Chapter 1 The Belief

Did Hao Ren believe what the Godslaying Sword said?

Of course, he did—if the sword had communicated with him through other means, he might have been suspicious. But here, in this mental world, he believed everything the Godslaying Sword said was true. No one could lie in such a mental connection, especially since the Godslaying Sword's mind was completely surrounded by Hao Ren's spiritual sea. In this state, it had no secrets from him.

Unless it remained silent. But as soon as it spoke, Hao Ren could easily determine if it was lying.

"I believe everything you've said," Hao Ren said, taking a breath—although he didn't need to breathe in the mental world, he still used it to calm himself. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"No," the Godslaying Sword replied. "Because I don't know what to tell you. I have countless memories... but I've never thought about them or sorted them out. They're all piled up here, detailed, vast, and chaotic. I don't know which ones are useful, which are important, and which are meaningless. I don't know what you need, but if you have any questions, you can ask me."

Hao Ren quietly looked at the black "mountain" lying in his spiritual sea. Perhaps it was an illusion, but this black, featureless mountain seemed to have more texture than before. He felt that the Godslaying Sword's mind was growing at an astonishing rate. Just now, it was still ignorant like a child, but now it could speak fluently and had mastered a large number of words it didn't understand before. Hao Ren knew that the Godslaying Sword had absorbed these knowledge from his spiritual sea—he had actively opened up a part of his knowledge to facilitate communication between the two parties. But the Godslaying Sword's ability to learn and master this knowledge at such an astonishing speed was already amazing enough.

This was an exceptionally powerful mind that had maintained a state of chaos and vagueness for the past ten thousand years. And now, it seemed to be awakening.

Although Hao Ren didn't know what triggered its awakening... perhaps it was Raven 12345's "blessing" that removed some kind of shackle on the Godslaying Sword, thereby freeing the sword's own intelligence? Whatever the reason, Hao Ren wasn't too worried, because he trusted that female nutcase's abilities.

"Maybe I should give you a name," Hao Ren suddenly thought. "Do you have a name?"

"You call me Godslaying Sword," the Godslaying Sword read Hao Ren's name for it in the nearby spiritual sea. It thought that was its name. "Isn't that a name?"

Hao Ren was a little embarrassed: "Uh, of course not. That's the name of a sword..."

"But I am a sword—according to the usual definition."

"But you have intelligence, and you can communicate. It's not appropriate to call you Godslaying Sword anymore, and the name isn't very auspicious," Hao Ren said, feeling a little tangled. He couldn't help but think of the silly cat squatting next to him, which still firmly believed that its name was "Scram." He couldn't let that happen again. "Why don't you give yourself a name? I'm not good at naming people."

"... Echo Wall?" The Godslaying Sword thought seriously for a while. "You mentioned this word just now. Is that a name?"

Hao Ren didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "That's not a person's name either..."

"But I'm not a person."

Hao Ren: "..."

He thought for a long time, not knowing how to explain to the Godslaying Sword why a name was so important. Moreover, he really couldn't think of a second suitable name: it had to fit the identity of a sword and sound not too strange. He could rummage through wuxia novels and find seventy or eighty high-end and atmospheric names for magical weapons, but any of those names would seem out of place on the Godslaying Sword. So in the end, he decided not to change the name for now...

Anyway, the Godslaying Sword was unique in this world. It didn't need another name.

Hao Ren had been maintaining a state of "deep dive" in the spiritual sea for a long time. At this moment, he suddenly felt a slight dizziness coming from the depths of his mind. He realized that his control over his mind was about to reach its limit, so he decided to interrupt this "deep dive."

Before leaving this state, he needed to leave a beacon for mental connection between himself and the Godslaying Sword. That way, he could directly talk to the Godslaying Sword in a normal state in the future without having to go through "meditation" like today.

Leaving such a beacon wasn't complicated. Hao Ren had already successfully established the first connection with the true intelligence of the Godslaying Sword. He only needed to record the "waveband" of this connection. After completing this small operation, he withdrew from his mental deep-dive state.

A jumble of complex information poured in from the outside world in an instant. Hao Ren broke away from that ethereal and quiet mental state, and the various perceptions of the outside world rushed back like a tide. He was briefly dizzy for a few seconds, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of large eyes shining in the night, staring at him from only ten centimeters away. These eyes were even glowing green!

"Holy crap?!" Hao Ren immediately let out a strange cry and almost threw the silly cat in front of him out of the way—if it was still only thirty centimeters long and eight pounds, he would have definitely done so. "What are you doing getting so close?!"

"Scram" was also frightened by Hao Ren's shout and jumped up high, meowing. When it landed, its tail was as straight as a stick. It took a long time to calm down: "Big cat, you scared me to death! I thought you were dead!"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw Vivian trying to hold back her laughter: "What's going on?"

"I've tried my best to keep her from disturbing you," Vivian said, turning her head away as if it was none of her business. "But she still goes to check if you're dead every few minutes. Don't ask me why, I'm not an animal psychologist."

Hao Ren: "..."

He completely couldn't understand this cat's worldview!

After a while, Vivian asked: "How did it go? You meditated for half an hour. Did you successfully establish a connection with the Godslaying Sword?"

Hao Ren looked down at the Godslaying Sword that he had casually thrown aside just now. He picked up the long sword, and instantly re-established a mental connection with the sword. The latter was curiously looking at the outside world through his eyes and exclaimed: "Oh, seeing the world from a human perspective is indeed different."

"I've established a connection," Hao Ren raised the long sword and shook it. "And I've discovered something amazing."

Vivian raised an eyebrow: "What's the situation?"

"The Godslaying Sword's own consciousness is completely different from its 'whispering'," Hao Ren rubbed his temples and began to organize his words to explain the truth he had discovered. "Those who hear the whispering are actually just hearing their own thoughts. The Godslaying Sword's structure is actually a 'mental echo wall.' It doesn't emit any whispers itself. It only has a mind that has just learned to think..."

"I have always been thinking, I just started thinking today," the Godslaying Sword immediately corrected earnestly.

"Who was talking just now?!" Vivian was shocked, and then realized, "Was that the Godslaying Sword just now?"

Hao Ren was stunned: "You can hear it too?"

"It's speaking directly in my head," Vivian pointed to her head. "Why can I hear it too?"

Hao Ren was about to ask the "sword spirit" what was going on when the data terminal suddenly flew over from the side: "It's using your mental relay, partner."

Hao Ren touched the back of his head: "Relay? Why do I suddenly feel a little uneasy?"

"Don't worry, it's harmless," the data terminal flew around Hao Ren's head twice quickly. "What a wonderful... life form. The sword itself doesn't have any structure that can generate a mind, but it can indeed think, and its thinking is completely based on 'contact with other minds.' The terminal can detect that the sword only shows intelligent activity when someone is talking to it. Do you know what that's like?"

Hao Ren thought for a while and said uncertainly: "... Echo wall?"

The terminal shook its body up and down: "That's right, another form of echo wall. But it could also be something else, such as a 'quantum mind' that only exists when it's being observed... Oh, quantum mind isn't really appropriate here, but the terminal can't think of a better word. Interesting, very interesting. No wonder the terminal couldn't detect that the sword was a 'sentient being' no matter how it scanned it before, because its intelligence is generated by resonating with the other party!"

"In other words..." Hao Ren thought as he put the Godslaying Sword on the ground, and at the same time, he interrupted his mental connection with it. "It's now..."

"It has stopped thinking," the data terminal said with certainty. "But it's still recording the information happening in the outside world. You can think of it as turning from an artificial intelligence into a simple video recorder."

This sword was too interesting!