The Programmer Cultivator

Just as Zhang Deming expected, his Spiritual Shield trembled a few times before finally shattering.

Fortunately, it only broke as Zhang Deming was sent flying.

At least it prevented his body from having an intimate encounter with that massive, steel-like fist.

"BOOM..."

Zhang Deming was sent flying, crashing through a large tree with thick roots and plowing a long trench into the ground.

"Cough, cough..."

As the smoke and dust settled, Zhang Deming coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood and shakily got to his feet.

While he wasn’t severely injured, his wounds were by no means light.

Nearby, the Qiu Ape reached up and pulled the broken spears from its chest, one by one. The wounds actually began to slowly heal.

It was unclear if its anatomy was unique, but despite four spears piercing its chest, its heart had somehow been missed.

As for surviving a shattered heart?

That wasn’t an ability an Apprentice Level Demon Beast should possess. Of course, there could always be a few rare exceptions.

The Qiu Ape tossed aside the sharp vine spears. The bleeding from its wounds stopped at a visible rate. While the healing wasn’t particularly fast, it was definitely noticeable.

Seeing Zhang Deming cough up blood, it actually cracked a human-like smile.

Zhang Deming smiled back slightly and said, "What? You think you came out ahead because your physique is several times stronger than mine?

Sorry, but I rarely make a losing deal, and I certainly don’t make them twice in a row.

If I did, there’s definitely a trap involved!"

This Qiu Ape’s intelligence seemed unusually high. Although it couldn’t understand human speech, a look of confusion appeared on its face.

Once its wounds had completely stopped bleeding, it charged straight at Zhang Deming, clearly not intending to give him any more time to recover.

Zhang Deming said with a smile, "The timing should be just right. My main goal just now wasn’t to aim for your heart."

’Technique: Vine Growth!’

Zhang Deming suddenly unleashed his Growth Technique at full power. The charging Qiu Ape froze abruptly, immense pain wracking its body and filling it with utter confusion.

"I’ll let you know how you died. In that instant, while I couldn’t throw a seed directly inside you, I fired a Seed of Spiritual Power in through the spears.

’Ugh... that phrasing sounds a little weird...’

’That short amount of time was enough for the Seed of Spiritual Power to gestate. I guess this counts as the first ability I’ve developed myself based on a technique!’

So, you’re actually quite lucky, getting to die by the first technique I developed on my own."

As Zhang Deming murmured, the Qiu Ape went completely stiff and collapsed to its knees.

Immediately after, it opened its mouth and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood mixed with bits of its internal organs.

But before it could spit out much, a green vine emerged from its mouth.

The Qiu Ape fell to the ground, its body twitched a few times, and then it stopped breathing entirely.

"A Peak Apprentice Level beast, and with a Gravity Aura type Bloodline ability... your Essence Blood is worth a fortune. I can’t just let it go to waste!"

Zhang Deming whispered softly as he looked at the fallen Qiu Ape.

Following the Qiu Ape’s death, its Spiritual Power receded, and its bulging muscles rapidly deflated.

Its suddenly enlarged frame shrank back to its original size.

The best time to process any Demon Beast is in the initial period after its death, as its Spiritual Power recedes.

Even for Demon Beasts specializing in defense, their durability plummets during this window.

Once the receding Spiritual Power fully integrates deep into its material parts, the beast becomes much harder to process, especially defensively-strong Demon Beasts.

Therefore, Zhang Deming didn’t heal himself right away. He wasn’t rich enough yet to simply ignore something worth dozens of Spirit Stones.

Normally, an Apprentice Level Demon Beast wouldn’t be this valuable, worth five or six Spirit Stones at most. But this Gravity Bloodline accounted for the bulk of its value.

For cultivators specializing in Bloodline Techniques of the Yuan Type Transformation System, this thing could serve as a primary material for advancement.

It was a rare and valuable item. It was just a shame it was only Apprentice Level; if it were at the Tai Chi Stage, its value would be astronomical.

Not to mention, it was suspected to be mixed with a faint trace of the Wishing Size Linglong Bloodline.

The surrounding vines began to move rapidly.

They rummaged through Zhang Deming’s backpack, pulled out various tools, and began skinning the beast, drawing its heart blood, and extracting its bone marrow.

In a short while, Zhang Deming had the most valuable material in his possession: a bottle of blood mixed from the heart blood and bone marrow.

This contained over ninety percent of the Qiu Ape’s Bloodline power.

If he sold it to someone who practiced Bloodline Techniques, they could extract the Bloodline from it to use in their Cultivation of corresponding Bloodline Techniques and condense a Rune.

For something like a Bloodline transformation, this ingredient was essential.

Besides the Bloodline, Zhang Deming only kept the pelt. He had no way of dealing with the huge pile of bones and meat.

Looking at all of it, Zhang Deming was once again reminded of storage pouches. His resentment towards his editing panel’s warehouse, which couldn’t store items, deepened.

Even the pelt had to be hidden so he could retrieve it on his way back. Otherwise, it would be too cumbersome to carry, especially since the Qiu Ape was nearly five meters tall.

Before that, however, Zhang Deming needed to check the place where they had come from.

Regardless of whether the story about the Yin Yang Rejuvenation Crystal was true or not, a top-tier advancement material was worth the trip.

Zhang Deming glanced at the sky. Recalling the words of that unlucky fellow from earlier, he decided against making camp again and instead looked in the direction the Qiu Ape had come from.

Given the trail of destruction it had left, tracking it back wouldn’t be difficult.

Hmm? What’s this?

The setting sun was now like blood on the horizon, its afterglow dyeing half the sky red.

At this time of day, the primeval forest, filled with colossal trees, was already growing quite dim.

That wasn’t the issue. The dimness, or even total darkness, wouldn’t affect Zhang Deming much. As long as he circulated Spiritual Power to his eyes, seeing in the dark wasn’t difficult.

The crucial thing was, the Qiu Ape’s internal organs seemed to be glowing.

Earlier, while dissecting it, he had tossed the entire set of organs aside because he’d seen the Qiu Ape swallow that unlucky guy whole.

Unsure of the Qiu Ape’s digestion speed, Zhang Deming had set the organs aside to avoid making a mess everywhere.

Now, in the twilight, Zhang Deming noticed that its innards seemed to be glowing. Was there a light flashing from inside the stomach?

Puzzled, Zhang Deming controlled a vine to flip over the creature’s stomach.

To prevent anything from spraying out, Zhang Deming casually swung his blade and sliced off one end of the stomach, severing an intestine at its connection point.

"SPLOOSH..."

As the intestine was cut away from the stomach, the fluids and various residues inside flowed right out.

But looking at the contents on the ground, Zhang Deming froze.

Due to the creature’s size, its stomach was quite large, which Zhang Deming hadn’t paid much mind to.

But "large" was relative; it could probably hold the volume of two people at most.

Originally, Zhang Deming had assumed that with the aid of Spiritual Power, the Qiu Ape’s digestive system would be extraordinary, and the person it had swallowed would have been mostly digested by now.