Names were something Everheart couldn’t say he was an expert on. Oh, sure he could name a technique if he needed to, but those just required descriptions with a bit of flair. When naming a star system, one had to use actual names. Most names didn’t carry their original meanings anymore and were just conglomerations of sounds, and it didn’t make much sense to him to call it something practical. Like ‘The System the Wonderful and Powerful Genius Everheart Took Over to Have a Base of Operations’ didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Did it even need a name, if he wasn’t even going to use it?

“Of course,” said Everheart. “It makes it easier to refer to.”

“We’re not going to take over another system,” pointed out another Everheart.

“Let’s not be hasty,” said a third Everheart. “But if we take over something established it’s already named.”

Of course, the real Everheart was capable of having all of these thoughts on his own. They just wouldn’t necessarily happen right away. It was easier to have a ‘discussion’, and while he would eventually gain all the knowledge and thought processes of his projections, it was an energy intensive project to form them. That was especially true until he was more established throughout the system and had formations set up for their maintenance. That ultimately meant talking turned out to be the easiest.

“It’s just the Everheart system, then,” one of them pointed out. “Nice and concise.”

Everyone had to agree. And it was a good name, obviously.

He still needed a lot more in the way of materials if he was going to properly set up the system with all of the requisite formations, which meant some raiding. He had plans for the Harmonious Citadel, the Trigold Cluster, and the Exalted Quadrant.

He thought about gathering resources from the other groups in the Scarlet Midfields- especially those punks who took over Xankeshan- but they simply didn’t have the resources to make it worth his time. He’d probably get them back for that eventually, but for the moment his niece was living among them and he had higher priorities. So, east or west?

There were pros and cons to all of the options, but ultimately it came down to the Exalted Quadrant not facing nearly enough adversity as of late. Which meant they would have more free resources to snatch. Yes, that would be good. He just had to stay mobile. He couldn’t let them catch him with a group of Augmentation cultivators- or worse, accidentally run into a Domination cultivator. Unpredictability was his best option, which meant that whatever plans he made now would have to be fluid.

Everheart waved his projections goodbye. They could continue their toil while he went off to get a small mountain of goods. Then he would absorb all of them- memories of mind-numbing labor and all- so that none diverged to the point they’d want to cause trouble. Ugh, it was almost worth it to just pay someone to do all the work. But then he’d have to kill them, which could be a lot of work in its own way. Or trust them, but that wasn’t going to happen.

-----

Rumors had it that Torthunes had once been a standard blue-white color of water and ice. Now it was red. Nobody could say for certain what it had actually been like, as the damage had been done lifetimes ago even for the oldest cultivators. Once a prosperous planet in some manner, now just another casualty of the conflicts between the factions surrounding the Scarlet Midfields.

The planet had many features to dislike. Over the course of its two month trip around the local star, half of it was always freezing and the other half boiling, a constant cycle that made any permanent settlement difficult. The next extremely relevant feature was how much gravity it had. It was only several times the radius of standard terrestrial planets, but it had forty times the gravity. Anyone below at least mid Spirit Building would simply die, and ships found it difficult to land safely as well as to later take off.

These were also the same features that made it desirable. With extreme circumstances came great natural energy, usable to empower formations and cultivators alike. It also made it particularly difficult for cultivators who were not used to the local environment to battle. Since most battles in the upper realms took place on the surface of planets, those features and its location made it a reasonable environment for use as a staging ground against the Harmonious Citadel.

The Scarlet Alliance- encompassing Xankeshan, the Dark Ring, and various others flocking to their banner- had been setting up on the planet for a few years now. Catarina found it particularly interesting and frustratingly difficult to manage formations in such a place of constant change. The flow of energy was strong, but inconsistent… and the freezing and thawing meant there weren’t exactly solid points to anchor anything, not forever. Layers of ice grew on anything that stood around, blocking formation markings from each other. And the composition of that ice- which might have included a large amount of salty blood- meant that most construction corroded quickly.

Engineer Uzun had dropped by a few times, but ultimately deemed it infeasible to make use of Ruterran technology on-surface. Making use of their ships to deal with incoming enemies would only be viable with more decades of development- even with a good amount of planning and nearly unlimited resources it was impossible to recreate centuries of technology and infrastructure supporting it in a few years.

-----

Tauno found that he did not like the planet Torthunes. It wasn’t just the extremes it went to- he was an Augmentation cultivator and could handle things like that- it was the lack of any sort of life. The Dancing Slayer Sect preferred to hunt great beasts to improve themselves- and their equipment- and this was yet another stretch of time where he was forced to maintain traditional cultivation. A few years wouldn’t hurt in the long run, but just waiting wasn’t comfortable.

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“How certain are we that they will attack?” he asked the council of Xankeshan. The core group was mostly from the Order of One Hundred Stars, but they had many supporters not just from their own world but also neighboring ones. Like that Engineer. Tauno did not doubt the man was highly effective, he just didn’t understand the strange cultivation tools. Or the ones that worked entirely without cultivation- though there were few of those.

“They can’t afford to ignore this system,” the spymaster Velvet explained. “If they try to bypass it we can cut off their routes for supplies, causing them to have to send their limited ships that can hop multiple systems without stopping. The alternative is for them to take over several nearby systems to secure a foothold, but we would be able to react to that.”

“From the perspective of morale,” Prospero spoke next, “They need a significant victory. Preferably slaying one of our few augmentation cultivators,” he looked towards Tauno. “News of your presence leaking would attract them here.”

“And of course,” Velvet mentioned, “We are keeping track of the movements of the saints. We should have some idea what we’re up against. In the worst case where they attack with most or all of their saints, we will have to abandon the planet.”

“But I have the option to turn the formations into traps, in that case,” Catarina added.

Tauno nodded. This was not the only important position. There were several key systems and planets along the western borders, and other members of the alliance had their own concerns. Tauno felt confident in dealing with a single saint, and with the benefit of formations and sufficient Integration cultivators two of them. But without another Augmentation cultivator supporting him, three would be pushing it. He had felt the consistent advancement of those from the Order, and they truly might have people beginning to advance within a century or two. But the war probably wouldn’t wait for them, and it was impossible to say who would be able to take the step from Integration to Augmentation. Perhaps all of them… or perhaps none of them.

-----

Someone was watching Chidi. Watching over him, he supposed, but it was still weird. Some Integration cultivator he didn’t know, because his parents and Aconite’s parents and pretty much everyone else was away. That old archer lady was still around, in charge of the formations and letting people through the barriers, but Chidi didn’t really know her. She was weird and confusing even when she was talking about archery.

“I can’t believe they just left us behind,” Chidi sighed.

“You are now a proper adult human,” Aconite’s growls and barks conveyed. “Should you not expect to be on your own?”

“But I’m not,” Chidi pointed out. “We’re still being watched, and I haven’t gone off to war. What’s the point of being the age of an adult if I don’t get to fight in the war?”

“Do you want to?” Aconite asked, “War doesn’t sound like fun.”

“I don’t know,” Chidi sighed. “But the fact that I didn’t get the option annoys me. There are plenty of Spirit Building cultivators fighting.”

“There are,” Aconite agreed. “Do you wish to be a standard footsoldier in a war? Or would you rather do something notable?”

“Stop asking hard questions,” Chidi complained. “I know I’m not going to kill a saint or anything, but I just feel like I could do something.”

“Yes. You can train,” Aconite said. “I, for one, find my time quite filled with such things.”

“That’s because there’s like, a billion poisons. And you insist on being immune to all of them.”

“So that I can make use of them,” Aconite agreed. “Are there not as many sword stances and styles?”

“Yeah but… reading is…” Chidi shook his head. “It’s awful, picking out the ink against the paper. And you don’t have arms or legs to demonstrate what things are supposed to look like.”

“And the instructors?”

“Oh yeah, they’re so helpful. ‘Watch your opponent’s eyes’, they say. As if that’s easier than feeling the tension of their muscles or the flow of their energy.”

Aconite was quiet for a few moments. “It is the only way they know,” Aconite finally said. “It is unfortunate you are deprived of such a useful sense.”

“Whatever,” Chidi shrugged. “Mom and dad are better at explaining, even if they aren’t swordmasters.” Chidi slapped the hilt at his waist, “But I can train still, I get it. We can go patrol the Gardens and root out trouble. And maybe in another decade… or ten… people will let me do something real.”

-----

In the lower realms, Anton’s return was met with far more visitors than he generally preferred. The affairs of the Order hadn’t exactly piled up- there were people qualified to manage anything required- but many people wanted to see the Sect Head himself. Anton was quite famous, after all. Some of those people were his friends, and he was quite glad for them.

The news of the various planets- and the people living on them- was of great interest to the whole Trifold Alliance. In’istra was too far to establish any sort of proper diplomacy with at the current time, and the issue of the Twin Soul Sect among them meant it wasn’t necessarily safe. Tenoun’a and Shrenn were interesting as potential allies, though still rather far. However, if things went well with Ekict then they would be a good step closer.

That final system was the cause of most of the interplanetary hubbub, just as big of news as the Sylanis Cluster but without the whole war component. They weren’t exactly neighbors, but there was so much they could learn from each other. The details on how they repelled the invaders from the upper realms would be useful for other systems, including In’istra, to hopefully break them out of the cycle.

Of course, there were many complications of interstellar diplomacy that Anton hadn’t even considered. But the information he brought back would be useful for kicking things off. While it would take a long time to get a proper web of systems and peoples, Anton looked forward to a time where they were their own thing, instead of the lower realms being the playground for the upper realms to do as they pleased with on a galactic schedule.