The Programmer Cultivator

The middle-aged man, Dang Mengfu, paused for a moment, reining in his emotions as he glanced at Zhang Deming and Yang Guangfu.

The moment his gaze fell on Zhang Deming, it lingered for a second. Zhang Deming froze as a piercing sensation, the likes of which he had never felt before, washed over him.

The Cultivation Technique Script inside him spun faintly, and his Tier Three Hidden Breath Skill rapidly activated. The piercing sensation immediately vanished.

Dang Mengfu’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Without giving Zhang Deming another look, he addressed them both.

”You’ve come through the Spirit Nurturing Peak’s special clearance channel, so your selection is limited to Techniques of Tier Three and below, with priority given to the Flower Wood Dao.

General-purpose Techniques come second. As for other Techniques, while you have the right to select them, you will need a valid reason. Otherwise, you must pay with Contribution Points; Spirit Stones won’t be accepted.

Of course, if you can use all of this for a commission, and that commission is successful, then any Technique is permissible.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Deming nodded. ”Understood.”

Seeing this, Dang Mengfu said, ”Then, hold out your hand.”

Zhang Deming paused for a moment before doing as instructed, extending his right hand.

As Zhang Deming held out his hand, Dang Mengfu made no move, yet a point of Spiritual Light began to well up on Zhang Deming’s fingertip, flickering mysteriously.

Dang Mengfu looked at the point of Spiritual Light and said, ”That’s enough. You may go and retrieve whatever you wish to see. A preliminary browse should be no issue, with the exception of core Inheritances of Tier Five and above.”

With that said, he turned to Yang Guangfu. ”As for you, you can only watch from here.”

Yang Guangfu nodded obediently. He was just here to run an errand and broaden his horizons anyway; he never expected to snag a Technique or two for himself.

Zhang Deming stared at his right hand, a little baffled. ’So this tiny speck of Spiritual Light on my fingertip is all it takes?’

After parting ways with Yang Guangfu, Zhang Deming went to the Light Curtain at the rear of the hall. He tentatively reached out and poked at it.

The moment his fingertip touched the Light Curtain, it rippled like the surface of water, and his hand passed through without any resistance.

Seeing this, Zhang Deming no longer hesitated and took a step forward, passing through the Light Curtain.

After passing through the Light Curtain, Zhang Deming once again found himself staring blankly at the enormous domed ceiling. He muttered, ”So... how do I choose a Technique?”

As he spoke, an illusory book materialized before him.

Zhang Deming paused for a moment, then reached out his right hand. With a light flick, the book opened.

The thick book was filled with a table of contents, corresponding Technique descriptions, and instructions on where and how to retrieve them.

Once he understood the process, Zhang Deming settled down and began to calmly peruse the table of contents, sifting through the Technique descriptions.

After a moment, Zhang Deming paused his browsing. A particular Technique had caught his eye.

Technique: Vine Body Incarnation

Category: Summoning

Tier: Three

Role: Combat Control, Unconventional Escape, Unconventional Assassination.

Effect: Instantly summon a Vine Incarnation, while the Main Body enters a hidden Vine Escape state for a short time. The exact escape distance and the duration of the Escape Skill depend on the user’s mastery of the Technique.

Note: This Skill can be developed by focusing on its designated roles. However, be aware that as this is a low-level Incarnation summoning, the Incarnation possesses no Spirit Wisdom.

If one focuses on developing this Skill, it is recommended to also cultivate control-type Techniques.

Recommended Complementary Techniques: Seven-Quartet Exquisite Heart series, Soul Division series, Dream Soul series.

’I have to say, the things at headquarters are so much better than at the branch.’

’Just these recommendations and notes alone could save many a Disciple countless hours of fumbling around.’

Zhang Deming was extremely interested in this Technique. If he could successfully master it, it would solve his problem of summoning something right in front of people.

Currently, if Zhang Deming wanted to activate one of his alternate identities in public, he couldn’t stage the switch himself.

After all, he couldn’t just fuse a ball of light into his own body in front of everyone. And even if he could do it secretly, it would be pointless if he couldn’t also manifest a duplicate of his Main Body.

This imposed a limitation: his alternate identities only possessed the abilities of their Mirror Image templates and couldn’t use his Main Body’s powers.

If he learned this, he could activate an alternate identity with his Main Body, even in plain sight.

He could use this Skill to create a decoy, allowing his Main Body to use an escape technique and hide while activating the alternate identity. Then, when it appeared, the Main Body would have been perfectly replaced by the new persona.

Zhang Deming reached out and gently tapped the Technique’s information in the directory. The Spiritual Light on his hand flickered.

In the vast, domed space, a book from a slot in a corner suddenly flew out and floated directly in front of Zhang Deming.

Zhang Deming opened it. Instantly, a speck of golden light and a speck of white light shot directly into his storage.

’Zhang Deming wasn’t surprised by this at all. Spirit Nurturing Peak already has a decent collection of Tier Three Techniques. So why did I bother coming to headquarters?’

’The main reason was to harvest a wave of Golden Fleece, of course!’

’And the result is a pleasant surprise. The haul from a single book here is three to five times what I’d get in the Outer Sect.’

’If it weren’t for the strict entry restrictions, there would probably be even more to gain. This place has such a long history, after all!’

’But there’s no hurry. I should find the Techniques I need first. A hall this large... I definitely can’t clear it out in one or two visits. Even three to five would be a stretch.’

’After all, there’s that old monster watching outside. And inside here, who knows how many even more ridiculous hidden masters are watching my every move.’

’Since ancient times, Scripture Pavilions have been breeding grounds for lazy-yet-overpowered masters. It’s practically an innate law of the environment!’

’In the mundane world, libraries are for loafers. In an Extraordinary world, they’re for loafers who happen to be grandmasters.’

···

Zhang Deming skimmed the readable first half of the text. It was a perfect match for his needs.

Therefore, Zhang Deming took it, confirming his selection.

Following the recommendation, Zhang Deming also selected a Tier Two Technique called >, which would allow him to temporarily control the Incarnation.

To be honest, the Seven-Quartet Exquisite Heart series, which specialized in multitasking, would have been the most suitable choice.

However, Zhang Deming also wanted to choose a memory-manipulation Technique this time, which was why he had picked this one instead.

After all, if he wasn’t mistaken, a Dream Dao Memory Technique could be fused with >.

And everything here, while excellent, was also incredibly expensive. He only had a few hundred Contribution Points, which wasn’t nearly enough to have it all.