Visible tracks prompted Velvet’s deeper exploration into the forest. She found them after she reported back to the Spirit Slicing Sect, who set up their people to watch the forest from afar- but they didn’t want to give away they knew something was up just yet.

The tracks were clearly not from the normal inhabitants of the forest. They barely left traces of their presence, except for the trees. Even then, they seemed to have a habit of removing the trees killed by their rapid growth- Velvet had found several patches of land she was certain once had a tree, dug up to the roots and the ground smoothed over. And of course they wouldn’t be so careless as to leave boot prints and bent branches.

So there was someone else here. Presumably allies of theirs, unless there was some third party involved. Otherwise, if they were part of the Chaotic Conglomeration then they should have reported about them already. Unless they were confidently trekking into the forest on a hunch?

Not that this other group was terribly obvious. They stepped lightly, leaving few traces. But there were more than a few of them, and enough displaced leaves and snapped twigs eventually painted a clear picture. Velvet followed after them, avoiding the senses of the trees connected to her actual targets. These visitors might be meaningful as well, but she had less context to understand them.

Most of the forest appeared to be uninteresting, until one considered that there were always watching trees. That made the trek much more difficult, as Velvet had to take roundabout paths to minimize the ways she could be spotted. The other group was clearly less concerned with that, as they had even fought some of the local beasts foolish enough to attack them. Remains of a giant bear stripped of its pelt and claws littered one section of forest, the bones just beginning to be picked at by scavengers.

The two pieces provided Velvet some context. A clean cut from a single attacker that should have reached Integration. But of course, there was a wide variety of strength within the Integration stage, and the remains didn’t tell her about the strength of the others.

She was passing through denser foliage now, relying on her understanding and prior training to hopefully go unnoticed by the watching trees. She didn’t sense anything spotting her, but it wasn’t always so obvious. Just as she could hide herself, others could hide their reactions. Perhaps they had been tracking her since she returned to the forest, making their perceptions so obvious the first time to throw her off. But if she actually believed that, she would be gone instead of moving deeper in.

She spotted the wooden structures first, and then the tents. Made with full logs, the buildings were obviously constructed hastily, yet with some amount of skill. With what she could only assume was a group of several hundred cultivators, it wasn’t surprising to have someone with those skills.

The twisted energy flow of a formation caught her attention as well. On the surface, at least, it kept upper energy from spilling out and from what she could see directly also captured the smoke from their fires. No doubt it also concealed them from above. Would it reveal her presence? She didn’t think so. Not through any method with which she was familiar, and the watching trees and occasional guards were for that purpose.

She could leave now, but she’d hardly gained any new information. Even the camp was more or less where she estimated. She had to figure out who these visitors were. Joining up with this hidden group was worrisome for not only the Spirit Slicing Sect but any other groups nearby.

She crept past the edges of the camp, doing her best to perfectly replicate the energy flow around her so as to not cause any disturbances. She could sense the local disciples, and while she had no experience to confirm for certain they were part of the Forest of Death, she went forward with that assumption. She had to be prepared for her energy to be drained in combat, should it come to that- but realistically, she should run.

Voices drew here to an open window, which she carefully peeked inside. She could feel the other energies in there, overhearing part of a conversation.

“... attack upon the morrow,” said a young man with a sword dangling from his side.

“We spend so long setting up a hidden base, and you arrive only to tell us to immediately move out?” an older man replied. “On what basis?”

“On the basis of strength,” said a woman who had a similar sword at her side. No, the same sword. Velvet recognized it. The Limitless Edge.

“If you have the strength, then you should move out yourselves,” said the older man. “We have no obligation to you.”

Conflict among the enemy ranks? Good. Even if the disagreement simply slowed their action, it was worthwhile. Better yet if they spilled each other’s blood.

Velvet would never know for certain what gave her away. Was it bloodlust leaking past her surface? An intake of breath? Some passerby moving at an angle she hadn’t anticipated and spotting the hem of her clothes? She wouldn’t know. All she was certain of was that multiple heads turned towards her at once. She was noticed, not just by those inside the building but outside as well.

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Immediately, she maximized her energy to hide herself. Obviously it was too late to go unnoticed, but if she could erase herself from their perceptions catching her would be difficult.

A few moments later she was on a roof, blood dripping down her arm. She clutched it against her side, willing the traitorous drops to soak into her clothing rather than leave her body. The building where the meeting had been taking place was now missing a wall, chopped into pieces by the Limitless Edge disciples inside, but what had gotten her was the blade energy of one of their members a hundred meters distant.

Velvet pushed a feeling of her presence into the minds of those around her, projecting a false location while hiding her own. Just hiding herself was not good enough, and indeed the other location was intended to seem as if she was hiding imperfectly.

It might have worked, if the Limitless Edge disciples had not simply decided to fill the entire camp with attacks. Velvet barely flew up out of reach before being cut to ribbons, and whether they properly detected her or not swords sliced higher into the air as well. They didn’t quite perfectly cover the space. They didn’t attack in even lines- though those would have been easier to dodge- but instead in chaotic swings which differed for every single individual.

The best Velvet managed was to get a couple disciples of the Forest of Death killed by projecting a feeling of herself into their positions. Other than that, among dozens of attacks by Integration cultivators she managed to avoid most and parry two with her daggers. Some minor attacks from Life Transformation cultivator still cut into her, either weakening her energy or a small few causing actual damage.

She struck against a barrier above, as the formations responded to active combat. Its power extended from the Forest cultivators and their attuned trees surrounding their camp. She could feel something pulling at her, wanting to digest her life.

Too far. She’d gone too far. And now it was too late, and she was going to die. Cultivators shot into the air around her, extended branches of the trees growing reaching out for empty air and presumably her while the whole area was cut apart.

Thought by thought she forced perception upon those around her. One next to them was not attacking with full vigor. Another moved shiftily. Some appeared to come out of nowhere. Attacks that connected with her hit nothing- though that was the most difficult feedback to provide. The point, however, was to provide doubt and sow confusion. Tree limbs were sliced apart by swords, and disciples began to fall.

But it wasn’t enough.

Velvet stabbed her dagger into a disciple of the Limitless Edge who was blocking her attempted route to retreat. She realized it was a mistake the instant she pierced. Even attempting to numb the pain, to fake a feeling of wholeness and consciousness… it wasn’t enough.

A burst of speed allowed her to keep herself mostly intact, but her position was known for a moment. And she couldn’t keep fighting at her current level of power for more than a few moments.

Branches and blades converged on her location as her concentration slipped. She saw how she would die. And then… they met nothing.

To Velvet, the One Hundred Stars was a cultivation method she stuck with because of the people involved. They had turned her life around when she had sought selfish gain early in her cultivation career. She had eventually been given a chance to make something better of herself, and she gladly took it. Yet she still had her own style. Stars were fire and light, good things that she only seldom interacted with except to deceive the perceptions of others.

But there were higher concepts of stars. That of gravity and fusion and the like. Among other things, their mass distorted the world around them.

Velvet didn’t do it consciously. Indeed, it was almost the opposite. She let go, ceased restricting herself. She allowed the insights that had built up come to fruition inside her, and for a moment there was no way to reach her. Attacks clashed with each other as there was nothing else to strike.

She recognized this only on a subconscious level. Even as quick as the thoughts of an Integration cultivator were, they were insufficient to truly comprehend what was happening. A moment later, she had her dagger through the throat of another foe, chosen by Instinct. This one should be part of those controlling the formations.

The speed with which she had moved was effectively impossible. Even if only for the distance of a dozen meters, moving at the speed of light within the atmosphere of a planet simply couldn’t be done with a human body.

One stab, and before anyone could react she was somewhere else. A second, and then a third. The barrier wobbled, and she broke through it and up, over the forest.

She fell outside the northern edge of the forest, her movements too quick to track… and impossible to sustain even with the burst of upper energy from her breakthrough to Augmentation. The barest remnants of that energy wrapped around her, hiding her. Hopefully, nobody had locked onto her trajectory as she left.

She staggered away, wondering what she should do next. She couldn’t return to the Spirit Slicing Sect, not as she was now. She was too drained to conceal her current status if she actually stood in front of people. Too exhausted to explain how things came to this. Why nobody in the Chaotic Conglomeration had heard of her.

Better to simply disappear for a few days. Or weeks. Then she could return, hopefully with her energy concealed. Her body would require some work as well, but on the whole it was intact due to some combination of her defenses, deception, enchanted clothing that served as armor, and some luck. And then, of course, her breakthrough. That was luck as well, because it should have required time, active effort, and perhaps a source of energy. Beyond a foreign star gazing down on her, of course. The stars inside of her were her true source of power, but she felt a connection to something greater, one that hadn’t formed consciously.

What Velvet was too injured and too far away to perceive was a group that had spotted her movements. The burst of energy from her breakthrough and their particular vantage point had allowed them to glimpse more than those directly involved in the conflict were situated to notice.