The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 315 - 31: The Elegant and Common Factions of Miscellaneous Arts

In the Hongmeng Realm, the Hundred Miscellaneous Arts flourished, with countless side-occupation paths developed by innumerable Cultivators.

However, the paths primarily focused on earning Spirit Stones were represented by Arrays and Artifacts, which were also the pillars of the Hundred Arts today.

Besides them, there were also large numbers of Spirit Farmers, the popular path of Pills and Talismans, and so on.

But this only represented one faction of the Hundred Miscellaneous Arts. The entire Hundred Miscellaneous Arts were divided into two factions: the "Elegant" and the "Mundane."

Mundane Sect cultivators mostly focused on earning Spirit Stones in the early stages. Only in the middle or late stages might they gain self-protection abilities comparable to—or even stronger than—an ordinary Cultivator’s.

The Elegant Sect was the complete opposite; the entire Elegant Sect of the Hundred Arts did not focus on earning Spirit Stones.

The Elegant Sect’s main focus was probably on style. Its main representatives were the four major arts of Zither, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting. The first three were known for their power and popularity.

As for the last one, the Painting Dao, it became a representative not because it was popular within the Elegant Sect—on the contrary, it was in decline.

The reason it was a representative was because the Painting Dao’s core concept was to bless future generations. This was considered a matter of great elegance, and its inherent nature aligned it with the Elegant Sect, thus it was classified as one of the four great representatives of the faction.

The Elegant Sect didn’t prioritize profit. Therefore, many of its paths granted combat strength from the very beginning, making its followers no different from ordinary Cultivators.

If one had to point out a difference, it would be that most Elegant Sect Cultivators had a great deal of style. Well, to put it plainly, they liked to strike poses and show off when they fought!

However, this trait appealed greatly to the mentality of many young Cultivators, so the Elegant Sect was also exceptionally prosperous.

Take the Celestial Spirit Sect for example. Most of the Outer Disciples belonged to the Mundane Sect because they needed resources and had to struggle to get by.

But the senior brothers who started in the Inner Sect didn’t need to scrape for a Spirit Stone or two in the early stages, so most of them chose the Elegant Sect.

As a result, if you gathered Inner and Outer Disciples of the same Cultivation level, you would find one group gracefully playing music and singing, while the other group... well, they’d be digging the earth with hoes, looking quite pathetic.

Because of this, there were even distinct cliques within the Celestial Spirit Sect. After all, a big forest has all kinds of birds.

This was most common in the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, one of the four departments of the Celestial Spirit Sect, and the infighting there was also the fiercest.

And as a representative path of the Elegant Sect of the Hundred Arts, the Chess Dao was also exceptionally prosperous.

Zhang Deming looked at the piles of bookshelves dedicated to the Chess Dao and asked, "Where is the Yin Yang Chess Dao?"

The Female Cultivator was slightly taken aback. After a moment of confusion, she asked tactfully, "Senior, are you referring to the Yin Yang Chess Dao from the Chess Dao, the one that’s a classic example of trapping techniques, specifically the branch focused on ’Trapped Position’?"

Zhang Deming nodded with a deadpan expression. The Female Cultivator thought for a moment before replying, "It should be in the far corner of bookshelf number eight.

Although it’s a major category of the Chess Dao, it’s not very popular, so I don’t recall there being many Techniques for it."

Hearing this, Zhang Deming walked past several bookshelves and arrived at a corner.

In the corner of the bookshelf, he found the so-called Yin Yang Chess Dao. There were only three books in total.

Of course, this didn’t mean the entire category only had three Techniques. It was just that they were too obscure and bizarre, so there was no market for them at the Magic Pavilion, and they hadn’t bothered to stock more.

*Yin Yang Chess Dao: Trapped Position*, *Yin Yang Chess Dao: Shell Shedding*, and *Yin Yang Chess Dao: Chess Heart*.

Among the three Technique books, besides *Trapped Position*—the foundational Technique of the Yin Yang Chess Dao, which was Tier Two—the other two were both Tier One.

Zhang Deming looked at *Shell Shedding* and *Chess Heart* and raised an eyebrow. ’My luck is pretty good. *Shell Shedding* is an Escape Technique, and *Chess Heart* is a Variation Defense Technique.’

’At least that solves two major needs. The low tiers aren’t a problem for me.’

Zhang Deming put the three Technique books away and turned to the Female Cultivator Attendant. "I need two types of Chess Dao Techniques: recovery and movement. Do you have any good recommendations?"

The Female Cultivator Attendant paused, pondering for a moment. Before she could speak, Zhang Deming added, "Preferably ones that are similar to the Yin Yang Chess Dao."

The Female Cultivator stopped and said, "Senior, in that case, the Techniques might be, more or less... um... strange?"

Zhang Deming smiled. "I know. After all, this path is rooted in crowd control—and indiscriminate crowd control at that. It would be strange if it wasn’t strange."

The Female Cultivator asked again, "Is Tier One acceptable?"

Zhang Deming nodded. "Yes, Tier One is fine!"

Hearing this, the Female Cultivator said, "Then please wait a moment, Senior."

After speaking, she quickly summoned a Light Screen on her hand and tapped it a few times. Then she looked up at Zhang Deming and said, "This way please, Senior. I’ll take you to see the movement Technique first. As for the recovery one, someone from the first floor will bring it up shortly."

Zhang Deming nodded. She led him to bookshelf number two for the Chess Dao, picked up a book, and handed it to him, saying:

"This should be the most compatible movement Technique for the Yin Yang Chess Dao in our shop."

Zhang Deming took the Technique book and saw it was a Tier One Basic Technique called *Chess Path*.

The Technique’s effect was quite good. To be precise, it was stronger than the Agility Technique.

However, it had a requirement: one had to move along a specific chess path. Furthermore, it required a field-control effect to be active at the start, making this Technique lean more towards escape.

’Ha, it really is a perfect fit for the Trapped Position technique of the Yin Yang Chess Dao!’

Zhang Deming flipped through it a few times, nodded, and said, "Not bad. This one will do!"

Just then, another attendant hurried over with a book, handed it to the attendant beside Zhang Deming, bowed to Zhang Deming, and left.

Holding the Technique book, the Female Cultivator said, "Senior, there aren’t many pure recovery Techniques in the Chess Dao to begin with. As for one that fits the Yin Yang Chess Dao, this one, *Dark Pawn*, should be the most suitable."

Zhang Deming took the Technique book and flipped through it. He found that it was less of a Recovery Technique and more of a... um... ’deposit’ Technique.

This Technique wasn’t primarily for recovery. Instead, it built a Dark Pawn inside the body where one could choose to store either Spiritual Power or Vitality.

When needed, this reserve could be used for recovery.

However, both Spiritual Power and Vitality were consumed at a two-to-one ratio. In other words, for every two points deposited, you could only withdraw one.

Furthermore, you couldn’t store it in batches. You had to make one deposit and one withdrawal before you could deposit again.

It wasn’t a huge issue for Spiritual Power, but it was a real pain when it came to Vitality, because it required one’s own life force.

If one cultivated this Technique, they could spend ages draining themselves of their vigor, take forever to recover, and then when it was time to use it, they would only be restored to a half-drained state.

On top of that, the Technique could currently only create a single pawn, and it could only store either Vitality or Spiritual Power, not both.

For these reasons, this Technique was the most useless of the useless.

The kind that no one would want to cultivate. The Technique wasn’t actually suitable for the Yin Yang Chess Dao as it was. However, its next stage of development was the *Yin Yang Twins*, which would allow for simultaneous storage of Spiritual Power and Vitality.

So, it could be considered suitable for the Yin Yang Chess Dao, but only after further development. Or rather, its developed form was inherently a Technique of the Yin Yang Chess Dao.

Zhang Deming held the Technique book, read it for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, these will do."

With that, Zhang Deming took the Technique books and went to pay.

Arriving at the counter, he first browsed the Jade Scroll as usual. After Zhang Deming finished absorbing the information, the clerk at the counter said:

"Senior, that will be five Technique books. The one Tier Two book is forty Spirit Stones, and the four Tier One books are sixteen Spirit Stones, for a total of fifty-six Spirit Stones."

Zhang Deming nodded, paid the bill directly, and left the Magic Pavilion.

He didn’t linger in Celestial Spirit City and returned directly to the Flying Spring Waterfall Tower on Spirit Nurturing Peak.

Zhang Deming went to the Cultivation Room on the third floor and took out the five Technique books. First, he picked up the Tier Two Technique, the Yin Yang Chess Dao’s Foundation Establishment Technique, *Yin Yang Chess Dao: Trapped Position*.

He opened his control panel and consumed two points of Qi Fortune. Zhang Deming then activated the technique editor, which had been idle for a long time.

"Ordinary Energy: 2. Small plug-in can be edited.

Editing conditions met!

..."

The familiar messages appeared. Zhang Deming looked at the core code and began to edit.

’If (possesses sufficient Spiritual Power AND casts Yin Yang Chess Dao: Trapped Position)

{Then, Yin Yang Chess Dao: Trapped Position is cast successfully}

Else {Yin Yang Chess Dao: Trapped Position casting fails}.’

After clicking ’test run’ and finding no issues, Zhang Deming selected ’complete and upload’.

A Rune Light Ball flew into his Dantian, ultimately transforming into a black-and-white chessboard Rune.