Waking up in the morning- or perhaps afternoon- Chidi felt calm and rested for the first time in what felt like forever. It hadn’t even been a week since the conquest of Koton and Sieburn, but every moment had been taxing on his mind. More than he’d realized, even. Now, he felt great. Everything was just better, his thoughts racing with ideas about how they could get out of their predicament. His body felt better as well, and his cultivation…

Was no longer the same. Aconite stirred with him, his bedroll and tent being just outside her den in this more permanent camp they had set up. She noticed immediately. “You have advanced.”

“I… suppose…” Chidi frowned, “I’m not sure if that’s good, though. What if I did it wrong? It was too easy.” He hadn’t even really noticed. It wasn’t actually subconscious, but it hadn’t been intentional either.

“Do not worry. That is simply a sign of your talent.”

“Talent?” Chidi shook his head, “I was just lucky to be born into a family that could throw everything at me.”

Aconite moved her large teeth close to his face. “Don’t be so harsh with yourself. The training you went through was still difficult, even if it was more accurately designed to help you improve. And we were successful in our mission. You don’t think the Harmonious Citadel held back on us, do you?”

“No, of course not.”

Wandering into the camp proper, he saw Denitsa, with her heavy hammer resting against the log she was sitting on. “That was a fast year, huh?”

“What? Oh, well…” Chidi shrugged. “I guess I was ready.”

“Good. We need all the strength we can get. Your combat prowess wasn’t bad before, but we won’t be able to rely on backup now.”

Chidi didn’t have anything to say to that, so he let his mind wander to the distracting sensations that happened with every breath. The smells of mixed trees and various sorts of underbrush as well as soil were a level stronger, as he felt himself automatically making use of his greater energy potential. There was a certain amount he could use continuously, and his instincts were to make use of it. Useful, unless he specifically needed to hide.

Speaking of hiding, he made a couple laps around the camp, checking on the formations. He didn’t have any sudden new insights into the nature of formations, but he did spot a few minor flaws that he could fix. That might not have any direct relation to his cultivation, but could instead simply be the lifted fatigue.

-----

Instead of immediately heading out again, the Scarlet Alliance squad focused on their camp first. Aconite was out hunting, to help build up their supplies. Twenty hungry humans and a large wolf could eat quite a bit, and the rations they’d brought with them were already stretched thin.

For the sake of keeping some sense of normalcy- and because they might need it- Captain Tiras set people on a training schedule. As cultivators, what exactly they might do was generally up to the individual, but it generally involved both training energy and sparring.

Chidi was surprised to find himself approached by Ida, the oldest woman in their squad. Or at least, her wrinkled skin seemed to say so. It was possible others were older, but it was unlikely. Ida was another Essence Collection cultivator, somewhere around the early-mid stage.

“Good day,” Chidi said, inclining his head. He did so in a somewhat exaggerated manner, simply because it was easier for him if others did the same. Larger body movements were much easier to read than facial expressions. “Are you perhaps interested in sparring? I am certain you are aware I just advanced, but I will do my best.”

“Maybe,” the woman said. “But that’s not what I’m after at the moment. I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced. I’m Ida.”

“Chidi Weston.” He had his father’s surname, though he could also have used his mother’s. She sometimes used her old one, not because of any particular reason except ‘it was already used in all of the sect documents back on Ceretos’.

“I’d like you to teach me about scouting, if you can,” she said awkwardly.

“Sure,” Chidi immediately agreed.

“Really? I mean, I appreciate it, but I’m old and my eyes aren’t so good anymore…”

“Neither are mine,” Chidi said.

“Uh…” Ida took a step back, “I didn’t mean to-”

“Relax, I never had them,” Chidi waved her off. “And I make do just fine. First, we should figure out what your best senses are. Because scouting is a battle of your senses against the enemy. The more you develop your strengths, the better you will do. Though you have to make use of everything you have to the best of your ability.” Most of what Chidi was saying came from Velvet, and probably from her master. But it was the best Chidi knew.

-----

Most of the interactions between Shrenn and Tenoun’a went through Anton, though he did want them to eventually manage that all themselves. However, both were more comfortable having a vaguely neutral third party involved.

He found himself busy with many things, from going along with the first passenger ship from Tenoun’a to Shrenn- carrying people looking for work- to making sure those same people were adequately housed and fed. The quality of their housing left a little to be desired, but they were constructed quickly- and not terribly divergent from the standard level of housing on Shrenn and the moons around it.

Anton moved between all of them and various parts of Tenoun’a, introducing crops both above and below ground. Crops that grew with little water were the best, but there were also plans in place to capture more. Shipping an ocean from a gas giant’s icy moon was impractical, but redirecting icy comets was on the table. With some Life Transformation cultivators freed up, projects such as that which might otherwise be impractical were within the system’s reach.

The first season of crops were pathetic looking- especially those grown underground on Tenoun’a- but the shriveled tubers were a step above what most people were able to get. Anton recruited many people for his projects, far more than either could have previously supported. Labor hadn’t been the biggest problem, but instead places with arable land and access to water were… nearly nonexistent. Even Shrenn had practically no water on the surface, though their underground water was more shallow.

Speaking of water underground, Tenoun’a did have water even deeper- beneath the elevators that Anton hadn’t previously been allowed near. It was just a massive distance beneath the surface. Impractical to retrieve, and unfortunately much of the water cycled its way back there by leaching through the ground instead of being able to be reused up above. That was a problem partially solved by a sort of groundcover that could be plucked and wrung out to retrieve the water. Such manual effort was only worthwhile because of the extreme circumstances.

Anton also had other plants- and fungus- that could grow in odd places that didn’t even have soil. They were catered to have the side effect of improving the underground air quality.

Unfortunately, not everything could be solved with plants. The animal life on both plants was nearly nonexistent, and bringing a couple hundred types of seeds would only create the barest bones of a proper ecosystem. Still, with proper tending and some use of natural energy, Anton knew they could create a sustainable loop. He did bring with him some soil, carefully selected for its insect and bacteria content. Earthworms were a favorite, but with the current quality they might actually starve.

Shrenn and its moons were in a slightly better state, and with the ability to focus on their growing efforts rather than defenses, the process was faster. Especially on the moons, which at least hadn’t been intentionally devastated since nobody had lived there during the long ago invasion.

On that note, Anton made sure to coordinate with everyone on the tides of the world. That meant formations- what could be done with limited materials- and technique based manual restructuring of the area. Anton had enough insights to at least begin the process of diverting the flow away from their system, so that they were not spotted as they began to regain prosperity. A standard six centuries sounded like plenty of time to accomplish any project or build up to anything, but it really wasn’t. Among other things the Trigold Cluster had their thousands of years of history without themselves having been devastated, at most taking some damage in wars against the Exalted Quadrant. They only had to commit a small portion of their resources to ruin a developing world, though it did take intention. And even they would miss Integration or Augmentation cultivators.

Anton could see the system was on its trajectory, picking itself up out of the dry dirt and being able to return to some form of life that wasn’t terrible. It might take a long time, but it could happen. As long as nobody screwed it up. Hopefully, they’d dealt with the people who hated the thought of everyone being able to not starve.

-----

In its own way, Rutera was amazing. Aoibhin could see the massive difference in natural energy between them and their neighbors, even with what she learned was a century of effort to build them up. Their technology was so advanced that things that seemed trivial to them were of great value to Ekict. It was unlikely they would replace much of what they currently had with technological hybrids anytime soon, but it was important to have the information available.

Assimilation cultivators were fascinating. There was one who bound himself to a great tree. Not exactly mobile, even if his area of influence surpassed a continent. Within that domain, he could probably defeat most others. Those potentially able to overcome him included Anton, which was odd because he hadn’t felt that strong in Ekict. Then again, from what she learned he seemed to draw power from stars, and didn’t seem to have bound to Ekict’s. He was a very interesting individual, though he was around his home system very little.

Having gained the strength from defeating upper realm invaders, Ekict hadn’t thought other worlds in the lower realms would be worth their time. This place was proving them wrong more and more. They were strong, but perhaps a bit too free with their information. Not that Aoibhin was going to complain, as she’d been guided towards the path to Assimilation. The insights were quite interesting, if ultimately of no use- and others from Ekict could probably find value from them.

The strangest individuals were one human, and one ant. Though all of the ants were strange. Void ants, they were called. Apparently, they could grow to be nearly the intelligence of a human. And they could eat natural energy, while being nearly invincible to it. The Great Queen was a well respected individual, and the progenitor of all of the other queens. There was also some connection to some fellow named Everheart, which was odd because that was the same name as some guy who caused trouble for the Trigold Cluster in the upper realms. Well, it didn’t matter.

The human was… kind of like a void ant. Nthanda had apparently developed some abilities they had, but she was still human. And… she only tempered her body. An anomaly. Dangerous because of it, but there were numerous others at a similar or greater level of power.

Then there was Weos. They had spread throughout their system first, with powerful cultivators rivaling that of Ceretos. Of note was an individual named Shikoba, who had led a number of others along his same path. A cultivator that could control gravity, and a sort of power that was not connected to a single place- though perhaps more powerful within their system, because of their star’s qualities.

All of those were of interest to Aoibhin, and she knew of many more. She was looking forward to how these systems led to Ekict’s growth.

Though there was something that threw their plans way off track. A message came to her, one of the convenient devices these systems used.

“Honored Aoibhin Halloran, there is a matter you should be present for. A cultivator from Ekict has been found to be hiding the cultivation of the Twin Soul Sect. This is a serious matter that requires immediate attention.”

And so it did. Aoibhin wished things could have just continued as they were. Everything had been going so well.