Elder Cultivator

Expanding Moturn’s available area was partially for the sake of comfort and partially for necessity. Though the population had technically dropped since Anton’s arrival… that was on the order of thousands out of millions. More members of the Twisting Spike Sect had been involved in their oppression, but the charges leveled against many of them had not always reached a threshold deserving of death. There were lesser reparations that could be made.

The planet wasn’t terribly corrupt, just desperate, and that just happened to include those of the strongest sect around. They were more aware of how bad the situation was. That didn’t excuse their behavior, of course. Those with power and authority should be held to even stricter standards, in Anton’s opinion. It didn’t excuse anything, but it explained why they acted in a certain way, aside from those who just enjoyed bullying others.

If they were going to expand, they needed to not go outward but downward, at least at first. If they fortified their tunnels properly, they could be protected from the outside pressure. Trying to expand on the surface of Moturn’s rocky core would be much more difficult, as that would involve expanding the barrier. They simply didn’t have the materials or free energy to manage that. There was some debate whether the darkness of the underground was preferable to viewing the swirling storms outside the barrier, as both were potentially unpleasant, but practicality came first either way.

Many Twisting Spike Sect members got to learn how to use picks. Of course, they weren’t restricted to that form of labor… but everyone needed to do work. So that he would not set a bad example, Anton himself took to mining through the dense rock by hand on a regular basis. Nobody did work Anton wouldn’t do- though there were a few who did work he was hardly qualified for. He was basically proficient as a herbalist and in pretty much any profession, but he wasn’t amazing at any of them. Aside from farming and farming adjacent activities, obviously.

As Anton took more opportunities to do manual work instead of organizing and settling disputes and working with people, he became more confident about the future of what they were working with. And thus it was that enough time passed for help to arrive.

-----

When Anton had asked for aid he hadn’t yet taken some of their previous moon’s dirt. Then he’d dumped more than Moturn had needed at the moment. But Anton was still very glad when Lev showed up with a ship full of dirt- and plants. Some of the vegetation might not work out in the gas giant, but that would partially depend on the people tending to things

Shortly after Lev, other ships arrived with food- notably of various different kinds. Lots of beans, tubers, and grains. Staple food that people could grow if they learned to make sunlight. Or just moved back to one of their other moons, which the presence of Alliance ships made possible- though the atmospheres weren’t exactly optimal.

Surprisingly, many people didn’t want to leave. The reasons were varied, but they generally came down to fear. Lack of trust in the alliance, fear of further attacks from the upper realms, a general dislike of change, or similar reasons. Anton didn’t really blame them since everything was new.

The important thing was that ‘many people’ was not ‘everyone’. The opportunity to be resettled somewhere that wasn’t in the middle of a gas giant appealed to many people, which would actually be freeing up a lot of space on Moturn. Not everyone had fled to Moturn because they thought it was a good idea, but because people were running and hiding and that was the place that everyone was going.

Honestly, they had already done amazingly well to escape and remain unnoticed while not dying on their descent. It was an impressive feat- just because Anton could do something similar by himself didn’t mean it wasn’t deserving of praise. Even he couldn’t carry all those people without any dying. Though… it was true that many had not made it. The population of their former moon hadn’t been just measured in the millions after all- it was effectively the size of a full terrestrial planet and just happened to orbit a gas giant.

Since their former planet had been thoroughly devastated to the point even its atmosphere barely remained, establishing a project for them to settle on another rocky moon in the system- since everything orbited Moturn- was already underway. Though it might be a long time before it was stable, it was far easier to deal with a thin atmosphere than one with temperatures as high as the surface of a star while also dealing with crushing pressure. Plus, it came with free, less than 33% corrupted sunlight.

-----

“Abder,” Anton found his new apprentice. “I would like you to meet Nthanda. She’s a former apprentice of mine.”

The young man frowned. “She doesn’t feel anything like you.”

“I trained her in archery,” Anton admitted. “Not really anything else. Which is actually why she’s here. Since you wanted to get good with body tempering, she’s the best.”

“Hmm,” Abder took a long time looking over Nthanda. “You look pretty strong, but how strong are you really?”

Nthanda shrugged. “I came down to this rocky core without using any energy to protect my own body. Is that good enough?”

“Uh, what do you mean?” Abder asked. “Like, you fell…?”

“She means she was outside in that,” Anton gestured broadly. “Unprotected.” Technically, she would have been manipulating things around her, though not for the sake of her body but for her gear. Because very few objects could survive such circumstances. Though both her and Anton did have specially made Storage Bags, given where they tended to end up.

Abder’s eyes widened. “You can survive in the storm?” he exclaimed. “That’s- but-”

“Did you think I would let you take interest in a lesser path?” Anton asked. “I still hoped you would give up on it, not because of the limited potential but because of the difficult requirements. But you’ll be able to get a better picture with a proper teacher, and she’s the best.”

“Better than Durff?” Abder asked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“I taught him everything he knows about body tempering,” Nthanda pointed out. “Or at least all the important stuff. He’s likely not even post-Ascension in terms of body tempering alone.”

“... post Ascension?”

“Beyond Life Transformation,” Nthanda explained. “It could apply to alternate paths like us, as well as actual Ascension cultivators.”

“You know some?” Abder was thirsty for knowledge.

“We know so many of them,” Nthanda grinned.

Abder looked at Anton, offended. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“It would be bragging. And it won’t even be relevant to you until you at least hit Life Transformation, in maybe half a century.” Thirty years if the kid was very talented, but Anton didn’t want to put too much pressure on him. He was determined, but half a year of advancement didn’t tell everything.

-----

Moturn wasn’t the only place that got emergency aid. Just because Unov didn’t need it as much didn’t mean that they weren’t happy to accept help. Most of it came in the form of necessities and materials rather than completed goods, however. The reason for that was that the Alliance didn’t want anyone to become dependent. The biggest thing they shared was of course knowledge, even if it was only a small portion of what they knew.

So much had been lost during the flight from their home. It hadn’t come to quite a full wipe of their knowledge and cultivation techniques, but much of the breadth of knowledge had been lost.

Knowing the specific challenges Unov faced, the Alliance brought blueprints for things like formation-based submarines. They could bring everyone away to somewhere easy to live, but living in adversity was one of the ways cultivators grew strong. Getting help didn’t lessen growth unless people became dependent- indeed, those who insisted on individual survival at all costs usually didn’t make it in the long run.

Hadrianus appreciated the aid provided, but Anton still found him somewhat uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?” Anton asked. “Is there something missing? Or is it too much?”

“More of the latter,” the man admitted. “It’s still difficult for me to fathom why you would help like this.”

“Hmm. If it makes you feel better, I am receiving devotion in return.”

“You’ve said that, but do you really need it?”

Anton had pondered that. He knew it was useful. He was quite certain that the orthodox path of Assimilation and Domination needed it. But did he? Probably not. “It’s valuable to me, at the very least,” Anton said. “And what is the point of having all of this stuff if we don’t share it? The Alliance is made for this. We need to do things like this, to remain what we have built up. Otherwise, we’ll only see the wars and we might decay back into selfish cultivation practices.” Anton crossed his arms, “I like being like this. It makes being this old worth it.”

“How old are you?” Hadrianus asked.

“About a thousand,” Anton said. The actual date had passed by without much of anything on his part. Most of the lower realms didn’t know his actual birth date, and he wasn’t the first person to hit a thousand years old. Perhaps the most prominent, but many others would be following shortly behind him- even his littlest great-granddaughters were less than a century younger than him, after all.

Their ages were practically the same now. Anton was simply old and wrinkled because he’d already been old when he began and never thought it was worth fixing it except for a few practical developments.

“That’s…” Hadrianus pondered. “Both extremely long and yet vaguely within my comprehension.”

“How old are you?” Anton asked. “A bit over a hundred?”

“You think highly of me. I’m nearly two hundred.”

Anton shrugged. “I find that good listeners who are willing to interact cultivate well. Though you might have had less access to good techniques.”

“I was Life Transformation before… the end,” Hadrianus pointed out.

“And you still are. Does your technique manual cover Ascension.”

“Of course,” the man said.

“What’s your probability of success?”

“More than ten percent,” the man said proudly.

Anton almost laughed, but that would have been rude. “We can do better. With the benefit of more than two cycles of development, things pick up quite quickly.” Maybe too quickly. Catarina and Timothy were Domination cultivators now. There weren’t even that many in the upper realms. Anton found it odd. Then again…

For who knows how many millennia, the lower realms were repeatedly crushed and reset. Out of necessity, any cultivators would have had to develop a sense of persistence. Or not gone very far in cultivation, Anton supposed. But some portion of those who had been beaten down would spring back stronger. Ceretos and Weos had been some of the lucky ones, a bit earlier than others. From there, with the addition of Rutera, spreading out with little competition was quite obvious.

“Do you like it here?” Anton asked.

“... in the freezing, crushing depths?” Hadrianus asked.

The old man nodded and smiled. “Yes. In this terribly oppressive place that you have made into your home.”

Hadrianus thought for a while. “I do, actually. We clawed for survival with everything we had. We got the last laugh. I suppose I’m not just staying here out of responsibility.”

“A great answer,” Anton said. “We’ll help you avoid some of the pitfall of cultivation advancement. You should think about whether you want to stay here or stick it to the Exalted Quadrant with Ascension. We can make sure you end up among our Alliance there. Oh, those details are secret though so don’t tell anyone else.”

“... You’re connected to the upper realms?”

“No no no,” Anton wagged his finger. “The Scarlet Alliance is connected to us. Much of their core structure comes from our Ascension cultivators. And some natives, neither from the Trigold Cluster or the Exalted Quadrant. Plus any strays from elsewhere. You can remain independent here, if you wish, once we give you the tools to survive. But I’d think carefully about what we can offer. We have… big trees. And meerkats.”

“What’s a meerkat?”

“Oh, let me show you!” Anton said. “Here is my apprentice, Three Squeaks. Or, if I were to use his real name…” Anton made the actual Three Squeaks that made up his name. “Isn’t it cute? Like him?”

“An… apprentice? This animal?”

“They’re intelligent cultivators just as much as the rest of us, but much cuter,” Anton said. “Even this old guy. Look at this grump here,” Anton said, swapping to images of Meep. “Oh, right. This image device is one of the good things the Alliance has. It’s not just a display crystal that has a couple images.”

Anton had restrained from showing those sorts of things all at once, since a powerful cultivator was already something hard to trust, but a powerful cultivator with weird things that couldn’t be easily understood? That was cause for alarm. But this system was already connected, even if they could potentially choose not to stay that way.