The damage to the Scarlet Alliance had been kept to their fleets and orbital platforms, due to the swift appearance of Zaur Beridze. It was over so swiftly it almost didn’t feel like a war, but that was part of the reason they created the formations to force their enemies to attack a certain point. It would have also been terribly difficult for them to bypass the system after entering.

Zaur’s retreat had been a great victory, but with their forces concentrated there were still significant losses in a short time. It didn’t necessarily feel like they won, but more like a disaster had struck.

It was difficult for most people to process, but some ended up with more mundane issues. “I didn’t even get to fight!” Yuval complained to his brother. “I was with the planetary forces defending the ground…”

“Be glad it wasn’t necessary. If you seek combat, war is not the best place for it. You might learn much, but the risks are not worth it.” Chidi shook his head. “Trust me when I say a protracted war is worse for everyone involved. The war with the Harmonious Citadel was a bitter struggle.”

“But you got to be a war hero,” Yuval sighed. “I’m just a kid with important parents who didn’t even get to see battle.”

Chidi shrugged. “You were still on the frontlines. It wasn’t like you were placed back on Xankeshan, like some people. Nobody in your squad was lost, and you were ready to battle. That’s all that matters.”

“Fine. But I need to experience something real or I’m going to grow old as I fail to advance much beyond the hundredth star.”

“I would suggest asking Vari for advice on proper challenges. Her style is most similar to yours and she could judge you best.”

“Maybe I can fight the Trigold Cluster…”

“There are plenty of challenges outside of the great powers,” Chidi said. “The rest of us don’t go charging into their territories and battling them. Most of those that go perish.”

“What about the Everheart System?”

“You have enough information to judge the lethality yourself, Yuval.”

“Well, maybe. But unlike the rest of you I’ve never really experienced it.”

Chidi thought that was for the best. But everyone got to make their own mistakes, and Chidi wouldn’t stop his brother from trying to grow.

-----

Word of the assault spread into the Trigold Cluster- how could it not, with the personal participation of a Domination cultivator? Ratna was always on the lookout for such things, but the information that reached her was less than she might have liked.

As it turned out, the Scarlet Alliance was pretty good at filtering out spies. Paying members of the general public? That was easy. But their reports were lacking the details she desired.

She wasn’t quite sure how she would have reacted if Zaur Beridze had been killed by them. The grudge between them required personal vengeance. However… his current state was quite pleasing.

The extent of his injuries was unclear, but forcing him to retreat without a single Domination cultivator on their side? Fantastic. That was followed up by information from within the Exalted Quadrant which shed more light on the situation. The Citadel itself assaulted, their home territory unable to crush an attack by four cultivators.

Sure, they’d killed one… but it wasn’t possible for them to hide the fact that she cut their planet in half as she went out. Normally, a clean cut down the middle of a planet would be less impactful than it seemed. The two halves would just press against each other and it would be like little happened. A cultivator with more power might force the two halves apart during their cut, but that wasn’t what had happened.

No, the results were much more interesting. It was as if the idea of the planet itself had been cut in half. There was a clear line. People could see through it, but not pass by. Or at least not without fortifying themselves against being sliced into pieces. To take a single step from one side of the border to the other, it was quicker to take a ship off the planet and back around. Which was… extremely interesting for the impact it had on the core sect of the Citadel of Exalted Light.

Durff had made good friends. Ratna was most impressed that he survived the battle, and the loss of an arm was a relatively small price to pay for an Integration cultivator standing up against a planet. And if she put the pieces together right, he was the one responsible for catapulting the Citadel off the planet. Zaur would probably try to turn its new location into some sort of symbol, but the truth was he couldn’t have visitors because showing off whatever damage he had would be an embarrassment.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Reports varied wildly on the weapon Durff used. Some said a club made from the bones of a giant. Others said his own arm. Still others said a hammer made out of starheart. The latter was most compelling, as it had come from an individual who had come into contact with an object made from starheart once. Not that he’d touched it, of course, just been in its presence.

It was too bad Zaur was so far away. Ratna would have liked to finish him off, but as tempting as it was to dive deep into Exalted Quadrant territory, she was worried about drawing the attention of the other Exalted Ones. She could perfectly hide her presence from the mundane cultivator and could likely reach Zaur, but going into Exalted Quadrant territory herself would likely reveal her to people she couldn’t afford to fight.

Besides, even finishing off Zaur would probably leave her in an unacceptable state of weakness. She wanted him dead, but not at the cost of her own life. The point was for him to be gone and for her to still be around.

Ratna found herself needing to reassess the power of the Scarlet Alliance. It didn’t matter how they had defeated Zaur- though she very much wanted to know. The fact that they could do it at all, with any amount of preparation, meant they were more than just an upstart faction with a few centuries behind them. They also appeared to be producing Augmentation cultivators at an astounding rate. Maybe in another few centuries they’d have expanded far enough to be forced into conflict with one of the powers. Most likely, that would be the Trigold Cluster as they were closer.

Well, there were many factions closer to the border than the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance. They would deal with that, while she dealt with the long term conflicts that came with being part of the core. Some of the sects were gearing up for massive invasions of the lower realms. Personally, Ratna didn’t find that a valuable use of the time and resources of sects when the Guardians could instead expand into contested territory when eyes were focused elsewhere.

And if the foolish rumors that they were sending a Domination cultivator to the lower realms to cow their planets were true? Ratna would laugh as they lost systems to their neighbors all for the sake of some sort of worthless honor. It would also be a shame, because whoever it was would probably take away the planets in chunks, which wasn’t an efficient way to harvest their resources. Much better to take objects imbued with natural energy from ascenders.

Though there had been a strange drop in their population lately. Probably due to the wars down there, though. There had been a few systems that were pretty much wiped out, she recalled. Wars were a good way to gain insights to ascend, and also a good way to die before you could make use of said insights.

-----

Durff was sad to see the most compatible weapon he’d ever held be taken away, but he was also glad that he’d be able to use two arms to swing a weapon again. He wasn’t quite sure how they stitched his arm back on. He watched it all, but all he really understood was that they had special needles, string, and some solid and liquid goops.

The goops were used to replace the missing parts of his shoulder, since it wasn’t a perfect and clean cut. He was amazed to see that over the course of several months, they turned into his arm. Or his arm grew into them? Either way, it was pretty sturdy at the end of things. Perhaps even more than his shoulder had been before.

Durff wasn’t willing to accept that, though. The original sturdiness, of course. Sure, he’d been fighting enemies well above his power, but he still shouldn’t have let an injury like that happen so easily. He needed to be more durable, like the seemingly unbreakable planet he had smashed together. He also needed a weapon that could stand up to him- and that was compatible with him, or he couldn’t perform the same regardless of how good it technically was.

The smith who had made his latest hammer seemed like a decent guy, and Durff had to admit that Sadiq’s technique wasn’t at fault. It wasn’t even the materials, necessarily. It had merely been an experiment, and while swords had been turned into what should have been a good hammer… it just didn’t fit.

While Durff kind of wanted to tear some chunks off of the planet he’d smashed together, that wasn’t quite right either. It had the right sort of weight, but it was a bit too feisty. At least that was what he thought. Maybe he’d change his mind later.

-----

Chidi sat in silence in the middle of a sensory deprivation chamber. No feedback came to him, not sounds or energy or even a sense of touch. It was as if he floated in a void. He felt that was just perfect for recalling a memory. He replayed it over and over, the moment where he cut Zaur.

He could have done it better. Not that he was beating himself up, as if it was some sort of failure. Instead, he simply recognized the potential growth. If they ever came into contact again Chidi doubted that Zaur would make it so ‘easy’ to enforce Negation on him, but an improved technique could help. He saw the minute imperfections in his mind, and repeated the attack over and over until it was perfect.

His theoretical attack cut the man directly in quarters, centered on his dantian. That would have the best probability of preventing any sort of backlash upon his death, or at least a controlled one. Great as the power of a Domination cultivator was, it was not limitless. When spread out in all directions, it would diminish quickly.

Chidi would prefer to survive, however, and since he would have to be up close it was in his best interests to consider the possibility. He was quite satisfied with his results so far. Negation had been his idea precisely because of Zaur’s previous attack. It had worked better than he expected, even. He hadn’t actually been confident in facing off against him so soon.

But he wasn’t going to sit out of the fight either, and with his mother’s formations helping he’d found reading the flow of energy… tolerable. Enough that he was able to actually do it. A shame the only route he could comprehend had taken his sword where it did through his arm, instead of through a vital point. But landing a wound at all on a cultivator who was a whole stage ahead of him and more than a thousand years older was satisfying.

As a bonus, he hadn’t even died after. Even though Zaur absolutely could have killed him and Timothy. But fear of the unknown got to the man, and he’d run. Regardless of when he changed his mind and came back for revenge, his martial path would be weakened. Even if his cultivation for some reason dealt well with cowardice, Chidi was prepared to face him again. If he didn’t instantly die, he thought he could manage mutual destruction this time. Of course, the chances of not being annihilated from a distance were a bit dismal. Maybe he should practice cutting apart light beams. He could do it, but he might need to be better. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have experience with it.