CHAPTER 150: THE EGG CRACKS

The light and energy were blinding, forcing me to look away. Whatever power source the war machine had used, just went super critical. Everything in a large spherical radius that had been in that area was wiped out. The giant worm, paste. The molten metal, blasted away. The solid metal under the initial molten metal layer, turned molten and blasted away as well.

That entire section of the barrier sphere, was pushed outwards as the shockwave spread out. We were over halfway to the Citadel when the war machine exploded and I could see the shockwave spreading out after the massive initial explosion. It was visible in the air and the molten metal.

Since we had been close to the war machine at the start compared to the rest of the sphere, we were at risk of getting hit by the shockwave. We could try and circle around the citadel, but that would take long. Trying to weather the shockwave seemed like a bad idea.

The earlier attack by the demonic cultivator was more immediate and instant, but it wasn’t sustained. Like a quick slap instead of a heavy punch with follow through. This shockwave had lots of follow through. That was one reason why it was moving outwards slower than the demonic cultivator’s attack. Also, the energy of this environment was resisting the explosion.

I noted the red glowing barrier around Chaos was still there off in the distance. Not even the war machine was crazy enough to mess with it. Our only chance of not being blown about like leaves in the storm was making it to the Citadel. I didn’t hesitate to swing my blade.

There was a lot of resistance to my swing as I flew forward. Space snapped back into place behind me, but I had gained even more distance. Sorry teammates, but this skill didn’t accept other people. No following after me Shen.

The spatial suppression was getting worse. I felt my sense of danger spike, I jerked myself to the side. A lance of light and energy shot downwards, missing me. A couple others came from the Citadel striking some of my teammates that didn’t dodge time.

The shockwave was closing in and the distance was still too great. “One Swing To Accomplish Anything!” Space ripped apart as I put everything I had to moving forward. The spatial suppression stuttered and failed for a moment as the formation that I had weakened over time, in this specific area failed. The formations hadn’t rotated while the outside of the citadel had. Another mistake by the demonic cultivator, aligning the damaged outside section with the weakened formation.

I appeared right before the metal of the citadel and rapidly swung my sword, cutting out a patch. Shen appeared right behind me and entered right behind me. He didn’t hesitate to pull the metal I had cut back into place behind us, stopping any of our other teammates from following after us. I turned away and began rapidly flying down a large hallway deeper into the citadel.

There was no time to say anything as the shockwave hit the citadel. The outer portion collapse, but the shockwave didn’t enter the hallway. I let out a breath of relief. Looking around, there were dim red lights and metal everywhere. There were no signs or other markings.

“Well, at least we made it,” Shen said with a grin.

“By following right behind. A bit too shameless,” I said while turning to face him. He quickly raised his hands and backed off.

“Ah, I just saw an opportunity and took it. I didn’t hinder you in the slightest,” he said and I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like others taking advantage of me, even if it didn’t hurt me.

“That is twice. If you try a third time after this warning, then I won’t be so polite anymore,” I replied.

“I completely understand. Just trying to survive, my apologies,” Shen said. Shameless, he was completely shameless like me. “So, any idea on what we should do now?”

“Learn what we can and find a place to hide. Right now the outside is going to get more chaotic. We have no chance against the demonic cultivator, so we need to gather information and find a safe place to hole up until the Gu is finished or the demonic cultivator is killed,” I explained.

“Well, that means heading towards the center. That will be the safest place most likely to survive. Also, dangerous if the demonic cultivator notices us,” Shen replied, saying what I had already figured out. I turned away from him and continued into the interior of the citadel. This place was massive, the size of a star.

The demonic cultivator wasn’t expecting any guests and nothing was labeled. I pulled out my devices to keep checking the direction as we went through the tunnels towards the center of this place, fairly slowly. There was less urgency and there was no need to alert the demonic cultivator by rampaging about.

We finally came to a large formation chamber. The intricacy and size of everything rivaled that of the Infinite Ring Complex. I went inside this large chamber to look at the symbology used. Shen followed after me, looking about. “Don’t mess with anything. Just look,” I said since I wasn’t sure what Shen would do.

“Got it,” he replied. I stared at him for a couple of seconds before I began to carefully look around to try and understand anything of what I was seeing. Even if I didn’t understand, it would be good knowledge to accumulate and mentally review later on.

The level of detail was incredibly impressive as well as the material used. Clearly the demonic cultivator had saved the good stuff for his citadel. The amount of energy moving through everything was immense, but I could see no immediate source. There were probably transmission arrays buried in the formations. Looking at everything made me feel like an ignorant caveman. I knew I was compared to what I knew of symbology and what I had seen of this place.

After a day of looking around, I was done and Shen was waiting for me near the exit. “See anything interesting?” he asked me.

“Not really. There are portions that deal with the environment, but how they tie into the overall Gu Container is hard to determine. I am guessing they control the plasma on the outside, weapon emplacements, and spatial suppression,” I replied.

“A shame we don’t dare risk messing anything up,” Shen replied.

“Our only hope is to be too small and not cause trouble so the demonic cultivator doesn’t instantly kill us. If you want to go back there and back trouble, I won’t stop you,” I said.

“Ah, no. Just wishing we could dismantle this place to stop his plan,” Shen replied. He clearly had a screw or two loose in his head. Stopping this plan? That was impossible. The demonic cultivator had invested too much into this plan for it to be easily thwarted.

“You are welcome to stop him. I plan to hide and escape to live another day. While I might have harbored some thoughts about grabbing the Gu, that was only before I saw everything the demonic cultivator was capable of. What even gives you the confidence to suggest such a thing?” I asked, curious about this immortal who seemed to have a death wish.

“Oh, just thinking about how he created a mess and deserves to be punished.” Okay, Shen had a lot wrong with his head.

“Well, you can rush in at the critical moment to try and disrupt everything. I will be hiding and cheering you on,” I replied.

“I am surprised you made it this far without being more aggressive. You aren’t part of a super organization, are you?” Shen asked.

“There is a difference between being aggressive and being suicidal. Whatever ranking immortals use, the demonic cultivator is at least one or two levels higher than us,” I replied.

“One,” Shen replied.

“One what? Level?” I asked.

“Yes. As an immortal you are a level four being. The demonic cultivator has taken on a domain, which is why he is level five. He is hoping to use this Gu Container to push him to level six, freeing himself from the higher forces inherit in energy and reality,” Shen explained. At least my new companion was highly knowledgeable.

“Do these levels correspond to the bottlenecks?” I asked.

“For the most part. The first three are easy, the later ones are tricky,” Shen replied and I could only shake my head. His vision was wider than mine, but I was a new immortal. I might have some tricks, but it would be like hoping I could beat a powerful immortal after crossing my second bottleneck. That was never going to happen.

“What about level seven?” I asked.

“I will let you know if we meet again after I get there,” Shen replied with confidence. He truly was shameless, but he had confidence at least. Some people were just different and had all the luck apparently.

“What super organization did you say you were from?” I asked.

“Ah, I am a bit of free spirit like yourself,” Shen replied with a grin. That meant he was capable and troublesome. I already knew that, but it was all the confirmation I needed.

“Well, you are welcome to go for the Gu if that is your plan. Just leave me out of it completely. Birds die for food, humans die for wealth, cultivators die for power,” I countered with a proverb.

“I like that. But I won’t be dying any time soon. You don’t need to worry about me,” Shen said. I could only shake my head at his words. I was a bit curious how he had made it this far without dying horribly. He had to have been incredibly lucky. He seemed like the person who would get lucky and just smile at it all, despite his shamelessness.

It was aggravating to think there existed a person like this, who had reached immortality with a smile and an easy-going attitude. Well, he would get a wake-up call when the demonic cultivator looked at him and he died horribly screaming in pain and suffering.

“What about the war machine, what level would you call that?” I asked.

“It would be a high level 4 or a low level 5. Machines are difficult to place in the level system designed for biological creatures. It all depends on their power output. That was a fairly strong replicator. The problem is that building anything beyond that is next to impossible. I don’t think I have ever heard of a machine reaching level 6,” Shen said. Despite his faults at least he was willing to share information.

“And how would one go from level 4 to level 5, creating a domain?” I asked.

“Lots and lots of energy. Your soul needs to get a lot stronger. You think the other bottlenecks were bad, that one is a massive headache. Everything needs to be perfect. One mistake and you are a snack for Chaos or explode or any number of things. I am figuring it out as I go along. Consider the information as payment for letting me use you as shield and hitching ride on your spatial slash,” Shen said.

While Shen might be completely shameless at least he wasn’t an asshole. The combination of both would have been too much. At least he knew how to repay a minor debt.

“More headache then and something to worry about for later,” I replied.

“You don’t want to try and siphon some of the energy going into the Gu?” he asked me.

“And die horribly? You go ahead and do that. I am very stubborn about risk. Now that the biggest risk has been handled and we are here, no need to increase the chance more than needed,” I countered.

“But think of the possible benefits. A place like this has to have a treasury,” Shen said.

“And you are welcome to look for it. I will find a place to survive. Once I escape I plan to visit home and then hole up somewhere for a long time,” I replied.

“Boring and risky. Only my going out there and taking from the more powerful will you rise up,” Shen explained. I now finally understood the saying that was common across the Firmament. Anything that can happen, will eventually happen. Shen was proof of this.

He had probably stolen benefits and advanced somehow. There were probably an uncountable number of cultivators like him, but he was the only one to survive to this point. He had developed the belief he was somehow the main character of his life and would come out ahead. Perhaps someone like him would succeed one day, but I wanted nothing to do with such a person. When he failed, it would be a failure of epic proportions.

As we flew through the metal tunnels of the citadel, I could only imagine how Shen would die. Each one more horrible than the last. From being peeled like a grape by the demonic cultivator to grabbing the Gu and exploding from its power.

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I knew my limits. I had reached immortality and this place was way above my level. While I might not get stronger more quickly, I had time. Time to fix my foundation, time to gather energy, time to get more equipment, and time to get far away from such a dangerous place. I had already gotten benefits from this place in the form of advancing my cultivation, a new sword, and a sword technique.

There were other bits of knowledge of course, but I had come out ahead. Doubling down to try and get more benefits at this critical junction when the demonic cultivator was just ahead was pure madness.

The levels that Shen had mentioned were interesting, but not surprising. It would make sense that whatever powers that existed out there looked at bottlenecks, not as smaller rankings. That was what it meant to have a wider vision.

Thinking about the future, creating a domain, and then breaking away from higher level effects, that was far beyond me at the moment. It had taken so long to get this far, that I wanted a vacation, especially after this Gu Container. This place had been a nightmare in so many ways.

I had no regrets about my actions, even the demonic consumption, since without going down that path I wouldn’t have survived. I would have been like everyone else, being killed as they tried to make it to the citadel.

We came across another side room. For being a massive construction, most of this portion of the citadel was just large hallways. We had come across one side area with incredibly complex formations. This second side room was a control room of some kind. Multiple metallic golems worked at adjusting controls for weapons and other aspects of the Gu Container.

The golems were larger than me by a slight bit and were humanoid shaped. “The demonic cultivator isn’t monitoring anything,” Shen without lowering his voice. I looked at the golems with worry, but they didn’t react. “If they were going to react to us, they already would have with how everything is monitored. With how they are acting, they will only do something if we cause trouble or interfere.”

“Perhaps,” I replied with a bit of hesitation. I wouldn’t be so careless myself. I did look at the massive monitor that was set up, showing a bit of the outside of the citadel. The barrier sphere had broken open and the ocean of blood was pouring in. As the liquid hit the super heated metal there was steam of some kind and the metal shifted due to the rapid change in heat, creating more weak points.

The entire central area was falling apart as the edge of the Gu Container got closer. The gravity pushing outwards from the citadel was starting to come in conflict with the gravity pushing in from the edge. Things would turn into even more of a mess.

“Anything interesting?” I asked while looking at Shen.

“No. This is just one of many sub-control areas if I had to guess. They are only handling a fraction of the area around the citadel. The core functions are probably near the center. There might be layers to this place. This would be the outer layer,” Shen explained, and I nodded at this.

“I don’t understand how they will handle the matter and energy to make the Gu,” I replied as I looked about for any clues, staying in the doorway with Shen, out of the way of the golems.

“Hmm, I don’t have a good understanding of this either. I would guess that there is a filter at the edge of the Gu Container. Matter is annihilated by the spatial turbulence. Energy is taken from everywhere and funneled into the main area of the Gu Container,” Shen said.

“Then would this place be safe?” I asked.

“Maybe? We will have to go deeper to get answers,” Shen replied. I didn’t want to, but there was no other choice. If this outer part of the citadel was designed to be lost or sacrificed, then waiting around would be foolish. There was sure to be a core area that would hold the answers and safety we wanted.

We picked up our speed, since there had been no traps or other defenses. Even the golems had completely ignored us. Either the demonic cultivator was over confident about no one reaching his citadel or there was another barrier coming up. This area felt more like an outer shell or a wall that would be used for attacking and defense.

When this area transitioned to another one, then we would get a better idea of the defenses of this place. The hallway soon ended in a doorway. There was no control panel, arrays, or formations that we could see. However there was a higher concentration of energy in the door and the nearby walls. We had come to the first barrier in a transition to a more central location.

“It is obviously a trap,” I muttered while looking over the doorway. “The energy pulses at small but discrete intervals. If it is interrupted in any way, something will probably trigger. An alert, attack golems, or traps,” I said.

“It extends through the wall as well. This is definitely a major transition point,” Shen replied while we both looked at the doorway in front of us. There was a small line in the middle, showing that this was a doorway and the hallway ending here. I checked my devices to make sure we hadn’t been turned around, and we hadn’t been. This was the way to the center of the citadel.

“I have no idea where to even start. A brute force approach would be dangerous without knowing what is beyond the doorway. For all we know it leads to an actual dead end with traps and explosions,” I said.

“Most likely. I could try and subvert the energy pulses, but it isn’t worth the hassle. Let’s explore some more, see if there are other rooms or more doorways. We have a lot of time,” Shen said, and I nodded at this.

While everything was collapsing outside the citadel and the edge was closing in more quickly, we had years of time left before the edge of the Gu Container got close to this place. One thing I was sure of, was that we needed to get closer to the center before the edge got close. Waiting around was shown to be a bad idea. I had no clue how someone would survive the chaotic environment outside the citadel.

We began exploring the hallways togeather, looping around the core of the citadel. There wasn’t much to find. There was no gravity, but it didn’t matter since we could both fly. Beyond formation rooms and control rooms with golems, there was nothing else.

The more we explored the greater the understanding we got of the layout of the place. It was all repeated over and over, which made sense.

“Look at this. Sense the energy flow carefully behind this wall,” I pointed out to Shen.

“There is a lot of energy moving here. All headed towards the center of this place,” Shen replied, and I nodded.

“It aligns with the formation rooms. As the space collapses, they feed energy into the center, into the Gu. I don’t know how it helps us, but it is a clear connection between this outer part and the next layer of the citadel,” I explained.

“The demonic cultivator is probably keeping the intake rate as balanced as possible. The formation rooms are quite deep. You thinking about making a mess?” Shen asked me.

“I am not sure yet. The layout of this place just repeats over and over. If I was the demonic cultivator I wouldn’t even make actual doors to the core. We use a hallway to cut through the metal of this place very carefully. The energy pulses are only blocking the way forward. Let’s try and approach near this energy conduit. There might be a gap,” I explained.

Shen got a thoughtful look as he considered my idea. We didn’t trust each other, but neither of us wanted to make a major misstep. We were on the same boat, which meant both of us were willing to work togeather to avoid capsizing.

“It could work. This place is too big to monitor everything,” Shen replied. We approached the section of the citadel, where we suspected there was an energy conduit leading towards the center, and as close to the energy pulse barrier.

I got out my sword and began slowly cutting into the metal. There was no response or a defense to what we were doing. I kept cutting a chunk of metal faster and faster. The metal was quite tough but was no match for my new sword and spatial cutting technique. It was tricky cutting out chunks, but the trick was to use a combination of technique to cut at near right angles, so chunks of metal could be removed.

Eventually I came to a stop as the metal changed to something much more energy dense. Shen stepped forward and held his hand over the metal. I looked over at him. “It is energy coming from all across the Gu Container. It is going towards the center. Some sort of large energy pump system, focused on the Gu Container itself.”

I then began to cut towards the center, following the pipe we had discovered. I stopped once we came to metal that had the energy pulse moving through it. “Let’s block up the passage we just cut out and then I can get to work bypassing this,” Shen explained.

While it would make sense having a trap behind a doorway, this was near a core feature of the citadel. Having a large trap behind this wall we had cut to would be too dangerous. We filled up the passage we had made with the chunks of metal we had cut out. Once that was done, I stood behind Shen as he got to work.

He slowly touched the metal wall with energy pulses. “It is slightly irregular to throw off someone trying to subvert it. The response would have to be quite strong. Maybe some kind of teleportation,” he replied.

“I am counting on you,” I said.

“Don’t worry. This kind of trap is nothing. Just a bit tricky. But we aren’t in a rush, so no problem. The best way is to match the energy pulse and divert it around an area. It requires a slow reconfiguration of the metal and the inherent energy that is a part of it. Like how energy would move around the doorway in a specific pattern. I am creating my own doorway,” he explained for my benefit.

It was a slow process. Day after day went by, but I didn’t complain or interrupt. Shen took a break several times as well while he kept an eye on if his changes had worked. He first made a circle wide enough we could move through before making that circle go into the wall.

The wall was only about as thick as I was tall, so much thinner than I had been expecting. Shen then carefully removed a large cylinder of metal and put it inside one his spatial storages. Looking through the hole he had made, there was nothing on the other side except a large gap and then another sphere with several pipes going over the gap connecting to it.

“I think that is our center and where the Gu is being made,” I pointed out quietly. A sphere inside of a sphere. Not that imaginative, but it didn’t need to be.

“Yes. A large gap. The only connections are those pipes moving in energy. Whatever kind of containment and compression the demonic cultivator is using is bound to take up most of the core area. It also means that this outer part will most likely be sacrificed if necessary,” Shen said.

“Most likely. But crossing that huge void to get the main core, will be troublesome. There are probably golems and other defenses. The demonic cultivator wouldn’t create a gap unless he would place defenses,” I said.

“Maybe not. If those pipes are damaged, it would be bad. It would be too easy to create a chain reaction. If all that energy is released at once, it wouldn’t be good,” Shen pointed out.

“That is why there would be active defenses to protect this area. While he might not care about one or two formations, the demonic cultivator is sure to act if we make a mess out there. Even just crossing is a huge risk,” I replied.

“Then what do you suggest? Wait here until it is too late?” Shen countered with a very good point. I didn’t want to wait here, since this location wasn’t safe. That meant crossing the large open space to the inner sphere, the core of this place where the Gu was being made and where the demonic cultivator was currently residing.

“We can take our time to think and observe. Can you make the hole bigger?” I asked.

“No. Any bigger and the energy pulse will be disrupted. It is at the very limit of what I can do safely,” Shen replied.

“Well, you want to pop your head out first?” I asked and gestured at the hole. Shen didn’t respond, since that idea came with a lot of risks. A risk neither of us wanted to take to get a better understanding of what awaited us in the gap between the outer and inner portions of this citadel.

There was silence as we both kept looking through the hole Shen had made. I let out a sigh and cut out a small chunk of regular metal from the section behind me. “We throw this threw and see what happens,” I suggested.

Shen slowly nodded a this and I threw the hind sized piece of metal through the hole we had made. I had aimed directly straight so we could keep a good eye on it. After a minute there was a flash where the chunk of metal had been and then nothing left there.

“Well, that is a bad idea,” I muttered.

“There are two solutions. The first we find a way to enter one of those energy pipes to sneak into the core,” Shen suggested.

“The pipes that are channeling energy from all around the Gu Container to create the Gu. You want us to try and go through one of those pipes?” I looked like Shen had lost his mind.

“It is one solution. The other is to set up traps to activate at the various formation rooms, disrupting as much as possible. We create a big enough mess, disrupting the pulse barrier that detects intrusions, and send a rain of debris towards the core of this citadel to overwhelm the defenses and the demonic cultivator,” Shen suggested. They were decent ideas as a way to make progress, but in terms of control and safety both were horrible.

“You must have some idea how to survive in one of these energy pipes?” I asked.

“I was hoping you might have something. There is no way they can be monitored,” he answered. I shook my head.

“That much energy, it would be hard to block out from overwhelming us. And then is the problem of getting out of the pipe that feeds into whatever mechanism is creating the Gu,” I said. I turned to look at the pipe next to us. “That piece of metal we threw was next to the pipe, so we can’t just hug one to get across that large gap.”

The citadel shook slightly. Something was happening and I had no idea how serious it was. We needed to keep making progress or gathering more information, but the demonic cultivator was making things as difficult as possible.

“Using the pipes would require working how the formations work, entering, and exiting them safely. Unless you have the skills, I don’t see it as remotely possible,” I replied as I looked back out of the hole. “Or a third option. What about that, down there, in the distance.”

I moved out of the way as Shen took a look. “That doesn’t look like a pipe,” he replied.

“Exactly. It could be a bridge. In case the demonic cultivator needed to come out to the main area. While it is probably just as impossible to get past, we could take a look. It might reveal something,” I replied, and Shen nodded at this.

We left the hole we had cut, replacing the chunks of metal we had removed except the final circular hole that had Shen had made to get around the pulsing energy through the inner wall of the outer citadel.

It took a while as we rapidly moved through the passages of the outer citadel to where we had seen a possible connection to the inner citadel. This place was eerily quiet. No hums or other noises. The only noise was from the movement of air during our passage through the corridors.

I didn’t believe we would find a solution at the bridge I had spotted but was hopeful it would reveal more about the defenses of this place. Once we had a better understanding, we could come up with a plan to cross over to the inner citadel.

There was a way to make arrays and turn those into bombs, but the buildup of energy would be very obvious. Right now I was acting under the assumption that the demonic cultivator didn’t know we were here or we weren’t worth the trouble of dealing with.

If either of those things changed, we would have zero chance and be immediately wiped out. We had a basic understanding of how things worked, but it was like someone from the middle ages, going into a modern manufacturing plant. They could see things being done and could relate those processes to things they knew, but the fine details were completely beyond them.

That was the case for both Shen and myself. We could work out the larger concepts of how things worked, but understanding the details was a massive struggle. Like the flash of light that had vanished that small chunk of metal. What kind of principles would go into such a detection system? Was that disintegration or something else? Sure the chunk of metal was wiped out, but we had no clue about how such a thing worked.

That was why we were heading to the only part of this place that seemed unique. The idea being, we would learn more and gain a better understanding of the protections this place used. Unlike a human building, most of this place was built with solid chunks of metal. That would make attacking through the citadel much more difficult.

The demonic cultivator probably scooped up a much of material from the Mechanical Layer to build this place. At least the outer portions. For this citadel, the material was of a much higher quality and I had no doubt that the inner citadel would have even better material used in its construction. The energy infused into the metal was probably higher than anything I had seen, including my new sword.