The Programmer Cultivator

So, they joined the adults in seeking this immortal opportunity.

The Weird Old Man was so excited when he saw her and Brother Ming that day.

It was as if he could see right through to the wisdom she and Brother Ming had so carefully hidden, and he understood what kind of talent such intelligence represented in an eight-year-old.

Yet after the official test, the Weird Old Man strangely put Brother Ming through all sorts of other detailed examinations, only to end up reluctantly disappointed.

That detestable Weird Old Man! He actually planned to take her away by herself that day and leave Brother Ming all alone.

’How could I let that happen? I might have been eight, practically a grown-up...’

’I could live without my parents, but how could I possibly live without Brother Ming?’

’He hadn’t even married me yet!’

’My Brother Ming was so adorable, and I hadn’t even gotten to sleep while cuddling him!’

’That Weird Old Man was just awful!’

That day, she threw an epic tantrum. She knew the Weird Old Man prized her, so she kicked up a fuss, a wild and endless one.

She tossed aside all her years of being obedient and sensible. ’Without Brother Ming, being a good girl could go to hell!’

Besides, she was still an eight-year-old child. She was still young.

But that infuriating Weird Old Man always seemed to know what she was thinking. He never treated her completely like a child.

Whenever she threw one of her childish tantrums, he would just watch quietly with a smirk, as if watching a little clown.

’How could he do that? I was only eight! What made that Weird Old Man think I was already so mature?’

After throwing a fit for ages, she realized she had taken the wrong approach. In the Weird Old Man’s eyes, she really was an adult. What a weirdo!

In her entire eight years of life, no matter how sensible she and Brother Ming had been, no one had ever treated them like adults!

But once she understood the reason, it was fine. Childish tantrums wouldn’t work, but Brother Ming had told her plenty of stories about the great household compounds.

Since the Weird Old Man was going to treat her like an adult, she would use adult methods. In Brother Ming’s words, this was called a ’strategy’.

She went straight for the ultimate gambit: a classic soap opera of crying, screaming, and threatening suicide. She even improvised a bit, adding ’jumping into a well’ to the performance.

’Since that Weird Old Man was an Immortal, jumping in a well would probably just be like taking a bath, right?’

For Brother Ming’s sake, she couldn’t afford to overthink it. Besides, she’d known how to swim for ages, and with the whole family watching, there was no real danger.

Ha! That worked like a charm.

In the end, the Weird Old Man gave in. He agreed to bring Brother Ming back to the Sect.

But her joy was short-lived. Once they arrived at the Sect, that detestable Weird Old Man refused to let them stay together.

From that day forward, she threw tantrum after tantrum, always finding new and creative ways to cause a scene.

She kept it up for half a year to no effect. In fact, her actions only made Brother Ming’s life more difficult.

That was when she finally understood what it meant to be weak. She knew then that even though the Weird Old Man was genuinely good to her, in her heart, he could never be the one closest to her.

There was no need for a long list of reasons. The fact that he disliked Brother Ming and made his life miserable was enough. And so, she fell silent.

When they first joined, it was as if Brother Ming had already foreseen this outcome. On the journey to the Sect, he had given her a mountain of advice, teaching her how to survive. He told her that normal, orderly people fall into three types.

The first is the opportunist, who has no moral baseline. They care only for their own gains and losses, viewing everything as a chance for personal benefit.

The second is the idealist, who sets a high moral standard and never crosses it. They will disregard their own safety to uphold their principles, becoming a paragon of virtue.

The third is the realist, who acts according to their heart, adhering only to a bottom line they’ve set for themselves, while all else is negotiable.

Brother Ming said that he himself was a realist. He told her that if she wanted to survive in the Sect, she must remember never to become an idealist.

Brother Ming said that, in truth, opportunism was the best path to survival, but he was a difficult person. Some things had become a fixed part of his character, and he couldn’t cast them aside.

He also said that no matter what kind of person she ultimately decided to be, he wouldn’t hold it against her, as long as she could survive.

Brother Ming called this choice the "initial formation of one’s outlook on life."

Beyond this, Brother Ming also taught her many, many strategies.

He told her that whenever she was uncertain about something, she should think back on the stories he’d told her about the great household compounds, and to live her life with more caution and attention to detail.

So, once she understood that tantrums were useless, she began to put Brother Ming’s strategies into action.

Brother Ming had told her that there were two paths to rising: the ’genius opening’ and the ’trash opening’.

For someone with a foundation of genuine talent, the genius opening was ideal.

This was because it allowed one to take full advantage of all available resources.

But for those without a foundation of genuine talent, even if they managed to rise, they would need a ’trash opening’ to survive being dissected by all sorts of old monsters, unless they could become powerful enough to ignore all malicious gazes in the blink of an eye.

Luckily, her Spirit Root was at ninety-five—just enough to be considered a legendary Immortal Spirit Root.

And so, in the name of a genius, she dazzled the entire Celestial Spirit Sect.

In the name of a genius, her eccentric temper became legendary throughout the Celestial Spirit Sect.

And what’s more, in the name of a genius, she laid claim to resources that made others burn with envy.

During this time, she curried favor with the Elders, befriended both Inner and Outer Disciples, and sought out those with overlooked potential.

In Brother Ming’s playbook, this was called political maneuvering and social climbing—another powerful tool of the weak.

Gradually, she built up powerful influence within the Celestial Spirit Sect—real, tangible influence.

She didn’t know which of those types of people she was, but she knew exactly what she wanted, and that was all that mattered.

As long as Brother Ming didn’t hate her for it, as long as she could be with him, she couldn’t care less about being a realist or an idealist.

Slowly, she succeeded. When the Sect’s Elders looked at her, they no longer saw the Weird Old Man’s disciple, but the prodigy of the Inner Sect.