Elder Cultivator Chapter 478

The ring-ship stopped in front of Anton and Everheart, though the ring continued to spin. Around the edges, Anton could see a distorted view of the stars. It was a strange image, brought about by the twisting of natural energy and maybe sothing more. Well, Anton said. They havent unleashed another monster on us yet. Thats a good start. Its possible they dont have the capabilities to do that consistently, Everheart said. So are we netting them now or? Not yet. Anton waited, though he was not sure for what. If he felt a gathering of natural energy he was ready to respond with violence. If it ca down to sothing like that, making the first move would be optimal, but Anton rather preferred not to start a space war. For the mont, he couldnt sense them doing anything. If he wasnt mistaken, there should be multiple individuals upon the vessel, though placing them in a specific point inside was difficult. The barriers restricted his sensing, but they felt much more like cultivators he was familiar with than the individuals from Rutera. A thin veil of natural energy began to expand towards the two, but slowly. Was it attempting to be stealthy, or cautious? Anton chose to believe the latter. Then, finally, he heard sothing. Hello? A womans voice filtered into his ears the sa way he was able to hear anything outside of atmosphere, through vibrations in natural energy instead of air particles. And it was even in the common language. Can you hear ? I hear you, Anton responded. A sigh of relief, perhaps. Good. That works at least. My na is Anzela Ranik, exploration leader of Weos and we co in peace. Oh yeah? Everheart responded before Anton could. What was with dropping that monster on us last ti, then? There was a pause. No sound was transmitted- if there had been any at all, Anton could have heard breathing, the beating of hearts the small movents of muscles even when still. Perhaps there was so discussion happening. Then, sound returned. It was not our intent. We shifted our trajectory away from your planet upon discovery of the beast. We had not anticipated running into them in this place. It was our understanding that we minimized our fluctuations enough to not draw it out were we incorrect? It showed up right next to , Everheart said. Antons eyes caught Everheart. By his own admission, the technique hed used to stop had so possibility to attract those creatures. Then we are glad you have the strength and skill to defeat it unscathed. Unscathed, huh? Ill have you know I had to expend so life saving items to survive that creatures attack. How are you going to pay back? Anton found it amazing that Everheart could both extort soone and make himself seem weaker in the sa breath. One of those could be useful, but the other wasnt necessarily reasonable. Then again, it avoided them looking like pushovers. The woman inside the vessel certainly seed friendly enough, but Anton knew it was easy for anyone to fake such a thing for a while. A few exchanges of words without even being able to see her face was nothing. We have no life saving objects to replace what you have lost, Anzela replied. However, given your apparent interest in formations we can offer you a powerful formation manual, the techniques derived from the work of a genius in the upper realms. Everheart did his best not to seem overly eager, but Anton could tell he was quite interested. I suppose we can consider that sufficient repaynt, given the circumstances of our eting. And probably sothing to do with Anton looking over his shoulder. To provide a united front, Anton was going with Everheart so far but he had to be reasonable. One mont please. After a few minutes of waiting, a door opened up on the outer edge of the ring, and Anton could sense soone inside, reaching their arm around the corner to shove sothing towards them. A book with only a few dozen pages ford from dense materials floated in their direction, taking its ti to cross the several hundred ters between them. It was not a close, conversational distance but it was well inside what Anton preferred as a combat range. Everheart did sothing to allow the to to pass through the barriers around him, then caught it. He flipped through it, grinning eagerly. Then he frowned. Hey wait a minute. This is mostly just my thods! They did call you a genius, Anton noted. Fortunately the other man had the presence of mind to not transmit those vibrations back to the ship. We should move on. ... Fine, whatever. Do your diplomacy thing I guess. I dont believe we have introduced ourselves yet, Anton said towards the ship. I am Anton Krantz, Sect Head of the Order of One Hundred Stars, and a representative of Ceretos as a whole. This fellow with is Scholar Eulogius. What brings visitors from Weos at this ti? It was entirely possible that they had been through the system before he could sense them, but soone should have noticed them. For various reasons, it has beco easier for us to travel between worlds, Anzelas voice replied. We thought it best to et our neighbors. Neighbors, is it? Which star is Weos? Given the direction they ca from, Anton had a fairly good guess if they were one of the closer stars. It took a few exchanges for Anzela to find the right terminology to explain their origin, but eventually Anton confird it. Or at least, the system they claid to be from. It was approximately twice the distance of Rutera from their own system. I see. Have you encountered any other neighbors? There was a clear pause. Yes, she replied eventually. Our interactions were not so peaceful. Did you drop void monsters on them? Everheart asked. We were not the ones who began the hostilities, Anzela said with a defensive tone in her voice. Everheart grinned at Anton. She didnt say no. If youre fighting anyway Anton shrugged. Might as well make use of the available options. To Anzela and the ship, he replied, Where were these others from? So that we might be cautious upon encountering them. Knowing what terminology made sense to Anton, she was able to provide a quicker answer. In truth, star systems werent so closely packed together that there could be many systems they ant, at least not that could be terd nearby. Azoth. Is that what you call the system? We have a different na and for themselves, they have a third. Anton nodded, though he was unsure if that could be seen. Yes, we have had so brief encounters with them. What was the result? Conflict. Anton didnt want to admit he was unable to take down one of their vessels, not because he was concerned about his own image but because Ceretos needed to seem strong. They were forced to withdraw. At the very least, he had killed so crew mbers, so it wasnt as if there was no damage. And he might have injured or killed soone important, but it was hard to tell. Based on our interactions, I would not expect encounters with them to go any differently. Though the war is over now, were not on good terms. Have you encountered anyone else? This would be the ti for Anton to ntion Rutera if he trusted them. If Weos were actually enemies with Azoth, then Rutera would be interested in contacting them. But if they were so sort of allies probing for weaknesses, or even just a neutral party that might be interested in taking advantage of a system already embroiled in war, Anton didnt want to ntion them specifically. We have encountered others who were much friendlier. Wonderful. Where are they? After Anton didnt respond for a mont, Anzela spoke again. ... You dont trust us. I understand completely. You did speed your way through our system the first ti, and then you left a monster the second. It was unintentional. But for that reason we ca more slowly this ti to have no chance of that happening. Still, Anzelas voice was firm. It is a reasonable caution for our first interactions. I doubt we will get much further in trusting each other at the mont. Can we et again? Perhaps sowhere more comfortable? If you show your face, Anton said. Her delayed response made it clear she had to think hard about that. And she should, because unless Antons judgnt was quite mistaken any of the cultivators on the ship would be vulnerable outside. Especially with individuals like Anton or Everheart around. I will be willing to et in person as long as you guarantee my safety. Perhaps sowhere neutral? Everything in the system is ours, Anton said. But we could set up sothing comfortable on the moon. If none of your people attack us, then I can guarantee you will leave the eting unscathed. After that, there was so discussion about who should attend- and when they should et again. Without Everhearts teleportation formations reaching the moon was outside of most individuals capacities, but Anton could bring people with him without too much issue. And he knew he should not be the only one to be involved in diplomatic relations with Weos. Everheart most certainly didnt count as a second there, because Everheart shouldnt be involved in any interactions with people of any kind whatsoever, for the good of everyone. Sadly, they probably needed him. In the end, they arranged to have a formal eting in two months- local months, of course. That would give Anzela ti to return ho and make whatever preparations she and her people had to do, and it would give Everheart ti to plop down a building and fill it with too many formations. He had to have sothing comfortable, right? If not, Anton could arrange for sothing, and of course gather those who needed to go. Given that he trusted Rutera, at least more than he trusted Weos, he also planned to contact them to inform them about the situation. They could make their own choices about what they wanted to do, or wait for results, but keeping their sowhat friendly neighbors in the loop seed like the right call. ----- When arrows still kept flying through space towards them, Velvet was concerned that it was not Kseniya. But it was starting to be hard to deny the energy signatures and the style. But before Kseniya was threatened with counterattacks, she stopped and began to fly her way towards Velvet as the others from the Dark Ring began to converge. Hey. Figured Id get you so practical training. ... usually its better if people agree to such things first. Nah, Kseniya shook her head. Then you would never take it seriously. No matter how much you wanted to. That might be true, but it was still not a normal thing to do. But it was also very much like the woman herself. Seeing that there was no active combat, the mbers of the Dark Ring accompanying Velvet arranged themselves around the two, waiting. This is who I was looking for, Velvet said. Grand Elder Kseniya, et the Dark Ring. I heard Matousek joined them. You too? Kseniya asked. Were just allies. Is this place yours, by the way? What, you an this gas giant? Or this empty point in space where Im standing? Either? Velvet shrugged. They want a location like this to use as a base. Kseniya shrugged, Fine with . Im done with it. As long as you lead to sowhere else interesting. Its a pain to get between systems. You need a proper ship for that, Velvet explained. Need isnt the word I would use. But a good technique could definitely make it a shorter journey. Is that what youve been doing this whole ti? Going between systems? Just once, Kseniya nodded. And then I spent so ti practicing archery here with nobody to bother. Seems as I am now, its impractical to shoot around a planet this size. Im honestly glad thats the case. Have you gotten the ssages we sent, at least? Did you hear anything about Xankeshan? I saw sothing about that, yeah, Kseniya nodded. Wanna take ? That was the plan. Not that Velvet had been there herself yet. As it turned out, the galaxy was big. Or even just the small sliver of it between the Exalted Quadrant and the Trigold Cluster.