The Programmer Cultivator

The quicksand had turned into sludge. A hand made of mud swept out, pulling all the black mist that had just appeared down into the earth until it disappeared completely.

The sludge searched for a long time but found nothing. However, it seemed certain that something remained, so it didn’t give up.

After another fruitless search, it seemed to hesitate. The entire room began to writhe, first turning into sludge, then becoming what seemed to be exceptionally fertile soil.

Amidst this fluctuating aura, after a long while, a flower began to sprout uncontrollably from the sludge’s body. The sludge instantly coiled around it, devouring it whole.

"Every last one of you old ghosts is a real pain."

Guan Shouxin’s voice drifted out from the sludge, stripped of its earlier anger and without a hint of worry. His tone was exceptionally flat, just as it always was.

After he spoke, the room instantly cleared, and silence fell once again.

After a long while, the sludge re-emerged. Once it confirmed there were no other foreign presences, it writhed and took the form of Guan Shouxin, stepped into the room’s Array, and vanished.

When he reappeared, he was already inside his Cave Mansion on Wanghui Peak. He did not resume his Cultivation. Instead, he opened the entrance to his Cave Mansion and walked outside.

Whether intentionally or not, he walked mostly through the areas frequented by the Zhou Family. In his usual listless manner, he even made a point to greet familiar faces, acting just as he always had, with nothing out of the ordinary.

However, if someone were to observe him with a high-level Spiritual Eye, they would discover that this was merely a mud puppet wearing human skin.

But with a Three Talents ancestor still on Wanghui Peak, it was highly unlikely anyone would have a death wish and specifically try to investigate him under normal circumstances.

* * *

After parting ways with Gan Zili and the others, Zhang Deming descended, arriving in the sky above the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower. With the Peak Master’s Identity Token hanging from his waist, he passed straight through the protective Array.

It was certainly much more convenient than the standard Identity Card. The Identity Card required one to swipe it, whereas this token was recognized automatically. He wondered if he could start using this token as his regular form of identification.

’After today, my status as a Peak Master probably won’t be a secret anymore. At least, not within certain circles. After all, today’s events caused quite a commotion and are drawing significant attention because of those remnants. The neighboring sects will definitely be watching closely, and as the one who lit the fuse, I’ll be under an even bigger microscope. And since my files in the Celestial Spirit Sect are classified, the fact that a Duality Cultivator like me is one of the Four Peak Masters of Spirit Nurturing Peak will only draw more eyes. So, after today, I probably can’t be a nobody at the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower anymore. I might even become a known figure among the higher-ups of the neighboring sects.’

Drifting down to the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower, Zhang Deming returned to his third-floor Cultivation Room and went into the storage area.

The storage area was no longer empty; it was now filled with a dazzling assortment of items. The majority of it consisted of Spirit Stones and Spirit Nurturing Beads.

Besides these, the most numerous things were various rare allotments exclusive to the Peak Master Level. While the amount of any single item was small, the variety was considerable.

He could sell these items for a decent sum of Spirit Stones, but given his status, he needed to keep some on hand. There would certainly be times when they were needed. As long as he didn’t seal his Cave Mansion and refuse all visitors, such social necessities were unavoidable.

In addition to these, there were various other treasures scattered about: the resources from his recent trip into the mountains, the Heart-Connected Lotus Root, some storage bags, the Quantum Notebook, and other assorted items.

After entering the storage area, Zhang Deming walked past numerous shelves and came to a corner. On an otherwise empty shelf sat the enigmatic Celestial Heart Treasure Box and a Soul Mist Ball that shimmered with an ethereal light.

Zhang Deming first looked at the Celestial Heart Treasure Box, inspecting it carefully for a moment before raising his hand to conjure an Illusion Array Light Screen. The screen flickered to life, displaying an image of the Celestial Heart Altar.

Zhang Deming glanced at the shabby-looking box, then back at the center of the altar on the Light Screen. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he had a feeling this strange little thing would be a perfect fit.

’The Rune contact points seem to line up perfectly?!’

After a moment of contemplation, Spiritual Light surged from Zhang Deming’s hand. The glow of an Array materialized on the box, flickering faintly.

With a grasping motion toward the box, he used the power of the Array Dao to construct a phantom model of it.

Holding the model of the box in his left hand and the Light Screen showing the altar in his right, Zhang Deming walked over to his Technique Cultivation Room. He tossed the Light Screen into the air, and with a pulse of his Tier Three Array Dao power, the screen dissolved into Spiritual Light.

The phantom image of the altar, however, burst forth from the dissipating screen. It came to rest in the middle of the Technique Cultivation Room, hovering half a foot above the floor as it slowly began to expand.

Zhang Deming only stopped when the virtual model of the altar had grown large enough to fill the entire Technique Cultivation Room.

Although he didn’t use his Array Dao power often, it was the foundation of his Rune Core. With a Tier Three Array Dao combined with his Duality Cultivation, creating a complete virtual model like this was quite easy.

The altar before him was a perfect replica of the one in his memory, just scaled down countless times to fit within the limited space.

Of course, creating a model the same size as the original altar would be a serious strain on his Spiritual Power. He would need to be holding a Spirit Crystal or literally bury himself in a pile of Spirit Stones to pull it off.

Zhang Deming observed the altar before him, nodded in satisfaction, and then walked right through the phantom image to its center.

He gestured toward the center again, and the outer parts of the altar slowly faded away. Only the central section remained, reverting to its actual size and hovering about a hand’s breadth off the floor.

Judging the alignment to be correct, Zhang Deming took the phantom model of the box and pressed it into the gap at the center of the altar’s model.

Before his very eyes, the two phantom models slotted together perfectly. Even the Rune interfaces aligned with flawless precision.

Zhang Deming: "???"

’Did my own expectations influence my memory, making me subconsciously model them to fit? Or... are these two things actually a matching set?’

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