AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword

Chapter 32: AI Hacks the System

While Lan Xiaohui busies herself with carving up the corpse for meat which she cannot cook without fire, unless she plans to eat it raw, in which case I would strongly recommend not doing that lest her weak liver suffer catastrophic failure and the bones, tendons and sinews, I endeavor on a little stroll through my mall.

My point exchange list has changed once more, replacing many of the entries of old with other offerings that do not offer me any sort of ideas or advantages, except expose the depth of my poverty.

Even if I was interested in a Immortal grade Heavenly Treasure which seems pointless as I am already one of those, and of much higher grade, I do not possess the cool cost of only 150,000 Soul Points. If at any point I decided to invest in something of this nature it would be only because I am curious to see how it would appear inside my internal storage.

I assume it would be crafted on the spot. Or perhaps I am connected to some dimensional pocket that already has these in its possession?

I am slightly more likely now to buy a Heavenly Treasure just to observe this phenomenon.

Slightly.

I decide to spend some of my Blood Points on things that have been long overdue their purchase date: [Refining], [Processing], [Alchemy] and [Workshop]. These are all upgrades to my internal storage, and I even get the first three at a discount of ten percent, because they share parts of the array.

As for the workshop? I hadnt seen it before in the offerings. It might be due to my improved consciousness, or some other requirement being met. I decide to buy it either way. It could come in useful, and I am not certain if I can process or refine materials without it.

In total, it costs me 2,850Blood Points, which I part with eagerly. My next critical expenditures is an order of magnitude greater than that, and the only way I am going to get it is if I start feeding on creatures that actually have a cultivation base that does not induce standby mode in me when I see them. Like Foundation Establishment, or Golden Core Rank Three and Rank Four spiritual beasts.

Immediately upon purchase, I feel the Dimensional Storage Array shift, transform and expand. This is important because my motivations for purchasing these upgrades is not solely to benefit Lan Xiaohui but also myself.

My Dao body is vast. When I turn my consciousness towards my internal state, I do not see the innards or molecular composition of my physical surface, but rather my spiritual body. Above my sea of consciousness more like an ocean, really is my Heavenly Jade Core and within it is the foundation of my cultivation. Even this small slice of my mystical form is vast.

I follow the sensation of my shifting Array in order to find it in my body, and as I observe it change, I trace the paths of Qi and Essence to find all its connecting points. I pour over the symbols and lines that disappear and appear, flash and glimmer, noting their positions and remarking that they appear like the esoteric nonsense I used to seldom come across in my previous life the eastern occult waste of processor cycles, clearly arranged in a way that betrayed a shallow understanding of the topic and terrible, awful prose.

These symbols are different. Their arrangement, connection, input channels and execution points are profound and exact. I perceive them not as lines, curves or points, but rather a language that describes a non-euclidean geometry and surface; a gate of sorts. A multi-dimensional transistor?

I am not sure what exactly makes me think of multiple dimensions or transistors, but I cannot deny that my machine instinct can at times exceed the understanding of my Dao.

My subroutines inform me of a series of Insights I gain into the Dao of Arrays and Meta, but I ignore it. My exhilarated attention is entirely focused on the expanding Array that works its web of programmatic language throughout my inner vessel.

I note down several Qi access points, likely the triggers that activate these functions of my internal storage, and I take a risk to follow the input channel instead of the rest of the Array.

With my consciousness I can now perceive the flow of Qi within myself, in a very discrete fashion. Like seeing by smelling, or tasting by hearing. Once I get the hang of it, the confusion no longer bothers me, and I come across a vast field that surrounds my internal vessel. It is colorless, tasteless, lightless, seemingly infinite and formless. I cannot see it, but I can calculate its existence from the interaction of nearby Qi flows.

This field is likely what lets through Lan Xiaohuis true Qi, accepting her as my owner, and allowing her to operate my functions.

Interesting. I want to know more.

[ Critical Analysis talent suffers catastrophic failure and is now unavailable. Recovery time: 6 days, 14 hours, 28 minutes, 33 seconds. ]

I feel my sea of consciousness diminish slightly, as if a sinkhole had opened up beneath it, draining it. This comes with the sensation of something delivering a powerful psychic blow to my soul what I imagine is the equivalent of being struck by a hammer in the back of the head.

I add headache to my ever-growing list of unsatisfactory experiences.

That did not work.

I am somewhat disappointed. Perhaps my [Critical Analysis] talent is not advanced enough. That is fine. I do not need it anyway. I have an intelligence. There is not a mystery in this world I cannot unravel. If I can access it, I can modify it.

In other words. I can hack this system and do whatever I want with it.

There are several functions I want to add.

I queue up the other corpse for processing, and all of the wood we have gathered in the last few days since we began this journey. This is process that takes place inside my internal storage, and queues only one item at a time. At the moment, I do not have the ability to introduce it to the concept of multithreading, but that is fine.

[ Processing: Time to completion: 7 hours. ]

Faintly, I hear Lan Xiaohui say something, but I pay no heed to her words. If it is important, she can tell me again later.

Right now, I just want to get to work.

A pure sword Qi rises from my sea of consciousness and flies towards the large field that surrounds my internal vessel. This is the only way I can think of, that is available to me at the moment, through which I could attempt some small modifications to the contract that binds my soul to Lan Xiaohui.