Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1272

At some point, the people of Temine wanted to substitute Gerhard for someone else, presumably deciding that the person who happened to be closest when a strange individual showed up might not actually be the person best suited for diplomacy. Anton rejected that notion, and ultimately Temine didn’t have much choice because Gerhard was the one most experienced in the energy language.

Of the locals, obviously. Anton and Bear Hug were many decades into it, having been part of its practical development process. Speaking of Bear Hug, they joined when Anton was finally invited to the outer planetary ring. It hadn’t taken that long- however, they made no efforts to conceal their trepidation. Anyone could be pleasant for a couple of hours, even the worst cultivators if they truly put their minds to it. Whether the locals could determine Anton’s precise strength or not, there were reasons to be cautious.

Anton almost wished he could be a normal old man, but unfortunately people wouldn’t be so inclined to interact with him then. Maybe Bear Hug. Though at this point, Anton could hardly be normal and himself.

“I am here representing the people of Klar!” Bear Hug bowed with a sweeping gesture- they were taking on a humanoid shape as they often did when first interacting with humans. Because Anton still sensed some awkwardness with the spoken language, he had advised Bear Hug to stick to the energy language. They happily complied because sounds were hard.

Gerhard took some time to respond. The others around them revealed their surprise more readily. “We of Temine welcome you. I hadn’t expected to encounter two novelties in such a short time.”

It had to be admitted that some of the words were approximated, with Anton filling in with educated guesses. Gerhard did continue with his spoken language, and Anton was beginning to pick up on things.

“Come then, we will show you our home,” Gerhard gestured. Of course, they were already aboard his ship and approaching the outer ring.

They moved over to the window to get a good view as they approached. Anton had already scanned some of it, but seeing it with his own eyes was nice. And he’d been conservative to not bother people too much.

Rather than continuous cityscape, Anton found that they included a significant quantity of open area- fields and forests and even hills and rivers. The rivers themselves were likely artificial, though Anton didn’t know if the water cycle might have some way to function properly on such a different setup. Anton was used to spherical planets, not rings. Though there were a number of space stations that used similar principles, most of them weren’t so large.

On an individual basis, this might have been the grandest engineering project Anton had seen. No, that wasn’t quite right. Terraforming and transporting Second Gift was probably first- though Anton didn’t know what difficulties they had overcome so he might be biased. Either way Anton had to put fusing stars together slightly behind what he saw, at least if he included the probably artificial arrangement of local stars. It would have been easier to drop them into each other rather than creating a stable configuration like they had.

Maybe the Scarlet Alliance’s spatial distortion field was more impressive, but he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. It was obviously larger scale, but that wasn’t the only measure of things.

“I’m impressed,” Anton signed. A genuine compliment went a long way to securing friendship. “This is a vast accomplishment. What led you to this point?”

“You don’t know?” Gerhard asked.

“How should I? I know nothing but what you’ve told me and that I’ve seen with my own eyes.”

The man nodded. Perhaps he had been judging Anton’s sincerity. Anton would tolerate that, but not forever. Maybe a few months. “Our planets were ruined during an assault.”

“During cycles of the tides, I presume,” Anton prompted. “How did you manage to recover? We were fortunate to discover some details between cycles, sufficiently before the end to resist. Only then did we break free.”

“We achieved a victory. Or perhaps it should be called a draw,” Gerhard explained. The confidence in his energy shifted to reflect the two different options as he spoke them. “We retained our Life Transformation cultivators, enough to unite each of our planets.”

“So did you reach the state of interplanetary travel between cycles?” Anton asked.

“It happened once, and rather than wipe out our outlying peoples our assailants simply treated them as any other, stealing gathered resources and slaughtering our best. But when we grew to once again reach for the stars, our different planetary factions were eventually able to stand united.”

“Eventually, huh,” Anton nodded.

“Unity is good,” Bear Hug said. “When many people think together, the whole system benefits. You should let Anton make your stars better.”

With no lead up, Gerhard was quite stunned at the proposal. “What?”

“Anton makes stars better. And that makes the planets better, and that makes the people better. And the people make the stars better! Though your stars are already pretty good.”

Gerhard gave Anton an inquisitive look.

“I am a stellar cultivator,” Anton admitted. Not that he’d been hiding it. Anyone with decent senses should be able to tell. “I was drawn here by your interesting configuration. Techniques I have and am able to share can likely improve your status here.”

“I imagine such things would be quite costly,” Gerhard said.

“In a way.” Anton already had everything he could have ever wanted- and while that was not actually that much in comparison to some, more would have been easy to acquire without going overboard. “Common treasures are of little interest to me.”

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Their ship flew low over one of the cities- likely a special route, though Anton had tactfully not spied on the crew. Just enough to confirm nobody had ill intent. If they were going to be shot down, the rest of the ship would be coming with them. Though Anton would probably be able to stop any attack.

“Juli want to know what they made the buildings out of,” Bear Hug suddenly commented. Anton’s look didn’t have to say much to make his intentions clear. “Uh, but that’s supposed to be a secret.” Rather than a recovery, their words simply made things more suspicious. That was the risk of bringing along a friend not meant for politics.

“Who is Juli?” Gerhard asked.

Anton answered before Bear Hug could say too much. “She is one of our technology specialists,” Anton explained. It wouldn’t be too much to give a general explanation. “We have advanced the paths of formations as well as various mechanical methods that don’t require natural energy to operate.”

While the system did seem to be quite advanced, it was all in the typical cultivator fashions. Perhaps they had overcome certain pitfalls- the ships didn’t stick too strongly to old naval styles- but there were still limitations on what could be accomplished efficiently with any particular path. For example, computers made to function purely by formation standards were overly large and generally inefficient- a product of curiosity and not insight. That said, most of Anton’s devices had small formations built in to supplement certain features.

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Their ship descended towards a section of fields. “The only other option is to set down in a military compound,” Gerhard explained. “I’m sure you won’t mind a small drop.”

Since they’d been traveling through space without the benefits of a ship, that was clear enough. Both of them could fly, and Bear Hug was no longer clumsy.

Gerhard arranged for them to receive lodgings. “What would you like to eat?” he asked cautiously.

“Whatever you eat,” Anton said.

“Sunlight!” Bear Hug said. “I guess everywhere is facing the sun. So I just need a spot somewhere on the roof. When is it nighttime?”

Bear Hug was a bit fast for Gerhard’s understanding, but he ultimately figured it out.

“We can absolutely provide you a space. As for night time, we have it scheduled. Look up there,” Gerhard pointed to other sections of the ring, some of which were clearly darker. “We absorb most of the incoming light to allow people to have a normal rhythm. Each section experiences approximately the standard amount of day and night they were used to when the planets were whole.”

“Do you make use of that energy?” Anton asked.

“The energy still goes to the ring,” Gerhard said.

“Yes. But the sunlight itself still has valuable energy aside from the natural energy used by cultivators.”

“Ah. There was some talk of using the heat for various reasons, but I don’t believe we are currently doing so.”

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Bear Hug had many questions. Sometimes, they were restrained enough to filter them through Anton. “Why doesn’t everyone cultivate here?”

“They don’t know any better,” Anton said. “And I do believe this is significantly above average. It’s not terribly restricted.”

“Why didn’t they just rebuild their planets if they had all this stuff?”

“I can only guess,” Anton said. “But mutual defense is a reasonable start. And personally… maybe they didn’t want to see those planets.”

“Why?”

“Because they were dead.”

“But planets aren’t alive. Only the things on them.”

Anton shook his head. “Those too, most likely. Would you want to swim in your favorite lake after all the fishies died? Or see Second Gift all frozen over?”

“Oh no! That does sound awful. Am I a bad person?”

“There’s nothing wrong with not understanding things,” Anton said. “Just with choosing to continue to misunderstand.”

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They received a tour of various places that likely had more meaning to the locals, but were still visually impressive. Grand buildings and parks alike were emphasized. Whatever military protection they had was casually swept into the background. Anton felt it all, though. He almost wanted to leave early so that the dozens of cultivators constantly following them from ‘outside of sensory range’ could have a day off.

“I have noticed one oddity with you,” Gerhard commented. “I don’t wish to cause offense, but I am curious… why do you not speak? I know you can, given you verbalized your name.”

“I am quite used to using the energy language alone,” Anton said. But that was far from the whole truth. “However, it was precisely because you spoke a different language. Most people… don’t.”

“Ah. You refer to the old speech?”

“Perhaps,” Anton said.

“You have keen insight, as should be expected. We might have been less receptive, since we unilaterally rejected the old speech. Spies will gain little information of value from us- if they even survive.”

Anton casually swept the area once more. No Twin Soul Sect, at least. “If you can translate the language, I can provide various techniques from my people. As a gift. Most of our information is in the form of this… ‘old speech’. Though I don’t have many actual examples on me.” Even with a spatial pouch, there was a limit to what Anton carried.

“We might be able to…” Gerhard commented.

They absolutely could. Most likely in some sort of secure area, or by privileged individuals. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to properly spy on the conversations of those who would attack them, nor could they steal any techniques they carried with them. Though the upper realms cultivators were pretty good about emptying out unnecessary bits from their storage bags during the invasions.

“Would you like to see the second ring?” Gerhard asked.

“Indeed,” Anton said. “I am curious how it operates with its different rotation.”

“You are welcome to look,” Gerhard said. “But all I know is that formations are required.”

“I have some small knowledge of formations,” Anton said. “But my granddaughter is much better.”

Bear Hug didn’t say anything- but Anton could have sworn they almost did. Maybe they had remembered, or maybe Catarina had reminded them. Or whoever they decided to speak to about Catarina that had comments. There was a good reason Bear Hug was considered unsecure communication in many ways, though not for lack of good intentions.