The Programmer Cultivator-Chapter 83 - 81: Celestial Spirit City

Next, it was time to grind. At his current strength as an Advanced Apprentice, he could cast the Spirit Nurturing Technique four or five times after fully recovering his Spiritual Power.

Compared to before, this was a four to five-fold increase in efficiency.

Zhang Deming used up all twenty-two sets of materials, which he had bought for seven Spirit Stones, in just about three days, and with relative ease.

Aside from the two vines that only yielded one Spirit Nurturing Ball, the success rate for the rest had more or less stabilized. With Spiritual Materials of this quality, his success rate was about twenty to thirty percent.

He had obtained six Spirit Nurturing Balls in total.

Three Spiritual Shields, one Growth Technique, and two Agility Techniques.

Staring at the six Spirit Nurturing Balls before him, Zhang Deming knew the problem he had to solve now was finding a sales channel.

As for continuing to sell them at the Hundred Spirits Tower, that was clearly out of the question. The risk was too great.

Selling just four in a short period had already drawn attention. If he sold to them again, they would obviously realize he wasn’t some Veteran Spirit Nurturer from the Celestial Spirit Sect making extra cash on the side.

Instead, they’d realize he was a new Spirit Nurturing Master—one without the burden of fixed sect-assigned quotas.

The potential profits involved were enough to make a chain store risk an investigation.

Once he solved the sales channel issue, Zhang Deming could establish a steady cash flow. After that, he could focus on using Spirit Stones to rapidly advance his cultivation.

Forty thousand Experience Points... relying solely on the three to five points from ordinary daily cultivation would take forever.

Meanwhile, in his repository, he had another one and a half white light spheres, and they were still ’branch’ type spheres.

He had seen the rare ’sequence’ spheres before, but as for the ’loop’ spheres he wanted most, they were so frustratingly rare that he hadn’t gotten a single one.

’The ’loop’ sphere was the one he coveted the most. Things like having his cultivation techniques run automatically all depended on it.’

’Of course, as a veteran programmer, I can create a loop effect without using actual loop logic.’

’Back when I graduated, an interview question at the first publicly traded company I applied to had that exact requirement.’

’The interviewer’s question was absurd. He asked me to write code that achieved a loop effect without using loop logic to sum a series of patterned numbers.’

’I was skilled enough back then to pull it off using ’recursion’.

But that’s not a basic technique, and I don’t have a way to test it first.

I don’t even dare to mess around with the ’if’ conditions in a ’branch’, let alone try to code ’recursion’ or something like that.

Trying to code a complex structure just by imagining it, with no way to test and debug, would be a complete waste of a light sphere—not to mention suicidal!

This stuff is happening inside my own body!

I haven’t written code in eighteen years. I should just be patient and wait for a ’loop’ sphere, or for a test-run feature to appear.’

After all, he hadn’t produced that many light spheres in total, so it wasn’t all that surprising that he hadn’t seen a ’loop’ one yet.

...

Early the next morning, after completing his daily routine, Zhang Deming left Qingyou Pool.

He didn’t head for the flea market on Little Hui Peak. Instead, he left the peak and departed from the Celestial Spirit Sect.

After about an hour of rapid travel, Zhang Deming arrived at his destination.

Celestial Spirit City—a city for cultivators, established and controlled by the Celestial Spirit Sect.

As the main outpost of the Celestial Spirit Sect, it was home to a great number of mortals and Loose Cultivators.

Every year, in addition to its regularly scheduled recruitment of disciples from the surrounding regions, the Celestial Spirit Sect also conducted a round of screening for Loose Cultivators.

This gave many Loose Cultivators who had already begun their cultivation a path to advance.

Of course, the Celestial Spirit Sect wasn’t the only one to participate in such a grand event.

The Celestial Spirit Sect was merely the most prominent organization leading the charge. Many of its affiliated Minor Sects and even some powerful Affiliated Families also participated.

All of this made Celestial Spirit City a true cultivator’s metropolis, the largest gathering place for cultivators in the surrounding several regions.

Consequently, the city had a huge flow of cultivators, and business was booming.

Zhang Deming entered the city alone and silently made his way to an intelligence shop under the Sect’s jurisdiction.

The shop was affiliated with the Celestial Spirit Sect, its owner was an Outer Sect senior brother, and on top of that, information about the annual examinations was always released through this location ahead of time.

Because of this, business at the intelligence shop was exceptionally brisk.

When Zhang Deming arrived in his Outer Disciple attire, a servant disciple quickly came forward and said, "Senior Brother, this way please."

Zhang Deming shook his head and said, "I won’t be using the special channel."

The servant disciple faltered for a moment, then said, "Senior Brother, according to the shop’s rules, you won’t get the seventy-percent discount if you don’t use Contribution Points."

Zhang Deming nodded and said, "That’s fine. I’ll pay directly with Spirit Stones."

Seeing this, the servant disciple didn’t try to persuade him further; he had done his duty.

"Then, Senior Brother, what information do you wish to purchase?

As an Outer Disciple, your authority is limited to information below the ’Top Secret’ level. You can purchase any intelligence in this shop except for top-secret reports," the servant disciple explained.

"I need information on the shops in Celestial Spirit City. Hmm, preferably the ones that are about to go out of business. A failing one would be even better," Zhang Deming answered.

Hearing this, the servant disciple began swiftly operating the Light Screen in front of him, speaking as he worked.

"That’s simple, it’s completely standard information. Are you planning to open a shop, Senior Brother? Do you want to rent or buy?"

Zhang Deming shook his head. "Just give me the information as requested. Right, in addition to the shop information, I also need the owner’s background information included."

The servant disciple’s movements paused, and he glanced at Zhang Deming.

He then made a grabbing motion at the virtual screen and tossed the data into the Identity Card that Zhang Deming held out.

"Senior Brother, this is the shop information, filtered according to your request. That will be two Spirit Stones."

Zhang Deming took the Spirit Stones out of his pouch and handed them to the servant disciple.

"Is this your first time in Celestial Spirit City, Senior Brother?"

Zhang Deming, who had been about to turn and leave, paused slightly. "What of it? Is there something I should be wary of?"

The servant disciple smiled. "Not exactly, but as your junior brother, I feel I should remind you of something. Law enforcement in Celestial Spirit City is a joint effort by several sects.

So if you have any... other ideas, Senior Brother, it’s best to think twice. This place isn’t like the Sect."

Zhang Deming was taken aback for a moment. ’Is he afraid I asked for background information so I could go and forcibly seize a shop?’

Zhang Deming smiled faintly. "I know how to handle myself. But thank you all the same. I appreciate the kind gesture."

The servant disciple smiled and replied, "As long as you don’t think I’m being a nosy chatterbox, Senior Brother."

Zhang Deming smiled, said nothing more, and turned to leave.

...

With the information in hand, Zhang Deming began to screen his targets.

First, the target needed to have a shop, preferably one that previously had a decent reputation and was in a good location.

Second, they couldn’t have a powerful background, but they also couldn’t have no background at all.

The general criteria was a branch of a major family that had fallen on hard times. It would be best if their problems had arisen recently, and only the target’s branch family was in decline, not the main family.

This would guarantee that the shop’s reputation hadn’t completely vanished, that there was at least some of it left.

Finally, and most importantly, the current owners could not be too powerful.