Xuan Di finally reached the gate of the sect where the examination was supposed to be held. And he was in awe of what he saw.
He felt it was the single most awe-inspiring sight he had seen in his two lives.
The gates of the Azure Dragon Sect soared before him: polished blue stone, twin dragons arching towards the sky, banners snapping in the mountain breeze. There had to be over 10,000 people here already, lined up in messy rows or clustered in huddles talking to each other. Some wore rich and expensive robes; others tugged nervously at patched sleeves or clung to cloth-wrapped packages from home.
It was a mix of both worlds.
After shaking his head to clear out his thoughts, he took a quick glance around, making sure nobody was looking at him, then fished out his new, "invisible, unbreakable, AI 360" camera from his system inventory.
He whispered, "Okay, it's time for my debut, let's break some balls today." He lobbed it gently upward, and the tiny machine whirred, vanishing from view as it took its place above the crowd. Only Xuan Di could see the streaming overlay blinking across his vision:
[Live Stream: ON]
[Viewers: 0]
He coughed, straightened his robe, and put on his best host voice impression he had seen people do in the videos.
"Hello, degenerates of the internet! Welcome to the official, totally authorised and legal live broadcast from the Azure Dragon Sect entrance exam!
My name is Xuan Di, a future immortal, legendary cultivator, and pineapple-on-pizza revolutionary!! And I will act as your guide today.
He ignored the weird looks he was getting from the people nearby and continued to talk to his invisible audience.
"Come! Come! Let me give you the grand tour of this event." He swept his arm wide, hoping a bored office worker or two on the other side of the dimensional wall would see and appreciate his efforts.
"The gates you see up there?" he said, trying to sound casual, "Each dragon scale is made with real precious materials, and it is worth more than a gaming laptop. Its use? Its only use is to show it off to poor people like you and me."
He panned the invisible camera across the crowd. "Look at this. See this crowd of thousands of people? They are all here today, making an attempt to join the sect."
"Who will go home empty-handed? Who will successfully enter the sect? Let us go and find out for ourselves!!"
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Somewhere in the modern world…
On random phones and desktop screens around the world, a new stream quietly blipped to life on every single video hosting or streaming site.
The channel read "Lord of Cultivation World," with a thumbnail showing sprawling mountains and a sea of colorfully dressed people.
It shows a current live stream going on, with the name with an eye-catching thumbnail:
SHOCKING!!! LEAKING THE INSIDE IMAGES OF A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SET!!
Looking at the information, a few viewers around the world, who were either slacking off at work, or chilling in bed, or travelling inside a metro, stumbled into the stream out of curiosity.
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Back in the cultivation world, Xuan Di noticed that viewers started increasing rapidly.
A few bullet comments also started to fly in front of his eyes.
[ 'Is this AI? Damn, it has gotten advanced.'
'Whoa, the VFX have gotten really good nowadays. Everything looks realistic.'
'Nah, look at it carefully. I think the title of the video is right. This seems like a super high-budget shooting of a movie. All the people and the set here look super real.'
'To the dumbass above, I disagree with you. Look at how many people are here, and look at how detailed and intricate their clothes are. This alone will cost more than the budget of some movies to make in real life. It is definitely AI or VFX. ]
Xuan Di looked at the comments floating on the screen happily. A few minutes into the live, and he already had some views. He did not know that it was this easy to do.
Little did he know, it was due to the influence of the system and how it was on every single site instead of just one or two, like most streamers did.
He soon heard some people chatting about, 'Look at him, he is a bigshot, or Look at her, known as the belle of the city', and made a straight beeline for them.
He quickly put a hand across the shoulders of one of the guys and started talking.
"Hey, bro, I heard you talking about it and can't help but be curious. Who are these people you are talking about? I came from afar to take the test, so educate me a little."
The young man paused in his talk and looked at the Xuan Di with disdain.
"You don't even know who these people are? You ignorant peasant. Come, I will introduce you to some, in case you accidentally offend someone and end up dead. I will consider it as doing a charity."
The man ignored Xuan Di's forced smile and started pointing out.
"Look, see that guy? He's the son of the city lord from Jade Spring. You know, his father brought a spirit vein for his sole cultivation when he was born. He was already far ahead of everyone else from the beginning."
Xuan Di turned to look and saw a guy wearing an embroidered jade robe, with multiple people surrounding him with a fawning expression on their faces, acting like dogs.
"Look there, see that girl in white? She is Lan Xue, the Ice-Cold Fairy, bro! She supposedly has never smiled since she was born. She is also known as the number one beauty of the Emerald City. People are willing to die just to catch a glance of her."
Xuan Di looked at the girl and saw a fairy-like girl in white standing tall and straight like a peacock among a flock of cranes. Nobody dared to go near her.
"Forget her. Look at that guy. The real monster, Jin Hao from Xuanhua. It's said that when he was born, the heavens thundered for a day, and a jade dragon circled his family's mansion!"
Another guy said, and just as he turned to see the so-called amazing person, a commotion broke out amongst the crowd, attracting everyone's attention.