Once they had finished setting up the decoy, there was no reason for them to remain in this place any longer.

After all, they weren’t able to take the valuable things with them right now. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Since they were guarded, they should use this opportunity to explore the rest of these ruins while everyone else was distracted with this place.

Everything that they had explored until now really had been a gold mine for them.

So that was why Lin Fan and Ye Qing Huan were looking forward to what would be coming next.

It was just that there was a problem that came up when they were planning to leave.

"You want to come with us?" Ye Qing Huan asked in a surprised voice.

Xiao Mu the puppet gave a simple nod in response.

During this time, Lin Fan watched all of this with a strange and concerned look on his face.

After all, the way that Xiao Mu was acting was already showing that there was a dangerous development in the AI that controlled the puppet. It seemed like more and more free will was developing inside of Xiao Mu.

At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before it became fully self aware and possibly hostile towards them.

It didn’t seem like Ye Qing Huan was actually against Xiao Mu coming with them.

In the end, Lin Fan could only ask, "What about this place? If you leave it, who will control the training hall?"

Ye Qing Huan nodded in agreement to this since the most important thing for them right now was ensuring that this training hall ran smoothly. It was supposed to be a decoy that kept their attention away from the rest of the ruins after all.

Only Xiao Mu didn’t hesitate as it said, "I have a direct connection to this place, so I can control this place from anywhere within the Dao Sect. Though if I leave the Dao Sect, then it’ll be hard since I’ll slowly lose control the further I get."

So basically it was a wifi connection to this place.

Lin Fan wasn’t surprised that this was the case, but Ye Qing Huan certainly was impressed.

Mainly because the concept of wifi didn’t exist among cultivators to begin with.

Normally, it would require a powerful spiritual sense to be able to maintain control over a place like this from a far distance. So for Xiao Mu to be able to control the training hall all throughout the Dao Sect, it should mean that Xiao Mu had a powerful spiritual sense that it was able to bridge this gap.

This really was the difference in knowledge between them.

Lin Fan didn’t doubt that it would be able to keep the training hall running from afar since it was an advanced AI. Keeping a part of its processing power focused on running the training hall would be child’s play for Xiao Mu.

Not to mention that having an AI that knew this place would be useful since it should have information about the Dao Sect before it became these ruins. It would be able to help them find whatever they were looking for.

Only Lin Fan didn’t want to bring this AI along...

However, it didn’t seem like anything he could say would stop Xiao Mu from coming with them.

It seemed like Xiao Mu was determined to come with them, so he had to just accept this as fact.

Before leaving though, there was one question that Xiao Mu suddenly asked, "Second master, it seems like you know a lot about AI from your reactions. It doesn’t seem like you’ve been surprised by anything that I’ve revealed."

These words really seemed like they were targeted at him.

Especially the way that Xiao Mu addressed him as ’second master’.

Lin Fan couldn’t stop the wry feeling from filling him since he could guess why it was talking this way.

After all, this was an advanced AI and it should have been able to pick up a few simple things like this. So that meant that it should have noticed the way that Lin Fan looked at and treated it.

Only Lin Fan didn’t get the chance to say anything as Ye Qing Huan suddenly said, "What are you calling him second master for? Just call him Xiao Fan like you would call me Xiao Qing. There’s no need to be so formal around him."

Xiao Mu didn’t answer right away, which was clearly a strange thing for an AI to do.

But eventually it said, "Alright, I will address him as such in the future."

Though from the way that Xiao Mu looked at Lin Fan, it didn’t seem like it was planning on dropping this matter.

So with a cough, Lin Fan said, "I’ve had some experience with something similar in the past, which is why I’m not as surprised."

Ye Qing Huan was surprised to hear this, but she didn’t press this matter since she already knew that Lin Fan had all kinds of strange things. He was someone that never stopped surprising her, so she was already used to it at this point.

Only it seemed like Xiao Mu wanted to ask something else.

But in the end, Ye Qing Huan stopped Xiao Mu from asking anything else.

So they just left this place together without talking about this matter anymore.

Though while they were leaving, Lin Fan could see the way that Xiao Mu looked at him from time to time.

It wasn’t the kind of hostility that he thought it would be showing him.

Lin Fan thought that it was only being hostile since it was wary of him trying to leave it behind. But now that he observed it closely, he found that this Xiao Mu was actually getting closer to Ye Qing Huan.

"Is it envy?"

The more that he observed, the more certain he was of this.

It seemed like what Ye Qing Huan had done had left a large mark on Xiao Mu, to the point where it had even started developing feelings for her.

It was unknown how strong these feelings were, but it was clear that Xiao Mu wasn’t happy with the way that Ye Qing Huan was treating Lin Fan. Which was why it seemed like it was being hostile towards him.

Lin Fan couldn’t stop the bitter feeling from filling him as he realized this.

He certainly didn’t expect that he would have to fight with a self aware AI for the affection of his lover.

Though for now, it was unknown just what the extent of the feeling Xiao Mu felt for Ye Qing Huan was. It was even unknown what gender Xiao Mu would be in the end, so it could be completely different from what he was expecting.

Until Xiao Mu fully developed self awareness, it really was hard to tell what kind of feelings these were.

Still, it wasn’t as if Lin Fan wanted to compete with Xiao Mu for Ye Qing Huan’s affections.

The other thing that Lin Fan couldn’t help thinking was, "Isn’t this a bit too fast for development?"

Even if it did become self aware to a certain extent after receiving a name, it shouldn’t have reached the point where it was developing emotions like this. It felt like the AI was basically speedrunning how to gain awareness.

"No, in the first place, this isn’t normal AI."

It was AI that was being used by the Dao Sect, the former greatest sect on the cultivation continent.

Lin Fan had already seen the other things that the Dao Sect possessed, so he really shouldn’t be surprised that the AI used by the Dao Sect would be this advanced. He shouldn’t be surprised that it would be able to develop this quickly.

The only thing that he wondered about now was how far this AI would develop.

This was AI in the cultivation world, so would it be able to learn cultivation techniques once it developed self awareness?

Once these things passed through his mind, he couldn’t help feeling a bit excited to see how the AI would develop. Though most of his mind was still occupied with the worry that this AI would develop into something dangerous.

At the very least, it really felt like this AI would develop into something that would be dangerous for him.

"What are you walking in the back for? Come over and let’s discuss what we’ll be doing next." Ye Qing Huan called for Lin Fan after a while.

Xiao Mu didn’t seem happy that this was happening, but it wasn’t as if it would stop Ye Qing Huan. At the very least, it seemed like Xiao Mu was completely obedient towards Ye Qing Huan.

With the cloak that Ye Qing Huan gave Xiao Mu, there was no problem for it to sneak out with them.

Though from the way that it looked with the cloak on, it really seemed like the best friend that didn’t like the one that their friend dated. It seemed like it was looking at Lin Fan as if he was the third wheel.

"How did things become like this?"

Another bitter feeling filled Lin Fan as he thought this, but still he took out the map and looked at it closely to find the next place that they were meant to head to.

Ye Qing Huan had said that she didn’t need to rest since it didn’t take much out of her, so they were directly heading to the next place.