“This AI of yours is pretty interesting, especially its comprehension of sword arts. Hmm, I take back what I said earlier—at least when it comes to sword arts, it’s not an idiot.”
Su Xin wore a slightly mischievous smile, appraising the Mo Ye AI she had devoured. Hearing this, Feng Xue asked with some concern:
“If the AI is gone, does that mean the sword technique compilation function is gone too?”
“How could that be! Do you even know what a Sword Spirit is? If I can’t completely master the sword’s functions, what kind of Sword Spirit would I be? It’s precisely because I can master them that I could devour that AI, okay? Don’t believe me? Bring out whatever sword techniques you have, and I’ll compile a set for you on the spot!” Speaking of her area of expertise, Su Xin seemed considerably more reliable. Hearing her say this, Feng Xue’s eyes immediately lit up—
“Then if I keep swapping out swords for you, can your mastered abilities increase without limit?”
“What are you thinking? How could it be that easy?” Su Xin shot him a charming eye roll. With a flick of her hand, the Su Xin Sword’s main body floated up. Pointing at the blade, she said:
“All I can do is draw out the sword’s inherent power. This sword can absorb energy because its materials are special. If you switch to a sword without such materials, I’d have a very hard time doing it.”
“Very hard? Not impossible?” Feng Xue had been somewhat disappointed, but hearing Su Xin’s choice of words, he immediately pressed.
“That’s right. According to your way of putting it, I should belong to the category of ‘spirit bodies.’ Based on the descriptions in those materials of yours, after absorbing the AI, I’m fundamentally no different from a Cyber Spirit. So I should be able to awaken that what’s-it-called… Source Energy.”
“Holy shit?” Feng Xue’s eyes went wide, his entire mind reeling. What did she mean, a Sword Spirit could have Source Energy too?
So…
“You’re Soul Source Energy?”
“I don’t know.” Su Xin spread her hands. “I’m currently in an unawakened state. But given the situation, energy and flesh-and-blood are unlikely, but spirit and soul are both possible. With the former, I can directly alter the material and structure of the sword I possess, granting it abilities as I comprehend them. With the latter, I can also use myself as a vessel to memorize a sword’s abilities, even separating from the physical sword to exist solely as a Soul Sword.”
“Then how do you awaken? Through meditation methods?”
Feng Xue recalled the contents of Old Man Jiang’s materials regarding the Tower District’s monopoly on meditation methods, thinking that he was planning to kill the one behind the Corpse Iron Society anyway…
“What are you thinking about? Of course you need to get me a body! The kind that can be classified as human. But to serve as my vessel, it itself still has to be a sword…”
“Where am I supposed to find you a body that is both a sword and a human? It’s not like we have any Seven Radiant Treasure Trees here…”
Feng Xue was quite helpless against this demand. Having the [Human] tag, obtaining a body that could be classified as human wasn’t difficult. But the [Human] tag was limited to brain implants or cybernetic bodies, while the [Sword Spirit] tag was limited to sword-type weapons. The two were difficult to reconcile. He couldn’t exactly install wetware on a sword or turn it into a Transformer, right? The prerequisite technologies for that were far too numerous! He couldn’t exactly storm Rhine Life to steal their nanomachine technology, could he?
Just as Feng Xue was troubled, a knock suddenly came from the door.
“Who?”
Feng Xue immediately frowned and asked cautiously. Although the Glass Tower’s security was guaranteed, no one could say for sure that accidents couldn’t happen.
“Master, it’s me. I just detected abnormal fluctuations in your mental state and am requesting permission to perform a mental diagnosis, to avoid suffering a mental attack.”
Lika’s voice came from outside the study that had been converted into a workshop. Feng Xue finally relaxed:
“Come in, and register Su Xin as a friendly entity while you’re at it…”
Receiving the order, Lika immediately pushed open the door and entered. Her pair of red eyes blinked. After a brief silence, she moved to Feng Xue’s side, covering him within her protective force field while isolating any possible network signals, and said seriously:
“I have not identified any ‘Su Xin’ that can be defined as a friendly entity. Please perform an immediate mental self-check. If you are unable to complete it, please authorize me to assist.”
“Hm… she isn’t…” Feng Xue looked at Su Xin and suddenly realized:
“You really are a spirit body?”
“That’s right. Without a body, I can’t be seen and can’t interact with anything. Actually, the reason you can see me is only because of the connection between master and Sword Spirit, causing you to hallucinate that ‘I am here.’ In the eyes of this artificial idiot, I’m just a sword floating in midair.”
“No, I understand. My apologies, Master. Additionally, Miss Su Xin, please do not use derogatory pronouns to refer to me.”
Just as Su Xin was circling around Lika, Lika suddenly looked toward Su Xin. Although her eyes showed no reaction of capturing any image, she still gave Su Xin a fright—
“What’s going on? Has the technology in this world advanced to the point where robots can see ghosts? Those learning materials of yours didn’t mention anything about this!”
Feng Xue was also quite puzzled by this situation. Fortunately, Lika wasn’t one to speak in riddles, and she directly gave an answer:
“I share a hardware connection with Master and can directly sense Master’s surface-level emotions. Although this is meant to increase feedback speed when Master is attacked, it can also roughly obtain some synchronized feedback. Conclusion—I cannot see Miss Su Xin, but I can roughly understand Miss Su Xin’s existence through Master’s mental feedback.”
“So I’ve become a visual interface, huh?”
Feng Xue slapped his forehead. He did recall that Lika had previously mentioned brainwave linking. Considering that she was a real android, he had no intention of turning it off. He simply began thinking about how to secure Su Xin a human identity.
“If I can’t figure it out, I won’t think about it for now. I should hurry up and practice the Hell Sword… No, wait—the answer’s written on the riddle itself!”
An inspiration like a laser sniper rifle blowing through the back of Conan’s head exploded in Feng Xue’s mind. He suddenly turned his head toward Su Xin:
“You can convert any sword technique for use with flying swords, right?”
“That’s right, that’s a basic function. Bring out whatever sword techniques you have, I can even develop specialized sword techniques to coordinate with them!”
Su Xin puffed out her chest proudly. Feng Xue’s thoughts immediately raced like lightning. The entire Hell Sword manual instantly transformed into a document, uploaded through their connection to the Su Xin Sword’s processor—
“Catch! This is the peerless martial art, Hell Sword!”
“Is that really necessary? It’s not even a megabyte. How much could there be to it— much… much… much…”
“Wait, why are you lagging?” Feng Xue watched as Su Xin suddenly began to stutter, his heart fluttering with panic. For a moment, he actually worried that Su Xin had been crashed by this madman martial art. He hurriedly picked up the Su Xin Sword, wanting to see if there was a reset button.
The Su Xin Sword naturally couldn’t have such a thing. Fortunately, a Sword Spirit—or rather, a Goldfinger—still proved its worth. After nearly five minutes of “much,” Su Xin suddenly shuddered, like a bratty little girl who’d just had her mental defenses shattered by a fierce stir-frying. With a loud wail, she burst into tears—
“What kind of sword technique is this?! It’s so hard!”
“Wait… you can’t parse it?” Although he was relieved to see Su Xin was fine, if she couldn’t learn the Hell Sword, his idea of whipping up a “human” body to let Su Xin achieve a reverse sword-human unity went down the drain.
“Who said that! It’s just a mere sword technique! That Mo Ye, yeah, that artificial idiot I ate earlier—do you have any more of those? Make a few more, that thing is great at parsing sword techniques!”