The Programmer Cultivator

But the materials laid out before him were far more plentiful than those for an ordinary Tai Chi promotion.

To be precise, aside from the main ingredient—the Two-Tailed Demon Fox Bloodline—he had more than double the usual auxiliary materials, enough for two complete promotions.

These items would have only cost a few hundred Contribution points, but because Qin Shizhong needed them urgently, it took him a full two thousand Spirit Stones to acquire them all through trade.

Qin Shizhong first picked up a flask of blood-red liquid and drank nearly half of it before stopping.

A moment later, his normal complexion began to flush, as if he were drunk. A blush spread across his cheeks, and he grew slightly restless.

When he judged that the time was right, his hands began to rapidly form a series of hand seals.

As he formed the seals of the Promotion Technique, he opened his mouth and spat out a ball of light. This ball of light was somewhat different from the ones Zhang Deming produced.

The balls of light Zhang Deming produced all contained a clear Rune within them. In contrast, the one from Qin Shizhong only held some rune fragments, its lines extremely incomplete.

Still, compared to a ball of light that was complete chaos, the fact that he could advance a Technique to the second stage and have the Rune Ball manifest shattered runes was already quite impressive.

And this was only because Zhang Deming had given him a significant leg up, using several Spirit Nurturing Beads on his behalf.

He didn’t stop after producing the first ball of light. He began forming seals again, and a moment later, spat out a second one.

Only after he had produced both balls of light did he sink his energy into his Dantian. Facing the two rotating spheres, he spat out several mouthfuls of Essence Qi in quick succession.

His ruddy complexion instantly turned deathly pale, completely drained of color. The agitation in his heart was extinguished in a flash, as if doused by a bucket of cold water.

Even so, the Essence Qi was still insufficient for two complete Rune Balls.

Sensing the Rune Balls trembling, Qin Shizhong hesitated no longer. He took the auxiliary materials before him, which dissolved into countless motes of Spiritual Light and merged into the two Rune Balls.

As the Spiritual Light poured in, the two Rune Balls stabilized and began to orbit each other like a binary star system.

At length, after Qin Shizhong had converted all the materials into Spiritual Light and channeled them into the spheres, two slightly incomplete, illusory Runes materialized, one in each Rune Ball.

Although the Runes were somewhat flawed and not in perfect condition, it was, at the very least, an initial success. Gazing at the two Rune Balls, Qin Shizhong, who had been holding his breath, relaxed slightly.

Filled with apprehension, he picked up the final component: the Two-Tailed Demon Fox Bloodline.

He gently opened the container. Guided by his Spiritual Power, the Bloodline flowed out like extremely viscous fluid, coalescing into a sphere of blood in his palm.

The two Rune Balls positioned themselves on either side of the blood sphere and began to orbit it. Gazing at the sphere of blood, Qin Shizhong took the final step.

His hands began forming seals once more. The two orbiting Rune Balls trembled as they slowly drew closer to each other.

The instant the two Rune Balls made contact with the viscous sphere of blood, it swelled abruptly, enveloping the two small Rune Balls completely.

POP...

POP...

The sound of two popping bubbles emerged from within the blood sphere. Immediately after, the sphere pulsed, and the two Runes surfaced within it, beginning to slowly entwine.

The process was extremely slow, and the fact that the two Runes were already imperfect made it even more strenuous for Qin Shizhong.

The struggle dragged on for a long time. Just as Qin Shizhong was on the verge of failing from exhaustion, an illusory Rune Core materialized between his eyebrows.

It was the very same thing that had appeared between Qin Shizhong’s eyebrows when Zhang Deming had used the Spirit Nurturing Enhancement on him.

At the appearance of this illusory Rune Core, the two Runes, which had been on the verge of failing to fuse, jolted in unison. The addition of this final burst of power was the tipping point.

The snake-shaped Rune swiftly coiled around the monkey-shaped one. As they entwined, their once-flawed sections began to fuse and merge.

The two Runes twisted together, becoming a single entity. In the process of their fusion, all the flawed parts were made whole.

As the Rune took its final form, all the Spiritual Light within the blood sphere was absorbed into it. The Rune then jolted, transformed into a streak of light, and shot into the space between Qin Shizhong’s eyebrows, merging with the illusory Rune Core.

Just then, the Rune appeared between Qin Shizhong’s eyebrows as his body rapidly swelled, transforming him into a Qiu Ape standing two meters tall. As the Rune on his brow flickered, a Spiritual Power Sea Absorption began to form.

After drawing in power from a small area, the absorption stopped. Then, the Rune on his brow flickered once more. Qin Shizhong’s body twisted and slumped to the ground, transforming into a brown Demon Python that was over ten meters long.

A long while later, when the Spiritual Power Sea Absorption had concluded and the Rune had solidified, Qin Shizhong felt dazed and confused. He hadn’t cultivated a specific technique for maintaining mental clarity, and his mind was now struggling to cope.

In any other Transformation Dao promotion, the cultivator would likely have flown into a berserk rage at this point, bursting out of their secret chamber and causing a promotion-related disturbance.

However, because of the Two-Tailed Demon Fox Bloodline fusion, Qin Shizhong’s Core Rune had become quite special.

Therefore, despite his limited mental capacity, he was merely slow to react and had not been driven mad by his bestial instincts.

After a long while, he finally came to his senses and shifted back into his human form. He got up, picked up an article of clothing, and quickly put it on. At this point, the projection in the sky finished playing and began a new loop.

··········

At the same time, Zhang Deming’s expression flickered. He arrived at the warehouse to find energy surging as both Merit and Qi Fortune rapidly coalesced.