Above Xankeshan stood an all-encompassing barrier, a shield as close to a sphere as the planet beneath. Not perfect, but following the easiest curves it could. A queue of ships flew in orbit until they were authorized one by one.

There had been a point in the past when Catarina or one of the others from the lower realms had to personally approve every entry. Over time, with even a small amount of growth, that would have become infeasible. At the current time the planet wasn’t among the largest populations, but it did have many people from the alliance moving through.

The loss of control over the flow of ships in and out was necessary, and if something went terribly wrong their enemies could only infiltrate with a couple of ships. It wouldn’t be so easy to sabotage the formations from inside- the old formations combined with Catarina’s repairs and improvements could defend themselves against almost anyone. The only enemies worth worrying about were Augmentation cultivators, and nobody had piles of those just sitting around. More importantly, they would stand out wherever they went.

The enemy actively at war with Xankeshan was the Harmonious Citadel, and their cultivators of that caliber were well known. Those were the saints, eight of them and possibly a few spares. If they didn’t kill each other off when jockeying for position, which happened at least as recently as three centuries prior, and potentially more often in ways that hadn’t been discovered.

Vari had just returned. She’d been away quite frequently recently. Everyone had their own things to get up to, especially in relation to the war, but there was something…

Catarina went to catch her getting off the ship. One advantage of traditional cultivator flying ships was that they were buoyant because of formations and didn’t require forward speed like technological vessels- though once outside of atmosphere those points were moot regardless. Rutera had developed methods of landing and taking off that required less space, and Engineer Uzun was implementing them on the new developments. For the moment, however, technological ships required a bit more than just a landing pad. By the time they were in active use, there shouldn’t be too many issues with accommodating them.

“Welcome back, Vari,” Catarina said. “What have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know, this and that. Advancing the war against the Harmonious Citadel.”

For all that Vari had briefly infiltrated the Harmonious Citadel, she wasn’t much of a liar. It didn’t take a genius to know there was more to be said. “What in particular?”

“Just… training combat techniques.”

That was true. But still not everything. “In secret?” Catarina tilted her head.

“... yes?” Vari shrugged. “We can’t be certain there aren’t spies here.”

That was an unfortunate truth. Though the Dark Ring should have been free of spies, considering the Harmonious Citadel’s inability to deal with them, it was entirely possible for some individuals to have snuck in now- though not core members of the Harmonious Citadel who would have been recognized by their cultivation method.

Catarina sighed, “Listen… I trust you, but I’d also like to help. If I couldn’t, others of us would no doubt be suited. We can’t help you if you don’t ask.”

“I’m fine, really,” Vari said. “I’ve just been training with my uncle.”

“You don’t have an- dammit have you been visiting Everheart?” Catarina surrounded them in an auditory bubble before she spouted the second half of that comment.

“No!” Vari said, looking guilty. “Why would I…?” Before she even finished fully denying it, she changed tracks. “How did you know he was my uncle? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“My grandfather was almost-friends with Everheart,” Catarina reminded her. “And I wasn’t really sure. As for telling you, I assumed nobody would want to hear that they had a steaming pile of horse crap for family.”

“He’s not that… bad…” Vari frowned. “I… have learned a lot.”

“Good. Wring every bit of knowledge from him that you can,” Catarina said. “That, at least, he’s good for. So, what’s he planning? If you know.”

“... We’re going to kill the spear saint.”

“That sounds suicidal,” Catarina pointed out. “And while I don’t think anyone should bet on Everheart dying in such a thing, you absolutely could. He might even sacrifice you to complete the mission.”

“I… don’t think he would,” Vari said.

“Maybe we didn’t tell you enough about him, or how he literally just robbed the major sects in the lower realms after they were working together,” Catarina sighed. “But… if you insist on continuing with this, at least let us know when you’re going to act so we can do something in the inevitable chaos.”

“Right,” Vari nodded, “Of course.”

-----

Anton began his journey back towards the worlds he knew, finding it went slightly faster. Part of that was spending less time exploring the nearby systems. Another part was ever-increasing proficiency with interstellar movement techniques. The last… Anton felt like his stars were calling to him. Drawing him closer, if only a small amount. It was a phenomenon he’d vaguely been aware of when traversing his home systems, but he hadn’t been certain. His speed was increased more from being near the sources of his power than the connection he had trying to bring him back. Perhaps some day he might make use of that in a more relevant manner, but for the moment he basically just had to spend slightly less time than he would have thought.

He wasn’t in a rush anyway. There were other systems he wanted to check out on the way back, especially considering he had some information from the upper realms considering some of them. A few potentially friendly systems that had ascenders.

The closest one, nearly a neighbor to Azun just a dozen lightyears away, was obviously the first one Anton would check. This one didn’t have any ascenders, but during his time connected to Azun he had picked up minor fluctuations from the system.

It was nearly the opposite of the last planet he’d spent much time on- this one nearly covered in water. Then again, that wasn’t terribly different from Ceretos. By his estimates it was a similar amount of land on a slightly larger world, the difference of a third larger radius making the surface nearly twice as large. That meant proportionately a similar amount of landmass covered half as much, percentage wise. It was mostly spread between smaller landmasses, though there were a few he could reasonably call continents.

Knowing nothing of the inhabitants except that they definitely existed- confirmed as he approached- Anton picked somewhere to land and hoped people wouldn’t be too upset. He wouldn’t be breaking through any formations, but he would be intruding upon someone’s territory by default.

Rather than conceal his presence, he went for a high population area. Or rather, what should have been a high population city not terribly long in the past. If he had to estimate, it was somewhere bordering on a decade- the exact time frame depending on the tides of the world in the area. His assumptions that the damage was from an upper realm invasion could be wrong, but it would have been a serious coincidence.

Anton was extremely disappointed that nobody seemed to have noticed him landing. Not because he wanted to cause a commotion, but because there were no cultivators of much power around to sense him.

“Ah, not quite…” he turned to regard a young man possessed of a largish nose. He had dark skin, with scruffy black hair spilling over his ears. “Hello.”

“... Are you with them?” the youth asked.

“I am not associated with anyone you’ve seen or met,” Anton indicated as he felt around. His senses covered the whole island-nation with room to spare, at least a slice at a time. He found more than a few signs of what- and who- he had feared. “And definitely not those involved with destroying this building,” he waved his hand towards what had once been a tower- maybe close to a skyscraper.

“Yeah right. You came from the sky, like them. I- I won’t let you cause any more trouble.” The young man drew a sword at his waist, a fine make with slight enchantments that he absolutely should not have been able to get possession of. Not with his complete lack of cultivation. And training, apparently, as his stab towards Anton was lacking in every regard. Anton could have literally let the young man strike his bare skin and he didn’t imagine he would have been scratched.

The tip of the sword stopped, pressing against his chest. Anton gently lowered the point of the sword with his finger. “I’m not here to cause trouble,” Anton said. “But if you want to be able to prevent it, you’ll need more power than that.”

The young man was breathing heavily, his eyes wide in panic. “What are you?”

“Did you not see the war? With this destruction you should have seen many cultivators who could withstand something so simple.” Anton frowned, “How old are you? What is your name?”

“I’m not telling you anything,” the young man said stubbornly.

“I’d guess around fifteen. Perhaps you were too young to truly remember the invasion?”

“So what? I heard about it. And I… won’t let you do what you want!” he pulled back his sword, swinging it back behind him in a completely uselessly exaggerated overhead chop. Anton let it come down on his head, where it nestled softly in his thin hair.

“Perhaps you think that stories of cultivators were exaggerated, then?” Anton pinched the sword between his fingers, preventing the young man from moving it. “It is unlikely many of them were completely untrue. There is great power in cultivation. Did you not see me fly down?”

“T-the invaders could fly too, but only because of… uh… something.”

“The tides of the world,” Anton offered. “That would carry them here and back, in a manner certainly just like flight. Now then,” Anton said. “If you were a cultivator yourself you could easily verify that I am from the lower realms, just like you. Obviously, a different planet. I am an enemy of those same invaders. The Trigold Cluster.” Seeing no spark of understanding in the young man’s eyes, Anton sighed. “They really did a good job of covering up the information, didn’t they?” No doubt more of the work would be done by the agents of the Twin Soul Sect Anton sensed around, sewing confusion and uncertainty into the following generations.

“You… the city guard will stop you!”

“I won’t stop you from going, if you truly think they will help. But I hope you might be interested in actually listening.” Anton cleared his throat. “Let’s start over. Hello, I am Anton Krantz. Sect Head of the Order of One Hundred Stars, from the Ceretos Sector. And you have either great potential as a cultivator or you’ll get yourself killed moments after first reading a cultivation technique.” Anton pulled out a scroll from his storage bag, one that was too large to fit inside to make his point clear. He let it unravel. “Interested in learning?”

“I…” the young man hesitated, looking down. “I can’t read.”

“I can also teach reading,” Anton grinned. “What’s your name?”

“Varghese,” the young man said.

“Nice to meet you Varghese. Any friends and family you’d be interested in giving this opportunity? I can’t personally teach everyone, but I do plan to give this planet a nice little push in the right direction.”

“I…” Varghese frowned. “I can’t trust you with others, yet.”

“Fair enough,” Anton admitted. “What do you call this place, by the way?”

“Aspin.”

“Is that the city, nation, or planet?”

“... This whole place.” Varghese said. “Planet’s In’istra.”

“Thanks,” Anton said. “Say, do you happen to have any food? I haven’t eaten anything in over a year. I can pay.”

“With what?”

Anton rifled his senses through Varghese’s pockets. He had a few coins, and Anton could easily fake the design. Not that it would be a problem, because his would be at least as valuable, and probably higher purity. “Copper. And of course cultivation knowledge, but I understand that doesn’t put food on your table until you get good at it, so I’d be happy to ease your financial burden.”

Varghese just looked at Anton, confused. Surprised. Hopeful. Anton planned to have more of the last one as they went along.