve who weren't very triumphant."

"It's mainly because you... um, 'cutscene' was too costly," Zhen Chan wasn't quite used to Wang Qi's "new vocabulary," "Probably those people think that one who can project such illusions is either a Great Power who has spent eighty thousand years in Shenzhou, experiencing everything firsthand, or an Immortal who can deduce past and future. Such a person has no need to waste effort deceiving them."

That segment exhibiting the condensed Immortal Dao History of Shenzhou's eighty thousand years in the cutscene was not originally by Wang Qi but a section of a Mirage Game "Immortal Path" from Shenzhou Continent, akin to "Story of Daoist of Uncertainty" Wang Qi had seen before, an absolute "main theme" Mirage Game.

The data of this Mirage Game transmission took an entire day.

Wang Qi felt a nameless sense of defeat: "Being told it was 'make animation to deliver a game'... Do I have the potential to become a player's godfather? Hopefully... the publication of cultivation technique won't often get postponed in the future..."

Zhen Chan wasn't aware of Wang Qi's inner thoughts and said, "Those juniors have chosen their cultivation techniques, and I want to see... Oh? Why those cultivation techniques?"