Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 115: Fault Lines

“We need to leave now. You have five minutes to pack, quickly!” Wei, Hai, and Meng quickly rushed off to get their packs and stuff them with food and other supplies.

“Level Two Alert. All personnel please go to red level duty stations,” the automated system announced once more. It was painful that everyone in the Great Worlds was going to die, but this was akin to a natural disaster like a supernova, only greater. There was nothing that I could do for them. The only thing I could do now was try and get that cannister of hyper compressed energy and make it to an escape pod on the ring that was in the Firmament.

I pulled up the alert on the pad. A level 2 alert meant that there was an attack on core functions of the Infinite Ring Complex and that internal operations had been compromised as well. I looked at the route I needed to take to get out of here and to get the cannister.

The cannister wasn’t far away, but there appeared to be in a more secure area of this monitoring station. There might be technical issues getting to it as well as transporting it. I would deal with those when they arrived. The problem was reaching the ring and the escape pod.

It was clearly meant for cultivators to evacuate a ring that was compromised in some way, but not located in a key area. It was like building an oil platform and putting the emergency boat deep under the water where the drilling was taking place, not on the oil platform itself. It wasn’t meant to be easy to access for whatever reason the Soaring Star Society came up with.

They had probably spent ages coming up with their design philosophy for their home here. Well, their home was in the Firmament and that had been lost along with all the manufacturing equipment. The Infinite Ring Complex was like a skyscraper that had been stripped to the bones. There might be lights and temperature control working, but it was all automated. First the cannister, then getting out of here, somehow.

The distances looked quite large. Hopefully there would be some way around that. Looking at the route, there were some unclear skips as I scrolled through the map. Best to deal with the issues as they came up, rather than trying to figure it out ahead and get lost.

This place had a futuristic feel due to all the automation and metal. Still appearances didn’t matter overly much, only the obstacles. After my time in the Forever City I had become inured to futuristic environments. Cultivators, or super organizations at the very least didn’t do anything by half measures when they were building their main base for their super organization.

While the Great World was larger than the Forever City, it was only a single level, or at least the levels were separated from each other. It was a shame everyone was going to die. But there was no way to evacuate anyone. Even the three cultivators with me were questionable.

It was sad, but I could only hope the end for everyone else would be quick. How would you evacuate Earth if it the sun spontaneously decided to go supernova? If you were too weak or didn’t have the knowledge, then you would die. Your fate would not be in your hands.

This was the reason I kept struggling and pursuing immortality and power. There were other reasons, but they had become minor over the centuries. Family, friends, those things faded with the passage of time. No matter how much love and care I had received, time mutes all emotions. If one did not have that drive for power in order to change their destiny, then they shouldn’t bother becoming a cultivator.

The Not So Immortal Nianzu might have gotten emotional near his death to my benefit. But I saw him as a more cautionary tail than just meddling with Chaos. He had given up. He laid out his reasons, but he had given up. He could have tried to make a deal with the Heavenly Alliance or some super organization. The automated system was very advanced, but you just needed to think outside the box. Instead, he had given up all hope.

All three cultivators returned after three minutes as the automated system made another announcement. “With me,” I said and set off at a quick pace. We had to stop as each automated door took a second to open. We reached the elevator.

“Senior, what is going on?” Junior Wei asked me.

“This entire place is about to descend through multiple layers and be utterly destroyed. We need to collect a cannister and then escape as quickly as possible,” I replied as we reached the elevator. The floor shook slightly. They got on the elevator as I quickly punched in the floor we needed to get to on the display.

The elevator began to quickly move, while we felt nothing. “What about the Great World?” Junior Hai asked.

“Everyone there is going to die along with all other Great Worlds. There is nothing that can be done. This entire place is automated and the last Immortal Cultivator in charge of this place just died.” The elevator came to a stop. We were on the floor labeled System Substation 05. I checked the pad and began following the route it laid out through the corridors to a large room. There were pipes, displays, and golems moving about the place.

There was silence from the other three cultivators as they followed me. I had just informed them that everything they knew was about to be destroyed. I could only imagine the panic they were feeling right now. At least I had spent a month waiting around before speaking with Nianzu. That allowed all of us time to recover from the trek through the Great Desert.

We made our way to one corner of the room, where a silver metal cylindrical cannister with formations etched all over it rested. There was some kind of machine it appeared to have come out of nearby. For a moment there was quite a bit of greed in me, wanting to get more hyper compressed energy, but that was the kind of foolishness that killed idiots. Even taking this cannister would be a hassle since I wouldn’t be able to store it in a spatial device.

The cannister was around my height and half as thick as my waist. I lifted it up and it was heavy. Even with my cultivation, I felt the weight of the cannister. I looked around and saw a hand truck that seemed expressly designed for such a cannister. There were even straps to hold it in place. I maneuvered the cannister on top of the hand truck and strapped it in place.

“Junior Meng, you push this. I need to figure out our route,” I replied while looking down at the pad. “Follow me,” I quickly said as everything shook once more.

“Warning, secondary intake pump system compromised. Initiate procedure 65. All personnel not engaging in procedure 65, please activate back-up systems and conduct emergency repairs. A Level Two Alert is in effect. Please remain at your red level duty stations while the situation is addressed,” the automated system said. Whatever all that was, it couldn’t be good.

I didn’t have time to work out everything on the pad. All I knew was that we needed to hurry as quickly as possible before the long-range travel systems failed. If those went down, then things would become much more difficult.

Dammit, Nianzu, you couldn’t have lived for another day or so? I mentally cursed the Not So Immortal Cultivator. My conversation had probably killed him. Otherwise, it would have been too big a coincidence for him to die at this precise moment. It was frustrating being rushed like this, not knowing how much time we actually had left.

We reached the elevator once more and I selected the floor, Ring Transfer Station. “Elevator has been disabled due to safety concerns. Please wait until system is repaired and safe before using,” the automated voice said from the elevator display.

“Override, it is an emergency,” I said but there was no response. I looked at my pad and it could interface with the nearby systems. Probably some sort of administrator level access. I frantically began hitting buttons to get through the menus, but they were too complex to work out in just a few minutes. I didn’t want to be holding the pad in my hand as this place fell apart.

I hit the button to call an attendant on the elevator display. The cloaked five eyed golem flashed into existence nearby. “We need to reach the escape pod, can you reactivate the elevator?” I asked.

There was another tremor while I waited for an answer. “Please be patient and return to the guest area, we are currently experiencing a Level Two Alert. This situation will be resolved shortly,” the golem replied. Trying to make it realize that everything was falling apart was not going to work and it might start acting irrationally.

“How do I travel there without the elevator?” I asked. There was another long pause which stressed me out.

“Please follow me, I will escort you to the staircase.” We made our way to the far side of the elevator from the entrance we had come through and the golem waved a cloaked hand. A hidden wall unfolded showing a staircase. That brought back memories of the Forever City. My pad also automatically updated with this new route.

I looked at my pad and there were options for the golem in front of me. Most of them were symbols that weren’t immediately clear. I spent a minute going through the menu before I finally found the button I wanted.

“Administrator override accepted. Please issue commands,” the golem said, and I smiled as everything shook once again.

“Obey the commands in the following order, protect me, follow me, and carry the hand truck with the attached cannister,” I ordered.

“Commands accepted,” the golem replied and picked up the hand truck.

I quickly plotted out the route and we began to descend the staircase, which were human sized. I forgot to ask why the staircase in the tower was so large. One of the mysteries of this place that would be lost once it all disappeared into Chaos. Probably another crazy design decision of the Soaring Star Society. The golem fit thankfully and remained behind the junior cultivators who were closely following me.

“Senior, how much longer?” Junior Hai asked, while breathing heavily.

“A long ways. But we need to hurry, time is of the essence. This place is falling apart,” I said. Since the staircase was repetitive I was able to focus on the pad while we quickly descended. This monitoring station wasn’t just falling apart, it was being invaded. There were alerts for the defenses and other systems near the bottom of this place. Certain areas were flashing yellow, nothing was red yet thankfully.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I spent most of my time looking at the commands on the pad. Specifically, the teleporter we were headed towards. Getting stuck at the elevator clued me into the fact that I needed to be able to figure out how to operate the systems controlling this place if it was shut off like the elevator. There was an emergency staircase we could use instead of the elevator, but there was no way we would be able to walk where we needed to get to.

There were countless icons, that I had to tap and open up, and then more icons. It was like using a computer program for the first time. Some things were intuitive, but the more complicated details weren’t. Why couldn’t the entire thing be controlled by a golem of some kind that accepted verbal commands? Another frustrating design choice, but one that would make it hard for anyone not part of the Soaring Star Society to use their systems if they somehow got a hold of an administrator’s pad like I had.

Occasionally things shook and there was another announcement from the automated system. It took over two hours to make it to the floor we needed. At least we were going down, not up. The junior cultivators with me were exhausted at the intense pace I set, but we were going to be cutting things very close. I wanted to go even faster, but the staircase prevented such speed.

Exiting the staircase on the right floor which was labeled Ring Transfer Station. “This way,” I commanded. We made our way out of the elevator room into another large curved room. There were elevated platforms with displays next to them. They were for teleporting. I quickly located the one for the ring we needed to go to as the floor shook once again. The lighting went from a pleasant white to a dim red. Dammit!

“Level One Alert. All personnel please engage black level protocols. The Infinite Ring Complex will now initiate a cascade purge of all safety interlocks. No further announcements will be given.” That meant this entire place was screwed just like Nianzu had said. A glance at the alert on my pad and the notation next to it, indicated that every member of the Soaring Star Society was to fight to their last breath and possibly escape as the entire complex descended into Chaos. The bottom levels of this monitoring complex were blinking red when I pulled up the full map. The place was being overrun by something or someone.

I quickly went to the teleportation platform, but the display was not working. We were just moments too late. There was no energy running to any of them. A major vibration went through the structure we were in and we all stumbled slightly.

The map on the pad began showing more red and yellow blinking areas. That was not good. Whatever was there was rapidly moving through the station. “What is happening Senior?” Junior Wei asked.

“This place is being invaded most likely and it is collapsing. I need to focus,” I replied while I tapped through the menus on the pad for the teleportation platform. The pad was clearly linked into the core of the automated system running this place unlike the displays. That was why it still worked. My hope was I could somehow turn the teleportation pad back on.

I had found the direct access for the teleportation platform to override the local display lock out, but the entire thing needed power. The change in status had cut off energy to almost all systems.

Another violent tremor went through the structure as I rapidly looked through the power systems connected to the teleporter. Everything was shut down. I needed to turn on a substation, to reroute power here, but a quick check on the map showed that whatever was moving through this complex had put things on a massive time crunch.

I heard faint screeching in the distance. I felt my soul tremble slightly at the sound. The cultivators with me took a step back in fear. “Senior, please hurry,” Junior Hai said. I ignored him as I kept furiously tapping away. Thank goodness this pad seemed to have complete authority over the complex and the interface was fast. There was no lag or loading screens. The automated system was also working as well allowing me to control things from here.

“Sub-station priority changed to the highest level, safety interlocks disengaged, it has power, now to get that power here,” I muttered as I kept tapping and going through the various menus. The screeching was getting louder.

“And done, power rerouted,” I said while looking at the teleportation platform in front of us which lit up. I let out a sigh of relief. “Get on, hurry,” I ordered as everyone took a spot in a different location. I had the golem set the cannister in one spot and get on as well.

I immediately went back to furiously tapping away trying to set the coordinates. The teleportation platform had been put in emergency override mode, which had overridden the previous coordinates for safety purposes. That way a person had to reset things manually so they didn’t kill themselves. Bricking the teleportation system since it had gone offline, which required multiple safety checks before it could be used again. I had to close far too many tiny screens that came up on the pad warning me about violating safety procedures. The entire floor violently shook and I felt pain in my head as there was another screech. A massive claw burst through the door that led to the passage from the elevator room.

A giant spider with claws for feet peeled open the doorway as countless smaller spiders poured in. Each of them had a haze around them which made it hard to look at. I only spared them a glance as I kept tapping away. They raced for us and I cursed. There was no time left. I hit a confirmation button and we teleported away in a flash of light.

We dropped a few feet to the ground with shouts of alarm. I had wanted to directly teleport us to our destination, skipping everything else in-between, but that wasn’t possible. There were too many safety lockouts in place to get us to the ring we needed. “Get up, we need to move,” I said. The junior cultivators were bleeding from their eyes and ears. That had been the pressure from that immortal spider that had almost reached us or whatever energy technique it had been using.

Thankfully without the pad I had in hand, it wouldn’t be able to follow us. Also, the entire area where we had been on the map was now black. That indicated a total loss of that area. There was a reason there were safety procedures in place. It looked like a large chunk of the monitoring station had just disappeared. The spread of flashing red and yellow slowed quite a bit. The monitoring station was no longer a concern, now we needed to get to an escape pod from this place.

At the moment we were in a resource receiving room near the monitoring facility for the ring we had come from. The one that contained the Great World I had transversed. Not the ring we needed to go to. I checked the pad and it had updated the path we needed to take.

Looking at the path there was no way we would make it. The connection between rings didn’t exist. One had to go back into another Great World or reach the very edge of the place. We weren’t going back into another Great World. That would take far too long. We had hours, not days. The connection between this ring and the one in the Firmament had been completely locked down as well. There was flashing yellow and red on the map.

I had teleported us to this location since there was a vehicle used to move resources. What would have taken centuries to cross on foot would take minutes. “Everyone on the vehicle,” I said and pointed. The vehicle was a cylinder missing the bottom so it could rest on the floor. There were no windows and two side doors. One to the large storage area and another to the cockpit. The two areas were connected in the interior of the vehicle. The golem carried the cannister into the back of the craft. The entire thing was quite similar to the ones in the Forever City. It probably operated using the same principles as well.

After getting in the cockpit, I began hitting buttons on the display there. It was locked down for safety reasons. I had to go back to my pad and initiate a local override. I used to mentally joke that the Heavenly Alliance wouldn’t know safety if it smacked them in their face. The Soaring Star Society had gone to the other extreme with their designs.

The entire ring shook. The display on the pad also turned wavey for a second when the ring shook. I managed to get the vehicle operational. Setting the pad to the side, I left the material receiving location and maneuvered the vehicle onto one of the long empty roads. There were no windows only a display. Setting the location, I wanted the vehicle took off and I couldn’t even feel it moving. We had a couple of minutes.

Everything shook again, and there was a grinding noise. The display showed the vehicle had moved out of position while traveling and had a glancing impact. I was just glad we didn’t feel the force of that impact. I grabbed the pad again. Various areas were blinking yellow and there were more alerts popping up.

Gravitational functions were being lost along with other systems. All energy was being diverted to send the rings plummeting into Chaos through the various layers. The Life Lights in each of the Great Worlds had gone out along with the barriers. I pulled up a visual display. The weight of everything was breaking through in places were the structure was weaker or compromised. Water, rocks, and other debris was breaking through areas that still had gravity, taking out even more systems.

The vehicle shook violently and there was another screeching noise. “Warning hull integrity is down to 47%.” A voice sounded from the display of the vehicle. I had to override another safety lockout. Stopping now would be a death sentence. I didn’t even want to imagine the chaos happening outside right now.

“What is happening out there?” Junior Wei asked.

“The systems are failing, everything is breaking apart,” I replied while looking over our route on the pad. Everything shook again. We were about a third of the way to our destination. I had to reroute us around areas that were collapsing, constantly selecting new coordinates for the vehicle, while keeping the destination in mind. At the speeds we were traveling at, one mistake and we could easily reach a dead end or crash into a wall of debris.

With all the safety overrides I had given we wouldn’t stop unless we reached the most recent destination I had selected. One wrong move into an area that had been compromised and we wouldn’t even have time to realize we had died. I was driving with the map program, having to consult the pad to get a wider view of areas that were compromised, since the display of the vehicle didn’t update.

“Senior-“

“Quiet, I need to focus,” I cut off Junior Wei from asking a question. I needed to make sure we didn’t crash. The entire vehicle shook once more.

We finally came to a stop, having made it as far as we could get safely. Opening the doors, showed a place that had greatly changed. There was also no gravity.

I froze for a moment and so did the junior cultivators who were exiting as well. In the distance past the cubic structures, there were explosions, fires, debris, and massive tidal waves spreading out over everything. The symbols on the black structures that used to glow blue were now flickering or completely dead. Everything shook once more.

The outside of the vehicle was heavily damaged, with some of the outside partially molten. Thank goodness the Soaring Star Society overdesigned the vehicle. Perhaps their safety measures weren’t so bad. Looking where we needed to go, there was a massive wall flickering with flickering formations. The edge of the Infinite Ring Complex.

What had taken centuries, took minutes to cross with the right equipment. I wish I could bring the vehicle along. Something like this was beyond useful for traveling about, but it was designed to work in this place and wasn’t like the craft Yang Heng and I had flown about in.

I checked the pad and saw the route to one of the escape pods, but also the route to access a passageway that would connect the various rings of the Infinite Ring Complex. Taking the closest escape pod would see me back in the Mechanical Layer where we would find nothing but death most likely. Yang Heng might be able to go into hibernation, but I wouldn’t be able to.

We needed to get through the passageway. While everything was falling apart, the pad showed that the Infinite Ring Complex was moving very slowly. Not all the rings were working, and they were designed not to fall into Chaos. Also, it was a lot of mass. The display on the pad turned wavey once more. It would be cutting things quite close but we should have enough time to get through the passageway.

“Stay close to the ground. If you float off, you are dead,” I replied. We wouldn’t have time to rescue anyone that floated away. “Follow me.” I leaned forward and dug my hands into the ground and began jabbing them into the floor to maneuver where we needed to go. The pad was tucked into my martial robe, so I would have both hands free to maneuver.

The junior cultivators followed me along with the golem that was still bringing the cannister. While it was tempting to grab onto it and tell the golem to move, I wasn’t sure what would happen. It might move too suddenly which would kill us, or more likely there was some kind of safety protocol in place. Another glance downwards, which was back the way we came, showed the immense amount of destruction spreading.

This entire place was like a car crash. The frame would be fine, but everything inside the car would be shaken around and messed up.