["In a world of spiritual bloodlines and thousand-year inheritances, the biggest cheat is acting like none of it matters." – Wu Feng]
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There were rules in cultivation sects. Sacred ones.
Never kill your fellow disciple.
Never interfere with core disciple rituals.
Never insult an elder.
Never eat the sect master's private peach wine. (That one he'd learned personally.)
Wu Feng had broken all four in two days.
And tonight, he was going to break a fifth:"Never kill without spiritual justification."
Broken Root Sect, Inner Outer Courtyard – Midnight
Fang Muchen stood beneath the moonlight, performing his sword form like a stage actor hoping for applause. Seven inner disciples watched nearby, nodding solemnly as he struck poses that oozed self-worship.
He'd told them to come witness his "breakthrough." Wu Feng watched from the trees, completely unamused.
"He's about to ascend his ego, not his realm."
Wu flicked a scroll open. His first crafted technique. Not a combat art, but a trolling art:
Illusion Scroll: Echo Blade Mirage (Lv. 1)Description: Creates a temporary illusory clone of the target mid-action. Used for confusion, sabotage, or ironic death.
He added a few peach wine stains for effect.
Objective: Get Fang to kill himself. Or get the crowd to think Wu killed him using "ancient meme arts."Either way: +PP.
Wu waited for the right moment.
Fang lifted his blade into the Third Cloud Spiral Slash, spinning in a blur of glowing spirit light.
Wu triggered the illusion.
A copy of Fang appeared two meters behind him—copying his moves in perfect sync.
For a split second, Fang hesitated mid-spin. He saw the copy, panicked, and twisted to "defend himself."
His blade sliced right through the illusion… and into his own thigh.
He screamed.
The audience froze.
Wu dropped from the tree, calmly walking forward in his ragged outer sect robes.
"You attacked your own spiritual echo?" Wu asked, wide-eyed. "But that's a sacred sign of internal betrayal..."
"He's a danger to the sect," Wu added softly.
The watching disciples didn't question it.
They backed away from Fang as if he were diseased.
Wu leaned in and whispered to Fang:
"Tell anyone I caused this… and the Heavenly Meme Cult will make sure your other leg wakes up in a scroll."
Fang paled.
[+15 PP – Induced Spiritual Panic][+10 PP – Sabotaged Technique Execution][+5 PP – Scheme Execution Without Detection]
Wu stood, stepped over Fang's bleeding form, and left the scroll behind.
A forged artifact made from rotting bamboo and talisman ink.
"Internal Ego Rebellion Confirmed.The Heavenly Meme Cult has intervened."
[+10 PP – Cult Propagation Scroll Planted]
He vanished again.
The Next Morning
Fang Muchen was carried to the healing hall with a self-inflicted leg wound.
But no one cared about the injury.
They cared about the scroll.
Elder Han read it aloud during morning training.
"You're telling me," he said slowly, "this Heavenly Meme Cult interfered with the sword technique of a peak Foundation disciple... from the shadows?"
One outer sect disciple nodded furiously. "It's true! I've heard of this. They specialize in irony-based spiritual damage!"
"Is that even a real thing?!"
"They say... their techniques don't use Qi. They use narrative intent."
Elder Han's eyelid twitched.
"Narrative what?"
System Update
Petty Points: 120New Unlocks:
Technique Upgrade: Echo Blade Mirage → Twin Layer Echo (Lv. 2)
New Trolling Path: Reputation Collapse Tactics (Lv. 1)
Petty Shop Item: Scripted Scroll of Reprimand (Deploy to create fake elder warnings)
Inner Sect – Private Council Room
Elder Han, Elder Ming, and Li Qingyu gathered.
"This is the second incident," Ming said, studying the scroll. "Same ink. Same symbol. Different handwriting."
Li Qingyu set down a file. "Disciples are saying the Meme Cult isn't new. They think it was erased from history."
"That's idiocy."
"They say it's... punishment. A shadow sect that targets hypocrisy."
Elder Han growled. "We must find the source."
Li Qingyu didn't speak.
But her eyes drifted to the window, where Wu Feng stood talking to himself in the courtyard, holding a rice bun and an empty scroll.
She watched as he wrote something on the scroll, paused, then crumpled it and tossed it into a bush.
She narrowed her eyes.
That Night – Rooftop
Wu Feng updated his system manually with a brushstroke:
Petty Points: 120.Enemies Humiliated: 2.Disciples Convinced the Meme Cult is Real: 7.Elders in Denial: 3.
He leaned back, smiling.
"They think I'm part of something bigger."
"They think there's an entire rogue sect of me."
"...Perfect."