Elder Cultivator

Eventually people grew wise enough to not cause any more trouble for Lexia’s planetary escort, though she herself was only a small portion of the deterrent force. Of course, as an Augmentation cultivator some people feared her, but just like sect head Ratna she could only be in one place at a time. Her techniques simply weren’t suited for wide-scale combat. She could take out a significant number of individuals or vessels, but she couldn’t defend a whole planet.

Despite the scale of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance, it was still difficult for them to perfectly cover the transported planet either. Most of their forces were needed in their territory, or they were in training.

But Prospero was entirely different. He was perfect for taking out numerous small targets with precision. Strong enough to take out more powerful individuals if they were stupid enough to try to get to him, as well.

The only reason it took so long for the trouble to stop was that he was too effective at taking out incoming groups. The Guardians focused on the more concentrated targets, and he dropped falling stars on everyone trying to slip past and dismantle bits of the planet. Even if a few ships were successful at the first part, they rarely ever got away.

Finally, they reached close enough to Veiled Brilliance territory that nobody was going to act. The potential value was fully outweighed by the consequences.

Except… those consequences were also brought upon those who had been successful early. Ratna had been handling those cases herself, with the help of others from the Veiled Brilliance and some of the delegation from the Distant Shadow Sect. Even if they hadn’t been caught immediately, the energies of any prominent sect or clan had been remembered. Once the Scarlet Alliance had been called upon, they were able to record all of the energy signatures entering the area- at least every cultivation method, if not individual cultivators.

Lexia was most excited about keeping that technology. It was a mix of vaguely familiar formations and ‘electronics’ which were simple on the surface and extremely complex underneath. The most important thing, though, was that they worked. They could do a wide variety of things, but recording was the most interesting. Cultivators had their own methods of recording, but they were usually less precise. Even if they worked, they couldn’t match energy signatures to databases of known sects.

It was a bit of a shame when the journey was over. It was a good station for a few decades. Lexia had gained many merits, and of course the value of having access to a Domination cultivator couldn’t be overstated. Even if she was careful not to be overly bothersome, over the course of the journey she had gained quite a bit of confidence. That didn’t mean she was willing to try to jump into Domination in the next decade or anything… but the idea that she actually might someday was actually quite encouraging. Even if it was in a few centuries. Or maybe a millennium.

Chances were still high that she would fail, but high wasn’t the same as nearly guaranteed. And even if she never took that step, Lexia was encouraged that she could become stronger within Augmentation, at least a little bit.

Ratna considered the planet in front of her, having finally been settled into place in a safe orbit on one of the core systems. It was literally a planet full of valuable resources, even if the value was mainly in what was stored within the materials rather than the materials themselves. She didn’t need more lower energy to train with herself- she’d already solidified her foundation long before. It certainly would have been more difficult to reach Augmentation without, and Domination required even more specialized energy control. At some point all cultivation methods had been built on the basis of lower energy, and there was good reason for that.

None of this was for her, but for her sect. Her sects, actually. It was convenient that she had to call upon the Distant Shadow Sect, so that it was less suspicious to send them their rewards.

There were plans to send an even more valuable planet in the future- though to include plantlife that was even vaguely fresh would require much more setup and a more complicated transportation process. That also meant handling security on this end… though she did have a recently cleared route. Securing someone like Prospero Vandale again for multiple decades was a bit much to ask, though. Some aid from the Alliance wouldn’t be bad, but relying on their Domination cultivator might make her look weak.

She wasn’t, of course. She was highly confident she could defeat him in single combat- or take him out in the middle of a war. He was a fresh Domination cultivator, and her specialization would be to her advantage. It might be a bit shaky if she didn’t keep focusing on her own development, but she had plans for that too.

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Despite its grandiose name, the S.A.S. Starstriker was not the most impressive ship among the Scarlet Alliance fleets by a significant margin. However, it was still Captain Ylvali’s favorite. Was that entirely based on personal bias? Not quite, but it was certainly a contributing factor.

The ship wasn’t hers. Nor was it truly under her control. Rather, having come from the Unified Sector she and the ship were heavily influenced by Confluence cultivators. She was only an Integration cultivator but the Starstriker was generously labeled as an Augmentation-class starship given the level of technology and of course the contributions of the crew.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Not being the sole arbiter of decisions wasn’t something that bothered Ylvali, of course. If that was the case, she’d never have gotten far with her style of cultivation. Energy sharing imposed her influence on the crew as much as the crew influenced her. She happened to be the strongest among them and the best facilitator of shared energy, and that was it.

She had her position because someone had to be officially in charge- at least outside of the Unified Sector where they had actual hiveminds. That also meant she was in charge of the diplomatic actions, which admittedly wasn’t something that was best left to the majority.

The mission the Starstriker had been given wasn’t a typical one. Then again, Ylvali didn’t know if typical missions could really exist in the current age unless they were going to war again. They weren’t, hopefully not for a long time. Maybe ever. The mission- normalize travel throughout the Trigold Cluster.

At first it seemed like a ridiculous idea for a group that was constantly on the verge of war with the Scarlet Alliance. And then she thought it was genius. Most likely, it was somewhere in between- but the Alliance always had good reasons for their plans, at least. Ylvali was able to ask why there was a particular mission, of course. The answer was simple.

It was a matter of respect. If the Scarlet Alliance was going to act as a sovereign power, its neighbors had to respect it. That meant all parts of the Trigold Cluster… or at least the closer ones. The Starstriker wasn’t meant to travel to the Fearsome Menagerie or the distant Swirling Swarm. There was indirect diplomacy, and then there was recklessness.

Ylvali’s job was to plan a route and then execute it. That was all, though it was more complex than it seemed. It began with an analysis of trade goods provided by the crew. Then she sent messages ahead to request permission. If she was denied access to certain systems, there were always more routes that would take them around a region of space.

They didn’t beg for permission to pass through territory, and they wouldn’t pay for it- except in the way everyone else would pay. Sects liked to tax people coming through their territory, but the smart ones kept their numbers low so that people didn’t just avoid them. After all, if typical cultivators wanted two things, it was power and luxury goods. And if the former was mostly for the sake of acquiring the latter.

The Starstriker carried some of everything. The Scarlet Alliance produced top-quality goods in all categories. The only things they didn’t trade were tech items, and not because they were trying to maintain perfect secrecy. It was simply because most people wouldn’t have any way to use them. Without power, they were useless. They could sell people generators, but others probably wouldn’t have the right sort of fuel or the infrastructure to produce it and… it was just a long chain of tiresome effort.

They did sell pillows, though. They were so good that she’d seen people willing to kill for them. The Scarlet Alliance wouldn’t accept payment in the form of assassination or murder, though. Nor would they sell to people who killed their customers. It wasn’t always possible to find out, but people weren’t as good at hiding things as they thought. Ylvali had needed to ban more than a few clans and sects from sale- which ultimately meant they had to buy secondhand for extra cost, or risk violent conflict repeatedly.

It wasn’t really about the pillows, of course. Those were the most extreme examples. The journey was about the goods as a whole and people accepting their presence. Every once in a while there were bandits who thought to ambush their ship, only to find that it was far more powerful than it felt when the energy of every cultivator aboard combined. A few groups also tried to attack them, but Ylvali stayed away from anywhere she thought to be actually dangerous. And instances of violence resulted in a sale ban.

No pillows. No high end chocolate. No cultivation manuals.

The mission wouldn’t be possible with just the Starstriker, of course. It was more than just the support fleet that traveled with them, but also the various other groups. The Trigold Cluster wasn’t tiny, after all. Ylvali could only create familiarity along a few routes, a few dozen systems and their neighbors.

The ultimate goal was to work their way closer to their ally, the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance. The Scarlet Alliance avoided sending actual military forces into the area- though that was mostly a matter of numbers. Eventually, though, they wanted to be able to do so without deception. If they were respected by the local sects, the border systems be reluctant to act against them. That would make it easier to reach the deeper sects, and make it harder for said sects to avoid retaliation if they caused problems.

Captain Ylvali liked her task. It was good for her cultivation to be able to travel, and it was filled with just enough risk to promote her growth and those of her crew without putting her in the same category as the battle maniacs. Even with Tauno gone the Dancing Slayer Sect lived on and spent their time hunting down monsters.

She also had a great amount of independence- which might not have made sense to others, given the way that the ship functioned. But she could make decisions and count that they would ultimately fit into the actions of the Starstriker as a whole. They had a connection, with Ylvali’s cultivation having influence from Assimilation, Confluence, and at least the inspiration of Unity even if it was far short of that threshold.

Normally the policy was to have minimal interference in local affairs, at least as it didn’t relate to the goals of the Alliance. They weren’t trying to cause revolutions wherever they went… at least not in the short term. Long term cultural influence was a different thing entirely.

That was normally the policy… but Ylvali found herself in situations where she had to make choices frequently enough.

Like when a certain old woman approached her on one of their stops. They were on a small moon. It barely had an atmosphere, with a weak ecosystem. But cultivators being cultivators, some lived there anyway. It had decent amount of energy, at least.

The hunched old woman was extremely straightforward. “I request asylum aboard your vessel.”

Ylvali sighed internally. “What did you do?” she asked. She wasn’t expecting a complete explanation, but she had to at least know who she would be angering, even if some strange part of her had already decided to help the lady.