To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

And though the old Taoist’s cultivation wasn’t very profound, he had a deep understanding of the natural core of his spells, so sitting together was not dull at all.

While the two were enjoying their drinks, a group of players suddenly stormed in, and the young Taoist outside couldn’t hold them back.

The gang of players looked fierce and menacing, each resembling a wrathful deity. Their arrival gave off the impression that they were either going to commit murder or arson, or both.

Looking at them, the old Taoist heaved a sigh, stood up, and said, “I didn’t expect that even after I changed my identity and came here, you would still seek me out. Indeed, I am the First Under Heaven….”

“Old Taoist, hold your tongue. We’ve commandeered this place. Here’s some Silver Coin for your trouble,” one of them said, interrupting.

When the old Taoist saw the pile of silver sufficient to buy two Taoist temples laid before him, he could only sit back down and then asked, “What are you all up to?”

“We’re from the Morals Aid Group, and today we’re here to test some new tactic combinations. Old Taoist, we know you’re the number one assassin, but don’t worry, we’re not here to bully you,” they responded.

“Oh, and what are you here for?”

“For basic skills,” a player stated righteously.

Upon hearing this answer, Fang Cheng felt there was something odd.

Basic skills are skills that players have from the moment they enter the game, such as breathing, walking, eating, drinking, and sleeping.

Even though there are many such skills, and the levels can be increased quickly, each level provides a very small boost to personal strength.

For instance, take breathing. No matter how well one breathes, only at a certain level might one gain an effect similar to channeling Qi, which allows players to slightly strengthen their bodies and improve their physique while breathing.

However, that requires one to reach level one hundred.

Although basic skills have no level cap, the effort needed to reach level one hundred is almost the same as advancing a specialty skill to level thirty, but the resulting effect may not even match that of level twenty.

Furthermore, even though future levels might unlock new effects, that’s something for level one hundred fifty, requiring even more time, with minimal improvement in effect.

So no matter how you look at it, for a rational player, investing in this is definitely a very low return on investment.

But the thing is, the members of the Morals Aid Group are no ordinary people.

They are the hidden dragons and crouching tigers of the gaming world, with gifted individuals among them, breathing an atmosphere of playful trolling—a place capable of nurturing characters like Xiemen Waidao.

They are dedicated to uncovering every secret in the game, developing different combinations to expand gameplay, and they are the rare kind of players who both seek and find amusement in the game.

After taking over the Taoist temple, they immediately turned it into a small base. Then they went out, broke the ice, and one by one, jumped in.

A few minutes later, shivering from the cold, they returned to the temple, stood in the snow, and focused on their status bars. Then, with satisfaction, they said, “Good. I’ve got a cold.”

“Me too.”

“I mutated. Now I’ve got pneumonia.”

“Come closer to me, let’s see if we can infect each other.”

“My health is dropping….”

“Same here. Can someone break my bones? I’m ready to see if two effects can stack. Thanks, buddy, that’s perfect.”

The old Taoist couldn’t help but cover the young Taoist’s eyes to shield him from the bizarre scene unfolding before them.

Under the torment of disease, these players’ physical conditions were deteriorating slowly, but the level of their basic skill “self-healing” was also slowly increasing.

Seeing the leveling speed getting slower and slower, a player opened up an excel sheet, consolidated the data sent to the group chat by the players, and then said, [Getting sick really does increase the self-healing level, but it’s too slow.]

[I’m in Miaojing. There’s a type of worm here that can inflict harm without killing the victim, a cruel form of punishment. Maybe this thing could increase the self-healing speed and level. I’ll try to get some players here.]

[Not necessary, my wife is right there. She’s in Miaojing learning how to use worms. Hey, I’m not showing off about having a wife, okay?]

[…Offer your condolences.]

[…Offer your condolences.]

[Hey, why? Isn’t it good to have a wife with the same hobbies as me?]

[…Offer your condolences.]

Thanks to the players’ diverse species, it didn’t take long for several with Gu arts over level 30 to arrive here via the Teleportation Array, each holding a porcelain bottle containing a Gu insect.

The player responsible for the experiment personally swallowed the Gu insect, then looked at his panel and said, “The self-healing speed has increased by three times, and the experience gain speed has also tripled, indicating that the experience gain method of the self-healing skill is multiplicative, not additive, and it is related to the amount of healing.”

“Hmm, assuming the natural state of the self-healing ability is 1, and the skill coefficient of the self-healing skill is the skill level divided by 100, after eating the Gu insect, the coefficient is multiplied by 2… I think we can still speed this up further.”

“How about stacking a bleeding state on ourselves then have a doctor to prolong our life?”

“Good idea, go get Hua Tuo!”

Before long, the room was filled with several players with medical skills above level 30.

The player testing the basic skill effects had transformed into a blur, the internal content was indecipherable, and the sight was nightmarish even for adults.

Even the seasoned Taoist, known as First Under Heaven assassin, only dared to sit at the doorway, reluctant to look inside.

He even poured a cup of wine for the young Taoist, then couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the deal with you Aliens? Playing such terrifying games in someone else’s Taoist temple.”

“Wouldn’t it be fine if you just didn’t rent out the Taoist temple?”

“They offered too much! Later they added three times the Silver Coin.”

While sipping plum wine, Fang Cheng felt the old Taoist had become somewhat worldly and somewhat deserved it.

Realizing the usefulness of doctors, the members of the Morals Aid Group were even more excited.

Fang Cheng, who possessed Taoist skills, was brought back and then cast a spell to double their recovery rate again.

Precious Life-Prolonging Pills were used, doubling the skill accumulation speed once more.

A mysterious sacrificial ritual was utilized…

The blood of Divine Beasts was employed…

The Morals Aid Group was popular and players were abound with talents gathering here from all walks of life, focusing on enhancing the basic skill of self-healing, crazily improving the experimental player’s self-healing ability.

After numerous measures were applied, the experimental players had completely degenerated into self-healing machines.

Their health bars would empty in an instant due to various negative effects on themselves and then be pulled back by various positive effects, with the individuals constantly hopping between life and death, causing Black and White Impermanence from the Underworld to waver between coming and not coming.

Such a living hell was definitely torture for the local NPCs, but for players, it hardly mattered.

If left alone, they would just go offline and chat about topics unfit for children in the group.

For instance, salaries, mortgages, and how much New Year’s money they gave away this year.

Their self-healing ability had multiplied by over three thousand times due to this stack of effects, essentially accomplishing in one day what would normally take ten years.

When the “Self-Heal” level reached 100, the physical attributes of the experimental players had reached the human limit, and their health bars had become much more robust.

Beyond that, a passive effect called “Unyielding” appeared. With this effect, a player could live for an extra three seconds after their health bar emptied, and if they could regain a bit of health during that time, they’d be able to stand up again, though there was a cooldown period for this effect.

However, that didn’t matter because the players knew how to utilize it.

When the “Self-Heal” level reached 150, the experimental player’s health doubled, allowing other players to continue their manipulations.

When the “Self-Heal” level reached 200, the experimental player’s self-healing ability doubled once more and some healing methods could be discarded as the player could now revive themselves.

When the “Self-Heal” level reached 300, the experimental player gained the “Regeneration” effect, turning each into a sort of undying entity, capable of quickly recovering from even the gravest injuries, as long as their head was intact.

When the “Self-Heal” level reached 400…

Seven days later, it was very difficult for their “Self-Heal” level to increase any further.

Some players calculated that after level 400, reaching level 500 might take a month, so it was not necessary anymore.

It was time to begin the next phase of the experiment.

Watching these players leave, Fang Cheng felt that in terms of madness, the Demon Lords seemed to be lacking just a bit.