I might have been playing a fake cultivation game.

Chapter 001 Xuan Yuan Invasion

March 27, 2026 (Earth Calendar)

Kunming.

Late at night, Zhou Yunshen was lying in bed scrolling through short videos on his phone.

After scrolling through a bunch of random videos, Zhou Yunshen swiped his finger and came across a game that had failed.

Then, in a landscape painting reminiscent of traditional Chinese ink wash, majestic immortal mountains shrouded in mist appeared, dotted with pavilions and towers, and a figure exuding an air of otherworldly grace appeared from behind.

Zhou Yunshen often comes across these kinds of mini-games while scrolling through short videos. Some require downloading, while others don't even require downloading; you can just click to play.

Zhou Yunshen instinctively wanted to slide across.

But when his finger touched the screen, it stopped.

At that moment, his attention was drawn to the lines of text appearing on the screen:

On June 27, 2029, the Xuan Yuan Realm will launch an invasion of Earth, and an apocalyptic crisis is imminent. As a member of humanity, you will travel to the Xuan Yuan Realm to cultivate and adventure. When the crisis arrives, you can return to Earth with your cultivation to protect your home.

Click to download the game and begin your adventure!

Zhou Yunshen looked at the game's description on the screen and couldn't help but laugh. He thought to himself, "This game planner is quite good at writing. They've managed to link a run-of-the-mill Xianxia game to an apocalyptic crisis. With that kind of imagination, it's a shame you're not writing novels. I'd like to see how your game differs from those other reskinned Xianxia games on the market."

With that thought in mind, Zhou Yunshen reached out and tapped the download option.

The game downloaded in just over ten seconds.

"The download speed is so fast, it seems like it's just a small game of a hundred or two megabytes. Either the graphics are terrible, or there's not much content." Although Zhou Yunshen was a little disappointed, he still followed the game's instructions and successfully installed the game.

After the game was installed, a dark blue swirling icon appeared on his phone's home screen, with the game's name displayed below it: Xuan Yuan Invasion.

Zhou Yunshen clicked the game icon, the game started successfully, the screen turned completely black, and an option appeared in front of him:

Player, you are about to embark on your own unique cultivation journey. To assist you in your cultivation, the system has prepared several newbie gift packs for you to choose from.

Gift Pack 1:

First: Two beautiful maids will follow you to the death.

Second: Cultivation aptitude increased by one.

You choose...

"Huh, this game doesn't require an account or password to log in? Or is this option just part of a cutscene?"

With that thought in mind, Zhou Yun Shen casually clicked on the option to increase cultivation aptitude by one.

He likes beautiful women, but the so-called beautiful maids in this game probably don't even have a decent illustration, so he's not interested at all.

As Zhou Yunshen made his choice, new options appeared on the pure black screen:

Gift Pack Two:

First: You will be protected by a distinguished family background, with at least one Golden Core cultivator in your family.

Second: Cultivation aptitude increased by one.

Without much hesitation, Zhou Yunshen reached out and tapped the option to increase cultivation aptitude by one.

He chose it casually, after all, it was just a small game. He was just temporarily intrigued and wanted to see what kind of game it was. If the game quality was good, he would play it casually; if the quality was bad, he would just delete it.

Soon, new options appeared on the completely black screen:

Gift Pack Three:

First: Obtain a natal spiritual treasure. Under normal circumstances, a Golden Core cultivator is required to nurture a natal spiritual treasure.

Second: Cultivation aptitude increased by one.

Zhou Yun Shen casually clicked on the option to increase cultivation aptitude by one.

Since we've already chosen cultivation aptitude, let's just stick to it and choose cultivation aptitude for everyone.

Then, a new option appeared.

Gift Pack Four:

First: Obtain a special bloodline inheritance. Once the special bloodline is awakened, your combat power will far exceed that of others of the same level.

Second: Cultivation aptitude increased by one.

Zhou Yunshen then chose to increase his cultivation aptitude by one.

At this point, he was too lazy to even look at the options; he just wanted to skip this stage as quickly as possible and get into the actual game interface.

A new option appears again:

Gift Pack Five:

First: You will randomly receive a Heaven-Rank cultivation technique. This Heaven-Rank technique will allow you to start cultivating from scratch until you reach the Nascent Soul stage, without having to worry about the manual.

Second: Cultivation aptitude increased by one.

This time, Zhou Yunshen once again chose to increase his cultivation aptitude by one.

Five times in a row, Zhou Yunshen chose to increase his cultivation aptitude by one.

Finally, no more new options appeared.

A line of text appeared on the black screen: Character creation is in progress and is expected to take 72 hours. Please wait patiently.

Then, a countdown appeared below.

Zhou Yunshen stared at the screen, speechless, feeling as if he had been played for a fool.

"Is this stupid game messing with me?"

"72 hours left, it's just creating a character, does it really need that long?"

"Could it be that they've already jumped into streaming on short video apps and failed before even finishing setting up the servers?"

Zhou Yunshen, his face dark, exited the game and then long-pressed the game icon.

After the uninstall option popped up, he was about to click on it when he hesitated.

"Fine, I'll keep it for now. Since it wants me to wait three days, I'll wait three days. I want to see what other tricks this stupid game has up its sleeve!"

Zhou Yunshen is a stubborn person, and he's prepared to take this game to the extreme.

Nothing happened that night, and the next day, Zhou Yunshen went to work as usual.

He works for a food company in Kunming, where he is currently responsible for designing the packaging for a beverage.

At lunchtime, Zhou Yunshen was having lunch with two colleagues from the company when he casually mentioned the little game he had encountered the previous night.

After listening, a chubby employee wearing glasses said, "I vaguely remember this game. I came across it last night, probably around the same time as you. The description looks quite novel, so I downloaded it too."

"And then?" Zhou Yunshen asked with some curiosity.

This chubby employee is named Li Wang. He has a good relationship with Zhou Yunshen, loves playing games, and often invites Zhou Yunshen to play games together after get off work.

Li Wang glanced at Zhou Yunshen and said, "Delete it. This game can't even be accessed from the main interface, so I deleted it on the spot."

Zhou Yunshen said, "Didn't they say we could go in in three days?"

Li Wang chuckled upon hearing this and said, "Three days? It doesn't deserve that! There are too many games on the market now; I don't have the patience to wait three days for it."

Zhou Yunshen opened his mouth, but found himself speechless.

At this moment, another colleague spoke up, saying, "I think I came across this game last night too, but I'm not interested in this type of game, so I just swiped away."

The one who spoke this time was a young man who looked very refined. He was an employee who joined the company at the same time as Zhou Yunshen, and his name was Liu Yihang.

"I didn't expect everyone to have come across this game." Zhou Yunshen was somewhat surprised.

What does this mean?

This means that the game has been heavily promoted, and a lot of money must have been spent on promotion.

"They spent so much money on promotion, and all they got was this half-finished game. The company that made this game is really baffling," Zhou Yun thought to himself.

Time flies, and three days have passed in the blink of an eye.

After a long day at work, Zhou Yunshen lay on his single bed in his rented room, scrolling through short videos on his phone.

As he scrolled through the game, he came across another game that failed.

This is a space-themed game called Game for the Stars. He wasn't interested in the graphics, so he just swiped away with his finger.

Then, he suddenly remembered the game on his phone, so he flipped to the last page and tapped the swirling icon.