AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword

Ever so slowly, Lan Xiaohui makes it to the center of the waterfall where the Icy Sword Qi is the strongest. My owner is almost completely immersed in a shower of sparks that appear as a result of her own Qi countering the impacts.

This progress is not directly a result of her improved Sword Qi control, but rather an increase in efficiency due to becoming more familiar with the problem. Intuitively, she begins to understand the physics of the waterfall and is able to achieve greater results with less effort.

Even though, at this time, she is still only able to counter twenty to thirty attack points simultaneously, she delegates some of her defense to the protective layer of Qi over her body. Beyond this, she allows a small number of impacts to land on her body, and with her improved Physique, she is able to withstand them without any lasting issues, only temporary discomfort.

As a result, the Waterfall flow automatically adjusts to Lan Xiaohui’s improved defensive capabilities, and the flow increases from 7% to 15% of its normal velocity.

This results in a near-constant stream of sparks to fly off Lan Xiaohui who now sits cross-legged in the center of the waterfall, in that state of martial trance.

Very quickly, over the course of two hours, the waterfall flow increases to 18% and that is a direct result of Lan Xiaohui’s improved control, and she is no longer in danger of spontaneously disintegrating unless a distraction breaks her focus.

Around this time, Lan Xiaohui switches from using Heartless Blood Lily to generate her sword energy and Qi, to Fractured Sword, and the difference is immediately noticeable.

Thanks to this Waterfall, I am able to measure the direct increase in efficiency, calculating it around 340%, because the flow of the Waterfall swiftly accelerates to 60% of its normal output.

Teaching Lan Xiaohui the Fractured Sword method confirmed some of the suspicions I had. Lan Xiaohui and I share either the same or a very similar Sword Law because she is as suited to practicing it as I am.

Fractured Sword utilizes the same kind of space-warping effects as Lan Xiaohui’s Domain, which is immediately noticeable when the Icy Sword Qi no longer creates as many sparks as before, but instead produces a shimmer in the air as the two Qi collide.

With her Domain deployed, I notice that it not only possesses a more powerful effect of slowing down the incoming Icy Sword Qi but also creates a curvature that causes some of it to simply miss Lan Xiaohui.

Now, where Lan Xiaohui sits, the Waterfall shoots off her in sheets and ribbons, as if it was a high-powered jet striking a flat surface — all because of the strange curvature of space around Lan Xiaohui.

Unfortunately, I do not think this will allow Lan Xiaohui to use Fractured Sword in combat — even now, it requires a considerable amount of effort for her just to produce the energy and Qi — but with sufficient practice in proper combat scenarios, it might be possible to prepare it before the Martial Meeting tournament.

Another three hours pass and the Waterfall flow steadily improves to 75%.

At this time, Lan Xiaohui allows more of the Icy Sword Qi to strike her skin, and not only that, but she absorbs it into her body. The circulating energy is not cultivated — it is not the Qi of Heaven and Earth — but she utilizes it to train her Physique and, surprisingly, open her meridians. Though, I doubt that this will have effects outside of my Inner World, however, her spiritual vessel might remember this configuration and retain its shape.

It occurs to me at this time that I misinterpreted the purpose of this Waterfall. At first, I thought it existed primarily to improve the user’s Sword Qi control, but it has a far more beneficial function.

By allowing the Qi to strike the body, or to rampage through the meridians, this can be used to quickly improve the Physique and the internal structure of the user. Of course, without the control skills to effectively control the rate at which the Icy Sword Qi strikes the body, attempting this form of training would lead to immediate termination, as Lan Xiaohui has experienced before.

It is such a profound Formation, designed to train multiple skills at the same time. In fact, the lake itself is not to be overlooked either, as it too could provide a similar form of training — although the active defense method would be entirely impossible when submerged in the water.

After 6 hours in total, Lan Xiaohui’s body is covered in small cuts and bruises and her mastery of the Fractured Sword martial art has improved considerably. The Waterfall flow velocity has improved to 90% of its original value, and without Lan Xiaohui’s Domain, it likely would’ve reached 100%. The power of my owner’s Domain has decreased considerably, in order for her to practice the Fractured Sword martial art, and as a result of this, I can detect forty points that Lan Xiaohui is able to defend in any given instant, including those defended by the protective layer of Qi around her body.

[ SECOND LAYER: PREPARATION STAGE ENDING. ]

As soon as the words echo throughout the lake, Lan Xiaohui’s focus breaks and it has a deep effect on her ability to defend herself. First, her martial trance ends, and the entire waterfall shimmers from the lensing effect of her runaway sword energy and Qi. At some points, the flow of the waterfall even reverses.

But it all leads to the same conclusion; Lan Xiaohui’s body is suddenly overwhelmed by the Icy Sword Qi, tearing her to shreds.

Luckily, this time, she did not feel the pain either — it all happened too fast for her nerves to inform her of her death.

My owner does not seem concerned at all that she has experienced more deaths than anyone else, and instead brings her palm up and gathers her sword energy and Qi into the form of a silver but mostly translucent sword the size of her finger.

“Look,” she says, the excitement in her tone rather obvious, completely unaware of apathetic to the fact that she just got turned into biological paste. “I’ve managed to improve my mastery of Fractured Sword.”

I observe the sword above her palm, directing my consciousness to look at it from multiple directions. It is not that it is translucent, I realize, but that the light bends around it in rather strange ways. It also feels heavy.

“Good work,” I tell her. I am impressed, of course, but this is nowhere close to enough to be useful to me. The sword I produced to impale the snake with was hundreds of times bigger and is devouring almost my entire reserves of Qi.

This drain on my Qi reserves is offset by the sheath that Lan Xiaohui made for me, and my [World Eater] constantly operating at 7% — which produces a slightly noticeable effect on the Qi around me, however, it is a necessary risk.

Lan Xiaohui smiles and nods.

[ SECOND LAYER: CHALLENGE STAGE BEGINNING. ]

Without any warning, we suddenly find ourselves at the central plaza. Hundreds of cultivators surround a large Pagoda in the center of the plaza, and this structure climbs for hundreds of floors, its peak high above the clouds. Not even I can measure its height, from the ground.

Lan Xiaohui immediately assumes a defensive posture — she has long suspected that the second layer challenge will involve fighting her fellow cultivators — but once she realizes that she is the only one in this stance, she relaxes slightly.

“You are new here?” a cultivator next to Lan Xiaohui asks.

My owner nods in reply.

The cultivator next to her is a short man with black hair and black eyes. “Everyone who is new assumes that we’ll be fighting, but that’s not the case — not always,” he says.

The cultivator’s words make me question several assumptions I have made about this internal world. It does not seem to have appeared with my Devoured Worlds Sphere and may have been operating, independently, for quite some time.

“The tower is the challenge,” the cultivator says. “Good luck.”

With those words, the cultivator steps on the stone platform in front of him and disappears.