The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 122: Chapter 7: It Turns Out the Hongmeng Realm Is a Planet

It felt as if time had rewound ten years, back to the days when someone always protected her, when she didn’t have to worry or fight for anything.

”Oh!”

After a long moment, she uttered a single word.

”Calmed down now? If you’re calm, I’ll ask, and you’ll answer,” Zhang Deming said.

”Mhm,” Panx Juan’er murmured, gently resting her head against the back of Zhang Deming’s neck.

Just then, before he could even ask a question, Zhang Deming suddenly froze. He dropped into a crouch, then instantly leaped upwards. In just a few bounds, he was at the top of a tree in the blink of an eye.

The Vines protecting him rapidly spread out and extended.

The pistols and machine guns at the tips of the Vines, under Zhang Deming’s direct control, opened fire on several disc-shaped drones nearby.

He had been weaving through the dense forest after jumping down from the tree, forcing the drones to lower their altitude to keep track of him. This sudden leap upward, combined with the rapid extension of his Vines, put two of the drones directly into the crossfire, strafed at close range.

Although Zhang Deming had never used a gun and his aim was poor, under the hail of bullets from six pistols and two machine guns, one drone was successfully shot down.

The other one reacted instantly, soaring high into the sky to evade the close-range fire.

...

Not far behind, four figures in special boots were giving chase at high speed, aided by their footwear.

Their speed was nearly as fast as Zhang Deming’s. If it weren’t a primeval jungle, where going any faster meant their reflexes couldn’t keep up, their top speed could break a hundred miles per hour.

”Fuck.”

At that moment, one of the two men holding display screens cursed.

The captain, Shan Honglai, asked, ”What’s wrong?”

”Captain, something’s not right. Our mission briefing has nothing on this guy. And according to the client’s data on the Celestial Spirit Sect’s Inner Sect, he doesn’t exist.

What’s more, he seems extremely familiar with our equipment. He just used the guns he took from Old Jit’s team to ambush our drones.

Old Pang’s drone has been destroyed. Only mine is still tracking him,” said the other man with a display screen.

”What did you say? He shot down a drone with guns?

If I recall correctly, the Federation strictly prohibits anyone from teaching any technological knowledge to anyone from Hongmeng, right?” Shan Honglai asked grimly.

What Shan Honglai didn’t say was that, on Hongmeng Star, using guns in a counter-attack had, in the early days, been a subtle way for undercover agents to signal their identity.

That, combined with his immunity to the Quantum Pulse Bomb’s interference and the fact that two of their teammates were captured but not killed... ’Could it be...?’

Several of them shook their heads. Old Pang spoke up, ”What’s so strange about that? We’re trying to steal their Magic, and they’re trying to reverse-engineer our tech. Hasn’t it always been like this?”

Shan Honglai shook his head. ”The Celestial Spirit Sect is only one of the Four-Nine Upper Sects. Given Hongmeng’s social structure and culture, they shouldn’t have much exposure to this kind of knowledge. Matters concerning our Celestial Universe have always been handled by their Holy Lands. Besides, we haven’t been in contact for long. With their slower pace of life, this information couldn’t have become widespread. An Upper Sect like theirs would be lucky to have some basic data on us. It’s not like with us, where most information is common knowledge.”

Old Pang said in surprise, ”Are you saying there’s a problem?”

Shan Honglai recalled his first impression of the target, and then the condition of his two captured teammates. They looked horrifying, but reports said there were no fatal injuries, possibly no major harm at all.

Of course, they could also be dying in extreme agony; it all depended on the target’s intentions.

Shan Honglai pondered for a moment before saying, ”Ask our superiors how many Dark Pawns the espionage department has in the Celestial Spirit Sect.

Just tail him for now. Don’t engage. We can’t risk taking out one of our own.

If this is fallout from another mission, even though we’ve left the official Government, it’ll still be a world of trouble for us.

Also, build a data model of the target. Use that software developed by that freak in the Foreign Affairs Department to analyze his probable upbringing.”

The men paused in surprise. Upon hearing the orders, Old Pang quickly began tapping away on his tablet.

...

After taking out one drone, Zhang Deming shook his head in disappointment. The surprise attack hadn’t eliminated all of them. Now that the enemy was prepared, it would be much harder to succeed again.

After all, he didn’t have any Flying abilities at the moment, leaving him helpless against the nimble drones.

He jumped down from the tree again and began weaving through the woods at high speed.

”Tell me about the Celestial Universe Federation. And what is this ’Outer Realm’?” Zhang Deming asked.

Panx Juan’er heard him and replied, ”You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you. Many in the Inner Sect think it’s all just made-up nonsense.”

Zhang Deming frowned. ”Tell me anyway.”

”They say we live on a sphere!” Panx Juan’er began with what she considered the most ridiculous part.

Zhang Deming was slightly taken aback. ’So the Celestial Universe Federation is from an Interstellar civilization?’

’Then the Hongmeng Realm should actually be called Hongmeng Star?’

’Is this world part of an Interstellar Cosmos, not some Multiverse or Honeycomb Crystal Wall System Cosmos?’

Panx Juan’er’s single sentence sent countless thoughts racing through Zhang Deming’s mind.

”Continue,” Zhang Deming said.

”You believe this stuff?” Panx Juan’er asked. ”Then again, after all the things you’ve told me about other worlds, how could you not?”

Panx Juan’er murmured to herself before continuing, ”What we call the Outer Realm is supposedly outer space. In space, there are countless spheres like ours.

Some are inhabited, while others are desolate wastelands with no one on them.

And the Celestial Universe Federation is made up of Foreigners who live in the same space as us, just on a different sphere.

Um, the documents call it the same star field, a twin star system.

I don’t know the specifics. I’m just repeating what I read, that our two worlds belong to a rare twin star system.

They’re on the same... orbit or something, in adjacent positions. The two star systems are very close, and even their Haoyangs are twins.

The documents say they follow the path of a technological civilization, while we follow a Cultivation Civilization.

From what I’ve gathered, they seem to be focused on developing the field of Artifact Refining to its absolute limit.

Although the Array Artifact Dao is also advanced in our Hongmeng Realm, it’s not everything—just one of the many mainstream arts.

But their entire civilization—ninety percent of it—is built on the path of Artifact Refining.

The Celestial Universe Federation controls the Celestial Universe Star, and our Hongmeng Holy Land unifies the Hongmeng Realm.

A few years ago, our two sides established some contact. Because of the differences between our civilizations, most of their Stewards are just Ordinary people.

So, most of the ones they send to our world are also Ordinary people who arrive by piloting Artifacts.”

’So it really is a Star-Level Cosmos?’

”How do you know all this?” Zhang Deming asked.

”The Holy Land distributed informational materials, but they were just for general knowledge. It was optional whether you read them or not.

I... because of certain things, I ended up systematically reading quite a bit of it ahead of time,” Panx Juan’er said.

”If diplomatic relations have been established, doesn’t this count as an invasion?” Zhang Deming said, glancing at the drone in the sky.

”This group is probably from the Underworld. I’ve heard that their Holy Land...

I mean, their Government. They’ve established some special organizations in the shadows of our world.

They’re somewhat similar to assassin guilds. They use them to trade intelligence, which is a bit different from how we do things.

However, since these organizations have official support from their Government, their intelligence is usually quite good, but their fees are also very high,” Panx Juan’er said.

As Panx Juan’er spoke, Zhang Deming began to understand the likely reason for all this.

It was probably an issue of internal competition within the Celestial Spirit Sect. Someone had placed an order with the Celestial Universe Federation’s intelligence division.