The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 325 - 36: A School-like Array Department

Zhang Deming shook his head, putting Tong Hou out of his mind. He began to consider how to continue his tests of Merit and Qi Fortune. This would determine his future development path, so he needed to get clear results and maximize his gains.

Besides, he would be earning Energy during this time, so it was like killing two birds with one stone.

He now had three case studies. The first was Feng Mingyou, a slacker with a Sect background who had been barely getting by.

After Zhang Deming helped him reach Foundation Establishment, the rewards had been gratifying. He preliminarily categorized this as: Destiny Alteration.

His preliminary conclusion: ’This is a viable template to pursue, but the final decision will depend on future test results.’

The second was Li Shifan, who fit the "useless protagonist" template: someone from a Sect with great Qi Fortune and great Merit.

Helping him reach Foundation Establishment had yielded meager rewards. He categorized this as "gilding the lily."

His preliminary conclusion: ’I can fleece them, but there’s no need to spend resources cultivating them. They’ll succeed on their own. Just plucking a bit of wool from them occasionally is enough.’

Zhang Deming had originally planned his next targets. One would be a complete nobody with no background, someone who wouldn’t even have a chance to set foot on the path of cultivation. The other would be a good-for-nothing within the Sect, an even bigger failure than Feng Mingyou.

Yes, someone with the same template he had before his own cheat ability awakened.

Once he finished testing these two templates, he could roughly determine which type of person he should focus on backing. This would set the primary focus of his early development.

But who would have thought Tong Hou would deliver himself to his doorstep? He had originally fit Zhang Deming’s template criteria, but after what happened today, he clearly no longer did.

Instead, it gave him a third case study: someone with purely high Qi Fortune, but no Merit. He still wasn’t sure what the fundamental difference between the two was.

But he didn’t need to figure it out. As long as there was wool to be sheared, he was happy.

He was currently nurturing this one; a conclusion could only be drawn after Tong Hou reached Foundation Establishment.

But that shouldn’t be far off. After all, the guy was hiding his Cultivation. With his Spiritual Eye, Zhang Deming had discovered that Tong Hou already met the requirements for Foundation Establishment.

So, he needed to find two new targets. The first would be a truly hopeless case—not just in terms of Spirit Root, but the kind of person who, without his intervention, would never cultivate in their entire life, perhaps never even come into contact with the Cultivation Realm.

’This would be the most extreme form of Destiny Alteration.’

The second would be a good-for-nothing from a sect. Without his intervention, they’d muddle through their years in the Sect, then be sent out to be a Stallion and establish a branch family for the Sect.

These two would be a control group for his experiment, to see which one yielded better results. After all, when it came to protagonist templates, the second one—the good-for-nothing from a sect—was the classic "useless protagonist" archetype.

After a moment of thought, an idea struck him. He suddenly recalled the list of names he’d seen on his laptop a few days ago. ’Maybe I can do it that way?’

’Yes, let’s do that. It’s a perfect plan that kills two birds with one stone!’

He could pick his "Sect good-for-nothing" target directly from the list attached to that file on his laptop.

This would not only let him test for Merit and Qi Fortune, but also allow him to present an "Enlightened" individual at the upcoming exchange meeting.

A glint flashed in Zhang Deming’s eyes. Having made up his mind, he immediately stood up and left Celestial Spirit City.

He hurried back to the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower, opened his storage room, and retrieved the personnel files he had previously glanced at from his laptop.

After shutting down the laptop, Zhang Deming held the files for the twenty individuals and studied them in silence.

The twenty people were divided into two groups.

After reading the information in detail, Zhang Deming was momentarily stunned. He couldn’t help but admire the Celestial Universe Federation’s methods.

These twenty people were the poster children for failure in Little Hui Peak’s Array Department. They were textbook examples, each with their own unique flavor of uselessness.

The ten in Group A were failures in every sense: no Talent, no background, no connections. But they refused to accept their lot, their mental fortitude was subpar, and some had a tendency to blame everyone but themselves.

In short: no Talent, no power, but their ambition was boundless.

The ten in Group B were also failures in terms of Talent, though generally a bit better than Group A. Their connections were decent, but they had willingly resigned themselves to mediocrity.

At their young age, every one of them was already paving the way for their future life as a Stallion. All the connections they made were geared toward this purpose, to make it easier to establish their families later on.

In short: no Talent, no power, but they knew their own limitations and were content to be slackers.

This choice of targets made it clear: even if such people truly had an "Enlightenment Dao" experience, it would be difficult for them to seize the opportunity and soar to great heights.

In other words, the Celestial Universe Federation only wanted a disposable tool to play their Array "Enlightenment Dao" card. They had no intention of letting the target reap any real benefits from it.

The Celestial Universe Federation wasn’t willing to grant even a simple favor that would cost them nothing.

Of course, this was normal. Or rather, it was logical. After all, if they actually granted such a favor, wouldn’t they just be helping Hongmeng Star nurture a new founding ancestor?

Seeing this file, Zhang Deming finally understood why "Oratory: Words" was so widely known, yet its Enlightened creator had achieved nothing of note. Hardly anyone even knew his name.

Because that person had clearly been a carefully selected target of the Celestial Universe Federation. Once their role as a tool was over, they were rendered completely useless.

Thus, there was no need for them to rise up and truly develop the Dao of "Oratory: Words".

’But if that’s the case, what was their purpose in doing all this?’

’Was it just to spread a Low-Level Technique, while ensuring its creator never developed it further?’

’Could they have gone to all that trouble just so their exchange groups would no longer be ambushed by Loose Cultivators or challenged to random duels by other Cultivators they met on the road?’

’So they would no longer be randomly struck by lightning?’