From afar, Velvet watched one of the major landing sites of the Exalted Quadrant. Over the last few years she had grown more accustomed to her power as an Augmentation cultivator, participating in as many conflicts as she could. She would never be the sort of combatant that would sweep the battlefield alone, but she could turn an otherwise closely matched battle into a decisive victory for her side.
Her frequent participation had been both to test herself and to try to get ahead of whatever response would come. Obviously, the Exalted Quadrant would want to deal with an Augmentation cultivator as soon as possible. Yet rather than quickly rallying their forces, she saw something more the opposite. They seemed to be withdrawing from Taon, or at least letting themselves be pushed away.
And perhaps from their perspective it made sense. To them, it was just one planet. How many contested planets were there on the border of the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant? Fifty? A hundred? Perhaps more, depending on how one counted systems with multiple locations or split occupation.
Velvet strode boldly forward. Rather than flowing light around her and replicating it, it was so much easier to let it simply pass through her. It did restrict her own vision, however. That was something she had learned to deal with, and it was easier to replicate the small portion that came to her eyes than maneuver everything around herself. Light wasn’t the only sense that needed fooling- she had more than a few things she did to erase her presence.
The purpose of her investigations this time were to determine more clearly whether or not the apparent actions of the Exalted Quadrant were actually correct. They might simply be falling back with the intent of pushing forward once reinforcements arrived. Perhaps a certain dangerous Augmentation cultivator.
It was unclear if the Limitless Edge would be offended by her ‘disciples’ dying or not. Chikere being their only prior example didn’t tell them much, since the swordmaster sought out the sect head intentionally. Any who died along the way were simply coincidental… from a certain perspective, at least. One the Limitless Edge might share, as a swordmaster herself.
In the past, Velvet had little trouble concealing herself in enemy territory. She’d even infiltrated the Trigold Cluster for a short time. She hadn’t obtained much in the way of true secrets, but there was information to be gained. However, the border planets were in a constant state of alertness which made things more difficult. She couldn’t pose as a random cultivator, especially if anyone picked out her true cultivation level. There weren’t tourists or even much in the way of civilians here. Anyone new would simply stick out.
Thus, entering the walls of the fortified city was something she treated like she was already inside a sect’s grounds, or even heading towards their vaults. Her movements took her through roundabout paths that nobody was watching, relying not just on her erased presence but a lack of interest in wherever she was to begin with.
Overheard conversations told her little, at least outside. But she had some intention to infiltrate into meeting rooms, and perhaps retrieve papers from offices and the like. She also considered removing a few inconvenient leaders if she got the chance, but that was something she had to be cautious about. Though she could most likely flee, each small risk would compound into something truly dangerous. Cultivators had to overcome those risks, but one could only face a one percent chance of death so many times before their luck ran out. So it was important that it be either truly important, or a smaller margin of error.
-----
Not killing people in a battle was something Rahayu did on occasion, though it certainly wasn’t the norm. Locking himself in combat with a truly inferior opponent for a significant amount of time, however, was something he would have never even considered on his own. Fortunately his opponent was so far beneath him that he couldn’t possibly be forced to reveal any flaws or habits in his style. What he did show were simply deceptions. But apparently Everheart needed this to happen.
He just counted down the seconds until he was allowed to finish it. Everheart didn’t want any communication in front of the Limitless Edge, so they simply had to set a time Everheart was assured he would have finished his observations.
The last second. Rahayu waited for it to complete, attacking with an inefficient and sloppy move. It left a bad taste in his mouth. The Limitless Edge might be trying to perform every possible attack, and Chikere might have adapted her own form of it, but Rahayu was still stuck on straightforward perfection. He knew which things were better and which were not, and while there was something to be said for using an ‘inferior’ move to throw off an opponent, he should still be working from a stable of functional and reliable attacks.
Not that this other style was necessarily wrong. Of course the disciples all died, leaving behind nothing of their blade, but that was more of a matter of them being weak and part of an incomplete picture. The Limitless Edge herself would no doubt be a better match. He was looking forward to it. It was a challenge he had to undertake, even if it killed him.
“I’m not going to let you die, you know,” Everheart said. “I have a lot to get out of you still.”
“I fail to understand how you could possibly influence the coming battle,” Rahayu said. “Not without making it useless to me.”
“Well it’s quite simple. With this,” Everheart pulled out a sword. It was the Limitless Edge… except not. The tint of the metal was all wrong. The blade was a half finger too long, but at the same time too thin. The hilt wasn’t even the right style. The fact that Rahayu had thought for even a moment that it was the Limitless Edge actually put him off guard.
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“What is that?”
“Whatever it needs to be,” Everheart said. “Obviously it needs some tweaking, but we’ll have time.”
“What is the point of it?” Rahayu asked.
“That’s quite simple. The best way to steal something from someone is to not let them know it’s gone. Until you’re a hundred lightyears away and they look in their vault for something else, only to find your carefully written note informing them that their prize possession is missing.”
Rahayu frowned. “You’re still thinking about stealing the Limitless Edge? It’s not something that can be taken so easily.”
“Perhaps not,” Everheart said. “But that’s where we’ll simply have to see.”
“Just don’t disrupt the battle,” Rahayu said.
“I will make certain you achieve what insights you can,” Everheart said.
-----
“Oceans are big,” Three Squeaks commented to Contented Grunt as she carried him across the waves. “Do you think we have to explore the whole thing?”
The hippo simply tilted her head up. “Are not oceans part of the world?”
“Well, sure. But there’s so much of them! They go down so far, too. I could maybe just look from afar.”
“Well, I think your problem will be partially solved by the reach of your senses,” Contented Grunt commented. “How far can you feel underwater?”
“Maybe a kilometer? Sometimes a bit more or less,” Three Squeaks said.
“That means in most places you don’t need to put your nose to the sand, but can simply observe from the surface. But it still necessitates some further exploration. After all, if one were to walk through the the Lower Plains Coalition and see everything at ground level, they would surely miss much of what we are. The birds upon the trees and cliffs, those in the water, and those like yourselves that live underground.”
“You think there is anything that burrows in the sand at the bottom of the ocean?”
“We already know of the sand crabs,” Contented Grunt pointed out.
“They don’t really burrow. Just dip their heads below a bit. I meant… deep.”
“Perhaps something,” the hippo wiggled her body to represent a shrug. “And from their perspective, it is many body lengths. Just as deep as you meerkats.”
“Hmm,” Three Squeaks nodded to himself. “Well, in that case I think we should focus on finishing up land first. We’ve got one continent basically explored. I think we only need another decade?”
“I don’t know if I would say it is ‘basically’ explored when we have little more than half merely passed by.”
“Hey, I felt pretty much everything around my path.” Three Squeaks said. “And with my senses slowly improving and an improved walking pace, I think I might actually lower that decade to five or eight years.” Three Squeaks pondered. “Can we count the domain of the great jungle cats as explored?”
“Have you seen it? Sensed it?”
“I sensed some Life Transformation people,” Three Squeaks said. “So… kinda? And Common Oak said the stick bugs had explored most of that jungle.”
“Sounds like you’re being lazy. You wanted to see everything yourself.”
“I swear the planet keeps getting bigger,” Three Squeaks sighed. “If I find out that anything is burrowing a kilometer beneath the crust I might just call it quits.”
“You would be doing yourself a disservice,” Contented Grunt said.
Fearsome Mandibles got his attention with a nibble on his energy. “We need to make sure to thoroughly survey the planet. And since the queen of Akrys has not been chosen yet, we cannot assign that to myriad subordinates.”
Three Squeaks nodded. “I suppose so.” Actually, he had a pretty good idea which of the princess would be going where. Fearsome Mandibles would likely end up in the upper realms. Her aggressive tendencies would do her better there, where they were intended to settle border planets and sabotage assaults from the upper realms. Crossed Antennae was much more conservative, and would do well leading a peaceful colony on Akrys. He only wondered why the Great Queen was still waiting to make the decision. It had been more than just a few years, after all. Then again, when it came down to it the void ants were limited in their growth by resources more than time. A bit of delay wouldn’t hugely set them back.
Echoing Cry swooped down from above. He was the last of their expedition team, for this trip. “There’s an island ahead,” he said. “I sensed some strong presences.”
“Anything dangerous?” Three Squeaks asked.
“Unclear. Probably no Life Transformation cultivators, but definitely at least one Essence Collection equivalent. I couldn’t determine if they were true cultivators or not.”
“An island is good,” Contented Grunt commented. “It will give me a chance to clean off all this salt. Hippos aren’t meant for ocean travel, I tell you. Or actual swimming.”
“You're our water cultivator though,” Three Squeaks said. “Without you, our travel would be much worse. I can only swim a bit.”
“You float though,” Contented Grunt pointed out. “I don’t do that by nature.”
“And yet you still do,” Three Squeaks shrugged. “Shouldn’t have been so effective if you didn’t want us taking advantage of your abilities.” He did understand that she had to rest eventually, of course. That was why they had Echoing Cry to help spot islands. And if they went long enough without anywhere for her to rest, Contented Grunt could actually remain floating as she rested, though that would make their location subject to the currents since she wouldn’t be moving.
And while it was a bit mean to push her, she was also a water cultivator who would benefit from exposure to places like the ocean, even if she ultimately didn’t like it. Dipping in around the beach wasn’t enough to properly experience it.
Three Squeaks knew that, both because of what he’d seen on his own and because of what he could sense in the deeper ocean. Lots of teeth, but that wasn’t that weird. He was more surprised at how many things lived somewhere he thought he’d be crushed to death. Obviously deep ocean exploration would be reserved for later, when he was stronger. Maybe Life Transformation, if he even made it there. He’d felt quite confident in his growth until he reached Essence Collection, then years had passed and he’d barely gone a handful of stars further.
But perhaps he was still too set on meerkat timeframes in his head. According to what he knew, his speed wasn’t actually bad.