79: Chapter 79 The God of Wealth's "Soul Loan," and the Complete Collapse of the Three Realms' Art Style
Abyss 77th Layer, Great Zhou · Tianhe First School District (now renamed "Gentle Cloud Heavenly Palace · Abyss Resort").
The art style here can no longer be described as "strange"; it's a masterpiece of "mental pollution."
On the originally jade-white square, a group of Abyss Flame Demons wearing Daoist robes and holding horsetail whisks were lined up neatly, following an old Immortal with a sage-like air (the Alchemy Boy of Taishang Laojun) in practicing Tai Chi.
"Sink your Qi into your Dantian... Right! Pull in the lava in your bellies!"
"Focus your mind on the spiritual platform... That Cerberus! Don't bite your tail! That's your vital point!"
Meanwhile, on the other side at "Succubus Exotic Street."
The succubi, who originally only knew how to seduce people with their bodies, had all changed into pure Liuxian skirts, with delicate "Immortal Qi Makeup" on their faces (taught personally by the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers). They didn't need to pose provocatively; they just needed to sit in front of the live-streaming Formation and shout with those big, watery eyes:
"Big brothers, today's 'Dao Heart Stabilization' course is starting~"
"Just gift a 'nine-revolution golden core' to get a one-on-one 'Heart Demon Tutoring' session from Lilith~"
Clatter clatter—
In the live-stream room, tips from the Immortal Realm fell like a rainstorm.
Those Immortals who were usually free of desires now turned into "Top Tier Supporters" one by one, emptying out their ten-thousand-year-old savings just to hear a "Big Brother."
...
"Crazy, they're all crazy."
Heavenly River Sword Sect, Scripture Pavilion second floor.
Director Haotian (the former Immortal Emperor) looked at the "Three Realms Situation Report" in his hand, his hands shaking.
"Mr. Li, if this continues, the Immortal Realm's economic System will collapse."
"Right now, the circulation rate of Immortal Crystals in the Immortal Realm has dropped to freezing point; all the money has flowed into the Abyss."
"And..." Haotian swallowed hard, "that fellow, the God of Wealth, has set up a 'Three Realms Bank' in the Abyss."
"Three Realms Bank?" Li Mo raised an eyebrow and put down the "Macroeconomics" book in his hand.
"Yes. He discovered that although the Abyss monsters are poor, their 'lives' are long (high Soul strength)."
"So he launched a 'Soul Loan'."
"Borrow Immortal Crystals, buy spicy strips, live in luxury villas. Can't pay back the money? No problem! Use your Soul as collateral! Sign an indenture contract to serve as mounts, miners, or experimental Materials for the Immortals!"
"Now, half of the monsters in the Abyss have become the God of Wealth's 'wage slaves'."
After listening, Li Mo couldn't help but applaud.
"Splendid."
"As expected of the God of Wealth, these 'capitalist exploitation' methods are even slicker than what I've read in books."
"But Mr. Li!"
Former Inspector of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion (Director of the Discipline Inspection Committee) rushed in, looking panicked. "Something's wrong! A big problem has occurred!"
"What problem? Did the God of Wealth run off with the money?"
"No! It's... the world's 'art style' has collapsed!"
"The art style has collapsed?"
Li Mo frowned and immediately pulled up the monitoring screen of the Heavenly Dao backend.
At the intersection of the Abyss and the Immortal Realm (near that Sewer Slide), space began to show extremely bizarre distortions.
A Sword Cultivator was flying on his sword; as he flew, the Flying Sword beneath his feet suddenly turned into a slippery tentacle, wrapping him up tightly.
A Flame Demon tried to cast a fireball spell, but what came out wasn't a fireball, but a... pixelated block?
Even more absurdly, the clouds floating in the sky would change from a realistic style to 2D anime lines, and then to abstract color blocks.
The entire world was like a AAA game with an overheating graphics card and driver conflicts, with clipping, frame drops, and stuttering everywhere.
[Warning! System Error!] [Error Code: 0x0000000 (Three Realms Compatibility Failure).] [Reason: Forced Fusion between high-dimensional rules (Immortal Realm) and low-dimensional Chaos (Abyss), leading to rendering failure of the underlying logic.] [Consequence: The world is about to Blue Screen (collapse).]
"Is this the side effect of 'Great Cultural Fusion'?"
Li Mo looked at those Cultivators and monsters who had turned into "Polygon Warriors" and adjusted his glasses.
"The operating System (Heavenly Dao) is too old to handle such fancy 'Mods'."
"Then what should we do?" Director Haotian panicked. "My... this Director's blind box business has just gotten on track! It can't collapse!"
"Don't panic."
Li Mo stood up and walked to the bookshelf.
"Since it's a driver conflict, then install a 'Universal Driver'."
He pulled out a book titled "Programming Ideology: From Entry to Deleting the Database and Running Away," along with a book on "Chaos Theory."
"Ling'er, grind the ink."
"Yes!"
Li Mo took up his brush and began writing lines of new rule code on the dragon vein heavenly book.
This was no longer a simple modification, but—[Refactoring].
"Since Immortals and Demons are incompatible, then create an... intermediate state."
"I want to unify the weights and measures of these three powers (Immortal Spiritual Power, Abyss Devilish Qi, Vast Righteous Qi)."
As Li Mo's brush tip fell, golden runes flew out one by one, merging into the Void Realm.
[System Patch: v1.0 - Chaos Fusion Edition.]
[Update Content:]
New "Chaos Spiritual Qi": Allows Immortal Spiritual Power and Devilish Qi to be mixed at a 1:1 ratio, generating attribute-less spiritual energy.
Fixed "Art Style BUG": Forcibly locks the world's rendering engine to "HD Remastered Edition."
New Classes: [Demonic Path Sword Immortal], [Holy Light Demon], [Cyber Daoist].
"Update... for me!"
Li Mo shouted and heavily pressed the Enter key (tapping the brush tip on the ground).
Hum—!!!
A visible ripple, centered on the Heavenly River Sword Sect, instantly swept across the Three Realms.
The next second.
Those clipping and stuttering scenes disappeared.
In their place was a brand new image filled with a strange beauty.
Lava no longer flowed on the Abyss Flame Demons; instead, golden "Immortal Fire" burned. The Sword Cultivators of the Immortal Realm no longer held Flying Swords, but "Demonic Blades" entwined with black Devilish Qi.
"Roar!" (Refreshing!)
An Ogre roared to the sky, discovering that it could actually use its rough hands to form exquisite "Orchid Finger" hand seals, releasing a pink "Charm Lightwave."
"Wonderful!"
The God of Wealth looked at the glowing "Soul Contract" in his hand and found that the Karma lines on it had become more stable, and even the Heavenly Dao had recognized the legality of this "cross-realm exploitation."
The world stabilized.
And it became even more... insane.
"Is this... the new version?"
Director Haotian looked out the window at Kong Mengchang, who was riding an Abyss Bone Dragon while wearing Confucian robes and flying in the sky, feeling like his worldview had been rubbed into the ground a hundred times.
"No."
Li Mo closed the book and looked at the [World Evolution Degree] rapidly rising on the System backend.
"This is called... 'Version Preview'."
"We are transforming this rigid Cultivation World into an... all-encompassing 'Open World'."
"But..."
Li Mo's gaze suddenly became deep, looking toward the Void Realm outside the world.
"By doing this, the commotion is too great."
"Those 'Doctors' probably won't be able to sit still."
...
Outside the world.
The "Surgeons" watched the "lesion" (Southern Desolation + Abyss) that had not only failed to be "bleached" but had instead become colorful and even started self-iterating and evolving, and they fell completely silent.
[Target... out of control.] [Conventional means (surgery, disinfection) have failed.] [The virus (Li Mo) is rewriting the Ancient God's genetic sequence.] [Threat Level: Upgraded from "local infection" to... "species tampering".]
The lead doctor slowly put down the observation instrument.
For the first time, a trace of an emotion called "fear" appeared in his eyes.
If not stopped, this Ancient God's corpse... might be "resurrected" by this virus and turn into a completely different monster.
"Apply for... the final solution."
The doctor turned around and knelt toward the indescribable, massive existence (Hospital Director?) deep in the void.
"Requesting deployment—[Dimensional Reduction Strike]."
"Crush the entire world... into a painting."
"Since it can't be cured, then... make it into a specimen."