The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 267 - 7: Fighting Over a Person

Zhou Jiuyan, who had been listening quietly all this time, looked at the file and spoke, "An Apprentice for over ten years, and now he’s suddenly reached Tai Chi. He’s clearly begun to recover his power."

"To only start recovering after all this time... what kind of power could that be? I’d guess he’s only at Three Talents Cultivation. He must have just gathered the Heaven, Earth, and Human Three Realms and achieved Unity of Divine Soul, barely reaching the threshold to use this Skill."

Zhou Jiuyan paused before continuing, "As for the one who sent this Outer Body Incarnation... from this perspective, it must have been either a friend from his past life or one of his elders, right?"

"No, that’s not right. He’s been cooped up in our Sect for so long. Their relationship couldn’t have been that great, or he would’ve been picked up long ago."

"I’d guess it was just an ordinary friend, or perhaps someone repaying a favor."

Yuee Mengsheng nodded in agreement with Zhou Jiuyan’s guess and continued:

"With such Spirit Wisdom back then, I also didn’t think it was possible he was someone living a second life with a clean slate from their past. Now, it seems the only possibility is Innate Wisdom."

"You can’t entirely blame me for not thinking of this. After all, Great Cultivators capable of such feats are usually ancestors from Blessed Holy Lands."

"Even a Loose Cultivator, upon reaching such a level of Cultivation, would be powerful enough to establish their own influence."

"When they reincarnate, they usually have meticulous arrangements in place. It’s highly unlikely for an Innate Wisdom Seeker to appear out of nowhere like this, as if grown in the wild."

"Besides, during his test back then, we detected no abnormalities in his Spiritual Power. He was just a little kid who didn’t understand the first thing about cultivation—the kind who seemed to lack even basic common sense."

"For all those reasons, I never once considered the possibility of Innate Wisdom."

As Yuee Mengsheng finished speaking, the room fell silent.

With the exception of Sect Leader Dang Jun’an, the others began to earnestly read through Zhang Deming’s file.

Zhou Jiuyan said while flipping through the file, "He went through all that trouble to reincarnate, but he couldn’t even ask a few friends on the Blessed Fortune Path to give him a Blessing?"

"All that hardship, reversing the cycles of reincarnation, inverting Yin and Yang, and he ends up with a twenty-one point Spirit Root. How unlucky can you get? What a solitary life he must lead."

"Don’t tell me he cultivates the Marriage Dao?"

"What do you know? You’ve never dealt with these kinds of Techniques," the portly elder, Yang Longying, retorted. "Has there ever been an act that defies the heavens that didn’t incur Celestial Punishment?"

"To end up with a twenty-one point Spirit Root, just barely able to embark on the path of cultivation, is already a sign of his backer’s immense Cultivation and transcendent Daoist Techniques," the portly elder Yang Longying replied.

"So, what are we deciding now? Whether to kick him out of the Sect or pull him into one of our departments?"

"Anyone who can reincarnate is an old monster, but they usually bring a ton of trouble with them, don’t they?"

"After all, who would be willing to reincarnate unless they faced some great calamity?"

"Especially with the Spirit Mountain Holy Land. Ever since their Merit Pool was established, they’ve been meddling in these ’trivial’ matters quite a bit!"

"Besides, that itinerant from Xuande Temple—Huixin—he’s about to bring his sermons to our doorstep, isn’t he?"

"Wait a minute... he couldn’t be coming specifically for this Reincarnator, could he?"

"This all sounds like too much trouble. In any case, my department is already overstaffed. We probably can’t fit him in," the old farmer, Fanx Qingyong, said.

"Mm, our Resources Department is also tight on territory. All the positions that could accommodate someone of his status are already filled," the portly elder, Yang Longying, chimed in.

Gan Zili, who was next to Yuee Mengsheng, suddenly froze while flipping through the file. "Spirit Nurturing Technique?"

Everyone paused in unison, simultaneously flipping to the section on Techniques.

At this point, Dang Jun’an glanced at Fanx Qingyong and Yang Longying and spoke.

"Yes, and this relates to the second item on our agenda: the Spirit Nurturing Master who suddenly appeared in Celestial Spirit City."

"A while ago, Celestial Spirit City reported the appearance of a Spirit Nurturing Master—and not some Entry Level novice, either. They’re capable of producing Tier Two Spirit Nurturing Beads with Mastery."

"The Sect naturally took this very seriously, but our investigation turned up no leads."

"Well... that’s not to say we found nothing. We uncovered a throwaway alias with no discernible origin or background. It was very strange, and I was planning a full investigation."

"But then, Senior Brother Yuee told me to halt the inquiry..."

"This..."

Everyone looked from Sect Leader Dang Jun’an down to the three bolded words on the page: "Spirit Nurturing Technique."

The old farmer, Fanx Qingyong, suddenly spoke as if remembering something important. "Oh, dear, how could I have forgotten! We have to send a group to the Secret Realm, and we’re critically shorthanded!"

"Mmm... someone with a background in planting like him would be a natural fit for our department."

He said this while pointing to the part of the file detailing Zhang Deming’s ten years on Little Qing Mountain.

The others looked up, staring incredulously at Fanx Qingyong, who wore a simple, honest expression and continued flipping through the file as if he hadn’t said a thing.

The portly Yang Longying glanced at Fanx Qingyong. "Our department is the one primarily responsible for Secret Realms, isn’t it? If anyone is short on people, it should be us."

The old farmer Fanx Qingyong replied coolly, "Oh, so you send the most people to do the actual work?"

Not to be outdone, the portly Yang Longying retorted, "And you? You want to recruit him to do menial chores?"

He then pointed at the file, tapping the information on the Spirit Nurturing Technique. "This kind of menial chore?"

Fanx Qingyong’s expression stiffened. He glanced at the other three leaders before signaling to Yang Longying. "How about... we’re *both* short on people?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Longying’s expression changed in a flash. The two of them instantly formed a united front.

"Yes... the Resources Department and the Miscellaneous Affairs Department have undertaken the ’arduous’ task of clearing out a Secret Realm. We are now in desperate need of manpower. Desperate."

The others watched silently as these two old characters went from declaring their departments overstaffed to unanimously short-handed.

Ignoring them, everyone else went back to reading the file.

Zhou Jiuyan paused. "This Heart... it doesn’t seem like that of an old monster, does it?"

The others looked up, noticing the data on the Light Screen had stopped at Zhang Deming’s section on Sect relations.

Specifically, under "Sole Conflict": Lu Ze (Deceased).

The others glanced at him. Who present was younger than a thousand years old, anyway?