Elder Cultivator

Chapter 978

“... It’s really difficult to investigate stuff when we can’t bring it to the secret facilities with the cool gadgets,” Vari complained.

Chikere nodded in agreement. “But we can’t exactly bring random things from Everheart somewhere with sensitive information.” She frowned, “My arm isn’t doing so well, do you think it’s a problem to take Ye’sin’s toxin to a repair facility?”

“As long as we don’t surprise anyone it will be fine,” Vari said. “Also, this trip is going to take way longer to recover from than I thought.”

“We should go speak to the wolf…” Chikere said.

“You’re going to have to be more specific,” Vari pointed out. “There are a lot of them.”

“The poison one, obviously. She and my apprentice were the ones who noticed that Selpeh was gone after they’d been there a few times to train.”

“I feel like she’d say we should have built up a tolerance to the toxins, but I suppose we could go check. After we talk to physicians and stuff.”

-----

“The problem with doctors,” Aconite said after they finally ended up going to her. “Is that they’re usually not willing to test things. So if there’s a solution like ‘don’t go to the most toxic planet’ they think that’s good enough when it’s not.”

“I don’t know about you,” Aconite said. “But that one has good control over her own blood. She should be able to expel everything. Though first, you might want to cut everything apart so it doesn’t harm you further.”

“Oh, good idea!” Chikere nodded. “I just have to sense all of it…” Her focus caused her to drift off into solving that particular internal puzzle.

“Do you have any useful suggestions for me?” Vari asked. “Even with the various precautions the toxins built up, and they’re quite slippery and difficult to pin down with energy.”

“Well, that would depend on if there’s active intent…” Aconite pondered. “If you negate all the energy within you, would it neutralize these toxins? If so, your body could likely take care of them on their own. Or it would get worse instantly without your energy protecting your body. It somewhat depends on the physical form. I haven’t really been willing to go to the Everheart system because of the additional complications it has, so I haven’t experienced any of this personally. And our anatomical differences could vastly change how they affect either of us…” Aconite’s growls and soft barks faded off.

“Chidi can negate energy, right?” Vari asked.

“Absolutely,” Aconite agreed. “But if we’re waiting for your body to filter something, it wouldn’t last well. Though we could see if whatever this is needs energy to survive.”

“I know people can recover, if slowly,” Vari said. “So I think I’ll deal with the least risks.”

“Makes sense,” Aconite nodded. “Meanwhile, in a few moments she will be cutting things inside her own body.”

Her words of course referenced the meditating Chikere.

“Yeah, most likely,” Vari agreed.

“So about that leg you have,” Aconite said. “It smells like Everheart, but not.”

“By which you mean…?”

“More likely an actual leg or a clone than some sort of construct of energy,” Aconite said. “You might be able to use it to track him down, or it might lead you into a trap.”

“Same thing, really,” Vari shrugged.

-----

Within the Unified Sector, the teachings of the Shattered Chains were much more popular than the One Hundred Stars. Frankly, Anton thought that was a good thing. People were choosing cultivation styles based on what resonated with them, and not just on what they perceived as strong. Though on the other hand, many people had experienced Devon’s strength as well.

Either way, Anton was glad to have some new disciples. The various branch heads were doing an excellent job of training their own disciples in different places, so Anton’s personal teaching had been supplementary for most over the last few decades.

Going new places and training new people always appealed to him, and the Unified Sector was a unique place for him to experience. Watching it begin to develop was quite satisfying.

He wasn’t able to spend all of his time in the systems, as he was called away for various reasons, but he slowly began to build up his route, binding another pair of stars along the way.

That still left a fairly empty stretch of space between the Unified Sector and Ceretos, but there were reasons they hadn’t expanded that far west. Reasons which would hopefully change in the near future.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

-----

Devon didn’t need to spend the majority of his time near Aerona, but what the two of them needed and what they wanted weren’t necessarily the same. Which is to say, they still tried to spend as much of their time as possible with each other, even if there were some years where they were in different systems focused on different tasks.

Lately, Devon had been focused on the Unified Sector. Since the Shattered Chains was a new sect, he didn’t want to leave it half baked. Even if the locals had the talent and drive, without proper knowledge and teachers they wouldn’t create a sustainable sect.

Meanwhile, Aerona was focused on the Sylanis Cluster. Their very first interactions with Rutera, and Ceretos had been negative. Weos had already been through wars with them before there were any inter-system interactions for the other two. That had only escalated after the other systems developed more robust space travel, and a large war had followed.

However, that war had been more than four centuries prior. For a period of time following the war there had been an uneasy peace between the groups, as the Lower Realms Alliance was properly formed and began to explore more of the Lower Realms. Even after the exceptionally short cycle of the Tides of the World they had not worked together, each group separately resisting the invasions.

It was only much later when either group was willing to trust the other, as new generations of cultivators reached Worldbinding- in many ways just a variant of Assimilation, but they had that name locally first so it tended to stick. There were even some who took the leap of faith and went for Ascension, no longer fearing the upper realms.

For a very long time, the Lower Realms Alliance had spread- partially by colonizing new worlds, and in greater part by adopting other systems into their fold. Meanwhile, the Sylanis Cluster grew only slowly within their own systems, spreading to a few more stars slowly. They were tolerable neighbors that respected each other’s boundaries, but not really friends or allies.

Aerona had thought that odd, even after Udre, Nidec, and Vrelt had joined up after various difficulties. While there were indeed some of the same people in the Sylanis Cluster, all of those who had chosen to perpetrate the war had died long before. The new generations could be worked with, it was just that nobody from either side had put in much effort.

So that was her goal for the near future. If they were able to officially join the Lower Realms Alliance, following the restrictions and gaining the benefits that went along with that, their own people would benefit- and the stagnation of the Alliance’s western borders would fade away.

While they could certainly work around the Sylanis Cluster’s claimed areas, it would be much easier to not have to worry about restricting their freedom of expansion. If they were able to freely join any new colonies and likewise have others from the Alliance supporting theirs, then there would be no issues.

It was simply that nobody had taken the time to try to convince them properly. Oh, certainly there had been token attempts over the centuries- but sometimes, it would take a decade or two of negotiations. The benefits of joining the Alliance were great… and if the Sylanis Cluster truly couldn’t tolerate the ways of the Alliance, they really couldn’t be trusted as neighbors.

The Alliance wasn’t restrictive just for the sake of control. Their laws were for the safety and benefit of all people. Everything was founded on the simple strictures of personal growth and opportunity. It didn’t actually restrict the growth of individuals, except perhaps in the short term. Hogging resources was not acceptable, but if everything went as it should everything became plentiful.

They had seen the prosperity of the Alliance and tried to mimic it, but without free access to information they had only managed to go so far. Aerona knew that she could promise the last bits of information they needed, and she would find them quite eager to join. It just had to be said in the right way to the right people, so they didn’t feel like they were simply being absorbed.

It was important to the alliance that the various peoples that became part of them still maintained their identity. Nobody was going to mandate replacing culture or cultivation styles with something else. Even if the Alliance had highly developed styles, their people were not above guiding others to refine their own traditional styles to be equally effective. It might take a long time, but that was one of their core values.

Devon came to visit and encourage Aerona occasionally, but he didn’t want to seem like a threat so he didn’t stay overly long. Besides, he still had so much work to do back in the Unified Sector.

-----

Lev was quite content with his new tree. Even after so many years it wasn’t nearly as impressive as the Grandfather Willow itself, but he respected how stubborn it was. As for the rest of Vecesta, its overall terraforming was going well.

Paradise’s role of adding accessible liquid water to the planet had long been fulfilled, but the great turtle still came by frequently. Then again, Paradise visited everywhere. Not just Lev’s groves, but all of the planets in the core systems. The three systems were his new sea, and while there were rarely any stranded sailors for him to pick up… it wasn’t completely unheard of either.

The turtle had the uncanny ability to find ships in the vastness of space between systems. He also had the ability to find distortion beasts… and along with Erin and the Island tenders they seemed to take out any such intruders. Not that they were ever frequent. Even between the different systems, they sometimes only showed up every decade or so.

The mere presence of distortion beasts didn’t always mean they would attack, but he seemed able to predict when they might be trouble. And quite often, he ate them. Personally, Lev didn’t think his stomach could handle any part of a distortion beast, extradimensionality or not, but Paradise seemed quite happy snacking on various bits and pieces.

Lev knew that Anton was often thinking about the next shift in the tides of the world, and the threat it posed to their people. Yet Anton also thought about how it would affect everyone, including those he never met. It was admirable. Meanwhile, Lev was more focused on keeping these core systems safe. With himself and Paradise… Lev wasn’t going to say they didn’t want Anton around, but they were less likely to need him.

They would keep the place secure so that Anton could feel confident enough to roam as he felt necessary, spreading his good will from individuals to towns, sects, nations, planets, and whole systems.

If for some reason the upper realms chose not to attack… Lev’s efforts wouldn’t be vain. He was helping to build up the ecosystems of planets. The natural energy of the surrounding systems would grow, bringing prosperity to the locals. Honestly, it would be far better if no attack ever came.

But the goals of growth weren’t mutually exclusive. All areas of life contributed to a sustainable and functioning society, and as cultivators their strength could be turned to war if necessary. And it was, all too often. How to use their strength for battle wasn’t something they could afford to forget, but neither would they forget that it could be used for so much more than battle.