Zero-cost players can also cross tribulations, of course.

It’s just that the success rate is definitely lower than that of pay-to-win players; it’s more about luck.

Pay-to-win players can max out on all kinds of Realm-Breaking Elixirs and might pass the tribulation in one go. Zero-cost players might be stuck at a certain level for a while and need to try multiple times to break through to the next level.

By the way.

In the game’s tribulation crossing mechanics, neither pay-to-win nor zero-cost players can achieve a 100% success rate; the highest success rate is around 80%, and the lowest is 30%!

"It’s a relatively luck-based mechanic; even the biggest pay-to-win players might find themselves failing ten consecutive tribulations due to bad luck. Conversely, zero-cost players might succeed on their first try due to good luck."

Chen Ba explained: "To be more secure, whether you’re a pay-to-win or zero-cost player, the best way is to accumulate merit."

That’s right, merit!

These success rates are roughly estimated without taking "merit" into account.

If you add merit, the success rate can be increased to 100%! Accumulate enough merit, and crossing tribulations is as simple as eating and drinking.

Merit is complete, merit is boundless...

These terms fully illustrate how important merit is in a world with immortal gods.

"A person with great merit must not be killed, or it will lead to extremely terrible consequences..."

Chen Ba explained the consequences in the "Cultivation Fantasy" game of one player with great merit being killed.

Firstly, the killer will have their merit reduced by the amount the slain player possessed.

What if they don’t have enough merit?

Sorry, for killing a person with great merit, if your merit isn’t enough to deduct, it will go into the negative. Your lifespan will also be greatly shortened, which is known as diminishing life.

Aside from this, actions like dungeon raiding and monster killing will earn significantly less experience, and various drop yields will shrink by many times...

"Diminishing life?"

It seems Lu heard a remarkable term from Ba’s mouth and curiously asked, "Aren’t cultivators supposed to be immortal and immune to death by aging?"

"Of course they can die of old age!"

"Cultivators, as long as they haven’t become immortals, have a lifespan limit; they’re not truly immortal."

Chen Ba explained: "In the game, we set different lifespan limits according to different cultivation levels."

For example, the Qi Cultivation Stage is limited to one hundred years, and the Foundation Establishment Stage is limited to three hundred years!

This lifespan will be consumed by the use of certain powerful secret techniques, entering special Secret Realm Caves, or even during closed-door cultivation.

When a player’s remaining lifespan reaches zero, which means their end is near, if they haven’t broken through to the next level, they will experience a "reincarnation."

Reincarnation cultivation is very fast.

Moreover, reincarnation cultivation has an advantage in that it increases the success rate of crossing tribulations.

"Oh?"

Lu didn’t seem to expect that this could be linked together, so he asked, "So if the end is near and you can’t ensure tribulation success, or if you fail the tribulation, you can reincarnate to increase the basic success rate of the next tribulation?"

"That’s correct!"

"The game encourages players to reincarnate and cultivate, which means your lifespan is up, so go ahead and die; don’t bother eating life-extending elixirs or divine pills to linger on."

Chen Ba mentioned that the game set a lifespan limit with the intention of encouraging players to reincarnate and cultivate.

Reincarnation cultivation has many benefits!

The only downside is that your cultivation level resets to zero, requiring you to start anew from scratch.

But that’s not a big issue, because the speed of reincarnation cultivation is definitely faster than normal cultivation, and there’s no need for tribulation crossing along the way. Even if you start from scratch, it doesn’t waste much time.

The later in the game, the more you need to reincarnate to increase the success rate of tribulation crossing.

However, by that time, players might face a happy problem: too much remaining lifespan, how to spend it all?

"Haha, is there even such a thing?"

"Isn’t it simple? Just use those forbidden secret techniques more to drain your lifespan."

"Sounds simple, but is it possible that these lifespan-consuming forbidden secret techniques have very long cooldowns?" Chen Ba rolled his eyes.

When lifespan is short, just going through a few dungeons or entering a few time-consuming Secret Realm Caves, and your remaining lifespan is quickly used up.

But when your lifespan lasts for tens of thousands of years, wanting to quickly burn through it all for the sake of reincarnation cultivation isn’t an easy task.

Are you kidding?

With a lifespan of tens of thousands of years, using forbidden techniques to burn blood essence, you’d take forever to burn through all those years, right? Do you think those skills have no cooldowns?

As for naturally dying of old age...

Forget it! In "Cultivation Fantasy", a day in real life is only ten years in the game!

Dying of old age naturally requires quitting the game for three or five years without logging in to be hopeful.

"The Cultivation Realm is very cruel!"

"Cultivators with low realms fight tooth and nail over a few life-extending treasures, almost spilling their guts."

Chen Ba joked: "But in the eyes of Great Powers who are one step away from becoming immortals, thousands of years of lifespan is instead a burden because it hinders their steps toward immortality."

"If only lifespan could be transferred, low-realm players wouldn’t have to constantly worry about lifespan issues, and high-realm players could quickly reincarnate and cultivate..."

What a nice thought!

Upon hearing Lu say this, Chen Ba couldn’t help but retort: "If it really worked that way, the game would be in chaos, wouldn’t it?"

Do you think you’re Sun Monkey, scribbling willy-nilly in the Book of Life and Death? How could lifespan possibly be transferred?

"Oh, right!"

Seemingly having thought of something, Lu curiously asked: "Ba, doesn’t our game cap at the Mahayana Realm, can’t you become immortal?"

"Becoming immortal is impossible..."

Chen Ba unusually nodded, then explained: "Let alone becoming immortal, reaching the Mahayana Stage is likely a distant dream for players."

These levels were designed without any intention that players would ever reach them.

Or rather, the purpose of these realms isn’t for current players but for players five or ten years into the future.

After all, it’s the ultimate goal!

If it were easy to break through to the Mahayana Stage and even cross the tribulation to become immortal, then what would be the point of the game "Cultivation Fantasy"?

Three-day speedrun, huh?

If it were truly that outrageous, the game would probably have to create an Immortal Realm map, then a Divine Realm, then a Sacred Realm, and finally a Hongmeng Realm...

Just endless stacking!

With maps changing so frequently, levels one after another, Chen Ba feels it’s better to stay in the Cultivation Realm and play one world for a lifetime.

Maps will update, main storylines will update, game versions will update.

Everything will update, but these key cultivation realms are expected to last until the server shuts down. Because Chen Ba genuinely dislikes frequent map changes, they make him feel rather pointless.

He still remembers a Java mobile game he played back in the feature phone era.

The game was also Xianxia-themed.

The game plainly told players, level 120 is the max level; reaching that, you could practically uninstall the game.

At the time, Chen Ba wasn’t impressed, but many years later, when he randomly checked the game’s forum, he found that no one had reached level 120 before the game shut down.

Ridiculous is the only word to describe it!

Chen Ba was inspired by this concept; becoming immortal is the max level, the end of the game. But reaching this end, no player might ever achieve it before "Cultivation Fantasy" shuts down.

Bold enough, maybe in ten years, the Cultivation Realm will have very few Mahayana Stage cultivators.

"Wouldn’t this..."

"Enough!"

Before Lu could finish speaking, Chen Ba interrupted: "Isn’t this quite reasonable? From a mortal to an immortal, could the leap be any bigger? Spending a lifetime never reaching the end of the immortal path, forever in pursuit of immortality, that’s my ideal Xianxia."

Some games, although they are about "seeking immortality and asking Tao", make becoming immortal as simple as eating and drinking, which leaves Chen Ba speechless.

Please!

When you’re mass-producing immortals, did you stop to think about your game’s theme and description?

Is becoming immortal really that simple? Mass-producing immortals, maybe take a look at those mythological tales, see what "immortal" really means!

A little-known fact, in mythical Celestial Courts, the number of immortals is limited, and Celestial Soldiers and Generals are theoretically not "immortals."