Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1210

After talking to the hunched old woman for a while, Ylvali found Adsila quite pleasant to be around. She was also a little bit terrifying.

“Could you go over that story again?” Ylvali asked. She had already taken the woman onto the Starstriker. If someone was coming for her, it would be far more difficult to get to her before she at least finished her explanation.

“Of course, dear. The other day I was serving tea to the ladies. You know how they are. Brinia was talking about how her new grandson-”

Ylvali held up a hand. “I don’t need to hear a repeat of the gossip. Unless it’s relevant to the situation? Was her grandson involved?”

“Oh no, of course not,” the lady said. “He’s still a babe. Cute little fellow with pinchable cheeks.” Ylvali cleared her throat. “Anyway, a poor skittish girl came into my shop. I set her up in the cozy back room with some calming tea. The ten leaf bloodrose actually has some amazing properties, you must know. Strong lingering scent. It can be used for-”

“I’m not planning to become your disciple,” Ylvali noted. “Could you try to stay focused?”

“Well, some nasty looking men came into the shop looking for someone. I served them some yellow mountain peach tea- not a peach in sight of those trees, wouldn’t you know? It does taste like it, though.” Ylvali did her best to not glare at the old woman. “Anyway, they eventually left to cause trouble elsewhere, I presume. Though hopefully a bit less, since they looked properly pacified. That poor girl didn’t seem to have anywhere to go, so she stayed the night in the shop.”

“And then?” Ylvali asked.

“Well, she had moved on in the morning. Didn’t want to impose, it seemed.”

“Do you want me to find her or something…?” Ylvali prompted. “If you could describe her my crew could-”

“It’s too late for that I’m afraid. She had an accident later that day, fell down some stairs in the garden district. It’s a shame, really,” Adsila commented. “There was so much life in her. But accidents happen. An old woman like me outlives far too many worthy souls. So then, wouldn’t you know it, the same group of men showed up in my tea shop again. I asked them if they’d been having tea elsewhere, but they denied it. However, they must have been getting up to something because they soon suffered an allergic reaction! They all ran out of the tea shop and threw themselves in the lake, so I heard. Something about their hearts being on fire.” Adsila leaned in, whispering. “I think they were on drugs.”

“Mhm,” Ylvali nodded. “And so?”

“Well, some of their friends came to visit me, asking questions about them. I told them everything I knew, how they’d run off to the lake, but they still smashed up my shop. They seemed to think I’d drowned the men myself or some such nonsense. As if these wrinkled old hands could do that. It didn’t seem advisable to remain, however, so I came to you.”

Ylvali looked over Adsila. “What does this ten leaf bloodrose smell like?” Ylvali asked.

The old woman reached into a pouch she carried with her. “It’s quite good,” she said, pulling out a pinch. “Would you like to smell?”

“I could take a sample,” she said. “For our records.”

“If you want,” Adsila commented, truly baffled. “But you won’t see much but a powder.” Adsila brushed her fingers together, letting the crushed leaves drift onto a nearby plate. “You could get some plant samples, though.”

“I see. What tea did the men have?” Ylvali sniffed the air, carefully.

“Yellow mountain peach tea. Do you want some?”

“Is that what they had the second time?” Ylvali asked.

“Oh no,” Adsila said. “Fresh out, I’m afraid. So many things broke when the shop was smashed up, I only have a small selection left on me.”

Ylvali had about what she needed. The men were from some local gang, not even planetary in scale. Retaliation from them wasn’t something to worry about. “We don’t take on random travelers. You’ll be restricted in where you go on the ship. We have certain rules you must follow.” At least they could isolate air circulation by room. “We’ll have to have your story verified by Aconite.”

“That plant’s not much good for tea,” the old woman commented.

-----

The Scarlet Alliance didn’t accept only those who hadn’t killed people. Many if not most cultivators ended up in lethal situations at some point in their lifetime, even against other humans. Or people, since not all of them were humans. Like Aconite.

Ylvali did take the scan of the ten leaf bloodrose, though it was a more comprehensive analysis than Adsila probably expected. It had some unknown compounds, though the computer was able to approximate their effects on the human body. On the surface at least, it appeared quite legitimate. Maybe a bit much for a tea instead of proper medicine, but probably not poison like the other things she presumed Adsila had on hand.

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That information would be transmitted to Aconite and others for analysis. The old woman hadn’t exactly hidden anything, as far as Ylvali knew, but it was still proper to be cautious around new people. She might be a particularly good liar trying to infiltrate the ship for some sect or other, though the details did check out when Ylvali looked into them.

It wasn’t long before the Starstriker moved on from the planet. Nobody seemed to have noticed the old woman’s disappearance, at least not at the time. Maybe the next time they landed in that particular city, someone would have complaints. Ylvali would have to make sure that the weaker crew didn’t go anywhere alone when they next came around. But she wasn’t just going to leave a mostly innocent old woman to fend for herself. Slightly innocent. Probably justified.

Maybe she was soft. Maybe she was fighting against their purpose of establishing tolerated relations with neighbors by interfering. But should she allow individuals to suffer for no reason at all? Ylvali didn’t think so. Hopefully her bosses would agree.

-----

Anton had been getting reports about Klar the whole time he had been on the border, of course. Even if they were keeping human intervention in the system minimal, he wasn’t going to risk the important things in the system for the rest of it. Those things were Bear Hug and Liberty, mostly, but he supposed the other residents were mostly alright. Briar was Briar.

Even with reports, however, Anton hadn’t been prepared for how much Bear Hug there would be. It appeared that they had grown far more proficient with separation… and also with staying in one place. There were a few lakes about fifty percent occupied by Bear Hug, with numerous fish nibbling on them. Personally, Anton didn’t think he would ever be comfortable letting anything eat him, but Bear Hug seemed to have come to terms with that particular thing. There were some big fish, too.

All of the energy, distributed in different places, was still definitely Bear Hug though. Even among disciples of the same sect who trained with the same method there were clear differences. These were all the same- including all of them reacting to all stimulus.

“You move much more fluidly,” Anton complemented Bear Hug.

“I should! I’m probably an adult now.”

That was an odd concept for an algae lifeform that seemed to only have a single stage of life. And while Bear Hug had certainly been childish for a long time… that didn’t have anything to do with actual maturity. Oh, and that childishness extended into the current time, so it certainly didn’t count.

“I’m going to make everyone happy and friendly. I’m going to talk to the space ray and make friends. Because Briar is also my friend so I can do anything.”

Anton nodded. He was trying to figure out what stage to compare Bear Hug to. Life Transformation, probably. It had been long enough that Assimilation wasn’t impossible, but he hadn’t felt any sort of transcendent growth. “How far apart can you get?” Anton asked.

“Anywhere in the system!” Bear Hug said. “Space is hard, though. I need help getting up there, and I run out of water and good air pretty fast. I’m gonna stay on all the planets, I’ve decided. Most of the people are there.”

“A worthy goal,” Anton said. Bear Hug had the one thing that Anton really could have used, but he couldn’t exactly develop colocation at this point in his cultivation. For one, his body just did not work like that. He could create projections- temporary and direct ones, since ones based on formations were a bit tougher to get right- but that was just him stretching his energy and multitasking. He was always still just in one place. Everheart might have actually gotten around that- though it wasn’t that clear to the Alliance how- but Anton doubted that it would be a method he wished to replicate even if he could. And given that they used fundamentally different energy, that was a big if.

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Klar was a special system. Not just because of Bear Hug, but because of what it represented. It was being carefully studied by more groups, now, for the precise balance of energies that might lead to the development of sapient plants.

Eventually they would get a chance to join the Alliance. For that to matter they had to be one thing, instead of just a bunch of individuals on some nearby planets- but Bear Hug might be the link they needed.

The Gas Giant Moturn and its peoples had already joined up with the Alliance, but they were humans. It was easier to get to a mutual understanding of things.

Moturn was part of the exploration efforts, now. Isolated systems were rare, now. They’d usually already been found and become part of the Lower Realms Alliance- or one of the other groups near their sector, if they were off to the east. However, those that did exist usually had long trauma with the upper realms, which extended to outsiders in general.

At least the Alliance was used to dealing with that. They also had people like Aerona who could be quite instrumental in functional diplomacy.

The biggest area of growth was westward- partially because the Alliance had no impediments in that direction, and partially because they had practical purposes. They were building up on the border- which would indeed open them up to potential assaults in a few centuries. However, that was only if the Exalted Quadrant and Chaotic Conglomeration knew they were there. Otherwise, they could help stop them from attacking more distant systems.

There was one portion of the Chaotic Conglomeration that was safe, but they were only a small fraction of the rest. They were building up their own worlds just on the other side of the border. Anton really wished he could go see them in person, but he’d never be able to cross the border. At least they had ships that were capable of bringing far more people across, now. The inter-realm ships used to be pretty… limited. Both in individual capacity and number.

Why, back in Anton’s day… there were none, actually. Unless ships that traveled the tides counted, in which case it was pretty much any interstellar capable ship. But putting that aside, all of those developments were still relatively recent.

It would be dangerous if it ended up in the wrong hands. Except… pure tech ships weren’t particularly dangerous. And while they could save their cultivators the strain of travel, they didn’t do much more than insulate them from the alternative realm for some time. If the upper realms actually got their hands on some, they wouldn’t be combat capable ships and their people would still be just as bad at fighting in the lower realms.

Still better not to give them the opportunity. That was why those ships were carefully monitored. And the Tides still existed, an opportunity for significant trouble. The only question was which groups would be brave enough in the future.