Elder Cultivator

When he paid for a room to stay just to seem like he was properly part of the habitat in the depths of Moturn, Anton technically gave fraudulent payment. He didn’t have any of the local currency, and most of the valuables he had would stand out too much. However, he had no intention to let things remain in such a state. Though his coins were only a temporary product of energy, he would replace them as soon as possible.

It would have been strange for him to stay out all day and night, however, and he was being watched. So far it didn’t seem like there was anything but vague suspicions, but people would eventually risk probing closely enough to determine that Anton was beyond Life Transformation. Even an unknown cultivator in Life Transformation would be suspicious, as the total population under the dome was limited.

The setup of the habitat was… sloppy. Industries were imbalanced, with many having more workers than jobs or materials. But Anton didn’t blame them for that. It was unlikely they were able to choose exactly who and what they brought with them. The fact that they survived at all was already impressive.

It took three days for Anton to sell more than a few handfuls of mushrooms. Nobody trusted his words about how much they would grow on any sort of organic refuse, even though Anton thought his numbers were actually quite conservative. Mushrooms were already one of the most rapidly growing life forms, and with the right conditions- which were not terribly difficult to achieve- they would thrive.

Anton ended up eating about half of what he’d produced, not because he was hungry himself but to demonstrate they were safe. It was a reasonable concern, but he did get tired of the same suspicions over and over.

Nobody wanted a full manual, but he did manage to sell some mushrooms and some ‘tips’ to a grocer. Not that they were anything like the grocers he was used to- because they didn’t have much in the way of products. Not by their own fault, but by the limited resources around them.

Or at least, seemingly limited resources. It wasn’t as if it was actually possible for a population measured in millions to use up any significant portion of the material of a gas giant or to deplete the total energy. Just what was immediately usable. They needed special formations, strong cultivators, or something similar to capture more natural energy. And special techniques would be required to transform the compressed material beneath them into something usable.

But waste they had aplenty, and all manners of fungus would be happy to devour it. Plants would too. It was merely a matter of organizing everything and potentially giving the industry a boost with a few good crops.

Unlike what first seemed apparent, plants did not grow in size primarily by absorbing the soil in which they were planted, nor from water. The gain in mass from such things was extremely minimal, with the majority of mass coming from the air. Fungi, however, often gained much of their mass from breaking down components of what they were growing on. Both behaviors were good in certain circumstances.

Anton spent about a week trying to get in the good graces of the few farmers he could find. A relatively small area was devoted to their work… and Anton didn’t think they were productive enough. He’d seen people who were malnourished, after all. He did need to study the local setup to actually give good advice, but he’d worked on more complicated situations. Like remaking plants from vague scraps of DNA not destroyed by the solar rays of Maheg. Awkward soil composition was a cakewalk.

At the end of the week, there wasn’t anything amazing like a whole new season’s worth of crops, but his efforts would improve some of the fields’ gains by ten or twenty percent at the first harvest. More, if people actually followed his instructions on donating their energy.

Mushrooms grown by natural energy were another matter. It was possible for them to grow fast enough to be seen with the naked eye- when placed in somewhere sufficiently potent or tended by someone with a cultivation in Spirit Building or greater. Though the local natural energy was a bit weak, there were a decent number of cultivators at higher ranks, likely survivors of the disaster itself.

At the end of the first week, someone tried to shake down a merchant right in front of Anton. He knew that interrupting could cause more trouble for them in the future, but there were cases of exception. He could completely eradicate the group causing the problem, which he was actually considering. And more relevantly, the man looked like he would probably be killed, and thus avoiding future trouble wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have a future.

The one causing most of the trouble was an Essence Collection cultivator. She was unlikely to advance any further, given her visible age. Of course, there were always exceptions but Anton saw someone that was taking out their frustrations on others.

“Excuse me,” he said, bumping past her as she was about to stomp on the head of the poor stall tender. Her stomp cracked the ground, but left the man unharmed. She then tried to kick Anton in his spine. He caught her foot behind his back with a single hand. He looked over her shoulder. “Do you like having two feet?”

“... What?” the woman stared at him in shock.

“I was just wondering. Because you’re sure acting like you don’t enjoy having a whole body. Otherwise, you wouldn’t act so recklessly. What gives you such ego?”

The woman tried to yank her leg away. Anton honestly barely needed to use any of his energy- his body wasn’t tempered much beyond what anyone else did, but he didn’t neglect it as part of his overall cultivation even as centuries went by. Enough to wrestle with a petulant Essence Collection cultivator easily. “I’m an elder of the Twisting Spike! If you don’t let me go, there will be consequences!”

“Consequences?” Anton asked. “Is that what you want? I was going to give you an opportunity to beg for forgiveness, but if you want consequences you will have them. I’ll give you one opportunity to decide.”

The woman tried to twist herself, raising up to kick Anton in the face. For the sake of the audience, he ducked under her leg. Then she staggered away. Not because he’d let go of her foot, but because there was no longer anything to hold onto.

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It took a few moments for her to realize, as she tried to set her foot down and kept nearly toppling over. And the spies watching took a moment to reveal herself. The woman screamed at him as the pain of a burnt off stump finally hit her, and Anton waved his hand as a half dozen others charged towards him. Arrows of energy pinned their feet to the ground in a manner that was less than merciful. Though most of them would probably recover given time.

“Are you happy with your consequences?” Anton asked. “What is your sect even doing here? You provide no value to the city.”

The old woman probably wasn’t thinking right when she pulled out a stiletto and attempted to impale Anton, but that didn’t stop him from turning the weapon into her own forearm. Then he shoved her away.

He turned to the fallen man, helping him to his feet. “How are you? Seems like you should be able to recover in time.”

The man sighed. “I appreciate your kindness, stranger, but I wish you hadn’t interfered.”

“Why not?” Anton asked, knowing there were several possible answers.

“Because I’m not worth saving. Or rather, it would have just been me that perished. Now the Twisting Spike sect will come after you as well, and I would not wish such a fate upon the sort of person that wished to help. Unless… you were looking for death?”

Anton looked at the man with clear eyes. “What do you think?”

“... You’re confident, at least,” he said, eyeing the market around them. Everyone was staying well away, even though the cultivators Anton had pinned had broken free of the arrows and retreated out of sight. “But you can’t stand against a city alone.”

“I might not be as alone as I look,” Anton said. Though, actually, he was. But it was more reasonable for his confidence to come from allies… and he was hoping to find some resistive elements. “I’m afraid you won’t be getting much business done today. Perhaps you should take the rest of the day off.” Anton transmitted his words directly to the man, blocking the sound from spreading beyond and not even moving his lips. “If you have anyone who needs protecting, let me know.”

“I would normally say that unfortunately, I have no one. But in this case…” the man shook his head. “I am glad it’s just me. I intend to leave the district, but I don’t know if I can escape without being spotted. Though…” Clearly the man had some plans. Anton would let him try those… but the man was under his care now.

“I’m Anton, by the way.”

“Draza,” the man said, beginning to sweep the unbroken pieces of his merchandise- various wood carvings- into a bag. “It is a pleasure to meet you. An unexpected one, but a pleasure nonetheless.”

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Unov was better. It wasn’t just the Eighth Vent, either. Ironically, with fewer resources the people on the icy moon were being better stewards of everything. Most likely it had to do with the people in each place, but there were always various factors that influenced people’s behaviors. Sometimes need brought community, and sometimes it brought extortion.

“I can’t believe you let me get eaten by a deadly jelly, Hadrianus,” Anton said. “I thought we were better friends than that.”

“We have known each other for merely a week,” the man said. “And you didn’t exactly protect yourself. Also, I can’t just teleport through the airlock.”

“This all started when you wouldn’t let me in,” Anton said. “I can’t believe you’re exploiting a poor old man by forcing me to leave valuable treasures to you and you still won’t let me inside.”

“Trust does not come so easily,” Hadrianus said. “However, you are rapidly growing in our esteem. In my own estimation, part of that is the fact that we can’t actually keep you out, can we?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Anton said, lying in a manner that nobody could fail to mistake. “I am restricted by the laws of the physical world just as much as you.”

“You already admitted to being an energy projection. And I know you can extend your energy through our barriers. And I also know that your main body has to be strong enough to break through forcibly if nothing else.”

“That could be true,” Anton said. “So… did you know they were jerks?”

Hadrianus frowned. “Who?” he looked over his shoulder towards the rest of the colony. “Is there… something I should know?”

“The Twisting Spike. Moturn.”

“Ah,” Hadrianus nodded. “They were quite disconnected from us, but I still had an inkling.”

“And you left me in the dark?” Anton said, mock offended.

“You didn’t ask. And I have the feeling you already knew right away.”

“They’re bad at hiding it,” Anton admitted. “I’m still debating whether or not to eliminate them.”

Hadrianus actually took a step back at that. “... what?”

“It’s not so uncommon for cultivators, is it? Eliminating a problematic sect. Unless you were particularly lucky with your home world, but given what I’ve seen…” Anton shrugged, transmitting the feeling through the closed airlock.

“You were just so… frank about it.”

“I’ve had more than enough trouble coexisting with terrible people that my patience isn’t to be taken for granted,” Anton said. “Oh, I did deliver everything you requested to the other vents. Give it a year or two, and you won’t even remember you were hungry.”

“I doubt it,” Hadrianus said. “But even if that’s the case… people will complain about the lack of variety.”

“Sadly, I have nothing to say for you about hunting ice jellies. Either you can, or you can’t. And I doubt they’re particularly edible. So you get plants.”

“We happen to be lacking sunlight,” Hadrianus said. “So fungi might be the limit.”

“Oh, I can fix that,” Anton said. “The sunlight thing. Oh, did you know they did something awful to your sun on the way out?” Anton shook his head. “It’s… awful. But I’m currently handling it.”

“I thought you were on Moturn?”

Anton was trying to limit world shattering revelations to just a few per day. “Don’t worry about it too much. It’s related to my cultivation style. If anyone wants to learn it… you can get yourself some all natural sunlight indoors! You just have to swear not to be a terrible person.”

“And unwavering loyalty, I imagine.”

“Nah, just that first thing. I do mean it though. Can’t have anyone who feels like me going around causing trouble.” Anton wasn’t going to ignore his need for devotion, but honestly it came naturally with what he did. Gratefulness made up a good portion of his incoming devotion. It was less potent than loyalty, but loyalty without cause was surprisingly unenduring. Not that people were limited to just one sort of devotion, so he had plenty of standard loyalty as well.

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