The Programmer Cultivator

Zhang Deming smiled. "We’ll know once we try. It’s just a wild guess, anyway."

After he spoke, the two of them passed back through the membrane to the side with the swirling airflow. They waited quietly for a moment, and another Sword Shadow drifted out.

Seeing this, Zhang Deming manifested a sharp spike and instantly shattered it, shouting, "Now!"

Li Shifan, who was already prepared, quickly formed a series of hand signs. Three Sword Spirits shot away from their side.

"Ugh..."

"Ngh..."

With the Sword Spirit protection gone, both men grunted in pain. Zhang Deming’s head instantly felt like it was splitting open, as if countless needles were stabbing his mind and piercing his temples.

As his Spiritual Shield trembled violently, a warm trickle of blood ran from his nose.

A trickle of blood also ran from Li Shifan’s nose, but he clenched his jaw. As stars swam in his vision, he used every ounce of strength to control the three Sword Spirits, driving them into the air wall that had materialized.

The air wall, which had felt like a thin membrane when they’d passed through it before, yielded as the three Sword Spirits slowly pierced into it.

That’s right—they pierced *into* the air wall. The sword tips didn’t emerge on the other side of the passage, in the area without airflow. Instead, they simply vanished after entering the wall.

After the three Sword Spirits were embedded in it, the membrane-like air wall rippled like the surface of water. In the triangular area framed by the three Sword Spirits, a unique silver light began to glow.

The moment Li Shifan finished, his body went limp and he started to collapse.

Zhang Deming’s right hand transformed into a Jade Vine. It shot out, wrapped around Li Shifan, and pulled him along as Zhang Deming followed the three Sword Spirits, plunging headfirst into the silvery air wall.

An intense, disorienting feeling of spatial distortion washed over him, and Zhang Deming was plunged into a daze.

...

After passing through the silver Light Curtain, Zhang Deming snapped back to his senses. Ignoring the violent throbbing in his mind, he manifested a blood-red vine and, without hesitation, plunged it into Li Shifan’s chest.

The Ruby Vine shimmered with a demonic red glow as a Yin Yang Fish-shaped piece spun rapidly within his body.

Wisps of pure Vitality seeped out, mingling with motes of dreamlike light. They surged through the Ruby Vine connecting them and poured into Li Shifan’s chest.

Li Shifan had been on the verge of passing out, but as the exceptionally pure Vitality flooded into his chest, a jolt ran through him. His half-lidded eyes snapped wide open, and he was thrown into a state of euphoria.

"What are you spacing out for? Get the defenses up! I can’t keep this healing up for long!" Zhang Deming urged, seeing the orgasmic expression that had suddenly appeared on Li Shifan’s face.

Li Shifan snapped out of it. His hands became a blur of motion, and the three Spirit Swords that had entered with them once again hovered outside their Shields.

The stabbing pain in his head instantly subsided, fading until it was barely noticeable. Only then did Zhang Deming let out a long sigh of relief.

"Um..." Li Shifan said awkwardly. "Can you... pull it out now?"

Zhang Deming froze. He looked down and saw Li Shifan staring with an odd expression at the Ruby Vine plunged into his chest.

’???!!!’

’I’m performing a high-level healing technique here. Why does it sound so weird when you put it that way???’

"Ha! It was an emergency. I didn’t have time to feed you Vitality Leaves," Zhang Deming explained, embarrassed.

Li Shifan said with that same odd tone, "Yeah, I know. Just pull it out first."

’What the hell do you mean, "pull it out"?!’

’Can’t you find another way to say it?!’

’Have you been communing with your Ancestral Gods for so long that you’ve forgotten how to speak properly? Why do you have to use such a weird description?! If you want me to withdraw the Technique, just say withdraw the Technique! What’s all this "pull it out" nonsense?!!!’

Zhang Deming’s face twitched. Under Li Shifan’s peculiar gaze, with a thought, the Ruby Vine dissolved into a cloud of Spiritual Light and vanished.

At the same time, the Jade Vine holding Li Shifan also reverted back into his right hand.

THUD... Li Shifan, completely unprepared, dropped straight to the ground and face-planted.

Seeing Li Shifan look up at him with a resentful expression, Zhang Deming said coolly, "You were the one who told me to withdraw the Technique. It’s not my fault you weren’t ready."

Li Shifan paused, then climbed back to his feet. Only now did the two have a moment to survey their surroundings.

"This is... a Grotto Heaven?!!!" Li Shifan said in astonishment.

Zhang Deming scanned the area and shook his head. "No. It barely qualifies as a Secret Realm. At best, it’s just a Small Secret Realm, maybe a little bigger than a Personal Cave Mansion."

They appeared to be in a deep valley, which felt to be several miles in area. The entire valley was suffused with an intense, sharp Sword Qi, even more potent than in the cavern they had just left.

That was why the two of them, having rushed in so suddenly, had nearly been knocked unconscious by the piercing pain in their minds.

Despite the space being saturated with sharp Sword Qi, the valley itself seemed unaffected. A stream babbled through it, the air was filled with the fragrance of flowers, and all in all, it was a pleasant place.

Beyond the valley were hazy gray spatial walls. The two of them were standing right in front of one now.

On the spatial wall behind them, an incredibly solid Sword Shadow was embedded, creating a large crack from which the airflow was leaking.

This was also why they had been able to sense a distinct membrane in the tunnel; otherwise, there likely would have been no feeling of spatial distortion at all.

Just then, a Sword Shadow drifted toward them, passed by their side, and slipped through the crack, vanishing.

...