Weapon System 8: Continue Cheating

Zhang Mingjing then said to the lightsaber, “Gently stick yourself into the door.” With a soft thud, the lightsaber indeed embedded itself into the door panel, even piercing through it slightly. Amazed, Zhang Mingjing stepped forward to touch the lightsaber. It felt tangible, and he muttered to himself, “Looks like I need to find a wide-open space to practice flying sword techniques!”

The five-dimensional space cognitive model was truly fearsome in its capabilities. What had happened was that, in an instant, it tore apart a special particle within Zhang Mingjing’s qi meridian, releasing enormous energy; at that moment, his qi meridians were saturated with this energy. Then, his intention was processed by the five-dimensional space cognitive model into a program code, instantly embedded within the energy, which was then instantaneously transformed into a special material, coalescing into the shape of a sword.

All of this happened in a split second.

Because the sword was infused with Zhang Mingjing’s will, it could entangle with his consciousness and thus obey his commands.

“Unheard of, unseen!” Elder A in the five-dimensional space exclaimed in awe.

The other elders, however, fell into deep contemplation.

A minute later, Elder A spoke again, “It seems our previous development of our own cognitive models was far from enough! We never tried anything like Zhang Mingjing’s approach.”

“Indeed!” the other elders sighed with emotion.

Just then, one of the elders said, “I believe the reason the five-dimensional space cognitive model can unlock his potential may be related to his meditation technique. Every time he enters deep meditation, the model becomes especially active.”

“Mmm!” The elders all agreed.

Zhang Mingjing had, in just a few minutes, mastered the art of sword control; but with his now extraordinary perception, he knew this had nothing to do with Zhang Yidao’s “Five Supreme Arts.” Rather, his cognitive model had developed the ability to embed codes into matter and energy.

Still, he excitedly called Zhang Yidao and Xiao Nüxia over.

When Zhang Yidao saw the little lightsaber stuck in the door, he reached out to touch it, then stood there dumbfounded, unable to speak.

A minute later, he suddenly turned and rushed to kneel before the founder’s statue, bowing his head and knocking it against the floor repeatedly. Xiao Nüxia followed suit, kneeling beside him, and together they kowtowed in rapid succession, not a gap between them.

Zhang Mingjing watched the two of them and couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head. Then, on a whim, he silently thought, “Sword, return!” Sure enough, the lightsaber turned into a streak of golden light and re-entered his body, instantly converted into energy and stored in his qi meridians by the five-dimensional space cognitive model. His meridians were once again filled to capacity. Finally, he deliberately imitated Zhang Yidao’s usual method of gathering in energy after meditation, slowly raising and lowering his hands as if sealing the practice.

At this point, Zhang Mingjing felt a strong urge to demonstrate his abilities, and the best opportunity for that seemed to be the so-called demon-catching, so he willingly stepped into the role.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Mingjing poked his head out of his room to have a look. He found Xiao Nüxia had gone off to cook, while Zhang Yidao sat cross-legged before the founder’s statue, lost in thought. Not knowing what Zhang Yidao was up to, he withdrew back into his room.

As for Zhang Yidao, his mind was in complete turmoil. He simply couldn’t figure out how the sword control technique he made up had actually been mastered by Zhang Mingjing.

After much deliberation, he finally concluded that sword control must have truly existed in ancient times, and today’s events were surely the founder’s secret intervention, bestowing this ultimate skill upon Zhang Mingjing.

Zhang Yidao’s unshakeable faith in the founder’s divine power was the result of over twenty years of his master’s praise, who had in turn been influenced by his own master, and so on, each generation instilled with reverence for the founder. Thus, the founder’s mighty reputation was deeply rooted in their hearts.

At this moment, while grateful to the founder, Zhang Yidao also felt a twinge of envy toward Zhang Mingjing.

After sitting in a daze for roughly ten minutes, Zhang Yidao gave an order to the virtual assistant, “Assistant, search for movies, TV shows, and animations in the xianxia genre.”

“Yes, sir.”

Moments later, a list of search results appeared on the wall in front of him.

“Play the first one,” he commanded.

The assistant obeyed, and a xianxia film began to play on the wall. Sure enough, it featured scenes of sword control: the protagonist would wave a hand and conjure a lightsaber.

The lightsaber could shrink or expand, become long or short. Small enough to hide in the ear, large enough to serve as a surfboard for someone to stand on, or even as big as a spaceship able to carry a group through the clouds. If it got any bigger, it might as well be an airborne carrier.

Zhang Mingjing, reading this development from his own room, had no idea what Zhang Yidao was up to; he just thought the movie plot was absurdly juvenile and couldn’t help but laugh. He wondered what a sight it would be if that huge sword, flying happily, suddenly flipped over and sent a crowd of costumed men and women tumbling down from the sky.

From an early age, Zhang Mingjing hadn’t cared for this sort of thing—his tastes ran high in this regard. He only watched Hollywood blockbusters or highly acclaimed domestic films; the rest of his free time was devoted entirely to gaming.

But Zhang Yidao cherished dreams of immortality cultivation, and so he longed for the realms depicted in these dramas, often binge-watching late into the night.

At this moment, he thought, “I really don’t know how to teach Zhang Mingjing sword control, and that ‘Five Supreme Arts’ is pure nonsense. I mustn’t let him practice it, or he could end up in real trouble! Since the founder empowered Zhang Mingjing to manifest a lightsaber, I might as well let him watch these shows—maybe he’ll get some inspiration.”

With this in mind, he kowtowed to the founder again, muttering, “Founder, please bless us. Founder, please bless us…”

After a dozen resounding kowtows, he called out loudly, “Zhang Mingjing, come here!”

Zhang Mingjing had already sensed Zhang Yidao’s activity outside but didn’t know why he was being summoned, so he replied at once, “Coming!”

After watching the film for a little over ten minutes, Zhang Mingjing lost patience and said to Zhang Yidao, “Alright, I know how to play with this lightsaber now. I’m going back to my room to work on it.”

“You already understand?” Zhang Yidao’s eyes betrayed his envy.

“Yes.”

“Then go ahead.”

Zhang Mingjing returned to his room and locked the door. Suddenly remembering he had a dartboard, he took it out and hung it on the door, then sat on his bed and said aloud, “Sword, come!”

The five-dimensional space cognitive model instantly transformed the stored energy into a beam of golden light, which emerged from his body and again became the small lightsaber.

Focusing on the bullseye, he commanded, “Sword, go!”

Bang—bullseye, right on target.

Again and again, he called the sword to and from the board, and each time, the lightsaber hit the bullseye and returned to his side at once.

As he played, he wondered, “How can I make this little lightsaber bigger?”

He then discovered that the lightsaber resembled a holographic projection—it appeared to have volume, but was in fact as thin as a sheet of paper.

An idea struck him, and he began to analyze the lightsaber’s structure. With the five-dimensional cognitive model’s incredible computing power, he understood within a minute. Startled, he exclaimed, “So you’re two-dimensional right now! To become larger and three-dimensional, all I have to do is feed you more energy.”

He wasn’t sure where his insight came from, but he suddenly realized that for the lightsaber to grow, it wasn’t enough to simply provide energy—since the sword was transformed back into energy and stored in his body, he also had to ensure that he himself could withstand that much power.

“The sword is so small and thin now because my body can only hold this much energy, which is why my qi meridians feel saturated.” With that thought, he closed his eyes, withdrew his consciousness, and slipped once again into a meditative state. Sure enough, the five-dimensional space cognitive model immediately became both delighted and active.

During this meditation, Zhang Mingjing hoped the cognitive model could optimize his body to store even more energy.

As soon as this wish formed, a current of energy began to circulate repeatedly through his qi meridians. Zhang Mingjing guessed this was what Daoists referred to as the “small heavenly circulation” or perhaps the “great heavenly circulation.”

After dozens of cycles, he suddenly felt his lower abdomen—his dantian—grow more expansive and full.

Then the current rushed to his tailbone, ran up his spine to the crown of his head, then flowed down the central channel of his abdomen back to the dantian, and from there to the tailbone again, up the spine to the crown… After repeating this process dozens of times, he found his dantian was even more capacious than before.

Completing the practice, Zhang Mingjing opened his eyes and immediately understood: the five-dimensional space cognitive model had discovered the structure of his body and helped open up his eight extraordinary meridians. These acted as energy highways, while the dantian was the warehouse for storage. The smoother the meridians, the more the dantian could be stimulated to hold energy, and the longer and larger the lightsaber could become.

“Isn’t this just qi cultivation?” Zhang Mingjing realized with a start.

All the elders in the five-dimensional space who had read his recent insights were amazed, and Elder A praised the cognitive model highly: “This model is truly grounded—it’s already helping optimize Zhang Mingjing’s body.”

Late at night, Zhang Mingjing awoke and sensed Zhang Yidao kneeling before the founder’s statue, muttering, “Founder, I want to be overpowered too!”