Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 133: Ripples Traveling Every Direction

“This isn’t good,” Yang Zi muttered after looking at the spreadsheet of our recent expenditures. We were back to being broke after paying for a separation chamber from the Xyon Front. Luo Lingtai let out a scoff at that statement which only touched the surface of our problems.

That was the problem with being your own boss, one had to solve all these high level issues. There was no one we could ask for help. The Xylon Front was our nominal boss, but more like a distant government at best. Our newest companion Luo Lingtai was the oversight.

The main issue was that the Free Port run by the Administrator had been where we had centered and oriented our operations towards. It was the place where Yang Zi was familiar with. It was a major landmark in the Firmament both on a spatial and political level. Since we couldn’t risk traveling there anymore, that made our situation much more precarious.

“Good news, I don’t feel like something is going to rewrite my past,” I half joked. We had all gone through the separation chamber just to be safe. One could never be too careful, and the price wasn’t that much more thankfully. Still, it was highly concerning. Trying to wrap my head around how things could attack me through time was something I still couldn’t figure out.

I might have been alive a long time, and while I considered myself reasonably intelligent, I didn’t view the world in a profoundly different way compared to others. At least not enough to make sense of the more powerful Chaos effects.

“Well, we have two options, keep collecting energy from the energy pumps or try and look for salvage,” Yang Zi muttered and frowned. He had talked about the risks of such things in the past. I had already heard several horror stories from him. Salvage was incredibly lucrative, but one mistake meant you were done for. It was incredibly high risk, for a high reward. The newer the salvage, the greater the risk that something was lingering behind.

There was no equation or easy way to tell when such things were safe. If it had been radiation, then it would just be a question with the half-life. But with Chaos it was much harder to say. Normally such things didn’t stick around for long, unless there was energy. It was incredibly annoying that information itself was dangerous when dealing with Chaos.

“This is an updated map. The fall of the Free Port has caused issues with several super organizations. This is the one that most likely is dealing with Chaos,” Luo Lingtai replied and brought up an updated map on the display in front of her. The fact that she could pull out such information right away showed she had some method of high level communication with the Xyon Front.

Perhaps they sent a broad update to all their agents when there was a major shift in territory? It was hard to say without her revealing anything. I could only sigh in despair, at how far behind we were. There was always a bigger organization in the Firmament, with more powers, and more ability.

We both went over and took a look at the blue flashing territory. Well it sucked to be them, but there was nothing any of us could do or profit off of that situation. We weren’t strong enough to fight a super organization and didn’t have the capability to mess with anything Chaos related.

“Then you have the conflicts that have broken out,” she said and there were several areas flashing red. The Xyon Front really had good information sources to be able to get all of this so quickly. Probably hidden monitoring posts, or they had subverted the systems of the super organizations in some way. The Xyon Front was probably capable of subverting activate monitoring systems. With the size of the structures I had seen super organizations build, it would be very difficult to constantly check and review everything.

“Salvage will be a literal nightmare, since it would be active salvage. Sure the payoff is great since you get first pick, but it also means the risk is equally high,” Yang Zi muttered. I could tell he really wanted the salvage from all the nearby areas. I did as well. It was no joke to say that if we found some high value items, trying to extract energy would be mere pocket change. The trick was finding something worthwhile and not dying. I nodded at this as well. Trying to get salvage would be risky, but our disposable income was rock bottom.

“It also opens up a chance to set up more energy pumps,” I pointed out.

“Maybe. Just a lot of risk. I would prefer not to have my head turned inside out,” Yang Zi let out a sigh. “We need goods to sell and have the time. The energy pumps can operate for quite a bit, and it would be nice to build some more.” I nodded at this. “The best spot to start looking would be here.”

“The Five Fire Super Organization?” Luo Lingtai asked while looking at the display. “They seem to be mostly intact.” It was going to be a time thing, that was my guess before Yang Zi spoke up.

“That’s what it looks like at the moment. But they had a huge conflict, not that long ago. Look at these war zones now. They are spilling over according to the Xyon Front. They are weak and isolated. I also know that they have isolated themselves in their main base, which is around this area. The rest of their territory, they have given up for now,” Yang Zi said, confirming my guess but that raised more questions.

“Why give up their territory, but not get wiped out?” I asked. It seemed like super organizations were all or nothing. Centralized at a single point for the most part with possibly some outposts surrounding their central location.

“Never underestimate if a super organization wants to drag another down with them. Most of their external and manufacturing facilities were destroyed and they follow a path of symbols for their strength. That means rebuilding is slow. We can’t get near their core area, but the rest should have a lot of leftovers from their last conflict floating about,” Yang Zi pointed out on the map.

“Chaos isn’t active in that area, but that could change in a moment. This entire region of the Firmament is undergoing rapid shifts. Look at the spatial drifts over the last intervals of time,” Luo Lingtai adjusted some settings for the displayed three dimensional map and there were shifts in various boundaries laying out the super organizations.

She adjusted the map twice more, oscillating the boundaries to show us the most recent shifts. While the changes looked small, I knew they weren’t. Any kind of visible change on the map meant massive distances.

“It doesn’t look like a shockwave at least.” My two companions looked at me. “If there was one major event, you would think it would ripple out from a set point. But it looks like everything is becoming messed up all at once.”

“There is always an underlying reason. It is very rare for one event of this size to cascade into other large events,” Luo Lingtai said. She adjusted the map again.

“Look, there is trail of something. Possibly, moving from here to here. The Free Port was at the edge of whatever is moving through the Firmament,” Yang Zi pointed out.

“This time frame and that size are next to impossible. There would be energy emissions if it was Chaos. It isn’t some kind of replicator. They spread outwards, they don’t advance like a missile,” Luo Lingtai countered.

“A large ship or weapon?” I speculated.

“That size? The energy costs would be insane,” Yang Zi said and shook his head.

“What about a mobile energy pump? It leaves ripples of Chaos and disruption in its wake. Unless a super organization confronted it head on, there would be no defense. It would just move through a territory and then it would be too late to respond,” I explained.

“Possibly. Anything that can happen will eventually happen,” Luo Lingtai repeated a common expression. It didn’t bring much comfort as we looked at the map. The disruptions of whatever was moving through the Firmament were massive.

“Going to let the Xyon Front know?” I asked Luo Lingtai and she shook her head.

“They would already know if there is something and would take advantage of whatever it is,” she replied. In other words, such minor things weren’t a concern for something like the Xyon Front. They operated a higher level. They didn’t get involved in the day to day stuff that super organizations had to deal with.

Their hidden bases would be moved or nowhere close to danger. Even if one or two were lost they would easily rebuild. Getting pulled into drama and events was how they avoided being exposed to Chaos, creating a layer of separation. Like our rag tag team. The idea was not to be the miners, but the group that provided services to the miners, so they would benefit no matter what.

It made me wonder if there were bankers or something above the Xyon Front. Would it even be possible to manage something so large across the Firmament? It was infinite, but with the spatial and communication abilities, it wasn’t impossible. It also made me wonder how many times direct control turned into a disaster before a group rose up that washed their hands of all the headaches they could.

“The Five Fire Super Organization doesn’t seem to be in the path of whatever is passing through this area. We do need salvage. Any idea where to sell?” I looked at Luo Lingtai.

“It would be a trip and dangerous at another free port. I do mean a trip. Places like that aren’t common. I know of some, but more in a general sphere of influence, rather than precise locations, unless the Xyon Front knows more?” he asked, while turning towards our consultant slash minder.

“I do have knowledge of such places. Depending on the salvage, the Xyon Front would be willing to compensate us for anything we might find,” she replied. That was the nice thing about having a connection with the Xyon Front, it might not solve everything, but we could tap into their resources and information for a cost.

After a bit more discussion, each of us agreed and we altered course towards the Five Fire Super Organization. Their name wasn’t actually Five Fire, but that was how it translated. It probably had some profound meaning in whatever alien dialect the name came from.

Reviewing what information we had about the super organization, was that it was fairly weak and isolationist. They could still crush us easily, but they had not been able to rebuild their defenses and didn’t have the technology to defend themselves. Trading gave you more options, but it left you vulnerable to Chaos if you didn’t know what you were doing.

The entire region of the Firmament was spiraling into both big Chaos with a capital ‘C’ and little chaos. The chain reaction of the loss of the Free Port and the spread of whatever Chaos creature was out there, destabilized many super organizations or wiped a few of them out. Now everyone was scrambling to get a bigger share of these fallen super organizations, leading to more conflicts and more instability.

There was a tremendous amount of risk, but if we didn’t act now, then there would be no good time to act. While super organizations might remain passive the majority of the time, once their neighbors started experiencing difficulties, they would become very excited about getting benefits and carefully expanding their area of control.

It was an interesting thing to observe on the displayed map. While we didn’t have real time data, no one did, the information Luo Lingtai was able to provide from the Xyon Front made it fairly up to date. A large multi-super organization like the Xyon Front was prepared for something like this. Not just individual members like Luo Lingtai having helmets but also having a separation chamber ready to go at an isolated location.

The cost and fees we would have to pay for everything was painful to think about. But there was no other way to operate in the Firmament with any kind of confidence. We needed a way to sell items and energy we recovered. But it was a price I had quickly come to accept.

This entire region of the Firmament was undergoing a rebirth. While the super organizations were static, eventually they would succumb to something like this event, make a mistake themselves, or an outside threat would wipe them out, before being wiped out in turn. If they grew too large, then the risk of something happening would be much greater and the number of conflicts would be greater as well.

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That was the challenge of expanding an area of control in a three-dimensional space. Hmm, with the layers of reality, one could even consider the Firmament four-dimensional. Claiming more territory offered the chance to get more energy safely but also increased the risk of an attack.

“Some of the readings are off, what do you think?” Yang Zi was normally confident It was rare for him to ask me for advice like this. I went over and we were getting energy readings everywhere and they were rapidly increasing. My sense of danger didn’t trigger which was odd.

“No sense of danger, maybe a background phenomenon? A natural part of the Firmament?” I asked. This had happened occasionally before. There would be a wave or an unknown spike of energy. With all the major events happening nearby, it would be too easy for something to occur.

“Perhaps,” Yang Zi replied hesitantly. I looked closely at the readings and the energy was being pulled in a certain direction.

“We need to leave this area. This is too much ambient energy,” Luo Lingtai replied with a frown. “A Chaos event is likely to occur.”

“There are spatial disturbances forming,” Yang Zi as everything began to shake slightly. My sense of danger, gave me a sense of unease.

“My danger sense is picking up,” I said.

“Our spatial field is collapsing,” Yang Zi shouted in fear. “How?!”

“Some sort of smaller event. But the readings…this is too large.” Luo Lingtai moved over to the map and began flipping through it. “The object that was traveling through the area, disrupting everything, altered course, most likely.”

“It is taking everything to just hold our position.” There was a loud bang that I heard and everything shook and multiple warnings began blinking on displays. “Something just hit us. We are being dragged towards whatever is out there.”

“Locking everything down. Diverting energy,” I said as I contributed a small part to adjusting the energy flow to various systems.

“We can’t alter space. The waves of energy are disrupting everything,” Yang Zi replied when the displays began to frizz with static. I felt the energy from outside entering through the vessel, which shouldn’t be possible. The armor and all the other systems were designed to protect against such things. This was very bad and my sense of danger was rapidly increasing.

“Putting everything we have into stabilizing the interior. It isn’t Chaos, from what I can tell,” I replied.

“I am going to the crash chamber,” Luo Lingtai declared and began leaving the control room. I glanced at Yang Zi and we both quickly followed after her. It was a tiny room built into the vessel, more of an afterthought than anything else. Since if the ship was going to be destroyed, the secure chamber would most likely be destroyed as well.

It was the path of last resort if something dangerous was occurring that wasn’t Chaos. It was meant as an internal lifeboat if everything else was wiped out. We reached the crash chamber, which was the size of a large closet. Both the thick doors opened, which formed an air lock, and we entered as the shaking got worse. There were four crash chairs set up.

The chamber didn’t block out energy. It was a crash chamber, not a separation chamber. It would be like tofu against Chaos or a powerful cultivator. But it was our best chance if we were being dragged towards something with a high chance of a violent impact.

There were no displays. Only a single small light and a small internal life support machine inside the crash chamber. “Foolish. I was foolish and now I am going to die,” Luo Lingtai said with a touch of despair.

“You never know,” Yang Zi countered and she shook her head as the shaking got worse but didn’t reply.

“Pulling in energy and everything nearby, any idea what it could be?” I asked.

“At least it isn’t Chaos, so we have a chance. But with this much energy in the environment, no wonder why Chaos was showing up in its wake and all the borders were disrupted,” Yang Zi replied.

“The fact it changed course, shows it is intelligent. Which is probably not a good thing,” Luo Lingtai said. The best we could hope for was to be pulled into some automated process we could try and escape from. The energy increased and the shaking got even worse. Even with my level of cultivation and with how durable I was, I began to feel sick.

We heard a crunching sound through the thick metal that made up the crash chamber. I couldn’t tell if we were being ripped apart or compressed. Was this going to be it? Was this the end after everything I had struggled and fought for?

The shaking stopped for a single moment and then there was a massive impact. While my seat was welded onto the metal wall, the straps holding me in place weren’t as secure and partially ripped. The light broke and then there was complete silence. I then heard the faint sounds of breathing.

There was an incredible amount of energy in the air, enough that it was almost suffocating. If it had been a more stable situation, then this would have been the perfect environment to cultivate in.

“Either of you alive?” I asked slowly.

“Yes, ACK! ACK!” Yang Zi let out two rough wet coughs. Luo Lingtai, pulled out a light and held it up, illuminating the small room. The metal for the walls, ceiling, and floor was rippled slightly. Looking at Yang Zi, he was messed up quite heavily. He didn’t have cultivation to help protect his body. The increased energy wasn’t helping him either.

I unstrapped myself while Luo Lingtai remained seated, holding up the light. I noted she was pulling items out of spatial storage and checking on them, but I couldn’t worry about her at the moment. I went to Yang Zi’s side.

Placing a hand on his chest, I sent a light wave of energy through his body. While I was no medical professional, it let me see how bad things were. Blood was leaking into his lungs and a couple of his organs had burst apart. The fact he was still alive was a small miracle. But the amount of energy in the air was too much was breaking down his body.

“How bad is it?” he asked and let out several more bloody coughs.

“You are going to die. I don’t have the skill or equipment to fix those kind of injuries. Do you have any last words?” I asked.

“No. ACK! ACK! I died after so long. Dammit. Just end it,” he said. I pulled out a small knife and stabbed him through the forehead, killing Yang Zi instantly. There was a lot I wanted to say. How we were partners and how he had taught me quite a bit.

But that was the nature of the Firmament. It was uncaring and brutal. Anyone could die at anytime from anything. It wasn’t that bad, but right now it felt that way.

“Well, our chances aren’t much better,” Luo Lingtai said with despair. “I can’t contact the Xyon Front. It isn’t the amount of energy in the air. This is a separate spatial space than the Firmament. A very secure space.”

“Let’s get on our masks. I don’t know how much more air we will have left and what is outside,” I said. She didn’t argue or say anything else as we both got out breathing masks. Once that was done, we began disassembling the airlock we had used to enter the crash chamber.

Thankfully it had been designed so it could be disassembled from the inside. We carefully began unscrewing the heavy bolts to get to the internals. From there we pulled out the metal bolts holding the air lock in place. One by one we opened the first air lock door. The outer edge of the door was designed with two steps in the metal so it could be pulled inward. If it hadn’t been designed that way we would have been trapped, since the frame around the doorway had twisted slightly.

We got to work on the second doorway. There were no windows or viewports for the airlock doors. They were designed as slabs of metal for the crash chamber for this very reason. The idea being, if anything survived an impact, this chamber would. I didn’t think we would ever need something like this. I was more concerned about Chaos and super organizations.

It was something Yang Zi had included in the design and didn’t take up much room. Without his foresight, I would be dead right now. It was a shame to just leave his corpse behind, but this wasn’t the time for a funeral or regrets. We needed to figure out where we were and how bad our situation was.

We made it through the second airlock to a partially collapsed hallway. I began cutting my through with my sword and Luo Lingtai did something similar with a blade she had in her spatial storage. I hadn’t noticed it before but the gravity of this place was off, shifting from light to heavy. It didn’t change with the energy, so it had to be coming from another effect.

Cutting our way through the wreckage of the vessel, I could only despair at all the resources and equipment that was now useless. Everything had pancaked hard.

Gravity shifted upwards for a moment, which forced me to adjust my cutting angle. “This is frustrating,” I muttered.

“The air is not breathable. Definitely a toxic mix common throughout the Firmament,” Luo Lingtai said. That was good information, since I didn’t have all the equipment she did.

At least we wouldn’t need to recharge stuff with all the energy in the air. It was thick enough that I was surprised all the energy wasn’t visible to regular sight. When we got to the outer hull, it was much harder cutting our way through. The level of energy was even higher. I had only felt this much energy in specialized cultivation training chambers in the past.

After slowly cutting our way out of the vessel, I made sure to keep a strong grip onto the outer hull, so I wouldn’t fly away if gravity shifted again. “What do you think?” I asked Luo Lingtai as we looked out at swirling clouds of darkness. Below us there was rocky ground, but there were chunks of rock flying through the air. I could barely see anything.

The only source of light was the one Luo Lingtai was carrying. “Give me a moment,” she replied as she pulled out devices one after another. She didn’t explain what she was doing and I didn’t ask. I was glad I kept a firm grip on the hull, since gravity kept shifting.

“Well. I have good news and bad news,” she said with a sigh.

“Good news, I could use some,” I answered.

“This is a large bounded space. At least three times, possibly five times, larger than the Free Port in terms of volume. It is clearly made by something intelligent,” she explained.

“That is the good news? That much space is massive. We would never be able to find anything in that time,” I said.

“And that is the bad news. I can work out the edges. We are near the edge,” she said.

“That means heading towards the center of this place,” I said with a sigh.

“Indeed. If there is anything controlling a place like this, the center is the only place it could be handled from,” she replied.

“Or it could be a ring shaped, controlled from the edge?” I suggested. Luo Lingtai was silent as she thought that over.

“Unlikely. It would be took risky defensively. The center is the best option. We should salvage what we can and set off,” she said.

“Hull plating? I don’t think there is much else,” I replied.

“The food and water system if possible. The housing for those systems is quite robust. Even if it is damaged, as long as it can be fixed it would give us a shot. I have a lot of supplies in my spatial storage, but I would prefer consuming them if possible,” she said.

“The same here. Alright, let’s get back to cutting,” I said as the entire vessel shifted slightly as gravity swung massively. My grip remained solid. A little change of gravity wasn’t enough to send me flying off into the murky clouds. “You have another light?”

“Yes,” Luo Lingtai said and got a small wrist lamp out that ran on energy. At least we had free energy. Now if we had some energy pumps here, we could have made a massive profit. We went back inside the tunnel and began carefully carving our way through the collapsed passages to reach the equipment we wanted to recover.

It was boring but necessary work. Gravity kept shifting and there was the occasional wave of thick dark fog that would rush inside the vessel. I checked back in the crash chamber, since we planned to rest for a bit, but Yang Zi had turned into an organic slurry that had splashed over all the surfaces. We didn’t go back into the chamber after seeing that.

While the design of the crash chamber was forward thinking, it was frustrating that it hadn’t come stocked with necessary survival equipment. We also cut our way to the energy compression system. Most of it had been destroyed, but we took the time to recover the critical components. The same with the spatial compression system that the vessel used.

It was highly unlikely we would be able to use this stuff. We might be able to trade and sell it if we met others. Also, once we left, we weren’t coming back. It made sense to take everything valuable we could before we left.

“Any luck getting more readings? Or picking up on anything?” I asked Luo Lingtai as we rested after our most recent and last recovery operation.

“Not picking up anything from the Xyon Front. I have also discovered something disturbing. This space is getting smaller. The process is slow, but it is happening. Based on the distances to the edge of this space,” she replied.

“How rapidly?” I asked.

“Slowly, but it is happening. We have been here for several days already. The fact I could measure such a change in such a small amount of time is concerning. We are only talking a couple of meters, about hundred meters per day,” she said.

“Then we should have at least a million years. It doesn’t seem like a huge concern,” I said.

“Perhaps. But this space is unstable. There will be environmental changes once it compresses enough,” she replied.

“Still thinking the center? Would there be a star or something there?” I asked.

“Hard to say. There could be anything used as a defense. But there has to be something. This place was created with a purpose. Once we figure it out, we can try and escape,” she replied.

“Well my danger sense is very low at the moment. It is there in the background, like a soft hum,” I said. I carefully had some water while gravity was calm for a moment. I wouldn’t want to breathe the atmosphere, but it wasn’t a huge concern to move my mask to the side for a moment to either eat or drink.

“There is nothing we can do, but leave once we have rested. We can try the edge first,” Luo Lingtai said.

“You don’t want to walk all the way to the center first?” I asked.

“That would take forever. Our best option is to construct something and use the ambient energy to propel us. If could find a more stable location that would be best. The edge of this space has the highest chance of this,” she replied.

“Well I am not that confident about building something like that. I can check the arrays and formations to a certain extent, but making new ones will be tricky. Especially with the debris flying through the fog outside. We get, well it will be a heavy blow,” I said.

“We won’t need anything more from the vessel?” she asked me and I shook my head.

“I can’t think of anything else. We recovered what we could. A shame that the manufacturing equipment was completely busted along with everything in the control room,” I said with heavy sigh.

“At least we have food, water, and breathable air. We can live. That is enough. As long as there is life, there is hope,” she said.

“I didn’t take you for an optimist,” I said.

“I figured we were going to die. We will probably will still die, but I refuse to lay down and die. I have no doubt you have struggled to get this far after what you have shared. I refuse to give up here. I will return to the Xyon Front one day, successful, and alive,” she replied. At least she had a positive attitude. This was going to be rough. I had experience with crash landings in separated spatial locations.

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