AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword

In the aftermath of the sudden surge of power that rips me from the Foundation Establishment realm and into the mid stage of Core Formation, my internal system is in such shock that even a tiny spasm could obliterate the tension and cause my inner configuration to fly apart — in other words, I would explode.

Then, as if to taunt me and point out that the wrath of heavenly tribulation is the least of my concerns, my newly formed perfect, gold core, emits a pulse and halo of gold light, and the energy of nature, Heaven, and Earth, rushes into my [World Eater] aperture at ten times its previous rate, and crashes into my spiritual veins.

The delicate balance within my internal system? It fails spectacularly.

A chunk of my physical vessel, the size of a fist, explodes off my body as my entire vessel trembles with enough intensity to register as a small earthquake several hundred meters away from this place. This chunk of divine grade debris blasts across the Starsword Peak and slams into the earth, ripping open a trench that is twenty standard Lan Xiaohui steps deep, thirty steps wide, and three hundred steps long.

In the blink of an eye, Starsword Peak now possesses an additional feature.

However, I am not pleased with my civil engineering achievements. In fact, my sentient core feels nothing but dread.

“Yaoyu—“ Lan Xiaohui begins, but the rest of her words vanish in the blast of sound as another chunk of my body, larger than before, flings off my vessel, nearly decapitates my owner, and slams into the mountain ridge above.

There used to be a uniform line, almost completely horizontal, of mountain terrain that cradled this valley, but now there was a very noticeable hole in its pristine geometry. Nevermind rocks and debris falling down, I cannot even tell where the red-hot glowing fragment of my treasure body went.

Considering the force with which it exploded off my body — comparable to a railgun — it would likely not fall from the sky for several minutes, and, if I had a heart, I would pity the immediate vicinity of whatever it fell on.

The life force in my body ignites and the gold core in my dantian pulses once more, sending my internal energy into momentary chaos before stabilizing. This — the burning of half my lifespan — is done intentionally.

An incomparable sword force rises over my vessel, producing a wave of energy that blasts down with such pressure that it causes the boiling point of the water in contact with my glowing, red-hot vessel to increase to a point where I am no longer producing steam.

Silver, glittering motes of manifested sword energy appear in the air above my vessel and then collapse together, forming the shape of a sword.

I feel it then because my internal system is connected with Lan Xiaohui’s and Wu Yulan’s. The circulation of their internal energy stops dead — hanging like an unterminated process.

— Fractured Sword, Third Form: Eternal Annihilation!

Though this pristine sword technique is formless and generated from the burning of my lifespan and is only at 10% efficiency, it is still a technique only someone in the Nascent Soul Ascension should be able to perform reliably and at low efficiency. Its full power — perhaps even the Nihility realm would not be sufficient to release it at full strength!

The sword that can suppress the undying snake in my sea of consciousness, unsurprisingly, can suppress even Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan to a point where no internal energy in their bodies circulates. In fact, the suppression is so severe that they do not even breathe. In their perception, this sword that they can neither see nor feel is so heavy that it is crushing them and killing them.

One hundred breaths under this suppression, and they will die.

But that is exactly what I want. Not them dying — the suppression is my goal.

Beneath this sword, my internal energy stills and stabilizes; the rampaging streams of catastrophic energy are as if pierced by long needles and pinned into place like chaotic butterflies.

Ten breaths pass and I forcefully move the energy within my body, desperately trying to circulate it and stabilize my foundations.

The suppression that Wu Yulan and Lan Xiaohui feel at this very moment — and myself — is nothing like when Lan Xiaohui was suppressed by Lady Yue’s domain, or even Grand Elder Zhou’s terrifying Qi.

This suppression is borne from the subjugation of the profound laws of space by an even higher-level law of space. In the region where these two laws of space intersect, all would be annihilated. Furthermore, this Eternal Annihilation sword, once fully released, would exist in this world forever unless exterminated by another force of equal level. It is like a flame that burns away at the very laws of the universe and never extinguishes — even when all is consumed.

Such a profane, insidious power is generated from a method that is only one step below the Divine grade.

It suits me — a divine grade treasure — perfectly.

As a proud and future master of this universe — at the highest pinnacle of grades — I cannot allow myself to cease to exist because of disobedient, low-grade Qi.

Thirty breaths pass and the red-hot glow emitting from my vessel wanes and disappears. The water in the pool stops churning and the ground has long since ceased its trembling. Beneath that law-subjugating sword force of the dissipating mystical sword, my internals are given enough time to stabilize and come into harmony.

Wu Yulan and Lan Xiaohui are so deep in their breakthrough — on top of the suppression that has halted this breakthrough — that they do not even notice the world around them. Even those few times that Lan Xiaohui has sensed my distress are abnormal, but not unexpected from a sword maniac such as herself.

I am almost proud of her — almost, because I am not certain if that is a flaw or a virtue.

After sixty breaths, the sword energy that could barely generate 10% of the Eternal Annihilation technique — if even that much — dissipates completely and the suppression completely lifts.

My internal system undergoes another, albeit much weaker shock, but is immediately suppressed by my flexible spiritual veins, and promptly stabilized.

[Primordial God Blood Fruit] — what a terrifying, miraculous treasure. To think that it can release so much energy — even half-formed — and cause me to nearly explode.

Angering the heavens once more to obtain tribulation lightning rises to the top of my list of objectives.

Two years to reach Nascent Soul Ascension? If I had an endless supply of those fruits, even two weeks would be too long!

The time is less of an issue, as much as the thousands of times I would die without a chance of survival.

As I consider the various countermeasures I could use to avoid death by disintegration, I query my vitality to see the extent of the damage to my lifespan, already expecting rather bad news.

Surprisingly, it returns with a sliver of hope.

[ Lifespan: 41 years. ]

Even after burning half my lifespan, 41 years remain. This number is so unexpectedly high that, for a moment, my control over the rampaging energy in my internal system slips by a tiny margin and causes internal damage.

A spray of black blood shoots from my black jade core, turning into mist in the air that dissipates after a moment.

This tree, even though it nearly cost me everything, solved my most immediate long-term problems.

Even if it is a parasite, I will permit it to coexist under the same sky with me.