After five days of traveling, we stopped, since there was no end to the red cylinder so far. Yang Heng had lost quite a bit of energy and going any further would be a risk. I needed a break as well.
“Why a cylinder?” I asked.
“Hmm, you mean the object we are following? Why do you think?” Yang Heng asked.
“Geometric shapes grant stability and easier to use concepts for energy,” I responded. There was speculation that energy went through Chaos monsters before bubbling up and one of those was some sort of geometric shape, imprinting on energy at a base level. Other theories posited it was a natural consequence of energy.
“But, there is no energy,” I added on to my earlier explanation. That red cylinder was complete devoid of energy as far as I could tell and Yang Heng hadn’t disagreed with me. There seemed to be no clear purpose to the mega-structure and it hadn’t been destroyed or broken apart. It didn’t appear new, which meant that it had survived for a while, despite everything moving about the Mechanical Layer.
“It is an artifact. An unknown item of a lost civilization. Their purposes are often inscrutable and dangerous, but they tend to have value. Either the pinnacle of technology, or a new way to use energy. Also, it isn’t just a cylinder, it is a ring,” he replied.
It took me a moment to process that comment. It was a ring, around, since it was cylinder shaped. Then I realized what he meant. The entire structure looped around. I looked out the window. How?! It was massive, so massive that it boggled my mind. There was no way to measure long distances, so I had defaulted to putting it outside of my sensor range and making measurements based on that metric.
It was hundreds of sensor ranges long already, how much longer could it be to loop back around. The spatial instabilities would be too much. “The size is too big,” I finally replied and Yang Heng nodded.
“Indeed. Everything we have seen so far, even the other super factions, are just basic structures. This is a super-structure, built by a super-organization. Something that exceeds those possible contributions of a single individual,” he said.
“They probably don’t pose an individual threat. But if they had enough energy to build everything that we have seen, they probably have a link to the lower layers to draw it upwards.”
“But wouldn’t the just sink down even lower?” I asked.
“That ring is bleeding off energy into the environment with a purpose. You can’t stop sinking in the Material, but it is possible in the Mechanical Layer to stop your descent. Most civilizations don’t manage in time. That ring, they built, is something equal to the construction of the Forever City,” Yang Heng replied and I looked at him in shock.
My elder traveling companion had an immense amount of pride in the Forever City, the Heavenly Alliance, and even cultivator culture as a whole. To hear him describe the construction of anything, equaling the Forever City was the highest form of acknowledgement I had heard him give in our long discussions. He respected super-organizations, but he wasn’t impressed with the few he talked about.
They were powerful, dangerous, and not to be taken lightly, but they weren’t impressive in his mind. If the cultivators came out in force, they would be crushed or easily defeated. For him to recognize this civilization who had built the mind bending massive ring showed how impressive they truly were.
“Should I try the communicator?” I asked.
“Sure, it wouldn’t hurt,” Yang Heng said. I pushed the button and there was no reply and no connection. “No response. I was expecting that.”
“Should we risk going forward, trying to enter this bubble?” I asked.
“Entering is easy. Leaving is hard. Also, once we enter, we will be under the authority of whatever super-organization controls the place. Either we are so little of a threat that we don’t matter, or this place has been abandoned. If the second outcome is true, then the Heavens truly favor us. If there is a super-organization still present, we will be in dire straits,” Yang Heng explained.
“We should explore,” I said. I didn’t want to keep traveling around pointlessly. I knew Yang Heng knew this as well. We could be out here endlessly. While I didn’t mind taking time to accomplish something, all my other periods of isolation had been focused on improving my cultivation over a long period of time.
“I will focus on shielding us.” Yang Heng might be cautious, but enjoyed finding new things as well. The fact he didn’t want to remain with the Ek and had investigated several locations showed he was willing to take some risks. All cultivators, including myself could stave off boredom for long periods of time. But eventually something needed to be done, otherwise what was the point of cultivation? I wouldn’t call it boredom, but more like the need to exercise one’s capability.
I sent the hover craft forward into the darkness. There was some minor shaking and then suddenly the hover craft emerged over an ocean. The sudden change was jarring. I let out a gasp, as what little energy was entering my body, was restricted even more.
There was very little light outside the hovercraft as we hurdled forward. I tried to bring us up, but we were losing altitude. “We are going down,” I said. There was no response. I looked over my shoulder and Yang Heng had collapsed.
“Senior!” I shouted, but he didn’t wake. That was a very bad sign. He was not one for jokes or flights of fancy. There was a bright light and turned back to the front of the hovercraft. The protections had failed, and the entire hovercraft was losing energy. We were burning up in the atmosphere.
Even at the fast speeds we had traveled, the hover craft’s protections had held. When we had gone faster while traveling around the ring, Yang Heng had to increase the protection we had. Now we had no protection.
I couldn’t see anything as the hovercraft began to shake more violently. We hit the water and skipped off of it. The hovercraft began to turn slightly while flying forward. All the controls were completely unresponsive. We hit the water a second time and bounced upwards once more.
“AHH!” I let out a yell as a sharp pain forced me awake. My entire body hurt, but at least I could feel it. I focused on my breathing, while moving my fingers and toes. They were all there. Looking around, it was quite dark inside of the hovercraft. I could barely see.
I reached up to touch my face, there was blood. I was bleeding. That wasn’t good. I slowly got up and looked behind me where Yang Heng was. He was passed out, but he didn’t look that injured. I checked his breathing, he was still breathing which was good. The energy I could sense from him was very limited.
That was not good, I had never sensed his energy being as low as it currently was. “Yang Heng,” I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him. There was no response. “Yang Heng!” I shouted, but he didn’t stair in the slightest.
I went to the airlock that was used to get in and out of the hovercraft and then hesitated. All my equipment had stopped functioning. If there was nothing to breathe outside, I would be killing myself. Yang Heng had a chance of survival. Pushing the door open, I was glad there were mechanical releases for everything. Various handles had to be forced and the doors were wedged into their frames, but pushed the hatch open. A bunch of gravel and dirt fell down in front of the hatch as I opened it.
The atmosphere was thin, hard to breathe, but it wasn’t toxic. I couldn’t breathe deeply. Looking around, I could see water in the distance. Looking up, there was a small white star in the distance. A property of the bubble we were in, like on the continent. Whomever set this place up controlled the surface of the bubble to regulate the environment. The same with the Forever City.
There, toxic clouds were the norm, here it was nothingness. We were on a large mountain of some kind, the hover craft having wedged itself into the side of the mountain. I noted there was tiny weeds and moss, but no trees. Looking around, I couldn’t see any animals or anything else.
“A trap. Of course it is a trap,” I muttered. This entire place was squeezing my connection to energy, which was probably why Yang Heng had passed out. It was the same reason why immortal cultivators couldn’t go to the Material. The second breakthrough in cultivation moved their consciousness from their physical body to their soul, releasing the chains of mortality their physical body held on them.
I went back into the hover craft and got my spatial ring. It was dormant, but still functional. I focused a bit of energy out of my hand, and I could access it for a brief moment. I let the bag close. I then began checking the other systems. They all still worked if I put some of the energy I was still receiving into them.
That was also why Yang Heng hadn’t instantly died. He was still drawing energy, but not enough to wake up. I left the hover craft again and looked up the mountain we had collided with and then back at the hovercraft. Despite the lack of energy and impact, it was still completely intact, with only minor exterior damage. That was the quality of construction that the Forever City had and part of the reason we were still alive.
There were emergency impact mitigation systems that were part of the hover craft. They had limited functionality except in cases where all the main systems failed, and they would work a short time after that.
I left the hover craft and climbed up the mountain we had crashed into, in the dim light, and sparse atmosphere. Once I reached the top, I had to focus intently to see off in the distance. My eyes had always been incredibly good at picking up on energy. But I saw no energy. There were more smaller mountains and then large snow capped peaks in the distance. So far away they were hard to make out.
Looking around, I couldn’t spot any kind of civilization, animals, or plant life more complicated than moss and weeds. “Well, this is very bad,” I muttered to myself. Whomever or whatever had set this place up, really had created a perfect trap. Sucking out all the energy from this bubble.
Making my way down back to the hover craft, I considered the situation. I was hurt, sore, and tired. But I was alive, nothing was broken, and I could breathe. My guess was that this place was set up as some kind of super-continent. Similar to where I grew up, but on an even larger scale. Rough water at the edge to force the locals from exploring where they shouldn’t and being able to manage the environment more easily.
If I was going to find any kind of civilization, I needed to head for the center of this place. On foot, that could easily take years. I still needed to sleep, eat, and drink. While it hadn’t been that much before, those needs would increase due to the lack of energy I was able to draw on.
Going back to the hover craft, I tried to let out a sigh, but all that came out was a short wheeze. I would have to take the modules apart. I would be able to bring along the one that provided food and water. Being able to barely live from what little energy I drew upon to use such equipment. The rest of the equipment I could pack away in my spatial ring.
It wasn’t broken, but any kind of energy was being drawn away. I couldn’t tell where. That left a much harder question. Yang Heng, and what to do with him. I wouldn’t be able to bring him with me. Just moving myself was tiring. To carry him, would be too difficult. If there was a fight of any kind, I couldn’t protect him while also protecting myself.
I would have to construct a tomb of some kind, to hold him until I returned or this place was destroyed, or there was more ambient energy. There was nothing else I could do, except make sure he was safe. Even if this bubble broke apart, he would survive. The physical body of an immortal cultivator could be rebuilt from the ground up and Yang Hang had done such a thing. Without some kind of powerful energy attack, he would not be in any danger. I could try and stab his body with my sword, or shoot it with my gun and they would only scratch him at best. This place had no energy.
The breathing his body was doing, was an automatic reflex if there was an atmosphere to try and draw in what little ambient energy there was. With nothing to draw in, and his connection to his soul blocked, there was not enough energy for him to remain awake.
I got to work disassembling the hover craft or at least the various modules inside of it. The twilight from the small white star overhead didn’t change. It wasn’t really a star, just a well crafted illusion used to help maintain this bubble of reality.
There was no good way for me to keep track of the time. It wasn’t worth the energy to check the clock I had on me. I had lots of devices and pieces of equipment, but I had to power them myself, which was something I wouldn’t normally do to begin with. Now that the energy entering my body was reduced even further, it was even more concerning.
I fell asleep three times while working to take the modules apart and put them away in my spatial storage. I then wrote a note carved into a small metal plate that I would leave behind. Any kind of paper or parchment, would crumble to dust. If I was leaving the plate outside, it would probably crumble to dust as well with how long Yang Heng would be left here.
We entered a location restricting energy. I salvaged the modules needed for my survival but left the rest of the hover craft intact. I have gone exploring to find energy and to live. I hope we meet again at the Forever City one day. If I return, I will let the Heavenly Alliance know has happened to you so a rescue can be attempted. It does not appear you will awake and I dare not try anything extreme.
I left the metal plate tucked into his robes. Other, less scrupulous cultivators might have used his body as an energy source. The thought had crossed my mind, before I quickly discarded it. Just because Yang Heng was unconscious, did not mean he was defenseless. If he truly felt threatened, he might force his physical body awake, rip apart his soul in a suicide to take his attacker with him to death, or some other kind of hidden technique.
He might even be observing me as I went about disassembling parts of the hover craft and leaving the message. I also suspected he might have gone into emergency hibernation in order to build up energy before acting to leave this place. It might take eons, but that was the power of being immortal and being able to go into hibernation. Time was an endless resource he could spend.