The Programmer Cultivator

The distance wasn’t great to begin with, and they arrived in the blink of an eye.

When Zhang Deming arrived, the three robots had already been dealt with, and all five were dismantled.

He stared at the scene, stunned. Inside the five robots wasn’t machinery, but flesh and blood.

”Is this... bionics?” Zhang Deming asked in surprise.

Fang Qing looked up at Zhang Deming, his gaze pausing on the Jade Pendant at his waist. He immediately bowed and said, ”Greetings, Martial Uncle!”

”Greetings, Martial Uncle!”

”Greetings, Martial Grand-Uncle!”

”...”

Following Fang Qing’s lead, everyone else bowed in greeting as well.

Zhang Deming nodded. Looking at the dismantled robots, he asked, ”Are these bionic robots from the Outer Realm?”

Hearing this, Fang Qing first nodded, then shook his head. ”There are elements of that, but the core seems to be the Puppet Dao’s Soul Control from the Demon Path.”

Zhang Deming was speechless.

’Another knockoff? Is the Demon Path this cheap too?’

’No, that’s not it.’

’This must be the work of that metal sphere. As a pinnacle of Outer Realm technology, why would it create such a knockoff?’

’Did it not have the relevant data?’

’Or is this some kind of technological innovation? Research?’

’Or perhaps it’s trying to combine robotics with the Puppet Dao? An attempt to create a Hongmeng-style Spiritual Technology?’

’That must be it!’

As these thoughts flashed through Zhang Deming’s mind, Dang Ketao glanced at him and said, ”Let’s go. First, let’s see what’s inside this place.”

”Aren’t we going to give chase?” Zhang Deming asked, looking meaningfully at the Light Gate in the center of the plaza.

Dang Ketao stiffened. ”Let’s not. I’ve already been fooled once; I’m not eager for a repeat anytime soon. We can talk about it again after Martial Uncle and the others arrive.”

’Heh, as long as you’ve learned your lesson.’

Zhang Deming nodded and said, ”Alright then. From the looks of it, this must be the best-preserved and most complete core among the Five Great Secret Realms. I’m quite curious myself.”

With that, Zhang Deming and Dang Ketao took the lead, guiding the group toward the cluster of buildings.

...

As they advanced, they found that all the Arrays and everything else were perfectly intact, as if no one had entered for countless years.

”It seems if we hadn’t happened to run into them, they really were planning to abandon this place,” Dang Ketao commented after they had explored a small portion of the area.

Zhang Deming said, ”That’s obvious. After all, that detachable, special space anchor in the plaza already tells us a lot.

”Combined with the layout here, the conclusion is clear. Many things here might not be useful to Martial Artists, but they’re quite beneficial for us Cultivators.

”To abandon it under these circumstances means they were deliberately leaving it for us as a sweetener to cover their tracks. But I suppose they don’t really care about losing these things anymore.”

Fang Qing paused for a moment and asked, ”Why is that?”

Zhang Deming smiled. ”After exploring most of this area, we can be fairly certain that the only important place is the Scripture Pavilion.

”But manuals can be copied. Besides those, there’s not much of value in the entire Secret Realm. And think about it: with several sects rebelling this time, how many families and Sects have they wiped out?

”The resources they’ve plundered... even a little from each family, when added up, probably equals the assets of several peaks in our Sect!”

Hearing this, Dang Ketao tilted his head and glanced toward the plaza.

Zhang Deming paused, then looked at Dang Ketao. ”Senior Brother, if you’re tempted, make sure you go quietly. Don’t drag me and these Disciples into it. I’ll make sure they don’t follow you this time.”

Dang Ketao was speechless.

Fang Qing was speechless.

The Disciples lowered their heads and followed silently, pretending they hadn’t heard a thing.

”Ahem. They must have planned to abandon this place from the start. The preparations are very thorough; it looks like a place that’s been sealed for a long time,” Dang Ketao said, changing the subject.

Zhang Deming chuckled. ”We’ve already obtained four and a half Secret Realms. Why would they keep this last core? To wait for us to use it to track them down?

”They probably decided not to keep any of the Secret Realms from the moment we started acquiring them.”

But Fang Qing frowned and asked, ”But what about the people?”

Zhang Deming pointed at the Light Gate in the plaza. ”Go ask it!”

Fang Qing’s expression stiffened. ”This Disciple means, since they were still guarding it, even if most have retreated, there should be some stragglers. Why is it empty now, with only a few people left behind?”

Everyone paused, looking at each other for a long moment. Dang Ketao said, ”Let’s go over to that grassy area, revive those people, and ask them.”

Hearing this, Zhang Deming added, ”I was afraid there might be some hidden trap, so I disposed of the bodies.”

Fang Qing was speechless.

Everyone was speechless.

’These two Martial Uncles... I’d better keep my distance from them in the future!’

...

”Let’s go. We should check the main Array control center. Since they haven’t all disappeared, it means the retreat isn’t complete. The only place they would still need to use is the monitoring room,” Zhang Deming said after a moment of thought.

Dang Ketao nodded. ”Right. Let’s go take a look first.”

With that, the two of them led the group, no longer searching as they went, but heading directly through the building complex toward the main control room.

A short while later, they arrived at the first place not sealed by an Array Light Curtain: the Celestial Eye Celestial Observation Pavilion.

After walking into the main hall, the two paused. The entire monitoring room was divided into two parts.

One part consisted of the original various Array monitoring systems. The other part, in the center of the hall where it was originally open space, was filled with many temporary, detachable Array Platforms, displaying over a dozen Array Light Screens.

Unlike the hall’s original monitoring Light Screens, which were turned off, these were all running, each one displaying an image.

Zhang Deming saw at a glance that there were eighteen Light Screens in total. One was dark, but the rest all showed images.

”Are these... surveillance feeds of the entrances and exits?” Zhang Deming guessed hesitantly as he looked at the screens.

”Eighteen? I thought there were nineteen entrances and exits?” Fang Qing asked, confused.

”The one in the center probably isn’t monitored, which makes exactly eighteen. The dark one corresponds to where we came in. Did you guys break anything on your way?” Zhang Deming said.

Hearing this, everyone turned in unison to look at Dang Ketao.