Calculating Cultivation-Chapter 137: Trapped In A Gu Container

A Gu Container is an immortal cultivation technique derived from demonic cultivation methods. The principle is simple, but incredibly difficult in practice. One creates a sealed space and keeps increasing the pressure in every way possible while inserting their own energy across the space. The eventual goal being to refine a precious treasure that is highly compatible with the demonic cultivator who set up the space.

The two biggest weaknesses of a Gu Container are the outer boundary and the binding force locking everything into place. If one can overcome the resistance at the outer boundary, such a structure would normally have built in flaws due to constantly shrinking and drawing energy in. The binding force can be a cultivator, device, or an object.

Care should be taken when breaking a Gu Container, since the surge of energy has a chance to draw Chaos to the location.

That was it. There was no more information. I was both disappointed and happy at the same time. We had a name for this space and a bit more knowledge, a Gu Container. “We are dead,” Luo Lingtai said quietly, and I didn’t disagree with her.

There were two main reasons for this. The first being that there was an active demonic cultivator behind everything. The second was the size of the Gu Container. This space was massive. Whoever had set it up was clearly beyond the level of an immortal.

While we hadn’t known the exact name we had worked out most of the properties of this place already. Hostile energy everywhere, a sealed boundary, and that the space was shrinking. “A name doesn’t help us that much,” I muttered.

“We can head for the edge,” Cheng said. I was silent as well as Luo Lingtai. He looked over at us since we didn’t respond.

“You can explain,” I told her. We had discussed this previously. Getting out from the edge wasn’t possible with our knowledge.

“The problem is the temporal shear combined with how space and gravity have been altered. When we entered it was fairly quick. We weren’t lingering during the transition. So, this world and our vessel protected us for that moment. But leaving, there is a gravitational shear, that means the transition will take a while,” Luo Lingtai said.

“Why is that a problem?” Cheng asked.

“Most cultivators don’t realize the danger of a temporal shear. With cultivation or implants, most people would survive a shear in gravity. The point where two gravity fields intersect. It would be uncomfortable, but it would cause a person to die. But a temporal shear is different. The effects aren’t something easily shrugged off or blocked. Unless you are skilled in understanding time and temporal mechanics, it is impossible to safely transition. Combined with how space is twisted and the gravity shear, you would die before you could escape. There is a reason your master went towards the center of this place not the edge,” Luo Lingtai explained in depth.

While I wasn’t sure she was correct about the danger, trying to cross the edge would not be simple. Even if we used Chicken, there would be problems. The fact that our vessel got pulled in and couldn’t escape showed that the power behind this Gu Container was not something that could easily be overcome.

“The center is our only option,” Luo Lingtai said and I turned to look at her.

“You are joking right?” I asked her. “Whoever or whatever is at the center of this space, this Gu Container, is far beyond us. Beyond an immortal. You don’t piss off multiple super organizations and throw a section of the Firmament into disarray if you aren’t insanely powerful. This is at the level of the top echelons of the Xyon Front. And you want us to head towards the center?” I asked in surprise.

“There is no other option! What? Do you want to wait around and think yourself to death. It is a small chance, but there is a chance. We need to take it,” Luo Lingtai raised her voice as we argued.

“Foolishness. I don’t where you get the confidence, but this isn’t someone you can use your connections with. And unless you have some kind of ultimate weapon with you, then heading towards the center is certain death!” I shouted back.

“And you want us to head into the Astral Plane?! We might as well just feed our souls to Chaos and get it over with. Maybe you wish for eternal torment throughout all eternity, but I prefer to avoid such a fate,” she shouted back.

“You will get made part of this Gu Container. Turned into fuel for a demonic cultivator. Not that they would notice since we are so far below them, they could just glance at us and we would be vaporized, instantly,” I countered back while we glared at each other.

I knew I was letting emotions get the better of me, the same with Luo Lingtai, but the issue was that there was no good solution to our predicament. Every time in the past there had been a way forward. There might not have been a good way forward, but there was a way forward. This situation, learning it was not natural, and there was a powerful demonic cultivator behind everything closed off any chance of an easy escape.

Cheng was silent as we shouted at each other, which was smart of him to stay out of such an argument. I let out a long breath and turned away before I said something that we would both regret. Stepping away I kept thinking on how to escape this situation. We were caught in a trap, made even worse that we knew it was a trap.

Like a bear caught in a bear trap. We knew what the problem was, but we couldn’t free our leg and escape. Just by being in the trap we were already crippled. Luo Lingtai turned away from Cheng and walked away as well as we all thought over the situation on our own.

Trying to breakthrough? No, that wouldn’t work. Inviting Chaos? There were probably safeguards against something like that for the Gu Container, to prevent a suicide attempt. The greater the energy concentration the more damage there was.

Heading towards the center was impossible. Unlike the Great World inside the Infinite Ring Complex, there was no need to make this place hospitable. The outer edge was already a hellscape. If I was the demonic cultivator in charge of this space, I would have oceans of acid and molten glass rain to make the journey as difficult and deadly as possible.

The edge or the Astral Plane remained our best options in order to escape this Gu Container. I turned back towards Cheng. “Is there anything about what a Gu is?” I asked.

“I would have to look in the other files,” he replied.

“Then look. Either we figure out something useful to escape and the Crystal Conclave can get mad, or we are all dead. Unless you have some secret method to leave this place I don’t know about?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice level. It wouldn’t do to let anger control us.

“What are you thinking?” Luo Lingtai came back over as Cheng began looking up the information.

“That we have a source of information and might as well make use of it to try and find a solution. It would be better to spend a couple of years thinking about a way out of this place than rushing blindly about,” I countered.

“Perhaps,” Luo Lingtai said. I didn’t understand her, but at least we weren’t shouting at each other anymore. This entire

“Here, I found something,” Cheng said.

A Gu is a cultivation artifact that is inherently poisonous and toxic with high levels of energy formed using demonic cultivation techniques. It naturally resists Chaos due to toxic properties it contains, and one of the few publicly known ways to go beyond known energy limitations.

That was it, a single paragraph of information. Now it was clear what the demonic cultivator was attempting. This was the scheme of ages. They had probably reached the limit of whatever demonic cultivation method they were using previously. Perhaps they had even made a Gu beforehand, since something this big was something one would build up to, not as a first project.

This demonic cultivator then looked into ways of getting stronger. The biggest risk of a high energy density was Chaos corruption. The Soaring Star Society tried to process energy carefully with their Infinite Ring Complex, but that failed. Chaos was too dangerous and adaptable, messing with causation itself.

But a Gu seemed like the perfect counter. Something so toxic and poisonous that even Chaos wouldn’t be able to handle it. I had to think about why this was the case. Ah, it was the amount of people and other stuff being pulled in to make the Gu. It was anchoring itself into reality at an incredibly wide level. I had always wondered how demonic cultivators got around the risk of Chaos at a high level and if they were even a thing.

Now it was clear that their approach to cultivation changed slightly. A regular cultivator would used processed and compressed energy to advance with the risk of Chaos attacking them. But a demonic cultivator would mitigate that risk by using other people. The toxicity of the Gu would make it impossible for anything but the cultivator’s own energy to exist.

Instead of a general solution that a group of people or a super organization could use, it was slowly focused on one individual. The components of the Gu would act as an anchor for the demonic cultivator. Chaos was capable, but the demonic cultivator would be familiar with their own energy. With a person being compressed into the Gu, they would exist, but not exist at the same time. Their personal timeline would remain. There would be a cause and effect that Chaos would have a lot of difficulty targeting.

The best way to think about it was like armor. A regular cultivator would try to purify and shape the metal they would use as armor. Becoming so pure and refined that there were no weak points for Chaos to latch onto. A demonic cultivator would use layers of cloth as their armor, layering so much cloth that it couldn’t be penetrated. There were pluses and negatives to both cultivation directions.

The problem was that we were part of the refining process. While I might have gained quite a bit of insight into demonic cultivation at a high level from that single paragraph, it didn’t help us unfortunately. We were still stuck here inside the Gu Container.

If anything, my insights only confirmed that the demonic cultivator must have done a tremendous about of preparation before enacting this scheme, confident to resist any kind of retaliation. The demonic cultivator might even have followers running around killing anyone like Cheng’s master who was making trouble. They didn’t need to be followers, just other demonic cultivators drawn into the Gu Container.

They would probably try to become strong enough by killing each other before attempting to make an escape. Which was when the main demonic cultivator would have some kind of trump card to ensure their victory and completion of the Gu made from this Gu Container.

There were a lot of assumptions I was making, but I felt confident in my guesses. I had an insight into the demonic cultivator mindset after dealing with them before. I also knew quite a bit about cultivation to make some highly educated guesses.

A cultivation artifact, not something alive and not something technological. It was an interesting way to describe the Gu. The level of compression would have to be immense. The energy expenditure as well as the refinement of energy. That was why there was a time barrier around this Gu Container. Otherwise it would take far too long and the risk would be too great if there wasn’t a time barrier. It also made it even harder to escape.

The speed that the space would contract would only speed up exponentially. This was another educated guess based on my understanding of math and demonic cultivation. The demonic cultivator would have made the Gu Container as large as possible at the start to make the most powerful Gu. The barrier around this place required unique materials and formations. It was not something that could be quickly replicated, unless my basic understanding of formation and arrays was wrong.

Such a unique space with powerful effects required quite a bit of effort. The perfect example was the Infinite Ring Complex. While this space didn’t need to maintain life, it needed to be an actual space that was maintained and shrunk. Then there was all the energy of the demonic cultivator that had to fill it. The immortal had probably been stockpiling his energy for a very long time to use such a big space.

By a very long time, I am thinking in terms of the age of the Heavenly Alliance, so long that there was no good way to measure that much time. This kind of scheme was the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort. The demonic cultivator probably succeeded in creating a Gu once before allowing them to become an immortal. Now they were looking to surpass even greater limits and become even more powerful.

Could I use the energy of this place in some way? Not easily. It was all tainted by the demonic cultivator. If too much gathered in one place it would become toxic. That toxicity would only increase as the space got smaller. I couldn’t tell if the energy had increased, but my guess was that there was a gradient to it, with the greatest concentration being at the center of this space.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It could do with control or protection. The demonic cultivator would have an easier time drawing in more toxic energy the closer it was to him. And it would be a matter of protection. Getting through a thick layer of highly toxic energy would be quite difficult.

This meant there would be a scramble and panic when the space pushed everyone into a higher band of energy. That would be the end of us. We weren’t immortals, which this place was clearly designed to counter, so we would die earlier on from the hostile environment. Everything was breaking down in some way and reformed.

The dark gas would probably become a liquid and then compressed down into a Gu. As for why the demonic cultivator didn’t just use his own energy to become stronger, it would risk Chaos. The idea was to use others to create a cause and effect that couldn’t be easily altered by anything. That was the true strength of the Gu and demonic cultivation.

I escaped being cooked in a demonic cultivation pot as a child and now I had stumbled into a much larger pot as an older cultivator. It was both amusing and depressing. “Any options I can think of would be risky, very risky,” Cheng said.

“We should still head towards the center. I know you think it is too dangerous, but we might find something useful or gain more knowledge,” Luo Lingtai said.

“If you insist, but I want a couple of back up plans. Since we probably won’t be able to come back here once we leave. What ideas do you have Cheng?” I asked.

“We could build up a large concentration of energy in order to invite something from Chaos-“

“No!” Luo Lingtai and I both said at the same time. Cheng was a mad man. I took a step back from him. While I had many ideas on how to get out of this Gu Container, his idea of escaping a prison was to light himself on fire. Lighting yourself on fire is never the solution.

Chaos was not something one messed around with. I had seen and heard enough examples to want nothing to do with things that broke the rule of cause and effect. That was a very important rule for my continued existence, that was why it was called ‘continued’ existence. A person proceeded forwards from cause to effect, if they didn’t do that then they weren’t a person to begin with.

“Why would even suggest something like that?” Luo Lingtai asked.

“There are stories in the Crystal Conclave of using Chaos as a weapon in our past,” he said. The fact that the entire super organization hadn’t been wiped out already was a miracle on its own.

“That is either a lie planted by your enemies or Chaos itself,” Luo Lingtai said.

“Chaos is not something you can control. It is in the name, Chaos,” I said.

“Then what are your suggestions?” Cheng asked.

“Trying to escape to the Astral Plane and then making our way out of there, instead of remaining trapped here. At least there would be options in the Astral Plane,” I said.

“We would just be trapped there and the dangers would be equally as high, just different. We need to find allies and other places that got pulled in here. While I get that thinking about the problem is useful, taking action would be better. Even if we can’t reach the center, if enough cultivators and other beings come togeather we can figure out a way to escape,” Luo Lingtai said.

“Do you think everyone will just be as reasonable as us?” I asked.

“It is worth a shot. We just need to find a way to teleport using a formation or array. Then we make it powerful enough and escape that way. It would be risky, but the risk would be less than other options,” Luo Lingtai said.

“We would be able to get past the barrier?” I asked.

“Yes. Maybe. But I can say that something this big won’t easily stop spatial displacement. It won’t be simple, since spatial displacement is a very rare and hard to use. It is also risky, but in terms of escaping it is the best option. I know this since the Xyon Front blocks spatial displacement at our facilities,” she explained.

“How does it block spatial displacement?” I asked.

“Spatial disjunction. The locations aren’t in a different space, but slightly out of phase. Anyone trying to teleport through would be broken apart. Also, the demonic cultivator running this space would want someone like that to leave their Gu Container instead of making trouble. It wouldn’t be a huge loss,” she explained.

“If someone could teleport, they would probably leave on their own,” I said.

“Most likely, but it is our best chance. We would have to search and hope we come across the information, unless it is already here? Does the crystal conclave have information on spatial displacement, not teleportation. The terms sound similar, but there is a difference. Teleportation involves a transition of some kind which most likely wouldn’t work,” Luo Lingtai asked.

“Let me look,” Cheng replied and began looking for information on spatial displacement. I didn’t hold out much hope of anything being found. It was an informational database if I had to make an educated guess. That way cultivators monitoring places like these could work out what various threats were.

Having highly technical information beyond the equipment here would be foolish. While there were probably traps on this database, nothing was absolute. If it was lost or stolen, the Crystal Conclave would not want to lose their core secrets. Something involving spatial displacement would rank at that level even for a super organization.

Even the Heavenly Alliance didn’t use spatial displacement casually. Thinking about that super organization, I couldn’t recall them ever using such a technique or formation. They most likely had it hidden away somewhere with some elites knowing about it, but they wouldn’t share such things easily.

Also, there was probably some risk or cost. My guess was a huge amount of energy that would be very finnicky to manage. While spatial manipulation was simple for super organizations, spatial displacement was something else entirely.

Thinking about the term, it meant transitioning a portion of space and everything in that space somewhere else. There would be the challenge of creating a separate space without killing everything inside. Moving that space somewhere else instantly, displacing whatever was there, and then fixing the hole in space that was created.

Most spatial techniques didn’t involve cutting and pasting, they involved stretching. The spatial storage devices involved taking a small bit of space and stretching it out. This could be done slowly and only involved a small bit of space unlike a spatial displacement meant to transport individuals or even items. It was like thinking that since both carts and cars had wheels they were similar to each other. That was only true on a surface level, while the technical complexities were completely different and at entirely different scales.

Even if we found something, testing would be a headache. We had no compressed energy and using energy from this Gu Container would most likely create problems. Luo Lingtai was clearly desperate and didn’t want to go to the Astral Plane. I didn’t blame her.

“Do you think that this space has been stabilized somehow?” I asked. The question came to mind since it would negate a lot of techniques. Also equipment had failed on our vessel as we entered the Gu Container. While spatial stabilizers worked, that didn’t mean other spatial techniques would work since it would be unlikely for spatial stabilizers to conflict with each other.

“Maybe. We would have to run some tests. But our spatial storage devices work without an issue,” Luo Lingtai said and I shook my head.

“This Gu Container, it would solve a lot of problems and trap everyone if there was a wide ranging spatial stabilizer. If an effect is big or powerful enough, it would get neutralized,” I said.

“This world has remained protected,” Cheng said while still looking up information in the database.

“But it can’t be moved. You said earlier that would disrupt the protections on this place. Excluding certain effects wouldn’t be too hard. But attempting to use spatial displacement or enter the Astral Plane could be blocked,” I said. There was silence as everyone considered my depressing guess.

Luo Lingtai closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “It is likely, since there is a time barrier. We can’t easily use the energy of this place easily either. Gathering a large enough amount of energy for such a formation or technique would cause a reaction,” she said.

“I can’t find anything on spatial displacement or teleportation,” Cheng said. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

“It looks like both of our plans could be considered desperation moves at best that are unlikely to work. What about turning off protections on this place and heading towards the edge. Then anchoring this world,” I suggested.

“It would be ripped apart,” Cheng replied without hesitation. “The spatial turbulence is quite a bit.”

“Oh, there isn’t a spatial stabilizer covering this place. The turbulence is the problem. Those shifts in gravity are just after effects,” Luo Lingtai pointed out and that piece of information clicked into place. “The process making the Gu most likely involves collapsing portions of space, drawing everything inwards and creating turbulence.”

Now we were truly trapped inside this Gu Container waiting to be consumed in the process of creating a cultivation resource. It was infuriating, but without power and ability, then one could only accept their fate no matter how much they might rage. I could appreciate the irony of my own musings since I had condemned the people on this world and other people in the past to their doom. Now I was being put in the same place and it was incredibly frustrating.

With all this knowledge there had to be something we could do. We were all silent as we thought about the situation, trying to find any kind of solution. Both Luo Lingtai’s idea of spatial displacement and going to the Astral Plane wouldn’t work. I glanced over at Cheng, his crazy idea might be the only thing that could work. No, the energy we would need for Chaos to manifest would be immense. Since all the energy in this space had problems, any formation or array would break down before we gathered enough.

“I think we might be truly trapped,” Luo Lingtai said slowly, admitting a fact none of us wanted to face. I refused to accept that, but I just couldn’t come up with a solution. None of us could as we all stood there in the dim light.

Even Luo Lingtai was not crazy enough to suggest facing off against the demonic cultivator who started this mess. “What about thinking in the other direction. Could we increase the spatial turbulence in some way?” I asked.

“No. It would just speed up the collapse of the Gu Container and the space has to be sent somewhere. Even if we collapsed space and sent to the other side of the world, it wouldn’t do much in comparison to the overall size of the Gu Container,” Luo Lingtai answered.

“What about creating an isolated location and purifying the energy. Then we could condense energy. Get enough condensed energy, then boom. We blow a hole into the Astral Plane,” I suggested.

“We might have some purification technology with us, but against this kind of energy, it wouldn’t work well. What is designed to counter Chaos isn’t designed to counter other types of energy. In fact most energy pumps don’t want to remove other influences, since they counter Chaos. Similar to the Gu, just less demonic,” she replied. I already knew this answer, but I was hoping she would mention something I didn’t know or had missed.

“Is there a way to survive the formation of this Gu?” Cheng suggested. I shook my head.

“If it is a demonic cultivator, no. They would use everything and make sure to dispose of the rest. I don’t see how we could survive the collapse of this space while everything is being drawn towards the center,” I answered, since I felt I was the expert on the mentality of demonic cultivators in this group.

“There is one idea. Cultivating this energy directly,” Luo Lingtai suggested and I was about to say that was a silly idea but kept my mouth shut. It was an interesting idea. The idea being to try and breakthrough the second bottleneck directly using this contaminated energy spread everywhere by the demonic cultivator. He was probably having it mix with energy being drawn in. So, while the taint lessened over time, it was still present. Or the demonic cultivator could have reserves saved up to keep a targeted balance so no one was able to capitalize on their ideas for escape.

“It wouldn’t work. People have tried in the past,” Cheng reminded us of the people on this world. “If they failed at the first bottleneck, they wouldn’t succeed at the second bottleneck.”

Silence took over our group once more. All our ideas were scraping the bottom of the barrel. In fact we had broken through the bottom and were digging a pit at this point.

“Let’s look at the situation from another direction. If we had all the knowledge and energy, what would be the best ways to escape,” I said.

“Hmm, well the best way would be to build something that could counter the spatial turbulence. That is powerful enough. That way we could just head for the edge of this space and leave. But the power and strength needed would have to be immense,” Luo Lingtai said and I nodded at this.

“Can we do tests with arrays and formations? It might take a while, but I am sure we can try a lot of different things. Once we find something that works for dealing with the energy and spatial turbulence, it would be a matter of scaling up at that point,” I suggested.

“That could work, but I was thinking of another idea. Looking at the equipment down here, we could reduce the range of protections to just over the surface of this world. At the very least it would give us more time. Use this entire place like a vessel and making testing on the surface easier,” she suggested and we both looked at Cheng.

“You want me to condemn everyone,” he replied.

“Yes. They serve no purpose,” Luo Lingtai said. I looked away at this statement. This was the same kind of mindset the demonic cultivator had. But she was correct. “Our food and water production can’t support many people.” It was goo, not food. There was a difference, but I also kept my mouth shut at this statement as well.

“The equipment can handle things for now. No need to start condemning people just yet. And if there is a large scale project that is needed or test subjects, they would be useful,” Cheng said. I didn’t know if I should compliment him or condemn him in my mind for his mindset. It wasn’t like I was any better, but this Gu Container brought up our hypocrisy in a clear light. “Do you think you can come up with something?”

I let out a small sigh before responding to this question. “Maybe. It is a complicated issue and it is impossible to sense the contamination of the background energy. We need a way to test the level of contamination. Then we can look at gathering energy. More energy is never a bad thing,” I said.

“Indeed. We might come up with other ideas during that time and having a large supply of uncontaminated energy would be incredibly useful,” Luo Lingtai added. Cheng slowly nodded a this.

“Well the database is open for you to both look through if it helps. There isn’t much on formations and arrays, but what is there has to do with the equipment present,” Cheng said. That would be helpful to get ideas.

“Materials will be a concern, but one step at a time,” Luo Lingtai muttered. A shame our production equipment had been completely crushed on our arrival into the Gu Container.

“Well basic metal shouldn’t be too hard. I can start working on the designs. Let’s each spend three days coming up with our own ideas and then compare them. We need a way to test the background energy and then a way to gather energy and store it. Also, a way to eliminate spatial turbulence and background interference. So, four different arrays or formations,” I said.

“I will bring up all the information available while both of you work on this,” Cheng said. I gave him a nod. As a fighter, his skill set wasn’t that useful, so anything he could do would be appreciated. I was going have to really push my brain in the coming days.

As long as we had some success in each area, we could iterate on that. Even if the process took a while, it wasn’t like this space was going to collapse in the next year, or hundred years. It was that large. So while there was an urgency, it was more about making some kind of progress instead of waiting around for our deaths.

While we might not get that far, if we could at least manage to gather energy, we would be able to pivot to another plan in the future. Having energy reserves was never a bad thing. As a last resort we could always try to make a massive bomb, or involve Chaos. Both of these things would result in our deaths, but better dead than turned into a Gu for a demonic cultivator.

No matter what I wasn’t about to be used in demonic cultivation. Death was preferable. I might get lucky and reincarnate again. I wasn’t counting on this, but anything was possible. Just thinking about starting over as a base human after all I had endured was almost as bad as thinking about my eventual death.

I had spent centuries getting this far. I wasn’t about to just role over, no matter how hopeless the situation. My idea was probably not going to work. I was going to try my best of course, but I knew Luo Lingtai was going along with my idea since there was nothing better. It was the last gasp of desperate people with no other ideas.

Cheng got us notebooks and began quickly sketching out quick ideas on how I would going about creating the arrays that would make up the formations we would need. We might have to develop an entirely new method of using arrays to solve this problem. A shame that none of us were experts in this area.

New n𝙤vel chapters are published on fre(e)webnov(l).com