Elder Cultivator

Local factions had obviously arrived much sooner than the continental forces- they didn’t have as far to go, and they wanted the security of numbers. Anton saw many of them waiting on their ships, and some of them saw him in return. He was easily able to tell the difference between those who recognized him, and those who had merely heard of him. There was a distinctive difference in how much their heartbeats sped up. Normally Anton would block out such level of detail, but going into the current situation he wanted as much information as possible.

Those who had seen him fight in person not only had higher heart rates, but some also began to sweat. That was saying something, since cultivators generally had greater control over their own bodily functions. Yet it wasn’t unreasonable either. If Anton had met someone else with his power, he couldn’t help but be nervous either. He remembered witnessing the power of Fajra of the Radiant Beauty sect. She was the one who had reached the Augmentation stage, and even somewhat limited by the lack of ascension energy in the world it was a terrifying sight to behold. And in a similar fashion- since both were capable of inflicting widespread devastation on a battle instead of just slaying powerful individuals.

It was strange to walk at the head of the group. Anton often found himself in that position, but usually it was shared. His word could influence many from other sects, but each had their own identity. That was still the case, but now he was clearly at the head of their contingent. And that fit, since by cultivator standards and for standard political reasons, having a single mouthpiece would be advantageous. He had reminded the others that they could speak their mind, but on the way he had been briefed on what forces from both continents wanted. They even had some smaller sects with lesser stakes- those who had complaints about the minor details of how the Exalted Archipelago had been trading. But the main focus would obviously be on the attacks… and counterattacks, and what would come of that.

They were led directly to the auditorium where they would be having their discussions. The formations protecting the area made it impossible for Anton to sense anyone or anything inside, but he strode in without fear. People were watching, and if the Hardened Crown Sect really let him be ambushed he’d just have to fight his way out and make them pay. But he didn’t think that would happen, and he had powerful allies at his back. The only one he could have asked for was Lev, but outside of his home territory Lev was not much better than anyone else. So he had Elder Varela. The man was nearly at the peak of Life Transformation, but for a sect that before Lev’s generation hardly even had Essence Collection cultivators they had come a long way.

When he stepped into the auditorium, Anton took note of everyone that was there. Elder Naamah of the Hardened Crown Sect, of course. The auditorium was round to make everyone feel approximately equal in value, but the frontmost positions were still favored. Anton placed himself directly across from her, as the host. The others Anton recognized included Sect Head Treloar of the Worthy Shore Society. There were also others from the previous attempts at negotiations. Notably missing were the Void Blades and the Still Wind Erudition.

The Soaring Air Sect, however, did have a representative. It was an old man that Anton had spoken with upon his previous ‘visit’. Specifically, this was the man chosen to represent them… after they dragged off their previous vice-head- Rodolph. Nobody had wanted to test if he could make a bigger hole in the bottom of their island. As members of the Soaring Air Sect went, Rodolph was quite a reasonable fellow. He was also intelligent, which was unfortunate. If they hadn’t been on opposing sides Anton might have been friends with the man, but instead they were destined to remain enemies. But they didn’t have to be enemies that tried to kill each other.

“Well then,” Naamah looked around. “It appears that everyone is here. Let’s try to resolve this peacefully, shall we?”

Anton gestured and produced a number of lengthy documents, formulated by Kohar of course. “To that end, we have prepared a list of initial demands. Some negotiation is possible, such as Acting Sect Head Rodolph has already done for the Soaring Air Sect. The terms of the treaties to end the war were quite reasonable and agreed to by both sides. The penalties were also clearly established.” Anton looked around, fire burning in his eyes. “Attempting to circumvent those terms through force will not be tolerated, as I’m sure you are all keenly aware. This is our world and we expect you to act reasonably. Now, I’m sure you don’t want any of us attempting to enforce these terms as I recently found necessary… which is why there are stipulations for how you must police yourselves.”

In short, just staying out of conflicts wasn’t enough. Perhaps they might have followed those terms to some extent if the Soaring Air Sect hadn’t repeated their attempts- some desire for the Grandfather Willow was too great to ignore- but now they would likely be swifter about it. With the alternative being Anton doing something, he hoped they would take care of their own issues. They could have technically enforced other penalties against those who failed to act, but that would strain the level of goodwill between them. Though the documents made it clear what sort of penalties would be on them if they didn’t enforce the other sects.

The room was quiet for some time. There was much dense language for people to read through, and nobody was quite sure if they should speak. Eventually the representative of the Purifying Mangrove Clan worked up his courage. “The penalties upon us seem disproportionately high…” he said tentatively.

The Purifying Mangrove Clan had unfortunately chosen to throw their lot in during the battle near the Still Wind Erudition. Because they breached the treaty, they had serious penalties- though less than that of those who had gone outside of the Exalted Archipelago to cause trouble.

“In what way does it seem disproportionate?” Anton asked. At the same time, he refamiliarized himself with the text that involved them.

“It’s rather straightforward,” the man said. “The proportions of resources and wealth are listed as higher for us than those who… acted similarly.”

“We presumed that would be more agreeable than parting with any of your mangroves. That is where the majority of your sect’s wealth lies, does it not? Others are penalized according to the value of infrastructure they possess, but yours is harder to calculate.” Anton was glad that Kohar had spent many boring days talking over the terms with him, since it was easier to recall the reasons from a proper conversation compared to just reading.

Anton didn’t expect the negotiations to be over in an afternoon- or a month, necessarily, though having a strong hand would certainly help speed things up. He truly didn’t want to enforce more things through combat, but the threat of it certainly would smooth things along.

“We have a question,” Treloar said with a slight smile.

“What is it?” Anton raised an eyebrow.

“What do you call your stage of cultivation?”

The question was set up for him, of course. It wasn’t something people would normally think to ask, especially not in such a setting. If there was something Anton was actually unprepared for, he could at least sense who of those along with him was confident in answering. But this one was for him. “We have decided to call it Assimilation,” Anton said.

The next question was not discussed beforehand, but Anton had tried to angle for it to be asked. “And who is… we?”

“Those few of us in this stage,” Anton smiled warmly. He was not much of a liar. If he’d tried to imply there were many of them, no doubt some would have picked up on it easily. Lev’s status wasn’t completely unknown, of course, especially since the miraculous defense of the Grasping Willows, but Anton’s answer left open the possibility of more.

“That is good to know,” Treloar said, in a way intended to end the questioning. He might suspect, but they were on good terms. To the point that Anton might be willing to discuss the details behind his cultivation with the Worthy Shore Society at some point.

-----

“It seems that our dear Alva has stumbled into the Gardens,” Catarina commented.

“I don’t know if she’s ‘our’ Alva,” Timothy grinned. “She’s your… cousin of some sort.”

“We’re all companions, though.”

“That’s still a weird way to say it.”

“What can I say?” Catarina shrugged, “I’m feeling fanciful. I mean, just look at this,” she waved her hands around them.

“The entrapment formation or…?” Timothy tilted his head. “Because I’m not a fan of the architectural style.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Catarina said as she looked around them, studying the formation.

“It’s something about the number of statues that are all a bit too handsome to be real.”

“And a lot too young to actually be Everheart,” Catarina said.

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Timothy countered, “Mostly because I imagined there would be traps attacking me for saying it.”

“I disabled those already,” Catarina said casually. “Actually, it might be natural to assume that a genius of his sort would appear young, but his active age was far too long. Much of his time was devoted to formation pursuits and… I don’t know, robbing people I guess. His actual cultivation speed ended up barely above average, though he didn’t seem to encounter any major roadblocks. Not that the records are clear on the details.”

“Most of them just say ‘Damn that asshole Everheart,’ don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Catarina nodded. “Aha.” She tapped her toe into the corner of the tile the two were standing in, and suddenly they were no longer squashed against each other. “There we go.”

“That’s… amazing, actually,” Timothy said. “These formations aren’t holding back. I’m pretty sure that was supposed to crush us, right? Have you reached another level of understanding with regards to formations.”

“Though I would like to say that I have…” Catarina shook her head. “That’s not quite it. There’s something here. Something different. The flow of energy simply feels… like it’s on my side?”

“A soft spot for those from Ceretos, maybe?” Timothy asked.

“Hah! No way. Besides, I do mean me. Or maybe… something I have,” Catarina scanned the area around them, but nobody was close. They would have to be able to listen through a dozen layers of widely differing formations, but even so Catarina used the tip of her sword to scratch the floor, once more altering the flow of energy to suit her. “You remember that plate we found, in the decayed facility?”

“It was the only part even slightly in good condition,” Timothy agreed.

“Well, that’s it,” Catarina shrugged. “I’m not certain though. And we’ll have to find our way to the Great Hall to get some sort of hint. If there’s something, it might be there.”

“Or in the Labyrinth,” Timothy said.

“There’s… some chance of that,” Catarina admitted. “But it’s also possible that the Labyrinth is a collection of the most dangerous traps on this planet with no rewards inside it except the treasure of those who have fallen before you.”

“That’s… actually most of the treasure available here, isn’t it?”

“... I don’t think people are supposed to recognize that,” Catarina admitted. “But that seems to match up, yes.”

“Well then,” Timothy said. “What do we have, a few days or weeks of death traps? Might as well get started.”

“If only that was the biggest concern,” Catarina sighed. Formations she could handle. Everheart actually trying to kill people was no slacker, but there were always routes of lesser resistance so far. People, however… they were dangerous. Especially for two loners who weren’t part of a large faction. Sure, the two of them could express their connection to the Silver Sea Coalition, but they weren’t particularly important and the faction wasn’t powerful enough that people would be concerned about inevitable retribution. So they had to handle that part themselves.