Elder Cultivator

Stealing a star wasn’t easy. There were several requirements Everheart had to meet to even seriously consider any of them.

First was the feasibility. Some stars were more or less secure than others. Some people might say that bigger stars were harder to steal, but they clearly didn’t know what they were talking about. Actually, Everheart doubted anyone but him was thinking about stealing stars at all so they probably didn’t say that.

Aside from feasibility, Everheart had to gain something. He didn’t do things just because he could, or to one-up his competition. Usually. No, he had to get something of value. And a star, by itself, was kind of… common. There were literally thousands of them just sitting around. So he needed to pick out a good one.

Finally, he had to consider the consequences. If he took from someone important, they would try to kill him. Everheart wasn’t interested in ‘dying’ anytime soon, as he had too many things on the burners. It might be a bit tough to deal with the fallout of the Ponderous Turtle Clan business at the same time as trouble with someone else important.

Fortunately, he had just the candidate. It had the additional benefit that it was a group that had really messed up the lower realms recently. Even if he’d only ever lived on Ceretos and wasn’t exactly a patriot, Everheart didn’t like the upper realms screwing around with people. So causing them endless headaches was one way he could pay them back.

According to his calculations the theft of the planet to the lower realms wouldn’t be complete for over a decade still. So he still had time to plan and pull off his heist. Obviously he’d have to finish before them.

-----

Anishka was a terrible star, but she was no longer alone. With only a few years having passed, quite a large number of people had changed their cultivation- or at least begun the process of changing to a different cultivation method.

Not to hers, obviously. The Palace of Fire and Ice had good techniques, and she could teach people. But people weren’t as enthusiastic about it as they were about replicating a proper star.

The cultivators that were most helpful were those practicing the One Hundred Stars. When Anton took a break and Anishka took over for a few months, they now supported her. Each of their contributions was… extremely minute. She didn’t expect much from cultivators in the process of actively refactoring their cultivation. Their absolute power dropped down to that of Body Tempering or Spirit Building cultivators.

Even with many thousands of them, Anishka’s power was greater all on her own. And yet… it helped. All around Bounty, cultivators woke up just before dawn. As the sun rose- which was to say the mass of fire that Anishka carried with her in orbit- they contributed with their energy and their devotion.

Maybe their efforts didn’t make any direct difference. They didn’t even really know what they were doing, and Anishka didn’t even know why they were doing it. Anton hadn’t told them to. One cycle they just started doing it.

The devotion wasn’t even mainly aimed at Anishka, so it barely helped in that manner. And yet, without it she wasn’t sure she would have been able to keep going. It was a draining process for several months at a time, and she barely recovered in between because Bounty’s natural energy was still growing. Paradise didn’t have enough to support multiple Enrichment cultivators.

The energy and devotion weren’t enough, but it did let Anishka feel how much these people cared. Obviously everyone cared about their own lives, but if that was all it was then they would be better off creating little suns above their own fields. No, they cared about the planet as a whole, and that kept Anishka going, knowing that people were counting on her. Even if they were weak, they hadn’t given up. Knowing that from discussing with the others was one thing, but actually experiencing it was the best.

A tiny nibble on her energy drew her attention. “Oh, Sergeant. I’m kind of busy…”

“I require no task that will draw upon your energy,” the tiny void ant commented. “I merely wished to pass along news from the upper realms. The mighty queen Crossed Antennae has fought off a Domination cultivator in unification with her colonies.”

“Oh. That’s… good?” Anishka thought it sounded good. But somehow, she also felt like it was ominous. Her energy flickered for a moment. “Will that cause trouble in the upper realms?”

“They may never see an end to it,” the Sergeant confirmed. “Hopefully we will draw attention to ourselves and relieve some troubles from them. Though if it comes down to it, the Great Queen can bring our armies to the upper realms.”

Had things already gone that far? She hadn’t been paying that much attention to the news for the past few years. Obviously she expected some reaction to the whole Bounty thing, but void ants being found out was… probably an even bigger deal.

-----

“What should be the official response of the council?” Prasad frowned. “We must be prepared to act when connections are cemented and blame falls on us.”

“You haven’t been paying much attention to the lower realms, have you?” Zazil asked.

“Of course I have. I know that Anton became a ‘Unity’ cultivator. Obviously I have not missed the business with that border planet. But unless we all wish to destabilize our cultivations and move to the lower realms, I fail to see how it is relevant.”

Zazil shook her head. “Not that. Older news, but extremely relevant. The Chaotic Conglomeration wasn’t the first to have void ants among them.”

“Obviously we know that the lower realms has a flourishing population,” Prasad agreed. “So what?”

“You did miss it, then,” Zazil said. “Some time ago, additional populations of void ants were found in the lower realms, under the ‘care’ of sects from the upper realms. Plans were already put in place.”

“In what manner?” Prasad grumbled. “Are we to go to war alongside the void ants?”

Timothy took his opportunity to speak. “Not at all. Zazil merely references the significant quantity of videos we have organized.”

Uzun nodded. “The information warfare division is ready. They’ve had us producing display units in bulk for some time. We have agents ready to deploy in many places.”

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

“Isn’t it too late for that?” Prasad frowned. “The Exalted Quadrant will have already spread their own version. Besides, videos can be edited.”

“You aren’t wrong,” Uzun said. “However, with energy signatures included it becomes much more difficult to produce a believable product. And more relevantly, you know that, but others don’t. You also overestimate the speed at which the Exalted Quadrant spreads information.”

“They’re already fighting the Trigold Cluster,” Catarina said. “And we’ll be the first ones to release the information there. In great quantity. It will also be somewhat helpful that it’s true.”

“Indeed,” Uzun said. “Though the quantity thing is sadly more relevant.”

Prasad nodded slowly. “I understand. Though we must still consider other issues.”

“Agreed,” Timothy said. “But without anything in particular to react to, we can only retain the combat readiness we already have. The fighting in the Scarlet Midfields has been a threat this whole time, after all.”

-----

“Look! It’s the ice guy!” Bear Hug excitedly pointed at a pitcher plant. “And a bunch of other people!”

Lev chuckled. “And quite a few that are not people.”

The energy anomaly appeared to draw locals of all sorts- sapient or not. Though according to Lev’s understanding, the pitcher plant had already been present on this particular mountain. Lev wondered if it was aware ahead of time, or if it was merely a coincidence. Unfortunately, that individual hadn’t learned to speak. Not for lack of Anton trying, but they were pretty much uninterested.

Battles broke out between beasts as the area became crowded. Beasts and eventually mobile plants- only some portion of which were intelligent.

“Helix!” Bear Hug rushed over to an undulating vine. “You came too? Have you met Rocky?” Bear Hug opened up their body to reveal the snail.

The vine did not acknowledge the snail. “A strange energy builds here. Is this how one reaches ‘ascension’?”

“Oh, is it?” Bear Hug turned to Lev. Before they could say the next thing all of the entities present in the area were lifted up- including those currently locked in battle. “Are we going to the upper realms?”

“No,” Lev said, dragging himself and Bear Hug together. “Just space.”

“But the upper realms is in space,” Bear Hug said.

“Yes, but… much further away.”

“You’ve been there though! You planted a tree!”

“Yes,” Lev agreed.

“If we get to another planet we’ll be halfway there already, right?”

Lev shook his head. “No. Even if we went to the furthest planet in this system… we wouldn’t be even one hundred thousandth of the distance.” Systems were a tiny fraction of a lightyear across, and they were hundreds from the border.

Bear Hug pondered for a few moments as they sort of lost their form, allowing themselves to collapse against the bubble of energy that was picking up everything. “That sounds like a really small number. So we’d be almost, there, right?”

Lev sighed. Bear Hug wasn’t stupid, but was also not trained to truly understand numbers. “It would be like one step compared to a planet.” And that might not even be far enough. “Are you not concerned about any of this?” Lev gestured around them where chaos reigned.

“... Nothing is attacking me right now so I’m fine. I think I need to conserve water, though.”

“Helix?” Lev asked. The vine probably didn’t speak as much and thus not as clearly, but it also probably thought differently than Bear Hug. “What do you think of this?”

“I should have brought a tree,” Helix said with their energy.

In short, they were unconcerned.

“Do either of you remember this happening before?”

“Oh!” Bear Hug said. “When those things rained from the sky and tried to eat everything, probably!”

“It feels similar,” Helix agreed.

“But you’re not worried?”

The two of them exchanged some sort of energy connection. Lev didn’t know if they had emotions in the human sense, or if that would be compatible between two entirely different species, but ultimately they seemed to agree.

“It is like the sun,” Bear Hug said. “Big and scary but… natural and important? Probably.”

Lev himself wasn’t worried, but that was because he was strong enough to protect himself against any foreseeable danger. The locals not being afraid indicated there was something more. He didn’t particularly feel comforted by the phenomenon, but they seemed to.

“Oh no!” Bear Hug said. “The briar patch!”

Lev looked around. “Where? I would have noticed if it was part of this, I think.”

“Exactly!” Bear Hug said. “How are we going to become friends from different planets? Maybe I should drop down…?”

“... I can get you back here when you are ready,” Lev said. “Or to whichever planet they end up on.”

Though he was calm in demeanor, Lev was actually somewhat excited. Anton had described the phenomenon from one perspective, but seeing it happening in front of him was quite fascinating. Even when things tried to bite him.

Bear Hug smacked them, and that was sufficient for his attackers to realize it was best for them to not do that. Not all beasts were fully cognizant of what energy signatures meant, so Lev might seem like a really tasty snack. But they could understand physical damage, and judge strength that way.

Most of the rest understood what Lev’s strength meant. And even if they weren’t of high sapience, they could tell what his presence near Bear Hug and Helix likely meant. So as they floated off the mountain top into the sky, they were mostly left alone.

Lev looked down on the planet. It was quite calming, when one actually took the time to observe the landscape. There were so many sights, with the natural terrain, plants, and animals.

Sometimes, there were also tiny trees that were running like they had missed the bus. Lev watched as the miniature tree ran up beneath them, but the connection from the planet to their energy had been severed, or at least weakend to the point it wasn’t picking up anything new.

Not willing to give up, the tiny tree took a rock and threw it… then wrapped a branch around the flying rock. There was no way that was the best way to jump. Indeed, Lev saw that the tree was going to fall far short. Even after jumping off of the boulder it had wrapped up.

He looked down, then extended his hair, energy extending it into long vines. He caught the tree at the peak of its jump… less than a tenth of the way to them. He pulled it up into the strange bubble with them.

Lev immediately recognized energy speech. “Human Anton.” It paused. “Thing in the shape of Human Anton. Your powerful roots provided great succor for this one. Liberty is the name of this form.”

Lev wondered if Anton had left a strange dictionary for just this particular plant. But at least now he knew why it seemed familiar. “I have heard of you, Liberty. My name is Lev. Like Anton, I am also a human. Pleased to meet you.”

“Meeting Human Lev is the greatest honor.”

At least they were polite. If a bit odd.