The Programmer Cultivator

As Lu Ya spoke, the image within the flame changed. The Wu Earth Pool, which like Fire Separation had not yet returned to its place, began to flicker with Spiritual Light. In a flash, the entire miniature pool vanished, and the flame on the Fire-Folding went out in the blink of an eye.

”Was that the mysterious Wu Earth Official Family lending a hand?” Duan Fangchun asked hesitantly.

Lu Ya nodded. ”I believe so.”

”Were they successful?” Duan Fangchun asked with concern.

Lu Ya shook his head. ”I don’t know. I assume they succeeded. If something had gone wrong, our Fire Separation Altar here would have reacted by now.”

Duan Fangchun nodded. ”Yes, that’s true. Let’s hope so. What do we do now?”

Lu Ya shook his head. ”What else can we do? We can only wait.”

”Sigh...” Duan Fangchun paused and let out a breath. ”Back when your Lu Family took the lead and switched to cultivating the Martial Arts Dao, you should have kept a branch of the family as Cultivators. If you hadn’t been so absolute, we wouldn’t be stuck just waiting around anxiously like this. It’s not certain they could have helped much, but at least it wouldn’t be like this, where all we can do is passively wait for our turn.”

”That wouldn’t have worked,” Lu Ya said. ”If that had been an option, we wouldn’t have demanded that your Duan Family branch convert entirely to Martial Artists to join us, even if we didn’t leave a Cultivator branch behind in the first place.”

Duan Fangchun gave a bitter smile. He knew it was a vain hope, but this wasn’t the first time they had been left to wait helplessly.

Among the Five Races, the other families would still occasionally contact each other, even if they didn’t meet face-to-face.

Only they were left to passively wait for news... ’No,’ he thought, ’it would be more accurate to call them notifications, not news.’

’Waiting for news when you can’t initiate contact—isn’t that just waiting for a notification? Most of the time, the other four races would make a decision, and then they’d just send us word.’

It was fine once or twice, but over time, it had bred deep resentment.

”The moment it was decided that we would be responsible for the people’s hearts and minds, the Lu Family was fated to be cut off from the path of cultivation.

If not for the accidental discovery of the Martial Arts Dao—another possibility—our Lu Family might have already degenerated into a mere Mortal family by now, and your branch of the Duan Family would never have come over,” Lu Ya said, his expression somber.

Duan Fangchun glanced at him but didn’t respond to his melancholic words.

’It was one thing when those bald donkeys, those Wish Cultivators, shattered the gates of our Five Elements Blessed Land. But they did it while spouting nonsense about ”my Buddha is merciful,” ”for the sake of all living beings,” and ”to slay demons and defend the Dao,” all before ruthlessly making a great vow to annihilate our race.’

’The Blessed Land fell, the Sect shattered—it was a truly cataclysmic scene. In the lands of the Five Races, everyone vanished without a trace, not a single person left.’

’And it wasn’t just Cultivators; there were Mortals, too. The old, the young, women, and children—from crying infants at their mothers’ breasts to the most ancient elders—every single one was included. Not a single member of our race was spared.’

’Such a great vow. Such Bodhisattvas. Heh. Their Buddha is truly merciful!’

’After the great vow of annihilation, even though many from the Five Races survived outside the ancestral land, they were branded as the Five Elements Remnants.’

’That vow of annihilation created several Bodhisattvas and one Buddha. It gave those bald donkeys a taste of success, making them even more relentless in their efforts to hunt us down to the last man.’

’One by one, for the sake of Wish Power and Merit, they treated us so-called Five Elements Remnants like pigs for the slaughter—bloodthirsty, stripping us to the bone.’

’Heh. Our Five Races practice the Devouring Dao and consume people—an act deemed intolerable by the heavens. But those bald donkeys? They use the annihilation of a race to make a vow, converting it into Resources for their Cultivation. How is that any different?’

’In the years that followed, we struggled to survive. Slowly, the Five Races began to make plans and showed signs of recovery.’

’But only after we regrouped did we realize we had still underestimated the Buddhist Sect’s ruthlessness. That great vow of annihilation wasn’t just limited to a geographical area—it was a curse on our very Bloodline!’

’Those within the Blessed Land were directly affected by the vow and annihilated. Those of us outside, while not directly targeted, were still afflicted by a curse on our Bloodline.’

’Many of the cultivation paths for our Five Races were severed. In particular, any path deeply connected to the Merit Pool’s Dao Spirit was completely blocked within our Bloodlines.’

’At first, this didn’t seem like a huge deal. After all, not all paths were severed; we just had fewer choices.’

’But Buddhist Wish Cultivators love Red Dust Heart Cultivation, experiencing the suffering of the Human World. The Merit Pool and all paths related to this pursuit are deeply intertwined.’

’Therefore, it was only after we reorganized our clans and were planning the Celestial Heart Sacrifice that we discovered it: no matter which Dao we chose, as long as we were Cultivators, we could never pursue the path of winning the hearts of the people and gathering their will.’

’Our Bloodlines were completely severed from any connection to that path. This is the power of a Holy Land, the power of Dao Spiritual Power suppressing all other Daos—a power akin to the Celestial Dao itself.’

After countless years of fruitless searching, the Five Races finally came to an agreement. They decided that one race would live as Mortals to accumulate power for the second phase of the Celestial Heart Sacrifice. And this bleak, bitter task ultimately fell to the Lu Family.

However, when the entire Lu Family relocated to the secular world to develop as a Mortal family, they discovered the Martial Arts Dao here in Baijie City—a path for mortals that existed completely outside the Dao Net.

The rest is history. To win the people’s hearts and minds, they used a Devouring Dao Technique to develop the Devouring Martial Arts Secret Manual, the *North Nether Firewood Skill*.

After the ancestor refined himself, Merging Path to forge the Firewood-Folding and thus solving the problem of daily sacrifices, the Lu Family developed along this new path.

Now, their Fire Separation Lu Family had not only prepared the Resources for the second phase but also much of the Resources for initiating the sacrifice itself. Originally, the agreement was that they would not be responsible for providing the Sacrificial Power for the initiation—they would only need to be present.