Chapter 40: The Different Types of Cultivators
Translator: Strivon / Ash Editor: Geoffrey / Lancent
“Nope, I’m not Helian Lie’s friend. I’m his swine friend.” Zheng Dongming’s nostrils flared as he chuckled in reply.
“Is there a difference?” Li Yao stared blankly.
“To be partners in decadence means… that Helian Lie can find me if he wants to dine food, drink alcohol, race in shuttles, play with girls… Basically, anything that brings pleasure is totally fine. But if it's to help him beat someone up, especially someone who’s true strength has increased by leaps and bounds in a month, and whose Actualization Quotient increased by several dozen percents, this sort of damn awesome person... Then Helian Lie overestimates our friendship way too much!” Zheng Dongming chuckled, nudging over a step closer to Li Yao’s side.
Li Yao calmly pulled some distance away from him. “So, you’re not here to stir up some trouble with me?”
Zheng Dongming nudged over once again. It seemed that he didn’t pick up on Li Yao’s cold attitude. With a composed expression, he said, “Do you know just how many different types of time-established fine wine are in the Federation? Just how many restaurants far and near? Just how many girls have entered into the entertainment industry?”
Li Yao blinked his eyes. He felt that he could not quite keep up with Zheng Dongming’s tempo of speech, “Nope, so what’s the answer?”
With a flick of his finger, Zheng Dongming enumerated a list of numbers, “According to my statistics, the Federation has a total of 1,300 different time-established fine wine, over 300,000 critically acclaimed restaurants that are worth trying… and just last year, counting every new female actress of every major entertainment company, female idols… etc… There are at least 500,000 of them!”
Zheng Dongming paused for a bit to let out a sigh, “You should know that I am the child of rich and power parents with money in explosive amounts. There are that many kinds of alcohol waiting for me to taste. That many fine delicacies for me to eat. That many stunning and devastatingly beautiful women… all I need to do is to cough lightly… and they become like succubi, stripping on their own… stripping myself and pushing me on the bed… What do you think? Why would I give up alcohol to taste, give up delicacies to eat, give up girls to f*ck. Why would I waste my precious time to come cause you trouble?”
Li Yao squinted his eyes, examining Zheng Dongming for half a minute. Suddenly, he started laughing.
Just as Zheng Dongming was interested in Li Yao, at this moment, Li Yao also became a bit interested in Zheng Dongming.
Li Yao shrugged his shoulder. “Sure, you’re not here to stir up trouble. But what did you come here for? Do you want to team up with me? To fight hand-to-hand together on Devil Dragon Island?”
Zheng Dongming said, “That was only my first objective. The primary objective was that I wanted to chat with you. Just simply a conversation. If I were to use terms from the Ancient Cultivation World to explain, then I would say I came here to ‘Plant a Seed of Karma’. Nothing more!”
“You’re rich and powerful. I’m damned and poor. We aren’t people of the same world. What could we possible chat about?”
“Plenty man~ For example, you are quite a talented individual, fellow student Li Yao. I’ve heard you also have quite some skills in Artifact repair. Then what will it be? Have you thought over which school you want to test into? Which type of Cultivator you want to become?”
“What do you mean ‘type’ of Cultivators? There are even many different types of cultivators?” Actually, Li Yao had never heard of such things. He still believed that there was only one type of Cultivator… and that was those who soared through the skies on flying swords, going around killing. Only that type of Cultivator.
Zheng Dongming had a certain “If you don’t know, then come. Let’s sit down and listen to young master Zheng slowly explain” expression on his face. With utter pride, he glanced an eye at Li Yao. He cleared his throat and said, “In the Ancient Cultivation World of 40,000 years ago, obviously, cultivators weren’t separated into types. There was only one kind of cultivator. At most, there were those who cultivated in the path of demons, the path of fiends… but those don’t count — only the sources of their spiritual energy were different! And 40,000 years later to the Modern Cultivation Era, society has separated different types of jobs more and more finely. Cultivators have also been separated into a total of six major types.”
He extended out his chubby right hand, spreading open his fingers. He wriggled his thumb and said, “The first type is also the most common, the most ordinary, and that is the battle-type cultivator. The battle-type cultivator is the type most inline for the average person’s traditional view of what a cultivator is like. More or less, they fly on flying swords. They travel unhindered all around to fight hand-to-hand with Demon Beasts. You have to know of this type of Cultivator. I don’t need to explain more, right?”
Li Yao nodded his head. Obviously, he understood what the battle-type cultivator was. It's just that he never thought that there were actually 5 different types of cultivators outside of the battle-type cultivator.
What kind of mysteries… do these other five types of cultivators possess?
Zheng Dongming curled his index finger, continuing, “The second type is the ‘admin-type’ of Cultivators. This type of Cultivator may not possess the strongest of spiritual energy, but they possess the best computational ability. They can, in the time it takes for a flint’s spark to flash, do several million, even several tens of millions, even over 100 million of telepathic calculations. From a ginormous endless stream of information, they can discover hidden patterns and structures and even predict the direction of how things will play out. They make the most optimum decisions… I’m sure you won’t understand from the way I’m talking. Let me give you an example. The mayor of a major city with a population of ten million people. A general who commands an entire army. The chief of a large corporation. The head leader of a guild. They all need someone to make grand strategies and run administration. The admin-type Cultivator is most suited for this job.”
Electricity coursed in Li Yao’s mind. Soon, he responded by automatically nodding his head.
There are specialists in business. Someone with battle strength is different from someone who commands a large army. Being able to level a mountain with a single explosive fist is not representative of the ability to become a capable guild leader.
The admin-type cultivator really does have its own value for existence.
Zheng Dongming supplemented with more words, “At present, the person with the highest position in our Star Glory Federation is the Chairman of the Congress, Xu Haoran. He’s an admin-type Cultivator who reached the Yuanying Stage. It's said that his brain underwent enormous development. When his spiritual energy courses through to its utmost limit, he can process over 80 million thoughts telepathically every second! He can be said to be a super-crystal processor in human form! Only with this sort of calculation prowess can one lead an enormous nation such as this!”
Even Speaker Xu Haoran was an admin-type cultivator? Li Yao was forced to have a whole new level of respect for this type.
However, he understood himself unequivocally; he knew he wasn’t made for this. Soon, he returned to being himself and asked, “Then, what’s the third type?”
Zheng Dongming swayed his middle finger and said, “The third type is the research-type cultivator. Just as the name implies, this type of cultivator is similar to the admin-type cultivator, possessing extremely high computational abilities. They are capable of processing tens of thousands of telepathic thoughts in a flash. However, their abilities aren’t as extensive; they like to concentrate on a specific subject… The research-type cultivator often becomes a doctor, lawyer, university professor, and various scientific advisors in the industry. They are highly respected by the masses.”
Li Yao went “Oh.” When compared to the admin-type cultivator, the research-type cultivator seemed a bit weaker.
Zheng Dongming saw through his disappointment and said seriously, “Don’t feel that the research-type cultivator is useless… The powerful research-type cultivators can compute and run a simulation of a star. They can tell when it will explode and thereby absorb the energy of the star’s explosion for cultivation. They can also deduce the combat style of a powerful ancient demon beast from several billion years ago, just from inspecting a few shards of fossils. Those in love with medicine can fuse man with Demon Beast — to engineer a Beast Soldier with tyrannical strength! Of course, this is illegal in the Federation, but in some of the lawless areas outside of the Federation, there are research-type cultivators with this sort of true strength. They simply exist on the same level as a god!”
Zheng Dongming paused with a sorrowful laugh. In a low voice, he said, “If this is not enough of an explanation for you, think of it this way, 40,000 years ago in the past, the cultivator who did the R&D of the Demon God Virus, causing Spirit Beasts to evolve into Fiend Beasts… He could be considered a research-type cultivator. What do you think? Are you scared yet?”