Calculating Cultivation

I looked out at the massive waves crashing onto the coast. I knew the ocean was rough, but this was crazy. The waves were about ten feet, or three meters tall. And this was supposed to be when things were calmest at the coast. The coast was all rock, there were very few sand beaches, with how rough the waves were.

Looking out at the crashing waves, I didn’t expect anything to get easier in my hunt for a green ocean lily. I was now 35 years old with 1.2 million points aligned. I was running short on time. While I could delay things, the more I dealt with all the little details I knew why the Sect Leader had been insistent on time.

Even my first master Yi Rong had run out of a time. Hundreds of years seemed like a long time. But sorting out massive headaches, traveling, and just spending cultivation ate up day after day. Right now I needed to get green ocean lilies. At least two. One for myself, for the Pill of Peace, to pursue mind cultivation, and one for my business plan involving mining everywhere. The one lily would fund everything.

My visit and payments to information brokers had shown that the one sect that might be able to help me in my quest was the Crashing Wave Sect based on the coast. I needed their help, if I was going to have any chance. I had some rank 3 spirit stones for trade, which might prove useful, but it was the backing of my Sect Leader that I was hoping would see me through this.

This sect was located at the top and the side of a massive cliff, and series of rocks that jutted out from the ocean. It wasn’t a mountaintop, but it was unique in its own way. Cultivators like dramatic places for their sects. Having an amazing backdrop for their sect was another form of prestige and inspiration for higher ranked cultivators.

There was no wall around the Crashing Wave Sect’s location, but I am sure they had formations ready to go in case they needed to defend themselves. While there was no wall, there was a gatehouse across the road. A sect disciple stood under the gate. I noted their symbol was three waves rising up from the ocean.

“Greetings,” I said and inclined my head slightly as I came to a stop in front of the disciple.

“What brings a disciple from another sect to our gate?” the disciple asked me.

“My name is Yuan Zhou, and I am the personal disciple of Sect Leader Jiang Fengge of the Cloudy Moon Sect, and have the backing of elder Xu Xiaoli of the Imperial Sect.” I gave my backing right away and I could see the disciple’s eyes get a bit wider and he straightened up. “I have come here to request a trade. I look to journey into the ocean and was told your sect would be the one to speak to.”

“You swear you mean no harm and will obey all rules?” the disciple asked me.

“As long as no harm is done to me and any rules are explained,” I replied with the standard response to the disciple’s greeting. It was mostly used when members or elders traveled. Very rarely did disciple ranked cultivators traveled about like I was doing. Still the formalities existed for a reason.

“Steal no secrets and tread carefully.”

“I am honored to be hosted by the Crashing Wave Sect,” I said and inclined my head towards the symbol on the gate, much deeper than I had done for the disciple. I was showing respect to the sect, not the disciple. Since I was coming to ask for help, I had to be humble. If I had been a disciple of the Imperial Sect, I could have kept my head eye and looked down on others.

“Come, I will show you to Elder Bo. He will speak with you,” the disciple said. I followed him from the gatehouse to a building that was clearly reserved for visitors. A mortal woman served me tea and biscuits, while I waited.

An hour later, the Elder showed up. He was an older man with the smell of salt about him. “Disciple Yuan Zhou, greets Elder Bo,” I said while quickly standing up and bowed. Enough to convey respect, but not too much, since I had quite a bit of backing of my own.

“Welcome Yuan Zhou, sit, sit,” he said. I nodded at this. “The Cloudy Moon Sect, and the Imperial Sect, what brings a disciple like yourself out to our remote corner of the coast,” he said.

“Matters of cultivation elder. I am looking to explore the ocean depths. I was told that your sect has specific arrays that could be used for such a purpose. I was hoping for a trade,” I said.

“The ocean is death for someone of your rank. Either rank 3, or rank 2 it doesn’t matter. The beasts of the water are not simple. And you seek a treasure. It will be even worse,” the elder replied.

“I have accepted that I might die, but it is very important for me to find the resources, I need for my cultivation. There will be no consequence if I run into death myself,” I explained. The elder gave me another look at that and was silent for at least half a minute while he considered me.

“The ocean is fierce, and without mercy. The beasts in its depths are all rank 5 or higher. The crushing pressure, salt, cold, and lack of light are just some of the many things that will kill you,” he said.

“I understand, but there is no other choice for me. That was why I was hoping to purchase the arrays your sect uses for descending into the depths,” I asked. The Imperial Sect might have such things, but they weren’t for public sale, and they didn’t focus on the ocean.

The Crashing Wave sect was focused entirely on the ocean to a much greater extent. Their knowledge of the issues that the ocean presented for lower level cultivators was much greater, since their sect was based on the coast. Even now I could hear the crashing of the massive waves against the cliff nearby.

“You would need a full body protection formation, built into a diving outfit. You would also need vision goggles. I am guessing you want to go incredibly deep, so rank 5 equipment at the minimum. Can you afford it?” he asked me.

“I would like to leave a sword as collateral. When I return with the equipment, I would want my sword back, minus a small fee to use it,” I explained.

“Show me the sword,” the elder replied and I pulled it out of one of my spatial rings. He carefully pulled it out of its sheathe before putting it back inside. “The sword is worth slightly more, so it is acceptable. You have the spirit stones to power it?” he asked me.

“Rank 3 spirits stones. How long would each last?” I asked.

“Depends on the depth. There will be a power gauge on the suit itself. There are two other major issues. The first is your low cultivation rank, even if it feels odd. Your body can only take so much pressure, before you can no longer breathe.” I nodded at this. “You will have a depth gauge, for someone of the second rank?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied, and he let out a sigh.

“Of the second rank. If you enter the yellow or the red markers, you will have to manage your ascent carefully. Otherwise, your body will be ripped apart. The suit will help, but it can only do so much. The second major issue is stealth. At the depths you will be going to and the water, it isn’t possible to hide from the beasts.”

I nodded at that. “Thankfully, most of them prefer not to move. They have fought for their areas, and are content to let things be unless provoked. No treasure under the water is unguarded. If you do not see a beast, it is merely hiding.”

“And escaping?” I asked.

“That would be on you. Also, your spatial rings. Be careful about placing stuff into them. Water will rush in from the pressure. While you can extract stuff, putting anything inside will pull a lot of water in as well and stress their capacity,” I nodded at this.

“That is it?” I asked.

“No, but we would not teach you any techniques. And do not bring trouble back here. We have a truce with the beasts near our sect. Only with your master and the Imperial Sect’s backing would I even consider this,” Elder Bo replied, and I nodded at that statement. “You are going to die.”

“That is my choice. But heading into the ocean is something I must do.” I had my own plans after spending time in Imperial City. I had spent 10 rank 3 spirit stones, for various supplies, but I wasn’t a complete idiot.

“Well, this sword will be quite nice. I promise to hold onto it for at least ten years for your return. Come Yuan Zhou, let’s get you fitted in your diving suit and vision goggles,” he said.

He disappeared my blade and I felt my heart pang at its separation. While I didn’t like fighting, it had kept me safe several times. Now it would be used as collateral as I made another gamble with my life. Elder Bo took me down the cliff from the sect, to a building built into the rock.

We descended down in the ground and then took a passage out into the ocean, under the water. I didn’t say anything. An elder wouldn’t even think of robbing me or killing me. Not with the negative attention it could bring., with my status. It just wasn’t worth the headache or a fight breaking out. Even if he killed me and claimed I disappeared in the water, the risk of an actual investigation and negative attention was too high. The risk versus reward of such a thing, had too little reward for an elder and too much risk. That was why I wasn’t worried about my safety.

We went through an airlock, I felt the air pressure go up, but it didn’t affect me too much. “This is our deep dive chamber. If you return, you should return here. Going by the shore, can be difficult,” Elder Bo said. He began looking through a rack of various wetsuit looking clothing. “You are quite small,” he said. I looked like a 12-year-old.

“Well, no matter. This diving suit will do. Take off all your clothes, everything. Since the suit will process wastes,” he said. I began to strip down, including my underwear. I even put on my spatial rings into their designated slots in the diving suit. The first thing that went on was a special set of underwear. A bear of wetsuit shorts, with metal plates around the portions that went over my rear and groin.

The entire setup reminded me of a spacesuit. A very high tech one, that was one single complete package for long term exploration. At least there wasn’t a catheter and arrays were used instead. I don’t think I could have dealt with something like that.

“When you use the bathroom, the waste will be pulled through an array and expelled into the water. This will reveal your location very easily. Now the main diving suit goes over everything.” I put it on and he made sure the connection between the paired undergarment and the suit was secure.

“With all the arrays, you will get a single day per rank 3 spirit core. This is one of our better diving suits.” Thick boots, gloves, and support were all given to me, and I put them on. Elder Bo made sure they were secure. The goggles were put on, and then a helmet went over that.

I gave Elder Bo a rank 3 spirit stone, as he put on the belt and showed me where to put the stone. “Once I clamp the breather in, you will go into that pool of water. There are three gauges in your goggles. Pressure safety, is the first one. If you go into the yellow and red, you must ascend slowly,” he said.

“The second one, is a power gauge. Once it hits the mark, add another stone to the pouch on your belt. No matter what happens, this is incredibly critical. If you go past the second mark on the gauge, many support features will shut up to preserve your life. But you may still die. The last gauge shows the direction back here,” Elder Bo said.

“Got it,” I replied. He then put on the breathing mask and locked it in place. He showed me the quick release clasps, but told me if I used them, the diving suit would be compromised, and I wouldn’t have the skill to hook it all up again. A helmet went on, meshing around the goggles and facemask. The air felt a bit stale, but I didn’t complain. This kind of diving suit was clearly a sect treasure.

While not that valuable or important as an individual item, it represented years of work by the sect into creating something like this diving suit. With the preparations complete, I was pushed into the water. I struggled for a moment in panic, but quickly calmed down.

Everything was quite clear, only a short distance away from me. After that everything became fuzzier. I felt slightly warm and there was no discomfort. I could breathe without issues. Looking around, the entry point into the ocean from the sect, was a large stone extension, built like the little letter ‘r’. There was a hanging portion, I had entered the water from a hole in the floor.

While it seemed counterintuitive, it was better to stay right above the ocean floor. I wouldn’t find any green ocean lilies floating about. On top of that, any beast roaming would do so in open water. The resting beasts would do so on the ocean floor. The resting beasts, while incredibly dangerous, were the safer of the two options.

The green ocean lilies would not be simple or easy to find. They grew at great depths. I would need to descend quite deep to find one. I slowly began kicking my way through the water. One neat feature about the diving suit was that the boots would extend into fines while in the water.

Swimming through the water. I was slow. My cultivation rank only stopped me from getting too tired. But it provided limited help in going quickly. That was frustrating, but I knew quick escapes wouldn’t be simple deep in the ocean. Humans weren’t sea creatures naturally.

At least there were no low level beasts, which was why I was comfortable using my sword as collateral for this diving suit. I just kept swimming deeper and deeper. The sun was quickly lost to my sight. Only the one gauge indicating the direction of the Crashing Wave Sect along with the distance, kept me from losing my direction. They had this whole diving suit ready to go.

While the Imperial Sect might be able to sell any individual component, getting everything powered from one spirit stone and as streamlined as it was, showed that there had been a lot of research into this one topic. That is why I had come to this sect, over any other sect near the coast. The Imperial Sect had good information brokers, which greatly sped all of this up.

Time was something I lost track of. There was a straw in the breathing mask to sip from a small reservoir of fresh water that was filled up using the spirit stone. My spatial rings were somehow linked with the suit, so I could take pills and have small pieces of jerky pulled from my spatial rings inside a portion of my breathing mask.

It was an imperfect system, but I had no complaints. This meant I could go for quite a while, with the hope I would find a green ocean lily. I was keeping my eye out for any concentration of motes. If the green ocean lily was out here, it would probably be like the beast garden I had gotten the blue moon orchids from.

There was very little life in the ocean. Just a lot of water. Most of my travel just consisted of staying a certain height above the ocean floor and moving away from the sect. I didn’t have a map for underwater areas either, which meant I had to search blind.

I kept track of the time, by the number of stones I switched out. I had 24 rank 3 spirit stones left. Using more than ten would be a huge risk, in terms of getting back to shore. No one said what was really far out in the ocean. The Sect Leader had mentioned the Firmament, but from what I could gather, it wasn’t some place reached by boat. But I could be wrong about this, since I hadn’t done any research.

One problem at a time. I needed to keep my eyes open. Whenever I saw a beast core in the distance, I steered clear. It was not worth getting near resting beasts. I also saw one beast moving through the water above me. Their bulk was massive, a Levithan. They ignored me completely. It would have been nice to have had Roaring Twilight team up with me, to make this simple, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The depth gauge was yellow after a day. After three days in the ocean, it was edging into the red. I was also quickly losing hope, not having found anything that might point me in the right direction. I had taken a look the beasts, but there was nothing nearby. I only kept track of time by the power gauge in the goggles I was wearing.

Going to the bathroom was uncomfortable, and I made sure to do it far away from any monsters. I could have used pills to keep myself going, but was warned not to do that. It was important that my body function normally with how the arrays interacted with it and kept me safe. If I took pills, there could be side effects, at least long term, if I was down here for more than twenty days.

The middle of the third day in the water I came across a deep canyon, descending into inky blackness. Looking up showed blackness as well, above me. The green ocean lilies were rumored to be incredibly deep. That meant this canyon had a good chance of having some.

I descended into the canyon, keeping a watch for any beasts. At least my sight for the energy of the heavens and the earth wasn’t impacted by the water. There were occasional plants, but none of them were cultivation plants.

The depth gauge was rapidly moving deeper into the red, the lower I went. The temperature inside my suit began to get chillier. It had been slightly cool before, but now it was getting cold. The diving suit could only handle so much.

I paused when my depth gauge was maxed out. I could feel a slight pressure. But it appeared the refined beast essence and body cultivation was coming in handy. I could go deeper, but ascending would have to be done carefully. I also had to pay careful attention to my body. If there were any issues, I would have to ascend.

The deeper I went, the harder it became to move. The water was getting thicker. I finally came to the bottom of the underwater canyon. I set out in one direction. I noted there weren’t any beasts down here. Which was a good thing in my mind.

I was getting exhausted. I found a small hole in the rock wall of the canyon and curled up inside after confirming nothing was hiding in here. I made sure my power was fine before I fell asleep.

I woke up when I bumped my helmet on some rocks. The water was churning. A large beast was moving through the canyon. I stayed still as it finished moving past me and waited for it to disappear. I then set off again through the canyon in the same direction. This was the direction the beast had come from.

Moving through the canyon, I saw an indented rock wall with film of energy covering it. I would have normally missed this without my sight. A hidden treasure area or a beast garden? The portion of the canyon wall covered in energy was big, but not Leviathan big.

The beast could shrink down. Or maybe it was a test. Only stronger beasts could survive the depths. Since their body toughness was based on their cultivation. Lower ranked beasts would have to turn back when the pressure became too much. That Leviathan I had seen, was probably a rank 7 or 8 beast at these immense depths.

I was even more grateful to the Crashing Wave Sect for letting me have this amazing diving suit. Without it, I would have had no chance of getting this far. I began checking the energy covered rock face and soon found an indented hole, big enough to put a large claw through.

Higher ranked beasts were intelligent, so it made sense they could use formations. Probably knowledge stolen from humans in some way, but still usable. Or they could have made a deal like I had done with Roaring Twilight.

I knew enough about arrays, to know this array, in this large hole was tied to the wall, but I couldn’t tell if it was connected to other arrays or a formation that would alert the owner of this place. I reached inside, and put a rank 3 spirit stone at the center of the activation mechanism.

Normally a beast would have channeled their energy to trigger the array, but things like this were easily hacked. Just put a stone on the activation portion of the array, touch the stone, and then focus. It was a bit harder with the gloves I was wearing, but I managed.

The energy infused rock wall opened outwards like a double doorway. I swam around the overly large doors and looked inside them. It was a beast garden, hidden down here in the depths. I swam inside the garden, looking for the green ocean lily, but I didn’t spy any.

There were other valuable plants, in the rank 4 or maybe 5 category, but nothing that I was particularly interested in or had enough value. I began to circle the garden to check every single spot, starting on the outside.

Nothing inside the beast garden that was worthwhile. I left and pulled the used spirit stone out of the opening array. It closed back up and I continued my trek through the canyon. It was possible that a single beast had multiple gardens down here sorted by plant type and possibly age.

The beast that had swam past might be the owner or caretaker, going from garden to garden. It was a more active way for a beast to get power faster than just sitting in one place, and also a way for them to trade things with humans.

While they might be very strong, they would be ganged up on if they caused trouble near sects. The risk was massive. You don’t become old by picking fights constantly. Well, some might, but most didn’t. That was why martial sects weren’t that prevalent. They had a hard time maintaining continuity. It was often low ranking sects that took this path to get funds, and get people to succeed.

I kept moving through the canyon. It was the start of day 7 when I found another hidden entrance. No new beasts had come by. This one had the same opening mechanism as the last one. I began looking about at the plants. Some rank 6 plants, bust mostly rank 5.

It hadn’t escaped my noticed the canyon was slopped slightly downwards. I sealed up the garden again and kept descending down the canyon. If there was anything other than blackness, I would have never seen the faint amount of energy for these entrances. But here in the inky void, they stood out.

I was getting worried. The canyon was looping away from the Crashing Wave Sect and the continent. The pressure and temperature was also getting to me. It was getting much harder to move. I started pulling myself along using the rocks of the canyon’s wall instead of trying to swim. At the end of the tenth day down here, I found another hidden entrance.

After opening it, I noticed there weren’t many plants scattered about. But each of them was a high rank 6. The most valuable plants were in the center. I noted a few green ocean lilies, but I went for the center. I had read a lot about plants, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

It had to be at least rank 7, and my heart sped up at that. It was tempting to take it, but I wasn’t prepared to do so. I had lucked now, now I just needed to get away. I pulled out two carrying case sfrom a spatial ring. They wouldn’t be going back in at these depths.

I carefully placed one green ocean lily in each and sealed them up. The carrying cases would preserve whatever was inside of them based on the environment they were retrieved from. These ones were designed by the Cloudy Moon Sect to handle the pressure, both internally and externally. They wouldn’t explode as I ascended. Once I got out of this canyon, I could put them in my mid-rank spatial ring without worry.

Now came the deception. I carefully pulled out two wilted plants, that had been infused with energy, which looked similar to the green ocean lily. The green swamp lily was near worthless. But they had a similar appearance and scent apparently.

I put them into the holes I had extracted the green ocean lilies from and moved some dirt very carefully, so it wouldn’t be obvious anything had been taken away. I doubted it would fool a beast for too long, but it would make it hesitate, and confused when trying to check if something was amiss.

It was a shame I didn’t have more carrying cases, but I would have to carry both with me, back up. I only had two arms. I then left the cave, and sealed it back up. With that done, I began returning back the way I had come down the canyon, while slowly ascending.

I was exhausted. I had never felt more tired in my life. Every bit of ascent, was incredibly painful, and I had to pause often for breaks and rests. What I didn’t dare do was sleep or rest in the ocean. While my scent would be hard to follow due to the diving suit and water, I couldn’t afford to take any more risks.

The closer I got to the top of the canyon was when I began to see beasts resting above occasionally. I kept moving quickly past them until I found a large section with no beasts, and then kept slowly ascending vertically there.

Just as I was nearing the top. I saw a beast rapidly approaching me. Not Leviathan size, but still quite big and it appeared to be rank 5 or 6. I quickly put the carrying cases away in my mid-rank spatial ring. I could mentally feel it groaning from the flood of water, but it held.

The beast was on a direct course for me. This was what I had been afraid of. Hopefully my preparations were enough to escape.