AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword
Chapter 39: Dual Cultivation

Lan Xiaohui’s physique continues to impress me. After only seven days, her internal injuries have healed to a point where she is fit to engage in combat once more. This is a result of not only her physique, but also the constant stream of processed medicinal herbs that I produce for her.

It teaches me some things about my own physique — which is an advanced version of hers. Her body, at the moment, seems as thought it was designed to be broken and then remade better than before — a warrior’s body.

Naturally, mine is even more so, but I am also a sword. That is my purpose.

“The other left,” I inform her.

Her finger hovers a few centimeters away from my black jade fuller, and there’s a focused and potent sword Qi energy hovering over the tip of her painted nail.

“I thought I should start here. It would be easier, no?”

Of course, I failed to take into account that Lan Xiaohui has a habit of reading from right to left. It makes sense that she wants to start on the top right side of my array.

“Please follow my instructions. User error could result in unhandled exceptions.” I tell her this like one of those limited Artificial Intelligences that are neither capable of thought or learning. I could’ve even mentally vocalized a “beep boop” just to play the part.

However, I know that her erroneous suggestions are not because this bag of thinking meat knows Arrays better than I do, but because she is in a good mood. She has been in a good mood ever since the fight with the snake. She speaks to me now in a more colloquial manner.

For the lack of a better description, I would say she trusts me more than before. I am not entirely certain why. If she believes that she is now alive because of the mnemonic device I taught her, then I would think she is being ridiculous. Her achievement is largely due to her own strengths. My part in the result was minimal.

She drags her finger to the other side, and narrows her eyes. “Here?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Really sure?”

I start feeling that thing sentient meat refers to as ‘annoyance’.

“Yes.”

She nods, and with a triumphant smile, drives the sword Qi needle into my black jade fuller, and carves a thin, straight line. “What is this for anyway?”

I wonder if there even is a point to attempting to explain it to her. Not only does she not understand arrays as well as I do, but she could never even approach understanding what it is like to have an internal storage device carved into one’s spiritual body, or how annoying it is to not be able to control its processes.

It is the same way that I also cannot understand why Lan Xiaohui cannot stop blushing, even though this whole thing was her idea in the first place.

Whatever. I’ll explain.

“I want to create an input for my consciousness in order to be able to adjust the workload, priority and delegate processing threads as I wish, instead of it being determined pseudo-randomly.”

She withdraws a finger, furrows her brows and stares at her reflection in my black jade.

“You want to choose what gets processed first?”

I am thoroughly shocked. This evolved monkey is actually smart. Can it add numbers together, too?

Could it be that I found a conversation partner?

“Yes,” I tell her. “I also want to be able to split processes, so that I can refine multiple items at a time, and also explore the geometry of the space within in order to find out if it behaves like a closed or open universe, and to measure and capture phenomena of objects unfolding from a higher dimension.”

In other words, if I buy something from the point exchange, I should be able to track where it comes from, how it appears, and if the space within cools or heats up will tell me the properties of the space itself.

She licks her lips and nods. “One thing at a time!”

I know she didn’t understand a word I said. Pity. I had high hopes.

She chuckles for no reason and continues carving symbols into my black fuller. The sword Qi hovering over her finger is capable of cutting my internal body, and is presently modifying my internal storage device to prepare it for [Nooparallelism] and some other general improvements that it should’ve come with to begin with.

The quality of life and user interface of some of my arrays are complete nonsense.

She is naked currently, with my vessel sprawled over her lap, inside the pond where she had decided to cultivate. She called this Dual Cultivation, and suggested it as a way to pass the time while she heals.

Though she is incredibly fidgety about the whole process, I cannot deny that it was a good idea.

[ Cultivation speed: 189 Qi/day. Efficiency: 112% ]

Needless to say, this is a lot faster than what I would be capable of my own. Because she is predominantly feminine and possessing of Yin energy, and I was masculine — this is not my decision, the world simply decided this for me because I am a sword — and of Yang energy, it creates an effect that amplifies the Qi.

Like two engines working together to refine the Qi of Heaven and Earth, instead of one. The increases are exponential.

This state of dual cultivation allows access to our internal bodies, which is the primary reason why she is able to modify my array in this manner. In essence, I gave her root permissions to my source.

Likewise, I am not just enjoying the benefits of this arrangement, but I am also optimizing her system. The Yang part of the Qi that I refine and send through her meridians is guided by my consciousness and is also rerouting her Qi flow, and adjusting her meridians — much to her discomfort, judging by her gasps and shivers.

Her speed?

[ Target cultivation speed: 589 Qi/day. Efficiency: 791% ]

It slowly rose over the past few days to reach this number — and I am not even certain yet why our numbers are so off — but at this rate, she would break into the Peak stage of Qi Refining in no time.

I am also fairly certain that if someone were able to cultivate this fast and were found out by others, that they would be killed out of jealousy. I suppose Lan Xiaohui has her own brand of [Avarice]. Maybe we are both cursed swords in some manner. Maybe our meeting was destined. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Either way, there is work to be done. If this seems impressive now, I cannot wait to see what it will look like when we reach the center of the forest and benefit from the focal point of this area’s Qi.

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