The most important issue facing the Scarlet Alliance in the upper realms was the matter of how to fight a Domination cultivator. Any sort of information on them including what was necessary for them to advance could turn out to be critical.
If they were extremely fortunate, they wouldn’t have to fight Domination cultivators again. Though perhaps that was already too optimistic. The world would have to conspire against Zaur Beridze, resulting in his death through hands that were not their own, or they would inevitably clash again. Perhaps even soon. Betting on him randomly dying or literally everyone forgetting that there was a conflict to begin with was pointless, they needed to prepare to fight.
They would have some slight advantages if they could pick the battlefield. Zaur Beridze would no doubt attack Xankeshan given the opportunity, but they couldn’t ignore everything between their borders and their capital planet. Enough damage had been caused during the short occupations during the prior invasion, and they weren’t looking forward to potentially even worse losses.
So if the conflict was inevitable, more than just shoring up their defenses they needed a plan. Perhaps if a few of their Augmentation cultivators advanced towards the late stage, they might be able to defeat him together. But even if that might come about with time, time itself wasn’t something they had much of. A few decades, perhaps, but not the centuries they would need to train and improve their top end cultivators.
Making use of the techniques that came from the Numerological Compact to focus the energy of many cultivators together was certainly promising, but adapting them to function in the upper realms was also something that would take time.
What they really wanted was a weakness they could exploit, preferably involving Domination cultivators in general. Zaur wasn’t likely to be the last cultivator of such status who took issue with them, especially as they no longer appeared inconsequential. It wasn’t that the Scarlet Alliance could match the Exalted Quadrant or the Trigold Cluster- they might not even be as powerful as certain individual sects from those regions- but they had withstood a certain amount of strife.
Not knowing where else to start, they planned to get in contact with Ratna. Another Domination cultivator, and a great danger- but at least they believed the woman would prioritize harm to Zaur over them. They weren’t enemies with her, but they’d had some conflicts with the Trigold Cluster and just because they had mutual enemies didn’t mean she would be willing to work with them.
It was a stretch to assume she would cooperate with them to take down a mutual foe, but they were willing to offer payment for information or aid. As long as it didn’t end up with her having power over the Scarlet Alliance, they had to at least consider the options. That meant confirming more details about her, such as the primary locations of her sect, the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance and whether she took residence in any particular location.
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The one tasked with the first part of the plan was Velvet. She was at least as familiar with infiltrating the Trigold Cluster as anyone else within their Alliance. A good portion of the concrete information they had was delivered by her at some point in the past. Not all of it or even the majority now, but as an individual she’d had the most success.
That wasn’t strange, with her training and cultivation. She was a spy in Augmentation. As long as she didn’t do anything stupid, it was difficult for her to get caught. Of course, Velvet had the feeling that applied up to and until she encountered a Domination cultivator. She had previously spied on Zaur, confirming his presence in the assault… and while she’d slipped away she had the nagging feeling she’d actually been let go. In short, she would take great precautions anywhere close to a Domination presence.
The Trigold Cluster was dangerous, certainly, but with some of its mysteries cut through she found herself much more comfortable venturing deep into their territory. In the end, they were cultivators like anyone else. Dangerous, flawed, and sometimes chaotic, but there were limits to that chaos.
While by certain standards their lands were lawless and unpredictable, it wasn’t as if everywhere was a constant bloodbath with people killing each other. There were more dangerous locations, yes, but actual constant slaughter was simply unsustainable. A civilian population had to be able to survive for cultivators to come from- either that or the backbone of population growth was at risk if they were involved in all the danger.
In short, Velvet didn’t have to be scared… but she wouldn’t relax in their territory either. Even if someone wasn’t specifically looking for her, getting drawn into trouble could reveal her true origins. One additional cultivator from an unknown sect was nothing among the myriad lives, but a foreign cultivator was something else, should that be recognized.
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Traveling within the Trigold Cluster, once she was away from the border, was much the same as in the rest of the upper realms. For the most part, she purchased passage from planet to planet. The best way to be hidden was sometimes to hide in plain sight. Another cultivator among many coming in on a ship was far less suspicious than someone nobody remembered where they came from.
Payment was a more difficult matter, as they didn’t use the same system the Alliance adopted. The Alliance had a central currency, but in the Trigold Cluster as far as cultivators were concerned payment was something like a barter system.
Special materials, cultivation medicines, or anything with a dense concentration of upper energy were used interchangeably- but without set values. Velvet spent far longer than she liked haggling over prices. She likely ended up still overpaying for many things, but allowing too large of a margin would not only be suspicious but also bad for her pocketbook.
As an Augmentation cultivator on an official mission she was not low on finances, but she had many purposes to use her wealth for. Travel, bribery, and throwing people off her trail through various means were all important. People would talk for money. Likewise, if she spent money on nothing cultivators tended to purchase, she would appear suspicious. Even if she wasn’t focused on growing her cultivation, she had to at least pay for rooms suited to the Integration cultivator she was pretending to be.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Finding the general territory of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance was easy enough. People needed to know where they were to trade with them- or to avoid them. Likewise, the most populated locations were well known. Asking about where specific elders or the sect head lived was something else.
An interesting detail she learned was that people didn’t necessarily know Ratna was a Domination cultivator. For most cultivators, they would have shown off their power. Ratna didn’t exactly hide it, but there was some speculation that she was simply a very strong Augmentation cultivator instead. That was a detail Velvet could easily discount, as the Scarlet Alliance had seen her fighting and it was an unmistakable difference, but it seemed for the most part she didn’t use the full extent of her power. And why should she have to, in her own territory?
Velvet moved cautiously, thinking about how she would continue forward. Meanwhile, she hoped that other avenues of researching Domination cultivators could prove fruitful. For safety she hadn't been in frequent communication with the Alliance, just because something might be intercepted by unknown techniques. The distances involved were sufficient she’d been generally out of touch for a year- faster and more direct travel was possible, but not feasible.
She was over a hundred lightyears away from the border, generally east and slightly south, so the timing was reasonable. Now she was going to set up a presence for herself in the local area, since she didn’t plan to leave for some time. Better to be vaguely known and ignored than someone happening to take note of her in the wrong circumstances and having nothing to say for herself.
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While the upper realms didn’t have many more avenues to research Domination except hoping Everheart would dump a pile of info into their hands- and the man was not known to give up information for nothing- the lower realms had some potential avenues.
The easiest was to go to the friendliest sources, regardless of whether they actually knew any details. For Anton, that meant the Unified Sector and Ramalas of the Turilia hivemind. Devon had already talked with those he had longer relations with, and Turilia was an interesting case because of their nearly universal hivemind.
Ramalas was thorough with her explanations- drawing from the pool of knowledge, of course. “As previously discussed, we have no information on Domination or even Augmentation. We can only assume that Augmentation is similar to both Integration and your own ‘Enrichment’ stage. The Numerological Compact did have sufficient information on Integration to ascend, yet their primary focus ended up on Confluence. We can say with certainty that information on Augmentation was intentionally obscured from the lower realms.”
Anton nodded. “Would it be too much to ask if you have any insight into higher realms of cultivation?”
“We have barely begun to produce Confluence cultivators,” Ramalas said. “Any insights would be completely untested and unreliable.”
“Fair enough,” Anton admitted.
“Furthermore,” Ramalas offered. “We are uninterested in Ascension. Much like yourself.”
“Is that so?” Anton asked. “What do you mean?”
“You chose to remain to protect those you knew. Likewise, we choose to remain together.”
“All of you?” Anton asked.
“Anyone interested in Ascension would not be of the hivemind. Imagine, cutting away the majority of what made you the person you are. That would be what Ascension would do.”
“Ah,” Anton said. “Right. You would be alone. And there would be no guarantee any future cultivators to ascend from the hivemind would still be joined together.”
“Precisely. Perhaps some will be risk takers willing to experiment in the far future, but we find no need for such at the moment.” Ramalas paused. “We have little insight to provide you, except to mirror what your people told us.”
“Do you think that would be valuable?” Anton asked. “I think it could be. The way you interpret such a thing might provide me with useful insight.”
“We have only one thought of value,” Ramalas said. “Devotion… is useful. And quite complicated. We had considered that our connection would automatically provide Devotion to our first Confluence cultivators but…”
The voice of the hivemind itself spoke to Anton, echoing throughout the space. “It does not.”
“Perhaps the problem is our understanding of things,” Ramalas continued as if there hadn’t been a spooky pause in her speech. “Our indirect connections produce only modest amounts of Devotion. Our Confluence cultivators receive less than Devon or yourself.”
“Not to cause trouble,” Anton said. “But perhaps that is because you have reached the limits of the Devotion you can contribute?”
“We considered it. But, the limits are not so hard set. Instead, we find that we are lacking an anchor for the devotion. Knowing what we do, we cannot create a false one… like the Saints of the Harmonious Citadel did, for example. Words of glorious deeds tied to individuals that may have in fact been several generations. We would know of its falsity, and while that makes our current devotion pure, it is difficult.”
“A tough situation. I wouldn’t wish for further strife, but that might provide opportunities for your people.”
“Peace is better,” Ramalas answered. “Nor is it a great hindrance for early Confluence cultivators. Training and time may be sufficient to establish the proper connections.”
It had already been speculated that Domination cultivators made use of devotion. Indeed, it was known that they certainly did. However, that didn’t indicate whether it was necessary, or what could be done about it.
Taking Zaur as an example, based on what Anton knew if the Scarlet Alliance could wipe out the Citadel of Exalted Light, they could probably also defeat Zaur- regardless of whether or not that made him weaker. Destroying the power base of such a person was valuable if it was possible, regardless of any interactions with Devotion- but Zaur wouldn’t just sit around if his sect was attacked. Nor could they easily be defeated by the forces in the upper realms.
But a different perspective had been offered. Devotion was given to cultivators- sometimes unwittingly- but Anton hadn’t considered the factors outside of the people on both sides. Indeed, he had no proof for anything else, but something about ‘anchors’ rang true. The devotion disciples of the Order didn’t come to Anton because he told them to or because he was Anton. It was because he was sect head, or because of things he had done. Sometimes specific things, sometimes larger legacies.
It would be difficult to break that connection to Anton, as he had developed those bonds widely and with many deeds… but perhaps a cultivator that had only a few things to speak of that everyone focused on might lose something, should the ‘anchor’ somehow be shattered. Anton hadn’t been present for the conflict with the Harmonious Citadel, but it had been noted that once they began to lose Saints things quickly crumbled for them. It might not simply have been a shift in the balance of martial power, but something more.