Chương 109: Cranesong

February 2029, Skyhome, Azure Profound Continent"I still don't understand how you created the Cranesong AI so fast." Leo shook his head as he watched the masses of cranes circle overhead.

"It took you guys only two months to make a whole new AI. I'm very impressed!" The observation platform jutted from Skyhome's eastern face at the eleven thousand foot mark, a broad granite disc supported by massive pillars. Above them, tens of thousands of cranes filled the air in layered formations, their pale feathers reflecting the light as they traced endless spirals. Their calls echoed off the mountain as they danced in anticipation. Leo stood with Kevin, Vivian, and Shen Tianyi near the platform's center.

Lord Flockfeather waited beside them in human form, his silver-white hair stirring in the mountain wind. The radiant crown atop his head cast golden light across his sharp features. Kevin shrugged.

"Graduate students will do anything for military merits. I just dangled the merits in front of them and got out of the way." Leo blinked.

"Your girlfriend can issue military merits? I didn't know she could do that."

"What are you talking about?" Kevin gave him an incredulous look.

"You're the one who issued the merits. You're technically an officer, remember? O-1. You can issue military missions. It's quite easy if you fund the merits yourself." Leo remembered getting his O-1 rank from Lord Newmont after the battle for Fort Cambridge. He never expected an officer rank to be so useful. But what did Kevin mean by funding the merits yourself?

"Did you spend my merits without telling me? Since when did I agree to this? How much did you spend?" Vivian adjusted her glasses.

"Leo, you really should read the things you sign more carefully. It's not a good look when you send a thirty-page document back completely signed three minutes after receiving it." Leo opened his mouth, then closed it. He had been so buried in formation theory that week that he'd barely glanced at the document before scribbling his signature on every flagged page. Vivian had assured him it was necessary paperwork. He glared at her.

"So how many merits did I end up spending?"

"It's just a small fraction of what you earned at the Battle of Fort Cambridge." Vivian smiled politely.

"You'll hardly notice a few thousand gone."

"A few thousand?" Leo's voice cracked.

"Doesn't a standard convoy mission give like eight merits when split twelve ways? How did I suddenly spend a few thousand?"

"Leo, you've been paying for this since October." Vivian's tone suggested he was being particularly dense.

"Did you really think Kevin programmed the LLM by himself? Maybe I could have done it if you gave me a few months, but I have to prepare for the Grand Formations Competition too." Leo stared at her. Vivian laughed and gestured toward Lord Flockfeather.

"Leo, let's talk about this later. Remember, we're in the presence of a Lord." Leo filed his grievances away for later. He would have a bone to pick with Kevin and Vivian about this. Possibly after installing a hidden formation that beeped at random intervals in their apartments. Below the observation platform, Superior Windcrest led a group of Gold Core cranes through final preparations. He had been Leo's first contact among the crane formation masters, back when Leo was learning the basics of crane formations.

Now Windcrest and the others reviewed the detailed routes and songs the Cranesong AI had generated. Lord Flockfeather had assembled the finest talent below Nascent Soul in Skyhome for this test. Leo turned to the crane patriarch.

"I've noticed you suddenly took an interest in our work these past few months. You invested a lot of Gold Cores to help us with this first test. Why the change?" Lord Flockfeather's golden eyes gleamed with amusement.

"Our karma masters have long sensed that your group shared some thread of fate with us cranes. Then, in December, the threads shifted. They reported our bond had grown significantly stronger." Leo thought back to December. That was when he received the ortho-k lenses in Berlin. When he and Kevin finally made the crucial breakthrough that let them model the interference patterns properly.

"Karma is that powerful?" Shen Tianyi folded his hands in his sleeves.

"Karma is far more powerful than one can imagine, and also far more useless than one might think. In the end, your group did the work. The karma masters simply perceived the fruit a little early." Leo turned back to Lord Flockfeather.

"So your karma masters can already tell this will work?" The patriarch smiled.

"They cannot tell if it will work or not. But they can sense when we have gained a new friend." Lord Flockfeather addressed Shen Tianyi.

"Is there truly no method for us to forge or commission this 'GPU' for ourselves?" Tianyi shook his head.

"One would need a massive quantity of Heavenly Calculation Pearls. Or slowly develop a mortal kingdom over generations. Both paths lead nowhere." Leo understood why Tianyi considered the second path impossible. Industrializing the Azure Profound Continent was straightforward in theory. The problem emerged once technology approached information systems. Void Refining cultivators would detect an existential threat to their faith power.

Free access and open information could shatter the faith of their believers and turn them against their rules. The deities at the apex of cultivation would crush any attempt at industrialization long before it succeeded. Lord Flockfeather nodded.

"Then I suppose we must continue to rely on you, Leo Chen." Superior Windcrest's piercing whistle cut through the air. The formation masters snapped to attention. Their calls rang out in sequence, each crane sounding off in the melodic language of their kind. Then they launched themselves skyward with powerful wingbeats, rising to join the circling masses above. Leo expected the crane dance to look ugly. The AI had generated movements optimized for interference patterns, not aesthetics.

Flight paths that made mathematical sense but looked random to the eye. Formations where the birds held position rather than sweeping across the sky in graceful arcs. The reality surprised him. Each crane executed tight spirals, climbing and descending in narrow columns of air. They traced the same paths over and over, wingtips following invisible tracks. The movements looked repetitive at first, birds rotating in the sky like spinning tops rather than dancing. Those small shifts rippled outward.

One crane's drift forced its neighbor to adjust. That correction changed the timing of a third bird's descent. By the twentieth rotation, the entire flock had reorganized into something new. The dance held a strange grace. The cranes responded to each other moment by moment, small changes cascading through the flock. Order and chaos held in tension, each pass through the air layering onto the last, each song combining with another.

Leo thought back to the time he briefly observed Luo Mingxia's Singular Formation at the Pond Gazing Sect. Had it felt like this? Incomprehensible on the surface, yet structured underneath? Patterns within patterns, meaning hidden in apparent randomness? Someday, maybe when he reached Gold Core, he would travel to the Shen Family Compound in Fog City and examine the Singular Formation again. Perhaps then he would have enough experience to gain insights into the legendary formation.

The aerial dance continued for several minutes. The pattern in the sky grew more complex, weaving together sounds that combined in ways that had never been done before. Then the cranes dove. They plummeted toward a prepared formation plate on the platform below. As they descended, the sky-pattern compressed, tightening into a single lance of spiritual force that punched downward. Light seared across the formation plate. Runes etched themselves into the surface. The crane version of an Earth Rejuvenation Formation.

Although it was just a basic T2 formation, crane formation masters had long considered it impossible to render in Cranesong. Leo held his breath. The Cranesong AI said it would work. They had even told the AI to 'make no mistakes'. But their LLMs had been wrong before. Thousands of his merits were on the line. It was time to see if they were wasted or well invested. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The cranes landed around the perimeter, strutting with obvious pride. Superior Windcrest examined the completed formation with his divine sense. His head bobbed in approval. A young Qi Refining crane with flat gray plumage stepped forward. He picked up the formation plate, which had been mounted on a simple wooden stake, and carried it to a prepared planter box. Inside the box was a wilted spiritual herb. Its leaves had yellowed from lack of proper qi circulation.

The young crane planted the stake in the soil beside it. The formation hummed to life. Spiritual energy flowed through the array runes, cycling qi through the soil in patterns that mimicked ambient spiritual qi. Within moments, the herb's leaves began to rejuvenate. Color returned to its stem. A success. Superior Windcrest and his formation masters descended from the sky. They landed before Lord Flockfeather and bowed low, wings spread against the platform stones. Then they turned to Leo and bowed again.

The cranes in the sky erupted. Their calls rang across Skyhome in overlapping harmonies of celebration. Wings beat the air in synchronized patterns that sent gusts sweeping across the platform. The sound was deafening and joyous. Lord Flockfeather smiled at Leo.

"You have performed a great service for the crane race this day. We eagerly await your advancement to Foundation Establishment. Who knows? Once you can create Tier Four formations for us, we may find cause to add your name to a certain book of ours." Leo bowed deeply.

"Thank you, Lord Flockfeather. The honor belongs to everyone who worked on this project."

"Modest words." The patriarch's golden eyes gleamed.

"But this Lord will remember who stood before him today."

Leo sat with Shen Tianyi on a stone outcropping overlooking Human Hut Mountain's terraces. The winter sun hung low over the peaks, casting long shadows across the dormant fields. The celebration at Skyhome had ended hours ago, but the excitement still buzzed through his veins. The hardest part of farming was now complete. But Leo knew they still had months of work ahead. The goal was automation. Cranes liked to eat, and they liked to fly. They did not like tilling wheat or watering crops.

The cranes already grumbled about learning weird songs and dances. If they also forced young cranes into tedious agricultural labor, flocks of resentful juveniles would descend on Human Hut Mountain every day to complain. Loudly. For hours. Everything was on track. The infrastructure would be ready before the spring planting season began. Lord Flockfeather had already ordered every acre of T2 Spiritual Soil in their territory to be tallied and tilled.

Their first massive crop of Foundation Establishment tier spiritual wheat would be ready by the fall harvest.

"Do you have any updates on the war?" Leo asked Shen Tianyi. Tianyi's expression grew distant.

"The initial offensive has stalled. Both sides are consolidating positions. I expect a lull through spring and summer."

"And then?"

"The central provinces will lead the Lanternmarches on a massive campaign in August or September." Tianyi folded his hands.

"They will fight over the harvest of the Thousandsteppes. Whoever controls the autumn grain controls the war." Leo stared out at the empty terraces.

"Most of the Lanternmarches won't be able to plant this year."

"Correct. The refugees hiding in the Savage Mountains are surviving on spiritstones and stored spiritual wheat. By fall, their reserves will run dry." Leo thought about what that meant. Thousands of cultivators, their cultivation slowly regressing from lack of spiritual sustenance. Watching from their mountain hideouts as the fields of the Thousandsteppes grew flush with wheat. Wheat they desperately needed.

"They'll have to fight," Leo said quietly.

"Join the military campaigns. Try to seize the harvest." Tianyi nodded.

"An army marches on its stomach. When the choice is between regression and combat, most cultivators choose combat." Leo clenched his fists.

"Then we need to make sure our harvest is ready. Give them another option."

"That is the plan." Tianyi glanced at him.

"Though I wonder if you understand what you are building here."

"What do you mean?"

"The Monarch's strategy is simple. Starve the Lanternmarches. Force them to act first. You are building a way to feed them. When Cloudpiercer realizes some desperado is undermining his entire war strategy, he will not send bureaucrats to file complaints." Leo had considered this. He pushed the thought aside.

"We'll deal with that when it comes. Right now, people need food." Tianyi was quiet for a long moment. Then he inclined his head slightly.

"As you say." He paused, his tone shifting.

"But do not grow careless from one victory. The cultivators at Crimson Lotus City were dregs. If Cloudpiercer sends his Immortal Guard to deal with you, that is a different matter entirely. Their gear carries T5 formations. You would not last three breaths." They sat in silence as the sun sank behind the peaks. Somewhere above them, cranes sang and practiced the new formations the AI had generated. The melodies lacked the ancient elegance of traditional Cranesong.

But to Leo, the sound carried something else entirely. Hope.

Earth Cranesong AI did more than solve the problem of farming in the Azure Profound Continent. It also solved a lot of Leo's immediate problems in the real world. Most pressing was Leo's impending deadline: finding an appropriate Valentine's gift for Kim Yuna. Last year, after his jade stamp disaster, she made him promise to try harder this year. He blamed Kotch. The idiot had thrown away some girl's pendant to wear Leo's stamp, and Leo walked straight into that trap without knowing it existed.

Kotch never warned him. Just let him hand Yuna the emotional equivalent of a grenade. This year, he would get it right. He found time to dance in the sky and sing a gift into existence. In the dead of night, of course, with no one looking. The process felt ridiculous. Leo Chen, Flying Aces prodigy, was flailing around in the air above the river at three in the morning while making bird noises. Anyone who witnessed this would have called the authorities.

Or an exorcist He caught himself mid-caw and paused, hovering in the darkness. This was his life now. Dancing like a bird to impress a girl. Maybe he had taken one too many hits to the head during his time in the Catacombs. But the formation worked. Silver lines etched themselves onto the prepared material below, forming an array that released gentle puffs of heart-shaped spiritual energy when activated. Kim Yuna seemed to appreciate the formation. It was truly unique.

The array looked like nothing she had ever seen before. And Leo had thoughtfully inscribed it onto a nice Loewe wallet. Unfortunately for Leo, he ruined two Loewe wallets due to a mismatch in the spiritual nature of the high-end leather. But after taking a crash course in basic artifact refining from Arthur, he managed to engrave it properly on the third attempt.

"You spent how much on wallets?" Arthur had asked, watching Leo botch the second inscription.

"It's fine. I have military merits."

"Kid, you had military merits. Past tense. Kevin and Vivian cleaned you out." Leo pretended not to hear him. At least the wallet also doubled as his prom ask. Yuna called it a "two for one" and grumbled about his lack of effort, but she said yes anyway.

More importantly, Cranesong AI solved a critical problem the training camp at the International Formation Institute was having. After all nine formation students gathered in Pittsburgh following the IMO in East Germany, it became apparent that although the team was full of the best and brightest youths on Earth, they were nowhere near strong enough to win. Various configurations of the team proved strong enough to handle intermediate formation derivation.

But it soon became clear that deriving the forbidden formations at the Grand Formation Summit would be impossible. Forbidden formations were already nearly impossible to draw, but even harder to derive. The winning teams that solved them usually relied on some superpower, like abilities granted by a Divine Child's bloodline. The situation was not entirely hopeless. Of the two problems each team submitted to the competition, only one could be a forbidden formation, the other had to be an intermediate formation.

Thus Earth could score a maximum of three points. They could probably solve the three intermediate formation problems presented by the Grey Cult, the Weaver Cult, and the Hollow Cult. But they would score zero on the three forbidden problems. However, in the past few centuries, the winning score had always been four or five points. So Earth was extremely unlikely to win. And there was no reward for second place. The trainers at the Institute had tried various techniques to address this issue with little success.

Earth's formation attainments simply were not deep enough. Then Cranesong AI changed everything. Leo and Vivian's work allowed them to approach the problem from a different angle. After they presented their findings to Professor Vogt, she immediately decided the team would use it to create the formation problems they would submit. The team's strategy shifted.

Instead of having Thad try to draw two formations, one intermediate and one forbidden, they would submit two Cranesong AI formations that they deemed nearly impossible to solve. All they had to do was demonstrate their ability to perform a Cranesong and draw the formation on the spot at the Grand Formations Summit to make it a valid problem. This year, the three cults they faced would have to attempt to solve two intermediate formations, two forbidden formations, and two Cranesong formations to solve.

If Cranesong formations were truly impossible to solve during the limited time of the competition, their opponents would need to solve two intermediate formations and one Forbidden formation to tie America. But tying would not be good enough. Tiebreakers were determined by the captains facing off. America would send Leo, who would 'draw' impossible Cranesong formations for the tiebreakers. Thus their competitors would need to score a perfect four points on the non-Cranesong portions to beat Earth.

Leo allowed himself a small smile when he tallied up the points. They had found a crack in the system. He just hoped they wouldn't come up with another Leo Chen Rule and ban Cranesong preemptively. Leo tried asking ask for all the military merits he spent on creating Cranesong AI to be reimbursed. Professor Vogt just told him "We'll see." Morimoto was worse, he tried to swindle the remaining amount out of Leo. Leo's teammates all became extremely excited when news of his and Vivian's accomplishments spread.

After all, they went from certain loss to near-certain victory. They became a lot less excited when they learned they would all have to dance like a crane and sing like a crane.