PtM Book 17 - Chapter 46: A Risky Plan

I haven't set the number of chapters this week, but rest assured, the whole book will be posted by the end of February.

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The void adjacent to the Northern Abyss was a veritable maze of spatial fragments. This had a lot to do with the fact that the northern hemisphere hadn’t just been flattened like the southern hemisphere, but completely destroyed, leaving no anchor points for a proper planar membrane to affix itself to.

Not only did the Northern Abyss contain ten times more debris than the south, but its spatial rifts were also a threat even to middle-law-stitching demigods. Many powerhouses had been consumed over the past several thousand years, and as a result, it had been labeled a forbidden zone.

Cha Ming and company were currently navigating said cluttered void and were having a very difficult time of it. Huxian’s ship was well built, and not much larger than a corvette-class ship, but even so, it had difficulty maneuvering to avoid every obstacle. Several deep gashes now ran along its once-pristine hull, and thanks to the clashing planar laws in the area, they refused to regenerate.

They had a diverse party, however, and were able to improvise a solution. A jade blade now ran down the keel of the ship, capable of cutting both spatial materials and large pieces of debris. The blade was a fusion of Jadefall’s and Huxian’s abilities, and was anchored by Wu’s shields, which protected the front half of the ship.

Huxian had designed his ship with his friends in mind. Its hull, for example, had twenty-three anchor points, where Cha Ming affixed bloodstorm wings. Thanks to these additional wings, they were able maintain their speed as they slipped through the tiny gaps separating planar fragments.

The void wasn’t just filled with debris and energy-dense materials; many powerful fiends had taken residence here. They took great care to scout out and avoid said fiends, and relied on Huxian’s, Oster’s, and Cao Wenluan’s abilities to sneak past those they couldn’t.

It wasn’t long before they arrived in a zone with higher-than-normal fiendish activity.

“The next fortress should be nearby,” Xing Tianlong said. “I don’t know the exact coordinates, so we’ll be relying on you all.”

“I suppose it’s our turn again?” Oster said. “High Priestess, us lowly mortals require your assistance once again.”

Undine walked out of the cabin and yawned. She took a small altar out of her storage ring and slammed it on the ground. “Praise be Jezeriah, mistress of the lowly and insignificant,” she intoned. “This humble servant begs for a guide.”

A gateway opened from another world, out of which flew a crow feather stained with starry patterns. It had dead eyes that saw what the living didn’t.

The crow flapped its wings and split into thousands of incarnations that flew off in the many possible directions they could choose from. Most of them perished quickly, but with each “death,” the others were strengthened. The trail of stardust each crow left behind grew firmer, until only three such trails remained.

“Oster?” said Undine.

The man was already fiddling with his Mirror of the Blighted Coin. “That one,” he said, pointing at the pathway that veered left. “Eighty percent odds of success without discovery. No refunds in case of failure.”

They set out once again. Huxian placed a hand on the ship’s deck and manipulated its materials. The entire ship and its occupants turned translucent. Such a rough disguise wasn’t perfect, which was why Oster used one of his skills, Midnight Infiltration, to render them invisible.

Cao Wenluan contributed the third and final layer of protection. He used karma and destruction laws to weave a karma-severing shield around the ship. At their level, it wasn’t just prying eyes and spiritual senses they needed to be careful of, but things like karmic inference and causal web deductions.

Not far ahead lay a sensory membrane, which had been exposed by Undine’s ritual. They held their breath as they slipped through the membrane, hoping no hidden traps or high-level scouts were present. Fortunately, their luck was quite good, thanks to the number of evil cultivators on their ship. They were able to enter enemy territory without any issues.

They passed several patrols and other checkpoints before arriving at their destination.

“What a mess,” Xing Tianlong muttered. “I take it this is a lost cause?”

The planar fragment fueling the fortress on the other side of the membrane was nestled in a veritable mess of planar fragments. It was difficult to see it through all the shifting pieces.

“I don’t think this is possible,” Huxian said. “What about you?”

Cha Ming agreed. “The mess isn’t the issue. The real problem is that there are too many small pieces. You get rid of one piece, and the whole mess shifts. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

While Cha Ming wasn’t very well versed in spatial laws, he had a good amount of experience in retrieving and dissolving spatial fragments. He’d come close to death on more than one occasion, both on the Chasewind Plane before his return and while collecting planar fragments through missions back in the Heartforge Realm.

“There’s also the void,” Huxian said. “Just look at it. It’s the spatial equivalent of a window after some kid pitched a ball straight through it. We can’t just take care of bad planar fragments—we also have to patch up the void so that it doesn’t get worse. Otherwise, there’s no point to any of this.”

Xing Tianlong ran his fingers through his hair. “Drat. That makes things much harder.”

“Is it even worth scouting out the other locations?” Petros asked. “To use Oster’s parlance, I don’t want to double down on a bad investment.”

“Truth be told, I’m not all that optimistic anymore,” Cha Ming said. “There’s no need for you all to stay. Huxian and I can continue on our own.”

“Not a chance,” Oster cut in. “Don’t even think about sneaking off with Tianlong. We’re sticking together.” He looked to Cao Wenluan and his team, however, and made a shooing motion. “You guys can all go get lost, though.”

“If Fireblight is willing to take a gamble, I’d be foolish not to join in,” Cao Wenluan said. “If one of these locations pays off, we stand a good chance of reaching the top of the rankings. Besides, the top contenders on the leaderboard are finally taking action. They’ve begun eliminating their weaker competitors and consolidating all the points in their individual worlds.”

Jadefall, Wu, and Wei Longshen decided to follow Cha Ming and Huxian. Petros was reluctant but ultimately decided to stick with them. Baleful Vision was not keen on wandering the void, but he was wary of Xing Tianlong after their last encounter. Someone needed to keep an eye on him, so they could only accompany Cha Ming and the rest.

They arrived at the third location a few days later. The situation there was slightly better than the last. Space manifested as large spheres mixed up with broken bits of spatial glass, giving it a gravel-like consistency.

Cha Ming wanted to attempt clearing out the area, but Huxian stopped him. “You can’t start with the big fragments; you’d need to clear the smaller ones first.”

“But that’d take forever,” Cha Ming muttered. “What if you built supports?”

“Could work,” Huxian agreed. “But it’d take a lot of time.”

“So it’s possible, but not worth committing to just yet,” Xing Tianlong said. “Fine. Let’s head over to the next location.”

Days later, they were staring at what appeared to be large blocks of space stacked upon each other. No less than seven planar fragments had fused with the collapsing demiplane core, making it impossible to separate them using either of Cha Ming’s or Huxian’s powers.

“I’m not saying it can’t be done,” Huxian said. “I’m just saying that if we try pulling that source planar fragment out, everything’s going to collapse downward. Space here is very firm, which is an advantage, but there’s no way it’ll survive the impact.”

Cha Ming thought it was a real pity. Others might not know this, but Ninesky had already scouted out the demiplane. It was an earth-based demiplane of just the right size. If I can absorb it like I did the Flamewing Demiplane, I might be able to break through a second time…

He hid his excitement, however, and schooled his expression. No one in their group but Huxian knew that he could increase his cultivation by devouring demiplanes. His combat prowess was no longer at the top of their group, but if he suddenly increased in strength a second time, there was no one here who would be able to stop him.

Oster and Undine had their own system of calculating odds, and they agreed with Huxian’s assessment.  "If we remove any of these pieces, there’s an eighty percent chance of catastrophic planar collapse, and a twenty percent chance of only moderate damage to the planar membrane,” said Oster. “The projected death toll is three billion lives and a one percent reduction in the immortal king’s ability to fix the Dao origins and assimilate the plane.”

“There’s no way your calculations are that accurate,” Cha Ming said. “You can’t just divine immortal kings without backlash.”

Oster smirked. “No, but I can calculate the odds of a few large cities in our regions getting wiped out in the next few years. With enough data points, it’s possible to infer a few things.”

Cha Ming had originally wanted to give it a try, but eighty percent odds was too high. As a demigod, he could stomach gambling with the lives of many to increase the immortal king’s odds of success. But three billion lives? That was far too many for him to sleep comfortably.

“So the main problem, if I’m understanding, is that a chain reaction might occur in the fused planar fragments, even if we stabilize local space,” Xing Tianlong said.

“That’s right,” Huxian said. “These fragments are all connected, and clearing up one of them would damage the other’s planar membrane way too much. And it’s not like you can just pick them up one after the other, because space here is packed so tightly.”

“In that case, the answer is simple, isn’t it?” Xing Tianlong said. “I’ll just destroy an adjacent spatial fragment and buy us some wiggle room.”

They all looked at him as though he were a madman.

“What? I’ll do it quickly to minimize the damage.”

“That’s a terrible idea,” Huxian said. “Ignore the other fragments—an explosion of that magnitude would shatter the local void so badly that forget the four fortresses, that nice ring city on the surface might not survive.”

“Ah, but that’s the genius of it,” Xing Tianlong said. “What if I could destroy it in the purest sense? No energy, no fragments. Just straight up… erasure.”

“You’re saying you want to wield true destruction against a planar fragment of that size?” Cao Wenluan said. “You’re madder than I thought.”

“I agree, that sounds like a terrible idea,” Cha Ming said. He’d tasted the aftereffects of using his erasure technique on their tribulation. His luck had yet to recover from the ordeal.

“The backlash alone would be quite terrible,” Oster said. “Why would we even consider doing what you’re proposing?”

Xing Tianlong rolled his eyes. “In a vacuum, it’s obviously a terrible idea. The universe would be quite upset at me erasing this tiny fragment. But what if, by doing so, we increased the odds of stabilizing the Chasewind Plane by a few percentage points? Would you really blame a surgeon for removing your pinky toe if doing so would prevent rot from spreading?”

“If it’s true destruction, it could work,” Huxian said. “Assuming you could remove everything. I’m just going to remind you that this is a planar fragment we’re talking about, not a giant boulder.”

“I’m confident that I can do it,” Xing Tianlong said. “I lack the destructive energy, but with the large amount of fiend essence I recovered in Ygrash’s fortress, it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Interesting,” Oster said. “Our odds improved quite a bit. My mirror puts us at a fifty percent chance of moderate planar damage. Catastrophic is down to forty percent.”

“If he can do that, and expose the source fragment powering the fiendish fortress, I think I can separate that one from the others without causing much damage,” Cha Ming said. “I also have an erasure-type ability—this one’s precise, so it would allow Huxian to come in from behind and seal up any gaps in the planar membranes.”

“And… we’re down to twenty percent odds of catastrophic failure,” Oster said.

“I think that’s got more to do with shifting fragments,” Huxian said. “It’s tough to build supports when there’s a giant demiplane blocking the way.”

“I can buy us time, if that’s what we need,” Cao Wenluan said. “Violet Rose, Dark Tooth, and I have a combination ability that we could use to delay karmic consequences. The planar fragments and local space would continue behaving normally for a while, giving you a chance to patch things up a bit and add some support.”

Huxian scratched his chin thoughtfully. “If that planar fragment was gone, I could stabilize everything fairly quickly. But that’s a relative term. How long are we talking here?”

“Three hours?” said Cao Wenluan. “Maybe four?”

“More than enough time,” Huxian said. “How long will it’ll take you to take care of the collapsing demiplane and cut off the fortress, Cha Ming?”

“It’ll take a full month, I think,” Cha Ming said.

“A month?” Xing Tianlong said. “That’s too much time. The fortress would discover something is amiss.”

“Not to mention the massive waste of time,” said Petros.

“It is a long time,” Cha Ming admitted. “But how many points did we get by taking care of that fortress last week? Xing Tianlong, you said Ygrash’s was the weakest one. I’d imagine that cutting off this one’s power would be just as rewarding. Plus, we’d be stabilizing the spatial membrane by taking care of this mess.”

“There’s no way we can hold off all these patrolling fiends for an entire month,” Oster said. “Not with ten times our number.”

“Well, I’m confident that I can mask what I’m doing for a while,” Cha Ming said. “I think Huxian, Cao Wenluan, and Undine could probably figure out a way to hide the plane from prying eyes, spiritual senses, and karmic inference.”

“I’m not convinced,” said Oster. “Assuming everyone listens to my orders exactly as I give them, I could probably hold out for a few days. And I’m assuming you won’t be able to help us during that time.”

Cha Ming shook his head. “I can give you some paintings that will follow simple instructions, and I can give you Luther, Coral, and Disaster. I can also reinforce you all with my law projection. Just don’t expect anything fancy.”

Oster ran some quick numbers. “Assuming you can hide your presence until the last three days, we can do it. But how confident are you in removing this demiplane without causing a mess?”

“I’m confident,” Cha Ming said. “At the very least, I should be able to get rid of most of its energy, so that it doesn’t explode in our faces.”

“Then I’m willing to try,” Oster said. “That would put our odds of catastrophic failure at less than five percent. The rewards justify the risk.”

“I disagree,” said Wei Longshen.

“I also disagree,” said Jadefall. “We’d be risking a lot of lives by doing this.”

“You can’t look at it that way,” Cha Ming said to Jadefall. “There’s still a chance that the immortal king fails in assimilating this plane. If we can increase their chances by a few percentage points, isn’t it worth taking the risk?”

“Also, I’d like to point out that catastrophic failure in this case only means fifty million meaningless lives will be lost,” Oster said.

“You’re not helping,” Cha Ming said. “But you make a good point. A few percentage points increasing means, statistically, saving billions of lives.”

Wei Longshen winced but nodded. “Fine. You’ve convinced me.”

Jadefall crossed her arms. “I’m still opposed, but if Huxian supports this idea, I’m in.”

“I think it’s worth the risk,” Huxian said. But we’re going to have to make some backup plans to stop them from backstabbing us, he sent to Cha Ming privately.

Come on, Huxian, you should have more than a few tricks up your sleeve, Cha Ming said.

But will you be quick enough? Huxian asked. Xing Tianlong and the others might not know what you’re up to, but once you start breaking through, there’ll be no hiding it.

I shouldn’t be as badly disabled as last time, Cha Ming said. And if there are fiends attacking us at the time, we should be able to escape in the chaos, worst case.

“We need to talk about our agreement,” Oster said. “We were in a hurry before, but now, at least, we have a working plan. We already have a nonaggression agreement, and I’ve confirmed that Xing Tianlong’s agreement still stands. But we still need to talk points distribution, since we have no control over how the mission jades will assign them.”

“Why would we need an agreement for that?” Cha Ming asked. “We’ll all get what we deserve, won’t we?”

“Will we now?” Oster asked. “Maybe you’re not worried because you’re going to be cleaning things up and cutting off the fortress’s power supply, but some of us will be playing supporting roles.”

“We should split things evenly,” Undine said.

“Not a chance,” said Oster. “As the one commanding our defense, I can increase our odds of survival severalfold.”

Surprisingly, Undine held her ground. “No. Not a chance. We’re taking a lot of risk here, and if you don’t make it an even split, I’m out.”

Cha Ming and friends were chuckling at the exchange. Undine had a large advantage in this situation because she was a healer. Ranker healers of her caliber were extremely rare, and among Daoists, they were almost nonexistent.

“I oppose such an arrangement,” Cao Wenluan said.

“As do I,” Xing Tianlong said. “As the two strongest members of our group, by far, we’ll be shouldering most of the responsibility for our defense. We should get a bigger cut.”

“Without me, your offense will decrease substantially,” Jadefall said.

“Then it’s a good thing we don’t need your support,” said Cao Wenluan.

“I could take on any five of you without breaking a sweat,” said Xing Tianlong.

“Fine,” Cha Ming said, surprising everyone. “Five percent each to Oster, Wenluan, and Tianlong, then an even split.”

“You can’t be serious,” Undine said.

“Their words aren’t without merit, and before you argue, consider who’s going to be performing the bulk of the work,” Cha Ming said. “I don’t need a high place on the rankings—I’m satisfied with my entire team netting a large number of points.”

Only then did his words make a lot of sense. As the most populous faction, they’d be getting the largest piece of the pie.

Unbeknownst to them, Cha Ming and Huxian were getting nervous. Do you think I oversold it? Cha Ming sent to Huxian. Do you think they’ll be suspicious now?

“That’s terribly unfair to you, Clear Sky,” Petros said. “You and Eight Directions are also integral to this operation.”

“Yeah, we should get a bigger cut!” Huxian said, but Cha Ming elbowed him. “I mean, it’s fine, Petros. Really.”

“In the end, that’s the difference between us,” Cha Ming said. “I can be self-sacrificing in situations where our group stands to gain, and they can’t. Besides, I’m looking forward to the karma boost from resolving this situation. As the one directly taking care of the demiplane, I’ll be gaining most of it.”

***

It took three full days to organize preliminary defensive lines and obscure the planar fragments they’d be working on. Huxian stabilized most of the fragments and built large pieces of spatial scaffolding such that he could slide them into place.

Meanwhile, Cao Wenluan, Violet Rose, and Dark Tooth set up a complex ritual. Judging by the quality of materials they were preparing, the price they would pay to delay the karmic effects wouldn’t be small.

“Is everyone ready?” Oster asked everyone through one of his command skills. They all voiced an affirmative. “Cao Wenluan, begin!”

Cao Wenluan and his companions simultaneously activated their soul-burning abilities and spat out a mouthful of blood essence. A huge amount of killing intent poured into their formation via Dark Tooth, followed by a large influx of national fate via Violet Rose.

“Wrathful Blade of the Conqueror, obey my command,” Cao Wenluan said, unsheathing his soul-bound treasure. “Conquer… Fate!”

The killing intent in the formation poured into his blade, which he immediately brought down upon the cloud of national density. A piece was severed off the cloud, which immediately took the shape of the stacked planar fragments.

Cao Wenluan turned pale. “We’ve succeeded. You’re safe to work on the fragments.”

“He has successfully scrambled karmic connections in the local area,” Undine confirmed. “But it appears that his two helpers are badly wounded and will not be able to help us in the upcoming struggle.”

“Xing Tianlong, every second counts,” Oster said.

“Leave it to me,” Xing Tianlong said. Fiendish essence poured out from a box on his belt and into his spear, which grew as layers of black runes overlaid themselves atop it.

While they were close to a fiendish fortress, and creation laws were somewhat suppressed here, it was difficult to maintain destruction runes for any length of time. Xing Tianlong did so by using his vast spiritual strength to force the unstable runes back into place.

The spear grew until a critical mass of fiendish essence had accumulated, at which point Xing Tianlong threw the spear with all his might, piercing through the planar fragment’s membrane and detonating it at the center.

It was an explosion without power, destruction without sound. There were no flying fragments, nor were there any gaping wounds in space threatening to devour them all. A large hole in the planar membrane did exist now, but karmic consequences had been delayed.

“Huxian, you have three hours,” Oster said. “Work quickly. Double Time!”

Huxian transformed into his eight-tailed form and dragged Jadefall and Wu with him to assist in his work.

Cha Ming also flew in and used the Clear Sky Brush to paint up some simple spatial patches. It took two hours to fix the damage.

“Clear Sky, you’re up next,” Oster said.

Cha Ming flew up to the boundary separating the decaying planar fragment and the fragment beneath it. He used Erasure Style to destroy the fused sections where they joined. Huxian followed up by patching up their respective membranes. The process took two hours in total, but in the end, they managed to isolate the decaying demiplane and proceed to the next stage of their plan.