A depressing atmosphere settled over the city of Yedo, the result of an air of authority that was decidedly not happy with how things were going. For a short time after making an advancement in cultivation Fajra had been in a good mood, but upon realizing how restricted she was due to the limits of being in a lower realm, she had lost her brief spout of positivity.

It had been far too difficult to gather the resources necessary for her advancement, resistance from every angle as morons with the tiniest progress in cultivation had resisted her. Her personal participation had been necessary far too often, and though the final count of resources was quite abundant some of them had been tainted. Some berries were quite abundant in lower energy but had the nasty side effects of draining upper energy. She was lucky to have noticed before consuming them. Those responsible for bringing her the tainted goods were punished, of course.

Things had taken so long to settle that by the time they had been ready to branch out to snatch whatever leftovers were missed, it seemed that the locals were… winning? Fajra understood that something was wrong this time, especially the way everyone seemed to know how to disrupt their energy, but even so the results of everyone else was disgraceful.

How were people so prepared? It must have been some fault of the previous iteration, failing to properly confuse the records. That was what had been thought until some interrogations had finished with the consensus being that the issue was… Everheart.

Fajra killed the one who brought her that information. They should have known better than to say that name. It was a ridiculous notion. Everheart couldn’t have possibly come to this world. The man wasn’t even a full cycle old.

Yet the answer remained consistent… and more importantly those who really knew what they were talking about had the same sort of reaction as any reasonable person. Everheart. Ugh. What could be said about him? Far too much, really.

The Radiant Beauty Sect in particular had some encounters with him when he was new. Not only had he run off with one of their genius disciples but he sold them an entire warehouse full of tainted lightstone, worse than low grade somehow disguised as high grade. Probably through some formation or other.

Just thinking about him required Fajra to vacate her room for a week while repairs were made and furniture was reacquired. Somehow he continued to cause trouble even when he wasn’t around.

And further reports agreed. Everheart, Everheart, Everheart. It seemed this was the lower world he’d actually come from. If they’d known that before they would have approached things much differently. The arrangements allowed them to take what they wanted, and required them to suppress any sects that had gotten too effective, but if they had known… things would have been treated much more seriously.

What were those fools in the Exalted Archipelago doing? Shouldn’t they have reported that? Perhaps they had, and the Exalted Quadrant had simply remained silent. How frustrating. They were prominent enough that it would be difficult to do anything about it, and there was the issue that if the rest of the world was to be eradicated they would have sole control over an entire lower world. Their reach was already spread too far, it couldn’t be allowed.

But Everheart. Damn that man. Here he was still causing trouble after he’d been dead for a century. The amount of damage he’d caused in the upper realms was simply infuriating for the short time he’d survived. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but everything he cared about had to be destroyed as well.

Yet… she couldn’t. Fajra was well aware of the difficulties of being in this lower world. This was why Augmentation cultivators would never come to such a place. If Fajra had competent armies that actually took advantage of the openings she made for them it would be one thing, but the disorganized mess she had under her control simply couldn’t handle it. They couldn’t even get a message out of the city, and she had been loathe to send one since it would involve promises to others.

Ah well. While she would like the merits that would have come with annihilating any remnants of Everheart’s presence, she had already gained sufficient benefits. The others could fight over the remaining scraps, but she would simply wait until it was time to return to the upper realms. She couldn’t be blamed for the failures of others, and her position would be elevated. Besides, there were a few people she would be quite happy to never hear from again.

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The Island Tenders were never meant to attempt to direct Paradise, but simply maintain the island sized turtle’s back as a viable resting stop for those who happened to pass by. They had fulfilled those duties and were rewarded with a very comfortable place to cultivate, though it was a tradeoff between a great source of natural energy and the resources that might have been gathered by interacting with other areas.

That had been enough, but Erin had talked with the others and if there was any chance of assisting with the war, they wanted to do it. Paradise hadn’t gone back to his normal patterns, either. He was hovering along the eastern coastline of Facraona, swimming back and forth. The real problem was that he wouldn’t just go north around the coast.

There were several possible reasons proposed. First was that the area could be the territory of some other creature. Previously that would have been completely absurd, and it had to be admitted that it still seemed rather implausible given how happy Paradise was to chomp on a kraken. Plus, ships passed along the northern side of the continent all the time and had never run into any issues. Not with anything on the scale that could harm Paradise, at least.

The second option was that perhaps Paradise didn’t know how to get to his targets. It was quite certain he could feel ascension energy, given how he had expertly targeted some of the invaders. The devastation he had caused in the surroundings was unfortunate, but it would still be useful. With the invaders being more or less directly west, swimming in an area that he could seek passage in that direction made sense. Except he swung much further to the south, so that didn’t quite fit. It wasn’t as if his normal travel path was matched with the centerline of the continent.

Then there was the easy answer. It was too cold. At first Erin thought it was silly, perhaps the most powerful creature in the world being afraid of a little bit of cold water… but it made more sense upon further consideration. Paradise seemed to make use of the natural energy from the ecosystem on his shell, and even if he could withstand colder temperatures, that might not be the same case for the plants.

To test that theory the Island Tenders had sent messages asking for help from fire cultivators, but the response had been quite underwhelming. After all, they were currently occupied with important battles. Who had time to spare heating up a turtle? A few people wouldn’t be enough either, and if nothing happened in the end it would be a complete waste of manpower. It was likely that some people were cautious about coming for other reasons. It would require making a very large amount of heat right around Paradise. Would the turtle see it as an attack? Even if everything worked and he made his way towards Estary… would his presence help? They might just end up with more craters, unusable land. The deaths of the invaders would be a benefit, but the costs might actually be higher. Especially now, with them contained.

Erin considered the situation and wondered if she might eventually be able to do something about it. She certainly wasn’t a fire cultivator, but did it require fire? Maybe just heat, though the only hot thing she had to be familiar with was the summer sun. Not exactly an extreme example to derive special techniques from. And of course the war would be over long before anything happened, even if she was a genius with a higher cultivation. But it was a shame to see Paradise patrolling back and forth so desperately without being able to do anything.

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It was strange that there was such a small window of time for people to come to the world or leave, especially when the time between such points was so long. However, that was what the invaders believed so even if it wasn’t correct they would act like it. Anton couldn’t honestly say he would understand more about celestial cycles than them, because he had been studying cultivation and the workings of the world and the stars for less than half a century. Many things had been mysterious even to Vandale who had studied the celestial bodies for multiple centuries.

Those circumstances laid upon Anton a strange sense of urgency, but no way to overcome it. He still believed that he was best serving the course of the war by monitoring Yedo and preventing anything from leaving. There was something meditative about the process, and Anton imagined the shots he had taken all from one particular spot and how they blossomed across the sky like a work of art.

A deadly one, but many of the most beautiful things in nature were deadly. Bright colors often signified poison. Volcanoes and lightning had their own beauty in their destructiveness. And stars… they were just burning balls of fire so hot that the sun made the planet warm from an unfathomable distance away. Yet as stars went, it was practically touching the world compared to everything else.

Did that have something to do with it? The actual distance between the stars, would it somehow become short enough to travel between at a certain point? No, that made little sense. Anton had seen and studied the orbits of the planets in their system, had records of how long their individual rotations took, their cycles. When compared to the distance to the next star, a change in distance over mere centuries would simply be insignificant. And traveling between the stars at any speed would take lifetimes, even for the most powerful cultivators. There had to be some special phenomena involved, something he would like to study. Perhaps he could figure out what it was as the invaders left, see what could bring them away. Then he could better prepare the world for the next time. It was unfortunate that he wouldn’t be personally present for it, but even the most optimal projection for a cultivator’s life span was around four centuries. Having started late, Anton thought he’d be lucky to reach two or three. And with the time between cycles being potentially five or six centuries- if it was consistent- there was no way to stretch that out. At least the others might be able to influence the world after they ascended and change things from the upper realms… somehow.

Anton squinted, his eyes locking on a tiny speck of energy. If it was simply natural energy he might not have noticed it, but he was quite sensitive to ascension energy. The tiny bubble floated out of the city, and he formed an arrow upon his bow, launching it and himself forward. Closer, closer, and he struck- annihilating whatever went along with that piece of energy. Perhaps keeping his ability to sense it hidden would have been best, but if that had been the message itself and it got away then he would have failed.

There were more. Perhaps intended to be hidden by his interaction with the other, additional motes of energy floated away from the city. It appeared to be one specific cultivator from the energy signatures, and he personally eradicated them all. Except for one, which he captured by adjusting his arrow at the last moment, grabbing onto the energy. He brought it back, containing it and sustaining it. When it was Kseniya’s shift, he would make sure she was as familiar with the energy as possible. As the armies continued their advancements freeing cities, it would be a shame if any of them actually coordinated with Yedo. While they couldn’t help but drive other cultivators together, Yedo was watched with enough forces to prevent any of the other cities from approaching… without prior coordination, at least.