Elder Cultivator

Matriarch Afi of the Temitope clan had been old for quite some time. Some advancements in cultivation had extended her lifespan but she was beginning to clearly feel her limits. Even so, her memory still held onto important pieces of information. “I believe we have met before, have we not? Treloar, though I don’t believe you were the Sect Head.”

“That is correct,” the man nodded. His age was quite apparent to every member of the Tiarhogo council. “The position recently came into my hands.”

“I am curious about that,” Afi said. “I do believe the former head was quite young, what would cause her removal from the position?”

“She’s simply not around anymore,” Treloar said. He held up a hand to stop any immediate comments, “For the best reason possible. She attained the Integration stage. Ascension, I believe you would call it.”

Kumbukani nodded, “Congratulations are in order then. But we must get to the business at hand eventually. Why are you here? You seem to have come more openly and in less of a rush than last time.”

He completely ignored the talk about the previous visit, and instead answered the first question. “That’s quite simple. We are here because the Exalted Archipelago desires to negotiate for peace. Much harm has come to both sides, and it would be best for all.”

“That may be true,” Kumbukani admitted, “But I presume there’s some reason you in particular are here.”

“That’s simple. It was deemed that I was least likely to be killed without a chance to negotiate… and unimportant enough that my death would mean little.”

“How straightforward,” Matriarch Afi grinned.

“There’s no need to lie about such things. Now then, I have some terms to present,” Treloar held up a rolled scroll.

“These won’t be ‘terms’ like the Ponderous Turtle Sect brought, will they?”

“I assure you they are quite different. And I am here to properly negotiate instead of just throwing about arbitrary demands.”

“Very well. We will see these terms… then we will counter with some of our own.”

“Of course.”

-----

The Exalted Archipelago’s proposal more or less called for an end to hostilities, along with some restrictions on entering territorial waters which came with certain penalties. Those penalties were basically weighted towards the Exalted Archipelago’s advantage, but they didn’t have such audacious demands as before the war.

It was still unpalatable to the continents, however. The Exalted Archipelago had begun the war with unreasonable demands and deception, and nobody would be satisfied with things vaguely returning to the status quo where they pretended the Exalted Archipelago didn’t exist.

The first counterproposal from the continents pushed hard in the other direction, making significant demands from the Exalted Archipelago. At that point it could have been possible that they would have to wait weeks for a response, but the Worthy Shore Society stayed in port and provided an answer a few days later. Their communication method hadn’t been successfully determined during the war, but it wasn’t a surprise it worked at such a long distance- their own version worked at any distance, though certain things would make the connection fail.

A few days to debate and prepare the next draft was rather speedy, and in it the Exalted Archipelago provided some minor concessions. After negotiating back and forth for a while, it was clear that Treloar was not going to accept anything that penalized the Exalted Archipelago as a whole, but instead just the sects involved in the actual attacks. In fact, he seemed quite eager to levy some penalties upon the other groups.

Eventually negotiations ended with most parties disappointed in some regard, which was about as much as anyone could hope for. Some of the penalties were little more than token payments, but it was of no benefit to continue fighting. A significant portion of blame was somehow shifted to the Ponderous Turtle Clan which was in dire straits after what happened around Paradise, and a significant portion of their assets were promised.

And though there were some doubts, as time passed promised remunerations began to come in without any obvious trickery involved.

-----

At some point the border forces had to lower their guard. It was simply infeasible to keep everyone on high alert forever, especially if there were to be some sort of peace. The coasts still had some irregular patrols, but some of that was merely to make sure naval proficiency was properly maintained.

When he wasn’t involved in those, Anton found himself traveling on merchant vessels back and forth along the coasts. It was difficult to let go. He knew he could be so much more productive elsewhere, but he also wasn’t sure that a year or two really meant anything. There was continued contact with the Exalted Archipelago, tentative attempts to trade with the Worthy Shore Society and other groups that hadn’t been involved in the attacks, but little had happened so far.

So Anton found himself, staring out at the sea, stretching his senses as far as they would go. He sensed nothing most of the time, and the only thing he gained was an ever growing awareness of the curvature of the world. Surprisingly if he counted both directions- though he could not sense more than a tiny slice at his maximum distance at once, and only in one direction- his senses could stretch across a real, tangible distance relative to the world as a whole. A few percent, though it wasn’t as if he was aware of any real proportion of the world at once. Beyond it just being a narrow view, even if he had dozens of himself stretched around the planet he would only be sensing a narrow band around the belly of the world at once.

While that was quite impressive, it also reminded him of how little he could do. He was just one person among many, and though he was certainly much more able to influence the world as a whole as a Life Transformation cultivator, it never felt like enough. Perhaps he was simply being greedy, but he couldn’t help what he felt.

-----

Ultimately he wasted somewhere close to two years in a misguided form of vigilance. He made brief returns to the Order during that point, mostly to show his face and because he had some obligations as an instructor to fulfill. Kseniya was never going to be good at instructing, though a few could learn from her regardless. But people with natural intuition or ‘talent’ would learn regardless, if perhaps at a slower rate.

In a way, Anton had wanted to be justified in his time spent patrolling with some sort of attack, which conflicted with what he knew he should want which was a true end to the conflict. And at least at the moment, that seemed to be the case. Whether it was just a handful of years or potentially decades, he would accept it. Presuming that peace could be maintained until the next invasion… was foolish. Though Anton was quite pleased that many of the conflicts were being solved more by people like Kohar than through battle. There was still friction between the various factions that made up the continents, but concerted efforts had been made to maintain peace. And on a large scale it was successful, but that never stopped smaller scale problems.

Some cultivators always thought they were important enough they could do whatever they wanted, or really any people. It was just that cultivators had power to get away with it a little better. The rise in general cultivation levels meant some skilled individuals could pull ahead, but it also meant that the masses were more aware of their own power and how it matched up against troublemakers. They just had to be willing to take the risks to stop someone, if there were no dedicated peacekeepers present. Yet it was still much better than what happened when people with some cultivation decided to cause trouble for those with none.

-----

Anton was waiting for the next round of teleportation to Aicenith. The area around the teleportation formation seemed rather crowded, but considering this was the only one that went between the two continents it was actually rather reasonable. After all, teleportation was pricy. The monetary expense wasn’t much for Anton, but that was because he would be paying mainly in natural energy. It might have been free if the formation did not need to be maintained, and to discourage using teleportation thoughtlessly.

After the war with the Exalted Archipelago more teleportation formations were being constructed- not between the continents but within the continents themselves. Those were cheaper and easier to use, and perhaps unnecessary… but their main purpose was to be used in case of future invasions, mainly external ones. Individual formations could be shut down easily, and were monitored by groups of all who had interests in a particular region. It wouldn’t do for them to make an intra-continental war easier to accomplish.

For related reasons, none were located on the coasts. Instead, they were placed outside population centers of various regions. It was impossible to go directly into anywhere important, but the distance between any two points would be greatly reduced. They were barely usable for trade as carrying large amounts of goods- even in storage bags- took more energy. That increased the costs either in materials that could store energy or through the use of powerful cultivators expending themselves- or vast numbers of weaker cultivators, potentially.

A group of fifty appeared on the platform, coming from the opposite direction. They all quickly made their way off, while those who were going to Aicenith were quickly reverified and one by one made their way onto the platform. Over the course of the day they would exchange several thousand individuals, significantly fewer than those who would be making the same trip by sea. There were talks of going by air within the next few decades, but that was similarly expensive as teleportation, though not tightly locked to specific locations.

Once everyone was ready, the announcements for everyone to provide their energy to the formation came. It was necessary, not only because they calculated what was necessary to move all of the people but because any excess energy also took effort to come with a cultivator. Once more Anton thought how insane Everheart’s formations were, transporting thousands to the moon and back. Though those only functioned for a single round trip, so the total number who had gone through was actually much higher with these- though the distance was still a factor.

Energy flowed from Anton steadily, settling alongside that of others in the formation. The formation did forcibly drain anyone, but the guards nearby reminded those who were not doing their part. And while some might have liked to be lazy, it simply wouldn’t fly.

Anton felt a comfortable sort of exhaustion, though he only dwelt on it for a few moments. Then everything shifted, and he found himself in another location. He’d made the mistake of trying to have his energy senses spread out while traveling once, but that had not only resulted in the loss of energy on the departing side but an uncomfortable loss of sensation followed by unpleasant rapid expansion of his senses on the other side.

Now that he was more familiar, he kept himself tightly contained. The fatigue simply became the normal unpleasant kind, and unlike a good day of work on a farm there were no tangible benefits to be seen- except of course being somewhere else entirely.

The central location of the teleportation formations was convenient for Anton, because he had business in Arbington which was not terribly far- at least on the scale of a continent.

He had plans to reconnect with many of his former students. Truthfully there were many more than he remembered clearly, so it would be a biased group of his favorites that he sought out, but he did his best to at least acknowledge any others he came across. At the moment he was searching for Idalia. He’d had quite enough of war, and had little more he could learn in the subject of farming… but taking more time to learn something nice and peaceful like herbalism and healing skills in general appealed to Anton. He’d already learned quite a bit, but there was always more. Idalia was on his preferred list because she had started from the mundane side of things, building upon that with the way cultivators viewed things.

Devoting himself to unambiguously positive things for a time should help Anton settle himself. The longer his life went on the more he found that old worries were replaced with new, and it was clear the cycle would never end- but he could make the best of it along the way. All the while he couldn’t help but look up at the sky. Were the tides of the world always so inconsistently timed, or was this something special? Anton wasn’t sure if he would like either answer, but at least this time people would be aware of the approaching threat long before instead of learning about it at the last minute. It was still nearly two centuries, so Anton knew he wouldn’t be around for it… but some of those he knew might, and he wanted to set things up for the best possible outcome. As if it was even possible to perfectly predict what would happen the next day, let alone after hundreds of years.