"Alright, then you should focus on stabilizing your Cultivation," Zhang Deming said with a laugh.

The two of them spent the better part of the day together in the Cave Mansion.

He didn’t get up to leave until Li Shifan had mostly regained control of his aura and concealed it properly.

* * *

After Li Shifan left, Zhang Deming went back to his AFK Cultivation. Once he finished making this month’s Spirit Nurturing Beads, he quietly completed the delivery to Qu Qizhong.

He only left the Cave Mansion and returned to Qingyou Pool when his lease expired.

He gazed at the dozens of light balls in his inventory.

Merit: 11.2, Qi Fortune: 29.2.

’This should be enough now,’ he thought. ’I have to get started on the trial run feature.’

Although this feature didn’t seem to directly help his Cultivation progress and its effects were imperceptible, as his Techniques grew more complex, trying to code them by imagination alone without a debugging feature was becoming increasingly difficult.

Therefore, implementing this feature was imperative. He couldn’t delay it any longer.

This was his first time editing a feature himself, so he was unclear about many things. After taking care of all his affairs, Zhang Deming returned to his room and opened the control panel.

He looked at the feature bar: Inventory, Help, ·

Zhang Deming’s consciousness lightly touched the small dot.

"Requires Advanced Energy (0/10)"

Without hesitation, Zhang Deming immediately consumed ten Merit Light Balls.

"Consumed Advanced Energy. New feature unlocked. Please edit as desired."

The main page of the control panel began to change.

A new sub-page appeared, and countless code frameworks began to generate automatically, like a waterfall.

Seeing this, Zhang Deming let out a long sigh of relief.

’Good, there are frameworks. I don’t have to code it all from scratch.’

’Otherwise, it would have been an impossible task.’

But even with the frameworks, there was still a lot for him to do. It wasn’t a one-click generation, after all; he had to edit it all manually.

When he finished setting up the periphery, the ten light balls in his inventory vanished all at once.

At the same time, the core code began to generate.

What he had seen before was mostly just the editor generating frameworks based on its own code.

The trial run, however, had a core function that was completely different from the editor, and he needed to finalize it.

’ {

if ( ) { } else { }

} ’

Zhang Deming looked at the core code. It was completely empty of data, requiring him to edit everything by hand. He felt a little apprehensive.

After pondering for a long time, he finally began.

’ {

{then: this feature’s runtime environment will comprehensively simulate the Main Body’s environment and update in real-time;}

if (a completed Technique is edited AND trial run is initiated)

{then: test the Technique’s effects based on the simulated environment;

if (no errors) {then: display ’Normal’}

else {then: report error and display cause and location}

}

else {then: stop trial run and display prompt}

} ’

He stared at the core code for a long time. It was a basic mix with multiple nested layers. Without a trial run feature to test it, even this small bit of core code required careful, lengthy inspection.

Besides, he had also manually modified a lot of the surrounding frameworks earlier.

’This cost ten Merit points! If I mess this up, who knows how long it’ll take to get them back.’

After checking it back and forth several times, Zhang Deming finally clicked ’Complete and Upload’.

Countless Runes coalesced into a golden ball of light, which finally formed into the two words "Trial Run" on the feature bar of the editor’s main page.

Zhang Deming looked at the feature bar, which now had a new entry.

Inventory, Trial Run, Help, · (0/50);

He lightly clicked on "Trial Run," and a prompt immediately popped up.

"Notice: No plugin available for trial run."

Zhang Deming nodded. ’It seems to be a success. Now I just need a Technique to test it on.’

Zhang Deming looked at the Tier Two Flower Demon Vine Technique that had been sitting in his inventory for a long time. Without much thought, he chose to edit it.

"2 Ordinary Energy, small plugin editable.

Editing conditions met!

..."

He began the familiar process. After the framework was generated, Zhang Deming paused to think. Now that he had the debugging feature, he decided to try something bold.

’if (cast Flower Demon Vine by thought)

{then: Flower Demon Vine is cast successfully}

else {then: Flower Demon Vine casting fails}’

Zhang Deming had wanted to do this for a long time but never dared to try without a debugging feature. Now that he had one, he had nothing to fear.

He directly clicked "Trial Run." The light effect had just started when it immediately stopped.

"No Spiritual Qi provided. Fundamental error in Technique editing!"

"No script mounted. Technique Casting requires a certain pre-cast wind-up with hand seals. Please revise!"

"This Technique is extremely similar to an existing Technique. High probability of Rune Fusion. Please edit with caution!

Otherwise, a mutated Fusion will trigger an error in the generated Technique!"

’Uh...’

’Good thing I didn’t mess around before... How could a Technique possibly be cast without Spiritual Qi? I knew that sounded unreliable!’

As for not being able to cast with just a thought and needing hand seals, Zhang Deming hadn’t expected that.

’Wait!’

’A "certain" pre-cast wind-up with hand seals... Does that mean I can simplify the hand seals? For example, by extracting a few refined movements?’

’This Technique might fuse with the mounted Growth Technique, so testing this is pointless. After all, mounted Techniques don’t require a pre-cast wind-up. I’ll try that next time.’

When he first chose it, this was his intention anyway. The Flower Demon Vine was originally developed from the Growth Technique, so it wasn’t strange at all that they would fuse.

With that, Zhang Deming began various other attempts.

Casting the Technique to increase Cultivation.

Automatic Spiritual Power reflux after casting the Technique.

Triggering a Spiritual Energy Sea Absorption after casting the Technique.

* * *

In the end, he discovered that letting his imagination run wild was, as expected, a total trap. His initial caution had been the right call.

After some thought, Zhang Deming obediently modified the conditions.

’if (cast Flower Demon Vine AND possess a certain amount of Spiritual Power)

{then: Flower Demon Vine is cast successfully}

else {then: Flower Demon Vine casting fails}’

He completed the edit in a standard, by-the-book manner and clicked "Trial Run."

Countless Rune codes transformed into a ball of light, and an illusory, fully virtual projection identical to himself appeared before Zhang Deming.

The ball of light flew into the projection’s Dantian and condensed into a flower vine Rune. The Cultivation Technique Script immediately vibrated.

The Rune moved directly to the center of the vortex and fused once again with the Growth Technique’s Vine.

Everything was perfectly normal, without a single error report.

Once the trial run was complete, Zhang Deming directly clicked ’Complete and Upload’.

The Technique’s changes were exactly the same as in the trial run. Zhang Deming smiled happily. It seemed the trial run feature was officially online.

After multiple Fusions and his own development, the Growth Technique had completely changed its form, and even its name was entirely different.

Zhang Deming sensed it. It was extremely powerful. After a slight hesitation, he directly spent ten light balls and chose to upgrade it.

* * *

Skills: Spirit Nurturing Summoning Skill Lv3 (0/50), Flowering Jade Demon Vine Lv3 (0/50)

* * *