Elder Cultivator

The Starpiercer continued their journey with only minimal further explorations of the seas of Niont. It was a shame, because they were extremely unique, but it simply wasn’t the right time to try to go deeper. Next time. That was the plan. It would probably be a few years, but that wasn’t too long as far as cultivators were concerned.

Adsila had been satisfied by what she saw, though she mentioned she would like to return. “Do you think I can?”

Ylvali had become far more comfortable with her presence. “I think so, yes. Either with the Starpiercer or with another vessel.”

“Where to next?”

“Well… we’re going to hook back around towards the Midfields soon.”

“Does that mean I’ll be able to see the Scarlet Alliance soon?”

“That’s right,” Ylvali agreed. “Soon. Though I can’t guarantee you’ll see anything as grand as Niont within our primary territory.”

It would be better that way. If Adsila didn’t check out, then they wouldn’t grow too much closer. It was probably already too far. Even if it was a short battle, being side by side with other cultivators strengthened bonds. Ylvali was already thinking about offering Adsila an opportunity to practice the Unified Sector style. It might not be compatible with her cultivation, but Ylvali wasn’t really certain. Conversations like that needed to wait.

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Oh, right. And void ants. Though some of them might be cultivators, to some extent. Just not energy cultivators. Almost the opposite, really. Though both humans and void ants used energy to make themselves stronger. The void ants just used it differently. By eating it.

At some point, Bryndis had blamed herself for the problems with Korin. The twins- among others- had told her that it wasn’t her fault… but she hadn’t really believed it at the time. After their victory against the Domination cultivator, she was able to spend more time with them and the others from the Scarlet Alliance. They meant it.

It wasn’t her fault someone wanted to kill her to take over her body. It was so obvious when said like that, but when people were dying… it was much more difficult to take a rational approach to things. At the time, her whole sect had been annihilated. Bryndis survived only because Covering Mesh had protected her. That had also been terrifying, but it seemed rather silly now that she knew void ants.

Being covered by them had been scary, but if they had actually been a danger there wouldn’t have been time to be afraid. Perhaps not the most comforting thought to most, but Bryndis quite liked it.

Somehow, Bryndis had fallen in where the Retributive League overlapped with the Scarlet Alliance. That intersection was void ants. Tessouat had gone all-in on cooperation with them. The Covering Mesh- in this case the colony instead of the queen- were quite happy to aid his ambitions.

Bryndis was also considered to be a good candidate for void ant related shenanigans. The Great Anima Nature she had cultivated improved her body in various ways. It was intended to improve her energy compatibility, which was why it made her a tempting target for Korin. That also let her work around void ants to some extent.

She really hoped that she didn’t need to display those skills in the near future, however. Not because she couldn’t fight, but because… it was much nicer to spend her time building things. There was a whole lot of that happening in the new southern systems.

There was also a lot of debate about names. Tessouat wanted to call them the ‘Retributive Ants’ which was a bit… narrow. Runa of the Spirit Slicing Sect didn’t ask to call their group after them, even though the void ants were totally closer to her own abilities.

Personally, Bryndis was angling towards ‘Little Alliance’, but not too many people were keen on that name. However, everyone agreed that they should take care to remember that they were in this together. Along with a whole lot of void ants, who were extremely good at small tasks. At a certain scale, however, humans and human sized machinery were simply the correct answer.

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The people of Bounty weren’t all from a single planet before they came to the lower realms. Indeed, they were from dozens or hundreds of different planets, drawn from those that Anton and Aerona were able to contact and entice towards them.

Even if culture was somewhat homogenized between cultivator planets, it didn’t necessarily mesh that smoothly together, especially in stressful times. Yet their unity came from that same shared disaster. After everything was over they might have struggled, if not for the forces around them.

The Lower Realms Alliance was a stabilizing factor, of course, but more specifically the planet of Akrys was able to help them. The people there had far more differences than commonalities and still managed it- at least pretty much everyone on Bounty was human. Three Squeaks still found it amazing that eagles were among some of the first allies the meerkats had. After some strife, true, but that simply meant they hadn’t stuck together just out of convenience.

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The first generation of a unified Akrys was still around. At least, enough of them. Not everyone had reached a high enough level of cultivation to live through the intervening centuries, but there were plenty of people who remembered those times. And having new neighbors, they were quite eager to help them out.

Now, Bounty had been in place long enough to be stable. Their people had mixed between cities, and with the people of Akrys, and the Lower Realms Alliance in general. They still had a long way to go, though, especially in terms of security.

It wasn’t their fault that they were weak. Either they were below Integration when they arrived and thus hadn’t had time to properly grow into power, or they were in Integration and had to deal with all the problems that came with that. Recultivating looked like a difficult process. Those who wanted to return to the upper realms had the opportunity, but there hadn’t been that many Integration cultivators among them to begin with.

There were still about four centuries until a natural shift in the Tides. That was enough to raise a few good generations of cultivators. It would be too little for them to get any Enrichment cultivators, but they could potentially adapt to technology and construct their own orbital platforms. Most of Akrys’ didn’t have enough range to effectively assist another planet.

Three Squeaks could do it, though. He could shoot anywhere in the system. His range was still vastly short of Anton’s, but normal and sensible people didn’t need to be able to attack other systems. One was good enough.

So Three Squeaks was training archers. Any time Anton dropped by he’d ask for lessons, but the meerkat could handle things himself. He’d originally learned from a human, so the physiological differences weren’t an issue.

Obviously not everyone wanted to be an archer. Three Squeaks could teach the One Hundred Stars in general, and of course there were myriad different styles that others could teach. Even if there were only a hundred or so popular cultivation methods, knowledge on different styles was something the Alliance had plenty of.

Despite the options available, the people of Bounty actually preferred many Akrys-adapted methods. Perhaps it was because they had a good visual example of what things should be like. Humans developed many of their styles from beasts to begin with. It wasn’t strange for those with the forms of animals to be considered as well. Unlike humans, Akrysians didn’t all have the same bodies.

Meerkats were vaguely close with two ‘arms’ and two legs, but the claws and joints and all sorts of other things were different. Hippos like Contented Grunt were more steps removed, and they couldn’t even use wolf styles. Their teeth weren’t really sharp and they didn’t have claws. So they adapted human combat styles into something that suited them, and now humans were adapting their styles back into human forms.

Three Squeaks thought it was great. He had told one or two people that they could just practice the original styles, but they hadn’t seemed happy about it. Maybe it was just because they liked being around Akrysians. Three Squeaks had to admit that he was adorable. Hippos were cool. Eagles were agile.

Hundreds of unarmed fighting styles sprang up. That was funny, because Akrysians had developed armed fighting styles. Those who had less functional claws sometimes took up human weaponry, but more often they adapted their own. Even those with claws sometimes overlaid them with metal, or added spikes to armor and so on and so forth. Having natural weapons was great- but choosing your weapon was even better.

There was a reason Three Squeaks didn’t use his claws, and it wasn’t because he was tiny. Energy could make up for some of the difficulties he would have reaching an opponent, and being smaller sort of balanced that out. No, it was simply that he’d have to undergo advanced body tempering for them to be worthy of being more than a backup weapon.

Natural cultivating beasts were all about powerful bodies, but the thing that made Akrysians better was their ability to think and properly cultivate. It wasn’t strange that most of them followed the paths of humans, improving their energy after building their bodies up to a tolerable level of power.

Not everyone felt the same urgency for growth that Three Squeaks did, and he recognized that he was sometimes overzealous. Four centuries was plenty… and there might not even be invasions from the upper realms. On the other hand, if there were, it would be the strongest forces they had ever faced. Otherwise, the great powers would simply be throwing away their people.

It was hard to give up that fear, growing up in those times. But maybe, if the people of Bounty were very lucky, they would only have to undergo a traumatic separation from their homes. One single, terrible war brought on by the great powers. Maybe they’d never have to face that invasion.

But if they did, the lower realms were going to be ten times as ready as the previous time. That wasn’t just Three Squeak’s resolve. It was the resolve of Anton, Devon, Varghese, and many others. The resolve of Unity. And if no battle came, the development wouldn’t be for nothing. There were a million other things than battle that people could grow towards, all building up a stronger society.

If only the great powers could be convinced of that. Three Squeaks had heard about diplomatic trading missions. Maybe they needed some mascots. Should he suggest that? Surely someone would have thought of it. He couldn’t go himself- not and retain his full powers- but there was a healthy population of meerkats in the Scarlet Alliance. Plus rabbits, actual cats, and other things humans thought were cute. Almost anything young, which showed their protective instincts went far outside their own species.

There were some that certain individuals thought were cute that weren’t universally adored. Amphibians and reptiles among them. They were less expressive, so Three Squeaks could see that. One might think insects, being very small, would be on the cute list… but that was rarely so. Then again, the Alliance got along swimmingly with all of the Akrysian insects and void ants, so maybe there was something there.

Or it could be the fact that people living at different scales resulted in some conveniences. If Three Squeaks were not at his level of power, having a hippo to help put up a wall would be great- and he could help them with smaller details, since they didn’t exactly have dextrous limbs. And insects were another factor smaller. Akrys had people of all sizes moving about, and it was great. Bounty was going to be like them soon, probably. Though with a lot more humans trying to come up with strange styles. Hopefully they would work out, and transform into something amazing in the future.