Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 116: Barriers

“Override,” I muttered as I tapped away on the pad. The massive doorway embedded into the floor groaned and opened up a fraction. Enough to allow people to pass through. Normally this shaft would be used by an elevator to take cultivators to a different ring of the Infinite Ring Complex.

Thankfully there was no gravity in the passageway, which would allow us to quickly transverse the passage. More and more portions of the map were either blinking or going black. Perhaps that didn’t mean destroyed, but that the sensors the automated system used were no longer working. Which was close to the same thing, since the automated system was built into the very structure of this place.

I put the pad back away in my robes and went through the massive doorway. The metal doors had to be as thick as I was tall. Touching the metal, I couldn’t even dent the metal slightly with my fingers. That made sense since it was designed as a failsafe to keep things from passing through if the Infinite Ring Complex was compromised in order to contain whatever disaster occurred.

They had been closed previously to prevent the beings that had flooded into the portions of the Infinite Ring Complex in the Firmament from moving through them easily. Thankfully there were four different ladders embedded into walls in each cardinal direction we could use as handholds since there was no gravity.

Everyone was able to get through, even the golem. “Quickly,” I said. We needed to transverse this passage as rapidly as possible.

“Where are we going?” Junior Wei asked from behind me as we maneuvered our way through the very long passage. It would take a while to transverse the entire thing. I wasn’t sure on the distance. There were some weird notations on the map. Probably since the passage was built between layers.

“An escape pod, and then into the Firmament. Hopefully we don’t die instantly,” I replied.

“The Great World is gone,” muttered Junior Hai. I could hear the despair in his voice. Well it was either move or die horribly. Who knows what horrible things Chaos would do. Well, the chaos creatures would do, but even naming some of them was dangerous and I did not want to stick around to find out. After everything I had heard from the Not So Immortal Nianzu, that danger had been hammered home.

The real meaning of what a super organization was, were energy users that could only easily defeat themselves. The Soaring Star Society had far too high of an opinion of themselves, but I couldn’t blame them. Building all of this, their automated systems, cultivation, and everything else showed they were competent and incredibly careful. Until it all fell apart with one mistake.

Who would have thought some kind of parasite would be able to sneak through and infect their cultivation by breaking itself up into parts, and then creating some sort of time loop where they had always been infected with the parasite. There were more questions I didn’t ask, but I could make guesses about. The parasite was probably a hive mind, waiting until the opportune moment to reveal itself. In fact the three junior cultivators with me probably had the same parasite.

I didn’t know if I would eventually tell them. That was most likely why there were no humans who were able to break through the second bottleneck. Once the parasite revealed itself, it would probably activate the instant anyone tried to break through. There was also a darker explanation to all of this as well, if killing trillions of people and cultivators wasn’t dark enough.

The parasite could have nudged the cultivators to set things up the way they did to send the Infinite Ring Complex plummeting into Chaos on purpose. While the layer was called Chaos, it wasn’t chaotic. The beings there perceived reality in different ways. Non-linear ways from what I understood. There was a good chance that the parasite was from a much more powerful being. A being who had arranged everything to send the Infinite Ring Complex plummeting down for only reasons it could fathom.

Why send it plummeting to Chaos otherwise? Why not have it explode or be crushed under some form of gravity creating a black hole or singularity? Why send all of this to Chaos when they were destroyed by a creature from Chaos? I had lived long enough to realize this had the makings of an incredibly complex plot.

For old monsters who didn’t care about time, what did it matter if something took trillions of years to complete? That was the mindset of the Heavenly Alliance. Slow and safe accumulation. Even if their power increased slowly, they wouldn’t make a mistake like the Soaring Star Society. For chaos creatures, time was an even more abstract concept.

It gave me a massive headache trying to understand the fuzzy temporal logic I had come across. There was only one timeline, the timeline we were in, but that timeline could be altered in the past? Like almost all humans, I understood cause and effect. I could understand time loops. But things occurring without any cause, was just frustrating in a way that disturbed me on a fundamental level. novelbuddy.cσ๓

The parasite caused itself to come into existence. That kind of statement made me want to scream and pull out my hair. It was complete and utter madness. As I maneuvered along the ladder, I tried to focus on something else. But since there was nothing to do but put one hand after another, I had time to think since I had spoken with Nianzu.

After an hour we had not come to another massive doorway, when there should be nine more. We had barely progressed. I had been looking at the sections ahead on my pad while I had been moving along the ladder, using only one hand to move along and then tap. I tapped the pad to pull up the map, but it didn’t work for a couple of seconds, turning on and off. The automated system was failing. I was able to partially open the massive doorways along with the remainder blocking the passage. Now we had a clear path to the escape pod. I didn’t know when the pad would fail, but there was no way we would be able to cut through these doorways. They were meant to stop beings who could go toe to toe or surpass an immortal cultivator, possibly even Chaos creatures.

I wasn’t about to break through these doorways. Unfortunately, there was only so much reserve energy to open the massive doorways so much. I was just glad I was able to open them all, if only a fraction. We were going too slow. At our current rate of progress, it would take a year to make it through the entire passageway. Normally there would be an elevator platform that would quickly transition through the passage, but there was barely enough energy to open the massive doorways a fraction. There would be no energy for an elevator platform.

“We need to go faster. Golem, can you carry us quickly?” I asked the cloaked figure as I came to a stop. It took a bit of time before it responded.

“That would violate safety procedures. Teleportation systems are currently inoperable,” it replied. Well that answered my next question.

“We need to get through this passage in less than an hour. It is an emergency. Is there a way?” I asked. There was another long frustrating pause and the passageway shook.

“That would violate safety procedures.” It clearly wasn’t going to be able to help.

“Can you follow us if we move quickly?” I asked while I unsheathed my sword.

“Yes,” the golem finally replied. I looked at the junior cultivators who had come with me this far. I had two choices right now, both of them brought a lot of risk. The first was to try and take them with me, the second was to abandon them. I didn’t like the second option since they had been loyal. But they would not be able to handle the speeds I needed to travel at. One breath and we would die with what I had planned.

Like a sinking boat, I could only save one person, myself. “Make your way back and follow the signs for the escape pod for the previous ring,” I said in a firm tone.

“What about you Senior?” Junior Wei asked. I shook my head. I had been hoping that this passageway was spatially compressed in some, but it wasn’t. Unless I moved a lot faster I would die.

“I can move much more quickly, but I will need to be able to maneuver and turnabout in mid-air. Otherwise, I will hit the partially closed doors. We don’t have much time before this place falls apart. While you have been loyal, I cannot bring all of you with me,” I replied. I kicked off the wall to float to the middle of the passage. I then swung my sword and released enough force to counter my movement, coming to a dead stop in the middle of the passageway.

There would be no time for any kind of major adjustments with what I had planned. If I had been able to open up all the doorways, then I would have seriously considered bringing Juniors Wei, Hai, and Meng along. They had followed me this far, but that was it. “For what it is worth, good luck. I hope you survive.” They weren’t going to survive. Even if they made it to an escape pod, they would be stuck in the Mechanical Layer. That place was desolate, but they might get lucky.

Saying anything else would be pointless and just create hard feelings. Better to leave so they could figure out what they wanted to do on their own. There was nothing to say. I could see the despair on their faces.

The energy in the air was not enough for what I wanted to do. I held out one hand, creating a small, curved barrier of energy in the direction I planned to travel. I drew upon the energy in the ring that Nianzu had given me to help fuel the curved energy barrier. It took me a moment to get a handle on what I needed to do, but hyper compressed energy was far better than any spirit stone. I then thrust my sword in the opposite direction of the energy shield. I allowed my thrust to push me through the passage rapidly.

I thrust the same direction again, being very careful about the angle, so I was heading straight through the passage. That was why I couldn’t bring my juniors along. If they moved or shifted slightly while holding onto me, we would go spinning off into the side of the passage, turning into a smear. I thrust out again and then adjusted and strengthened the energy shield in front of me, which was on fire from the amount of air rushed past, igniting from the friction.

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I had to keep my body as straight as possible so I could travel as quickly as possible. The air rushed by me and I noted the golem with the hyper compressed energy cannister was right behind me. Keeping up easily enough. A small piece of floating metal struck my energy shield. The shield I had made almost collapsed.

Raw energy manipulation was a huge waste of energy. It wouldn’t properly protect a person from a directed technique and was incredibly wasteful. But for something like this, where I needed to shield myself from the friction in the air, it was perfect. The shield held but rippled as I quickly adjust my posture. I began to drift to the side slightly. My next two thrusts corrected my movement so I went back to the center of the passageway and kept traveling through the exact center without drifting.

The massive doorways in this passage were just two giant slabs that interlocked togeather. That was why I needed to go through the exact center. One mistake and I would die, splattered onto the impossibly sturdy metal. The recessed white lighting in the passageway flickered. I was five minutes into my new mode of traveling, but I still felt I was going too slow. I needed to hurry up, but the air friction had grown too much.

There was a raging inferno in front of me. My thrusting with my sword, would not increase my speed any more than friction was slowing me down. I angled my shield a bit more to reduce the amount of friction. It helped slightly. After ten minutes, I was about 1% through the passageway. I had to carefully pull out the pad and take a look. That was far too slow in my mind. It would take half a day to reach the next ring. The recessed lighting was flickering more and more.

I thrust out again and sent myself to a slow spin, turning my movement into that of a humanoid drill. While my rotational speed wasn’t that much, it did help. Every bit of speed I could eke out was important. Breathing was incredibly difficult and the heat was oppressive as the burning air rushed by me, but with my cultivation I would survive. Compared to the Great Desert the heat wasn’t anything to be worried about.

Thankfully the passageway was perfectly straight. I saw the doorway ahead of me, far before I reached it. I was aligned in the center of the passage. Even with my cultivation, passing through the massive doorway only took a fraction of a single moment. I was traveling that fast. The elevators and other modes of rapid travel gave one a sense of security, since there were no external forces acting on you. But this mode of travel was incredibly stressful.

The golem was still behind me, keeping up easily. I thrust out my sword about once a minute to keep up my speed. There was nothing else I could do to go faster. I passed by doorway number three. There was more debris in the passageway, and I had to adjust my thrusts to keep me centered.

The lighting kept flickering as I kept up my fast journey. I was going to get out of this place no matter what. I was not going to die after suffering and working hard for so long. Another piece of metal debris impacted off my shield. I winced as it broke the shield partially and a jet of flaming air hit my face before I would repair it. With my cultivation I didn’t take any damage, but I would slow down too much and lose focus on my positioning.

Both my arms were getting tired, but I knew I couldn’t slow down or take a break. I needed to keep traveling as quickly as possible. This entire place was collapsing apart. I passed through the fourth doorway. Shortly after that the recessed lighting turned off completely. I was traveling in darkness, except for the light caused by the friction with the air.

It was a huge shock, when I saw my body approaching a wall. I hadn’t angled in another direction. This passageway was bending. I quickly readjusted my position to the center of the passageway. I had to check behind me, using the remnants of the flames trailing behind me to ensure that I reminded in the center of the passageway. I passed through the fifth doorway without impacting it thankfully. I had traveled slightly less than halfway through the passage.

A loud grinding sound could be heard from all around me, overwhelming the sound of the air burning up. I couldn’t worry about that at the moment. Either I would get through the passageway or I would die. Those were the only two options. I couldn’t afford to focus on distractions. I needed to make sure I remained perfectly in the center.

I went through the sixth doorway. While I wasn’t able to see it in the darkness, the sound of the air rushing by me shifted the previous times, which was how I knew I went past the doorway. There was still the occasional piece of debris, but nothing major. I wondered where chunks of metal and debris had come from to begin with.

Looking to my side I thought I saw plants growing along the walls. Yes, there were plants. They made it harder to estimate the center of the passage. I went through the seventh doorway, my shield broke in several places as it impacted plant life, but that only slowed me down slightly. I left a trail of fire and destruction in my wake.

Thankfully the plant life didn’t get any worse as I continued through the eighth and ninth doorways. I stopped thrusting with my sword to propel myself, in preparation for the end of the passage. Ahead of me I noted that the recessed lighting was flickering. There was a dampness in the air, mold on the metal walls, with the occasional vine.

This ring had been cut off for safety reasons. I could only hope there wasn’t anything too serious once I exited the passageway. I was quite pleased with myself with coming up with this method of travel. I knew I could readjust my movement in mid-air with a sword swing, but propelling myself with sword thrusts in a zero-gravity environment was inspired.

It was something to use in combat, not for large scale movement. This only worked since there was no gravity and I could draw on the energy from the ring Nianzu had given me. Even then the entire trip had been fairly exhausting.

I saw the doorway ahead and water was floating through. That was not a good sign. I turned my body and thrust in the direction I was traveling to slow myself down. I repeated that maneuver several more times. My arm was sore. I floated forward at a decent speed, but not bone crushingly fast. The lighting flickered.

“One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth.” I swung and unleashed a horizontal slash. The water in front of me parted, revealing the gap of the doorway. I pulled out a breathing mask from my spatial storage and put it on as I approached the water. I checked the pad, but it was completely dead. Not even a flicker or anything else came up on the display.

The golem was still behind me. I wasn’t sure how it kept up with me exactly, but its technology and formations were far beyond me. The main thing was that it kept working until I left this place. It was my safety net.

I passed through the doorway, and everything was water and no gravity. There was some lighting in the distance, but I couldn’t make it out. I also knew where I needed to go. Using my sword, I maneuvered through the water to the edge of this ring. This ring probably already collapsed and the Great World came tumbling down.

The water was incredibly cold. I would have thought everything would have collapsed into a singularity, but apparently the system that prevented that from happening and the system that generated an artificial gravitational field were separate. That was most likely due to the safety checks of the Soaring Star Society.

I reached the edge of the ring, which wasn’t that far from the connective passage. I felt a tremor go through the water and ignored it. Thankfully I knew what needed to be done. One of the few areas with a mechanical interlock instead of a formation. I grabbed onto the handle in the wall and twisted. It was hard and I barely managed to twist the handle but I was able to do so. A doorway opened up in the wall in front of me.

Water began drifting through as I entered the dimly lit service passageway. The golem followed me with the cannister still in hand. I turned to the side and twisted a handle on this side of the doorway and it closed back up. This service corridor of the Infinite Ring Complex used a separate power system than the interior formations. Probably why this place hadn’t collapsed due to how big it all was.

There was still a ways to go unfortunately, but the worst was over in my mind, along with the hardest sections. Now I just needed to get through a bunch of service corridors and then I would reach an escape pod. I kept my breathing mask on just in case. Since there were plants and water before, I was worried there could be toxic things in the air. While these service corridors were clean, I did not want to take unnecessary risks.

Everything shook once more but the lighting didn’t flicker. I pulled out the pad again and it was working once more. I guess it could connect back to the automated system managing this place from here. I confirmed my route. It would take about an hour to get where I needed to go.

These service corridors were black metal corridors with various rooms that had complex formations inside of them managing portions of the Infinite Ring Complex. The Soaring Star Society sure knew how to build a super structure.

After turning another corner, I came to a sudden halt. The group of five people, three men, and two women came to a halt as well. “I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou from the Heavenly Alliance,” I declared.

“A cultivator? What’s that?” one of the women asked. The energy in their bodies was weird. It was structured into nodes. Combined with that question, I felt a profound sense of worry. These might be humans, but they were from a completely different super-organization, and ignorant as well.

“Forgive my companion. I am Alpha Rex Tinari and we are from the Explorers Guild. A bit low level to be in such a dangerous place?” he asked me. My heart sped up. Yang Heng had waxed quite poetic on the subject of calculators.

“Listen Yuan Zhou, calculators are the worst. Cultivation and calculators are two systems of gathering energy that are completely incompatible. While some might lie or make comparisons, they are either idiots or they are trying to trick you. Calculators use beings for their own purposes. While they might grant you rewards, they keep most of their rewards for themselves. And don’t get me started on the people who follow a calculator. They are the most self-centered, egotistical bastards you will ever encounter.”

Cultivators weren’t much better, since we got the garbage of the people at the top and a calculator was no different. Still Yang Heng was completely opposed to them. Even making a point that I could focus on my cultivation in a more holistic manner and less on numbers.

“I have no quarrel with your group. Let me pass, and we can go our separate ways,” I replied.

“Ah, so that is what a cultivator is,” Alpha Rex Tinari said while looking in the air off to one side. He drew forth a sword and the rest readied their weapons.

“Golem, set the cannister aside and defend me from these intruders,” I quickly ordered. A beam of light shot from the staff of one of the women. The golem had already moved in front of me and blocked the attack.

While it might be slow to reply, at least it wasn’t slow to act. “Hyper Blade!” I heard the clang of metal and screams. I got my sword out and stood ready as the golem ripped apart these people. That’s why you shouldn’t depend on levels or other information gleaned from energy sensing. If that sensing was blocked or hidden then it would leave you vulnerable. That was something I had learned in the Forever City.

The golem was strong, far stronger than a being with that much energy would normally be. This was due to the fact it was a construct and not a living thing. It had no sense of fear, pain, or self-preservation. The group of explorers stood no chance against such a being. But they had thought they could beat me and their calculator had clearly wanted me dead. There was no love lost between calculators and cultivators.

There was a large explosion and then the fighting was over. The golem had taken damage, but was still functional. “Grab the cannister and follow me,” I ordered. I quickly chucked the bodies and all their gear into my spatial storage. I could sort them out later for anything valuable. Five hands weren’t able to be stored, since they had spatial storage rings on them. I quickly pulled them off their respective hands and pocketed the rings. Something else to take a look at later once I escaped. Everything shook once more.

I pulled out the pad and everything was shifting more and more. I had several hours left at the very least, which was good. I didn’t want to be cutting things close if I could help it. Last minutes escapes would only stress me out. Better to have as much of a safety margin as possible. I didn’t run across anyone else thankfully as I made my way to the escape pod.

It was more like an escape yacht, not a pod. There was equipment to produce food, water, breathable air, and scanners for the surroundings. The one thing it didn’t have was a form of high-speed mobility. It had limited mobility. I made my way to the cockpit and began hitting buttons to separate the escape pod from the Infinite Ring Complex. I would not be sad to see the last of this place.