Hao Ren had never imagined he would communicate with another intelligent being in such a strange way: within his own mind, he was making direct mental contact with another consciousness. In a sense, that consciousness was an intruder in his mental world. Stranger still, it didn't even know it was an intruder, and had no idea how it had gotten there.
Communication in the mental world was incredibly efficient, but even the most efficient exchange couldn't help Hao Ren get much useful information from the "Godslayer Sword." During their conversation, the sword's intelligence had answered almost every question without hesitation. Its frankness even made Hao Ren wonder whether this really was the true consciousness of that wicked weapon. By the time they were done, he had more or less pieced together the sword's origins—and, to his disappointment, discovered that this consciousness was actually remarkably ignorant.
"So after you were made, you stayed in a muddled state the whole time? You could think, but you didn't?" Hao Ren asked curiously. He still found the sword's choice of words strange. No matter how intelligent a sword might be, its worldview couldn't possibly be the same as an ordinary person's.
"I received information. I remembered it. I observed everything that happened, but I did not process it." When the Godslayer Sword had first started communicating with Hao Ren, its speech had been halting, as though it lacked the vocabulary to describe its situation. Now, however, it seemed to have absorbed enough knowledge, and its explanations had become clear. "I was aware of my own existence, and of everything around me, but I had never... thought like this before."
"It sounds like a simulated intelligence suddenly gained real intelligence," Hao Ren muttered.
According to the Godslayer Sword, after its creation it had always remained