AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword
Chapter 75: Immortality (1)

In the aftermath of Lady Yue’s final technique, the dust still has to settle on the entrance of the grotto. As if enchanted, Lan Xiaohui simultaneously covers on the ground, a mere ten steps away from where the fire Qi incinerated even the stone, while also staring at the silhouette of Lady Yue.

Now that her Qi has stabilized and is no longer in a high-performance mode, it forms a faintly visible halo of golden light behind Lady Yue, pulsing in a manner that is reminiscent of the Pillars of Heaven that Lan Xiaohui and I formed.

I feel like there is a deeper mystery to this — something incredibly important — but with half of my consciousness dedicated to maintaining Lan Xiaohui’s system, I find it difficult to have more parallel streams of thought.

I do, however, manage to make a note to upgrade the [Nooparallelism] talent as soon as possible.

I inspect Lan Xiaohui’s state before I even inspect mine — though this is not indicative that she is more important than me, it is merely because she is more vulnerable than I am. Other than a few scratches and bruises from being launched tens of steps and then crushed into the ground, Lan Xiaohui is in excellent health for someone that was on the doorstep of dying a few weeks ago.

It is a noticeable improvement, especially after she took the pill that Lady Yue gifted to her.

I am at a point in my existence — a low point, for sure — where I can appreciate irony. Since Lan Xiaohui is not physically harmed, I know that my physical state must be even more pristine, however, my internal state is on the precipice of ruin — though it has been on the precipice of ruin for a long time now — and that stunt with the sword Qi that I pulled has shortened my death timer once again.

Now I have only one year — possibly less — to repair my internal system, or my death would be unavoidable. Through every exertion of my spiritual power, my time shortens. Perhaps it is better to think of my timer as being counted in weeks, instead of months or years.

Situations where I will have to use my Qi will come again — that is also unavoidable.

I consider burning my life essence instead, but I am not entirely certain how to achieve this in a manner that is useful to producing sword Qi in battle, or even sword energy.

The dust does eventually settle, and Lady Yue makes her way back into the grotto. She seems to be in a good mood, especially now that her halo has faded away and her Qi has returned to a full standby mode.

Without making any detours, Lady Yue walks towards Lan Xiaohui, ignoring even the water in the basin — half of which had evaporated away — by walking on top of its surface without regard to such things as phases of matter, buoyancy or density. The water may as well be a stable, solid platform for Lady Yue.

Once she makes her way to Lan Xiaohui’s side, she glances at my fallen owner, and ascertaining that she is unharmed, Lady Yue beckons for Lan Xiaohui to stand.

“He is gone. It is safe now,” Lady Yue says.

Lan Xiaohui hesitates briefly, before slowly moving to her feet. “You mean he is not dead, Lady Yue?”

Even though this is an alarming circumstance, I can feel Lan Xiaohui relax.

The woman shakes her head with a dark smile on her lips. “He used a life-saving treasure to escape,” she says, and then, almost as an afterthought adds: “That will surely cost him most of his lifespan.”

Hearing this does not make me happy or pleased. I know from my own perspective that anything that costs me most of my lifespan is enough to create Devils in my heart — if I had a heart. For me, the cause of my grievances is Heaven and its foreign diplomacy of trying to obliterate me every time I do something good. For Lan Xiaohui, it is the Black Tiger. For both of us, we want to delete the cause of our devils and extinguish our fires.

For the Grand Elder — his Devil is most likely either Lan Xiaohui or myself, as we are the direct, root cause of his grievance.

“What if he returns?” Lan Xiaohui asks. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Lady Yue laughs. “So what if he does? He is a tiny little man; only in the Severing realm. What could he possibly do even if he returns?”

Hearing these words, Lan Xiaohui relaxes even more, striking the Grand Elder from her mind. This is the part of her that I find among the most appealing. If the problem is not right in front of her, it might as well not exist.

Severing realm. My interest is set ablaze and it is intense enough to influence Lan Xiaohui’s thoughts as well since we still share the mnemonic device connection.

At this point, Lan Xiaohui has managed to stand up and brush the dirt off her dress, as she looks around the grotto, assessing the damage.

“Is the Severing realm a great achievement?” Lan Xiaohui asks diplomatically. The real question on her mind is how far away it is.

Lady Yue smiles. “It’s not a realm technically,” she says. “It’s a technique to cross from the peak of Nascent Soul Ascension and take a half step into Immortality."

Lady Yue beckons Lan Xiaohui to follow her, and the two head toward the entrance of the grotto.

There is a youthful, joyful even, spring in Lady Yue’s steps. She acts in a manner that is reminiscent of girls even younger than Lan Xiaohui, but I strongly suspect that any number I could come up with to describe Lady Yue’s behavior, in terms of age, I could multiply by a hundred and Lady Yue would still be older.

“Have you heard of the Great Divide or the Great Barrier?” Lady Yue asks, as she stops outside the grotto and then flicks her finger at the cleared ground. Following the motion of her finger, a line is struck into the dirt.

“I have not, Lady Yue,” Lan Xiaohui replies.

Lady Yue slashes more lines in the dirt with her invisible sword Qi, forming words and symbols. “Do you know of any elders in your former sect that have reached a realm beyond Nascent Soul?”

Lan Xiaohui thinks about it for a moment, then shakes her head. “I don’t know of any, but everyone says the Ancestors have an incredible cultivation realm — but they are half a step from death.”

Lady Yue nods. “That’s because of what we refer to as the Great Divide and the great tribulation that follows all attempts to cross it.”

Lan Xiaohui swallows nervously when she hears the word tribulation. It can only refer to what Lan Xiaohui and I faced recently and barely survived — well, I am still in the process of dying, so I am not quite at the survived stage yet.

After she is done forming the words in the dirt, Lady Yue threads her arm under Lan Xiaohui’s and snuggles up to her side, resting her cheek on the girl’s shoulder. “Do you want to know more, my little lily?”

Lan Xiaohui stares at the words in the dirt.

Qi Condensation. Qi Refining. Foundation. Core Formation. Nascent Soul. Immortality.

The final word has Lan Xiaohui’s attention like the flame beckons to moths. It is such an intense desire that stirs in Lan Xiaohui’s heart that she does not even mind Lady Yue’s friendliness. A deep, hidden, and dark part of her is even thankful that she has Lady Yue’s attention like this — because that deep, hidden, and dark part of her wants to manipulate this to her advantage.

She would do anything for the opportunity to kill the Black Tiger and to become Immortal.

“Please tell me more, Lady Yue.”

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