Calculating Cultivation
Chapter 139: The Lowest Point

I drank gunk. That was the name of the drink I had invented. A combination of nutrition goo and certain monster juices. It had a kick to it that tasted horrible. It was also the texture which was slime with crunchy bits. I felt sick to my stomach, but it was something that made me feel. Years had passed since Luo Lingtai had chosen her method of escape from the Gu Container.

Cheng hadn’t said anything after seeing her letter and her corpse. He continued to do his own thing and oversee the settlement. I had taken to drinking and eating stuff in the hopes I would hallucinate and come up with a solution. That is how I came up with the gunk. It burned going down, tasted horrible, but my body and cultivation burned through the stuff just like everything else.

I hadn’t fallen into complete despair, but there was no meaningful progress worth mentioning. I had made minor discoveries, but nothing I could capitalize on over the years. I had looked through the database three times and no new ideas had come to me. Things were looking more and more hopeless, waiting for the Gu Container to push this place into a situation that would end up killing me.

The only thing I did was use the device Luo Lingtai had left behind to check the rate of collapse of the Gu Container. I had even made a chart. Not that it mattered. The end would come sooner than the projected final collapse of this space, since we would run into other things or powerful beings. I could only make a guess when that would be.

Facing death was a great way to clear one’s mind and reassess one’s priorities. I was now a cultivator of obscene tastes. This batch of gunk was particularly vile. I looked over my scribbles and gave out a loud burp with some gunk dribbling down my mouth onto my dirty and stained clothing. If it wasn’t for my cultivation I would have a gut right now. My current project was to take the toxic energy, condense it, and eat it.

I had forgotten how I had come up with the idea, but the plan was to consume all the energy in this space. Perhaps it had come to me a dream or from wanting to experience things before the end. I doubted reincarnation of any kind was possible from the Gu Container. I decided that the Gu wasn’t going to consume me, I was going to consume the Gu. It was absolutely insane, and my cultivation was becoming messed up. The increasing amounts of energy from this place was trying to melt my organs and my energy, while my cultivation kept it all intact and healthy. It was a struggle, but I was hanging on.

The two forces were fighting each other in my body. Nothing was eating me, I did the eating. I poured myself another mug of gunk and drank the slimy sludge. I felt a twinge in my intestines. I ignored it like all the others. The twinge happened again, stronger this time.

“Behave,” I told my body and drank more gunk chewing on the monster bits before swallowing. My gut twisted. That was new pain and twist. I set the mug aside and tried to stand up. “Urg,” I let out a groan as my gut twisted even harder, like it was trying to rip its way out of my body.

Bodily processes, that I didn’t know existed activated. All I could do was lie on the ground in the dim underground chamber. The lighting crystals had been slowly failing, leaving less and less to light up the space. My stomach rebelled and I wretched, tasting gunk coming back up out of my mouth.

After spasming and suffering for a couple of hours, maybe a day, I just lay in my own filth and vomit. My body felt much better, purging everything. I lay there, focusing internally and breathing softly. After several minutes, I came to a shocking conclusion. My crazy idea, that was more of a fever dream, had worked. Somehow, consumption of the energy had strengthened me.

As I lay there, I thought about how that could happen. It made absolutely no sense as I tried to figure out what was going on. The energy of this place was poison. No, not poison. Its exact nature was much more complex. The demonic cultivator had to have a way to integrate the energy with himself. It was so obvious in hindsight that I wanted to slap myself for stumbling upon a path forward.

Demonic cultivators got stronger by consuming the cultivation of others. Only weak people would eat and drink like I had and even then they wouldn’t integrate energy in a fit of madness. If they did, their body wouldn’t be able to handle it and completely collapse. Only a cultivator with a strong enough cultivation could handle consuming energy through consumption.

That was how the demonic cultivator was going to process the Gu. I had been wondering how he would do that, but had been focusing on other things instead. The demonic cultivator was going to eat the Gu once it was finished in order to take in its power. The Gu would be composed of the energy in this environment, energy I had been consuming. Energy that was designed specifically for consumption to make the final step of consuming the Gu and integrating it with the demonic cultivator easy enough. The size of this space was massive, which meant the Gu would be insanely powerful. Without doing this, it would be impossible to safely integrate such a powerful cultivation artifact.

This was the profound difference between a normal cultivator and a demonic cultivator that I hadn’t truly considered before. Cultivation normally involved directly integrating energy directly with one’s body. Drawing in energy from the outside. Apparently, the energy was specifically designed to resist this and could only be used in consumption or demonic cultivation.

It had taken several years to get a result. My body and cultivation weren’t used to demonic cultivation through consumption. The energy wasn’t mine to begin with. My digestive tract had just given up, rebelled, and finally began working again, expelling everything that wasn’t necessary as I integrated the energy into my body. The increase in strength and cultivation was minuscule, but it was an increase, and my organs had stopped trying to melt their way out of my body.

“Did you finally kill yourself?” Cheng ask while standing a far distance from me.

“Urg,” I let out a semi-fake groan. It was embarrassing to be found like this and I didn’t know what to say except to make a noise and keep lying here. My gut still felt sore and my face was turning a bit red from the situation.

“I am not cleaning this up. If you want to die in filth that is your choice. Get yourself togeather and let me know if there is any hope of finding a solution to this place. Annoying,” Cheng muttered the last word and left lying in my filth and vomit. A feral grin spread out across my face. The grin felt shaky but I knew this was my only chance of survival. If I was in hell, then I would embrace the demonic path and go deeper into hell. I would become strong enough to break free of this Gu Container. No, I would consume enough to consume the demonic cultivator and the Gu, a manic thought entered my mind.

Rising up from the ground a dark path loomed before me. The only path. Perhaps it was the energy of this place affecting me. But I didn’t care as long as it gave me a chance of survival. It was consume or be consumed. The ultimate survival battle, cultivation distilled down to its purest form of cultivator eating cultivator.

I knew what my next meal would be. The greater the energy, the greater the effect. There was one great source of energy nearby. I hesitated on if I should clean myself off. The hesitation grew as it became more of a mental struggle. Demonic cultivation clearly had mental effects or it could be this place, but I refused to become a raving mad man. I pulled out my water machine and pulled off my clothing to clean it. I also cleaned myself and the ground off. I put all the waste into spatial storage to be disposed of outside.

A smell lingered in the air from where I had collapsed, but I was clean now. Putting the water machine away, I walked towards the elevator. Cheng had gone back up to the surface. I paused as I reached the threshold of the elevator. I knew what I was about to do was wrong, but it was my only option. Like a drowning man, I grabbed onto the nearest thing in a panic, dragging others down with me hoping to survive even at the expense of others.

I was giving up a part of myself, but unlike Luo Lingtai I refused to give up without a fight. As long as there was a path forward, I would take the steps necessary, no matter how horrible. If there was any other option I would take it, but there was nothing. Only demonic cultivation remained as a means to strengthen myself in this place. I had exhausted all other options, no hope remained.

There probably was mental contamination from the energy I had ingested, influencing me. But the demonic cultivator had set up things this way on purpose. Someone with that much power would leave as little to chance as possible. I could see him smiling in his cave as people consumed each other to become stronger. Eventually they would come before him and he would consume them and all those who didn’t take this step and became part of the Gu or his own power.

Looking down at my hands, I knew I would become someone that I would despise. But it was either that or death. Taking a deep breath, I drew in the energy from the air into my stomach. I felt a sense of wrongness. That was the confirmation I needed that some kind of physical medium was needed to properly process the energy of this place into my body. Perhaps it was the only way to handle this contaminated energy, physical consumption.

Stepping into the elevator, I made my conscious choice. A calculated choice. Damnation or death and my math landed on damnation. The elevator rose up towards the surface and I could feel a slight vibration. Even the equipment was breaking down in this environment. Time was running out. I needed to become stronger as quickly as possible. Every second counted and so much time had already been wasted in my despair.

The elevator reached the surface, and I exited, making my way towards Cheng’s residence. He meditated most of the time. I didn’t know what he was hoping to accomplish. “So, you realized,” he said as I entered his meditation room. I paused in my advance towards him.

“Oh? What did I realize?” I asked cautiously. My mind was racing while I remained tense and ready for a fight.

“Demonic cultivation,” he replied and opened his eyes from his sitting position to look at me. “You didn’t think I kept the people here on the surface because I cared for them, do you?” he asked. I was an idiot to not realize. There were so many clues, but I had missed them all.

“Then why didn’t you kill me? I was vulnerable before?” I asked. He could have taken me out easily when I had been lying on the ground.

“That implies I need to worry about your combat ability. Over the time you have stayed here, I have been observing you closely. I also held out some hope you would come up with a solution to escape before you realized the truth. My Master didn’t want to go down that path, but even with his warnings, I couldn’t just wait. With his death, everything became even more clear. Still, demonic cultivation is…distasteful,” Cheng hesitated before saying the last word.

It was obvious that he hadn’t embraced the path of damnation. He still wanted to retain a shred of hope and humanity. He wanted to find a solution that took another route. While it was admirable, it was also foolish. Against the power of the demonic cultivator and his preparation there was no other choice but to embrace demonic cultivation. The demonic cultivator had made it far too easy. There was probably a trap embedded into the energy, but I could only move forward and hope to find a solution.

“Fooling me this entire time. Impressive,” I replied while carefully scanning the room for any traps that Cheng might have prepared. He was overconfident, which would be his downfall.

“Its not like you interacted with the people on the surface that much. Even when you fell into despair and began making your concoctions, you still kept trying devise a solution. Well, it seems you have given up on that path,” Cheng declared.

We were all demonic cultivators here. Eat or be eaten. The most natural and fundamental law of existence. I flicked my right hand and my sword appeared in my palm. Cheng brought up his right hand and a crystal sword appeared in it as he stood up near instantly from his meditation platform to face me.

“Any advice on demonic cultivation if I win?” I asked as we stared at each other. We weren’t friends, but we knew each other and one of us was about to die and be consumed by the other. If he was willing to talk and share information, I would make use of the opportunity.

“I try not to think about what I am eating. Also, meditation to fight against the mental influence of the demonic cultivator in charge of this Gu Container,” he said. That was surprisingly helpful. But I would be doing the opposite instead. His strength had barely grown over the years I had known him.

“Thanks,” I said as we stared at each other without moving. One twitch and the fight to the death would start.

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“No problem,” he replied politely as we were about to try and kill each other in order to eat the other person. I could tell that he felt awkward about the situation as well. Talking with someone just before you would eat them. One would have to be truly shameless not to feel any kind of embarrassment talking to their next meal. No wonder why demonic cultivators weren’t right in the head.

We rushed forward at the same time. Our blades impacting each other. Cheng used two hands on his blade, while I used one. I deflected his attack to the side and spun deflecting the force of his overwhelming attack. For the brief moment my back was towards him, I pulled out the Combat Cylinder Luo Lingtai had left me.

Spinning back around, Cheng’s blade bit deeply into my side, as I pointed the Combat Cylinder directly at him and depressed the firing button. He was blasted backwards, his clothes and body were both heavily burnt. He had kept a grip on his crystal sword. It had been pulled free when he was blasted backwards. Blood trailed down my side.

I ignored the pain and rushed forward. “One Swing To Separate Heaven and Earth!” I spoke quickly, but it helped me to focus to put everything into the attack. He brought up his blade to block from his prone position. He deflected my flying slash and my follow up sword swings as he got back up to his feet, greatly weakened. We traded blows as my side hurt, but his injuries were much greater. I mentally thanked Luo Lingtai for giving me this weapon. Once I became an immortal, I would raise a cup of tea in her honor. I depressed the firing button once more, blasting him. There was no time to dodge or block such an attack.

Rushing forward once more, I stabbed out and this time. Cheng brought up his blade, but Cheng was too injured to properly block after getting blasted twice. I pierced his head between his eyes and my blade went through his brain and skull. He shuddered a couple of times before becoming still. His crystal blade dispersed into nothingness.

I removed my blade and put my weapons away. I began stripping his corpse. He had a spatial item, which I would go through later. His clothes were discarded. I then carried Cheng’s corpse to the kitchen that was next to his meditation room. No doubt he had done what I was about to do here countless times. If I was going to do this, then I was going to do this properly. I pulled my blade back out and began cutting, not bothering to cook anything. If I took my time, his cultivation would disperse, and I would get less of a benefit.

Cooking and delaying consumption would only lessen the amount of energy I would take in and strengthen myself. I didn’t chew, just cut and swallowed piece after piece without hesitation. I focused on the process, cut and swallow. If I thought too deeply, I would become sick with what I was doing.

Every bite and swallow was horrible.

This was the worst thing I had ever done.

I could feel the energy moving into my body and increasing. It was a small but permanent increase.

When I finally finished swallowing the last piece, nothing was spared. There was just a pool of blood that had spread out. I would have to find a better way to handle that going forward in order to consume everything. There were a lot of people left to consume. I would not try and manage them. I would eat everything in front of me on this world. Not that there was much left to eat.

The one good thing about this process was that my body handled it automatically. The energy of this place was designed to be consumed, and the demonic cultivator’s energy had saturated everything. If this had been another location without this specific energy designed for consumption, then I would have to use some sort of technique to integrate the energy into my body. It was a cheat for cultivation. The demonic cultivator in charge of this Gu Container truly was a genius.

Checking my wound, it had stopped bleeding and slowly healing. I began to clean myself off. Physically eating everything was inefficient and slow. There were several thousand people left in this settlement and very large monsters. Even if I constantly ate, it would take far too long, and I would have to hunt them down.

The one thing I knew really well was force. It would be simple matter to create an array to focus an immense amount of force, compressing whatever inside its range into a tiny sphere above the array. Anyone or anything weaker than myself wouldn’t be able to withstand such an array. Anyone or anything stronger, then the metal plate the array was on would melt.

Well, I didn’t need to use metal and could use one of my stored pieces of metal, I would be saving that for when I left this place. No need to use up valuable resources if I didn’t need to. Leaving Cheng’s residence, I took the elevator back underground.

There was no automatic traps or other systems activated with Cheng’s death. If there was anything like that he would have probably needed to activate it first. But he had turned off everything a while ago or it had broken down.

While it was tempting to leave right away, I didn’t know what else I would find out in the Gu Container. It would be better to consume everything here as quickly as possible before moving on. As I prepared compression arrays to turn consumables into meatballs, I felt powerful. I was filled with energy.

Normally cultivation at my level would involve making several structures or using a lot of energy to break past the second bottleneck and separate my mind and body from each other to achieve immortality. Demonic cultivation filled me up with energy that integrated with me at a physical level. I felt my body becoming stronger.

This would let my body become the container energy was built up inside until I reached the critical amount necessary to break through. If it wasn’t for the demonic cultivator altering the energy of the Gu Container in a unique way this process would require several additional steps. Long ago Aoyin had to integrate his energy with me before consuming me, wanting me to grow as strong as possible before consuming in order to not waste his efforts to make me compatible.

Aoyin was probably still alive and still stronger than me, but he was a frog in a well, trapped on the continent. My horizons and understanding had grown far beyond a weak demonic cultivator. I was looking to take advantage of a demonic cultivator far more powerful than him. If I got out of this place alive, Aoyin would just be a bug before my immense power. I would be able to crush him with just a thought.

As I finished my tenth plate, I put all of them but one in spatial storage except one I left on the work table. I glanced at Chicken to make sure it was still here and made my way back up to the surface. I let Cheng’s representative know that he was needed along with several of his men to help move some large equipment that couldn’t be placed in spatial storage.

I had prepared an explanation that Cheng was adjusting the equipment, but not questions were asked. Eight people followed me down the elevator. Once we reached the bottom, I led the group forward as they looked around. Cheng had never brought anyone else down here.

I picked up the metal plate and channeled energy through the array while spinning around to point the array at the nearest person. A wave of force focused around the person in a sphere. They didn’t even have time scream as their clothes, body, and all their equipment was compressed into a small sphere the size of my small toe. Easy enough to swallow.

Without hesitation I moved and activated the array once more in under a second. The activation was instant, creating a sphere of force that lasted three seconds. I was compressing the third person when they realized what was going on. The attacks didn’t do anything to my body or clothing. I was too strong.

In less than a minute, instead of eight weak cultivators, there were eight very dense meatballs. I swallowed them one after another. I would need to adjust the array. To draw in the ambient energy into the meatballs if possible. It wouldn’t be that hard. The higher the energy content, the better this demonic method of cultivation would be.

It didn’t take a long time to make the changes and bring down other groups of people, using the explanation that the First and their god was preparing a secure place to shelter before the world became uninhabitable.

My explanation wasn’t a lie. They would be secure as a part of my cultivation and this world would eventually be destroyed. It was better to put them to use before they died and were consumed by the Gu Container’s environment.

It took three days of hard work to completely empty out the settlement. The people were compliant since they had no reason to distrust me. The entire process was made more bearable not having to listen to screams. I knew I should have probably eaten them while they were alive to maximize my consumption of their cultivation, but there was only so much my mentality could take.

Once the last people were turned into meatballs and consumed, I let out a sigh of relief. I was done with the people of this world since there were none left. Thinking about this place, other beings or cultivators had probably scoured the rest of the world clean of things to be eaten and the settlement had some kind of hidden defenses to hide or protect it. I wasn’t sure since Cheng hadn’t chosen to share.

After the people, I began to hunt the monsters down one by one. They might be strong, but they were monsters. Giant creatures that had strengthened themselves by eating others. Another clue that I had missed when first arriving. It really was obvious in hindsight that demonic cultivation was everywhere on this world and inside the Gu Container.

At least I didn’t have to drink that awful gunk I had made. That stuff was terrible, even if it led me to the truth of this place.

As I killed the monsters one after another and ate them, I knew why I had to keep going down this route. I had sacrificed too much and made too many promises to just give up. There was still so much I didn’t understand or know. I had thought myself knowledgeable and capable, but this Gu Container had put me in my place, showing how far I still had to go.

The monsters of this place couldn’t be easily killed with an array, but I could kill them with my sword easily enough. One swing was enough to end them. After that it was a matter of turning them into meatballs. Each meatball was an incredibly small increase in strength.

It was hard to quantify exactly or how far I had to go. Cheng had given more energy, but the feeling was like hunger. How could one easily define different levels of hunger? Compressing the ambient energy into the meatballs made them slightly stronger on average, but not that much. Still every bit I could strengthen myself was a greater chance of breaking through to immortality and escaping this place.

I disliked the joy my body felt at eating. The waste material in the meatballs was consumed by my cultivation, being turned into and consumed by my energy. While most of my digestive system was working with full force, the tail end of it was noticeably quiet after my previous accident.

A small mercy for a horrible process. While I wanted to embrace demonic cultivation, I just couldn’t. One part of me clearly saw the benefit of delving deeper into the depravity of the process. Another part of me was repelled by demonic cultivation. This was the same pressure Cheng experienced.

I knew in my heart that embracing demonic cultivation to its fullest would yield more results and make my progress forward easier. I also knew in my heart that if I embraced demonic cultivation fully, that I would never be able to go back once I escaped this place. Demonic cultivation would forever dominate my mindset and future.

There was no basis for my belief, but I strongly suspected that the energy of this place was influencing my mind in a way that wasn’t easily detected. Feelings, confidence about certain assumptions, and a desire to consume were all things that could be attributed to the energy of the demonic cultivator and aligned with the warnings I had learned previously about using contaminated energy giving an undue influence.

“You don’t know the secrets of this place?” I asked the monster that was charging at me. I swung my blade and its head was separated from its body in a shower of blood that rained down on and around me. I couldn’t help but frown slightly. I was becoming more used to fighting, taking joy in the act itself. Another sign of influence from the energy that permeated the Gu Container.

Even that realization didn’t make me hesitate in the slightest to use an array to make five meatballs from the monster’s corpse. I put them into my mouth and swallowed one after another. A surge of energy rushed through my body, similar to all the previous times. Getting stronger by eating, was absolutely horrible. While a part of me rebelled at this thought, I refused to submit to the feelings of the demonic cultivator intruding upon my mind.

“I am my own person. I am Yuan Zhou and I will reach immortality and not lose myself. If I lose myself, then I will have failed to reach immortality regardless,” I resolutely declared. I knew my promise would become more difficult to maintain overtime as I consumed more and more. But I refused to lose myself, even if I would get stronger more quickly. Losing myself, would be the same as dying. I would no longer be me. I would become something different.

Demonic cultivation was the only path forward, but I refused to accept or remain on this path. Perhaps I would come to a situation where I couldn’t hold onto my beliefs any longer. But until that point, I would hold on against the side effects of demonic cultivation.

I got back on Chicken and quickly began flying over the world, searching for the next monster and my next meal. Too bad plants barely contained energy and weren’t the time to consume. I could have grown plants to consume instead. But I lacked the knowledge or experience to go that route. Perhaps a cultivator specializing in plants could grow their way to strength, but I could only kill and eat.

Setting down on the ground, I got off Chicken, which was a bit large for just one person. A monster rushed at me. “Eat or be eaten. I choose to do the eating,” I muttered to myself and swung my blade. Another monster lay dead. I turned it into more meatballs as my mindset kept struggling. Cheng had been right, mediation was needed after clearing this world. I would have to search deeply and reassert my energy, but I would consume everything on this world to push me to the brink.

The closer I got to losing myself, the more I would know how close to danger I was and when I needed to pull myself back. If I lost myself before I finished killing and eating the last creatures left on this world, then I would fail. I couldn’t take things slowly and safely like I preferred. I would have to gamble recklessly where I could and push myself like I hadn’t pushed myself in a long time.

I could also reconfigure the equipment to try and lure other beings here and consume them. Traps would help level the battlefield against anyone stronger. I had spent enough time on arrays and formations, that I had some ideas that would be quite easy to implement to signal and trap anyone that showed up here looking for an easy meal.

There was also the emergency retreat underground or using Chicken. While there was only one elevator, there was another long exit tunnel that led out to another exit on the world. It was barricaded by multiple doors, but Cheng had explained it when I had asked where the doors led to and opened the first couple to show me it was just a long tunnel in case the other exit was blocked.

I never thought I would feel bad about killing a demonic cultivator, but he really wasn’t a demonic cultivator. He hadn’t embraced the mindset and hesitated even more than me. At least it wasn’t a betrayal, otherwise his death would have weighed down on me more heavily. The surprise of the Combat Cylinder was enough to claim victory. It was a potent weapon, which wasn’t a surprise since the Xyon Front had created it.

One didn’t need to even be a cultivator or powerful to use such a weapon. There was no kickback and its firing rate was quite good compared to how powerful it was. While it might not kill an immortal, I had no doubt it would make them hesitate for a moment. Still, I wouldn’t overuse it unless necessary. I had no idea when it would break and no idea how to repair it. Better to keep the Combat Cylinder stored away and use it only when necessary.