Elder Cultivator

Chapter 927

There were many cultivators inspired towards greater heights after witnessing a Domination cultivator in action, and Chidi was one of them. Sparring with swordmaster Chikere had always been an interesting process, but after her defeat of the Limitless Edge he was even more impressed.

Unfortunately, her particular style greatly hampered his own. Chidis style was all about predicting how an opponent would move and tailoring the flow of energy through the area by manipulating formation runes, both his internal ones and externally carved runes.

That was difficult with her, as her attack variations were nearly limitless, and she didnt always pick the most logical form of attack. And yet, that made it better practice for Chidi, trying to pick out patterns in her movements. It was challenging, especially since she didnt really hold back. He rarely lasted more than a few moves, making it difficult for him to take control of the flow of the battlefield.

And yet, he wouldnt have asked for anything else. He hadnt yet advanced to Augmentation- though maybe in another century or two he would. However, if he had to face an Augmentation cultivator before his advancement or a Domination cultivator after, the experience of fighting against a stronger opponent would be important.

Hed done it before. Exactly once, but it only took a single move to kill a person. Rakiya had been above his stage but he had still managed to defeat her by seizing a single moment. Chikere was an excellent test of his limits.

Chidis sword flashed in an arc around him, reacting to incoming assaults. If he could momentarily disrupt her energy, each sword of her blood would disintegrate. While he wasnt able to completely drive out her energy- which would be much more costly for her than simply re-establishing the connection- momentarily stopping some of her assault provided him breathing room. Usually enough for a single breath before he found his body pierced by a hundred blades.

It might seem hopeless to fight with a single sword against her, but the total energy a cultivator could bring to bear was still the same. Which was to say, Chidi couldnt blame his losses on there being too many attacks.

There was only one flow of energy for the battlefield, and he just had to capture that and shift it to his advantage somehow. Either way, he felt himself growing stronger a little bit at a time but he wasnt sure if his current path would bring him where he wanted.

-----

The southern border of the Trigold Cluster wasnt supposed to be highly populated, but Velvet was cautious with her approach nonetheless. After all, they had been transporting quite a variety of troublesome packages through the area no longer than half a century prior. There was no telling how many bases they actually had in the area.

Which was of course half of her purpose. Crossed Antennae had plans to expand the void ants along the border eventually, and making certain they could remain concealed until the proper time was important. The void ants being discovered in the upper realms before the change in the tides of the worlds would be a huge blunder. Their presence in the lower realms had already been revealed, but they couldnt do anything about that at the moment.

At least, that was the presumption. They might have further colonies in the lower realms, which was another point of investigation. Velvet really needed to learn the most she could about the operations of the Trigold Cluster. If she could find some information on convenient enemies to keep them occupied that would also be great.

For the moment, she was content to find that the border worlds were mostly unoccupied. There were a few that already had people living on them, which would make settling the void ants more difficult. Perhaps they would skip those. They werent intending the void ants to completely eliminate the potential attacking forces just to cripple as many as possible. And for that, some caution was merited.

-----

Laurit.

A woman took no more than two seconds to appear in the throne room of the crystalline palace, her head bowed. Exalted One. You called for me? In truth, the name called had not been hers. Laurit had perished but correcting the Exalted One even on her own name could be a foolish mistake.

Zaur Beridze glared down at her. Remind me what you said about the status of the vaults when we returned.

Lelka noticed him shift in his seat. Discomfort from his wounds perhaps, but whatever it was she was even more uncomfortable. Of course, Exalted One Zaur. She dove back into her memories to be as precise as possible. I reported that there had been no incidents, and that everything in the vaults was properly accounted for.

You did say that, didnt you? Zaurs voice boomed in a manner that threatened to shatter the surrounding architecture were it not enchanted for durability. Then what about this note I found in the core vaults?

I have no access to the workings of the core vaults, Exalted One, Lelka said carefully.

Read it.

She didnt like the sound of that, but she had to do what she was told.

Thanks for leaving your vaults unlocked. Your best buddy, Everheart. P.S. Dont forget to come to my party later, invitation is in the mail.

Lelka didnt know how to respond to that. I have read it, Exalted One Zaur. She could easily guess what had happened, to some extent but she didnt actually know.

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How did this happen, Laurit?

She hardly even looked like her sister. And Laurit had been the one who wanted the position. Lelka had been quite content serving far from the core of the Citadel of Exalted Light. But Zaur was particular about who he allowed to be his assistants, and she had been next on the chopping block it seemed. How could she protect herself here? I have never been given access to the core vaults or their security, so I dont know. Did he really not remember Laurit had died? Perhaps he wasnt around for that, but still. Hed gone downhill since Nadzeya disappeared.

You should have prevented this, Zaur said. You should expect punishments.

I understand, Exalted One, Lelka said, bowing her head.

At least she was too valuable to kill off. Even if she was just barely an Augmentation cultivator, the Citadel couldnt afford to throw them away. Like Laurit, ironically. Even though Zaur was the one who hadnt fully investigated the source that indicated where Nadzeya had been taken. And now it was pretty obvious. Damn that Everheart.

Make certain that you uncover how this happened, or there will be more severe consequences.

Without the proper authority to access certain information, that would be difficult for Lelka. Hopefully Zaur would realize that as his recovery progressed. Until then, shed simply have to convince the others. Perhaps by implying Zaurs annoyance might fall on their heads instead.

-----

Vari looked at the elegantly scribed scroll in front of her. Shed read it several times already, but it was difficult to take in.

You are cordially invited to a festival in the Everheart System. That much she understood. Bring as many companions as you would like. Would they be safe, or would they be sacrifices? Was she actually supposed to bring enemies? Date: approximately a century from now. Well there went the whole formal tone.

Having Everheart as her almost-uncle was a pain. Rather than certain other people she could benefit from having as family, it just saddled her with annoying duties. The one benefit was that he occasionally gave her stuff. The fact that he wouldnt kill or rob her was also slightly comforting, considering how other people felt about Everheart but shed rather just have no interaction with him at all. Though perhaps that was how most people felt.

She didnt know how to respond to the formal invitation, and trying a direct message had not borne any fruit. Either Everheart was specifically ignoring her because he wanted a hand penned letter in response or he was in one of his busy phases where nothing seemed to get through to him. There were quite a few of those, and they were always troublesome for the Scarlet Alliance.

Maybe she should go visit in person to ask about it? She didnt really want to, but she had to admit that he was likely the best source of information on certain things. Especially with regards to potentially killing Domination cultivators. The only reason she hadnt sought him out already was that the Alliance didnt want to look desperate. And that she didnt like to do it.

But she had to do it at some point. So it might as well be soon.

Not just yet, though.

-----

Lev had begun expanding saplings born from the Grandfather Willow some time before. He didnt plant them anywhere with a high population, as if they grew to even a fraction of the Grandfather Willows size they would need room to expand.

Within Ruteras system they had a number of planets undergoing terraforming, and Vecesta was the one Lev was interested in most. It had its flaws, of course. The atmosphere was a little thin, and it was lacking sufficient water as well. Both of those problems could be solved with sufficient time, especially as they released gasses trapped within the planet.

If he took proper care of them, the already hardy trees would have no trouble converting some of the extra gasses into a more breathable form. Then with the help of some members of the Order of One Hundred Stars extra sunlight would help accelerate the growth of the trees until Lev could pick an exceptional specimen.

Even so, the process was going more slowly than Lev would like, and the water problem had been especially troublesome. A potential solution had just recently come to him, however- and a rather unexpected one.

Lev had not interacted with Paradise much. Living in a land-locked sect meant he had to have a specific reason to seek out the turtle, so he had only visited Paradise a few times, each more than decades apart. Paradise wasnt good at communicating his intentions, but fortunately Erin was capable of interpreting for humans to some extent.

Paradise wants to give you water, Erin had said, coming to find him when he was back on Ceretos for a time.

Its not really just for me, Lev pointed out. But for the whole planet. Vecesta doesnt even have proper oceans.

Hmm. He says he knows what he is doing, she frowned.

Does he?

He hasnt been wrong before. I dont think the queen would let him do anything terribly foolish, either.

The queen? Ah yes. Paradise had his own colony of void ants, with a queen who was unfortunately from before the more recent and convenient naming phase of the void ants. Not that there were more that actually used names than he could count on both hands. At least not that had come to his attention. Well, as long as you help balance things, Lev had replied. And I would consult with the locals first, of course. Can he even shoot water that far? Ceretos might miss it as well.

Lev wasnt going to say that Paradise couldnt blast water between systems. He was aware what powerful cultivators could do, after all. But after that conversation he hadnt heard anything else until he got a report from Ceretos. Paradise had leaped from the oceans out of the atmosphere and into space. His vaults out of the seas over the recent decades had all been leading up to a single moment that anyone could have missed.

Erin and the Island Tenders kept people updated about his whereabouts after he broke atmosphere. Apparently they had been much less surprised about the sudden event than Lev was. Looking back on older news, it was clear hed been leaping into the air for a long time. It wasnt the sort of progression Lev had expected but he lived on land next to an enormous tree. He simply hadnt paid that much attention to Paradise.

The journey of the Island Turtle involved several years swimming around in the Ceretos system, and Lev almost expected it to end there. But it seemed Paradise had been quite serious about his intent. Paradise soon moved on to the void between systems and more than a few people held their breaths, concerned about what might happen.

Yet according to Erins report Paradise made space flow around him just as easily as he did water, and soon he was on his way towards Rutera. Presumably to fulfill that promise with Lev, which meant he needed to find his way back to Vecesta for the turtles arrival in what seemed like a week or two.

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