Elder Cultivator

Chapter 982

Just because they had a logical reason to work together didn’t mean the three groups that had come together actually did so smoothly. Recognizing the aura of suspicion over the sect grounds didn’t suddenly make people immune. Cultivators could regulate their own thoughts and emotions to some extent, but that depended on their own level of training.

Even Velvet found it difficult to filter out. While she wasn’t particularly focused on mental defenses, she wasn’t lacking in them either. Being at the Augmentation stage, she felt she should have done better. In turn, that gave her concerns about the strength of the formations.

But if she only thought about what was bothering her, she would get stuck in an infinite loop of chaos and break down, or go crazy and try to destroy everyone and everything. Before that, it was better for them to get out of where they were.

It was… difficult. Nobody wanted Velvet to scout alone, as they didn’t trust her. Even her own group expressed doubts- except Durff, who seemed to be immune to the effects. That was- Velvet didn’t even allow herself to finish such thoughts.

Ultimately, one person from each group moved ahead. The various groups sort of trusted each other, so having their own representative made people feel vaguely better. But ultimately, they were very restricted with how they scouted. They could only be one corridor ahead, basically up to a turn and no further. Velvet couldn’t make use of her stealth abilities, and the others didn’t always trust where she told them traps were.

She could easily get impatient, but she instead just walked in a determined fashion through where she knew were safe paths. They could confirm for themselves or follow or whatever they pleased.

The traps weren’t that frequent, but they were well placed. Corners were a good one, as people might not notice them when going around. Intersections were good too, as that had the most possible cross traffic. But also… they were very occasionally at completely boring parts of the halls.

“... How many practical rooms have you seen here?” Velvet asked. “We saw one sort of armory, and the dormitory.”

“Why do you want to know? Wondering if we found treasure?” one of the other scouts asked.

“I was just curious,” Velvet said. She made a mental note that perhaps there were too many hallways. She could make a proper determination later. She turned to the other scout. “You said that the entrance you came in was over here?”

“Yes, it should be…” the man rushed forward, touching the wall with his hand. “It was here.”

“Was it? How do we know this isn’t some sort of trap?” asked the other.

“Because we can see it isn’t a trap,” Velvet said. Logic wouldn’t fully convince them, but it would at least keep them busy. “Come on, let’s keep looking.”

The next thing they came across were more bodies. Not fresh, but well preserved. Just like the first disciple of the Nighstar sect… except this time there were some enemies. Which made things even less sensible. Wouldn’t whoever won clear out their own bodies? Or at least properly loot everything. Everyone was inordinately well equipped.

“Now hold on there,” people began to complain about the splitting of loot. “You’re going to take that?”

“I’m not particularly partial to it,” Velvet said. “I could take first pick of the next round instead.”

“Hah, no way! I’ll be making that decision. You won’t fool me.”

“... Alright,” she said. Perhaps she should have taken the effort to meet everyone on the way over and memorize their names. A simple thing, but the trust between them would have been better. Now, she only knew the names of four others- and nobody was in any mood to share something even so inconsequential.

As they continued looking for loot- or more relevantly, an exit- they came across a garden. The empty sky from which only light came secured the idea they were in a secret realm… but also confirmed it would be more difficult to leave. Velvet tried to fly above, just in case there was something she could see, but flight was difficult. Even when she reached the top of the interiors- somewhere around thirty feet, indicating there were multiple layers- her progress was stopped. Not by a barrier, but by the cessation of space itself.

“That’s as far as it goes,” she reported as she dropped back down. “But of course you can check to your content.”

“While you’re down here stealing all the good herbs? Why-”

“You won’t take your eyes off of me, yes,” Velvet nodded. “I understand.”

“What are they doing?” asked one of the women, referencing the twins. “... Are those plants particularly valuable? You have to split things fairly! What is that?”

“This is the needleleaf sunflower,” Misi explained. “It’s useful if someone comes down with pig pox.”

“Have you seen this pig pox here?” the woman asked. “Tell me!”

“Not yet, no,” Misi shook his head.

Obviously not. Velvet knew they just liked obscure things. Though if they could make use of them properly, that would be worthwhile.

Fortunately, with everyone aware of what was going on they managed to continue without conflict. Everything was fine, until another large group showed up at the same garden. The intentionally short range of senses meant nobody had long to prepare. Suddenly, there were a dozen new people- mostly in the Integration stage.

“Everyone cease your activities,” said the older man leading the new group. For a moment, Velvet thought he was going to act rationally. Instead… “Hand over everything you’ve found in this place to us, so we know you aren’t hiding any secrets!”

Was greed being reinforced? No, it was the natural levels of cultivators. Perhaps enhanced tangentially by a lack of respect for others.

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Velvet wasn’t much of a negotiator, but she intended to give it her best. But Jyotsana threw a ball of fire saying, “You won’t take our rightfully earned rewards!”

“Yeah, you just want to take our stuff,” Durff said, charging forward with his hammer.

Velvet thought she might try to spare people, but by the time she got to the frontlines of the battle it was pretty clear that wouldn’t work out well. Not that she had any particular reason to keep people from the Trigold Cluster alive anyway, except that they might have useful knowledge.

She took advantage of those engaged with other enemies, her presence fading away in the battling crowds. Something within her told her she should take down anyone, but her better logic won and she only dealt with the newcomers.

The fight was short and brutal. Three from Velvet’s side died, but none of those she’d come in with. Durff had sustained a few injuries, especially in the fight with the golem. The twins clearly weren’t the best at fighting against normal people in a straightforward manner.

Velvet realized once again how surprisingly easy it was to not care about people whose names she didn’t know. They needed to get out of this place. The only question was how.

“Any signs of the other entrances on these people?” Velvet asked as they finished looting them. “If we can find enough of them, we might determine a pattern.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like anyone had been making a map- though Velvet wondered if she should have. Her mental map should be sufficient, but if something changed she would want confirmation. She decided to draw what they knew.

Durff looked over her shoulder. “That’s a lot of hallways.”

“That’s right,” Velvet nodded. “I’m trying to find where we might be missing things. We can try to explore everywhere, but that seems risky. Our next fight might not end up so much in our favor.”

Velvet was confident that she could survive alone, but even if she hadn’t known them that long she didn’t want to just abandon her group, despite the nagging thoughts that she knew didn’t come from her no matter how much they tried.

“Can anyone add anything to this map?” Velvet asked. “So we can find a way out together.”

It took a few moments, but a few people from the other groups contributed, creating a clearer picture. Unfortunately, she didn’t like that picture. They had something like a half circle made of intersecting lines. Velvet was no formation expert, but she knew it wasn’t just paranoia talking that told her the whole place was some sort of formation.

“That’s where we came in?” Durff asked, pointing. Velvet nodded. “Well if the entrances are on the outside, why not go to the middle?” he pointed to a blank spot.

“We might as well try,” Velvet shrugged.

They made their way along, with Velvet directing them away from the routes she thought would be most likely to have encounters. Not quite a direct shot to the middle.

It was a fairly large area, but without combat it would have to be larger than a city to take long at all for cultivators to traverse. Despite the long hallways, it wasn’t nearly so expansive as would have been required.

Nothing made sense. Not even the large formation in the middle with what were clearly controls outside of it.

“Does anyone understand formations?” Velvet asked.

Two individuals from other groups tried very hard to pretend to not be inspecting the formations. One of them also reached far less subtly tried to reach for the controls, which were quite clearly placed out of reach. And a moment later it was quite obvious that the controls wouldn’t react to upper energy.

“So,” one of them said. “This appears to be the exit. It should create a portal out.”

“Will it teleport people somewhere safe?” Jyotsana asked.

“I believe it should be like the entrances,” the man said. “We should be able to see through.”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“Well you see…”

The other fellow studying the formations replied when the first hesitated. “It will create a barrier around the central zone. So whoever activates it can’t go through.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jyotsana said. “How would a sect function like that? Why not have the defenses around the entrance?”

A good question. Nothing made sense. Was it supposed to be so ridiculous? Velvet had the feeling it was.

“Okay,” Durff said. “So… you’ll find a way to get me out, right?”

“What?” Velvet blinked.

“Well, someone has to activate the thing. But I’m not smart enough to figure out how to get anyone else. So I should stay here while people work from outside.”

“Right. Sure…” Velvet said.

It was convenient… but he was also one of those she least wanted to potentially sacrifice. Especially because he was the sort to volunteer, which made him a better person. Or someone very sneaky who had a trick… which even the stupid formations couldn’t make her believe for long. If Durff was some great master of deception, she was probably dead anyway.

“Someone should go first,” another commented. “We can’t be sure the formations won’t kill us.”

“But what if it only works once?”

Another point of contention. The formation experts weren’t able to assuage people’s fears. Velvet ultimately didn’t mind being in either party. Despite how unpleasant the circumstances were… she was confident in surviving. Even if space collapsed around her, she’d find some way to get out. Probably. And neither going in the first nor second group seemed like a greater or lesser risk. It was coming into this place at all that had been the mistake.

She should have known better, but it wasn’t one of Everheart’s tombs so she underestimated it. If that led to her death… her luck was apparently all used up already.

Velvet ended up in the second group after much squabbling- but reminding people enemies might come speed things up. The first activation definitely drew some attention. Velvet could feel a surge of power, which made her wonder where this sect got so much energy for all of its formations. She hadn’t seen any power sources.

The barriers let her see the others walk through a rift, back to the surface of the planet that housed the secret realm. Durff easily turned everything on, then off once they were through. Everyone else stepped on. It worked just fine the second time.

What if Durff deactivated it while she was stepping through? Her body carried her swiftly.

A moment later, Velvet felt stupid. As the layers of paranoia fell off of her, she was finally able to determine how bad it had been. She was surprised that anyone had been functional at all. Perhaps she’d underestimated the willpower of the others.

Or… the effect scales up to match higher ranking cultivators. She didn’t like to think about that option.

“... We need to save Durff,” Gyotsana said. “He’s way too good to get stuck like that- or attacked by others in there.”

Everyone else, free from paranoia, agreed. They just needed to figure out how.

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