Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1154

As Velvet left the bounds of the Scarlet Alliance’s territory, she was briefly able to look upon it as an outsider. If she had the choice, she absolutely wouldn’t intrude upon the region, as it was terrifying. A mighty presence, standing vigilant ready to defend the area.

The worst part was that Velvet didn’t know if Timothy could actually guard their whole territory at once or not. It seemed a bit extreme, but with the spatial distortions it wasn’t unreasonable. Unwanted intruders would be brought to their most well defended system, that of Xankeshan, and then they would have to face him.

And Catarina, but for all that she was probably far more dangerous if she had time to prepare, she wasn’t particularly intimidating. At least, as far as Domination cultivators went. Velvet had gotten the opportunity to properly observe five of them throughout her life. Everheart didn’t count, since he hadn’t been around since his advancement, but beyond Timothy and Catarina there were Ratna, Koronis, and of course Zaur Beridze.

The latter had seemed more bluster than strength. For all that he had appeared to handily defeat any individual who matched up against him, they had for the most part survived. Mainly due to luck, numbers, or planning, but if so many factors could limit Zaur then he wasn’t quite as powerful as he appeared.

As Velvet continued to drift away from the Scarlet Alliance, she brought to mind her mission. She was to investigate to determine the weakest and least stable of the colonies beginning to worm their way into the Scarlet Midfields. Studying their various rivals among the opposite factions would be most useful if she could manage to get them to call each other out for breaking the pact without getting the rest of the midfields into a war. Not the easiest task, but that made it all the more necessary.

The Scarlet Alliance was slowly expanding to fill the midfields, but unless something suddenly changed it would be another thousand or two thousand years before they truly encompassed the majority of the area. They could place nominal outposts wherever they wanted, but the only areas they could be said to truly control were those that they had encompassed by the spatial distortion.

Some of the planets that were occupied were close enough to the southern border that Velvet could count on Anton’s ability to reach them now that he was a Unity cultivator. However, it wasn’t feasible to assume he could handle more complex operations than simply annihilating people. If they got to that point, the upper realms part of the Alliance would handle things themselves since he would be best reserved for what might happen afterwards.

It was too bad he couldn’t come to the upper realms. He would probably be able to cover all of the Alliance’s territory without the spatial distortion. He hadn’t been entirely forthcoming about his limits, potentially because he didn’t know but Velvet suspected it was more likely so that people didn’t count on him. At least, not in that way.

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Aside from training in cultivation, and specifically with Chidi, Anton had recently become a catalyst for another wave of sweeping social changes- small ones, but significant in their reach. Mainly, they were things people couldn’t give voice to, and that they hadn’t really even understood to be a problem. Major inequalities were always being worked on by the Alliance, and if people could give voice to a problem it would be looked into.

However, there were smaller issues that were no less serious but that still required addressing. For example, issues of mobility. It was entirely possible for people to go from one system in the Alliance to another for a relatively cheap price considering the distances involved. Given the proliferation of a common language, it wouldn’t be impossible to get along, but there were still cultural differences between planets that lingered.

That wasn’t the main issue, however. Certain systems had more people that wanted to leave to seek opportunities elsewhere, but the flights weren’t there. Some of them were simply unable to give voice to those ideas, others held the thoughts in their subconscious- if given the opportunity, they would travel. It was a need people couldn’t fulfil not because they didn’t have the ships or pilots, but because they didn’t know.

Obviously such a thing didn’t mean much to Anton personally, as he could travel wherever he wished far faster than anyone else- but it was safe to say most people couldn’t independently surpass light speed.

Long distance communication was fast but not instantaneous. Communities were still separated by distance, and though the problem was constantly being worked on for various practical reasons, once people were aware of the issue efforts were redoubled. Maybe they would have teleportation available in the next century, or at least instantaneous cross-system communication.

Then there were intangible things which Anton couldn’t do anything to facilitate except to connect people together in ways he didn’t even fully understand. One example Anton learned about after the fact was an individual looking for peace, trying to find a particular place of relaxation. A cove with particular conditions he assumed simply didn’t exist... but someone else did. The manifestation of the connection was simply drawing two people together for a moment. The second individual merely mentioned the place in passing conversation, not knowing the full extent of healing it could bring to the first.

If Anton had to consciously control it, he imagined he would go mad. A single connection between two people was one thing, but with the total population in the trillions, the myriad possibilities were impossible to discern. Anton simply allowed energy to be used according to the principles of Unity he had laid out for himself. It was much like devotion in that way.

That said, he would absolutely scale the formations inside of himself in ways that he could still shift them without appearing to move. Flexing or unflexing muscles, perhaps, though he’d have to make certain not to disrupt the flow of energy when he didn’t mean to.

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There was one more family member Chidi had to meet in the lower realms. Actually, that was completely untrue. There were probably thousands or tens of thousands, as there had been many generations of family that didn’t really live as cultivators after Anton rescued them. Plus he was pretty sure he had aunts and uncles from his mother’s side in the centuries after she was gone.

But there was only one active in high tier cultivation and to which he had a personal connection- even if they’d never met. The connection itself wasn’t even important. They’d merely been born close together in time with vast distances separating them.

That person was Anishka. Her mother Annelie had been close to Alva for most of their early life, and even until the latter Ascended. Then Annelie had nearly given up on cultivation after her husband’s death, and was now living out something like her final days.

“You’re more impressive in person,” Anishka admitted. “Energy recordings don’t do Negation justice.”

“I’ll say the same for you,” Chidi replied. “Fire and ice together is a difficult combination.”

She shrugged. “So you say. But I was raised with it and it always made sense. Except during brief periods of crisis.” She stared at Chidi, hard.

“What are you thinking about... cousin?”

“Just whether I can beat you in a fight. And I don’t think I could.”

“Or you’d completely destroy me,” Chidi said.

“It’s not like I could ambush you. I know you’ve got better awareness than that. And I don’t have amazing range.”

“Well, I’m not telling you how,” Chidi said. “Because I think others could replicate it easily enough, and I really can’t let that happen.”

Anishka frowned for a moment. “I think I figured it out.”

“I don’t intend to let you test it,” Chidi shook his head. “So don’t ask.”