The Programmer Cultivator

Li Shifan, however, watched with an amused expression until the very end. With a wave of his hand, he pulled the sphere back.

The sphere had previously been the size of a ping-pong ball, but now that it contained a heart, it had swollen to the size of a goose egg.

Zhang Deming looked at him. "Let me hold on to it," he said.

Upon hearing this, Li Shifan handed the sphere to Zhang Deming without hesitation. "Then I must thank you, Senior Brother."

Zhang Deming glanced at the small pack on Li Shifan’s back. "You should really buy a storage bag," he said. "You’re a proper Sword Cultivator. Do you really plan on performing Sword Flight in the future while lugging all your baggage around?"

Li Shifan gave a wry smile. "I wish I could. Senior Brother, you have no idea how fierce the competition for a single storage bag is over at the Artifact Refining Department.

The Artifact Refining process itself isn’t the bottleneck; it’s the materials with spatial or Wishing Size properties.

Those materials are just too hard to find. Because of that, let alone Tai Chi Cultivators, not even all the Duality Masters in our Sect have a storage bag.

Some of the less successful Duality Masters spend all day trying to scrounge a storage bag from the Artifact Refining Department, but they don’t have the right connections. And this is on our resource-rich Spirit Nurturing Peak; the situation is even worse on the other peaks.

Under these circumstances, Senior Brother, do you really think someone like me, who’s only been on Spirit Nurturing Peak for half a year, could possibly get my hands on a storage bag?

And outside the Sect? Let’s just take Celestial Spirit City for example. A storage artifact of just a few cubic meters requires a notice half a month in advance for a small, in-store auction!"

Zhang Deming was well aware of the situation as he listened to Li Shifan’s rant. After all, he had once coveted a storage bag so badly it made his eyes ache just thinking about it.

It wasn’t until he acquired that stomach pouch that his envy was finally soothed.

Zhang Deming pondered for a moment. ’I have spare storage artifacts now,’ he thought. ’That three-to-four-cubic-meter stomach pouch is just gathering dust in my inventory. I might as well do him a favor.’

After a moment’s thought, Zhang Deming made his decision. "I happen to have a spare one," he said. "I can sell it to you when we get back."

Li Shifan’s face lit up. "Really?" he asked.

Zhang Deming had more than just one spare; he had five in total now.

Zhang Deming smiled. "Yes, but it only has three or four cubic meters of space. It doesn’t count as a top-tier Two-Star artifact."

Li Shifan said happily, "That’s more than enough! Anything over two cubic meters of space is plenty for everyday use."

"Yes, it’s certainly much better than that thing on your back. I don’t have it with me right now, so we can talk more after we return. For now, I’ll just hold onto this," Zhang Deming replied.

The three storage bags he currently had on him were all ten cubic meters. They could conceal the aura of their contents to some extent, making them difficult for others to inspect, and they also possessed a degree of the Wishing Size ability.

His two ordinary storage bags had been left in his storeroom; he wasn’t carrying them.

A look of pure joy spread across Li Shifan’s face, his excitement almost rivaling what he’d felt upon acquiring the Sword Spirit Ore. Only a young Sword Cultivator could understand just how desperate his need for a storage artifact was.

’I’m on the verge of mastering Sword Flight—or rather, I can already do it to some extent—and I still have to carry a pack on my back... How am I supposed to rise on the wind and soar between Heaven and Earth, to be that dashing, unrestrained Sword Cultivator?’

’Every time he thought about it, picturing himself performing Sword Flight with a huge pack on his back and a Demon Beast corpse over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but cringe. If that’s what Sword Flight is, I’d rather not do it at all! I might as well just stick to running on the ground!’

"Right, no rush. We can talk when we get back, we can talk when we get back," Li Shifan said eagerly.

Zhang Deming looked at his eager expression and felt the urge to roll his eyes. ’Yeah, right. "No rush."’

Zhang Deming put away the Sword Spirit Ore, and the two of them turned to look ahead. On the massive cliff path, an occasional Sword Shadow still drifted toward the cliff’s entrance.

"Should we keep going?" Zhang Deming asked, gazing forward.

Li Shifan glanced at the Sword Shadows. "Let’s give it a try," he said. "These Sword Shadows don’t look like they were born from the environment after a long gestation, like the Ancestor said.

If they’re created through Summoning Spirit like we suspect, then it would be worth risking serious injury to get one."

Hearing this, Zhang Deming said, "In that case, let’s give it a try."

With that, the two of them braced themselves against the swirling air currents and continued forward along the cliff path.

···

After struggling forward for some time, they reached what seemed to be the middle of the cliff path.

The airflow suddenly intensified, but it also grew purer. The chaotic mix of auras was gone, replaced mostly by an endless, piercing sharpness.

As the two stood on the path, they saw a massive cave that had appeared on the cliff wall. Rubble was scattered all around the path.

The debris looked as if it had fallen from the cave, and from the looks of it, the cave itself had appeared long after the cliff path was formed.

Furthermore, judging by the weathering on the surrounding rubble, the cave’s appearance was far more recent than the path’s formation. It had likely only been formed in the last few years.

This piercingly sharp aura was surging from the cave, and carried on the airflow, an occasional Sword Shadow would drift out.

Despite the obviously stronger currents surging from within the cave, they didn’t seem to harm the Sword Shadows as much as the air at the cliff’s entrance. This piercingly sharp airflow seemed to have no effect on them whatsoever.

But as soon as a Sword Shadow drifted out of the cave and onto the main path, it would begin to flicker. The closer it got to the cliff entrance where they had come from—where the airflow was weaker and more chaotic—the greater the damage it sustained.