Calculating Cultivation
Chapter 127: A Difficult Problem

We sat in near darkness and complete silence with only a couple of holographic displays up and running. I thought I could almost hear the swirl of gas outside the vessel. We were a short distance away from the first energy pump we had set up, carefully watching both the energy pump and the surroundings.

“A tenth of a cycle and still nothing,” Yang Zi muttered quietly. It had been planned as a trap, but no one had showed up so far. As for other work I could be doing right now, it was all done. The updates to the remaining energy pumps were ready to be implemented once we confirmed the final redesign of some of the interior components.

“Perhaps my efforts were enough. I thought for sure we would be tracked,” I softly said.

“You might be better at this formation stuff than you originally thought. The energy pump is working like planned. The passive sensors I have can barely pick anything up even at this distance,” Yang Zi said. The problem was our passive sensors weren’t the best. What was hard for us could be easy for someone else.

“Onto the next location?” I asked. There was only so much time we could waste. While I had 500 or so cycles left, I needed to hurry up now rather than when I was too old and started to die.

“Hard to say. I would like to wait for a cycle, but that is a lot of waiting. It might take time if the Mind Lords can track us down to this location,” Yang Zi replied. Silence took over once more and I looked back at the displays.

“Well we will be able to keep track this remotely,” I stated.

“Or they could be waiting for us to set up more energy pumps and then reclaim them all. Let’s leave, set up the rest and then come back and check on the first one. There are enough booby traps, that if someone does mess with them they won’t be recoverable,” Yang Zi replied.

“No objection from me,” I said and Yang Zi sat up and began was about to move us towards our next location. Perhaps things were in our favor this time. “Wait. Look,” I pointed at the display showing the gradient of physics over a large area around our location.

Normally this didn’t overly matter, since the minute amounts of energy in the vessel enforces the laws of physics in our locations. The same with the energy pumps. Most physics conformed to a standard, but there were areas and patches of the Firmament that operated under different rules. Unlike language or air, this was a much bigger difference.

“There was a minute change in gravity, originating from this location. Nothing is showing there except a general gas mix. But the mix is too general. Look at the at the types of gases that there and the surroundings. This patch has minute differences that are not changing as fast as the surroundings. A stealth vessel.”

Yang Zi quickly pulled up the same information and looked it over. “Subtle. Very subtle. That is a good catch. That is why a cultivator is useful. Your danger sense probably triggered off of something. Whatever is out there is quite large from what I can tell. Definitely hiding in stealth and not something abandoned to be in this location, for a while as well.” Yang Zi began pulling up the historical data to take a look at how long we had been followed.

“So, how do we handle this?” I asked. Yang Zi was quiet and I decided to voice my ideas, even if this was his area of expertise. The problem was that we were being carefully watched by an unknown opponent with unknown strength. Making a large fuss would draw attention to this location and the first energy pump was already in place. This would just create more problems. “Spatial mine?”

“Won’t work. They are nearly on top of us and are bigger and better equipped if the readings and there level of stealth is anything to go by. They have probably been following us since the Free Port. I can see markers of their presence that far back. It isn’t obvious if you aren’t looking for them, but they are there,” Yang Zi said with a frown.

“If they are more powerful, couldn’t they just come over to our vessel and kill us?” I asked.

“Most likely, but that has its own risks. They are probably going to follow us while we set up each energy pump and then act once we head back to this location. That way they don’t risk the equipment, we do all the work. That is what I would do in their position.”

“Then the best option would be to go somewhere they won’t be able to follow,” I replied.

“The correct term is a hole. A right sized hole we can zip through and collapse behind us. Those are the stuff of legends Yuan Zhou. There aren’t convenient holes scattered across the Firmament. Getting a right sized hole is beyond legendary. You need a solid chunk of matter, preferably a super large refraction rock that is donut shaped,” Yang Zi replied with a shake of his head. I could tell he wasn’t really ridiculing me, but that he lacked ideas of his own and wanted to fill up the silence somehow.

“Could they be listening in?” I asked. That thought came to my mind.

“No. Well, I wouldn’t say no with all the esoteric things energy can do, but you don’t sense or see anything unusual?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “No. I don’t sense or see anything.”

“Doesn’t rule the possibility out, but the fact there has been no reaction, means we are being carefully observed. The biggest risk is that they enter our vessel when we move the energy pumps outside and set them up. We have very strong anti-intruder measures. More so than other vessels. Air disturbance, floor disturbance, oxygen consumption, atmosphere mix per room, sound level, heat level, and various minor drones that clean and check the vessel.” I knew about most of these, but I also knew that Yang Zi might be saying this in case we were currently being watched. If we were being watched there would be concern over the things that weren’t listed.

“They could be weak,” I suggested. “We could attempt a pre-emptive attack.”

“Perhaps. But can you beat a cultivator immortal or something at that level?”

“No. Even with my weapons, it wouldn’t be possible. Anyone beneath that level I have a lot of confidence in defeating.” It was frustrating to admit, but combat was never my strength. I may have cut down people like they were wheat in the Great World, but they were incredibly weak. Yang Zi was no match for me in combat either. Being a cultivator gave me massive advantages in this regard.

That was why most people wanted to become a cultivator and not use implants. Until they actually became cultivators, they were weak fleshy beings. Or they could use more implants, but there was a limit, and one risked their soul in that regard. Replacing aspects of one’s body was never to be done lightly.

“Then it isn’t worth considering for the moment. The best option I can think of is an inferno strategy. We go someplace that is incredibly dangerous, forcing the vessel following us to break off. But there stealth is better than ours, which makes the entire idea far too risky.”

“How is that even possible? We spent so much on stealth?” I asked.

“And the big boys doing this for countless ages have a much deeper pool of wealth and contacts to draw on than just the two of us. Setting up energy pumps is incredibly high risk, but it also offers an incredibly high reward. The Free Port has many groups that are sponsored by super organizations.”

The Coordinator had probably sold us out or was working for one of these groups. Maybe even several, so he could cash in more on our activities. We had no backing or support. We just had our knowledge and ourselves. The silence continued as we both considered this situation. That was the advantage of being a part of a large super organization. If we had been a part of one, we could have traveled through their core region and easily lost our tail, but we didn’t have an option like that going forward.

“Setting up more energy pumps while they are watching is foolish. They could easily alert a teammate or another member of their organization,” I stated.

“I agree,” Yang Zi said, but didn’t add anything. At least we were on the same page regarding this issue.

“Could we release a hidden spatial mine and float it over to their location, or some other weapon? They have to be almost on top of us based on these readings,” I replied.

“We could try, but it would probably be detected. The worst part being, that they are close enough that if there vessel is destroyed we will probably be destroyed as well.” I frowned at this statement.

“That close?” It made sense, since he hadn’t suggested a remote stealth attack earlier. Yang Zi was quite intelligent and competent in terms of traveling about the Firmament. I was only questioning him to see if there was anything he had missed, but that clearly wasn’t the case with my last idea.

“Indeed. They are using a complicated trick to match our spatial drive without us knowing.” Yang Zi let out a long sigh. “I would put their vessel at least three levels above ours in terms of technology, which means they purchased the most expensive stuff at the Free Port, or had their super organization make some for their use. Probably purchase so as not to annoy the Administrator.”

If you were going to set up a group that wasn’t directly connected to your super organization, it made more sense to use what was available at the Free Port, but purchase the best equipment. The most expensive stuff would have increased the cost of this sized vessel by a hundred times. But a super organization could easily make such an investment.

That was the power of a super organization, they could just throw more units or energy at the problem and it wouldn’t be a problem. Having a deniable group working on their behalf was probably seen as a useful option for monitoring things happening in the Firmament outside of their territory. With the Firmament being infinite and with how large the Free Port was, there were undoubtedly more than one or two groups doing this on behalf of their backers.

It would have been nice to get such a backer as well, but we didn’t have the connections or standing to make such a move. Trying to go to the Heavenly Alliance would have put us in a subservient role. If we did that, then I might as well go to them to ask for help with my cultivation. This was not an option in my mind.

But now the problem was very real. We had someone watching our every move, who was in a superior position in every way. If an actual fight happened, it would only take fractions of a second. Even with our pitiful defenses, they would hold out that long, before we were destroyed.

“There is an option, but it is a very bad option. I can’t think of anything else,” Yang Zi said. The fact he was hesitant to bring it up meant it was a horrible option. I didn’t say anything and just gave him a nod of support to continue. “We descend.”

“To the Astral Plane? Can we do that and get back?” I asked.

“We can. But it will be obvious to anyone what we are doing. The energy infused into the structure of this vessel will also increase ruining what stealth we have for a period of time before the energy levels can be reduced. Then there are risks with astral creatures, chaos incursions up to that level of Reality, and wherever we end up or return. That is probably the worst. While we can go to the Astral Plane and return, we don’t have a coordinate matching system. Those aren’t standard and are insanely expensive.”

“So when we return, we will end up at some random point in the Firmament?” I asked.

“Not completely random. There is some complex math involved, but it boils down to a probability sphere of massive proportions. When we return, we will end up somewhere in the probability sphere.”

“But I went to the Astral Plane myself and returned via a naturally occurring portal to the same continent,” I replied.

“Did you have help?” Yang Zi asked me. There was that giant eye of the Ancient I had encountered.

“Yes.” Now that I thought back on that situation, was such a portal naturally occurring? The Cloudy Moon Sect had said so, but they could have been sending me to actually die with no hope of returning. That was why returning was such a big deal. Looking back on the situation, my original sect might have been much more cut throat than I had initially thought. One does not reach a high level of cultivation without stepping over a mountain of corpses in some way.

Even Yang Heng stepped over countless corpses, since the Heavenly Alliance paved the way for him. That was the inescapable truth of being a cultivator. One had to be selfish in order to advance.

“I don’t know all the rules such things work under. I just know the rules we will have to work under. The probability sphere grows larger the longer we stay and the more we move about. If you were by yourself, then you probably didn’t move about too much. So however you got back didn’t have a large probability sphere. We can make our own right sized hole in this way.”

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“The chances of surviving are incredibly low, aren’t they?” I asked.

“There is a reason no one does this. Going to the Astral Plane without the necessary preparations is a death sentence. Sure, you can travel about incredibly quickly and cheaply, but the risk is insanely high.”

There was also the risk I was being pursued by a chaos temporal hunter. I had been warned about this by Leader Han of the TripleX faction after my last breakthrough. But that could have been just an excuse to get rid of me in the Mechanical Layer, since I had no way to resist him strong arming there. It would be just like the Cloudy Moon Sect, leaving me someplace they didn’t have to deal with me, and no realistic chance of returning to the Firmament.

But he had seemed very serious in his warnings and I felt an activation of my danger sense at the mention of this plan. That fact it even triggered after such an idea was mentioned, when it had never triggered before when discussing ideas was a clear warning in my mind that going to the Astral Plane was a very bad idea.

“My danger sense triggered when you talked about traveling to the Astral Plane. I can’t tell if the beings who might be listening in are the source, or the actual plan itself,” I honestly stated.

“A last resort then if there is no other option. It will always be open to us, but I don’t fancy trying to find out where we end up in the Firmament once we return. The worst part is that I suspect there is a higher than normal chance ending up near a super organization or one of their energy pumps instead of random space.”

“Because whatever device we use will lock onto the energy pump that was being used?” I asked.

“Precisely.” My understanding of past events suddenly exploded. The Ancient that had sent me back to the continent, had probably matched my energy to the energy pump in some way. It then made a portal back, sent me through it. Or it was close enough that it tapped into that energy pump regardless. Just a high degree of understanding of energy was needed. No invasive techniques needed. It wasn’t simple, but it wasn’t overly complex either.

As for the Heavenly Alliance cylinder ships, they probably took so long in their transversal back to the Forever City, since they most likely made a transition far away from the continent and the Forever City to avoid complications. Sure, they appeared in the middle of the Forever City, but that didn’t mean they had to arrive there from the Astral Plane. In fact that would be incredibly stupid.

I had always assumed they transited directly through such a space. But they probably had set points with some sort of device to guide them precisely. Then they exit, wait around for a while to make sure there are no Chaos creatures, then they go to the Forever City. The long trip was a complete scam since the trip was short, the safety procedures were long.

The more I learned, the more my feelings were stirred up. I had taken so many things for granted in the past. I knew I had made mistakes, but I had always considered myself an intelligent person. To realize I had made mistakes in my understanding of how things actually worked was a big blow to my ego. It also made me wonder what other things I had been mistaken about.

We continued to sit in silence while we both thought over the problem we were facing. Was this entire expedition with Yang Zi a major mistake? The more I sat in silence, the more I thought so. Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret. I had to figure out a workable solution that didn’t risk my soul being ripped apart.

There was no chance of outrunning our close friends. We couldn’t fight them. We couldn’t hide from them. We couldn’t defend ourselves from them. We couldn’t ask anyone else for help. It seemed like a puzzle with no solution.

“What about going back to the Free Port and then leaving quickly?” I asked.

“We would pick up more pursuers. Of that I have no doubt. Shadowing another vessel is allowed. And even if we leave, we have to clear a certain distance before using the spatial compression drive.” That would mean that the superior vessel would be easily able to catch up with us if we did decide to leave. “Or they might destroy us just before we return if they think we are bailing on our operation.”

That was the other major issue with this entire problem. We were constantly being watched. “A place in the Firmament that would make it obvious they are following us, forcing them to back off?”

“Again they would disable us and board if they think we are about to run away. The only reason to not do that is because they want the rest of the energy pumps. That is our only leverage.”

“We could contact them and try and work out a deal,” I said with great pain. “Or dump several pumps right out of the vessel.”

“They wouldn’t accept that. Trust me, the one thing everyone hates is energy pirates, even other energy pirates. There is no negotiation offered in this kind of thing. Otherwise I would have suggested we try to cut a deal. Unfortunately, the super organizations backing their group of energy pirates don’t like that. They view it as a zero sum game. And if we are interacting with them, their identities could be discovered.”

Other energy pirates would be ruthless and if we knew who was following us, then they could be threatened by revealing they were energy pirates. There were probably highly curated and secretive lists of such vessels back on the Free Port selling for millions of units or even higher. Information was just as valuable or in some cases more so than energy.

“What kind of interior defenses would they have?” I asked.

“Maybe a couple of golems beyond their individual combat skills at most. If you are thinking of attempting to attack them, you can try, but will probably die. Most vessels allow for control from a central location and that locations has heavy doors like we do. Breaching them will take time. And the environment can be controlled. That means you will need a protective suit, and their layout will be complicated.”

“Like how our bridge is not centered on any axis?” I asked.

“Exactly. It makes boarding a nightmare. And they will instantly know you are there. Ambushes would be easy to set up. And if things get bad enough, boom. Their vessel will explode. That is what they are trying to avoid. Once we get off the energy pumps, they will attempt to board without our vessel being destroyed, forcing us to blow up.”

“Then they can collect from the energy pumps and in the best case they get our vessel,” I muttered.

“Exactly. That is why boarding is highly dangerous.”

“I wasn’t thinking of boarding. I could exit and sabotage their vessel. We damage their stealth or spatial drive, forcing them to break off pursuit while they are following us. A small explosion to breach their hull after a period of time,” I explained. Yang Zi got quiet at that suggestion.

It was the best idea I could come up with. I had thought I might as well go down fighting, but then I realized we didn’t need to defeat this opponent. We only needed to scare them off. If they lost stealth and their spatial drive was damaged while following us, they would have to make a snap decision. Attack us or break off pursuit.

Attacking us carried a lot of risks, since if our vessel exploded, they would be caught up in the explosion as well. That was timing this operation for while we were moving was important. They would be forced to be nearby during that time period, so we didn’t notice them. If they planned a boarding operation, they would move to a safer distance.

“They would probably break off,” Yang Zi said aloud. He knew more about the general nature of energy pirates than I did. But it made sense. These beings were in hiding, which meant they had a hiding type of mindset. If their stealth was threatened, the safe thing would be to avoid disaster as quickly possible since it could easily be the prelude to a larger attack or a bigger operation.

Since there had been no action so far to what we had been saying, I could accept the risks of being listened in on, but it was unlikely. That kind of technology wasn’t publicly sold or even traded. It was also incredibly high end. To make such a system work in stealth would only compound the costs.

The vessel pursuing us was at the high end of what the Free Port offered, which made sense for sponsored energy pirates. But they would probably not be given technology or energy formations that could be tracked back to a specific super organization. That was the entire point of having a deniable pirate group working for them. Putting a specialty device on board one of their sponsored ships would make things obvious.

Energy could be back traced to a large degree. While it might be hard shifting through wreckage, it could be done. Back tracing to the Free Port was a dead end, but back tracing something specific to a super organization would paint them as a sponsor of energy pirates. A clever super organization could use this as a rallying cry to wipe out an enemy while enlisting support for such an operation.

While there were exceptions, super organizations not liking energy pirates was just common sense. It was just the natural order of things, since the interests of both groups clashed. Out of reasons to attack a super organization with other super organizations this was probably the best one.

All of this was evident to me and probably evident to Yang Zi as well. The hardest part would be the sabotage operation itself. Of course, Yang Zi had a solution for this as well. “I do have a high quality stealth suit on board. Didn’t think it would be necessary. But it can be useful in a situation like this. The problem is the bomb or any kind of device. That is what will be detected.”

“What about using a drone and having it construct something on site?” I asked. We didn’t need to make the bomb. We could use a golem or a machine to make something while we were traveling.

“We don’t have anything that can be repurposed like that. But could you carve an array into their hull plating?” Yang Zi asked and I considered that question.

“And with a delayed activation?” I asked and Yang Zi nodded. I carefully considered the question. An array to gather energy over time would be doable. It would increase the amount of energy on one specific spot on their hull.

The problem was the time it would take. The array couldn’t work quickly since that would make it obvious, but it couldn’t work slowly either. The timing was complicated. As for other effects, that was impossible, at least for me.

I had no idea how to create a trigger linking the amount of energy to a specific function. Functions were tied directly to the activation of the array and conditional triggers like energy density wasn’t something I understood well enough to do.

“I can make one section of their hull increase in energy. The problem is that I don’t know the material or have the right tools to alter it,” I replied.

“I have something in my personal vault.” Yang Zi really did have a lot of odds and ends on hand. But he had lived a long life and he had moved his stash to this vessel. I did consider the possibility he would abandon me, but we had enough trust between each other, or at least I thought we did.

There was also a life contract set up at the Free Port. If one of us returned without the other, there would be a huge penalty assessed by the Administrator before they were allowed entry into the Free Port. By huge, I mean in the billions of units. Enough to not make it worthwhile.

Sure, it was possible Yang Zi could go to another Free Port, but word did travel and there were blacklists. All of this meant was that I had enough confidence that Yang Zi wouldn’t betray me unless there was no other choice for his survival and even then, he might hesitate. I would do the same. The Administrator sure knew how to take units from people for its services.

Still there was trust involved and the risk would be high. But for now, we were in the same boat both metaphorically and literally. Also, if I disappeared, he would have a lot harder time dealing with the energy side of things.

While it might not seem like much to me, his knowledge of the Firmament probably didn’t seem like much to him either since a lot of what he knew was common knowledge. Sure, he had tools and equipment, but that was matched by the funds I had invested.

The final fact was that we had spent a lot of time togeather and I felt I had a good handle on his character. While Yang Zi was a scoundrel, he wasn’t someone who would betray a teammate. He had talked about the past groups he had traveled with, and they had parted ways after a disagreement or the risk got to great. No betrayals onboard vessels.

In most cases the Captain had the strongest combat power and control over most of the systems. But there was also an understanding, at least among groups at the Free Port that there were enough problems without betrayal since many beings had fail safes of some kind or a contract set up through the Administrator.

It was highly likely that Yang Zi had some kind of hidden bomb or program on his person. If he died there would either be an explosion or the vessel would stop working, probably both. With how advanced technology was and the Free Port having quite a bit, I had looked up implanted bombs.

The fact someone could get an anti-matter bomb implanted into their body with stealth capabilities was insane. Sure, it wouldn’t be able to detonate in the Free Port as one of the requirements for installation, but once you left, it could easily go boom. While I would never trust the Administrator and put something like that in myself, I knew other people like Yang Zi wouldn’t hesitate.

Every time I was in the same room as him, he could have the device automatically become active. So it wouldn’t activate in the event he had an accident, but if I killed him, then it would explode. That was another reason why he wouldn’t get off the vessel unless we were at the Free Port. While he might not make it obvious, I knew he did so for his own protection.

That also tied into why he couldn’t target me. Anyone else he might consider bringing on would have the same restrictions, which would require hiring a group. That way some people of the group would get off the vessel and some would stay on. Also having one person on a large vessel and leaving the command center while in the Firmament was crazy.

That was a really easy way to lose your vessel. Have some kind of spatial disturbance come through an area while you are setting up an energy pump and your vessel could drift really far away. That was why having someone in the command center at all times while not in the Free Port was critical. Using automated or remote systems would make them less able to adapt and increase the risk of detection.

So, while there was trust, that trust had a foundation. I wasn’t blindly putting my life out there to be sacrificed. Yang Zi couldn’t get a better partner than me. A single person willing to take some risks and go outside the vessel. That kept the profit split between us quite high and reduced the risk of drama breaking out.

That was the biggest risk of all. Anyone Yang Zi brought onboard if he betrayed me might betray him. While the culture was against betrayal, people weren’t idiots either. It was just basic calculus of survival, not some code of honor.

He got the space suit and a special tool that could carve through anything. He called it a micro spatial cutter. Good for detail work, or shaving off a small portion of some super material so it could fit into place. It was designed for hull plating. If one plate was slightly damaged on its edge, then the corresponding plate needed to be adjusted to match. The micro spatial cutter was the answer to such problems.

It wasn’t good at bending or reshaping, but it could make minor adjustments or cut into hull pieces to ensure they fit properly. It also had a very low energy signature, less than the background of the Firmament, since the technology in the device did most of the work. This made it incredibly hard to detect.

“If they can detect this, then they can watch the movement of our vocal cords and the air inside our ship, so that isn’t the problem. Just don’t cut too deep. I already gave you the maximum depth you are allowed to cut, but the shallower the better so they don’t detect an alteration to their vessel,” Yang Zi said.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“You will need to put this large suit over the stealth one. Go to the energy pump, take off the large one then use the stealth suit. Otherwise they will detect us opening our airlock and see nothing exiting which will raise questions.”

“That is power armor, not a suit,” I replied.

“Close enough. Good for hazardous environments and some larger equipment. You can move this device out to the energy pump. It is a scrambler type of device, which will mess up the energy, physics, and environmental readings in a short distance. They will probably think we are setting up some kind of bomb or other device in the energy pump we want to hide, which is fine, since that is a narrative they will buy.”

Yang Zi really did think of everything in this regard. But it made sense, since he had been doing this for his very long life and knew the ins and outs of being an energy pirate. While he had gotten all this equipment ready I had worked out a basic array I would use. I would need to adjust based on the material of their hull, but that was on me.

If things got out of hand and I was detected, Yang Zi let me know that he would remain, unless fired upon or threatened with boarding. Then he would escape into the Astral Plane. If he was fired on or threatened with boarding then there was no chance he could rescue me, so it was understandable and increased my trust in him since he had a clear line where he would run and where he wouldn’t.

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