AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword

The wall of swirling snow stops in its tracks and then cracks, a rift opening just in front of Lan Xiaohui’s fingertip and then widening into a hole large enough to allow my owner and her companion to pass through.

This time, Lan Xiaohui does not even need her sword domain or Wu Yulan’s help to manipulate the wall of incredibly sharp snow. Her progress has exceeded all of my expectations.

In a very real sense, despite the losses they have collected here, this trip has been one of the most beneficial expeditions they have undertaken yet. Even Lan Xiaohui’s stay in the ancestral grounds of the Seven Killing Swords sect pales in comparison. That is unless I take into account the potential of the tree with its strange fruits.

“Yulan, are you sure you want to come with me?” Lan Xiaohui asks, not stepping out from the sealed courtyard and into the valley of snow ahead. “It could be dangerous.”

Wu Yulan chuckles, adjusting the sword on her sash to keep it out of the way of her arms. “Sister, I only lost my sword attainment. I am still a Core Formation cultivator. What danger?”

Lan Xiaohui laughs, as carefree as her companion about the concept of the dangers that lurk beyond this sealed courtyard. Even though many of these dangers, if not all of them, have a deeper cultivation than they do.

Without further discussion on this matter, Lan Xiaohui steps through the opening, and Wu Yulan follows closely behind. Once they are both through and into the unfamiliar forested valley shrouded in the perpetual blizzard, the wall behind them closes.

Wu Yulan steps to Lan Xiaohui’s side and looks ahead.

Both their eyes are unfocused, no doubt searching inward for the last memories they had of this place. Their desperate struggle and escape from the beast that hunted them and the very real sense that they would die here. Naturally, back then, they had no idea just how close to death they would get.

Their hearts are steady, but still lacking those foundational pieces they lost when they learned that in this world there are powers they could not even conceive of before.

“What should we do now?” Wu Yulan asks.

Lan Xiaohui purses her lips. It is clear that she has been thinking about this for a while.

“First, we should bring Yun Fei here. Next, we should qualify for the tournament,” Lan Xiaohui says.

Wu Yulan’s eyebrows rise and she looks at my owner. “The Conference? Why? If that person can really cure Yun Fei, we don’t need the rewards,” she says. “It would be better to just stay here for several months and improve our cultivation.”

Lan Xiaohui nods, agreeing with her companion. “We have to qualify for the Conference and win,” she says, as she begins walking forward. She heads the opposite way from which they originally came.

As Wu Yulan moves to follow my owner, Lan Xiaohui continues speaking. “Elder Qin knows we were here, and so do those people from the Heavenly Sword Villa. If Yun Fei is suddenly cured without explanation, and considering our progress, who knows what could happen in the future or how it might affect us.”

Wu Yulan frowns, and walks beside my owner in silence for several long moments, before finally nodding.

“You are right, Xuelian,” Wu Yulan says. “If we win the tournament and obtain the rewards, no one will ask questions about how Yun Fei was cured. Also, it will help us develop connections if we want to find Lu Long.”

Shortly soon after, they come across the tree in which they hid and cuddled together for warmth. Both of them stare at it, perhaps reliving how helpless they felt back then, and how vastly their definition of the word helpless changed soon after.

“It won’t be a problem for me, but won’t people have questions about our progress? We were only gone for less than two months,” Wu Yulan says. “Won’t winning the tournament be counterproductive?”

Lan Xiaohui shakes her head. “I have no intention of hiding my progress.”

Wu Yulan smiles, obviously pleased with Lan Xiaohui’s reply. “Can you explain why, Sister Xuelian?”

“There is no particular reason,” Lan Xiaohui says. “If I haven’t begged for my life back then, why would I act modest now? Yulan, we both want to reach the pinnacle, not live under someone else’s umbrella.”

Lan Xiaohui stops, glaring into the snow-shrouded forests ahead. “I won’t apologize for walking my path straight and holding my head high. When I joined the Galaxy Sword sect, I made the mistake to not do it my way. I won’t make that mistake again,” she says, resting her left arm on my vessel tucked into her sash. “Besides, I also have grudges and debts that cannot be resolved with a simple apology. Starting with this one.”

Deep in the forest ahead lurks a presence. Unlike Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan who can only sense its presence and killing intent, I can see it clearly.

Six tails and a scar over its eye identify it as the same monster that drove the two to the brink of death. If that were not enough, I still sense a sliver of Lan Xiaohui’s sword qi within the scar over its eye which has still not healed completely.

It all happens suddenly and nearly instantaneously.

The colors of the world drain as a distant howl echoes through the blizzard. The moment the fox deploys its sword domain, its body appears right in front of Lan Xiaohui, intending to strike my owner down before she can react.

The six-tailed fox raises its right paw, each claw extended out and sharper than any sword I have ever seen — other than myself, of course.

The suppression from the deployed sword domain sinks in almost immediately, tangling around Lan Xiaohui’s and Wu Yulan’s gold cores like chains made of sword energy, attempting to lock their inferior cultivation down and render them helpless. This time, the fox would not allow them to escape; even though it is a mindless beast, I can sense this intelligent intent within it.

This beast waited for two months, never knowing whether it will cross paths with Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan again; but certainly it hoped that it would, and with that faith, waited patiently, until the day would come.

I still find it fascinating that there exists a creature like this that can comprehend sword law. It is a noble and powerful beast, but ultimately, even though it wields mysterious sword laws, it does not truly comprehend the sword.

The sword is more than a simple instinct.

Lan Xiaohui’s fingers coil around my guard and she draws me from her sash — with my vessel still inside its sheath — and raises me horizontally in the air. Even though her cultivation is locked down, her physical body is neither helpless nor powerless.

The fox does not hesitate to slam its paw down and attempt to break every bone in Lan Xiaohui’s body, but when its paw strikes my sheath, unexpectedly, Lan Xiaohui’s arm does not even shudder. All the force and sword energy behind the blow simply dissipates, unravelled by my owner's far superior sword attainment and sword intent that also had a glimpse of the sword law.

Lan Xiaohui’s half-closed eyes are fixed on the scar over the fox’s eye, and there is nothing but a cold edge in her stare. I sense no aura or energy either. There is her cold stare, recognition, and barely noticeable killing intent.

My owner simply twists my vessel, throwing the fox off-balance and a single step to the left. She immediately follows up and kicks the feet from under the fox and while the fox is still in mid-air, completely off its feet, my owner strikes the fox in the chest with her fingertips. In that instant when her fingers connect with the fox's body, I simultaneously sense her core easily throw off the oppressive shackles from the demonic beast's sword domain, and the first time Lan Xiaohui uses any sort of qi or sword energy.

When the fox slams into the ground, my owner steps on both its front paws, digging her heel into the prone fifth-rank demonic beast, pinning it into place, and staring down at the beast that offended her two months ago.

Perhaps trying to help, as soon as the demonic beast hits the ground, Wu Yulan kicks the fox in the stomach with enough force to blow the falling snow away and send the demonic beast flying in a circle, trapped by Lan Xiaohui’s heel, and as soon as it traces half a revolution around my owner, she lifts her foot and allows the fox to tumble a dozen steps away and come to a halt.

Wu Yulan smiles at Lan Xiaohui as if to reassure her again that she is, indeed, not at all helpless; or that her help may have been unnecessary after all.

Lan Xiaohui returns her companion’s smile. “That is one grudge settled. Let’s go home,” she says.

Wu Yulan nods. “Do you mind if I fly with you?”

Lan Xiaohui shakes her head and finally draws my vessel, allowing it to hover in mid-air. With a smooth motion, she steps on top of my platform and then offers a helping hand to Wu Yulan who accepts it and climbs up behind my owner.

By the time the fox manages to recover and climb to its feet, it realizes that something is very wrong. Within its internal system, there is a qi pattern that is very familiar to me: Autumn-Severing Petals.

Each time it tries to summon its qi to retaliate against the two humans that wronged it and humiliated it, all it can feel in response is the blooming of lilies filled with sword energy.

Its body trembles once, then twice. The third time, holes blow into its pristine fur, but this damage comes from within.

Within several moments, the fox almost completely disintegrates as its body erupts with extreme amounts of sword force and energy. Whether in its final moments it regrets overestimating itself like this, not even I can tell.

A proud and noble beast, killed without mercy or Lan Xiaohui even drawing her sword; and by the looks of it, settling a grudge deep enough for my owner to not even consider it as worthy of being consumed by me, as if to say that she wants nothing to do with it anymore.

As they take off into the sky, not worried at all about the intense sword force waiting for them at higher altitudes, I come to see Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan in a whole new light.

They have become more than worthy companions.