Elder Cultivator
Chapter 1289

Despite Velvet’s efforts to heighten the war between the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant, as word spread of border skirmishes in the Scarlet Midfields many sects from both were emboldened to act against the Little Alliance. Perhaps they thought that with the core of the Scarlet Alliance occupied, the Little Alliance would be more vulnerable, even if they had pretty much defended themselves ‘alone’ just a few decades prior.

Velvet had to admit that their numbers were quite sizable. They weren’t foolish enough to attack with just one or two sects. Indeed, they hadn’t had the courage to step over the border just yet as they waited for more to gather.

But that wasn’t going to stop her. The enemy would come in the millions- or hundreds of millions- and there was no chance she could make a serious dent in that without risking her own life. Even Domination cultivators had limitations, and Velvet wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. However, she didn’t want the Little Alliance to suffer, so she was going to do everything she could.

There was no way for her to kill millions. Even if she killed a few cultivators every second, it would take days. That was a bit impractical. But she could kill one every few minutes. And her viable targets were far more limited. Not thousands. Not even hundreds. Just double digits. No doubt they thought they were safe within friendly territory, but they were overestimating themselves.

Even if several dozen sects and clans were gathering, they were smaller. None of those with mighty Domination cultivators- they would have been slaughtered by void ants regardless. Instead, they planned to win with numbers. It was possible that they might, but Velvet planned to solve things with minimal bloodshed.

All she had to do was kill all of their Augmentation cultivators. Would they dare show their faces in Alliance territory then? Even if they did, they would have nobody to blunt the impact of wide scale attacks and would be torn apart, no matter their numbers. Unless they got somewhere close to Swirling Swarm numbers, which they simply couldn’t. They didn’t have enough transportation available.

Velvet saw her first target. Faiza, of the Hardened Crown Sect. They still existed after all, and even if some of them had joined the Scarlet Alliance from Sly’s various clashes, they still existed as a sect within the Exalted Quadrant. They were stubborn as hell, and not all of them were honorable.

Voidsteel, right through a gap in the helmet. It wasn’t terribly flexible, so it took proper technique to make the stab. Furthermore, the bones of the Hardened Crown Sect were durable. She had to stab through the neck. But while their bodies were part of their durability, the other part was the cultivation of the Hardened Crown. Their energy was powerful… and when bypassed, their flesh was merely tough.

People panicked about someone falling dead in front of them. That was good. It was the appropriate response, after all. Some threw attacks around, but Velvet was no longer somewhere she could be attacked.

It was strange, to be a Domination cultivator and not reveal her energy. But she wasn’t the type to fight people head on if she didn’t have to. When she did, she wanted the fight to be as short as possible.

Velvet had to move with less velocity than she might have otherwise to maintain her stealth, but the camps were gathered relatively near each other. The Eternal Glamour Sect had set up some illusions throughout their camp. They were good enough to throw off most attackers, but Velvet would be a bit disappointed in herself if it took more than a few moments to bypass them. The sect hadn’t yet reacted to the panic from their neighbor. Their devotion to aesthetics left their necks wide open. They had two Augmentation cultivators, which fell one after another, with barely time for the second to spin his head.

Next was the Flowing Fog Sect, with a proper barrier along with their bewildering formations. At this point, people had noticed something was happening. Velvet cut through the barrier. She could have done it with her Domination energy, but giving people a moment of pause as a small section of their barrier disappeared was better. One Augmentation cultivator, nearly as well armored as Faiza had been. Velvet knew most of their names, but not this fellow. Nor the late Integration lieutenant she took down on the way out.

The planet was in panic, now. They were supposed to be. This was to prove that they couldn’t do anything. Raise their defensive energy? No good. Lift a shield? As the Unyielding Legion found out, it wasn’t enough. It did take her a bit more work, though. She only managed to stab into the spine of her first target, not killing him immediately. Well, as nice as it would be to maintain the fiction that a ghost was killing everyone… she did prefer him to be dead.

She was already holding another blade, one that was far more receptive to carrying her energy. Velvet nearly stabbed the same location out of spite, but most of the cultivator’s energy was gathering there. She could overcome it, but could she also cause a fatal wound in a single blow? A pointless test. That was for someone like Durff, who would also make the answer a ‘yes’. Her dagger slid past the joints of the hip, a flash of Domination energy that exploded inside the body.

People panicked about the Domination energy more than they panicked about an Augmentation cultivator dying right in front of them. Domination was terrifying. Velvet wondered if this was making her stronger.

Probably not much. She was far more focused on positive attention than negative. Especially powerful people who knew and cared about her- though it was somewhat of a coincidence. Those just happened to be most of her friends.

Even though she was briefly revealed, Velvet had the speed to withdraw and the capacity to hide herself once more in an instant. The various cultivators actually caused more damage to their camps than she did. Of course, the Augmentation cultivators were a bigger loss than some stuff and relatively few weaker cultivators- not everyone was careful about their attacks- but it caused more visual strain.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

There were three more Augmentation cultivators foolish enough to set up camp on that one planet, making plans against the Little Alliance. Together, if all of them had been ready they would have been a very tough fight. Even the last three huddling together might have done something. They just didn’t. Perhaps it was pride. They ultimately had minutes to think about it, and Velvet might not have been able to intercept them.

Fear made people do silly things. Like chopping at the air around them randomly when she wasn’t even there yet. It was really easy to avoid when she got close, because it wasn’t actually random. She only needed to step in for a moment, moving to somewhere that had just been attacked. She was slightly faster than an Augmentation cultivator while retaining her nearly perfect stealth. That was more than enough, as long as she could pierce their defenses.

And she did, over and over. She barely even nicked her voidsteel blade. If the material weren’t so flimsy, they’d be useful as something other than a specialty tool. Even the Spirit Slicing Sect used them more as tools to cut apart techniques than as a weapon for assassination.

Some people still had no idea what was going on when Velvet left. She had other planets to get to, before people were smart enough to withdraw. She wasn’t as interested in attacking people on their home planets. Though when the time came for retribution- and it would- she would take part.

Staying on the defensive all the time was quite draining to the Alliance. Now that they could launch an offense with multiple Domination cultivators, they could do so much more to solve the issue long term. Velvet had no plans to annihilate the Exalted Quadrant- even if they could- but key sects couldn’t be allowed to remain. Everyone else should be smart enough to get out of the way.

Clearly, they still felt far too superior for even thinking about moving against the Little Alliance without Domination cultivators. Or even if they had a couple somewhere, secretly, they would be losing far more than they bargained for. The fact that the Alliance hadn’t done more damage within the territory of their neighbors already wasn’t a sign of weakness but rather their focus on internal rebuilding. But this time, they should remain stable enough to make a counterattack.

Or Velvet would do it alone. Maybe with a little help from Zazil and Vandale.

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Chidi was being watched. The slightest wrong movement, and he would be taken down. He really hoped that his companions could do it, but they had been chosen for particular skills. If Sudin took over, he would presumably have access to some amount of Domination energy instantly. They weren’t strong enough without the benefit of Negation. And yet, they were the best pick precisely because they were joining together with Chidi.

So far, he was causing more damage to Sudin than the man was causing to him. He had to remain eternally vigilant, however. Chidi was growing tired, and he couldn’t keep it up forever. A few weeks, maybe a month. The travel time to the central Alliance was approximately a year.

It was a good thing they didn’t plan to be seen traveling at all. They’d managed to get away from Twin Soul Sect occupied territory due to the virtues of a mixed tech stealth ship and its crew. They also didn’t need to fly all the way back to the central Alliance. Not that Chidi had anyone else he trusted more than the people of Xankeshan- including his own parents- but rather… the Spatial Distortion could be used. One small ship was entirely reasonable.

Preferably, they would find a Bear Hug on the way. Chidi was serious about being contained. He would rather be locked up for a century while people figure out a way to eradicate the rest of Sudin- more than him trying to slice the soul into a fine paste- than to risk being taken over. He would rather be dead than that. So he might be. And that was… okay. Stepping onto the battlefield was an acknowledgement he could die at any time, Chidi was just expecting it to come faster.

Not that he was resigned to death. He firmly believed that if he could hold on, someone would find a way.

Chidi clutched his sword, its sheath previously destroyed by himself. He also had a hand on his stomach. His wounds had been dealt with to some extent, but he couldn’t be knocked out for surgery so he still had quite a bit of internal bleeding he wasn’t doing much to deal with. Inside his sword was the second half of Sudin’s soul. The extremely mundane and entirely unique material seemed to be holding onto him just fine, but Chidi’s will was enforcing that.

He had no idea what was happening outside of his hearing. Chidi barely took breaks to eat, but he did need the sustenance. Especially without the spare energy to maintain his body without food.

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“Some guy says that Chidi says there is a bad man in his soul and he needs to be locked up. And for someone to kill the bad man.” Bear Hug’s report was as direct as possible. “You can do that, right? I don’t think it’s good to have bad people in your soul.”

Catarina gave Bear Hug a look. “Some guy says that? Not Chidi?”

“The guy says that Chidi says he probably shouldn’t get close to me, because it would be really bad if my soul got a guy in it. Tell Chidi thanks for that! Sorry, wrong side. Anyway, he has a name and a code that I can repeat one bit at a time.”

“Please do.”

After confirming that this person was indeed one of Chidi’s team, Catarina had Bear Hug contact others. Anyone who knew much about souls- including Anton, even if he couldn’t visit in person. Uzun, obviously. They didn’t have anything set up for this precise circumstance, but they’d come up with ways to contain the Twin Soul Sect in the past. Preferably they would also make modifications to prevent the soul from taking over Chidi to begin with. Sudin, apparently.

For daring to harm her child, Catarina would make sure he never had another life. No, she would make sure he never had one to begin with! Erase him from the past! Annihilate his timeline!

… No, even if she could do any of that, the consequences would be far too grand to comprehend. A regular annihilation would do. But he absolutely was not going to be making it to another life. Not even tiny bits of him.