The Programmer Cultivator

Some of these peculiar techniques required lifespan, others special materials, and some, like this one, would deduct your cultivation! And having your cultivation deducted was actually considered one of the better costs among techniques like these.

’A one-day buff should do. Yeah, a superficial effect just to fool people will be fine.’

As Zhang Deming’s thought settled, a strange fluctuation surged into his body.

”Experience Points -1000!”

’Seriously? It costs this many Experience Points just for some window dressing? F*cking...

Doesn’t this mean that every time those Blessed Fortune Path Cultivators make a move, their cultivation just plummets?’

No wonder with the Blessed Fortune Path, each cultivator was more cautious than the last;

with the Computation Path, each was more sickly than the last;

and with the Marriage Fate Path, each was more solitary than the last.

...

Speechless, Zhang Deming shook his head. He dispelled the Spirit Nurturing Mirror Image within his body, and a sense of calm returned. Then, he flopped back down like a salted fish.

Luh Jingsun’s information proved to be quite accurate. Zhang Deming had been lying down for less than ten minutes when the array rippled.

Immediately, a squad from the Inner Sect Law Enforcement Team, composed entirely of Tai Chi Cultivators, entered Qingyou Pool.

The leader stepped forward, looked at Zhang Deming lying there like a salted fish, and asked, ”Might you be Junior Brother Zhang Deming?”

Zhang Deming glanced up at the man. ”Can’t you tell, Senior Brother?

What sort of wind has blown through today?

To bring a senior brother from the Inner Sect all the way to Little Hui Peak?”

The leader sized Zhang Deming up but didn’t seem to mind his attitude. ”If that’s the case,” he said, ”then please come with us, Junior Brother Zhang.”

Zhang Deming looked at the squad, then rose to his feet. ”Alright,” he said.

The leader was surprised by how readily Zhang Deming agreed but said nothing more, simply leading him toward the Inner Sect Main Peak.

His mind racing, Zhang Deming followed the Law Enforcement Team. They quickly jogged to a plaza and found several Immortal Cranes waiting there.

The men led Zhang Deming over, and they mounted the cranes in pairs.

The leader and Zhang Deming mounted one together. The Immortal Crane immediately soared into the sky, and Little Hui Peak shrank rapidly beneath them.

Zhang Deming looked up, his gaze passing over the surrounding mountains to settle on the tallest of them all: the Main Peak.

’Today, I will officially step into the Celestial Spirit Sect and fall under the gaze of certain people.’

’Only those who have set foot on the Main Peak can be considered true members of the Celestial Spirit Sect. Everyone else is just an ant.’

’After ten years as an ant, he’d had enough.’

’From this day forward, I, Zhang Deming, will carve out a place for myself in the Celestial Spirit Sect!’

...

「Celestial Spirit Peak, Celestial Spirit Main Hall.」

The Celestial Spirit Council, which rarely convened even once a decade, had been abruptly called to session today.

Moreover, aside from a handful of Duality Cultivators, everyone present was a Three Talents Great Cultivator.

On the main seat sat the current Sect Leader, Dang Jun’an, a Celestial Realm Cultivator at the Peak of Three Talents who appeared to be barely middle-aged.

To Sect Leader Dang Jun’an’s right sat three elders, all with white hair and beards, each of them a Great Cultivator of the Three Talents Stage.

The three of them showed no interest in the topic at hand—some issue concerning the back mountains—and were brazenly resting with their eyes closed.

To Dang Jun’an’s left sat the heads of the Resources Department, the Law Enforcement Team, and the Miscellaneous Affairs Department.

These were the kind of leaders who might not personally handle a single affair in a century, yet their departments still revolved entirely around them. They, too, were all Three Talents Great Cultivators, and their expressions at this moment were a study in contrasts.

Zhou Jiuyan, the head of the Law Enforcement Team, had his arms crossed, watching the heads of the Resources and Miscellaneous Affairs Departments argue themselves red-faced over the issue with the back mountains. He wore the expression of someone enjoying a good show.

The Resources Department accused the Miscellaneous Affairs Department of overreaching, while the Miscellaneous Affairs Department claimed the Resources Department was overstepping its jurisdiction.

As the argument heated up, Fanx Qingyong, the farmer-like head of the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, began to complain with an extremely wronged expression, saying that his department was stuck with all the thankless, odd jobs in the Sect.

Yet his department was the poorest, and its disciples had the hardest lives.

All the perks were being monopolized by the Resources Department, whose members were masters of graft and extortion. If this kept up, he lamented, the disciples of the Resources Department would get so fat they’d die, while those in Miscellaneous Affairs would starve.

The old man’s aggrieved words and expression infuriated Yang Longying, the portly head of the Resources Department, causing the flesh on his stout frame to tremble with rage.

”That’s enough, Fanx Qingyong! You pull this same stunt every single time. At your age, have you no shame?

If you’ve got the guts, go on and cry.

If you can actually squeeze out a few crocodile tears for me here in the Celestial Spirit Hall, I’ll let your Miscellaneous Affairs Department manage the resources for the Cyan Wood Secret Realm. I swear it.

Even if you lot squander every last bit of it, I won’t say a single word of protest.”

The portly Yang Longying looked at the farmer-like Fanx Qingyong as he spoke.

”Those are your words!” Fanx Qingyong immediately dropped his wronged expression and declared.

The portly Yang Longying nodded calmly. ”I said it. The resource allocation of a single Secret Realm in exchange for a few crocodile tears from a shameless old coot like you? I’d say that’s a bargain.”

Fanx Qingyong’s expression darkened. ”Fatty Yang, who are you calling shameless?”

Watching Fanx Qingyong deftly change the subject, both the Law Enforcement elder, Zhou Jiuyan, and Sect Leader Dang Jun’an shook their heads.

He couldn’t win in a direct argument, but he couldn’t bring himself to be completely shameless either. He was outmatched in scheming, and in terms of official authority, the Miscellaneous Affairs Department was inherently at a disadvantage.

This match—like the countless matches before it over the years—had a foregone conclusion.

Yet these two old men never tired of their bickering. If anyone else tried to intervene, both would get annoyed. It didn’t matter who you tried to help; they’d both be pissed off.

Dang Jun’an watched the familiar scene unfold. If things progressed from here, it would follow the usual pattern.

First, the two old men would start a shouting match. Before long, they’d be pulling at each other’s beards and poking fingers at noses.

Anyone suddenly witnessing two great patriarchs of the Three Talents stage acting like a pair of mortal codgers might find it utterly astonishing, even unbelievable.

But in the Celestial Spirit Sect—at least for everyone present in this hall today—no one was surprised. This little spectacle was practically a thousand-year-old Sect tradition.

The three white-haired elders to the right remained in their meditative rest, while the junior members attending the council kept their heads bowed in silence.

The junior members from their two respective departments were particularly adept at this, each desperately trying to minimize their presence, lest the conflict suddenly spread to them.

On any other day, this would have been fine. Everyone knew the two bigwigs were just posturing and understood the limits.

The worst that could happen was one would find a pretext to punish the other’s subordinate, sentencing them to a few days of wall-gazing. For cultivators of their level, such a punishment was hardly a hardship.

It was just a formality, a way for the old patriarchs to save face.

But these past few days, Wanghui Peak was already overflowing with wall-gazers, all of them juniors. None of the senior members wanted to get caught in the crossfire, be innocently implicated, and then suffer the humiliation of being punished alongside their juniors.

That would be a monumental loss of face.

Getting punished for a genuine mistake was one thing, but being implicated for no reason? That would be enough to make them brood for a century—the kind of brooding that could make a person vomit blood.

...