Chapter 40

"Wrong, I'm not Helian Lie's friend, I'm his drinking and carousing buddy," Zheng Dongming shrugged his nose and smiled.

"What's the difference?" Li Yao was taken aback.

"Drinking and carousing buddy means—Helian Lie can invite me for meals, drinks, speeder races, and women... In short, anything for fun is fine, but if it's about helping him beat someone up, especially someone whose strength has skyrocketed in a month, with a significant increase in spiritual root development, that's pushing our friendship too far!" Zheng Dongming said with a grin, moving closer to Li Yao.

Li Yao silently maintained a distance: "So you're not here to cause me trouble?"

Zheng Dongming moved closer again, seemingly unaware of Li Yao's coldness, and said calmly, "Do you know how many kinds of historic fine wines there are in the Federation, how many famous restaurants, and how many girls joined the entertainment industry last year?"

Li Yao blinked, feeling a bit out of sync with Zheng Dongming's rhythm: "So what if I don't know?"

Zheng Dongming counted on his fingers, listing the data: "According to my statistics, there are 1,300 kinds of historic fine wines in the Federation, over 300,000 restaurants worth trying, and last year alone, no less than 500,000 new actresses and singers registered with various entertainment companies!"

Pausing, Zheng Dongming sighed, "You know, I'm a super-rich scion of a wealthy family. There are so many fine wines for me to taste, so many delicious dishes for me to enjoy, and so many stunning beauties who would undress themselves and me with just a light cough from me—do you think I would waste my precious time to cause you trouble instead of enjoying all that?"

Li Yao narrowed his eyes, looking at him for half a minute before suddenly smiling.

Just as Zheng Dongming was interested in him, Li Yao now had a bit of interest in Zheng Dongming.

Li Yao shrugged: "Alright, you're not here to cause me trouble. Then what are you here for? Do you want to team up with me and fight on Demon Dragon Island?"

Zheng Dongming said, "That's just one of my goals. The main reason is to have a chat, a simple chat. If we were to use the language of the ancient cultivation world, it would be to 'form a good connection'!"

"You're rich, I'm poor. We're from different worlds. What do we have to talk about?"

"Many things. For example, Li Yao, you have such good skills, and I've heard you're also very skilled at repairing magical artifacts. Have you decided which school to apply to and what type of cultivator you want to become?"

"What type of cultivator? Are there many types of cultivators?" This was something Li Yao had never heard of before. He thought cultivators were all of one type—those who wield flying swords and fight in the sky.

Zheng Dongming gave him a look that said, "I knew you wouldn't understand. Come, sit down and listen to Young Master Zheng," then cleared his throat and said, "In the ancient cultivation world 40,000 years ago, there was no distinction, just one type of cultivator, and maybe some demon cultivators or beast cultivators, but those don't count, they just have different sources of spiritual energy! But in the modern cultivation world 40,000 years later, social division of labor has become more detailed, and cultivators are divided into six major categories."

He extended his plump right hand, spreading his fingers, and moved his thumb first: "The first type, and the most common and ordinary, is the combat cultivator. Combat cultivators best fit the traditional image of cultivators in people's minds—wielding flying swords, charging into battle, and fighting beasts. You definitely understand this, so I won't elaborate."

Li Yao nodded. He could certainly understand combat cultivators, but he hadn't expected there to be five other types of cultivators besides combat cultivators.

What were the other five types of cultivators?

Zheng Dongming curled his index finger and continued: "The second type is the 'management cultivator.' This type of cultivator may not have extremely powerful spiritual energy, but they have top-notch computational abilities. They can calculate millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of divine thoughts in an instant, finding hidden patterns and trajectories in vast amounts of information, and predicting the direction of events to make the best decisions. For example, the mayor of a city with millions of people, a general commanding thousands of troops, the head of a large corporation, or the leader of a sect—these positions that require comprehensive management are where 'management cultivators' excel."

Li Yao's mind raced, and he quickly understood, nodding.

Specialization is key. Being individually strong in combat and commanding thousands of troops are two different things. Being able to punch through a mountain doesn't mean one can be a qualified sect leader.

Management cultivators indeed have their value.

Zheng Dongming added, "Currently, the highest council speaker of our Starlight Federation, Xu Haoran, is a management cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage. It's said that his brain has been greatly developed, and when his spiritual energy is at its peak, he can process over 80 million thoughts per second, making him a 'human super crystal brain.' Only a powerhouse of this level can lead such a vast country!"

Even Speaker Xu Haoran is a management cultivator? Li Yao couldn't help but look at this type with new respect.

However, he was very clear about his own abilities and knew he wasn't cut out for this. He quickly regained his composure and asked, "What about the third type?"

Zheng Dongming wiggled his middle finger and said, "The third type is the 'research cultivator.' As the name suggests, this type of cultivator, similar to management cultivators, has extremely strong 'computational abilities' and can process tens of thousands of divine thoughts in an instant. However, they are not as broad but prefer to specialize in a particular field—research cultivators often become doctors, lawyers, university professors, and academic leaders in various industries, and they are highly respected."

Li Yao said, "Oh," and compared to management cultivators, research cultivators seemed slightly weaker.

Zheng Dongming noticed his skepticism and said seriously, "Don't think research cultivators are useless—powerful research cultivators can predict when a star will explode and absorb the starburst energy for cultivation. They can also deduce the combat methods of powerful ancient beasts from tiny fossils, and even create a new 'beast-mimicking ancient martial art' based on these methods. Not to mention some terrifying research cultivators who are obsessed with medicine and can combine humans and beasts to create powerful 'beast soldiers'! Of course, this is illegal in the Federation, but in some chaotic regions outside the Federation, such research cultivators are like gods!"

Pausing, Zheng Dongming smiled sinisterly and lowered his voice, "If that's not enough, think about this: 40,000 years ago, the cultivator who developed the 'demon god virus' and turned 'spirit beasts' into 'demon beasts' was also a research cultivator. How about that? Scared yet?"