The Programmer Cultivator

"This split might give me a slight edge, but I’d say it’s still balanced. After all, your two Sword Dao Materials not only increased their star rank on their own, but they’re also growing exceptionally well.

Together, they’re probably worth more than half of one of these three medicinal herbs."

Li Shifan considered this for a moment, then said, "Tell you what. We’ll have to settle the cost of the Sword Spirit Beads in Spirit Stones later anyway. They’re quite valuable, and with several dozen of them now, I’m not sure I can afford my share.

The only thing I’d do with this Wisdom-Nurturing Spirit Ginseng is sell it for Spirit Stones. Why don’t you take it, Senior Brother, and we’ll factor it into the final Spirit Stone calculation? How does that sound?"

Zhang Deming paused for a moment. "Fine. To be honest, I don’t have much use for this Wisdom-Nurturing Spirit Ginseng. For my path, it’s not practical to nurture the spiritual wisdom of my summons. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be acting so courteous."

Li Shifan smiled. "Then you can just use it as material for developing new techniques, Senior Brother. I’d only end up selling it for Spirit Stones anyway."

Zhang Deming nodded. "Alright, we’ll do that for now. We’ll settle the final accounts in detail after we complete the mission and return to the Sect, sound good?"

"Agreed," Li Shifan said.

"You want to do the digging?" Zhang Deming asked.

Li Shifan faltered. "I’m fine with handling the medicinal herbs, but this whole area is covered in arrays. While there don’t seem to be any defensive ones, there are quite a few with various other effects.

I’m worried I’ll mess something up. And your three Three-Star medicinal herbs are too fragile to be disturbed, Senior Brother."

Zhang Deming just smiled. "That won’t be an issue."

As he spoke, Zhang Deming waved his hand. The light of the arrays pulsed, and in a heartbeat, he had dismantled the ones around the two Two-Star medicinal herbs.

Li Shifan was stunned. "Senior Brother, you minor in the Array Dao, too?" he asked, astonished.

Zhang Deming smiled. "Something like that. Let’s get a move on. We still need to check out the courtyard after this."

Li Shifan nodded, said no more, and entered the Spirit Field to begin carefully digging up the Spirit Grass.

Zhang Deming waited patiently, not entering the small courtyard alone.

...

A long while later, Li Shifan finished carefully unearthing the five Spirit Plants. Zhang Deming produced several ornate Jade Boxes and gently placed the plants inside.

Spiritual Light pulsed from his hands as he applied a few Sealing restrictions before carefully putting the boxes away.

With everything taken care of, the two turned their gaze to the small courtyard. It appeared to be an ordinary farmhouse yard.

The first thing they saw was a wooden house built from some unknown material. It wasn’t large, appearing to have only two or three rooms. A pillar of Sword Qi erupted from its roof, the cause of the area’s current state.

Outside the wooden house was a simple yard, the kind of farmhouse plot with no surrounding walls. The entire yard and the house itself were cordoned off by an array’s barrier of light.

In front of the small yard were three Spirit Fields—the very spot where Zhang Deming and Li Shifan now stood.

Standing beside the Spirit Fields, they surveyed the wooden house and yard. "Come on," Zhang Deming said. "Let’s go have a look inside."

Li Shifan nodded. He and Zhang Deming walked forward a few paces, stopping right before the Array Light Screen at the entrance to the yard.

Li Shifan reached out to touch the Light Screen, and his hand passed through it without any resistance. "It’s not a Defense Array?" he asked, surprised.

Zhang Deming smiled. "That’s perfectly normal. This is obviously part of a Cave Mansion’s pocket dimension. It’s not the portable kind, at least from what we can see so far.

But this space is large enough that it was worth developing. That means any serious defensive measures would have been placed on the outside.

Think about the cavern we just came through. If not for that Sword Shadow on the pocket dimension’s wall, who would have ever known what was in here?

If someone was powerful enough to break through defenses like that to get in, what good would setting up more defenses on the inside do?"

While they were talking, the two of them passed through the Light Curtain and stepped into the small yard.

The Light Curtain around the yard was clearly a maintenance array. Because of it, even though the yard had likely been uninhabited for countless years, it showed no signs of decay.

Just as it looked from outside the Light Curtain, there was nothing of note within the yard. The two of them approached the small wooden house when a Sword Shadow drifted out and floated away.

They exchanged a glance, activated their full defenses, and cautiously stepped into the small wooden house.

After stepping inside, they found the interior wasn’t as cramped as they’d expected. It was surprisingly spacious, just with a slightly odd layout.

It really did feel like a farmhouse. The entrance led into a main hall, much like a traditional family’s central room. It was quite broad, with a side door on either flank.

They scanned the hall for a moment. It was sparsely furnished and quite plain, with nothing of particular interest.

A single sweep of their eyes was enough to see everything. They decided not to separate, choosing the side door on the right, since that was the side of the house where the Sword Qi was erupting from.

Passing through the side door, they entered a Cultivation Room. The space was split in half; one side was set up as a Cultivation Quiet Room, the other as a study. As they took in the room’s contents, both of them froze in unison.

The study half was normal enough, nothing out of place. The scene in the cultivation half, however, was downright eerie.

In the middle of the cultivation area sat a middle-aged man. His face was ashen, his hair a withered, snowy white, and his body was utterly devoid of any Vitality. One look was all it took to see that this was a corpse, someone who had passed away in meditation an unknown number of years ago.

Not far in front of the seated man was a round stone about the size of a human head. The stone shimmered with an iridescent light, looking like a Crystal Stone, yet at the same time seeming to be made of jade.