Before Cao Mao reached the half-step 4th-stage, this space used to be a blank cubic room with nothing but white walls and a ceiling. Now, a shallow pond of water and a thundercloud were added to the room. He figured that system might have done something without his permission again.

Cao Mao didn’t mind the changes since it added life to the environment. Still, he was concerned if damaging the pond and the cloud might harm his power since it related to his element power within his dantian.

Ding

[The environment reflects the element power within you. For the sake of enhancing your space stability, please upgrade your space to the next level.]

Isolation Training Space (Lv. 5/10)

Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:20

Dual Cultivation Mode

Protagonist Rematch Mode

Upgrade Conditions

100 Liters of Life Essence.

Comprehend and master at least one element Qi

Next Upgrade

Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:50

Realm Expansion (Depending on the mastered element.)

Description

After you’ve fallen asleep, your consciousness will be sent to System’s isolated space for special training sessions that you can design for yourself.

Inside this space, you can choose to spar against illusions of fighters that you had once encountered in the past, rematch against the protagonists you have defeated, spend your time practicing various arts that you haven’t mastered, or dual-cultivate with your yin slaves.

The Conversion Ratio is the time in the real world and the time you can spend in space. Currently, 20 hours in the isolation space is one hour in real life. You can upgrade the conversion rate by spending the life essence.

Without the system’s advice, Cao Mao would have upgraded the space anyway since the next level would give him more time to train each night. Instead of having 160 hours per 8 hours of sleep, he would have 400 hours of training time.

‘You don’t even have to say that. I’m planning to upgrade the space anyway. How many liters of life essence do I have left?’

Ding

[Energy Pool]

Life Qi: 3,649,056 Strands

Life Essence: 333 Liters

Elemental Crystal Levels

Wood (Primary): 1/3

Lightning (Secondary): 2/2 (MAX)

After the evolution of Cao Mao’s Qi and Essence, the status menu changed a lot. The energy silo was gone as the remaining Yin Essence merged with his Life Essence Pool. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the amount of his elemental Qi other than the elemental crystal levels.

The Lightning Element Crystal had already reached the max level, but his primary element was still level 1.

“Why is my primary crystal is still level 1, but the lightning crystal is at the max level?”

Ding

[Your wood crystal hasn’t absorbed enough wood Qi to develop. As for your lightning crystal, it has consumed enough life essence and lightning Qi.]

[Tips from your sponsor: you can increase the element crystals’ max level by increasing your cultivation base. At the moment, you suck.]

“…”

Cao Mao rolled his eyes as he already got used to the system’s high standard. He changed the subject, “Use 100 liters of life essence water. Upgrade the space to level 6.”

Rumble

This was the first time that Cao Mao upgraded the space while he was inside it. He got to see the changes for the first time.

The entire white cubic space shook. The ceiling and the walls moved away from Cao Mao as the space was expanding. The water pond and the thunder cloud maintained their size and location, but the yellow gas increased and covered the entire space.

The earthquake lasted only a few minutes.

Ding

[Upgrade has been completed.]

Isolation Training Space (Lv. 6/10)

Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:50

Dual Cultivation Mode

Protagonist Rematch Mode

Upgrade Conditions

100,000 Liters of Life Essence.

Increase the level of wood element crystal to level 5

Possess at least two primary element crystals.

Defeat any protagonist’s clone in Protagonist Rematch Mode at 300% difficulty once.

Next Upgrade Perks

Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:100

Realm Expansion (Depending on the mastered element.)

Private Plane Development Mode

More tasks had been imposed on Cao Mao once more. This time, it wanted something impossible since he had to increase the wood element to level five, but his current max level was only three. Moreover, it demanded him to obtain two primary element crystals.

“I guess I have to raise my cultivation base ASAP.”

Cao Mao’s eyes stopped when he read the line, “Defeat any protagonist’s clone in Protagonist Rematch Mode with 300% difficulty once.”

Cao Mao hadn’t tried fighting against Xie Tian’s clone yet since every fight consumed a lot of energy. Currently, fighting against level 10 3rd-stage clones at the max difficulty had already become something Cao Mao hated.

During the tutorial days, Cao Mao had it easy. After every sparring match, the system replenished his energy regardless of the result. But after Cao Mao completed the last tutorial quest, the system stopped returning his lost energy after completing sparring matches. After every fight against 3rd-stage clones or Zhu Qiao, Cao Mao always spent more than 50% of his total energy. Whether he lost or won, the spent energy didn’t return. He had to recover it back by dual-cultivating or absorbing Qi from spirit stones, which made his sparring progress slower.

Moreover, Cao Mao always lost 9 out of 10 times whenever he fought against 3rd-stage clones. The fights became gruesome and complicated since the clones usually ambushed him with a self-detonation. Sometimes, they even had enlightenment during a battle and attacked him with a random elemental power, which was the main reason for his defeats.

Cao Mao also tried fighting Zhu Qiao’s clones, whose cultivation base was only level 10 of the 2nd-stage. Yet, he lost 19 out of 20 times because of her endless P2W items and talismans.

Sparring against 200% difficulty clones was not fun anymore. It became hellish torture that Cao Mao wanted to avoid even though he could learn some skills from the opponents.

And now, the system wanted Cao Mao to fight against Xie Tian’s clones at a higher difficulty level. The thought already discouraged him to the point that he didn’t want to train or do anything productive anymore.

“You’re cruel, my sponsor. I don’t wanna fight Xie Tian ever again. Don’t tell me that he didn’t use his full strength when I fought him? Hell, no. I won’t fight his UPGRADED version!”

Ding

[Although it’s true that Xie Tian only used 95% of his combat potential in the last fight, you have misunderstood something.]

[The Protagonist Rematch Mode is designed to be more forgiving than the clone sparring matches. You don’t have to defeat it at the max difficulty 100 times to learn one of the clone’s skills. Instead of the 100 victory requirement in the sparring match mode, every time that you defeat a protagonist’s clone, you will get a random reward, depending on the difficulty level.]]

[Secondly, the easiest difficulty of this mode is set at 300% at the minimum, and the highest is 1,000%. At higher difficulty, you can obtain ultra-rare rewards, including unique protagonist’s skills, bloodline core, elemental crystals, and the accumulated experience of the protagonist.]

[Thirdly, you can only use the rematch mode once every month. Extended time in the Isolation Training Space isn’t included as the cooldown time.]

Not only this new mode was hard, but it also had limited access. In short, this new mode was a boss hunt while clone fighting was the same as mob-clearing.

“That sounds like a boss hunt.”

The reward might be tempting, but it didn’t change the fact that Cao Mao had to gamble his energy pool against a monstrous clone. He might lose his life essence for nothing if he couldn’t win.

[In addition, Protagonist Rematch Mode will not consume your energy. Regardless of the results, the system will replenish your energy and heal your injuries, just like the time when you are still in the tutorial mode.]

“Oh?”

Now, Cao Mao was tempted. If he didn’t have to spend his precious life essence resource, this mode might be worth trying.

“Xie Tian’s strength was level 1 of Meridian Establishment Realm. I’m now a half-step 4th-stage, so this should be easy!”

Although Cao Mao said that, he hadn’t defeated Zhu Qiao, who had a weaker cultivation base than Xie Tian, in the sparring mode properly yet.

[Lastly, the clone’s cultivation base will scale up with you. For example, you are currently a half-step 4th-stage expert. Therefore, Xie Tian’s clone will come out as a half-step 4th-stage expert. Additional buffs will be given to the clones at higher difficulty settings.]

“OH, COME ON!!”

Once again, the system trolled him and indirectly forced Cao Mao to earn his strength through hard work. He couldn’t exploit a loophole this time.

Ding

Without waiting for Cao Mao to initiate the rematch mode, the system showed the status of Xie Tian’s clone.

Difficulty Setting: 300%

Name: Xie Tian

Cultivation Base: Half-Step Essence Gathering Realm

Core Cultivation Technique: Fiery Yang Meridians

.

Bloodline/Physique/Constitution

Fire Dragon Bloodline

Fiery Flame Vital

Yang Flame Immunity

Fire Immunity

.

Element Mastery

(Primary) Fire

.

Secret Techniques/Battle Styles

Fire Dragon Saber Style

Flame Sword Style

Fire Dragon Dance

Fire Dragon Skin

Fire Dragon Transformation

Supreme Dragon Recovery

Dragon Strike

Return to Zero

.

Secret Weapon/Familiar

Sovereign Flame Saber (Heaven-Grade)

Baby Divine Dragon Spirit

“Ah, shit! Xie Tian, I hate you! WHY DO I HAVE TO FIGHT YOU AGAIN!?”

Cao Mao’s PTSD intensified. He couldn’t keep calm when he read the detail of Xie Tian’s clone. The OP cheating skill, Return to Zero, reappeared to haunt him again.

Cao Mao couldn’t cultivate the space-and-time technique yet since he needed more mural fragments. Xie Tian’s mural piece clearly stated that he might lose a portion of his cultivation base upon activating the time-and-space technique since it violated the laws of the mortal world. The second piece revealed that only immortals could cultivate this technique.

Yet, Xie Tian could use it, which was unfair.

“So, if I breakthrough again, will Xie Tian’s cultivation base scale up with me?”

Ding

[Yes.]

“What about his skills? Will he get more skills if I have a higher cultivation base?”

Ding

[That depends on the difficulty level. Higher difficulty levels give you more chances to acquire unique rare items or abilities that no local cultivator can have.]

“…”

Cao Mao was curious how strong Xie Tian would be at the max difficulty settings. He played around with the system menu in front of him.

And the embodiment of the ultimate nightmare of all antagonists showed itself.

Difficulty Setting: 1,000%

Name: Xie Tian, the Dragonewt

Cultivation Base: Half-Step Foundation Establishment Realm

Core Cultivation Technique: Divine Dragon Meridian

.

Bloodline/Physique/Constitution

Divine Dragon Bloodline

Holy Flame Physique

Holy Flame Element Immunity

Light Element Immunity

.

Element Mastery

(Primary) Holy Flame

(Primary) Light

(Secondary) Chrono

.

Secret Techniques/Battle Styles

Divine Dragon Saber Style

Sacred Flame Sword Style

Divine Dragon Dance

Divine Dragon Skin

Divine Dragon Transformation

Holy Dragon Recovery

Dragon Smite

Instant Self-Heal

Time Manipulation

.

Secret Weapon

Sovereign Dragon Saber (Divine-Grade)

Divine Dragon Spirit

“HO-RI-SHET!!”

Many skills evolved to a higher grade, and Xie Tian’s cultivation base surpassed Cao Mao. Even his element mastery was inhumanly cheating.

“HOW OP CAN THIS GUY CAN BE!? AM I SEEING THINGS? TIME MANIPULATION!? CHRONO ELEMENT!? REALLY!? HE EVEN HAS HIGHER CULTIVATION BASE THAN ME!? HOW AM I GOING TO BEAT HIM!?”

Ding

[The Rematch Mode is designed to be one of the end game contents. At the ultimate difficulty, you can acquire a unique elemental crystal, a secret skill, or an ultra-rare familiar spirit if you can defeat the clone. These skills, bloodline, weapon, and elemental crystals can’t be obtained from any world, including the world of dao gods.]

[Remember, if you want to defeat overpowered protagonists, you have to become even more overpowered than them. This mode will be your salvation in the future. Do your best to acquire these hidden cheat abilities, and all mortal and immortal worlds will be yours!]

“…”

Cao Mao wanted to cry. The system forcefully dictated his life once more.