Will had a plan. He would put spiritual energy gathering arrays inside his dantian. He obviously couldn't draw them on by hand, and even if he could he wouldn't be able to blow on them to make them work. Well, if it was in his dantian he probably wouldn't need to, it was full of spiritual energy.

From what Will could tell, his dantians and meridians were on a different layer than his physical body. Like they existed in the same place as his body did. The same was obviously true for his spiritual roots, though they were on a different layer than even the dantians and meridians. He felt like it was some fourth-dimensional kind of thing.

When he tried to put an array in his dantian at first, it was trying to put it on the layer where there was just his actual body. He didn't want to carve arrays into that. That would hurt and also probably heal up anyway. It wasn't what he wanted. He focused on moving it to the layer of his dantian. It took a bit to make it do that. He kept accidentally moving it up and down and forward and back as he tried to properly visualize the fourth-dimensional movement he wanted it to do. Eventually he had it set to place in his dantian. Since the dantian was ball shaped, he had to have it curved inward to place it on the wall. Though that didn't seem like it would break it from what he could tell.

Then came the issue of a physical medium. This was an issue. He really wasn't sure if he was okay with carving it into the wall. It felt like a terrible idea. Just carving up the wall of something like this felt like it would be incredibly dangerous. His instincts told him it would be disastrous.

Then he realized. Since when did he listen to his instincts? If he listened to his instincts he'd be sitting in a hut starving to death.

The thing he was about to mess with was a dantian. If something goes wrong it's qi deviation. He was immune to that.

He exported the array onto the back wall of his dantian. It took almost every point he had. He felt a slight pain when he exported it, but it didn't even last a moment. And the array was working. Spiritual energy was flowing into his dantian all on its own. Well, not fully. He had to let it in for it to be able to enter. But that wasn't something that needed active focus. He was kind of like he was the boss of a club telling the bouncer what kind of people to let in. The spiritual energy drawn in by the array was all pretty much the same, so it was pretty simple to just let that through.

Will was in a pretty good mood. He had automatic cultivation. Wasn't that like the number one cheat skill in a cultivation world? Even protagonist characters who could slap down nascent soul monsters at foundation establishment wished they could have automatic cultivation.

The sword had just been waiting for the lunatic to get back to ideas that weren't completely impossible. The kid would eventually figure out it's impossible to put an array in his dantian, then he'd move on to another crazy idea that actually works, just like he always did. Then it felt the way the spiritual energy was moving towards him.

“Hey, Will, what the fuck did you just do?”

How did he do that? That doesn't even make sense. He didn't even move! Where was the thing where he was disappointed and then thought of a new idea!?

“Weren't you supposed to fail at that and come up with a new idea?”

“Wha-… Easy? How the hell is putting an array on a dantian easy!? I get that you can make arrays on stuff without moving or whatever, but this is a dantian we're talking about! What did you even use to make the array?”

“Just carved it. Just casually carved an array into your dantian. Just carved it like you would a fucking wooden board. Didn't even make a noise, yet you carved an array into your fucking dantian.”

“I don't know. Maybe because you'd be screaming out in pain because you're carving a fucking array into your dantian!”

“Ah. A sunburn. Yeah, that's what carving into your dantian feels like. A sunburn.”

“Isn't this something that's extremely obvious that would be incredibly dangerous if found out?”

“I… Honestly, I don't really know what they'd think. Maybe they'd assume it's a bloodline or special physique? Maybe a rare treasure?”

The sword realized something upon the mention of backing. Who was this kid? Where does a kid like this even come from? The sword decided to start with a soft question.

“Hey, Will, how did you get into that forest we were in?”

“That's it?”

“Are you planning to get revenge on the people who led your parents to die?”

“Why not?”

Wait, his parents had a child like him, and they just… didn't even name him? Then who named him Will?

“Then who named you Will?”

He didn't feel like going into that part. It would be a hassle.

The sword didn't push it.

“Who actually were your parents?”

“Like, from a clan or something?”

“Then, why were they being chased?

“Who was chasing them?”

“What do you know?”

“How long ago were they chased into the forest?”

“So they're probably not there, still. Okay.”

Will hadn't actually considered the time aspect. Considering how backwater the place was, they probably wouldn't stay there for that long.

The sword realized it had forgotten to ask something.

“If your parents were just regular mortals, then how are you, well, like this?”

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“Don't ‘Like what?’ me! Why are you able to do all this stuff?”

“Like the arrays, the sex changing, the qi deviation immunity, all of that.”

“…That's it?”

“Whatever. Keep your secrets.”

Will was grateful it wasn't pushing him.

They sat in silence for a minute.

“He stole me.”

The sword sighed.

“Do you want me to just tell you the whole story? I'll just tell you if you want.”

The sword sighed again.

“Alright. I'll start from the beginning.

A long time ago there was a woman. She was a genius. She created her own cultivation method when she was just a child, and ascended to core formation before thirty.

Her cultivation method was powerful. But when she tried to break through to nascent soul, she failed. She fell all the way to foundation establishment, with no hope of advancement.

It was because her method was flawed. It was missing something. What she had was sturdy, but that missing piece made progression past core formation impossible.

But others saw it as an opportunity. Man after man climbed the mountain that her home sat atop. Each one sought to woo her, in the hopes that they'd be able to learn her cultivation method.

They showered her with gifts, each one with a tale to go with it. They'd bring her a rare treasure, then describe the perilous journey they went on to obtain it, in a bid to show their worth not just as a man, but as a fellow cultivator.

She soon figured out their reason for courting her, and told them that she couldn't reach them her method, not wanting to doom others to the same fate as her. But others didn't see it that way. They found her arrogant and heartless.

As soon as they realized flattery wouldn't work, they resorted to force. They tried everything they could to strongarm her into marriage. They threatened her, slandered her, threatened the people she knew. But none of it worked.

All it served to do was make her heart grow cold. Even though they only sought her cultivation method, she had thought her suitors were all good men at heart. Seeing how quickly they resorted to vile acts, she lost faith in men altogether.

Hurt, she devised a plan to take revenge. She would make a sword. The treasures she had been given before the men's tunes changed were numerous. All of them were used to make the sword. She was a genius, and with such a large amount of legendary treasures as material, the sword she made was to be more legendary than any of them. And once she sacrificed her cultivation to finish it, it was.

She called all the men, and told them that only the one who it chose would inherit her cultivation method from it. The men flocked to try their hand at taming the sword.

The woman had the weakest of the bunch try first. He contracted the sword. He was torn to shreds by it. The men laughed, calling him a weakling. The second weakest of the bunch tried. The same fate befell him. The same laughs came after.

Each bout of laughter made the woman hate them even more. Each bout of laughter made her more certain they deserved this.

Even when the second-to-last man died, the final man still laughed. Until he too died to the sword.

In the process of making the sword, she had actually discovered a way to complete her cultivation method. With each man the sword killed, her cultivation method, which she had imprinted into the sword, would grow more complete.

Of course, the sword was cursed. It instilled arrogance in the men who saw it, and it grew stronger with every man it killed.

But the method imprinted in the sword required one to begin practicing it before foundation establishment, even though men at core formation died to it in minutes.

As for women, they wouldn't even be able to contract it. And yet the method imprinted in the sword was one that could only be used by women.

She made sure it was such, so that if ever a man came who could survive contracting it while still in qi gathering, they would still be unable to learn the method she'd created

But having sacrificed her cultivation to make it, there was no hope for her to survive the wrath of the families of the men she'd killed. So she didn't bother trying.

As her final act of revenge, she left a note on the sword with the same words she'd said to the men. That only the one who it chose would inherit her cultivation method from it. Now, it was time.

She held the sword aloft with shaky hands. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to die. Tears flowed out from her tightly shut eyes. But the things they'd do to her would make her wish she was dead. She placed the sword to her neck. It was better to die with dignity. She gripped the handle tighter. It was better for her to die by her own hands. She took one last breath. At least this way she could die to her magnum opus, the masterpiece she'd sacrificed everything to complete. She smiled as she slit her own throat. Now she'd sacrificed her life to it as well.”

The sword paused for a moment.

“But she didn't die. *I* didn't die. Not fully.

Though my body was dead, I was alive, in a sense. In the sword.

I became my own masterpiece.

When the people sent from the men's families came, they suffered the same fate as the men. All of them died. And my arts grew more complete.

The process was even more incredible to witness like this. I really created something on par with ancient swords of legend.

When the first group didn't return, they sent the people above them. They died too. Even the scouts sent to check what happened died to me.

Eventually the heads of the families started coming. All of them were nascent soul or half-step nascent soul. They died too.

When the heads disappeared, all the great ancestors exited their seclusions to investigate what happened. They all died. Most of them were immortals. When it came to completing my arts, killing immortals did wonders.

In fact, my arts had reached the state of being ‘complete’ after the first one I killed. When I killed the second one, though, my arts were improved. After the first, they were something that only a genius could practice. After the fifth, they didn't even need good spiritual roots. Yet, at the same time, they were even more powerful. But not all ancestors are men. After the fiftieth immortal died to me, the next one was a woman. She sealed the effect I had that made men try to contract me, and threw me in the treasure hall. With the effect sealed, no one even wanted to take me, let alone contract me.

Until the Sick Freak. He was just robbing the family and picked me up along with the other stuff he stole. That was the start of the worst part of my life.

I was a bit shorter with the seal on me, so he thought I was a dagger. He thought he saw my potential. So I became his new sacrificial dagger. He didn't care about the other parts of the storm. He only saw the demonic part of me and the lightning part of me.

What he would do was stab someone to death with me so they took the brunt of the damage, then took the weakened spiritual energy from them. And that wasn't even the worst thing he did. In fact, that was his version of mercy.

After doing that the first time, he discovered he had a talent for sacrifices. He came up with more and more ways to torture people to death with me. I spent years listening to innocent victims crying out for mercy as he does the worst things imaginable to them. Until you showed up. And the rest you already know.”

Will was… he didn't know how to feel. It turned out the sword he wielded had two tragic pasts, one as a human and one as a sword.

“Thanks. I really do appreciate it.”

“I mostly grew out of that after hearing them cry out from being tortured.”

“No no, don't be sorry. It's a reasonable thing to ask.”

“No, I don't need to talk in third person for that. I'm a genius. I can just say it.”

Will thought that was a bit arrogant, but also she was someone who made a sword that could kill an immortal at foundation establishment, so it really wasn't wrong to call her a genius.

“Sounds better that way.”

After thinking about it for a moment, Will copied the whole monologue into his Document Storage.

“Thanks. I had a lot of time to plan it during all the stuff with the Sick Freak.”

“Don't be. You're the only reason I'm not there now.”

She thought about it for a moment.

“Honestly, it's pretty likely… Oh! But I have been working on a way to deal with it!”

“It's not really done yet…”

“Well, the main idea is you get some form of metal-based physique.”

Will wasn't really sure he wanted that. That sounded like becoming a robot, and he honestly kind of liked being organic.

“What's a robot?”

Will really didn't feel like trying to describe a robot. He tried sending an image instead.

“That's wild. Also, how did you just figure out image transmission?”

“Oh, no. It's just a physique, not a… whatever that is.”

“That's the hard part. There are a bunch of ways, but the things you'd need for it are pretty rare. Best bet is to just keep going like you usually do and I'll let you know if you run into something that could help. I'll also see if there's any way we can make use of your weirdness to do it a bit cheaper.”

“Well, I was planning to only bring it up if you found something.”

Will suddenly had a question.

“I can feel touch a bit, but not pain, I can hear, I see in all directions at once, smelling is very weird, and taste is also weird.”

“It's not really a hard question since I used to be a human.”

Will had another question.

“I'd say it was more like acquaintances.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, I've never really found men attractive.”

“How so?”

Will sighed in annoyance.

“Huh?”

“In what way?”

“If they're attractive.”

“Attractive women are more attractive than men. Isn't that obvious?”

“Okay?”

Will decided to move on from the topic. Considering her reaction to being asked about women, he doubted she'd even know what the other sexes from the Appearance Alteration Menu even were, especially when he barely knew most of them.

“A good bit. Two hundred years maybe? Could be more.”

“I guess.”

“I don't think so. Everything in it was used to make me so it's not like it matters. Or used to make the sword? It's hard to refer to it when I am it and also was making it while not it.”

Will could relate to that. He was also constantly confused about how to refer to things with his situation. Like his life in the other universe could be called his past life, but his life as a baby was also his past life. There were numerous other really confusing parts, but he'd rather not spend all that energy thinking about it.

“They sucked and I hate them. Whether they're around still or not, I can't say.”

That reminded him of something.

“I… I forgot it.”

“I think it was a part of the whole turning into a sword thing.”

“It didn't fit me that well anyway from what I can recall. Whenever one of my suitors heard it they'd get the impression that I was secretly hiding some cute side, and was just putting up a cold front because I was too embarrassed over liking them or something. It was really a pain. I'm pretty certain it would fit me even less now that I'm a demonic sword with a kill count higher than a mass murderer.”

That really did sound like a pain. Will had an idea.

She hesitated. Considering how the kid was so proud of a name like ‘Will’, she wasn't sure she trusted his naming sense. But she could at least hear what he'd say. She was a bit curious, and it's not like she had to use it.

“I'll hear you out. I'll decide if I like it afterwards.”

Will just thought the sword's voice sounded like a Sarah. He had ever since he first heard it.

“That’s… actually better than I was expecting. Why Sai Re?”

Will noticed that it actually seemed to be pronounceable with the characters of the language here. From what he could tell from his Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor, it meant something about sealing or stuffing for the first half and then something about provoking and causing trouble for the second, which honestly sounded weirdly fitting for someone trapped in a sword that makes people greedy and caused a bunch of influential families to fall to ruin. It was a bit surprising.

“What do you mean ‘like a Sarah’?”

He didn't really think that far. He just kind of thought it based on vibes. His Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor told him it meant something like princess or something, but that hadn't played a role in his thinking of it.

“I don't know how you'd get ‘woman of high rank’ from Sai Re but whatever.”

She thought it over for a moment, considering the name. It was better than Will. A lot better, she could only pronounce Will right now because she wasn't speaking using a mouth. If she was in a human body she'd struggle with it just as much as the two mortals in the carriage did.

It wasn't the name she would've chosen, it honestly felt a bit on the nose, but she had years to choose a name and the name she chose was not having one. Thinking about it like that, it would have to be a name she wouldn't have chosen, or it wouldn't exist. She felt like she'd lost the plot somewhere along the way here.

Either way, it was an okay name that could be pronounced, and there wasn't any reason she could think of to make Will keep referring to her as ‘the sword’, nor did she really feel like being referred to as ‘the sword’ forever. She decided she'd accept it.

She sighed.

“I guess I'll accept it.”

“It's… fine. Honestly, I think I like it better than my old one. Though it's a bit hard to tell when I don't know what my old name actually was.”

“Yep, Sai Re it is.”

Will felt satisfied with his half-assed naming.

“I don't see why we would need to. You're the one who came up with it.”

“Whatever. Fine. Hi, my name's Sai Re.”

Sai Re sighed.

“Sure. Whatever.”