Elder Cultivator

Neglect and favoritism- or even the appearance of it- could be powerful factors influencing people’s opinions. Combined with a lack of control, Anton could easily see why so many people of the Shining Cooperative were unsettled.

If it were to be said that the Lower Realms Alliance should have done something about the situation far sooner, Anton would be inclined to agree. Yet, it would have also been a breach of independence to act upon their neighbors when they were doing fine. And up until the latest cycle, they had been.

A few days on Eret and a week or two visiting the planets of Tanewen had been sufficient to reveal that they weren’t the source of the problem. Something still had to happen, but their interactions with future systems weren’t focused as much on the problems people had with the Shining Cooperative- except on the outside.

After all, they did want the people to feel like they were being listened to. No, all of them wanted to listen. But people didn’t always know what their problem was. And even if Anton and Devon could listen in on vast quantities of conversations, they wouldn’t hear about the true roots because none of the locals knew.

Or at least they didn’t think they did. Milosh blamed Kazimir, but as nice as it would be to point a finger at a single individual, galactic scale problems didn’t work like that. Unless that person was Everheart, in which case he might be responsible for a significant majority of the problems facing a particular system. Blaming Everheart was always fine, but these people had never met him.

Kazimir simply wasn’t strong enough or influential enough to be the root cause. He was one person that was part of the problem, potentially. Thinking back on their interactions, Anton could certainly convince himself of the man’s duplicity, hiding his true intentions behind a certain truth. Or maybe Kazimir didn’t even know he had anything to hide. He might believe himself righteous.

Devon’s job was to focus on physical threats to them as visitors and the people of the various systems. Normally, he wouldn’t serve as law enforcement. Then again, within the Lower Realms Alliance he should never have to. In a society of cultivators where any sort of conflict could be felt by hundreds or thousands of people, violent crimes were only around as long as society tolerated them. With no individual cultivators standing untouchable and now nearly a millennium of traditions fighting against their old ways, the main issues they had to deal with were crimes of passion. But even then, they had plans for how to deal with people angry in the moment.

Anton’s task was to create visible changes wherever they passed through. Food was important to people, but medicinal herbs provided health and other plants helped with cultivation. Anton had also dabbled in a vast number of other skills over time, enough to see where low level tasks could be improved. With a society based around cultivation at every level, in every job no matter how mundane, the small changes added up. Hopefully, to something better.

If people were more confident in their own future- even if they weren’t actually much better off in the short time Anton was with them- they would be happier. And happy people were less likely to start a civil war ahead of time. Or at all, hopefully. Their group didn’t intend to let things get that bad.

It quickly became obvious that while none of the ‘problem’ systems were destitute, starving, or powerless… the flow of resources- including important knowledge about cultivation- had not been fair to them.

Anton wished they had Lynette with them, but they had various people who were capable of managing the information they were getting, including Aerona herself. Then they had to come up with a plan.

“What do you think they were expecting?” Anton asked. “Us to come back with a list of demands?”

Devon shook his head. “I think they were hoping we would return to Netrao and say we’d solved everything.”

“We can still do that,” Aerona pondered. “It could even be true. Alternatively, we could bring with us various representatives with numerous demands that might make things better. Or just handle everything ourselves.”

“When you say it,” Devon shook his head, “It sounds like a terrible idea.”

“It is,” Aerona agreed. “But this is our chance to do something. We’ve been invited. Well, you two were invited. There are going to be a lot of people upset, no matter what we do, but you have a decent amount of leeway.”

Anton nodded. “How many people, do you think?”

“A few hundred to a few quadrillion,” Aerona estimated. If such a thing could even count as an estimate.

“Wonderful,” Devon said. “A few important individuals or… everyone.”

“I’m already anticipating their comments,” Aerona said. “We come in with our demands. People say why don’t you take care of it? The Lower Realms Alliance is so big and powerful. Then we say we’ll absolutely be glad to take over the systems. And then they backpedal.”

Anton saw where she was going. “Then they just ask for some resources, which they’ll of course distribute fairly.”

“And then,” Devon continued, “We’ll remind them that they already had the chance to do all of this many centuries ago, and chose not to. They’ll complain, we’ll broadcast them being babies to every planet and stir up far more unrest than anyone needs.”

“If only we could temporarily disable a few hundred people in diverse areas all at once,” Aerona said. “We could do so much.”

Bear Hug was a few chambers away, desperately trying to listen in without actually being able to do so. Even if they could technically solve the issue of taking simultaneous action, that wasn’t actually the biggest deal. So Anton put that idea to the side.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“We’ll need a convention,” Anton said. “But I’m not sure how things should be balanced.”

“First, us, obviously,” Aerona said. “Then the greatest powers pulling all the strings. Then several times as many moderate sects that have been at least slightly neglected. And of course, representatives from all of the disaffected systems.”

Devon sighed. “Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Can you handle that situation so it doesn’t break out into chaos? Because I don’t think we can.”

“I should be able to,” Aerona confirmed. “Though we will need some concrete plans. I’ll need to spend more time touring the Shining Cooperative, including the ‘stable’ areas. Though I’m sure I can convince people to be patient for at least another year or two.”

-----

And that was how Anton found himself back on Mazlerth. It was right on the border with the Lower Realms Alliance, which culturally made it the most like them. With easy access to trade across the border, they had good cultivation techniques and knowledge. The planet had grown strong by making proper use of growth techniques. Indeed, so had most of the border planets- and that was why the impression of the Lower Realms Alliance had been tainted.

Few people went on tours of random planets in the Shining Cooperative, and even if they had they weren’t likely to have noticed anything wrong. After all, things were ‘fine’. Any unconscious anger wouldn’t be directed their way. The planets were functional. The more popular core worlds were prosperous enough that the greater number of people that visited wouldn’t notice anything strange.

And if someone did notice something, they might think it wasn’t their problem. They would probably even be right, though within the borders of the Lower Realms Alliance, there really shouldn’t be problems that just belonged to a single group, unless they chose for it to be that way.

Two people were familiar to Anton. There had once been a farming family on Mazlerth, during the plague. He’d taught them to cultivate. Now, only three remained of the four. Stasia's cultivation talent simply hadn’t been good enough for her to survive more than eight centuries. According to Izaak, the youth who had almost perished, she had made it to Life Transformation but no further. Thus her life ended after ‘only’ a few centuries.

Nikodem was… old. In early Assimilation, the father simply didn’t have much lifespan remaining. Though even if Anton said it like that, he might make it another century if he was lucky.

“I wish Stasia was here to see you,” he commented as they overlooked the farming community. It was fundamentally the same, though it included the nearby forests as part of their agriculture. There were also larger cities nearby, and far more people moving about. There wasn’t much in the way of deep countryside on a planet developed for so long, but it didn’t all have to be taken over by buildings.

Izaak and Marianna had reached Assimilation long before, and Marianna was even close to reaching Enrichment. Though, ‘close’ could mean another century or two. She might also never make it. Izaak was having less luck, which was unfortunate. Unlike his sister, he had chosen starbinding as his form of Assimilation. With the system growing with them, Izaak simply hadn’t had access to enough energy. Combined with the lingering issues from having been infected by the plague, even if he’d healed fairly well, it wasn’t enough.

Technically, they could have moved somewhere with better natural energy. Even after Assimilation, both of them could have expanded to different locales. Instead, they preferred to live a simple life with their families… which were quite extensive now. That was the biggest change about the local area, with many of the people around being their descendents. Even with conservative numbers of children, over so many years they had quite a lot of family.

If Anton had somehow ended up cultivating in Dungannon and no disasters happened, he thought that was how he would have ended up.

After catching up, Anton asked them about how things were going locally- meaning the system level, and the surroundings. That was where he reconfirmed the contentment of those on the border. Then Anton had to ask them for help.

“Of course,” Izaak said.

“I haven’t even gotten to my request yet,” Anton held up a hand.

“That may be,” Marianna said. “But we owe you everything.”

Anton nodded slowly. “You can believe that if you wish, but sometimes I ask people to do things that could get them killed.”

“They never get killed!” The words came from a fishbowl. A large one, but a fishbowl nonetheless. It even had some tiny fishies in it at the new Bear Hug’s request. Rather than shipping in other parts of themselves when the trio split up, Bear Hug just chose to make more. Anton wasn’t that surprised that they grew ever more proficient at such a thing. Bear Hug continued, taking the very real effort to form sounds for those around. “Anton never lets anyone get killed.”

“People have died,” Anton replied. “Just few of those that are famous.”

“Even so,” Izaak said. “We must ask… is this likely to get us killed? I know it would be for a good cause.”

“Unlikely,” Anton said. “The death thing. I can debate putting people in danger and such, but I certainly always aim for a good cause. I just need you to be representatives of your people. Since you’ve lived here you might not have noticed… but there are cracks forming in the Shining Cooperative.”noveldrama

“Well,” Marianna shrugged. “We noticed a little. But I wouldn’t have really said anything about it if it wasn’t brought up.”

Izaak nodded. “We did hear about why you were called in. After all, you skipped right past us.”

Technically, they’d taken an entirely different route. There was no reason to go all the way east before entering Shining Cooperative territory.

“I’m sure you’re more away of certain aspects of local politics,” Anton said. “Any others you know that you want to join, should. And Aerona will want to speak with you. But ultimately, we want to resolve things peacefully. That might have to be a split, but I’m sure people will be resistant to that. Especially if it seems like the Lower Realms Alliance is trying to absorb the Shining Cooperative.”

“Well,” Izaak shrugged. “I don’t think the border worlds would mind that. We know why we’re so well off- even if not all were as lucky as us.”

“Do you need an old man?” Nikodem asked.

Anton chuckled. “Old men are always useful.” Even if he was only a couple decades older than his children, his lacking cultivation meant he’d aged far further. Anton, meanwhile, had already been old. He’d only grown ‘younger’ to a small extent, enough for his body to function. He put no effort in fixing wrinkles or gray hair, or even certain aches and pains. “People will listen. We just need to figure out what to say.”

A bloodless result would be perhaps a greater victory than fighting off the upper realms, but Anton believed it was possible. They had the best diplomat for the job… and if they needed to call upon others, they could count on them showing up in short order. The fewer people the Alliance sent, however, the better. This should be resolved by the people themselves.