Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 112: The Inferno

It had probably been over four years of traveling. It was hard to keep track with the heat cooking my brain. Day after day of traveling. Checking for any kind of shadow was near impossible with the light reflecting off the white sand. Before it was just bright, now it was almost blinding.

I carefully checked the direction to the center of the Great World once more. I did this quite often in order to keep on track. It was too easy to veer off and get lost. I also didn’t want to miss the center of this place by a short distance.

After finding the correct direction, I glanced back at the nine struggling cultivators who were still following me. Junior Wei was among them, the rest had perished from the heat and radiation. Off in the distance was the giant worm, still following behind us. I gave it a nod of respect for following us for so long.

The wind wasn’t coming so much from in front of us anymore, but at a steep angle. It was pretty clear at this point that the Life Light was unleashing the massive wind some way down upon the world. My brain was too cooked to work out the physics of it all.

We continued onwards and then I came to a stop as I sensed danger directly ahead. This danger sense was far greater than the giant worm or the Cultivator Killer so it probably wasn’t some kind of cultivator creature like those two with a high degree of control over their energy and biology. No, it was something else.

I drew my sword as I kept advancing before finally coming to a halt. My eyes had adjusted after years of blinding light, but I still had to squint with how bright everything was. The air itself was hard to breathe. It was hard before, but now it felt like it was going to choke in my throat and poison my body.

Ahead I saw tiny bursts of flame in the air. They would appear for a moment before disappearing. “Rest here, I will be back,” I said to the cultivators who had caught up. They began digging out a pit to rest in while I moved forward to test the area.

A burst of flame occurred just to my side and I felt a massive increase in heat, while the temperature of the air where the flame had been cooled down massively, before the hot air swept that cooler air away. I also felt a little bit scorched. I had no idea what kind of thermal or chemical reaction that was happening, but breathing was much harder.

Probably the oxygen in the atmosphere was igniting in some way. I bent down and then jumped up into the air focusing on the terrain we were headed towards. After going up into the air, I looked into the distance, hoping to spot something.

My heart leapt when I spotted a towering structure through the haze and the flames. The image was distorted and the light bent, but there was something in the distance. We were probably half a degree off, so not bad. I would need to make another course correction once we started moving again.

But it was hard to say how far the structure was. Distance could be deceptive with the heat haze. Even more so with the flames in the air and wind. But there was a structure. That confirmation was enough to bring joy to my heart. All this travel hadn’t been pointless.

I returned to the group who had dug out a deep, but small pit for us to rest in. That was the one benefit of losing some people. We didn’t need to make as large of a rest area. The roof covering was also twice as thick, helping block out more light than before.

“How bad, Senior?” Junior Wei asked.

“The air itself is igniting and hard to breathe even for me. But I saw a structure in the distance. We are almost there,” I replied and the mood in the pit soared at that revelation.

“Then we must endure,” Junior Wei said quietly. The rest of the cultivators gave a short nod at that. I got out a large barrel of water.

“We all drink and rest. We will probably not rest again,” I said. Everyone nodded at this and began to quickly take cups of cold water from the barrel before it could heat up. I did as well, enjoying the cool water going down my throat.

We drank the entire barrel. Two cultivators stayed on watch duty while everyone else rested. The two cultivators would switch off with others occasionally. Food was eaten as well. The cultivators traveling with me were almost out of their own supplies. The other cultivators dying had been a boon, since we could take what they had.

I had done the math, and we could still return with what I had saved. So, the trip was not a death sentence if we could return, but that wasn’t going to happen. There was something out there. A tower like structure of some kind.

Thinking about what I saw, the distance was immense. While the structure looked small, it did not extend into the air and was incredibly far away. Very far away. This last push would be incredibly hard and the giant worm would probably make a move sometime soon.

“The worm, it is moving towards us,” one of the cultivators on watch said. It had waited until now to try a sneak attack. It was about half the length of our usual rest time.

“Let’s pack up, we are leaving,” I declared loudly, waking everyone up. Everyone packed things up in under a minute. The giant worm had closed about a third of the distance towards us. It couldn’t travel that fast when using stealth.

Once we left towards the inferno portion of the Great Desert, the giant worm surged after us. I wanted to go faster, but the cultivators traveling with me were already traveling their fastest.

“AHHHH!” A burst of flame erupted in the face of one cultivator, killing them and igniting their body. The supplies and equipment they were carrying was also lost. We didn’t stop. I noted the giant worm did no pursue us into the inferno as more bursts of flames occurred around us.

A burst of flame occurred in front of me, but I endured the flames easily. They weren’t enough to hurt a cultivator of my caliber.

Another cultivator fell to the ground, choking, unable to breathe. Lying on the white sand while losing focus on her cultivation, her clothing burst into flames. She didn’t have the breath to scream as she burned. That left seven cultivators.

I realized I only knew the name of Junior Wei. They might have mentioned them in the past, but I had never bothered to learn. If there was one left, I would learn their name. They deserved that much at least if they managed to make it as the last survivor.

The giant worm still was not pursuing, which was good. But it probably didn’t want to risk damaging itself in this environment and most likely had thought we would give up or turn back. That was the mistake of the giant worm, but it was to my benefit.

Fighting in this kind of environment would be a nightmare. Another burst of flame occurred to my side, but I managed to move out of the way. I was getting better at sensing when and where the bursts of flame would occur. Another scream occurred behind me. That left six cultivators remaining.

The burst flames died out after a week of traveling as the wind began coming straight down and the force of the wind rapidly increased. It went from heavy gust to hurricane levels of force. The white sand was no longer stirred up in our passage but was forcibly compressed downwards.

Even the terrain began leveling out and I could make out a cylindrical structure in the distance. A cultivator tripped behind me falling on the ground. They instantly burst into flames and the wind seared away their corpse. Only the scale hat from the worm remained.

That was the only thing keeping us alive from the heat. We also had to keep moving since the ground was so hot. If we came to a full stop, their feet would burst into flames. I would be fine, with my superior clothing and cultivation. Well fine might be a stretch, but I wouldn’t combust like the other cultivators.

We kept heading towards the structure. The surface was pitch black and there was a haze around it. It looked like a cylinder without any kind of markings, doorways, windows, or anything else that I could see.

The force of wind kept increasing, but the heat didn’t let up. At least it was no longer near impossible to breathe. The structure was about 20 stories tall, which was quite short compared to other buildings I had seen. The energy in the air had also massively increased. The entire building was emitting a tremendous amount of energy into the air as well as heat.

I altered course to circle around the building, looking for a door. It would be unlikely to find one, but I had hope, since digging would be impossible with the wind and heat. I noted small metal bits and possible remains at the base of the tower. Other cultivators had somehow reached this point and died, leaving only unmeltable scraps behind.

There was not going to be a doorway or entrance. After going around four fifths of the structure, almost back to our starting point, I knew I needed to act. If we stood still we would melt from the intense heat of the Life Light directly above us.

“One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth,” I said the words etched onto the blade of my first master. I had swung vertically and focused the attack as much as possible, head one at the tower. A deep cut was made into the black material, and there was a hole to something on the other side. I also noted that the black material began repairing.

“Hurry!” I shouted out and made my way to the hole with the remaining five cultivators behind me. My danger sense spiked. I quickly entered the hole and moved to the side. My eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change in light. Four more cultivators entered and my danger sense spiked.

“AHHHH!” There was a scream from the remaining cultivator as they moved through the hole. A blast of heat and light incinerated their body, leaving nothing behind. There had been some kind of attack from outside. Possibly from whatever mechanisms controlled the Great World itself.

In that brief moment of illumination, we were in some kind of passage. The far wall melted slightly along with the hole. The sense of danger disappeared. At least the air was cooler inside the tower and there was no long a constant stream of heat, radiation, and wind.

“Urg,” one of the cultivators leaned over and began puking out blood. Junior Wei went over and stabbed a knife into the back of their head. Once a cultivator succumbed to cancer, it was over for them and was best to put them out of their misery. Their would be no recovery.

Then there were three left not counting me. “We actually made it,” one of them said in relief. I could understand that sentiment. So many had died and failed to make it this far. I took a deep breath, relaxing my body in a way that I hadn’t in a very long time. The energy in the air was comparable to what the Mechanical Layer should have.

“We did. Let us rest here to allow our eyes to adjust and see if anything comes. We have a day or two before that hole closes,” I said while looking intently at the melted edges that were slowly coming back togeather. I poked the interior wall of the tower. It was pitch black, making it near impossible to determine its shape or structure. The material bent under my touch. Durable, but not stupidly hard like the rocks of the Last Mountains.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

More food and water was broken out. “You three rest, I will keep watch,” I said. There were words of thanks and the cultivators quickly fell asleep. We had been traveling for too long since the last rest stop. It was hard to keep track of time mentally, with how torturous things had been in the Great Desert.

I took a moment to look outside the tower. The white sand outside was molten to a degree. The Great World really didn’t like me attacking this place. If I hadn’t broken through initially, I would have been heavily injured or vaporized.

More powerful than the tribulation lighting, but similar to the one the Cultivator Killer had described. Was it related to how closely one was to the center of the Great World or the level of offense? It was hard to say and could be either or.

This place clearly had importance and I allowed myself to smile. I had made it. Now I was finally going to get some answers. I pulled off my hat and put it away in my spatial device. While I hoped that I wouldn’t need to go through the Great Desert again, better to have such an item in reserve.

After a while, the three cultivators with me woke up again, and I took this time to rest while they kept watch. There was no need to hurry in my mind. While I wanted answers, I wanted to be recovered as much as possible. Even with the cooler environment inside the tower, my body still felt like it was overheated.

I actually fell asleep for a period of time. When I woke up, I was feeling much better and the hole was almost closed, only allowing a single finger sized beam of light inside the passage. My brain felt like it could actually think for once, now that is was no longer at the point of boiling.

“Finally, I can cool down,” I said as I began stretching.

“It is getting incredibly dark, Senior,” Junior Wei said. I nodded at this and pulled out a head lamp and put it on. I could finally use my equipment without worry in this environment. It wouldn’t be destroyed by whatever was pulling energy out of the Great World. While I needed to power the device myself it would be okay in this environment.

“We will have some light. I will take the rear so nothing sneaks up on us, the three of you can take a triangle formation in the front so you can see,” I said with a smile. After all this time, they would finally be put to the purpose I had envisioned for them.

There were no complaints as we set off. The walls and floor weren’t impossibly dark, just very dark. My eyes had needed more time to adjust to the lack of blinding light. We slowly began traveling through the passage, which had a curve to it.

After a tenth of the way around the tower, we came to a straight side passage that we took. It went a short distance, before stopping a circular passage. This one I had us walk around. I was quickly able to visualize the design so far.

The passages were rings and they were fairly large. Over twice the height of a person and about four times as wide. Each ring had two passages to another inner ring passage. Each of these access passageways were offset by ninety degrees from the previous ring. freewebnσvel.cѳm

With that realized we slowly began making our way to the center of the structure. There was a circular walkway and then a floating staircase followed by a pit in the middle of the tower. The air was completely still and I had us stop several times so I could listen and check our surroundings carefully. There were no markings and no sounds that I could hear.

“Be ready,” I said quietly. I did not want to go up or down just yet. Better to try and draw out anything that might be hiding in this tower.

“I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou from the Heavenly Alliance, I do not mean to trespass, but I come to humbly speak to my Seniors who have created the Great World,” I declared loudly. My voice echoed up and down the pit. I waited as time stretched on. I shouted out a second time.

If there was anything out there, I wanted them to come to me, rather than being ambushed. I also didn’t want anyone to think I was attempting to ambush them. There was no reply. I let out a sigh. It would have been too easy if there had been a cultivator ready to speak with me.

“Downwards,” I declared based on the information the Cultivator Killer had given me. We began to descend on the floating black material that created a staircase. For a human, the staircase was a bit too large, with the steps going up to my knees. That made me think that this place wasn’t built by humans which was concerning.

Something like stairs had a certain comfortable height regardless of society, based on the average size. The staircases of the Forever City as well as the places I had found with Yang Heng echoed similar design philosophies. Beings would make structures that were comfortable for them in terms of size.

The passage ways we had gone through weren’t telling. While they were large some cultivators might just like to build large as a statement or design choice. But this floating staircase pointed much more closely to the actual size of the beings that had built this structure.

We slowly descended, the other cultivators taking the lead, while I illuminated the path in front of us from the rear. The bottom was finally reached and the bottom of the interior pit was found. Resting there was another staircase leading even further down. I declared my intentions loudly two more times, but still no response. The tension had increased massively as we set off down this smaller staircase.

It didn’t go that far, only five stories or so, before coming to an end. Looking around there was a faint blue glow coming from the passage the stairway had ended at. We advanced once more before coming to a glowing blue field blocking our way forward.

I pulled out a stick and tossed it at the field. The stick was instantly vaporized in a flash of blue light and a surge of energy. I noted that the field continued through the black material in all directions. Floor, ceiling, and walls.

Declaring my intentions two more times, there was still no response. I checked the walls and the floor and quickly found an empty circular slot. This was clearly a similar kind of mechanism that the Cloudy Moon Sect had used for its beast hunting outposts. One needed to know the right way to unlock things, otherwise it would be a trap.

Thankfully I had learned quite a bit since then. I pulled out a metal plate and began inscribing an array onto it. With the energy in the environment I would have no problems activating such an array.

“Senior, what are you doing?” Junior Wei asked.

“The problem with these kind of static defenses, is that anyone knowledgeable in basic array creation can manipulate energy without directly interacting with the energy,” I explained as I continued to work.

“I am no master, but I know the basics of array creation from my time in the Forever City and traveling. The only real way to counter an array is another array or a combination of arrays to make a formation. If this energy field had an array built into it, then it would be far more difficult to break through,” I said while I continued to inscribe symbols.

“That is the way you make really difficult security. You make an array part of that defense from a larger formation. If the defense array is broken, then that will trigger other defenses. But since there is nothing like that, I can merely have to move energy around to create a hole and the formation making this screen won’t be able to tell,” I explained.

“The other option would be to go through the wall, but there is a higher chance of defenses in place there, or arrays. Cutting through such walls is very dangerous, since you can trigger something. And while I have equipment that could do that, it is better not to take that risk.” I had the equipment from the Forever City, but there was a reason no one cut through walls in the middle levels.

Beyond an immortal cultivator keeping watch, there was a much higher risk of active defenses, instead of just trusting the material of the towers that made up the Forever City.

“And done,” I said and held up the metal plate. Activating the array, energy began to move in a circular manner, creating a large hole in front of the plate. “You three go through, I will follow. Don’t touch the edges, even with your clothing.” The three cultivators with me carefully went through the hole.

I then had to carefully hold the plate as I maneuvered my body through the hole in the blue energy field while holding the plate. Once my body was through, except for my arm, I let go of the plate and quickly yanked it back.

The plate fell and the field snapped back into place. Even with my speed it was a close call. With another obstacle passed, the passage soon opened up to countless cubelike structures with symbols on them all glowing a light blue.

The structure we had come out of was basically a large pillar connecting the floor and the ceiling. The amount of energy in this place was higher than the background energy of the rest of the Mechanical Layer.

The cubic structures were laid out with no rhyme or reason as far as I could tell. I went over to one and carefully looked at the symbols used. Nothing that I recognized. This place was not part of the Heavenly Alliance or derived from it in any way.

“What now?” I muttered. I had made it this far to the heart of the Great World, but I had no idea what any of these massively complex arrays did. The other cultivators with me had no clue either. They hadn’t even been useful, which was annoying.

I walked around the pillar we had come out of. I did note that the central pillar was larger than the other ones in the distance. This place reminded me of some kind of ghost city. The blocks looked like homes and the light blue illumination from the formations inscribed on them added to the eerie atmosphere.

After going around this central pillar, I brought out some more food and water so we could eat, drink, rest, and recover. I took the time to observe the changes in energy that occurred in the various symbols used in the formations, seeing if there was some kind of pattern that led to a central location.

“This is it?” Junior Wei asked softly. I could tell there was disappointment. After struggling to survive this long, we hadn’t found someone to answer questions.

“This place has the answers, we just need to know how to ask,” I replied. The other two cultivators nodded. I couldn’t remember their names, but they had made it this far. One of them had broken through the pre-bottleneck as well. “Your names?” I turned to look at them.

“Tang Hai, Senior,” the first male cultivator said.

“Tang Meng, Senior, we are brothers,” the second cultivator replied. He was the one who had gotten past the pre-breakthrough.

“Impressive you made it this far. To all three of you, this place looks complicated, but for something this size, there are controlling formations. I can already see the flow of energy moving in specific ways. I suspect the control formations are not too far from here,” I replied with a smile.

“Senior, what will happen then?” Tang Hai asked me. Since I had learned his name, he probably felt bold enough to question me. I didn’t mind. I was in a good mood, since my brain was no longer boiling in my skull and the dim light let my eyes rest.

“Hopefully there will be answers. This entire place is something only a super organization can build like the Heavenly Alliance. The fact that the great world has humans, cultivators, and uses formations implies they are a different cultivation organization than the Heavenly Alliance, since I don’t recognize the symbology they are using,” I answered.

“Regardless, the energy in the air is quite high, far higher than normal even in the Mechanical Layer. Junior Wei and Junior Hai, you might want to focus on breaking through. Use these, they will help,” I said while tossing them each a spirit stone. I also suggested this since a breakthrough had a high chance of drawing attention. They quickly settled in while I got out a chair to sit on and wait. Junior Meng meditated on the ground with his companions.

The density of energy in the air could be a bit higher, but it was more than enough for both cultivators to break through, developing a soul for the first time. I didn’t learn anything new from their breakthroughs and nothing occurred.

Still, they had made it this far and deserved to be rewarded. Going through the tower and down here was a dangerous task. While there had been no traps, it would have been far too easy for something to happen. It also made me wonder what the purpose of the tower was? Why all those extra passages?

The place didn’t have rooms or access points. Perhaps some sort of monitoring station or energy regulation? We had rushed inside so it was hard to tell if anything subtle was going on outside. Also the structure did repair itself and was built of the same material as these buildings, floor, and ceiling. This black stone that self repaired.

If there was no self-repair function, then this place would not be able to last. I also hadn’t seen the top of the tower. And then things clicked togeather. The tower was managing the Life Light in some way. Perhaps there was something above as well. What little I knew about more complex formations let me know that managing a complex function from only one direction had a higher chance of failure.

The Cultivator Killer had said there was another Great World below the one above us right now. The only thing touching the ceiling were the pillars scattered about. Probably some support mechanism to create gravity, while the environment including the energy draining occurred from above. All these block structures most likely controlled the Great World below us.

Even with all this knowledge, the problem was it was like a person looking at a car. I could explain how the engine worked to combust gas to push pistons to turn a shaft to power the wheels and other devices. But I couldn’t explain the metallurgy, why certain design choices were made, or the software that ran and monitored the vehicle. I knew those things were there, but I couldn’t tell. Still, my knowledge did allow me to make broad assumptions about how this place worked and feel confident about my guesses.

Once we were done resting, I began following the clues I could spot to where there was a central control formation of some kind. Even if the signs were subtle, the energy and the orientation of certain parts of the formations, indicated where such a place would be.

There was also the fact that there was a wide path through the block structures from the central pillar leading to the location as well. I had seen two other paths from the central pillar, possibly leading to other key areas. It would make sense that all the key structures were located close togeather, but not right on top of each other.

Cultivators were lazy in their large scale constructions, the Forever City being a perfect example. While they might not put all the most important places right on top of each other, they would keep them fairly close for ease of protection and moving about. That design philosophy was something that was not easily changed. Perhaps it was a deeper part of human nature, but the important structures in this place wouldn’t be hidden or scattered about randomly.