This is Zhou Yue's fifth time climbing the tower.

The Ironclad Sect cultivators were skilled in fire magic and swordsmanship. Zhou Yue felt they were quite similar to himself. He played four rounds in a row and was beaten until he was dizzy.

In this game, he chose the Silent Hunter.

To Zhong Yi's surprise, Zhou Yue's luck wasn't as bad as it used to be.

【Genius Cultivator: Blade Fan! Get the Blade Fan! This card is incredibly powerful, turning single-target attacks into area-of-effect attacks!】

【Genius Cultivator: Escape Plan! A card draw with 0 spiritual energy, how can I not want it?】

【Genius cultivator: The master of military strategy... his ingenuity is incredible, trust me!】

...

Zhong Yi provided guidance throughout the process, and the more I watched, the more amazed I became by what I found extraordinary.

Although it wasn't as smooth as his previous performance, it was definitely a minor setback, completely unlike Zhou Yue's usual experience.

Under Zhong Yi's guidance, Zhou Yue's knife-style card deck took shape, and he easily defeated the final boss of the first level.

Once on the second floor, the monsters that were initially a huge challenge were easily defeated by him.

【Genius Cultivator: Holy crap, Old Zhou, did you have Junior Sister Qiaoling draw for you? This luck is totally unlike yours!】

Zhou Yue scoffed at Zhong Yi's comments.

"What kind of talk is that? I cultivate diligently in the illusion every day. If I can break this fate once, I can break it a second time!"

Hearing this, Zhong Yi felt genuinely gratified for his good brother.

【Genius Cultivator: Keep it up, Lao Zhou! Your deck is complete, you're invincible within the Immortal Tower... Go ahead and kick this elite room! No elite will even give you a second glance!】

"puff--!!"

Lu Ze, who was watching the show in Zhong Yi's live broadcast room, suddenly spat out a mouthful of tea.

Zhou Yue's "good luck" actually triggered the guaranteed win mechanism in the fifth game, which would inevitably give him some strategy-related cards.

The African bloodline has never changed.

Then, Zhong Yi's jinxed words cursed him...

Lu Ze could guess the monster he would encounter in the next elite room without even checking the backend code.

"good!"

In the past, when Zhou Yue saw Zhong Yi say this, he would definitely scold him for being jealous of his success.

But this time was different. He relied on Zhong Yi's deck to defeat many monsters in a row. Even the first-level demon did not pose any pressure to him. He became very arrogant.

In the previous few times he climbed the tower, he would quickly avoid the elite rooms.

Even if they had no choice but to fight, they would carefully push open the door and slowly walk in.

But things are different now!

"What kind of so-called elite? Come and taste the power of my Little Knife Hunter!"

Zhou Yue laughed loudly and kicked open the door to the elite room.

A wicked cultivator, surrounded by countless demonic peaks, bent down and glanced at Zhou Yue. The swarm of bees, as if smelling the aroma of honey, began to stir wildly.

"Hahaha, a swarm of heretical cultivators? Let me see just how evil you are!"

"Little knife, stab me! Stab! Stab me again!!"

"Uh... why did you give me so much dizziness?"

"What do you mean by 'one injection plus one dizziness pill'???"

"??? How come it's getting more and more stuffed in???"

"Holy crap!! My deck is full of stun cards right now!!!"

"Zhong!! Yi!!!"

...

...

The safety net mechanism that Lu Ze implemented in the zero-difficulty matches has clearly been quite effective.

While winning doesn't guarantee victory, players might not realize they've won, or they might have drawn too many cards, or like Zhou Yue, they might encounter a monster that counters them, or there might be issues with the card order...

But more or less, players will feel the satisfaction of that established strategy.

This is what motivates players to keep climbing the tower.

As time went on, two hours after the release of "Slaughter Tower", more and more cultivators cleared the three floors and met the architect at the top of the tower.

The voices in the forum gradually became more diverse.

【Hahaha! The Ironclad Sect cultivators are having so much fun! Just now, I used Escape from Danger + Hellish Madman, playing cards endlessly, I just couldn't stop!】

【Pshaw, not even half as fun as a knife hunt】

【Should I forget about the Little Knife Hunter? I'm too scared to fight elites on the first level because I'm not fully developed yet, and I'm afraid to fight elites on the second level because I'm worried about the swarm of evil cultivators. If I don't fight elites on the first two levels, I can't beat the elites on the third level... It's a mess.】

【Fellow Daoists! Hurry up and try playing Soul Cultivation! The Soul Cards are amazing – you can draw cards and deal damage at the same time!】

【None of you are up to the task. I, the Crown Prince, will forge a sword and then leave the mountain...】

【Forging swords? What's the difference between encountering a cockroach and being disabled?】

【Is no one discussing the malfunctioning spirit puppet? This little thing is so cute!】

【A malfunctioning spirit puppet? Haha】

【Ha ha】

...

...

Zhong Yi's live stream room.

"Oh my god, why is this crown prince so difficult to deal with?"

Zhong Yi looked at the Royal Cards, which he couldn't use to his advantage, and felt somewhat helpless.

After clearing the game on difficulty zero for the first time, he didn't rush to tackle the newly unlocked higher difficulty levels, but instead chose to work on the other characters.

After experiencing it, he quickly gained a general understanding of the five characters.

The initial character, the Ironclad Sect cultivator, has the simplest mechanics and a very powerful output system; it's straightforward and brutal.

The Silent Hunter has many strategies and is flexible in its tactics, but it is also very easy to die suddenly.

Soul cultivators' summoned beasts are quite interesting. They can rely on summoned beasts for damage output, as well as their own bodies, and can even use a unique calamity attack to defeat opponents...

The tactics are a bit complicated, and Zhong Yi hasn't figured them out yet, but they seem quite strong.

The malfunctioning spirit puppet was criticized by many cultivators on the forum for being weak, but Zhong Yi beat it in one game, so he thought it was alright.

There's nothing that a 【Thunderous Interaction】 can't solve; if there is, then just use another one.

As for the extraterrestrial demon crown prince...

The Royal cards are powerful, but the Crown Prince, in addition to the universal Aura that all characters share, also has a separate 【Star Power】 mechanism, which is equivalent to having two energy bars.

Even Zhong Yi couldn't figure it out for a while.

He completed all the other characters on difficulty level zero, but he was stuck on the Crown Prince.

"Damn it! I played the wrong card just now. If only I could take it back..."

Zhong Yi angrily pounded his thigh, feeling extremely frustrated.

Just then, Lu Ze's comment popped up.

【Lu Ze, the Realm Master: You can take back your moves... How about you try soul reversal?】

Soul reload, also known as save/load (SL) gameplay, is an essential part of Slay the Spire.

Even in various amateur winning streak challenge matches, there are two types of gameplay: "SL" and "NOSL".

Kill the Spire without save/load (SL) is too difficult.

In addition, save/load (SL) will greatly increase the skill ceiling of each match in Slay the Spire.

The upper limit is key to attracting players to play for longer periods, so Lu Ze chose to retain the option of SL gameplay.

However, he incorporated some clever touches into it.

"What?! It's possible to go back in time?! Junior Brother Lu really is destined to become a saint, he's turned to good!"

Zhong Yi was taken aback.

You should know that those torturous illusions from the past, like "Four of a Kind" and "Getting Over It," didn't have the concept of saving and loading.

If you make a mistake, start over!

Zhong Yile chose 【Time Rewind】.

The next moment, under the gaze of a giant pupil, Zhong Yi, in his spirit form, shattered with a deafening roar.

"..."

"If you want to rewind, then rewind! Why do you have to kill me once???"

Faced with Zhong Yi's complaints, Lu Ze smiled but remained silent.

If players are allowed to endlessly save and reload, a single game would take an hour, and they would only gain magic points once. Wouldn't that be a huge loss?

So he deliberately designed the game so that players would die first and then be reborn, emphasizing the principle of "plucking feathers from a passing goose".

Lu Ze couldn't help but chuckle to himself, thinking:

"This clever little trick... could I really be a born demon?"