AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword
Chapter 79: Swordsmanship (3)

As the spar begins, Lan Xiaohui pours all her effort against Lady Yue, knowing fully well that this will not even trouble the other woman. Yet, the extent to which it does not trouble the powerful cultivator is enough to shake Lan Xiaohui’s Dao Heart.

Lady Yue resists all of Lan Xiaohui’s attacks with simple parries and, more importantly, without taking a single step or even so much as moving her feet a single millimeter.

Even when Lan Xiaohui uses her sword Qi and sword energy via the Storm Cleaver technique, Lady Yue is so unaffected by it that she simply parries it with a light tap of her sword to my vessel, guiding all of Lan Xiaohui’s force away from her body, causing my owner to nearly stumble.

A part of this is because of the incredibly disruptive Sword Domain that Lady Yue employs but it is also clear that even without it, the result would be the same.

Lady Yue’s swordsmanship is so profound that even without using any internal or external techniques, she is able to defend against Lan Xiaohui and, if she so wanted it, kill her on the spot.

Almost as if to demonstrate that even a mortal — one who does not even cultivate Qi — could achieve the same.

This is not a surprise to me at all. My very first meeting with sentient creatures in this world was with those who did not prioritize cultivating the Qi of Heaven and Earth, but instead of enhancing their bodies. They also do not practice external martial arts and are capable of killing cultivators of advanced cultivation realms.

Lady Yue’s remark that Lan Xiaohui’s fundamental swordsmanship is lacking is brought the most into the light of awareness, both for myself and Lan Xiaohui, when Lady Yue perfectly manipulates the tool of her war trade to parry only with the tip of her sword — unerringly so.

I cannot help but admire Lady Yue and the incredible strength of her swordsmanship. Perhaps this is because I am a sword and a part of me yearns to be wielded by someone so skillful. On the other hand, the logical part of me also recognizes that this someone will one day become Lan Xiaohui and I am in no hurry to please my sentient core’s desire for a powerful master immediately to appear and take possession of me.

The spar lasts for only ten minutes, at the end of which Lan Xiaohui has exhausted all her energy to the point that the Domain now strikes physical blows against her that cannot be resisted with her protective Qi.

Lady Yue also notices this but, true to her word, she does not dismiss her technique. It seems even recovery will be done under the crescent of that moon and, somehow, this seems to please Lan Xiaohui.

As someone who is now well adjusted to adversity and harshness — and, more importantly, has tasted the benefits of overcoming the very same — Lan Xiaohui must find this environment to be very appealing. Not that she did not find the peaceful days of cultivating in this place with me less pleasing, but it is difficult for me to decide which she prefers more.

In such a depleted state, Lan Xiaohui has no choice but to immediately, and without a word, sit down in a cross-legged position and breathe in the Qi of Heaven and Earth in order to recover her energy enough just to protect herself from the Domain.

The method she chooses to do this with is the new cultivation technique she learned.

Emptiness Prana. Prana meaning breath; it is a mysterious technique and perhaps it is this way because I did not obtain it from the Point Exchange.

With my intuition and even my shallow Dao of Qi — but mostly thanks to my mastery — I am able to deduce a cyclical nature to this cultivation method. Its focus is on taking a single breath over a long period of time and holding it. When the practitioner exhales, their heart also becomes calm. In terms of parameters that this is advantageous to, I would have to say that it directly bestows an enhancement to mood. An empty heart is a steady heart.

This cyclical nature is best known to Lady Yue who watches Lan Xiaohui’s recovery emergency with a hint of a smile.

“Focus on my Domain,” she instructs Lan Xiaohui and also sits down cross-legged in front of the girl.

Her Domain — the crescent-shaped glimpse of a hidden moon — begins to rotate very slowly in a clockwise direction. At the moment, it is at 60 revolutions per minute, and each time the crescent reaches the peak of its revolution, Lan Xiaohui takes a breath.

At first, Lan Xiaohui finds it incredibly difficult to focus under these conditions. Her focus is shattered, her breathing is disrupted and my vessel keeps throwing sparks at her.

Still, Lan Xiaohui possesses a single-minded focus and she ignores all distractions around her. She focuses only on the revolving crescent of the moon and the timing of her breath.

In the span of the next few minutes, this rate of revolutions slows down to 15 per minute, and then finally to 10. At this rate, Lan Xiaohui’s breathing becomes steady, and with each breath, she consumes dozens of liters of air — I am not entirely sure how she has the lung capacity to perform such a feat. She also calms down and her Qi recovers enough to withstand the Domain to a point where it is less of a distraction.

This is a two-fold solution. Her Emptiness Prana method is not sufficiently advanced enough yet to completely eliminate all distractions — the so-called fires in her heart — but it is enough to recover her Qi. The true secret behind her success is the instinctive and reflexive utilization of her own Sword Domain.

Where Lady Yue’s Domain exerts a physical force that could cut and bash, Lan Xiaohui’s exerts a field of stillness and calmness, slowing everything down in a very small radius around her.

Even though she doesn’t say anything, I am aware that Lady Yue approves of this usage of Lan Xiaohui’s Sword Law comprehension — and this has likely been her objective from the beginning.

“We will continue in six hours,” Lady Yue says and closes her eyes. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Lan Xiaohui nods. “Yes, Lady Yue,” she says. “Thank you for the lesson.”

Without hesitation, as soon as her words cross her lips, I feel Lan Xiaohui’s consciousness pour into my vessel and touch the black sphere in my sea of consciousness.

I follow after her into the Inner World and we find ourselves not at the Second Layer, but instead in the dark and empty world of the First Layer.

I understand her decision. She cannot withstand the Icy Sword Waterfall formation, so she likely wants to improve her defensive Qi against Wukong.

Unfortunately, Wukong does not appear this time. Instead, there is a rock stele before Lan Xiaohui.

At first, Lan Xiaohui does not approach the stele, but rather she looks around, perhaps expecting to find her opponent somewhere in the darkness.

Only after confirming that there are just the two of us and the stele in this place, she slowly approaches the foreign object.

“First Layer - Challenge Stage,” the words on it read, and below the title is a list of challenges.

“Sword Qi test, Footwork test, sword energy generation test…” Lan Xiaohui enumerates several of the offered challenges, each item preceding a reward clause of Inner World Tokens.

It is clear that Lan Xiaohui is disappointed when she doesn't find the Giant Demonic Ape test entry.

I point out the Defensive Qi test to Lan Xiaohui with an arrow of sword Qi, but as her gaze crawls over the dense information on the stele, it is stopped by another item.

“Basic Swordsmanship test…” she trails off and then after a moment points her finger at the item. “I want this one!”

Immediately, the Inner World reacts to Lan Xiaohui’s will.

[ FIRST LAYER: BASIC SWORDSMANSHIP TEST - EASY DIFFICULTY ]

The genderless voice blasts out into the emptiness as dozens of flashes of light appear in the distance.

Lan Xiaohui stares as the flashes of light continue to appear one after another for nearly half a minute. When the demonic beasts — of all varieties — finish appearing, there is no less than one hundred of them, and possibly more.

“This is the easy difficulty?” Lan Xiaohui asks, her heart shaken to the core.

Then, as if to mock her, the genderless voice roars once more.

[ OBJECTIVE: Eliminate all enemies within 20 minutes. ]

Sᴇarch the ɴ0velFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.