AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword

Chapter 82: Swordsmanship (6)

Lan Xiaohuis sword is perfect. When she slashes, she is so aware of her reach, range, speed of motion, and her positioning that there is no waste or inefficiency in the way she dispatches the beasts that surround her.

At first, as she was progressing in her swordsmanship, she would rush toward the demonic beasts, trying a strategy to cut them down in front of her at a speed that would not allow the monsters behind her to catch up and kill her.

This approach worked until the halfway point where fatigue and sustained injuries would eventually slow her down enough for the demonic beasts to catch up to her and bring her down.

In this harsh environment, a single mistake meant that death was inevitable. There really was no room for error. If Lan Xiaohui lost her footing, she would die. If she failed to penetrate the skin of the tougher demonic beasts, she would die. If she penetrated the skin but failed to kill the demonic beast, she would die.

This was not necessarily always the case death would not be instant or imminent. She would have a chance to defend herself, and as her skill improved she could do so very well. But there was only one of her and she could not defend in all directions.

The most dangerous opponents were the wolves, as they would surround her and all attack her at the same time working together to bring her down, utilizing proper pack-hunting tactics. Against this, Lan Xiaohui had no answer. She did not have eyes in the back of her head, and even if she did, she simply was not fast enough to defend against this.

Even if she could perfect this method, because she could only kill demonic beasts in front of her, it took her fifteen minutes only to kill half of the demonic beasts. It was too slow.

From my perspective, I see Lan Xiaohuis improvement as a repeat of her training with Wukong. At first, she tries the approach to challenge the demonic beasts with her crude might and hard body; this fails in the most painful manner: torn apart, exsanguinated, gored to death each death shocking enough to disrupt her mental processes for several hours afterward.

With the improvement of her Emptiness Prana, the effects of her death have been heavily reduced to the point that it only took her several minutes to recover after a particularly gruesome end.

But just as she did with Wukong, she reduced the complexity of her approach to focus on the basics. Initially, her sword could not cut well without sword energy and sword Qi now she can instantly kill Jadeskin Serpents with a single blow. She learned that sometimes she strikes too hard or steps too far while striking, leading to a recovery period that takes longer than necessary and usually results in her death. Now there is no waste in her motion.

She has perfect and complete awareness of her own body and its capabilities, and, more importantly, she has complete and perfect awareness of me and my capabilities. With such knowledge, she can allow herself to be surrounded.

Before, Lan Xiaohui could not defend in all directions. While this is still true, Lan Xiaohui can now kill in all directions.

Now, her approach is reduced to this complexity: Wait for the enemy to surround her and slaughter them.

Being surrounded by 100 demonic beasts might seem like a hopeless thing to attempt, but in reality, it is much safer than rushing at them provided one also has perfect awareness of their surroundings.

The reason is simple: At most, ten to fifteen demonic beasts can surround her at any one time, depending on the size. When Lan Xiaohui carves a path open in front of her, the number of demonic beasts that can surround her at any one time can reach up to twenty, and it is much harder to defend while also moving.

Like this, Lan Xiaohuis complexity is reduced to the basic fundamentals. There is a zone around her and anything that enters will die and its corpse will prove to be an obstacle to all those that come after.

After fifteen minutes, the corpses around Lan Xiaohui are piled up so high that all her enemies come from above her and my vessel in her hand is just a glint of light captured from an unknown and invisible source within the Inner World Sphere.

Lan Xiaohui, to me, truly does appear as if she is in a martial trance. Even though her eyes are open just barely they do not see anything. There is a pulse inside her that seems to dictate or mimic the rhythm of the battle and her motions are so perfect that she appears robotic to me.

When she thrusts, her body is perfectly straight, taking full advantage of the reach and power she can produce. When she turns and twists it is with the most extreme manifestation of the principle of her stance and her cultivated Yin method even though she does not use her external martial arts for this.

Even when the wolves try to surround her and attack her at the same time, in a flash of light, my sword passes through their necks with such incredible ease that even I find it surreal. Her attainment had become so deep, so fast.

Every second that passes, blood and severed limbs fly into the air and though this would be a feat achievable by some peerless sword geniuses, the ability to not be distracted by unexpected sensations being bumped by limbs or splashed by blood to Lan Xiaohui with her Emptiness Prana method these distractions may as well not exist.

Ive never thought of Lan Xiaohui as a perfect killing machine until now, and I feel an ember of pride within me for being a part of this monster's creation myth.

The last monster that leaps down from the barricade of stacked-up corpses is an iron-horned bull and I dont remember Lan Xiaohui ever killing one of these monsters which makes me wonder how the Inner World Sphere knows of its existence.

Lan Xiaohui turns and seemingly casually extends her arm forward and thrusts, piercing me into the bulls skull with effortless ease, killing it on the spot before it has a chance to even come close to Lan Xiaohui.

[ FIRST LAYER: BASIC SWORDSMANSHIP TEST COMPLETE. TIME REMAINING: 13 SECONDS. REWARD: 10x INNER WORLD TOKENS. ]

As the corpses disappear into multicolored glittering fragments, Lan Xiaohui falls to her knees and exhales. She smiles, finally realizing that she has passed the test, but at this point, she is too tired to even laugh or produce some form of triumphant ritual.

This feat has cost her every bit of her stamina and it is only through her Emptiness Prana that she manages to keep a composed expression during and after the test.

Outside the Inner World Sphere, Lady Yues Domain makes a full revolution every hour, meaning that Lan Xiaohui takes only a single breath that hour when meditating. When she inhales, it comes with such force that it is enough to suspend moisture out of the air and create a faint mist. Due to the incredible inrush of Qi, her entire dantian and Pillars activate including the extra set. They hum, processing the Qi and in doing so produce a deep, and powerful Sword Law.

Ive even managed to make some observations on Lan Xiaohuis Sword Law. There is no force acting upon objects within her Domain that causes them to slow down or still, but it is likely a warping of local space that causes them to appear to travel slower. Though the distance remains the same, the expansion of space could possibly lead to an observation of objects traveling slower or requiring more energy to accelerate.

We finally did it, Lan Xiaohui says staring at my bloodied vessel directly with an expression of pure elation. I am glad that she says we did it. Even though I did not do much other than offer some pointers.

I only pointed out that what she had been trying to achieve is similar to the mnemonic device I taught her; from there, her inspiration and enlightenment took over and sharply increased her progress.

"You should rest now," I advise her.

She nods, and without a word curls up into a ball, right there, and closes her eyes. It might be beneficial to sleep in the Inner World Sphere due to the time dilation.

She is closer now than she has ever been to accomplishing her goal. While slaying a hundred demons, she has been perfecting the method to slay just one: Yu Shun.

After a moment, her faint voice reaches me, though I am not sure if she is truly still awake or if she is already well into the sleep process. "Did I do well?"

"You did," I tell her, keeping the output of my [Telepathy] to a minimum to not disturb her rest. I am aware that is also trying her best to gain my approval.

To her, it has been two weeks, but in reality, it has been three months since she began this test. She hasn't only sharpened her sword, but also her killing intent, which now appears to me as pure, warm, and freezing cold at the same time. It is such a strange thing; a mix of her gratitude and adoration for me or perhaps the sword itself, and her ever-deepening desire to cut her devil from this world and liberate herself from its looming shadow.

But that is not all she desires. There is a path for us beyond killing the Black Tiger.

"I am proud of you, Lan Xiaohui," I assure her.

She is a suitable master.