Calculating Cultivation

I blinked several times while looking out at the wooden ship sailing over the waters. There was a ship in the distance. With no curvature to the horizon, I could see as far as the air allowed me before things became too blurry due to the air itself blocking my vision.

There were figures moving on board. I couldn’t make out if they were human, and I didn’t sense any energy, which meant they were most likely no threat. I wouldn’t rule anything out. It was a wood ship with cloth sails, not a metal one, indicating they lacked any serious advances in technology. Combined with the no energy environment and not being able to sense any energy, it was doubtful the ship or beings on it were a concern.

What was a concern was whoever or whatever made this place and if these beings had backers. Again, it was highly unlikely but still a possibility. I began rowing towards the wooden ship. It was traveling at an offset angle to me, but I was well rested and began rapidly making my way across the salty water. Thankfully I had not been caught in a major storm on the waters so far.

As I got closer, I made out more details and it quickly became clear that these were human shaped beings. A sense of tension and unease left me. Humans meant cultivators most likely. While there were other groups of humans out there, for reality itself was infinite, this was a very good sign. If they were octopus or beast people, or some weird mechanical monstrosity, it would be a lot more difficult to get answers.

I was finally spotted, and the ship loosened it sails to slow down, allowing the wind to slip free, so I could catch up. The closer I got I noticed more details. The lack of refinement in their clothes. How dirty these people were. Their skin was a lot whiter, almost albino I would say, to the point I could see the reddish and bluish hue of their blood pulsing beneath their skin. Finally, the fact that their eyes were a bit too big for their faces. Not enough to be completely weird, but it was a clear difference between the people on board the ship and myself.

They looked human enough, but the differences were disturbing. Children that weren’t capable weren’t kept around for the most part. And the humans grown from vats were similar enough to make cultivators very similar. With the long lives of cultivators, they wouldn’t except huge shifts of genetic divergence with people looking different from them.

Here that was clearly not the case. These humans, if they were humans, had clearly been altered initially or there had been genetic drift, with their large eyes, and super white skin. Probably the lack of light from the white star. Bigger eyes would make it easier to see in the twilight of this place. Pale skin, since the light from the white star didn’t trigger melanin in their skin.

Once I reached the wooden ship, a rope ladder was tossed over the side. I grabbed the rope ladder and put away my small boat in my spatial ring. I heard gasps of shock and shouts above me as I climbed up. The sailors quickly backed away.

“Cal resh, ner sertek mon vormant.” A better dressed and cleaner looking man spoke up. Probably the captain. A foreign language, which would be a problem, but at least they could speak. My translator device worked off of ambient energy. I could give it energy, but it would be a waste, but I also wanted answers.

“I don’t speak your language, give me one moment,” I replied and pulled out the facemask with the translator attached to it. I got more weary looks, but no one made a move against me while they all waited nervously. There were no metal weapons. Bow and arrows, no cannons or muskets. I completely outclassed all of them with my sword alone.

The fact it wasn’t the standard cultivation language was a big disappointment. This place was most likely unconnected to the Heavenly Alliance, since there would be no point in having a different language. Even the countless continents that fed into the Forever City by the endless numbers of factions, all used the same language.

“I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou of the Heavenly Alliance. May I know who I am addressing?” I asked. No need to be rude in case they had a powerful backer of some kind.

“I am Li Meifeng, captain of this explorer ship Voyager. Are you really a cultivator and not a demon?” the words were translated for me, and I considered the question.

“What is a demon?” I asked out of curiosity and to better respond to the question. Was there another race in this place like the beasts? Or was he referring to demonic cultivators? The translator wasn’t perfect. While it tried to match up the meanings of words, cultivators could be translated as powerful individuals. I needed to be careful not to make assumptions about these people or this place.

“Legendary creatures with powers. That eat souls,” Li Meifeng said while looking nervously at me. I guess my different appearance, non-albino skin and smaller eyes was giving them an uncomfortable feeling as well.

“No. I don’t eat human souls. What is this place called and who rules at the center of this land under the white star?” I asked. I was hoping for some sort of centralized organization of some kind. It was unlikely with no energy and people this behind technologically.

“We serve the Kingdom of Wu, which in turns answers to the Empire of Flame. The land under the Life Light is the Great Desert, which no one dares to cross or to rule. Inhabited by the great beasts of the Life Light,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. “How far have you come? We are returning from our voyage to look for the edge of the Great World.” That was a lot of information to think over. The fact they had knowledge about the center of this place was a good sign there was a way to travel there.

At least it wasn’t called the continent. I guess that made sense since it wasn’t one big landmass. “How do you measure time?” I asked. Since there were no days and our measurement of distances would be different, it was important to form a baseline.

“With time keepers.” He explained seconds and minutes, which were based on 50. There were 50 seconds to a minute, 50 minutes to an hour. Days were 50 hours, composed of 50 minutes each. They really liked the number 50 apparently. A day here was about a day and a half that I was used to. Every 1,000 of their days was one of their years. So about 4.5 of my years to one of their years.

“If you could sail in a straight line, I would say the edge of the world is about 8 years of travel from this place,” I replied. There were gasps of shock at this from the sailors listening in. They would run out of food long before reaching that point though, unless they could fish. The Super Mountains would also be impossible to cross.

“You have seen it?” the captain asked with interest.

“I have traveled from there. Now, I am headed to the center of this Great World to see this Great Desert,” I replied.

“A long journey. A very long journey. Come, we will give you food and water honored cultivator. When we return to the Kingdom of Wu the Great King will wish to meet with you,” the Captain said. I considered that request. While it might slow me down a bit, it would give me a chance to get more information and learn more about this place.

“I will need someone to teach me the language,” I said. I was using up a lot of energy to power the mask I was wearing to translate what was being said.

“I will teach you myself, if you would permit. To meet someone who has come from the edge of the Great World. If I could hear about what lies beyond, I could die a happy man,” he said. How small this man’s world was. Trapped in this bubble of reality on a sailing ship. Knowledge of reality itself would only be a burden.

These people, had no power over their own futures. Unlike me, who had been beyond their bubble of reality. I used to be annoyed at my seniors for not explaining things in more detail to me until Yang Heng, but it would have just been a burden.

A frog knowing they are at the bottom of the well, does nothing to help them leave it. They can yearn for the sky, but they would still be trapped. Even telling them where the edge of their world was located would be a burden of knowledge. There was no way they would ever be able to make it that far. The hardships I had to endure during my travels was something I was capable of handling as a cultivator with my equipment.

Looking at these dirty weird people, they would struggle. Even if they had flying machines, it would take far too long to make such a trip.

I took off my mask and was shown to a well furnished cabin, soon a meal was brought to me which I ate with Captain Li Meifeng. There was a table, chairs, bed, desk, and chest. I noticed that there was no metal. Everything was made of wood with interlocking joints. The plate the food was served on was polished wood and there were no utensils, only chopsticks.

The meal was followed by a language lesson. I occasionally put on the mask to ask some questions and get answers, which made things much easier. Once we had covered quite a bit I was given the captain’s own quarters to sleep in. I rested my eyes, and practiced the language in my head, reviewing what had been said already.

There was no concept of night. The Life Light always shown down upon the world. There were no day and night cycles. There was a wooden time keeping device on board, which was mechanical in nature using weights and ropes. There was no metal.

Day after day I spent learning the language with the Captain. After ten days, I had enough of a grasp on the language, I wasn’t completely helpless. Well here, there were rest hours and active hours that varied from kingdom to kingdom. I quickly gathered it was a feudal hell hole for the most part. Even worse, there was no metal, anywhere. There was stone, dirt, but no large amounts iron, copper, tin nickel, or any other metals.

There were various Kingdoms, or countries, that controlled large portions of land. These Kingdoms in turn were nominally allied with an Empire, of which there were countless ones as well. An Empire in this place was one strong Kingdom with lots of other Kingdoms allied to it, to form an Empire.

The main limitation to human expansion was food. Too close to the white star, or Life Light, and you got the Great Desert. A blazing inferno that would burn anyone entering. After the Great Desert there was the Great Jungle, which was as far as ships could sail. Then you had all the fertile places around the Great Desert, which grew most of the food. This was where the strongest Empires and Kingdoms existed.

The further you got from the center, the harder it was to grow food. I speculated it was the angle to the Life Light at the center of this place and the general temperature. You wanted a nice warm climate to grow, but not boiling hot. The only thing that the outer kingdoms had going for them was access to a very rare metal deposit and a lot more land. Metal was viewed as highly valuable commodity. A single chunk of ore would pay for this expedition multiple times over.

Having a sword was a major status symbol apparently. Only the very richest, most powerful of individuals could wield a metal weapon. Almost everything was made out of wood using complex joining techniques. Even this large sailing vessel did not use metal, but carefully joined wood and glue.

That brought up a major question. With the amount of land, there had to be billions, maybe even trillions of people fighting. This place was just that big. I would have thought that eventually there would have been development in terms of gunpowder, weapons, metallurgy, or manufacturing.

Everything up to this point had been kind of surprising, but not really. What I learned next though, changed everything. “Ah, hot weapons. Those are completely prohibited by the cultivators. Anyone making them in any kingdom is wiped out. Metal is too precious to use in such a way. Most use bows, or if they are rich, crossbows.”

“Cultivators? There are cultivators? How?” I asked. That was impossible, there wasn’t enough energy. It would be impossible to cultivate.

“They aren’t common, since they stay in their sects. But one is worth more than a hundred men. Each one possessing power. Which is why I dare not offend you Cultivator Yuan Zhou,” Captain Li Meifeng explained, which wasn’t really an explanation. I frowned at this, since I wanted more information on how people were actually cultivating in this place. Any type of cultivation in the Mechanical Layer, and even more so in this bubble should be impossible. This went against everything I knew about this place. How could anyone be a cultivator without energy?

“Is there a Sect in the Kingdom of Wu?” I asked. I would need to go to the source to get answers.

“Our Kingdom is quite small and poor, on the outskirts of civilization. The Sects align with the various Empires for the most part. But just like Kingdoms in times of conflict and upheaval such alliances can change,” he explained. Trying to understand the geopolitical situation was beyond complex, since this place was too big. The people of a Kingdom would know who they were at war with, their neighbors, and the Empire they were part of. Anything beyond that was too much.

Captain Li Meifeng knew about the Great Desert, but had never even seen it, or met anyone who had. These were stories that had traveled across the various Kingdoms. Also, each Empire used a different calendar, which made long term record keeping even more troublesome. The people living in this place had been around for as long they could tell, with various creation myths, legends, and other stories.

Some claimed that the first human civilization existed under the Life Light at the center of the Great World. Others claimed they came from the edges, seeking life. It was impossible to know what was true and what wasn’t true.

The captain explained that I would have better luck speaking with the King, ruling the Kingdom of Wu. While he was educated, he was an explorer, not a scholar. One thing I realized was that without enough metal, there was no technological development.

Massive mines had been dug, but the amount of ore dug up from the ground was miniscule compared to the vast number of people. Without large amounts of iron, it was impossible to build up civilization. While you could get pretty far with just wood and other grown products, without metal, it was far too difficult for industrialization or any kind of technology.

Clearly this place had been limited on purpose. With the appearance of cultivators, that created even more questions. This place was not a prison. No one would bother with a prison with this much invested. There also didn’t seem to be anything of value being produced. The most likely guess was that this entire place was an experiment of some kind.

What kind of experiment and what was the desired outcome were minor questions. The biggest one was if there was an way to get out of this bubble of reality or contact a higher authority. While I might be considered weak and lacking actual connections, Yang Heng, who was still comatose, had actual backing from the Heavenly Alliance.

If a trade or fee for repatriating him was required, the Heavenly Alliance would pay if this place was controlled by a different cultivation super-organization. If this place was controlled by someone from the Heavenly Alliance, that was even better.

The worst outcome would be if this place was abandoned. That rarely happened with the continents linked to the Forever City, but it still happened. Beacons to find the continents disappeared, the route through the Astral Plane was cut off, and various other factors could cause contact to be lost. If this place had no higher authority, then it would be a complete and utter disaster. I might not be able to escape.

At least there was hope in the fact that there were other cultivators out there. Cultivators were considered elite warriors with a range of weapons and talents. The one thing that was the same was that cultivation was seen as a path to longer life and greater strength.

As the Voyager continued to sail, I kept working on my language skills with Captain Li Meifeng. He was showing me about the ship and pointing out objects, explaining how things worked. “A compass?” I asked while looking at the complex device and the first bit of metal I had seen.

“Worth more than the entire ship. A legacy treasure of my family. We can use it to determine our position to the Life Light. Combined with the black out sextant to measure the angle from the Life Star to the horizon, we can determine our distance.” Both devices were quite large, the size of a desk, and stored in a special navigation and map room on the wood ship. They were only brought out once a day, and never in bad weather.

The black out sextant’s telescope had dark glass in order to prevent a person from getting blinded staring at the Life Light up in the sky, hence the name. The entire device was made of wood except for the glass parts. The entire device was carefully suspended in the large box with strings and ropes to prevent damage from the movement of the ship, the same with the compass.

“The direction towards the Life Light is…?” I trailed off and the captain smiled.

“Lifewards, while moving away is Edgewards. You say the angle was around 40 degrees by this Turbulent Ocean?” he asked me.

“Yes,” I replied and Captain Li Meifeng nodded at this.

“A long distance then.” They had navigation charts with the distance already worked out based on the angles. The ship drum was beaten multiple times, and we exited the navigation room onto the deck. The bell meant changing of the shifts, land sighting, or a Levithan. Since it was beaten multiple times, that meant land or a leviathan. Since we were another ten days or so away from land, that meant a leviathan had been spotted.

I went to the edge of Voyager with the Captain as he looked out over the water. “There, Captain. It is headed for us.”

“Don’t they ignore ships?” I asked.

“Most of them. But some think we are pray. Cultivator Yuan Zhou, will you assist us? This is an exploration vessel, not a hunting vessel,” the Captain replied.

“What would you do if I wasn’t here?” I asked.

“Fight, there is no other choice. But you have a smaller craft on which you could flee. If you assist, you would be granted half of the harvest.” With very few metals, the massive leviathans of the oceans of the Great World were considered extremely valuable. There were dedicated hunting vessels, but without metal weapons it was very hard to break through their scales, which is also what made them valuable.

Normally explosive barrels were tossed into the creature’s mouth in a hope to kill it, and then the corpse would be harvested. But since this was an exploration ship, not a hunting ship, they didn’t bring along a large number of explosives. They would have some as a last resort, but the ship itself did not have a thick, reinforced hull. This ship was built for speed, not combat, trade, or hunting.

These people had helped me out, but one of the massive sea creatures was an actual threat, even to me, due to their sheer size. I also disliked fighting. While I had hunted beasts before, there had been no other option. I could flee, but that would leave a bad taste in my mouth, when Captain Li Meifeng had been so helpful.

“I will fight.” Several of the crew members listening in relaxed and smiled at that statement.

“Thank you. Get those sails trimmed. Get the barrels to the aft of the ship. I want those ballistae strung. Move it!” The captain thanked me and then began issuing orders to his crew. The crew rushed about making preparations for the upcoming fight. We only had a couple of minutes before the leviathan was upon us.

I stood at the edge of the ship, looking out over the waters at the approaching leviathan. It was causing a surge of water in front of its body as it made for Voyager. The crew continued to make preparations behind me as Captain Li Meifeng began spinning the ship to turn away from the creature. I made my way to the rear of the ship.

“Isn’t this risking the rudder?” I asked the Captain, as multiple cord were lit on a pallet of barrels roped togeather and tossed over the side.

“A rear collision we might live. A front or side collision will shatter the entire ship,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. We watched as the leviathan reached the floating barrels, just as the fuse burned out. The massive, scaled creature surged out of the water. The barrels exploded in the creature’s face. There was some red blood and some of the scales had been blown away, but it just made the leviathan more angry.

I drew my sword as I considered how I should strike the creature. It would be like poking a human with a toothpick. It would hurt a lot, but difficult to get deep enough or deal enough damage to kill the leviathan. There was also the matter of leverage. I was on a wooden ship. Not solid ground. I would have a harder time leveraging a powerful strike.

The leviathan dove back under the water as it closed in on the Voyager. “Hard to port!” Captain Li Meifeng yelled out. The wooden ship swung to the left. The massive leviathan, larger than the ship itself surged out of the water, impacted the other side of the ship, shattering a portion of the starboard hull.

The entire wooden ship tilted opposite of the leviathan, several sailors went overboard. Others tried to shoot their bows and crossbows. The scales of the giant sea snake easily shrugged off the attacks. I rushed forward, across the tilted the deck. My boots easily finding purchase as sailors went tumbling past me.

The leviathan’s bulk began to tilt towards Voyager. It would split the ship in half by crashing through it. I leapt into the air, parallel to the large creature and swung. “One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth,” I muttered the words etched onto the blade as I focused and while rushing past the leviathan’s bulk. The blade didn’t slow down at the scales, as I focused a slight amount of energy into the blade.

Blood poured out like a waterfall from the massive cut. A large roar sounded over the ship, as I landed back on the deck as the leviathan tilted to the side, and fell towards the front part of the ship, not the middle. Another large section of the starboard side was ripped away.

There was shouting going on all around as the ship tilted back in the other direction. I could see the shadow of the leviathan in the water as well as a massive blood trail as it circled around. I quickly ran over to the port side of the ship. The leviathan surged back up, rushing towards the ship to bite it.

I recalled my training from the Cloudy Moon Sect so long ago. If the ship took another blow it was going to sink for sure. It was centuries ago, but I still remembered the training I had received from Elder Yi Meifeng and had practiced. The Parting Cloud Style of sword fighting.

Even with the tilting ship, I was sure of my footing. I brought my sword back, and channeled in a tenth of energy reserves into the blade, bring my sword up from pointing at the ground towards the sky in one fluid motion. The first form of the style.

The water parted as the leviathan lunged for the ship. My blow struck it head on. A large portion of its head and jaw split in half. The massive creature collapsed back into the water as the sailors fired arrows and bolts at the leviathan.

The screams and shouts quickly died off and there was a resounding cheer from the crew as well as Captain Li Meifeng. I was more pleased that the technique worked properly in this environment. I had tested it before while traveling with Yang Heng, but not in this bubble of reality, with no energy. The expenditure of energy to use such an attack was immense. Unfortunately, it was the only way to save the ship, before it took a second impact and completely shattered apart.

“Fish out the survivors, get to work on patching up the damage, and let’s get harvesting!” Captain Li Meifeng called out as I sheathed my sword. The second attack had vaporized any traces of blood on it. After a couple of minutes of making sure his ship didn’t sink, the crew that went over the side were pulled out, and the leviathan was being harvested, he came over to me.

“Thank you, Cultivator Yuan Zhou. Without you, would have all died,” he replied.

“You have been pleasant company Captain. Will you be able to harvest all of it?” I asked while gesturing at the floating carcass in the water, that sailors were already pulling hand sized scales out of.

“The scales and teeth yes. A small portion of meat as well. A few of the bones. We can only stay half a day at most, before the carcass will draw in another leviathan. Even hunter ships, would not take on two such beasts in rapid succession,” he replied.

“Really? It would seem like if you had multiple ships you could do such a thing?” I asked.

“They already hunt with multiple ships. Set up a small ship with bait as a decoy, get four ships around it to target the leviathan that is attracted. Even four ships would struggle to harvest a single creature. We will be lucky to get all the scales, since we also have to work on the damage,” he replied.

“We won’t sink?” I asked since Voyager was clearly listing to one side.

“The ship is designed to stay afloat even if the lower portion of the hull fills up with water. We will be limping back to port. Most of the other half of the harvest will be spent paying for repairs,” he said with a heavy sigh.

“You wouldn’t purchase a new ship?” I asked. This was an entirely new culture I needed to understand. In the Forever City, it was easier to just toss stuff away. Sure, there was some recycling, but very little effort to repair items on a large scale.

“The wood of these ships is made from a special water resistant tree, that is also lightweight, poisonous, and incredibly strong.” While these people didn’t have much metal, their wood skills and tree breeding was top notch. “If properly treated, the wood repels marine life from latching on.”

“It isn’t poisonous to people?” I asked, slightly concerned.

“Not unless you eat the wood. The wood is treated to lock the poison into the wood itself. The tree grows closer to the Life Light, which means it all has to be imported. It is expensive, but far cheaper than purchasing an entirely new ship,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. We turned back to watch the crew harvesting the massive creature.

Scales were pried up and yanked out, before being hauled up to the deck of Voyager in buckets. There were empty barrels that the scales were dumped into before the buckets were lowered again. The idea was to get as many materials off the leviathan as possible before we had to leave.

There was another crew working near the head, hacking away around the teeth to pull them out. There were bits of flesh attached to the scales and teeth. Captain Li Meifeng explained they could be cleaned off once we left, but it was important to get as much as we could right now from the creature.

I stayed to watch carefully looking for any sign of energy, but there was nothing that I could spot. “How long does it take a leviathan to grow to this size?” I asked.

“About 1 to 2 years. They grow quickly. See, they have a second set of teeth, behind the first set. They use those flatter teeth to filter and trap smaller fish. They aren’t valuable at all, since they easily break apart, unlike their more jagged teeth in front, which are made into weapons.”

“A bit large for weapons, each of those teeth are about the size of my arm,” I replied.

“Bone swords and spears are quite popular, since they hold their edge very well. It takes a lot of skill to work with leviathan parts. When we dock, this will be all sold off to a trader to take to a port with hunting ships,” Captain Li Meifeng explained.

“We aren’t going to the capital?” I asked and he shook his head.

“The capital for the Kingdom of Wu is quite far. There is no canal either, connecting the Emerald Ocean to the Sapphire Ocean.” This place was built into kind of rings like I had suspected. “Further on there are canals that connect the oceans. But there isn’t enough trade this far out to justify building one. Only at the edge of the Empire of Flame, will you run into a canal,” Captain Li Meifeng explained.

“You talked about bringing me to the Kingdom?” I asked.

“To the governor who controls the port we will be stopping at. They can assist you much better than I can and can speak to the King. You will have to cross the land to reach the capital at the edge of the Emerald Ocean. There are no known trade routes on the Sapphire Ocean, just explorers like us and hunter ships. Building a canal isn’t cheap. While there is talk to make a route direct route through the Great World, it is never easy. Especially with the lack of people and civilization out this far.”

“So, a canal is being built?” I asked.

“Possibly. New lands means new chances at finding metal, but it is very hard to grow anything beyond the Emerald Ocean. Beyond the Saphire Ocean, it is even harder. The temperature is quite harsh, along with the snowstorms, which can kill everything in their path.” I nodded at this. The snowstorms were quite rough. “There has been work on aqua farms, but they take a lot of resources to set up and protect from the cold.”

“But it takes time to build,” I replied. While this place might be millennia old, the outer portions of the Great World were just too barren to grow stuff in and maintain a steady food supply. It would be like investing in a place like Alaska back on Earth. While there might be lots of metal and other resources in Alaska, there weren’t that many resources out here, with the lack of metal.

“A lot of time and investment. A Kingdom also has to defend it boarders, contribute to its Empire, and the distance makes things even more difficult,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. I looked back at the sailors who had gone up and down the length of the carcass, harvesting scales. Now they were rotating the creature slightly.

“Surprised they know how to harvest a leviathan,” I replied.

“I have had a few officers that have served on board a hunter ship and we have killed one in the past. No one wants to leave money behind. I would day you would be set for life with your half, but you are a cultivator.”

“It will be good to have some money,” I replied. It would stop me from having to sell the stuff I had in my spatial storage. The energy bars and metal were insanely valuable. But I needed to find out what this place had that I wanted, if anything. I would need to speak to an actual cultivator.

The governor would be a good first step to make arrangements. After that I would have to think on the specific situation itself. If there was a chance to trade or start up a business, I might consider it, if there was something valuable enough. I doubted it though. What I needed was energy, and there was no energy.

I might have considered technological knowledge, but this place’s advanced technology was wood working. I noted that a lot of tools being used were made out of bone. I had no idea if it was leviathan bone or another type. It could be human bone for all I knew. While interesting, that felt like going backwards in terms of equipment.