by The Red Fox
9 - Crawler (3)
Wuji - Lin Suan: I've just entered the Immortal Sect, and I humbly ask for your guidance, seniors. smile
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: What stage are you at now, young friend?
Wuji - Lin Suan: Currently at the Qi Refining Stage. rose
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: Hehe, my young disciple is also at the Qi Refining Stage. You two should get to know each other. @Qingcheng-Yuanxiao
Wuji - Azure Peak True Lord: Brother Xiaoyao, my disciple is a rare prodigy. Within three years, he will undoubtedly achieve Foundation Establishment!
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: Is that so? Hehe, in ten days, the Dharma Discussion Assembly will be held. At that time, the young disciples will spar with each other. I look forward to seeing it.
Wuji - Azure Peak True Lord: I will bring my disciple along.
Lin Xun: ""
Huh?
What?
Why are we suddenly sparring?
He's just a programmer.
He was about to privately message Old Man Huo to ask, but another person popped up in the group.
Qingcheng - Yuanxiao: Greetings, fellow Daoist. @Wuji-Lin Suan
Seeing this person, Lin Xun felt a surge of joy.
The reason was simple: this fellow Daoist's profile picture was a panda meme! It even had a line of text: "I want to cultivate immortality, happy Western Heaven."
A normal modern person!
He immediately opened a private chat.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: Fellow Daoist, how long have you been cultivating immortality?
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks: Fellow Daoist, I've been cultivating for two months.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: How did you become a disciple?
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks: Were you also dragged into cultivating immortality?
A Happy Lemon Spirit: Yes.
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks sent him a meme and replied: I'm still in high school. During summer vacation, I went to Qingcheng Mountain for a trip. Halfway up the mountain, I got tired and sat on the steps to rest. A Daoist priest there saw me and said I had a Spiritual Root. He wanted to take me in as a Lay Disciple, so I was pulled into this group.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: So, do you actually know how to cultivate?
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks: Yes, I follow the breathing techniques my master taught me, and I feel like my whole body has become lighter.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: Is it really real?
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks sent him a "Together as Gay" meme and replied: It really is real, fellow Daoist. You should just accept it.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: Alright... So what is the Dao Discussion Assembly? Do we all have to meet in person?
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks: Yes, we young disciples will also spar and compete. If we make it into the top three, our masters will give us rewards.
A Happy Lemon Spirit: ...I still can't accept this for now.
Yuanxiao Doesn't Eat Midnight Snacks: Fellow Daoist, check the group chat. The seniors are mentioning you again.
Lin Xun switched back and saw Senior Xiaoyaozi asking: Young friend Lin, what is your secular identity? What do you do for work?
Before he could answer, he saw his own master reply.
Wuji - Azure Peak True Lord: Alas, he's not ambitious. He doesn't have a proper job and just fixes computers at home.
Lin Xun didn't know how to defend himself for a moment. At the same time, a mechanical voice rang out!
"Warning: Favorability from Immortal Sect seniors is beginning to drop. Please complete the task promptly."
Lin Xun quickly typed to clear his name: I'm a programmer who writes computer programs.
Qingcheng - Yuanxiao: Wow! Fellow Daoist! A programmer! Can you make games?
Qingcheng - Xiaoyaozi: You create games?
Gushan - Kumu Sanren: Games are harmful! My young disciple has neglected his cultivation because of them! The other day, I confiscated his phone, and he ran away from home because of it.
Puzhao - Yichan Fashi: Sinful, truly sinful. Amitabha.
Lin Xun: ""
The seniors seemed to have a prejudice against this profession, and the more he tried to explain, the worse it got.
The mechanical voice continued to sound: "Warning: Immortal Sect seniors' favorability continues to drop into negative values. Please complete the task promptly."
Lin Xun frantically pondered how to explain it to the seniors in simple, understandable terms. Suddenly, inspiration struck!
He opened his photo album and found an old picture.
Back in university, during a lab project, he, Zhao Jiagou, Wang Anquan, and their advisor attended a conference at a supercomputing center in the north.
Since they were at a supercomputing center, they naturally had to visit the supercomputer itself—after all, such machines are usually accessed remotely, with no physical contact.
In the server room, shades of blue, black, and silver intermingled. Massive machines stood in rows, reaching up to the ceiling, exuding a solemn sense of technological awe.
The advisor said, "Disciples, let's take a group photo. I'll post it on my social media." So Wang Anquan took the photo. The advisor stood in the middle, with Zhao Jiagou on the right and Lin Xun on the left, against the backdrop of intricate machine structures that inspired reverence.
That year, the advisor was exactly fifty years old, with a severely receding hairline—only the sides of his head still had hair. He looked every bit the great scholar who had dedicated his life to science, making him highly convincing.
In this photo, Lin Xun was standing alongside such an advisor. Clearly, he couldn't be someone who neglected his duties.
Lin Xun selected this photo and sent it to the group chat.
Wuji—Lin Suan: Devoted to computer science. Smile
Qingcheng—Yuanxiao: Fellow Daoist, you have a bit less hair.
Lin Xun: ""
He quickly typed: The one on the right is me.
Suddenly, a voice sounded in his mind again.
"Ding."
"Gained Butterfly Madam's approval. Task progress: 1/3."
The next second, Butterfly Madam sent a message in the group: Oh my! So handsome!
Qingcheng—Xiaoyaozi: So the young friend is into high-tech. My apologies. Clapping
They started copying again.
—Senior Xiaoyaozi always seemed to lead the copying trend.
"Ding."
"Gained Xiaoyaozi's approval. Task progress: 2/3."
"Gained White Egret Fairy's approval. Task completed."
"Gained Qiulian Fairy's approval. Task overfulfilled."
"Gained Caixia Yuanjun's approval. Task overfulfilled."
Lin Xun's mind was filled with a series of "ding" sounds. He hadn’t expected it to be so easy to gain the seniors' approval, and he also noticed that most of those who approved of him seemed to be female seniors, judging by their names.
Why?
Finally, after the dinging subsided, the system announced: "Rewards have been distributed. Please claim them promptly."
Lin Xun glanced at the chat interface and saw that they had moved on to discussing how difficult it was to recruit disciples nowadays.
Since he was no longer the topic of conversation, he set the group notifications to mute, closed his eyes, and entered the System Space.
On the task interface, a silver scroll had appeared.
Clearly, golden scrolls represented main quests, while silver ones represented side quests.
Lin Xun tentatively reached out to tap the task interface when suddenly, his hand felt heavy, and he instinctively caught something.
—It was a silver treasure chest, antique in style, like a prop from a TV drama.
As if a projection were playing before him, silver characters appeared in mid-air.
Chaos Treasure Box: Reward item. Randomly unlocks a Level 1 skill.
Skeptical yet curious, Lin Xun opened the chest.
Inside lay a bundle of bamboo slips.
He picked it up and saw three words written on it: "Light Body Technique."
After seeing these three characters clearly, the bamboo slip and the entire box quickly faded, transforming into a stream of data composed of 0s and 1s, like a streak of light that injected into the compilation interface.
A series of complex code appeared on the interface, scrolling rapidly before disappearing.
Mechanical voice: "Learning complete."
Lin Xun was puzzled and returned to reality.
The moment his consciousness returned, he suddenly felt his body was somewhat unreal.
A bit light.
He stepped on the floor, feeling as if he were stepping on cotton.
The Light Body Technique, as the name suggests, is a spell that makes the body lighter.
Lin Xun narrowed his eyes, feeling the soft force beneath his feet, and gently jumped upward.
The moment his feet left the ground, his body seemed to transform into a feather, lifted by the wind to a height unattainable by an ordinary jump, before gently descending again.
Lin Xun then hopped onto the chair... and then onto the windowsill, nearly hitting the ceiling.
He jumped around, gradually adapting to the force and distance, feeling quite novel—he was almost able to fly, or rather, he had acquired lightness skill.
This was no longer something the human body's physiological structure could achieve.
He had obtained a skill book pieced together from bamboo slips, and then the skill book turned into code, compiled by the compiler... and then, he gained a miraculous ability.
So, could it be understood that the program compiler was compiling his body?
Lin Xun felt he understood the logic behind it.
If that were the case, his Cultivation would involve writing programs that met the requirements of Cultivation, and these programs would act on his body, causing it to change.
—It didn’t seem too difficult.
"My vision and hearing have already become very sharp, and now I’ve learned lightness skill. If I continue cultivating..." Lin Xun originally had no interest in Cultivation, but as he thought about it, he suddenly grew excited: "If I continue cultivating, could I modify my intelligence? Then, I could write better algorithms and better programs?"
He began to look forward to it.