Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 298: The Third Illusion

Zhang Xian continued, “Why don’t you just tell me? Keep your guard up if it makes you feel better. If I try anything funny, you can just strike me down.”

Seeing Zhang Lele still hesitate, a lightbulb went off in his head. “Wait, I know how to prove it!”

“How?”

Zhang Xian grinned. “Those Yunmiao Sect techniques you’ve been learning? I can teach you the Heaven-grade versions of them. You can’t fake profound cultivation manuals. One look, and you’ll know if they’re the real deal or not.”

Zhang Lele furrowed her brow. “Heaven-grade? You sure talk a big game.”

She immediately fired off a few names: “The Nine Turns Jade Condensation Sutra, the Yunmiao Sword Scripture, the Green Tide Life and Death Art…” She rattled off several in one breath, covering all five elements.

Zhang Xian blinked. “You have a Five-Element Spirit Root?”

Lele smiled, a hint of pride leaking through. “A Five-Element Supreme Spirit Root. Drop the act.”

Zhang Xian chuckled, looking a bit smug himself. “Look at you, all grown up and overpowered! Sadly for you, I also have a Five-Element Spirit Root, and my specs are a bit higher. Right now, I’m rocking four Heaven-grade affinities.”

Zhang Lele rolled her eyes hard. “Brag all you want. Keep spouting this nonsense, and I really am going to cut you.”

She remembered clearly: her Brother Zhang Shan was a pure mortal. No spirit roots, zero cultivation. Going from a mortal to a four-affinity Heaven-grade Nascent Soul in a few centuries? Who the hell was he trying to kid?

Zhang Xian couldn’t be bothered to argue. He reached into his robes for a blank jade slip to inscribe the manuals, only to realize he didn’t have a single one on him. He sighed helplessly. “Got a pen and paper?”

Lele wanted to see how far this imposter would take the joke. “Follow me,” she said coldly. Let’s see what kind of garbage he scribbles down.

But Zhang Xian just confidently strode past her. “No need. I know the way.”

He jogged straight toward the familiar two-story house from their old mountain village memories.

Watching his back, Lele’s gaze wavered. That posture, that gait, that undeniable, ingrained familiarity… It perfectly mirrored the past from two hundred years ago. When Brother Shan used to return from a good hunt, he’d walk exactly like that—strutting slightly ahead, pleased with himself, while she trailed behind him like a happy little shadow.

No! Lele shook her head violently, snapping out of it. I can’t let him trick me again! This illusion is getting too realistic. I’ll let him write, and the second it looks like gibberish, I’ll cut him down!

Back inside the simple, memory-laden house, Zhang Xian grabbed a brush and some paper. He plopped down on a familiar little stool and began writing furiously.

Lele stood nearby, arms crossed, watching him with cold skepticism. But her eyes were involuntarily drawn to his flowing calligraphy.

The handwriting was a carbon copy of the practice sheets her older brother used when teaching her how to read and write.

Another gentle tug at her heartstrings.

[Ding! Current Favorability: -3]

Zhang Xian’s brush danced like dragons and snakes. He quickly finished a copy of the Twelve Turns Jade Condensation Sutra and handed it over with a smug grin. “Here, take a look.”

He picked up the brush again. “I haven’t really cultivated the other ones you mentioned, but I do have some Heaven-grade insights and improvements for the Yunmiao Sword Scripture and the Heavenly Palace Azure Cloud Sword. Give me a sec, I’ll write those down too.”

Lele took the manual, the ink still wet. She glanced at it dismissively at first, but within seconds, the color drained from her face.

Having suppressed Obsession for years, her realm comprehension had skyrocketed. Now sitting at the mid-Nascent Soul stage, she had a terrifically sharp eye for martial theory.

Just reading the general outline and the first few meridian routes was enough to leave her utterly paralyzed by their sheer depth and complexity.

This blew every version of the Jade Condensation Sutra she knew completely out of the water. Its intricacies were simply unfathomable!

Could an illusion really just hallucinate a genuine, impossibly profound Heaven-grade manual out of thin air?

She immediately shook her head, rejecting the idea. Her eyes darted back to Zhang Xian, wide with shock and uncertainty.

Could this guy actually be…?

Once the thought took root, it spread through her mind like wildfire.

[Ding! Current Favorability: 2]

Sensing the shift in her aura, Zhang Xian mentally cheered but kept his face totally deadpan. He quietly finished drafting the other two Heaven-grade manuals and handed them over together.

If there was only a sliver of hope before, holding three incomprehensible, Heaven-grade techniques simultaneously sent a tsunami crashing through Lele’s mind!

She was now at least fifty percent convinced. This absurd scenario… what if it was real? What if that ridiculous, long-winded backstory he told her earlier wasn’t a lie?

[Ding! Success. Triggered return. Rewarding Heaven-grade Method Comprehension x3000.]

[Heaven-grade Method Comprehension: The Host may use this to comprehend lower-tier methods, automatically upgrading them to Heaven-grade.]

[Ding! Current Favorability: 22]

Holy shit, the system is actually busted. It works even inside an illusion?

Seeing the barely contained excitement and shock on her face, Zhang Xian knew the hook was set. He smiled gently.

“I know you’ve still got a ton of questions, and that’s fine. But can you tell me exactly what kind of mess we’re dealing with now? We’re on a clock here.”

Zhang Lele took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing her turbulent emotions down. Finally, she opened up about her nightmare in the illusion.

“I was in the grand formation at the bottom of the sea. I was using Obsession as a whetstone to temper my mind. My cultivation was skyrocketing, and I quickly hit the fifth level of the Nascent Soul realm.”

“The plan was for my Master to slightly loosen the Four Symbols True Defense Formation at the right time, letting Obsession slip in. I just had to kill it within the illusion, and my closed-door cultivation would be a success.”

“It was going perfectly at first. It was no match for me. I cornered it and managed to kill it.”

“But the second it died, before I could even celebrate, several more immensely powerful Seven Emotions Evil Thoughts spawned out of nowhere! I got completely jumped. I couldn’t hold them off, and they killed me.”

Zhang Xian blinked. “Killed you?”

“Yeah,” Lele explained. “But dying in the illusion doesn’t mean a game over. The illusion resets. The catch is, every time it restarts, the Seven Emotions get a massive power buff, and the ones I already killed respawn.”

Zhang Xian caught on instantly. A roguelike death loop. It perfectly mirrored the worsening corruption in the real world. “So how many times have you wiped?”

Lele looked deflated. “Twice. This is the third run.”

“When the second loop started, I respawned near the Yunmiao Sect. By the time I rushed back to the Sect, Obsession had already gathered an army of corrupted cultivators and was laying siege to the mountain gate. My Master eventually showed up to back me up, and we barely managed to fend them off.”