AI Cultivation: Reborn as a Sword Chapter 8: Breakthrough (2)

The monkeys walked up to the sacrificial altar though that was not its official designation just yet and placed their comrade on top of it. Their comrade did not resist this even knowing fully well what would happen. He had seen it happen ti and ti again as I was fed their precious life force.

I am still unsure as to why they acquiesced to such a thing, but I do not pretend to understand the limited minds of primitive creatures. Perhaps they think I am their God or Master, or any number of things. Unfortunately, their opinion of does not change my opinion of them. My place is not in the hands of primitive creatures and though I harbor no malevolent will toward them, the nature of our hierarchy is set in stone.

At the very least, I can exalt their legacy by living up to my potential.

It becos very clear when the monkey is laid on top of the altar that he is seriously wounded. Perhaps that is also why it does not resist.

I study the monkey with my spiritual senses and imdiately find the culprit of his state. A broken dantian. I know that even if the monkey were to survive, that he would lose his will to live. A cultivator even a demonic beast cannot live with the thought of being unable to cultivate.

As Wukong raises over the monkeys chest, I uncharacteristically feel a pang of pity. The thought occurs to of a future where the demonic ape society and I live side-by-side naturally, not as equals braving the challenges of the future together.

For a mont, I imagine bestowing them with the spoils and cultivation manuals of the many immortals we would slaughter on our path to the Heavens, and raising their foundations to the levels of Nascent Soul or even beyond perhaps even true immortality.

I feel the heat in my core; a warm feeling of hope and determination to attempt this path.

I imagine us developing a language and an efficient system of coexistence again, not as equals.

But such dreams and such heat is imdiately crushed when Wukong plows through the monkeys chest, and I devour its life.

There can be no coexistence and no future. To begin with, the demonic ape society lacks the intelligence to even comprehend such a thing as coexistence or harmony. Their basic animal instincts should not be misinterpreted as so divine inspiration and desire for evolution. They do not kill to beco stronger; they kill because that is all they know how to do.

We are not the sa. We are not even similar.

There is no grounds to even consider coexistence.

They will be my sacrifice and I will carry their life force to the apex.

The monkeys body dissolves into black fog and disappears into the green jade gem on my guard.

The other monkeys cheer, and even Wukong roars, as if they know that I have reached the bottleneck.

[ Early Vessel Refining progress: 100% ]

At first, I feel nothing. There is a long mont where nothing feels different and I wonder if perhaps I had missed a step.

But then, I feel sothing like pressure inside . Then I feel motion. No, I am not moving, but the blood inside is. For nearly one hundred days, I had been compressing the life force inside , crushing it to a smaller volu, so to speak, and repeating the process over and over again.

When the so-called blood inside moves, I finally feel its weight. I realize imdiately that I must weigh over 100 kilograms. That might be an exaggeration, but it feels that way.

I feel heavy. Every ti the blood moves inside , circulating powerfully, I feel the inertia within almost overco Wukongs grasp. I jitter and shudder in his hand, violently attempting to overthrow his force over , but he dutifully and devotedly holds steady.

The two monkeys stare at in awe, and now more and more monkeys are approaching to see their God or Master whichever it is transform. This is the literal product of their blood and they howl to call everyone of their comrades to watch sothing that they have accomplished together through the convenient sacrifices of others.

My blood makes a full rotation around my body once. Then twice. Then three tis.

[ Current stage: Vessel Hardening (Mid Vessel Refining) ]

[ Mid Vessel Refining progress: 33% ]

As the blood completes its fourth revolution inside , it smashes into my insides, knocking off pieces of tal and jade. Cracks form on my body, even as they heal directly from absorbing the monkeys life force.

Five revolutions.

This ti the blood impacts so hard that it knocks the gems out of my vessel, scattering them onto the ground so hard that they bounce off and fly off into the forest.

Six revolutions.

For the first ti in my existence both of them I feel pain. It is not a physical sensation, but one I feel within my soul. I feel like I am being torn apart and split open.

[ Mid Vessel Refining Progress: 66% ]

I do not understand what is happening to . I thought I understood the principles of cultivation, but this is completely beyond the reach of the understanding of my Dao. What should have happened is that I would break through to the Vessel Hardening stage and began to cultivate my body from the beginning. But now my body cultivation base keeps increasing so fast that it is killing faster than I can heal.

And I cannot stop it.

Seven revolutions.

Eight revolutions.

The latest impact crushes so hard that my blade snaps in half. At the fracture line where my blade breaks, the tal explodes into a thousand little fragnts that are so small they look like particles of glitter hovering in the air.

The monkeys howl triumphantly and cheer for .

I realize that they really are stupid.

I am not going to survive this.