Elder Cultivator

Success came not in the form of great individual determination, but in how that determination could sway the wider masses. This was the opposite of how many cultivators came to understand the world, but many who sought out wisdom found it to be true.

Others acted upon it by instinct, driving forward towards a particular goal. Such was the case with Bear Hug, shamelessly approaching individuals and groups with plans for Second Gift.

Rejection did not dissuade them. Indeed, it did little more than motivate them to be more convincing in the future.

In the lower realms… the people of Klar.

“I don’t make light,” Briar commented. “I would be useless for your intentions.”

That, Bear Hug hadn’t even considered- that some people might not be helpful. Very quickly, an idea came to mind. “You can help make sure light gets where it needs to go!” Bear Hug said enthusiastically.

“And how, exactly, would I do that?”

“Sometimes, big trees cover too much. If you cut them back the right amount, things below can get a proper amount of sunlight.”

“So my task would be to consume dense vegetation?” Briar confirmed.

“In moderation,” Bear Hug explained. “But planets are big. You could go from place to place pruning trees! I think it would be a very good thing to do.”

“... I’ll consider it. If the plants on this ‘Second Gift’ look tasty.”

That was the plan. Not that they be tasty, but that they be big and strong plants. That sort of made them tasty automatically, at least by Briar’s standards. Since Briar didn’t really have a sense of taste, power was the best replacement.

“We will be ‘liberating’ this planet from the lower realms?” Liberty asked when Bear Hug approached them. “Is it truly entrapped?”

“... not really. But it will get to visit new places.”

“I will consider aiding you, should I find a gap in my mission. However, the planets of Klar have many trapped individuals.”

Bear Hug didn’t have any deep ideas of how Liberty could ask. It would just have been rude not to ask a friend to come along. Ivy wasn’t interested either. Most of the people of Klar weren’t. But that was okay, because Bear Hug had enough of themself to cover for a lot of them.

Disciples of the Grasping Willow and other plant based sects were hesitant to truly establish anything on Second Gift. After all, if it was inevitably going to die, it wasn’t worth putting in the effort. Filling the ecosystem and letting it grow from there was good enough.

But as more people became convinced that the planet could survive the journey, they were more willing to join up for the long term. More people meant more heads put together for how to actually make the planet survive. As cultivators, everyone could do something

The people of Bounty were the most eager, once convinced. They had seen a planet make the journey once. This one would be a bit longer… which is to say many times longer with the passage on either side of the border as well as the twenty year trek between the realms. But just because a goal was bigger didn’t mean people were less motivated to fulfill it. At a certain point, it became a challenge. Someone just had to be the first to care.

Bear Hug also gathered many cultivators from the One Hundred Stars. It would be a long training expedition- and to some extent, it would also involve developing the planet. After all, in Bear Hug’s estimation people would be best suited to taking care of an area that they helped grow to begin with. That was a cultivator logic nobody could refute.

In the upper realms, there were far more people, but it was difficult to reach all of them. Bear Hug did have surprising access to certain individuals, though.

“You could create a big fire!” Bear Hug said. “It wouldn't be sunlight, probably, but it would keep things from being too cold. And I could make some light, too.”

Prospero Vandale looked with amusement on the strange individual in front of him. “I’m actually already going to be there. But I don’t think I can spare any strength for warming the planet.”

“What are you going to be doing, then?”

“Exploding attackers.”

“... Can you explode them near enough to the planet to keep it warm?”

Prospero chuckled. “Some of them, certainly.”

“Okay. Good job!”

Catarina and Timothy were going to be protecting the main core of the Alliance. They weren’t particularly good for sunlight anyway, despite being tied to solar platforms. Maybe if Second Gift passed through core Alliance territory, but it wasn’t going to even be close. Though Catarina did say she might help develop some formations. That was nice. Formations were like making cultivators who did one specific thing very good, which was kind of what they needed.

The wolves were kind of scary, though Bear Hug wasn’t concerned that they would be eaten. After all, they were pretty much carnivores. They were kind of big, though, and powerful. Fuzz did fire and Spikes did earth, so they might be good for Second Gift. The biggest problem with the wolves was that they spoke an entirely different language.

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“Grr… grr?” Bear Hug tried really hard to make the sounds, but they’d barely managed to figure out human stuff. Fortunately, the human who felt like sharp nothing provided his aid. Chidi was nice.

“A newborn planet in a danger zone…” Fuzz replied slowly. “We have lived here in peace for so long.”

“It would be good for us to connect with other planets more,” Spikes agreed. “And perhaps some terraforming may be required within the upper realms. Though it must survive until that point for our aid to be meaningful.”

Aconite also became part of the conversion- she had invited Chidi, actually. “Ratna would doubtless appreciate some more… exotic specimens. Could you arrange for the lower realms to plant more poisonous species?”

“Sure! I can plant so many, but I don’t know what they are. I can probably touch them all though because most plants poison animals.”

Bear Hug could tell Aconite’s amusement even through translation. “I would be cautious with that. Insects may be one of the primary banes of plants, but their competition with each other is not lacking in the subterfuge department. If you had roots, perhaps you would have seen more such warfare.”

“Maybe,” Bear Hug said. “Are you going to help when things are here?”

“Should there be anything to protect, I will be willing,” Aconite agreed.

That was the wolves. The next was-

“How did you get here?” a very powerful woman asked.

“On a ship!” Bear Hug explained. “They go through subspace very fast. Much better than flying on your own!” It was strange that she didn’t know about ships. She was the leader of an important sect. Maybe that was why she wanted another planet.

“How did you get on the ship?” Ratna asked.

“Through the doors. Oh, I came with a message from Catarina!” Bear Hug looked around, unnecessarily moving their body to demonstrate the act. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that part out loud. Anyway, here’s a data thing. It’s not even wet at all on the inside!”

Ratna took it. Bear Hug’s interpretation of human emotion was stymied by the fact that her energy protected them from closely observing her face. Her overall posture was stiff, which wasn’t normal for humans. Or Bear Hug, since they were naturally a loose bunch of stuff.

“If I understand correctly, you are the one attempting to bring a live planet from the lower realms?”

“Yeah! I heard you did a bunch of nice stuff for us or something, and the first planet was all boring. And then this one was going to have trees and I thought it would be sad they were dead. That’s not a very good gift, right?”

“I… suppose not. But it wasn’t really intended as a gift, but a payment.”

“Like that… money… thing? How much money is a planet worth?”

“... Very much,” Ratna said. Even if she had the numbers, they would have been meaningless.

“You don’t sound excited. Do you want all the stuff to be frozen? That’s a lot easier, but kind of… sad.”

“It would be very valuable to us to receive this planet intact. It just wasn’t something that seemed viable.”

“Oh, well. I think I have enough people in the lower realms, probably. But there’s barely a few of me here in the upper realms so I can’t do as much. Once we need upper energy to make sunlight, most of me is going to have to leave and go back home. But you make light! It’s probably not quite the same, but it’s a good start. Other than that, I mostly have wolves.”

“... Wolves.”

“Yeah. The big ones! And the other important one. Hey, did you know that Aconite’s name is wolf poison? Do you think she knows? I don’t know if anyone told her.”

“I’m… certain that she knows already. She did choose her name, after all.”

“Oh! I thought she would be like a human that had her name chosen already. I was wondering how they knew she would like poison. I also got to choose my name, did you know?”

“I am aware,” Ratna said. “I… appreciate your intent to get Second Gift to the upper realms fully intact. However, I can’t offer the Alliance any more support than I already have.”

“That’s why we should give you the best thing, right?”

Bear Hug thought that made sense. Ratna was nice, but maybe she wasn’t very good at talking. Or maybe they were bad at talking and she was having trouble understanding. She might be too polite to say when Bear Hug made the wrong sounds.

“Anyway,” Bear Hug finished. “I just wanted to come say hello. Do you know where you’re going to put it?”

“We were going to bring it into our territory and then…” Ratna looked around.

“It’s gotta go by a star. Make sure not to put it too close! They get very hot up close. But if it’s too far, it’s cold. Klar’s planets move around a lot but normal planets mostly go in circles. Or circleish shapes. You should probably pick one of those.”

“Indeed,” Ratna said. “I am going to read the information Catarina sent.”

“Good. She seems smart so I’m sure it is important! Let me know if you want me to tell her a response. I’m going to be here for a while, okay?”

“I will certainly leave a message to be brought back by someone on the return ship.”

“Oh, I guess you could do that too,” Bear Hug said. “It takes a while though. Is it okay if I recruit some of your disciples to live on a planet for a while?”

“... What did you say?”

“Someone has to live on Second Gift. It should probably be mostly your disciples, right?”

Ratna nodded slowly. “That would be most appropriate. Though including some of our allies would be reasonable as well.”

“I’m probably gonna get a lot of One Hundred Stars cultivators,” Bear Hug said. “They’re all so nice and the lower realms is doing it too. I heard some Dark Ring guys know how to live on places where there isn’t the normal stuff for life. But Second Gift is supposed to get here all healthy, so I don’t know if they will help. And they’re probably sad because I heard their Sect Head died. People get sad about that, right?”

“They do. The loss of important or close humans makes others sad.”

“Most of the people I know haven’t died yet,” Bear Hug said. “But I think I will be sad even if they die far away. But they might also be close at the same time.”

Bear Hug was getting good at ‘speech’. But sounds were still hard. They often found themself using the energy language at the same time… which was neat because it meant they had better control over their own energy. They were still growing, which was good because they’d need more Bear Hug in the upper realms. Especially if some of them had to be near stars.