The voidsteel dagger Velvet had spent so much effort to get was left behind as she approached her destination. It shouldn’t easily be found, so she wasn’t particularly worried about it. The greater concern was her not surviving to retrieve it. Along with her other that was currently being reforged back in the Scarlet Alliance, Velvet had left most of her remaining weapons.

She carried with her only some lightly enchanted daggers. She would have preferred to bring no metal at all, but that was far more suspicious. Instead, her equipment would ‘prove’ that she was a weak cultivator to anyone who saw her, when she allowed it.

But currently, she was spending most of her time on the daytime side of planets. Traditional stealth wisdom indicated that she should stick to shadows and other low visibility settings. To remain quiet. But traditional wisdom only worked to a certain extent with cultivators.

If Velvet was wandering around in the sun, who would be looking hard? Conversely, in the dark people would be watching for sneaks and thieves. Likewise, in silence people would listen. If she stood next to a crowded market, who would hear her? She wasn’t going to be seen when she didn’t want to. She had the use of illusions if necessary, a negation of others’ perceptions. However, there was another method.

If she didn’t want it to, sunlight wouldn’t dare touch her. It was much like making herself transparent, but less work on her part. It was still due to her active will, and so far Velvet hadn’t found any stars with sapience even after hearing about Maheg, but the way in which she used her abilities mattered. So convincing light to work with her was easier than relying on shadows. Though Velvet was plenty familiar with every form of stealth.

She didn’t know what she wanted, except to leave these places. Even though the planets seemed relatively normal, they didn’t feel quite right. Perhaps it was bias from the lower realms. She hadn’t seen any hollowed out planets yet. But she also wasn’t in the core worlds of the combined sects just yet.

Not knowing what information she was looking for exactly, she made use of pieces of equipment to copy everything she could find. Images and video were costly, but if she simply took text she could get an unlimited amount. The only unfortunate thing was that all the technology she used to copy things was made of metal, and even hidden in her storage bags she had some concerns. Hiding the presence of their elements from lesser cultivators was easy enough, but it was a bit more difficult with those who were stronger.

Zaur was an exception because his element was also her element. One was simply the radiance of a person, whereas Velvet used the light of stars. Though she reminded herself she was only successful because he was distracted. She wasn’t strong enough to trust in hiding herself from Domination cultivators consistently.

Integration cultivators from the Imbued Fragments were easy enough. They probably had some decent information too, though she obviously couldn’t review everything. She just stole what was convenient as she made her way further along.

The Broad Eyed Harvesters seemed like they would have been a pain to avoid if she was actually visible. She supposed their eyes might see on other spectrums, but she was prepared for pretty much any sensory technique. At least the stone cultivators wouldn’t find much of anything on her, though she wasn’t guaranteeing that nothing she carried would count.

Ultimately Velvet wasn’t planning to find scraps of knowledge. What she wanted was further into their territory, where she could try to verify certain strange rumors. If that was even possible.

-----

When she saw it, Velvet had no idea how there were only rumors. Maybe nobody cared for some reason, or maybe they were immensely effective at suppressing information. But the instant she entered one of the systems in question, she knew.

Not that she needed to be part of the One Hundred Stars to recognize what was happening with the star. Literally every cultivator from the weakest to the strongest would be overwhelmed by the shock of what they saw. A star… producing natural energy. No wonder there were energy containment arrays around the place.

This was something that other sects might kill for. Raising cultivators on natural energy- or lower energy- provided a smoother transition to Integration, for those who were born in the upper realms. That was of course all the descendents of the most powerful figures, so it was a big deal.

And here they had a star- and thus a whole system- flooded with natural energy. It was astounding and… it made Velvet feel sick.

She wasn’t anywhere close to being a starbinder, but something was wrong. Aside from the fact that these stars absolutely weren’t supposed to produce natural energy. Ignoring the nearby planets- which she noticed were hollow skeletons like their planets in the lower realms- Velvet went directly for the star. Soon enough, she noticed remnants of a structure. And a very faint lingering energy.

Varghese. Their chances to meet in person were more than rare, but she had familiarized herself with the energy signatures of the strongest cultivators in the lower realms. Obviously Anton’s greatest apprentice would be among them. And Varghese. Three Squeaks was obviously the better of the two even if he hadn’t reached Enrichment yet. Though that might be personal bias.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

But she was distracting herself. His energy had made it to the upper realms. And he’d definitely overloaded what she assumed had once been star-spanning structures. Now they were mostly scraps.

Were the remnants what was wrong? Perhaps in part. Velvet wasn’t a formation master, but she could tell this particular system was mostly non-functional. So it had to be an inherent issue with the star.

It wasn’t supposed to produce lower energy. So it was something of an abomination, with its stolen energy signature. There was one problem Velvet immediately discovered. There had only been one star in the lower realms being drained… right? But if this star was flush with lower energy, what about the others? Could one star power so many? Unless Velvet’s recall was extremely far off, Ocreaf’s Star hadn’t been of such a magnitude as to make that even vaguely feasible.

Normally, Velvet might approve of such a project. There was nothing wrong with lower energy being in the upper realms, it just didn’t naturally fit. If it was done properly, it could be a great boon. But she could tell it wasn’t done with great care for the stars in the long term. This star was… unstable. Though whether that meant it would unravel in years or last a million more Velvet wasn’t quite sure. Fortunately, someone else would be able to tell her, as she took detailed readings. She was here to investigate these stars, she simply hadn’t expected it to be more extreme than the rumors let on.

She would have to be careful so she could actually leave and report back. Though in an emergency, she could at least transmit the information if she thought she was going to be captured. It was extremely unlikely they could prevent transmissions, even if they could detect them.

-----

Chidi was not dead. Obviously other people knew that, or he would be. He was only vaguely aware of his own body and the passage of time, but he knew that it had been long enough that he would have decayed long ago if not for outside assistance. If his health had begun to falter… he might have still chosen to remain in his trance. Because it was a unique opportunity.

He would have gladly spent a century to familiarize himself with the next step of Negation. He didn’t find the need to name it something else fancy. He wasn’t even sure it matched up to other cultivation systems anymore.

Slowly, he became more aware of his body. Of the physical world around him. And then the energy beyond, especially with how it interacted with him. Or the space just beyond him?

No. Chidi decided that the Negation was part of him. It would not exist without him, he could feel it and control it. What other parameters were necessary for it to be part of him?

It was odd, having reached a point where something so difficult to achieve even for a moment was automatic. But great trials provided much. Chidi did not open his eyes, for that never meant anything to him. He did return to his other senses, however. He heard the sound of machines, but the energy he felt was distant.

How relaxing.

His sword was tucked into the bed next to him, nearly propped underneath his armpit. He didn’t have to have this sword, but he would admit that he would have missed it.

Chidi sniffed. Aconite had been here two, no, three days prior. And quite regularly before that, it seemed. The room was clean to the standards of normal humans and most cultivators, but lingering scents like that were fairly clear. Hidden beneath that were other familiar scents. Yuval. Hoyt and Prospero. Alva. Durff. More rarely some of the other Augmentation cultivators.

Missing among them were his parents. He didn’t know what that meant, but he wasn’t fond of the idea. Their deaths were… not unlikely. In fact, anyone coming back from their mission was a miracle. The death of a Domination cultivator wasn’t a small thing. Though he sensed a faint aura far in the distance, lingering. Perhaps the devastation had been split between his projection and his actual body? Or at least his actual body and the Citadel.

Chidi might have survived anyway. He wasn’t bragging. He was just aware that his abilities had grown leaps and bounds. First, he’d managed to negate an entire area for a long duration. Or perhaps a very short one, since it was exactly enough time for him to make one attack- and not because he had been slow about it. He could do that again, probably. But the constant part of him that was maintaining Negation was a huge step in another way. He’d been slowly adding to his internal formation markings, and now that his insights had reached the right level, he was able to maintain it with little consciousness. No, perhaps even if he slept it would remain. That was what the long meditation had been for, to secure his hold. Though it had first started as an emergency defensive measure.

Shouldn’t someone have come to check on him? It had been only a few minutes, but surely the systems monitoring him would have noticed some change. Chidi could of course divest himself of the feeding tubes and various other things, but he wasn’t a doctor. He might need some of them for his health. And the easiest way to remove them from himself would be to cut them up, which was rather wasteful. Surely there were proper ways, but that involved somewhat more mobility than he currently had.

He waited, keeping his senses about him while reflecting on Negation. He was pleased with his path. Even if he had perished, he would have been happy with his choices, but surviving was always nice.

When a nurse came in, Chidi moved. He couldn’t easily speak with the various tubes, but he made it clear to the man that he was conscious.

“You’re awake?” the man confirmed. Chidi slightly nodded his head. “Any pains?” No. Or at least, nothing of significance. “I’m sure you must be uncomfortable. But I should contact a doctor before doing anything. Can you wait a few minutes?”

Chidi could wait a very long time. Impatience was the bane of proper cultivation.

An hour later, he was getting released. He could hear Aconite barking in the distance. “I told you I left all the poisons behind! And I don’t have any on my fur or on my claws! You think I wouldn’t know how to keep everything contained? Just let me goooo!” she howled.

Chidi smiled. That seemed about right.