Chapter 10: Crawler (4)

10 - Crawler (4)

Lin Xun, now looking forward to cultivation, no longer held a negative attitude. He re-entered the System Space, determined to figure out the rules governing its operation.

First, he checked the folder storing programs through the compiler.

He thought: the Light Body Technique had transformed into program code and entered the compiler, then ran, granting him lightness skills in real life. If he could find the file for this program, read it, and understand its principles—then he might be able to imitate it to create other skills.

However, things didn’t go as smoothly as he imagined. The folder was empty, containing only the "helloworld" file and the loop program file he had edited earlier. There was no trace of the Light Body Technique—this shortcut had been cut off.

Lin Xun stopped trying and turned to the task interface.

Based on his current understanding, tasks were divided into two types: main quests and side quests.

Main quests involved cultivation and leveling up, progressing from the Qi Refining Stage onward, with rewards including Sect Territory, Sect Funds, and Spiritual Power.

He didn’t yet fully understand side quests, but he guessed they were tasks related to cultivation life, such as "Join an Immortal Sect," with rewards like Chaos Treasure Boxes and Spiritual Power.

From what he knew, Sect Territory corresponded to the territory of the Goddess of the Luo River company, Sect Funds likely represented the company’s currently available liquid assets, and Chaos Treasure Boxes could randomly yield treasures related to cultivation.

But what was Spiritual Power for?

Did it represent his own cultivation level?

Probably not—when the system awarded Spiritual Power, his body showed no special reaction.

"Hello?" Lin Xun spoke, attempting to inquire of this mysterious system.

No one answered.

"Hello, are you there?"

Still no one. It seemed the mechanical voice wasn’t intelligent but required specific triggers to activate.

Lin Xun noted this conclusion and began walking around the space.

He had already figured out the compiler interface and the task interface. The only thing he still didn’t fully understand was that dim tree.

He turned and walked up to the tree.

Regarding this tree, he had always held onto his initial hypothesis.

The junction between the trunk and the roots was "C," so the trunk above and the many branches and twigs represented other branches of programming languages.

This was a skill tree, or rather, a tech tree.

There were many programming languages in the world, each with its own purpose. C was a very classical one, but its status was unshakable.

For example, Wang Anquan’s favorite language was Python, but what was Python built with? Still C.

Thus, this tech tree started with C and gradually expanded upward, branching out into countless directions—so, how should he go about lighting up this tree?

An idea surfaced in Lin Xun’s mind: use Spiritual Power.

Perhaps, once he accumulated enough Spiritual Power, he could unlock other languages and platforms, making programming much more convenient—C was versatile but also quite inconvenient.

After exploring the space, Lin Xun felt he had a grasp on things. Finally, he checked the Foundation Establishment progress bar: ninety-one percent. Satisfied, he left.

A message popped up on his phone again, from Old Man Huo.

"Disciple, come to your master’s Cave Abode before the end of the mao hour tomorrow. Your master will impart the Dao to you."

Lin Xun thought about the style of the "Loving Family" group chat, pondered for a moment, and replied, "Received."

However, he wasn’t sure what "mao mo" meant. After searching online, he learned it meant he had to go to Old Man Huo’s house before seven o’clock the next day.

Putting down his phone, he practiced the Light Body Technique in his room for a while before returning to his computer. Dong Jun had explained several key issues to him that evening, so his programming went smoothly and he became somewhat addicted, not going to bed until nearly eleven.

He woke up at six, washed up, and noticed Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou were still asleep—their usual routine was to get up at eight.

Lin Xun left them a message: "Grandpa Huo asked for me. I’m heading out and don’t know when I’ll be back. Hire programmers on your own."

Taking the first subway, Lin Xun arrived at Old Man Huo’s residence.

A traditional courtyard house—if sold, it would fetch an astronomical price.

Old Man Huo’s assets could be considered destined by fate. It was said that his ancestors had passed down two properties: one was this courtyard house, and the other was a two-courtyard residence in the northern part of the city.

When the country’s modernization began, the northern courtyard was demolished for redevelopment. As compensation, Old Man Huo received two apartments.

But the old man disliked living in apartments—they were like thorns in his eyes. He sold both apartments and exchanged them for several courtyard houses in the old city.

Then… these courtyard houses were also demolished in another round of redevelopment.

Demolition after demolition, endlessly. Old Man Huo’s assets snowballed into something enormous, and his current wealth was beyond ordinary imagination.

Lin Xun took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

The door was opened by a boy of about eight or nine, likely Old Man Huo’s grandson or great-grandson. The boy asked crisply, "Who are you?"

"My name is Lin Xun. I’m here to see Grandpa Huo."

"Sect Leader!" the boy exclaimed. "Senior Brother Lin is here!"

The title "Sect Leader" immediately immersed Lin Xun in the world of cultivation.

In the courtyard, two pomegranate trees were planted. Under one tree stood a large stone vat carved with crane patterns. Under the other tree was a set of simple stone table and chairs, where Old Man Huo sat reading with reading glasses. Seeing Lin Xun, he waved him over. "Disciple, come sit."

As Lin Xun approached, he noticed lotus flowers growing in the large stone vat, with fish swimming beneath—one gold and one red.

The scene was leisurely and ethereal.

Yet, in this part of the city, achieving such leisure and ethereality required an unimaginable amount of money!

Lin Xun had no money, so his reverence for Old Man Huo deepened.

"Disciple," Old Man Huo said kindly, "come here and let your master examine your bone structure."

Lin Xun stepped forward.

Old Man Huo felt his shoulders, then his arms, and said, "Excellent, excellent! Our Limitless Sect has a worthy successor! This time at the Great Dao Debate Assembly, we won’t be overshadowed by Qingcheng Mountain!"

Lin Xun felt uneasy. "Master, what do we do at the Great Dao Debate Assembly?"

"Those accomplished in cultivation naturally discuss the Dao and metaphysics… As for you juniors, you’ll spar with one another. If you place in the top three, our sect will gain glory." At this, Old Man Huo widened his eyes. "In the past, Qingcheng Mountain always outshone us. This time, you must bring honor to our Limitless Sect!"

Lin Xun replied, "...Alright."

It seems that even those who cultivate immortality cannot avoid the urge to compete and prove themselves.

He then said, "But Master, I don't know any martial arts."

Old Man Huo replied, "What does that matter!"

Lin Xun humbly inquired, "Master, what do you mean by that?"

—He made an effort to use refined and formal language.

Old Man Huo said, "Our sect is called the Limitless Sect. Do you know what that means?"

Lin Xun: "I do not."

"Limitless means infinite, boundless!" Old Man Huo declared. "Disciples of our Limitless Sect are never constrained by martial arts techniques!"

Lin Xun asked, "Then... how should we proceed?"

Old Man Huo said, "We overwhelm others with spiritual power!"

Then, he added, "Watch closely."

Lin Xun watched as Old Man Huo raised his hand, causing the branches and leaves of the pomegranate tree to rustle as if stirred by a fierce wind. "This," he explained, "is the spiritual power that manipulates heaven and earth."

The old man withdrew his hand and continued, "The essence of our Limitless Sect's martial arts lies in manipulating the vast spiritual power between heaven and earth! The stronger the spiritual power, the better—overwhelming force defeats all tricks! No matter how flashy the techniques of other sects may be, if we channel spiritual power toward them, they can only surrender!"

—And so, the question arose.

Lin Xun asked cautiously, "Then how does one manipulate spiritual power?"

Old Man Huo glared, his beard bristling. "What did you say?"

Lin Xun, confused, repeated, "How does one manipulate spiritual power?"

"You have already achieved Qi Induction. How could you not understand what spiritual power is?"

A good question indeed.

Lin Xun didn’t know how to... answer.

I wrote a "Hello, World" program, and then I achieved Qi Induction?

Meeting Old Man Huo’s piercing gaze, he felt a slight urge to look away.

Old Man Huo commanded, "Close your eyes!"

Lin Xun closed his eyes.

Old Man Huo said, "Look around you."

Lin Xun: ""

How can one look with their eyes closed?

Old Man Huo continued, "Can’t you feel the ethereal Qi floating around you? This is the untamed spiritual power between heaven and earth!"

Lin Xun: ""

At this moment, he felt like a failing student, completely clueless about the teacher’s explanation and unsure where to even begin.

In his over twenty years of life, when had such a situation ever occurred?

For a moment, he was utterly lost.

This brief moment of confusion exhausted Old Man Huo’s patience. "You really can’t sense it?" he demanded.

Lin Xun replied shamefully, "This disciple’s skills are lacking."

"What in the world is going on!" Old Man Huo exclaimed angrily, his beard practically standing on end. "I’ve been examining the meridians and Dantians of those around me every day, and finally, I found a promising talent like you. How can you be so clueless?"

Lin Xun realized he was being criticized.

Who would have thought that the first time he was ever criticized by a teacher in his life would be for failing to understand cultivation?

Old Man Huo took a few deep breaths. "Enough! Go back and contemplate on your own. Do not slack off! Hmph, my meridians have been sluggish lately, and I can’t afford to get angry on your account!"

Lin Xun put on an obedient expression. "Is Master unwell recently?"

"For some reason, my meridians haven’t been flowing smoothly these past two years. Perhaps it’s due to old age—but that old fellow Xiaoyaozi doesn’t have such problems!"

Lin Xun glanced at Old Man Huo’s program interface.

At the moment, Old Man Huo had no programs running—because he wasn’t practicing cultivation.

But yesterday, Old Man Huo had used a web crawler program to gather external information, which led him to discover Lin Xun and take him as a disciple.

Recalling Old Man Huo’s earlier statement, "I’ve been examining the meridians and Dantians of those around me every day," Lin Xun began to form a vague suspicion in his mind.

Day after day, he examined the meridians and dantian of those around him, which was essentially like using a web crawler program to gather information from the outside world.

The vast majority of this information was useless. Yet, it likely accumulated within Old Man Huo’s body—if his probing activities had persisted for years, or even over a decade, the accumulated data would be immense.

If the human body were compared to a computer, an elderly person would be akin to a machine with significantly degraded performance—an old computer prone to all sorts of inexplicable issues. A large amount of useless data becomes junk files, piling up in the disk, which could drastically slow down the system’s operation!

In the context of cultivation, this manifests as stagnation in the meridians.

Whether this analysis was correct or not, it remained a possibility.

Lin Xun spoke, striving to bridge the gap between the two languages: "Master absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth day after day, which might accumulate impurities in the meridians. If there were a way to clear them, the meridians would likely no longer be stagnant."

Old Man Huo’s gaze, which had gradually grown disappointed and nearly carried the sentiment of "a rotten piece of wood cannot be carved," shifted upon hearing these words. His eyes gradually turned thoughtful: "This... what you say holds some merit. Hmph, you do possess a bit of innate wisdom, after all."