Master of the System

A scrawny man with a thinning head of white hair banged two metal instruments together. It drew the attention of the cultivators within the lobby. When he had everyone’s attention, he lowered the metal instruments and puffed his chest out while straightening his back. A raspy voice came out of his mouth, sounding much like the dying gasp of someone stabbed through the heart. “This millennium’s gathering of the cultivators has now commenced!”

Grandpa Vremya stroked his beard, glancing around. From what he understood, the gathering was a place to share knowledge in order to receive knowledge. Since the majority of the attendees were nascent-soul cultivators, the knowledge they had couldn’t be too esoteric. There were a few soul-seed cultivators attending, like the ancient man who had just announced the gathering’s start, but Grandpa Vremya didn’t expect high-quality information from them. If they were any good, they’d have already ascended to become false immortals. Since they were so wishy-washy, seeking people’s approval about their findings, there was no way any of them could pass their tribulation—if they could even get that far.

“I’ll begin,” someone said, standing up so fast it seemed like he had been kicked out of his chair. He reached into his interspatial ring and took out an herb. “Recently, while I was traversing the Ghostly Mountains, I was chased by over three thousand vengeful spirits. It was a desperate situation, and I found myself escaping through an abandoned courtyard. While there, I discovered the presence of this herb.” He lifted the white plant in his hand. “It’s exactly what you think it is: Biting Yin Grass. I was in a hurry at the time, so I was only able to retrieve three stalks of grass, but I recorded the location where I found them, and there’s over a thousand stalks of grass.” He glanced around the room as he pulled out a few jade slips. “Pass them around when you’re done looking through them.”

After a short while, Azalea received one of the slips. Although she wasn’t interested in Biting Yin Grass, a herb useful only for corpse refiners and doctors, she was still interested in the novelty of sharing information. She touched the jade slip against her forehead, reviewing the information inside. It was a series of memories of the man being chased and subsequently finding the courtyard. Afterwards, a map appeared in her mind, showing her the location of the grass. With her cultivation base, she couldn’t find anything wrong with the jade slip. She passed it to Grandpa Vremya, who took it and passed it on to Mr. Morgan without even checking the contents. “You’re not going to look?” Azalea asked.

“Not interested,” Grandpa Vremya said. “I have no need for any Biting Yin Grass.”

Azalea shrugged and glanced around the room. The jade slips were still circulating, but they were being passed around faster than she thought. Most of the people weren’t reviewing the information inside. Either they knew something she didn’t, or they just didn’t have a curious bone in their body. It wasn’t long before all the slips returned to the speaker. With a cup of his hands, he bowed his head and retreated, taking his seat once more. A sigh escaped from his lips as he sat down. It seemed like he had pushed himself to go first, so he didn’t have to anxiously wait to share his knowledge. Now that his presentation was over and done with, he could sit back and relax, absorbing what everyone else had to offer with a clear mind.

“If no one else is willing to share, I’ll gladly present my findings,” a woman said, standing up from her seat. She waved her hand, and a table appeared in front of her. On it, there was a laptop and a projector. While she set everything up, she went ahead with her prepared speech. “Recently, I’ve been working on an artificial intelligence system to automate the pill-making process. So far, I’ve managed to create a program intelligent enough to create basic spiritual pills with an accuracy of eighty percent. The code I’ve used is all there. If there’s anyone else in the field of artificial intelligence, I hope this serves as some help to you.” A wry smile appeared on her lips as she glanced around the room. “Perhaps one of you can even help me improve my artificial helper.”

Grandpa Vremya cleared his throat and tapped on his chair’s armrest. “I can help you with that,” he said and stood up. He went over to the woman’s laptop, and he used his spiritual energy to press on the keys. Rows upon rows of text appeared in the program’s coding, and the woman’s eyes widened as Grandpa Vremya added more and more. She knew most of the techniques he had used, but she had never considered using them in such a way. If this code really did run without any bugs, then the issue of her A.I.’s limited intelligence might finally be resolved.

“Do you know what he’s doing?” Mr. Morgan asked Azalea.

Azalea shook her head. She still didn’t know where Grandpa Vremya found the time to learn all the random things he knew. In fact, she suspected he had access to a world where time moved faster inside, letting him experience more things in a relatively short period. However, even if she considered herself his lifelong companion, she wasn’t going to seriously interrogate him about his secrets. She’d mention it in passing, and if Grandpa Vremya ever felt like telling her the truth, then she’d listen, but mostly, she had given up on figuring out where or how he learned things.

“This should be adequate,” Grandpa Vremya said, his spiritual energy no longer pressing on the keys. “With this new code, your artificial intelligence program will only be limited by your hardware now.”

The woman’s eyes glowed, and a scoffing sound resounded throughout the room. Everyone turned to stare at the source of the sound: it was Patricia. She froze underneath the gazes of the cultivators, and her cousin cleared his throat. “I’ll share next,” he said, drawing the crowd’s attention. He climbed to his feet and cupped his hands at Grandpa Vremya. “Seeing as you’ve enlightened fellow cultivator Stacy, I’d like for you to enlighten me as well. I’ve developed a new battle technique a nascent-soul cultivator can use to defeat a soul-seed cultivator, but I’ve come across an issue. Do you think you can help me?”

The surrounding cultivators glance at each other. Although Albert was speaking politely, it was quite obvious he was asking Grandpa Vremya for a duel. If Grandpa Vremya wanted Albert’s vote for top contributor, he’d have to defeat him and point out his opponent’s mistakes. “Of course,” Grandpa Vremya said and summoned three battlesuit golems. “You can fight my golems, and I’ll be sure to record and analyze every one of your moves.”

Albert’s expression darkened. He only watched some of the Bread Games through Patricia’s screen, but he had seen the destructive power of Grandpa Vremya’s modified battlesuits. If he knew the old man would shamelessly take them out like that, he wouldn’t have challenged him in the first place. However, he couldn’t back out of his challenge now, not while everyone was watching. One could lose their life, but face couldn’t be so easily thrown away. Albert bravely squared up against the three battlesuits. He barely managed to attack three times before being defeated.

“I think I know what the problem is,” Grandpa Vremya said, stroking his beard whilst nodding. “You’re just simply too weak. Instead of trying to develop a new technique, stick with the basics until you’ve mastered them.”

Even with Albert’s highborn upbringing, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything nice to Grandpa Vremya. In fact, he decided it be wiser to say nothing at all.