The Programmer Cultivator

This saved the Sect a lot of trouble.

Zhang Deming, in fact, quite envied this kind of life, free from worldly strife, but it was a bit too much like retirement for his taste.

And so, the entire afternoon passed in idle chatter.

······

The next morning, Yi Huaihai had breakfast ready by the time Zhang Deming woke up.

He was the first to notice that Zhang Deming still kept a normal routine of three meals a day, and had even specifically asked about his preferences the day before.

As a result, the meal he prepared early that morning was surprisingly to Zhang Deming’s liking.

After finishing his morning exercises, Zhang Deming returned alone to a corner of the Flower Sea. A fine rain was still drizzling from the sky, and the Life Aura from the surrounding Flower Sea was incredibly rich.

The concentration of the One-Star Spirit Vein was enough to sustain two Tier One Techniques, allowing Zhang Deming to keep them active indefinitely without any personal Energy consumption.

After a full day of infusion, Zhang Deming could clearly feel that the entire Flower Sea had grown very amicable toward him. It was also several times more active than the day before.

Zhang Deming walked up to the most active Flower Wood in the area. As soon as he reached out, the plant stopped swaying and quietly enjoyed his touch, just like a cat being petted.

Seeing this, a smile touched Zhang Deming’s lips. It seemed yesterday’s Awakening Skill had been a great success.

After gently stroking the Flower Wood a few more times, Zhang Deming paused in thought. A nimble stream of water appeared in his palm, swirling gently.

Zhang Deming held the stream of water and guided it to the Flower Wood’s bud. The water flowed out and rushed directly into the bud, causing the plant to pulse with Spiritual Light.

With his hand still outstretched, Zhang Deming focused his senses. At the precise moment his Spirituality and the Flower Wood’s intertwined at their peak, he decisively activated the Spirit Nurturing Technique.

A Rune materialized between his eyebrows, and an endless stream of Spiritual Light poured from his palm into the Flower Wood.

A moment later, motes of light began to spill from the bud, enveloping it. As the motes multiplied, a hollow sphere formed from them slowly materialized in front of Zhang Deming.

With his eyes closed, Zhang Deming’s expression suddenly turned joyful, as if he had sensed something. He decisively infused his insights on the Growth Technique into the sphere.

As the insights flowed in, the hollow sphere of light flickered for a moment before suddenly expanding, forming a massive orb that enveloped both Zhang Deming and the Flower Wood.

At that moment, the Flower Wood’s bud slowly blossomed. A palm-sized Elf, wearing a skirt of leaves and grass, vibrated her cicada-like wings and slowly began to fly.

She was a bit wobbly at first but quickly found her balance. Her lively eyes looked at Zhang Deming with a mix of curiosity and affection.

Zhang Deming couldn’t resist reaching out a finger and gently rubbing her tiny face.

”Eee... ya...”

She responded with a soft babble, then hugged Zhang Deming’s finger and began to nuzzle it repeatedly with her tiny face.

Her tiny face was a picture of bliss, her eyes squinting into happy crescents.

The sheer cuteness of that moment felt like an arrow straight through Zhang Deming’s heart.

’My old man’s heart... is all aflutter.’

At that moment, Zhang Deming felt like he was melting from the cuteness. He looked at the little creature with an indescribable affection, and even a hint of... hmm... ’Paternal love?’

’Yes, that’s it! The tender love of a father!’

The little creature blissfully hugged and nuzzled his finger a few more times before opening her eyes again. She then began to fly around him, chirping, ”Eee-ya, eee-ya!”

A faint Spiritual Light scattered from her wings, and the aura of the Growth Technique emerged. The surrounding Demon Flowers became even more active.

Before the little one could even finish her work, and with her initial baptism still incomplete, the surrounding Demon Flowers began to react under the influence of her Growth Technique.

The blossoms in the surrounding Flower Sea dissolved as if carried by the wind, transforming into streams of pink Spiritual Light that surged toward the tiny, flying creature.

As the pink Spiritual Light merged into her, the little creature began to sway as if she were drunk.

Zhang Deming carefully reached out and caught the reckless little creature.

The little one glanced at Zhang Deming, pouted, and shot a dissatisfied look at the now-withered Demon Flowers. Then, she curled up in his palm and fell asleep.

With a helpless expression, Zhang Deming gently cradled the reckless little creature and placed her on the Flower Wood’s enormous blossom.

The petals of the Flower Wood’s blossom closed slightly, once again cradling the little creature protectively.

Once everything was settled, Zhang Deming looked at the now-still Flower Wood, his heart filled with affection for the first little life he had brought forth through Spirit Awakening.

Just then, an image appeared within his Spirit Nurturing Space. It depicted the very scene of the Spirit Awakening that Zhang Deming had just performed.

The image flickered as it played through, then finally transformed into a mote of light and merged into the sky.

In his repository, Energy surged. His Qi Fortune increased by 0.4, and his Merit increased by 0.1.

Compared to achieving Enlightenment Dao with a Spirit Nurturing Bead, the rewards from Spirit Awakening were clearly higher—especially the Merit, which was a full five times greater.

A smile bloomed on Zhang Deming’s face once more.

He then composed himself. ’Since my luck is good today, I should strike while the iron is hot.’ Zhang Deming selected another Flower Wood and began the Spirit Awakening process anew.

Flower Demons truly lived up to their reputation for being difficult to nurture. Even with Zhang Deming’s Tier Three Mastery of the Spirit Nurturing Technique, performing Spirit Awakening in this polluted Flower Sea remained exceedingly difficult.

Throughout the day, Zhang Deming encountered failure after failure.

Some lacked sufficient Spirituality, others were too heavily polluted, and some looked perfectly fine on the outside but were already necrotic within.

He had thought Spirit Awakening would be no trouble for him, but reality delivered a harsh blow.

In this Flower Sea, the pollution was so severe that mastery of his Spirit Nurturing Technique was no longer the deciding factor.

Many of the Flower Woods had, in fact, already lost the ability to produce Flower Demon Elves. A good number of them were, for all intents and purposes, stillborn.

After a full day of non-stop work, Zhang Deming had only succeeded three times.

Compared to Yue Mengsheng and the others, his results were certainly impressive.

However, Zhang Deming’s current rate of creating Spirit Nurturing Beads was more than three times higher than that of Yue Mengsheng’s group.

Still, given the current situation, meeting the minimum quota of nurturing twenty-five or twenty-six a year would be quite easy. In fact, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to complete the grand total of one hundred all by himself.

To avoid appearing too conspicuous, Zhang Deming didn’t enter the Secret Realm the next day.

Instead, he resumed his ”idling” life, splitting his time between the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower and the archives.

And so, Zhang Deming’s life settled into a peaceful routine.

Every three to five days, he would enter the Secret Realm and perform Spirit Awakening on one or two Flower Demons. He spent the rest of his time immersed in the archives, cramming to make up for his lack of knowledge while his techniques ran on autopilot.

During this time, Zhang Deming didn’t forget to make Spirit Nurturing Beads in the evenings. Crafting a few batches of Tier One Spirit Nurturing Pearls before bed each night seemed to have become his habit.

To this end, Zhang Deming even specially had Qin Shizhong transferred to the Inner Sect. Struck by this incredible windfall, Qin Shizhong actually abandoned his mercantile business to focus solely on procuring materials for Zhang Deming.

He would take Zhang Deming’s money, buy materials, and run errands for him without making a single cent of profit.

He had completely repositioned himself as one of Zhang Deming’s Disciples, intent on clinging tightly to his powerful new patron.

Seeing his sincerity and decent competence, and considering him part of his own Direct Lineage, more or less, Zhang Deming assigned him to the Flying Spring Waterfall Cliff along with Yang Guangfu, posting him there as a cliff guardian.

······

「Another month passed in the blink of an eye.」

A message from Qu Qizhong shattered Zhang Deming’s peaceful life.

The supply of Spirit Nurturing Beads he had rush-produced before was running critically low. They needed a restock, and Qu Qizhong had also requested a meeting.

Zhang Deming stared at the message and fell silent. ’It’s time to act on the few things I’ve been considering for the Alliance.’

’First, there’s the matter of the gathering. It’s still a slapdash group, but since I’ve started it, we really need to hold a meeting. At the very least, everyone should get to know one another.’

’That’s the only way to create a platform for them to trade, collaborate, or whatever else.’

’Second, there’s the Energy testing. Feng Mingyou and Li Shifan both achieving Foundation Establishment Tai Chi one after the other has shown me a potential new channel for earning Merit.’

’It was delayed because of the Secret Realm, but now it needs to be put on the agenda. As my Techniques level up, my Energy reserves are getting tighter and tighter, especially my Golden Merit.’