Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 136: Interpersonal Drama

We descended on a rapid elevator into the core of the world. Cheng was giving us a tour to see if we spotted anything useful before we left. If we could enhance Chicken, that would be a great option. Especially in terms of speed and safety, since those two features went hand in hand.

“How does the Crystal Conclave compare to the Heavenly Alliance?” I asked Luo Lingtai in a slightly teasing tone. I didn’t know about Cheng, but I doubted he would get upset at some minor banter. It was also a way to assess his personality. If he was too wound up, then it wasn’t worth the hassle of traveling with him.

“They are both to inferior to the Xyon Front,” she replied with a smirk. Cheng chuckled at this.

“Indeed. They are on the list of groups we can’t afford to offend. But that is far above my understanding. A shame this place will be no more,” Cheng said as the elevator continued speeding downwards at a rapid pace. Chicken was with us. Neither Luo Lingtai nor I were about to let our only means of transportation out of our sight for anything.

“The temperature and gravity is well maintained,” I said.

“Unlike other super organizations, the Crystal Conclave prefers to leverage the natural laws for its structures. But that doesn’t mean we are incompetent in other aspects,” he replied. He was clearly sending some verbal missiles back at me, which was amusing. Anything to lighten the atmosphere of this place.

We came to a sudden stop, without any indicators and the doors swiftly opened. There was a large metal chamber lit up with crystals. “Those crystals are independent?” Luo Lingtai asked.

“Yes. They work based on the ambient energy. Normally a senior cultivator would direct energy to them to light up the area for a long time,” Cheng replied.

“They would be useful, for lighting. We should take as many as we can when we leave,” Luo Lingtai said. Cheng then showed us to the central chamber that was just ahead. The layout of the large underground chamber was basically the elevator shaft, then the control chamber overlooking all the equipment that was set up inside the rest of the chamber.

“Components are wearing down,” Cheng said with a frown while he looked at several holographic displays.

“Which devices specifically?” I asked.

“The energy processor, the spatial stabilizer, and the barrier projector.” The energy processor would normally handle taking in energy and outputting it across the world. The problem was that the energy pump was no longer working, since connecting to another layer of Reality was not possible. The energy would then be transferred to the energy processor, to reduce the risk of Chaos before releasing that energy.

With the energy in the air, the energy processor had been reconfigured to draw in energy from half the channels and output energy in the other half. It was messy and not designed to work like this.

“Let’s check on them. I am curious with how they are wearing down. It might give us some clues about this place,” I replied. We made our way to the energy processor. Compared to the stuff I was used to working with, this device was clearly designed with a singular purpose in mind by a super organization that knew what they were doing. The changes that had been made were quite obvious. Cut and reforged metal. Some arrays and formations were reversed. There were also several new and severed connections between various components.

Cheng turned the energy processor off and began pulling out formation plates one by one. “Look, the inscriptions have begun to melt. That shouldn’t happen. The energy level can’t be that high?” Luo Lingtai looked at Cheng who was frowning.

“No. I might not know the exact details of how everything works, but I know how to service this equipment and monitor it. If the energy levels got too high, then it should shut down. I have been recurving the formation plates when they have gotten bad like this,” Cheng said.

“That is confirmation, that something is wrong with the energy of this place. You have probably noticed that as well? Any health effects?” I asked Cheng who remained silent for an entire minute. Luo Lingtai looked like she was about to speak but I shook my head.

“There is something caustic with the energy of this place. I can’t describe it better. Thankfully I wasn’t that impacted, but it is troublesome. It is also why people haven’t been able to break through. If they do, then their bodies can’t handle the strain and break apart,” he said.

“Explode or melt? Don’t look at me like that, it is an important question,” I asked.

“Melt, why?” Cheng asked back.

“If a person’s body exploded, there is too much energy. Melting implies there is a problem with the energy itself. Let’s keep checking the equipment,” I said. Cheng removed various formation plates which we checked togeather.

The ones that weren’t working as well were experiencing the same issues. The plates were melting. The exact reason could be the local energy, resonance, or something else entirely. But the problem was the energy of this place itself. It wasn’t more powerful than regular energy, but it was tainted with purpose.

That was the biggest problem. Something similar would happen if a cultivator pushed out their own energy into the devices. If I did something like that and had enough energy to keep it up, then the energy covering this world would be more aligned to force than anything else. That wouldn’t cause a problem with the devices, but if a cultivator was attuned to acid instead, then there could be issues.

Looking over the equipment and the formations, it looked like that a similar concept was being added into the energy on purpose. Probably something to do with crystals, since the super organization was called the Crystal Conclave. It would make crystal focused cultivation easier. I couldn’t decide if this was a better or worse choice than more neutral energy, which was what the Heavenly Alliance did as far as I knew.

Cultivators would be able to progress more quickly if they focused on crystals. But it would limit progression in other areas. The Heavenly Alliance wanted more top level cultivators as far as I could tell, that could go beyond just being a basic immortal. The Crystal Conclave wanted more immortals, but weren’t looking for powerhouses to advance beyond that most likely. Or the cultivators were being used as test subjects to find different methods of crystal cultivation. That was similar to the Heavenly Alliance, since they were running large scale tests as well.

It made me wonder what was beyond immortal and also glad that was I charting my own path. The paths others had chosen were limited to the person who had gotten the farthest. My current path, while still on the road of the Heavenly Alliance, had veered off. It made things harder, but I felt it kept things far more open than I would have initially thought of.

“Anything besides the lighting that is worth salvaging?” I asked since I didn’t see much that could be separated out and was valuable. Everything was mostly integrated togeather.

“Nothing on the scale we would need. It is all too large. There aren’t any specialized production equipment. I am more concerned about stuff using the ambient energy. While it might not be immediate, there could be breakdowns much more quickly than we expect. What about the rest of the devices?” Luo Lingtai asked Cheng who got a thoughtful look.

“The rate of issues has been higher than normal. Even the crystal lighting has seen more failures since we arrived here, than before,” he replied and Luo Lingtai nodded at this.

“Energy contamination. There isn’t enough filtration before the energy is released. It will only get worse once we leave. We should prepare backup components for Chicken, just in case. While my memory is very good, it is important that all the details are right on the replacement components so there isn’t an issue,” she said. I nodded at this.

“We do have a small manufacturing facility,” Cheng said and led us to it. It wasn’t as good as what I was used to, but it would do.

“We will get to work making replacement components. You said you had things you wanted to take care of,” Luo Lingtai said.

“I will repair all the devices down here before we leave and gather up the crystal lighting. Unfortunately there isn’t that much in storage,” he said with a frown. Places like this would try and squeeze everything they could to make a profit. Stockpiling resources at a place meant to extract and process energy wasn’t worthwhile. This world and the continent I grew up on, were ultimately expendable locations in the eyes of a super organization.

“Let’s go through everything one by one. We weren’t in a place that we could take our time when putting this togeather. Hopefully we can make some adjustments to make it easier to stay on,” Luo Lingtai said as we both got to work.

Cheng didn’t take long before returning. He had a spatial storage crystal around his neck that he kept the crystal lighting in and whatever he was planning to bring. He watched carefully as we made replacement components for Chicken as well as redid the outside to make it a bit longer to better accommodate three people.

Foot rests and hand grips were built onto it as well with stronger bracing put in place for the entire vehicle to be more durable, especially the front. Working with Luo Lingtai we made another shield to break the wind. There would still be the red shield that would automatically activate, but we managed to make a weak shield that would split the air in front of the vehicle.

That would allow us to go much faster, compared to previously. I would have to run some tests and I was still concerned about safety, but we were reaching the limit of devices we could cram into Chicken. While the formations drew on the ambient energy, at a certain point there wouldn’t be enough energy.

If we were more skilled, then we could use the movement of Chicken to draw in energy and utilize the energy that was drawn in more efficiently. But unfortunately we weren’t masters of arrays or formations. While we knowledgeable, we couldn’t make something custom like that.

It was comparable to knowing math like calculus versus knowing math needed to even understand something like quantum mechanics. There was some small overlap, but much more specialized knowledge was needed for the later. Even super organizations would have only so many specialists when creating vessels.

The level of understanding, tools needed, and materials were not something that regular people could easily learn and develop. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I was one of the more skilled people in arrays and formations that wasn’t directly tied to a super organization. That was one the reasons Yang Zi had teamed up with me, my knowledge of such things.

Luo Lingtai was part of the Xyon Front. I had no doubt she had hidden libraries worth of skills and knowledge that I didn’t know about. Unfortunately, I didn’t have hidden skills or talents. I was capable, but not a specialist in any specific area.

A chime sounded throughout the large underground cavern along with a faint pulse of energy. Cheng quickly went over to the console and began fiddling with some controls.

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“Master?” he spoke out loud hesitantly.

“Cheng. Good you answered quickly. This formation I am using to contact you won’t last long,” a voice came through the other side. His master was alive and someone had contacted Cheng at this precise moment in time. That was incredibly suspicious just on the timing alone.

“Where are you master? Have you found a way to escape this space?” Cheng asked.

“No. It is far worse than we thought. I have made some progress towards the central location that governs this space, but I can’t continue any further. Ack! Ack!” There was a wet sounding cough from his master.

“What do you need me to do?” Cheng asked.

“I don’t have much time left. You must live, my son.” There was a long stretch of silence and the shock coming from Cheng it was clear that he didn’t know his immortal master was also his father. I hadn’t expected that twist.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cheng asked.

“I wanted you to carve your own path. I tried to help, but I have failed. Listen to me. Access the secure archive. Specifically file G, dash, seven, two, one, eight. You know my personal code I gave you. Use it. Ack! Ack! Beware of-“

There was a wet squishing sound and more gurgling blood. “Oh, a communication formation. Hahahaha.” The manic laughter was quickly cut off. Cheng had tensed up and I didn’t say anything while he was emotionally unstable. Luo Lingtai also kept quiet as well.

After a minute he moved to a compartment built into the floor and pulled out a key. He opened the compartment and pulled out a device, which he put into the console. I approached slowly with Luo Lingtai as he began to look through the various files.

“You have a database?” I asked.

“Which is the property of the Crystal Conclave. I would have destroyed it before we left. We might be a long way from our respective super organizations, but I will not betray their trust. I will not betray my master’s trust. My father’s trust…” he said the last couple of words quietly and paused looking up the information his master suggested.

“Um, do you need some time or space?” I asked hesitantly. Cultivators didn’t really do feelings and while we were friendly towards each other, we weren’t friends or even trusted associates.

“I just need a moment. I never knew. He never told me. WHY!?” Cheng shouted while looking up and raising his fists in the air. I took a step back, so I wasn’t accidentally hit if he decided to start swinging. I didn’t say anything since he had asked for a moment.

Life was incredibly cruel like that. To gain something and then lose it. Cheng walked away from the console and Luo Lingtai looked at me. I just shrugged not knowing what to do. While we had overheard what his master said, it would be highly disrespectful to access the information ourselves instead of Cheng. In fact I could easily see such an action pushing him over the edge.

After a minute of standing in silence, I looked at Luo Lingtai who shrugged back at me. She was clearly at a loss as well on what to do in this situation. I guess we were both emotionally stunted in some way. Cultivators never thought about their family, since it was a personal journey to reach immortality. But apparently Cheng’s father had cared deeply about his son.

While I would much rather know this information that his master suggested Cheng to look at, I was left speculating on interpersonal drama instead, which was annoying. “What do you think we should do?” I quietly asked Luo Lingtai after I got tired of waiting.

“Wait? I am not sure. We definitely shouldn’t access the information. Cheng would probably get really upset if that happened. I am also concerned about how an immortal was killed like a chicken and what that means for us,” she replied.

“Nothing good. We can’t beat an immortal. Our only hope is that they are weakened someone in this space. Cheng didn’t mention anything about his master, but an immortal wouldn’t show weakness easily,” I replied.

“Perhaps. But you haven’t noticed any impact to your energy?” Luo Lingtai asked me. I hadn’t noticed any difference compared to the Firmament, unlike the Infinite Ring Complex in the Mechanical Layer. Now that she mentioned this, I thought about the issue carefully, but I didn’t think of it as that odd.

One’s personal energy generation was based on their drawing up energy from lower level of reality. Whatever this place was, was still in the Firmament. Could the amount of energy being drawn up personally change from something other than a change in which layer of reality a person was currently in? I didn’t think so, but something like this was probably possible.

“Nothing unusual. Why, do you think there is a problem?” I asked.

“Why are you able to draw up energy? Your soul is connected to the Astral Plane, while everything else is cut off?” she suggested.

“Well we haven’t tried breaching into another layer. We talked about it but we decided the risk was too much when we had other options. Do you think we should reconsider?” I asked.

“Maybe. I am not sure. But entering the Astral Plane will make things even worse. Finding a way back to the Firmament before we die will be near impossible. Also, you mentioned that you have a Chaos creature after you?” she asked.

“I am not entirely sure about that, but I was warned. Do you know how the Astral Plane and Firmament line up?” I asked.

“No. Uncontrolled breaches are just too dangerous, since there is too much energy. Closing them quickly might bring some safety, but any risk of Chaos is too much,” she replied. We stood there uncomfortably, both trying not to look at the console with the information waiting to be accessed.

“You think Cheng is testing us?” I asked.

“Maybe, but it is more likely he has a lot of conflicting emotions right now. It is best to wait for a while. While this place is compressing down, a few hours or even days isn’t going to make that much of a difference,” she replied. I nodded at this. It was frustrating, but there was no point in creating drama when there was no point.

Just standing around waiting was annoying, I turned back to the Chicken. We were almost done with the rework. “What do think, adjust the hand grips more forward?” I asked.

“They are in good positions for now. The foot grips could be placed better. Also, we can work on the controls a bit more now that we have time and a much more stable environment,” Luo Lingtai said.

“Some sort of mechanical contraption to adjust the orientation of the formation plates?” I suggested.

“Hmmm. There was some spare parts for the console. I think I can hook of the system to create a holographic interface. I just need to adjust the small formation plates that make up the console. Take a look,” she said and I looked at what she had found.

“It could work, but something I could grip onto would be better than placing my hands flat on the formation plates, maybe. I have fairly decent control. Maybe project an image of the plate’s upwards and forwards. With direct feedback? But that still doesn’t remove the risk of an accident.” I shook my head.

Without a purposely built design, it was hard to combine different components togeather. For something as complicated as an interface to control the formation plates that controlled Chicken’s movement it was much too complex for us. While it would have been nice to have a better set of controls, it just wasn’t feasible with our ability.

“A shame,” Luo Lingtai said while looking at Chicken after we had gone through several ideas and other minor adjustments.

“So, do you think we should seriously consider breaching into the Astral Plane or preparing some kind of more powerful weapon?” I asked Luo Lingtai, bringing up the topic again. The more I thought about an immortal cultivator dying where were headed, the more concerned I was.

“I disagree. The Astral Plane would be a death sentence. Also, a lot of our equipment would have trouble working there,” she replied.

“But we could work on a method of travel ahead of time and also prepare a way back into the Firmament once we travel far enough to hopefully avoid coming back into this space,” I explained.

“I don’t know anything about getting back from the Astral Plane, unless you are saying you do?” she asked me. I shook my head at this question. “Then we are stuck. There is a reason only super organizations have the knowledge and ability to attempt what you are suggesting. The risks are too great otherwise.”

“Well we need some kind of weapon, a bomb would be the best option. Just throw it at whatever is causing us trouble and run away,” I said.

“The level of power we would need isn’t possible with what we have. But don’t underestimate your blade and my attack,” she replied.

“I am not underestimating either my blade or you. I just think that future fights won’t be so easy to solve,” I replied. That was the problem when the gap in power was too big. There just wasn’t anything we would be able to realistically do in such a fight.

I kept wracking my brain, but once the difference in speed, power, and reaction time reached a certain point it was incredibly difficult to bridge the gap. But this place, seemed like the last safe place we would be at for a long time. Any kind of preparation or plan needed to take place before we left, since it would be much harder once we were away from this world.

It was a problem with no good solution. Going to the edge of this space was blocked, we had tried and weren’t strong enough to get past the gravity and other environmental conditions. Going forward seemed to lead to high level cultivators and other extreme dangers. Remaining in place wasn’t an option either since this space was shrinking. Going into the Astral Plane just traded one set of problems for another.

Four options of what to do and each of them were terrible in their own way. It was incredibly frustrating that there was nothing more we could do to prepare. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the materials, knowledge, or equipment. Like building a raft from the wreck of a large ship, we could figure out the basics of formations and put them togeather but weren’t capable of rebuilding from scratch.

I wanted to get upset at myself for not getting this knowledge at the Free Port, but the use of formations and arrays wasn’t easily spread about. Super organizations guarded that information very well. And the more complex stuff, I could point out how it worked, but struggled in adjusting anything. Like looking at car engine, where one could explain the principles of how it worked but had no chance of making one or even a toned-down replica.

We both stopped our conversation as Cheng returned to the central platform in this large chamber. Instead being put togeather, he appeared to be a bit more unkempt than before.

“Sorry, I needed a moment for myself,” he said after taking a deep breath.

“I won’t say that I understand, but needing a small break when you hear bad news is completely understandable,” I said. Fake sympathy wouldn’t be appreciated. He clearly needed a moment to himself, and he taken it.

He hesitated before going back over to access the information. Luo Lingtai and myself made our way over once more. He was taking his time, but that was fine. There was no rush and he was most likely still in emotional turmoil. If I were him, I wouldn’t want people watching me at one of my most private and emotionally taxing moments.

Unfortunately for Cheng, I wanted to know the information his master had suggested. Whatever he was feeling mattered far less than our survival and gaining any knowledge about this place. As Cheng went through the files to find the correct one, I couldn’t help but wonder why the Crystal Conclave had information stored in an out of the way location like this.

Perhaps it was a way for the cultivators monitoring the world to assess and analyze a threat. It would be impossible to remember everything, but there was probably a storage structure that helped filter things down. That way the cultivator in charge could report back something more meaningful or know how to respond.

The fact it had such a non-descript game suggested that the information was encoded in other ways. I had been watching Cheng carefully, but it would be too easy to set up other safeguards on something like this. At least that would be what I would do if I was in charge of a super organization. That knowledge was accumulated by countless cultivators dying, I had no doubt about that fact.

Cheng’s master most likely included him in the protections of this place before he left. If Luo Lingtai and myself entered here without Cheng, this place would probably explode or something equally dangerous. This place held knowledge and core secrets of the Crystal Conclave, not just the data Cheng had access to but the equipment.

A shame that this entire place was now worthless. There was zero chance we would be coming back here once we left. I doubted we would be able to find it once we left as well. While Luo Lingtai was tracking our position by checking on the edges of this space, everything was shifting. Even with a spatial stabilizer, it would only do so much when everything was moving. Even if this place didn’t move, almost everything else was moving about.

“Hmm,” Cheng let out a soft hum.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The information is encrypted.” He gestured at the display. “It is probably something demonic or related to Chaos. It is going to take a while. There is a time delay built in to unraveling the cipher.” That was annoying.

“Any way you can track how far your master was when he reached out? Do you mind me looking at the communication equipment?” Luo Lingtai asked.

“Go ahead. It isn’t going to be useful going forward. It is designed to only reach out to the Crystal Conclave. I couldn’t even begin to guess how far away he was when he called,” Cheng replied. Luo Lingtai took a look, but there was no way to get that information unfortunately.

“It was a good thought,” I told her and she shook her head.

“But not useful. I do agree we need to prepare more if we keep advancing, but there are no easy options. What about you Cheng? Do you know how to make bombs that can take out an immortal?” Luo Lingtai asked. Cheng shook his head before responding.

“No. I might be able to last for a few seconds against an immortal, but I won’t be able to win or stalemate them,” he explained. I figured as much, but it was good that he clearly understood his limits. Being overconfident was a good way to quickly get killed in combat.

“Any hidden weapon emplacements or something like that in case a hostile cultivator or super organization shows up?” I asked.

“No. The Crystal Conclave protected our territory in other ways. And this place isn’t important enough to install powerful weapons. There is, or was, no point in attacking this place. It just isn’t important enough unfortunately,” Cheng answered. He looked back at the display.

“It is finished. Let us see what my master said to look at,” he said.

The first words caught my attention. What was a Gu Container?

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