The Programmer Cultivator

The others nodded upon hearing this.

In truth, Zhang Deming felt like turning around and leaving. The original purpose for entering the mountains was twofold. First, to help Li Shifan acquire his advancement materials, a goal which had already been more than accomplished.

The second was to scout the area from a map he’d obtained earlier and see if there were any unexpected windfalls.

And third, to see if he could get some payback on the old codger who had ambushed him.

It now seemed there were likely five such markers on the map, each representing a bridgehead.

Having figured this out, and being half-certain that the large sphere from the Geng Metal Secret Realm was most likely inside, Zhang Deming was reluctant to take the risk.

However, even though he was the one who had posted the mission, he was, on the surface, just an Ordinary Disciple. He couldn’t just call it off on a whim.

Besides, the initial probe had revealed no issues. Since the other party had gone into Concealment, they clearly wanted to hide. Under these circumstances, entering might not actually be dangerous.

Moreover, with his current Cultivation, escaping wouldn’t be an issue as long as he didn’t run into a Four Symbols master. His hesitation stemmed solely from his cautious nature and his aversion to taking risks.

After pondering for a long while, Zhang Deming finally nodded. "Alright. Let’s go in and take a look, but we need to be extremely careful."

Once they had decided, the group passed through the perimeter of the Hidden Breath Array and stepped inside. After crossing through the Array and seeing the environment within, they were all stunned.

This entire mountain range was still covered in building complexes, their architectural style identical to that of the previous mountain. The only difference was the material they were made from.

At the previous mission point, the vast majority of the buildings had been constructed from Fire-Warming Rock, which was already peculiar enough. But upon seeing this mountain range, the group realized there was something even stranger.

All the buildings here gleamed with a silvery-white metallic luster. Even after countless years, they retained a certain sheen, free from rust and showing few signs of weathering.

The whole mountain range had sparse vegetation, making it look as though it were forged from metal.

"A Gold Attribute... so this is the Geng Metal location? If so, our previous theory was probably correct. These mission points must be the Five Elements Blessed Land’s bridgeheads to the outside world. Does that mean there are five of them?" Li Shifan murmured, gazing at the surrounding buildings.

"Probably," Nangong Cheng chimed in. "I’m more concerned about whether this information is enough. Can we consider the mission complete?"

Tong Hou shrugged. "It’s an exploration mission, which is inherently vague. But as long as we search both locations thoroughly, it shouldn’t be marked as incomplete, right?"

"Then let’s get to work!" said Li Shifan.

The silent Zhang Deming spoke up. "Let’s stick together. We shouldn’t split up here. I have a bad feeling about this."

The other four paused, all looking at Zhang Deming. Li Shifan was also feeling a little spooked, so he was the first to reply, "Alright. It’s never wrong to be cautious. It won’t delay us much, anyway."

The others nodded in agreement to explore together. Once the plan was set, the five of them began their search anew.

* * *

After another half-day of this, the rest of the group, who had initially been on high alert, began to relax.

They explored all the way to the summit without discovering anything unusual. They had found nothing.

Zhang Deming’s extreme caution seemed to have been for naught. While this place didn’t look as dilapidated as the last, that was only true of the buildings’ exteriors.

After a thorough search, they discovered the interiors were much the same. Only the unique material of these buildings had kept them relatively well-preserved, making them appear slightly less derelict.

After the better part of a day, the group stood at the summit, gazing out at the surrounding landscape. Tong Hou sounded at a loss. "What now? Do we just submit the mission as is?"

Li Shifan had a strange expression on his face. "What else is there to do? It’s just an exploration mission with no specific requirements. We’ve scoured both locations from top to bottom. It’s not like we can pull something out of thin air."

A desire to leave as quickly as possible was mixed into his words.

Feng Mingyou also hesitated. "Will they even mark it as complete if we submit it like this? If this were a Sect mission, turning it in like this would definitely not be acceptable. How does the Alliance’s mission evaluation system work?"

"Since we’ve already finished exploring, there’s no point in discussing it," Nangong Cheng said. "An organization like the Alliance must have a proper system for handling things if they’re issuing missions."

"It’s possible that while it feels like we just took a stroll, the Alliance has already obtained what it was looking for."

As the others talked, Zhang Deming fell silent, his brows furrowed. In his Spirit Nurturing Space, the Surveillance Elf had been blinking nonstop ever since they arrived.

But despite keeping his senses on high alert and searching the entire mountain, Zhang Deming hadn’t seen the slightest sign of the host—the sphere from before. ’Could I have messed something up when I modified the surveillance backdoor?’

’Impossible!’

The thought had barely surfaced before Zhang Deming dismissed it. ’If I had written the code from scratch, a bug might be possible. But I modified the surveillance program through its existing interface.’

’The other functions I wrote myself are all working fine. This was a simple modification made through an existing interface, and I even did a test run. There’s no way it could be the problem.’