Every ti Anton returned to Ceretos, he basked for a while in the feel of ho. He might choose to spend ti elsewhere for a stretch of ti, but ho was ho. It was never exactly the sa as it had been when he left, but Anton thought that was a good thing. Even back in Dungannon his children and grandchildren had always been picking up hobbies. Animals were born, others were slaughtered for food, crops and other plants changed with the seasons. Year after year, nothing was precisely the sa.
Ceretos also changed, nearly unrecognizable compared to when he first beca a cultivator. The mountain tops of the One Hundred Stars were covered in tall towers- it was not the only sect grounds they held on the planet, but it was the greatest among them. However, as much as things changed, they also remained the sa. The towers sloped upward until the very tallest of them, which had an observatory atop it. Each tower could see a great distance.
Vincent ran the sect well. Each parcel of land was practical and usable, and while the traditions of connected individual huts had faded with ti and space requirents the disciples still kept their own rooms, as well as having space for isolation and an area for plants. They also dwelled in a number of towers, but every room had an outside balcony. The sect had kept itself devoid of many of the changes that ca with technology. Transport was still done on a disciples own two feet, though the actual pathways themselves were more defined.
Edelhull, however, had grown into a tropolis sprawling beyond the sects eastern border. It was a city of many millions, but unlike before Anton could sense the cultivation within each and every one of them. The city was also arranged such that natural energy would flow through it. Open places were left for parks where natural things would grow, both drawing in and supplenting the natural energy. There were so ups and downs in the balance of individual regions within the alliance, but with Ruteras guidance from a more technological perspective they had sufficient experience to maintain a sustainable planet.
With that said, there were certain limits humans could expand to before they simply consud too much. The ease of mobility between planets- both in and out of the system- allowed the population density to remain sowhat modest compared to how it might have ended up. It was a lot of work to maintain a group of many planets working together, but they had people just for that. And for the most part, Anton found them to be decent fellows.
Obviously there were so bad eggs, and he knew Ceretos was not without its own corruption but there were certain secrets it was difficult to hide in a world of cultivators. But that too was a balance with personal privacy to so extent. Anton had doubts that things would ever be perfect, but it was certainly better. And at least he was not concerned about the prospect of civil wars. Not without negative outside influence, which they still had to watch out for as they added people to their alliance.
Anton dropped in on Vincent just to say hello. Have you been busy? Anton asked.
What even is busy? Vincent shrugged. I settle the critical matters of the sect in a few hours, most of the ti. Occasionally there is so ss I stay up for a week dealing with. But overall, it is quite a tolerable amount of work.
Still keeping up with everyones nas and faces? Anton asked.
On Ceretos, at least, Vincent said. Sa with Weos and Rutera, though theyre not directly under my jurisdiction. Were nearing a hundred thousand disciples locally, but thats less than one per day. With support staff, Vincent shrugged. Its not an issue.
Its hard to comprehend so many people, Anton said. I feel like Im losing touch with reality.
Well, its my entire cultivation, Vincent pointed out. Youre not going to lose track of your stars, I wont lose track of my people. We have different paths, and our goals are not all the sa either, despite them being aligned.
We both want people to grow, Anton reminded him.
I want people to grow. The sect grows as a result of that. You want everyone to be empowered, to the point that individuals are rely propagation points for the spread of a growth phenonon. And thats not bad. You care about those people. But you couldnt have personal investnt in every person, because youre not limited to a single sect. Or planet. Or system. Or even just the lower realms.
Not a lot I can do about the upper realms, Anton pointed out.
And yet, you do what you can, Vincent smiled. Ah, Levs coming.
How did he know? Anton asked. Did you tell him?
You think that half of Ceretos doesnt take note when you show up? You try not to cause too much of a disturbance, but unless you fully hide yourself soone will notice you. If nothing else, the sun changes. Not that Id usually notice unless I was paying attention, but theres hundreds of sensors that are prepared to adjust for your presence so we dont assu theres sothing weird going on with the sun.
... I didnt think about that, Anton admitted. Do you think Im influencing it too much?
That would be like saying you influence everything else too much. I think your influence is good, Vincent shrugged. And if youre worried, Ill have to puncture your ego. A few hundred years of you? Youd have to accelerate the aging of a sun by a factor of a hundred for it to even be asurable throughout your lifeti.
And you make things more stable, Lev said, not bothering to hide that he was listening from afar. Trust , if anything upsetting happens with a star, there will be many people who try to contact you and ask you to make adjustnts.
Speaking of upsetting things involving stars, Anton grinned. Ive been thinking about new travel options. And I intend to test them on my way out.
Ill help send out the warnings when its ti, Lev said. What brings you back anyway?
The Tides of the World, Anton declared dramatically. Specifically, seeing how well I can predict their flow, and if I can trace the route from here to the border. I know our sa stream passes Weos, but I dont know if thats the case for the Sylanis Cluster. Though I supposed thats a little less well defined now, with them slowly expanding.
Lev shrugged, They havent been enemies in forever. Weve been growing closer due to the upper realms, ironically. Their ascension cultivators basically have to join up with the Scarlet Alliance. Or try their hand as an independent with no connections. I wouldnt rely on them first for anything, but we have the solidarity of the lower realms in common throughout our whole alliance.
The upper realms did this to themselves, really, Anton shrugged.
I an, we did it. But only because of them. Wed barely be in contact with anything further than the Sylanis cluster if you hadnt made friends with Rutera early and pushed exploration.
Wouldnt have been a war with Ekict, either, Anton frowned.
Theyre the ones who made that choice, Vincent said. The results were unfortunate. But youve done a greater good for them and many others already that could not have happened without your initiative.
I appreciate the kind words, Anton said. I appreciate the two of you and many others for holding things together here. I couldnt do much if I was worried about my ho falling apart.
We all have our paths, Lev nodded. And for so reason, the path of the Grasping Willows is less popular.
Youd think more people would want to live under the worlds largest tree, Anton frowned.
Lev laughed, Nah. They just want to take pictures around him. But mostly they do that at a distance because theyre afraid he will kill them.
Would he? Anton asked.
Of course not. But we do let so people get half strangled by so of the smaller ones. People need to learn to be careful around plants, disciples of our sect or not.
-----
Anton settled for a few weeks in the area. It wasnt just the matter of disciples back on Akrys, but also how long it might take to get back. And the potential of other trips back and forth. He could count on Ty and the Great Queen to keep the world from falling apart, but one might turn everyone into sword cultivators and the other well, she had her own ideas.
Traveling past stars in the past, Anton had made use of various gravity assist asures. It siphoned only a small amount of montum for a planet or star to greatly accelerate a human sized mass like himself, but the potential of such things was rather limited with standard thods.
Normally spinning around a star a few tis wouldnt actually result in greater gains, and might in fact offset the initial value of the slingshot if done wrong, but Anton still thought there was value to be gained for him personally. Near a star was where he was strongest, after all, so he could accelerate himself significantly.
This was just one attempt of various ideas he had the intuition for. This one should be the least concerning to the various orbital stations around the star, and hed already gone through with the necessary warnings. That ant there would probably be an uncomfortable amount of eyes on him, directly and indirectly, but Anton was too old to get embarrassed at the thought of ssing up. And only his friends would dare say anything to his face if he did sothing stupid. Everyone else would have their ssages filtered before they would reach him, through one ans or another.
He began his rotations and acceleration. After a few rotations, he realized that he would inevitably spiral further outward- forcing himself back inward closer to the star would likely diminish the benefit he gained. Thus, he settled for a simple dozen rotations before flinging himself in the direction he wanted to go.
As movent techniques went, it was hardly more than a line on a page, unrefined and of little use. It was a slight boost to his early speed, but he still needed to continue picking up speed as he left the system and dove into subspace. He was never going to turn down a small amount of ti saved or efficiency, but he knew this required more practice- and perhaps it might be a dead end. Many techniques were, but that was what experints were ant to determine.
-----
In another couple centuries, Anton thought he might gain so benefits from traveling along the stream. As it was, it was more like chasing after a ghost. It andered back and forth in a sowhat predictable manner, through and around systems. It was much like an actual river, with restrictions on the severity of curves and the like. Except there wasnt anything filling it. Perhaps an empty riverbed, which made Anton wonder if it would change sizes along the way.
He could imagine it growing, sohow, as it picked up energy from what it passed or shrinking, as the upper energy flowing through the area got further from the upper realms. Both were feasible options he hadnt had the luxury of exploring during the second invasion after the shortened cycle.
Anton wasnt the only one who wanted to know these things, of course. Many others were curious, and a portion of them were actually capable of finding sothing out. So Anton would compare notes with them, later, after he established a sufficient amount of knowledge on his own. It wasnt just a stubbornness for independence, but also to avoid early influence leading him down a different path than his insight might otherwise result in. Such insights were important to a cultivator, and missing out on them could result in frustrating periods of missing sothing simple. Or sothing that seed simple, once it was revealed. Either way, he had the ability to travel far and wide as he pleased, so there werent many others who could accomplish this task.
Reviews
All reviews (0)