Elder Cultivator

Unsurprisingly, no faction was willing to accept systems by Everheart inside of their borders. The sudden appearance was a cause of consternation for all surrounding factions, and they rather quickly put together assault forces as they no longer had to traverse their entire territory into contested space.

Perhaps some of them thought about the fact that Everheart would not expend resources for nothing. Then again, was it more reasonable for them to assume that they would win within their own territory, or that someone who seemed to have set up overnight would come out victorious?

Adhti knew that the man was a master of manipulation. On the surface, that appeared to be annoying as hell, and willing to do anything to provoke people to action. But her familiarity with the man, especially recently, showed sufficient intentionality and not just the spirit of an old man yelling at everyone.

She’d seen what he could do, which was why she joined him. And she was still about ready to attack him at any moment. Except… the benefits were quite big.

His knowledge of formations was annoyingly advanced. As part of the Numerological Compact- or a former part of it, she supposed- Adhti was quite interested in the flow of energy. She’d learned everything she could from the Exalted Quadrant, as well as certain techniques from the Trigold Cluster. Most recently, she had been studying all of the information that came in from the Scarlet Alliance.

The new faction had far more impressive formations than they really ought to. Which made stealing their techniques more difficult. But… Everheart seemed to know about all of that too. In fact, it seemed like he knew everything about formations. Adhti knew that couldn’t possibly be true- there might not even be a limit to what formations could do. But he sure was good at displaying himself as something untouchable.

Adhti had still been someone nervous about her betrayal. As an Augmentation cultivator, the Numerological Compact wouldn’t just let her go easily. Even so, she hadn’t seen much value in the paths of advancement they offered. She found herself vindicated after the cycle of the Tides. The Compact suffered a humiliating loss trying to retake its most prominent testing grounds in the lower realms.

No, the entire cycle was a disaster. It wasn’t just the Compact but the Exalted Quadrant and Trigold Cluster as a whole that lost. They lost. Against systems from the lower realms. And not just one or two but… all of them. Or at least so many that it might have well been a complete waste of lives.

Adhti had been thinking about it, and the Scarlet Alliance didn’t invade the lower realms. They hadn’t really existed at the end of the last cycle, but they had materials from the lower realms. But rather than try to get more, they didn’t send any forces along with the tides.

“Because they’re smart,” he said. “Like me. Why would they risk themselves for something when they can just wait for it to come to them?”

Adhti hadn’t really gotten that. Both for the Scarlet Alliance and for Everheart. Not until the invasions began.

Despite the formations supporting her, Adhti was not foolish enough to stand alone against invading armies as a single Augmentation cultivator. No, she was not the only one to have been swayed by promises of resources and knowledge- promises that were fulfilled regularly. She hadn’t even had to perform a century of service or anything. Which meant she could have just taken what she learned and sold it to her former sect.

And then she’d get nothing more from Everheart, if he didn’t track her down and kill her. All for what, a couple decades’ worth of training resources at best? Worthless. Ultimately, Everheart just offered more than her old sect.

Along with other defectors, Adhti’s confidence was bolstered by the presence of Everheart himself. Or a projection. She honestly didn’t know. What she did know was that he displayed the hallmarks of Domination, so it didn’t really matter if he was a fake that was that strong or the real deal.

The closest group to the 17th Everheart System was the Ponderous Turtle Clan. Their defeat in the lower realms had been utterly humiliating, to the point that the few people who managed to return alive had gone mad. They spoke of a planet sized turtle that flew through the stars. They should be the ones who knew best the limits on the growth of turtles. Such a creature would have to be more than a millennium old… but no, it was still ridiculous. Either way, they were quite happy to have a target in the upper realms to vent their wrath.

And Adhti was quite happy to activate formations that scrambled the enemy fleets, literally sending them all over the system. The enemy came in with clear intent to annihilate planets- they weren’t intending to play Everheart’s games searching for treasure. But from lockstep flight patterns to sudden disarray around the system, their attacks suddenly only had the force of one or two ships instead of the combined firepower of a fleet.

She knew they wouldn’t be able to perceive most of each other, and thus couldn’t coordinate attacks. Her orders, then, were to… snatch a turtle.

Not to kill as many people as she can and loot their treasure. But to find a ‘nice’ turtle and make sure it survived. She wasn’t sure what sort of plot Everheart had. Maybe he would annihilate the entire Ponderous Turtle Clan’s stock by cursing the bloodline of their turtles somehow. She wouldn’t put it past him. Either way, she was going to take her mission seriously. They needed to be finished with this group before slightly further factions reached them. Otherwise they might actually be in trouble.

-----

Word of the chaos revolving around the Everheart systems reached the Scarlet Alliance fairly swiftly, as such things went. It wasn’t proper real time updates, but information that was only a few months or a year old was basically fresh. And it involved many cultivators attacking the systems- which numbered up to 672- only to find themselves completely ineffective.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That included a couple Domination cultivators, though the details on those encounters were a lot more sketchy.

The numbers that came in didn’t indicate as many deaths as the Alliance might have thought. For those who normally went to the Everheart System, it was pretty much a random chance between death and treasure. Not on an individual level, but over the whole population. In these instances, only ten percent or fewer perished… but they also didn’t make it out with treasure.

It might have also had more total deaths than the centuries of the first Everheart System.

Speaking of which, that one was not labeled as the 1st Everheart System. Nor was the 672nd system one of about seven hundred. Probably. The Scarlet Alliance received word of less than ten actual locations, with the numerical designations likely to sow confusion. That should be at least one of the reasons, at least.

Either way, they were quite glad that the initial rush to wipe out these systems- and then it seemingly not being possible- resulted in excellent distractions from the existence of the Scarlet Alliance. They weren’t exactly breathing easy, as they could at any time become a target, but the death of a Domination cultivator was not connected to them strongly enough for them to be priority number one for extermination. Everheart took that role, and he was good at it.

That was why he was such a great unofficial ally as well as public enemy number one. They were resolved not to trust him on anything if they could help it, but causing trouble for their enemies was quite helpful.

-----

It felt like just yesterday that Velvet had sent word to Runa that they injured a Domination cultivator. And now she could send word that one… had died. She certainly wouldn’t be trusting in the security of long term communications enough to say that they had killed him. And if one considered the segments in the upper and lower realms as different entities, they really didn’t have anything to do with it.

Velvet wouldn’t have been saying that she killed Sudin. Just that their allies did. But she was unlikely to even admit to that in person at the current point in time. Too much risk. They weren’t strong enough to openly be a single group with their lower realm counterparts, not yet. Though if Anton could repeat that shot from the lower realms, that would be a different story. It appeared he was still in recovery, though.

Frankly, she was surprised that he’d survived at all. Enrichment was approximately a step below Domination after all. Even with all of the other factors at play she wasn’t sure it made sense. Then again, most of those ‘other factors’ were still speculation. Anton hadn’t given his tale. Maybe it all made perfect sense. And if he needed to nap for a few years every time… that would basically be nothing. Though if Velvet knew Anton, he probably sacrificed more than he should have. She really hoped he hadn’t worn down his lifespan, but as a strategic option even killing himself would have been worth it to take down a Domination cultivator.

And as a friend, she wanted Anton to live. So he had better make a full recovery or she’d find a way to get to the lower realms and give him a piece of her mind.

Speaking of going places, however, she was planning to make a trip to speak to Runa. There was all sorts of useful information she wasn’t willing to share through their comms… and she was kind of hoping she could get a replacement dagger. If she needed to assassinate a few people on behalf of the Spirit Slicing Sect or the Chaotic Conglomeration, she wouldn’t mind doing it. They were mutual enemies, and voidsteel made very useful weapons.

Somehow, the knowledge of her trip got to Durff. Velvet hadn’t specifically tried to hide it, but she was still surprised when he declared he was going.

“I need a good training excursion,” he explained. “And there should be people to fight, right?”

“Well, sure,” Velvet said. “But I don’t think you should come.”

“Why not?” Durff asked, leaning on his hammer- which had a small piece of shell carved from Paradise. Not that she would have recognized it specifically because it just looked like a piece of ivory in its current form. There were some remnants of aura, though.

“Your skills in stealth are… not great. But putting that aside, if you actually fight they’re bound to recognize you.”

“Okay,” Durff said. “And then… they try to kill me? Because they’re doing a war there. That I would already be fighting in.”

“But they’ll recognize you more than just casually. And if they know that the Scarlet Alliance has ties to the Chaotic Conglomeration…”

“They’ll attack one of us?” Durff asked. “They’ll begin a second perpetual war with the Conglomeration? Or… that Sour guy will come try to attack us. Before he recovered from his wounds, because obviously he was already going to do that again after he recovered.”

There had to be broader strategical or political reasons not to bring Durff, but his simple logic threw Velvet off. “I get your point, actually,” Velvet admitted. “You would be far from any proper reinforcements of the Scarlet Alliance, but if we needed to flee into the Conglomeration… well, things are the most unstable in the Exalted Quadrant right now. It’s probably not the worst time. Though if Zaur does just come try to kill us in their territory they don’t have any Domination cultivators that I know of. Him being injured right now won’t necessarily help us.”

“Hmm. I can’t kill that guy,” Durff admitted. “Though if I get better with my hammer, I could smash his anchor next time. I feel like if I do it right the whole thing would shatter.”

“I would love to see you do that. But we have to live long enough for that. So about getting there-”

“We just take the long way. Like, at the edges,” Durff said. “Right? Because if you get spotted anywhere in Exalted Quadrant territory they’re also absolutely going to murder you.”

Velvet had been planning to do a teensy little bit of spying along the way. She had ways to disguise herself. And… if she messed up at all she’d be chased down much more seriously than any time before. She could outrun most people, but a Domination cultivator… not so much. It would also be nice to just not have to travel alone.

“Well, fine. You can come along. We’ll take the scenic route.”

Velvet just hoped that not too many people ended up volunteering themselves to come along.

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