Elder Cultivator

Chapter 928

The route Paradise took between Ceretos and Vecesta was not a direct one. Vecesta was a smaller planet within Ruteras main system, and the island turtle took a meandering path through Ceretos system before he had turned towards the neighboring system.

Even so, people werent used to Paradises sudden increase in mobility. It seemed that the Island Tenders had figured out his intentions sometime in the past, but many had grown numb to Paradises repeated leaps out of the sea. Lev hadnt quite pieced it together either, but his excuse was still limited interaction with the turtle.

Paradise maintained a bubble of water around him as he flew into space, providing a familiar security and safety for those on his back who were protected from the vacuum of space. The island turtle also showed his power to create ripples in space to speed his travel between systems. Even so, he moved at a leisurely enough pace that Lev and Erin were able to communicate and coordinate with the local Ruterans.

Predicting exactly what Paradise would do upon arrival at Vecesta, but Paradise had expressed his intentions to help Levs trees grow. How exactly he intended to do that was unclear. The turtle wasnt known to be able to conjure water, and while the bubble of water around him was quite large on the scale of islands- stretching quite a distance beyond the massive turtle- ultimately Paradise was still only island sized, not planet sized.

Lev believed the water would not be enough until Paradise began spiraling around the planet, covering it with rain while the liquid around him hardly seemed to diminish in volume. The rain wasnt just water. In fact, a large portion of it appeared to be liquid nitrogen, rapidly boiling away and turning into gaseous form while leaving behind superchilled water that seemed as if it should have frozen upon the disturbance of its distribution. Lev had heard reports of Paradise passing by gas giants and their moons, but whether anything had come of it had been unclear up to that point.

When the liquid touched Levs willows, he sensed them about to shrivel up from the cold- though if they were normal trees they might have instantly frozen and died. It was only with a quick response from members of the Order that Lev had recruited they were able to provide additional heat to keep the planet as a whole from freezing. At least it seemed Paradise had specifically avoided flooding places occupied by humans- aside from where Lev was set up, that was.

Large amounts of nitrogen and some other gasses flooded the planet and while a majority nitrogen was suitable for humans, people hadnt quite been ready for rapid change. And yet, watching the turtle flapping his fins happily Lev couldnt criticize the fellow either. It was no more extreme than other things powerful cultivators did, and there wasnt any major damage.

Except to some of Levs willows. Some of them might have perished, and while death was part of a normal cycle this particular shock could have been avoided. At least he had a better indicator of which sapling was heartiest. There were a few still standing tall. Most likely one of them would be the one he tried to promote towards being another tree to match the Grandfather Willow.

While Paradise seemed eager to repeat his efforts, Erin managed to convince him that a more gradual process was better. Most importantly, the planet needed some time to warm back up after the significant amount of very cold matter provided.

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The news of Paradises departure from Ceretos was a disappointment to many locals, who had come to view his presence in their seas as a great boon. However, it was also true that he wasnt necessary by any means. Overseas shipping still existed, but travel between the continents for business or pleasure tended to involve flight- or teleportation. There were no longer stranded sailors who needed Paradise and even if there were, Ceretos could handle such issues in other ways.

Paradise was not gone, however, just roaming wider seas. Specifically, he soon took up habits of traveling within and between the core systems of the Lower Realms Alliance- Ceretos, Weos, and Rutera. While it was somewhat disconcerting for those systems that werent used to his presence, his centuries long record of working with the people of Ceretos helped assuage any fears.

Beyond that, it wasnt as if there wasnt enough space for him. The actual concerns about him would have been if he descended into oceans not ready for his presence. Paradise was a hungry turtle, and he could devastate an ecosystem if it wasnt ready for him. But after a year, Paradise hadnt tried to enter the atmospheres of any planet, and there was no indication of him eating anything in particular. At most, he passed by planets and the local stars, scooping up a relatively small portion of their energy for himself.

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Vecesta was in a better position with Paradises assistance, and while it was still somewhat low in terms of atmosphere and quantity of water it was much better off than it had been. Now it needed some time to balance out, which was the responsibility of Ruteras technology and Levs trees.

Several of them were growing big and strong, which prompted Lev to spend more energy on them, promoting their growth. Eventually one of the trees would have to dominate over the others, because even though he had left a number of kilometers between trees anything that even approached the Grandfather Willow in size would likely cover the entire region he had secured for his project.

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Along with the strong, healthy trees were some showing clear signs of damage from the cold shock. They wouldnt have been chosen as candidates anyway. And then there was one more.

Still alive, huh Lev commented. The sapling was barely knee height, and its leaves had turned brown and shriveled off immediately after the event. But just as Lev had been about to uproot it and let it be reclaimed by the soil, he sensed life within it.

Over the last year and some rather timid seasons it had not shown any growth but neither was it dead. Lev bent down next to it, giving it a little bit of his own energy. If it still did not grow with that, he could only say it was not meant to be.

With that, he forgot about the sapling for quite a while. What he had not noticed was that while the sapling itself had not grown taller or wider during the last year, its roots had expanded outwards greatly. With a boon of energy, it finally began to expand itself above the surface, growing few small leaves to catch what sunlight it could.

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Im going to the festival, Chikere had declared to no one in particular. Not that they would have been surprised. Chikere was always looking for a new challenge, and while few good things were said about Everheart, he certainly provided unique challenges. Whenever people began to get used to his tactics, there was a sudden change in how he functioned.

Of course, the promised festival was still a significant time in the future. Indeed, the fact that he had informed people ahead of time about the party was likely to draw people into a trap. And it was going to work, because Everheart was also good at concentrating wealth around himself. While more people lost than gained when interacting with him, some came away with great knowledge or valuable treasures.

Individuals from the lower realms had mixed opinions on Everheart. Those not from Ceretos hadnt heard of him, and thus tended to adopt the general feelings about him. Those who were from Ceretos, however, had more extreme opinions. Many of the current top generation had experienced his tombs, and while on Ceretos many had indeed built up their strength to the point they could deal with the coming invasion the way he had operated still colored their interactions with him.

And recent interactions hadnt changed their opinion that the guy was kind of an asshole. While nobody had any specific proof, there were indications that he had been at least partially responsible for the most recent war. The other rumors that he had also drawn in Ratna who ultimately ended up being their salvation didnt make things any better. After all, nobody thrown into a pit of scorpions would appreciate snakes being tossed in as well that happened to result in mutual destruction of the creatures. Instead, they would rightfully hate the one who caused them to be in danger to begin with.

Despite only extremely tenuous connections, once it had been even suggested that Everheart was responsible for their problems, everyone seemed to agree it was the truth. That was the case with almost anything that happened in the upper realms, whether it had basis in logic or not.

For those in the know, it seemed that Everheart liked it that way. Rather than cultivating positive devotion, it had been postulated he cultivated a negative form of social energy. Obviously asking him directly tended to be dangerous and unreliable, so they only had their observations and a number of comments made by him long in the past.

While it might seem like directly taking responsibility for disasters would actually gain Everheart more spite and enmity, that might only be in the short term. Instead, if people came to believe he had some sort of insidious plan to hide things from them he might garner more power over a longer period. Plus, then he didnt have to react to every negative bit of news- it would naturally be assumed that he was responsible for a majority of negative events, even if he wasnt actually doing anything.

But of course, when he actively began pushing his upcoming event and people knew he was up to something, it spurred on the rumor mills. He was finally planning to do it. What it was seemed to be hotly debated. Starting with the smaller things like declaring he actually had a dozen systems under this thumb and was going to call them the Everheart Cluster, the rumors escalated to declaring war on the Scarlet Alliance, all of the Scarlet Midfields, the Trigold Cluster, the Exalted Quadrant, or any and all of them together.

Then there were the other rumors about why he might suddenly be brining himself into the limelight. Maybe he had already accomplished his goal. Perhaps he had broken through to Domination. That was whispered only in the most hushed voices, as it was a terrifying thought for many but they couldnt help but wonder. And given the time frame he had listed it was not unreasonable to assume that he had either just broken through and was taking that half century to stabilize his cultivation or that he was going to complete his breakthrough within that time period.

The Scarlet Alliance had a few spies within the powers around them, and while they werent able to find any secret information, it had been indicated that the invitations to the party or festival were sent outside of the Scarlet Alliance as well. Either he was provoking people into trying to make an early move on him, or challenging them. It wasnt as if he actually had any friends, after all.

Though in the lone case of Vari and potentially whoever she brought, there might be some guarantee of safety. Otherwise, the only guarantee that could be had from Everheart was that people would try to get a step up on him and find themselves naked in an alley on a planet they didnt remember how they got to. Or dead, since that was much easier.

Yet despite everyone knowing how Everheart operated, nobody could resist the allure of his treasures or finally catching or killing the man. The total bounty for the man came out to enough to buy multiple planets- and that wasnt including the actual planets that were part of the deal. If they could also secure all of his treasures or get personal revenge or glory or any of a number of other things, wasnt it worth the risk?

But of course, that was the mistake he was expecting them to make. And there would always be a few suckers.

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