Looking over the sea, what Anton really wanted was… Paradise. Having a friendly lord of the sea would really do well for In’istra right now. Unfortunately even if Paradise himself were open to the idea, it would be a bit difficult to transport him four hundred lightyears.

Then there was the matter of origin. Local beastmaster sects would be more valuable for such a task, whether they solely tamed beasts or treated them as partners. Ultimately, the difference for those who were effective tended to be minimal. There were exceptions like the Ultimate Phoenix Sect whose sect head was willing to sacrifice their beasts to preserve his own life, but most understood that a beast was as valuable as any of their other members.

There was no amount of time that would allow Anton to know everything about a planet- at best, he could memorize the most well known sects and cultivators. The same was true of In’istra, so just because he couldn’t think of any suitable candidates didn’t mean they didn’t exist.

“Jamilah,” Anton drew her attention for his following question, “Do you know any beast cultivation sects that could tame deep sea creatures?”

She shook her head. “Locally, we have very few. Some live off of the local wildlife, but the closest we have is the Lustrous Pearl Sect.”

“What do they do?”

“They raise big clams, for the sake of growing oversized pearls. They’re valued for their looks and their properties for enchantments.”

“Not exactly inspiring in their combat prowess,” Anton admitted. “Though I suppose they could be useful fortifying areas in a defensive fashion.” As he spoke, he was sweeping the whole Reef of Serenity. The whole thing was made up of various components, including central islands and sandbars that had been built up in various ways. That included intention depositions of stone, occasionally shipwrecks that were left in place, and coral growths among other things. “What about them?” Anton asked. Realizing Jamilah couldn’t sense what he meant, he elaborated. “The coral guys.”

“Coral cultivators? I suppose rock cultivators are useful for fortifying our harbors, but that’s about it…”

“Corals are animals,” Anton said.

“Sorry?”

“They’re little animals that make rocky homes. Often with some amount of algae along with them for the sake of photosynthesis.”

“I have heard that, I suppose,” Jamilah said. “I never really studied them closely.”

“Why not?” Anton asked. “How long have you lived here?”

“My whole life.”

“And you haven’t taken a close look at coral? They’re so interesting!” Anton said. “You should.”

“I’m not going to change my style of cultivation.”

Anton grinned, “I wasn’t saying you should. I was just saying you should know as much as possible about everything local. I can still remember every nook and cranny of my forest…” Though it had changed greatly since he became a cultivator, he still recognized the forest near old Dungannon.

“Will this help deal with the looming threat of a sea beast tide?”

“It will make you more relaxed and happy,” Anton replied. “Or you might hate them, but I doubt it. Every living thing is worth taking a close look at.” Anton stepped forward. “I’m going to go talk to that coral sect.”

“Good luck, I suppose,” Jamilah said.

-----

The first target Anton picked out was a woman with hair bleached white by age and the sun, naturally dark skin pigmentation a shade deeper from the latter. The winkled woman was not the strongest among the coral cultivators, nor did she seem to have a place among the elders. Nor did Anton detect great talent- after all, at her age one would expect more from her cultivation. Instead, he chose her because she looked happy.

“Found an interesting one?” he asked, moving next to the woman as she floated on the surface and peered into the waters below.

“They’re all interesting,” she said without even turning to look. “Look at these, like rainbow flowers in bloom. Almost makes you want to pick them up and pretend they’re a bouquet.”

“That would probably be a problem,” Anton said. “They’d dry out.”

“Plus the toxins,” the woman said. “That wouldn’t be great for you either.”

Anton focused his senses on them more closely. The toxins weren’t actually that difficult to detect, though in Anton’s estimation they were fairly weak. Then again, on the scale of creatures basically unaugmented by energy the toxins were probably quite deadly. “So no eating them?”

The woman turned towards him. “I’m afraid not. A pleasure to meet you, I’m Cahya.”

Despite her looks, if Anton were to judge her by her cultivation she should be somewhere around half his age. Perhaps even less, closer to one hundred and fifty than one hundred and seventy. But that was just an estimation. She was younger than his granddaughters despite their effective youth, but with them being Ascension cultivators most people were younger by a great margin. “Nice to meet you. I’m Anton.”

“I’ve heard of you,” she said.

“From who?” Anton asked.

“My nephew Danial,” she said. “He’ll surpass me in cultivation soon enough, it seems.”

“That doesn’t have to be the case, you know,” Anton said. “I bet I can help you stay ahead for a while, at least.”

“Why?” Cahya asked.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Because I am invested in cultivators being strong enough to survive.”

She shook her head. “But why me? And why should I care about my cultivation?”

He looked at the woman carefully. This was not a woman who had given up on life. On the other hand, she also didn’t seem particularly concerned to be aware that her end would come. As far as he could tell, it didn’t really matter to her either way. “Aren’t you happy? Wouldn’t you like to live another two decades, or ten?”

“Might be nice,” she said. “Can imagine I’d ever reach Life Transformation, though.”

“It’s not impossible,” Anton said. “You’d just have to want it.”

“Then, it is impossible,” she said. “I’m fine as I am now. Don’t need to be stronger.”

“And a longer life means nothing to you?”

“Should it?”

“I would at least expect you to prefer prolonging your current enjoyment.”

“Only if that can last,” she shook her head. “I couldn’t do much in the war, and I doubt I’ll do much in this next one. Against the beasts.”

“I believe an Essence Collection cultivator should have some effect,” Anton said. “I’d imagine you to be capable of combat in the sea just fine.”

“I’m not that strong,” she said. “And have no prospects nor interest in becoming stronger.”

So that was it. “The latter might be true, but I can guarantee your prospects aren’t hopeless. If you’re not interested in growing stronger, might I suggest other reasons to cultivate diligently?”

“Suggest as you will,” she smiled vaguely.

“You’ll get to spend more time among the coral. And your nephew will probably be glad to have you around.”

“A nice thought,” Cahya said. “But if I spend half my time cultivating and half among the coral for a decade, it’s just the same as spending all my time among it for the next five years. And maybe I’ll be killed after five regardless.”

“What if I told you that you could not only cultivate all the time but also spend that time doing what you love? All for the low, low price of listening to an old man for a while.”

“Pretty steep actually,” Cahya grinned. “But I’ll take the chance. What insights do you have?”

“Me?” Anton asked. He looked at the coral. “They like sunlight.”

“That’s pretty obvious.”

“That’s the only one I had,” Anton shrugged. “But it’s not about what insights I have. It’s about yours. It’s quite simple to glean insights from simple interest. And quite conveniently, there should be a route to improve yourself in the same way as the corals grow.”

“I’m a bit solitary to have a whole colony,” Cahya explained. “I joined the sect out of convenience, really.”

“But it fit you, did it not?”

“On the surface,” she agreed. “But eventually, I determined many points of contention.”

“A method that doesn’t quite fit you… almost as if it might be imperfect,” Anton commented.

“So you’re selling a perfect cultivation method?” Cahya asked. “You could find someone with more money.”

“I’ll consider that, when I have a perfect cultivation method. But unfortunately, the only one it will be perfect for is myself. As for you, I have studied many methods. If we establish motivation for you, I can help you deal with areas of energy control that might trouble you. Or be a sounding board for insights.” He pointed to something that looked vaguely akin to a vine waving in the currents. “Is that also a coral?”

“Soft-bodied kind,” Cahya explained.

“I see,” Anton said. “It has the color and feel, but they’re all quite different. I know the surface details about them, but I’d like to hear more. Oh, and I would suggest circulating your cultivation as you study them. Don’t concern yourself with being slow about it. I guarantee it will be worth the effort, and it might even be better than hours sitting in a room meditating about words on a page.”

Anton took his own advice, not that he ever really stopped. If he wanted to, he could stay in constant daylight… but he found that rest and night were good for him, even if he didn’t necessarily need to sleep. Perhaps that made him less like the sun, but so be it. Or maybe they just hid their rest cycles better.

-----

The arrival of the sword saint on Yaitis came with a clear threat- the promise of death. Chidi clutched his chest as he felt the promise of bisection, no- being minced into tiny little pieces. All that, and the Augmentation cultivator was still on the far side of the planet as far as he could discern.

“What’s wrong?” Aconite asked.

“The sword saint has arrived,” Chidi said. He could feel the blade, though just barely beneath the rage of its wielder. He felt a strange malice from the weapon itself, but he couldn’t quite pick out the reason. It almost felt like the blade hated its master. Or perhaps that was him projecting. Regardless of his interpretation, the feeling faded quickly. Even an Augmentation cultivator could not project their energy so strongly forever. It was a simple taunt- but not for Chidi. Though perhaps he felt a sliver of disdain for him personally. No, the clearly intended recipient would be grandmaster Chikere. And he had no doubt she would be on her way to face the sword saint soon enough.

“Should we inform someone?”

Chidi hadn’t even considered that. It just seemed natural to him that everyone would have felt that. But the moment he set about to find someone, he felt it.

Blades clashing. Had Chikere been waiting for him where he landed? Chidi’s legs gave out from under him as he focused everything on feeling the tiniest traces of the battle. He wanted to be there, though he had the feeling that if he was he would die- regardless of anyone intentionally attacking him.

“Chidi,” Aconite nudged him worriedly.

“Sorry. I’m feeling the battle,” he said from his position sprawled out on the ground. He realized how she got there. Chikere could cut through space, he’d seen her do it. Though she didn’t do so when traveling with him. Possibly because she couldn’t, or didn’t feel like it. More likely, it would have overwhelmed him. He’d thought he’d experienced her serious, but just the tiniest traces of the battle reaching him made him tremble.

Could anything survive around them?

He felt the power of the sword saint, a power far greater than Rakiya’s Integration cultivation. Chikere was good, but was she good enough to survive that? The battle raged on for minutes. Perhaps she was.

Then, space tore apart next to him. Chikere stumbled out, surrounded by fifty blades. She fell to one knee. Blood dripped down her body in great rivers. Chidi could feel the lingering intent behind the slashes, cuts, and stab wounds.

It wasn’t just her body that was wounded. Chidi felt nicks in her blades, which he knew were always kept pristine. Then there was her replacement arm, her right. It was dangling from her right shoulder, cut through in many places. It barely managed to clutch a broken sword between its fingers.

The worst part of her visage, however, was the trails running down her face that weren’t blood. Though the composition of tears wasn’t all that different from blood, Chidi could distinguish between them well enough.

“Dammit…” Chikere said, her muscles trembling. “Why… why did it have to happen like this?”

Chidi brought himself to attention. “Grandmaster. Please… tell me what happened.” He was going to have to get her to treat her wounds, but perhaps hearing the story from her would distract her from her pain. Or perhaps it would make it worse.