Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1257

How did you spy on someone? Velvet knew the answer, of course, but it wasn’t necessarily helpful in their case. The most basic method was to blend in. Stealth was an option, but that was more for stealing particular secrets instead of top level spying.

Blending in with the Swirling Swarm was… possible. In fact, that was the thing they were best at in a certain manner- becoming an amorphous blob. However, that might make proper individuals stand out more. It was trivially easy to find out, but the Alliance wasn’t going to test it. It didn’t matter how many people they had, they weren’t just going to toss people as sacrifices.

Not that they wouldn’t send people on dangerous missions, but they had to at least train them and have a reasonable belief that they could be successful. For that, they were reviewing all of the footage of the Swirling Swarm, such as it was.

This was one area they still possessed a significant advantage over their foes. Even as they began to see certain technological components being integrated into enemy ships, especially with regards to energy storage and weaponry, the pervasive nature of technology simply didn’t exist. The Scarlet Alliance had people from Rutera since its formation, approximately a millennium prior. Technology was part of everything they did.

Thus they had recordings of everything- not just what some master cultivator saw and heard. Proper, factual reproductions.

The Swirling Swarm was a mess. The energy flow they had barely made sense. Chidi was helpful in dissecting it, however.

“It’s not truly chaotic. They are still people, after all,” he said. The recordings were more focused on energy than visuals- that was a thing that cultivators agreed was important. There were only so many light particles that could reach a camera from a certain position, without enhancing it somehow. The same was true with the flow of energy, but that tended to spread quite far. It could be pieced together from many angles. “From those we have captured, they don’t appear properly insane. Just a bit… fanatical. Zealous, maybe. Depending on how charitable you wish to be.”

“How would I fit in, do you think?” Velvet asked, modifying her energy.

“Energy wise? Quite close. But you look… too real? Too unique?” Of course, it wasn’t about the visuals directly. Chidi was only picking out color because he knew the dyes that went into materials well enough. It was about style. “They have a uniform clothing style and posture. I think that will need to be adopted to fit in. And… I suspect they don’t ask many questions.”

Velvet nodded. “Given what we know of their territory when we… visited… I imagine any spies will be at risk of harm even if they are seen as part of them.”

“Right,” Chidi agreed.

The Swirling Swarm didn’t slaughter their own people wantonly, but battle was still common. The chances of any individual spy being drawn into trouble would only increase as time went on.

“I think,” Catarina commented. “That once we get beyond the surface level… it should be fine. As long as we don’t run into any Domination cultivators. Of course, since that is the topic of greatest interest… I think passive information gathering will be required.”

Listening and feeling, not asking questions. Unless and until they could fit it in with the expected pattern of behavior. That was technically true elsewhere, but more variety was expected and thus it was generally easier to blend in.

“I might be able to make a more comprehensive training plan if I visit there myself,” Velvet suggested.

“No,” Chidi shook his head. He didn’t even need to consult others on that. “While you can indeed hide your energy among the best, in a way that makes you the most obvious to precisely the wrong sorts. Someone who is weak placed among them wouldn’t be noticed as missing anything, but strong like you…”

Velvet nodded. “I hate to send anyone into something I haven’t gone into myself, but… I get your point.”

“And you would go yourself,” Chidi assured her. “We’ve seen it. But in this case, you might not be the best option.”

“I know some people who will be glad to hear that,” Velvet commented.

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The movement of the Tilki clan was both slow and quick. They were like a ponderous beast with a lashing tail, striking out immediately- but their full power would take far longer to come to bear. Ratna hated being on the defensive… which was why she was glad to have Zazil come to aid her.

The younger woman was out among the Wandering Stone, preparing to cause chaos between them and the Tilki clan. If the death of Serkan hadn’t been a fluke, they were the ones responsible. And if it had… they probably deserved some form of retribution anyway. If nothing else, they were enemies of the Alliance now, not merely by virtue of being part of the Trigold Cluster but also by supporting other trespasses into the territory of the Guardians of the Veiled Brilliance.

Zazil’s Domination was unique even to Ratna’s understanding. It wasn’t simply a mobile anchor- the very concept it embodied was mutable. And yet, its basis in her true history made it far stronger. It did come with the apparent downside that she had to move her anchor to keep it from being damaged without her support, and similar to assimilation cultivators of the lower realms she was restricted by access to her anchor. She was not as strong away from it. But perhaps Zazil would be more powerful within her territory, eventually.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

For the moment, she was still new and within the weaker tier of Domination cultivators. That included the various Swirling Swarm cultivators- though they made up for that with numbers. She wouldn’t be a match for Zaur Beridze yet, even though the man was sometimes reckless. Then again, he’d been a Domination cultivator for a long age before the Scarlet Alliance even began to form. Ratna was also judging her effectiveness as she would be alone, without the support of her allies. She’d seen many times that the Scarlet Alliance was more powerful than just the sum of their members.

Ratna’s assessment was rather harsh, but ultimately she was confident Zazil would grow into something amazing. Perhaps she might surpass her, a millennium down the road. No, most likely more- Ratna wasn’t going to let her own power stagnate.

Of course, that assumed any of them lived that long. If they did… the entire world that Ratna knew and understood her whole existence would be overturned. It was already close, with a faction able to rival the great power springing into existence practically overnight. One might assume that they could also perish just as easily… but they hadn’t, yet. And their growth showed no end, unlike the bloated Trigold Cluster and Exalted Quadrant.

Now that they were already going to be truly at war, Ratna had little reason to hold back against the Tilki clan. What were they going to do, rapidly raise new Domination cultivators and send them after her? Whoever they were sending would already be on their way- though perhaps not physically. They might wait a few years before starting a long tour of their territory and the upper realms. Or they might be headed for her directly.

Either way, Ratna focused on killing all of the most important members that came near her territory, unless they were emissaries sent in good faith. Even if they came with a unilateral declaration that she should surrender and die… they could live. If their people didn’t do anything stupid within her territory.

More and more faces of those who had perished were displayed at every border system, images projected larger than planets to really get their attention. Once they were provoked, she figured she might as well try to get them angry enough to go all the way over the edge- preferably without her.

She might die for her attitude. Others would die, though that was inevitable once the Tilki clan chose to make her an enemy. Not fighting them wouldn’t help- it would merely let them set up their ‘punishments’ more meticulously. And Ratna wasn’t looking to have any of her planets ruined. Especially not Second Gift, though that was deep enough in her territory that if they could sneak all the way there and still have sufficient power to destroy it, she couldn’t do much of anything.

More likely, that was their target to begin with and they’d prefer to dismantle it, and they’d been slowly provoking her. They might have sacrificed a young master for an excuse. She wouldn’t put it past them.

They weren’t getting Second Gift. Not even over her cold, dead body. She’d figure out some way to haunt them if it was necessary. She doubted she could convince Bear Hug to let the planet be flung into the local sun rather than go to them, but they were yet another reason to protect things. A unique individual that didn’t deserve to be harmed by human squabbles.

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“An ambitious project,” Catarina had already commented on Misi’s project, planning to link the Little Alliance to Misi. “But now that I have given it a proper amount of study, while the attempt to expand is worthwhile, I can say it is impossible. It is simply too far. Everything would be imbalanced.”

Misi hung his head. “Are you certain? I was hoping…”

“I am certain,” Catarina said. “And I would have hoped you already saw this end. You have a good head on your shoulders.”

“I have much to learn, still,” Misi sighed.

“Yes, you do,” Catarina agreed. “So, how do you fix it?”

“Smaller scale? But the distance won’t change. So it might not be possible.”

“Your problem,” Catarina said. “Is that you didn’t go ambitious enough. Look at this.” She drew a pair of simple shapes in the air. “What is this?”

“A… square and a line off to one side?”

“Completely unbalanced,” Catarina declared. “So, how do you fix it?”

Misi took her question seriously. He was here to learn, after all. She didn’t say it was possible to fix it, but he hoped it was. Did she have a solution, or did she just want to hear him try and fail? In the nice way, where he could learn.

“Oh, oh! I know!”

Bear Hug drew Misi’s attention. He had run into the fellow on the way to his lesson and asked them to contact Juli. It was so… easy. Apparently, Juli was studying their abilities to try to expand the potential to a greater level, along with some in the lower realms. And some people around Xankeshan, probably. Ironically, they couldn’t share their results except with the old way.

“You know?” Misi asked. Bear Hug had come along to the lesson because they wanted to hear about formations. Catarina had agreed, as nothing was currently secret. The potential expansion plans might be sensitive, but they weren’t really going deep into methods. frёewebηovel.cѳm

“It’s pretty simple,” Bear Hug confirmed. “I’m sure you already get it.”

Simple? Spanning hundreds of lightyears? Actually, for Bear Hug perhaps it was. But that wasn’t what they meant, was it? Bear Hug was looking at Catarina’s energy drawing. Technically, if Misi wanted to balance that all he had to do was… put another line on the right side.

Misi blinked. “Like this, right?”

“Yeah!” Bear Hug bounced up and down. “It’s balanced now.”

“We don’t control any of this territory,” Misi mentioned.

“Aww. Darn. I guess my solution doesn’t work.”

“But…” Misi was focused on the task. “If we expand into Veiled Brilliance territory… no, that’s not enough. Too close. It would still be unbalanced, right?” He looked to Catarina for confirmation.

“That’s right,” she agreed.

Too ambitious. Or not ambitious enough. “But the Distant Shadow Sect… is even further from us. Including some combination of both, the weight of spatial distortions might match up. I think.”

“That’s the hard part,” Catarina agreed. “Maybe it’s impossible. But it’s less impossible than simply adding a single side onto the project.”

“I’d like to try to figure it out,” Misi said.

“Good. Even if it ultimately fails… it will be a useful exercise.”