Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1165

The second human that Bear Hug ever might might have actually been a tree in disguise. Lev didn’t feel much like a human. He wasn’t warm and full of the sky. He did come from the sky though, and he knew enough about Anton that Bear Hug was sure he was the right one.

“You talk funny,” Bear Hug commented. “You don’t speak slowly like me but your words twist about each other a lot.”

“I’m actually used to speaking verbally,” Lev pointed out. He’d been able to fairly quickly pick up the basics of this energy based language, as it was designed to be intuitive. The control part was easy for someone of his level.

“I was told about that and it seems weird.”

“Not everyone has energy,” Lev said.

“You can talk to Anton. What is he doing?”

Lev chuckled to himself. “It takes time for messages to come and go, you know. As for what he’s doing... hopefully nothing. Everything is better when he doesn’t have to fight.”

“But sometimes you have to fight. A bunch of really mean guys came from the sky recently and tried to eat me! I think they were a bad influence because some fish from downstream also seriously tried to eat me. They didn’t stop when I poked them on the head.”

Lev wasn’t sure how to reply to that. To many, Bear Hug probably felt like a big pile of food just laying there in the lake. Ultimately, Bear Hug wasn’t looking for a response.

“I heard you grow big trees. Are they people?”

Lev shook his head. “Not really.” He sometimes had to stop and ask Abioye for words. “I speak of some like people, but even Grandfather Willow doesn’t think in that way apart from me.” They had a connection, and through that the grasping willow had developed a sense of friends and foes, but Grandfather Willow didn’t seem to think or speak. He was just an old and large tree with great power.

It was possible Lev could spark sapience within some of his trees, but he didn’t really think he wanted to. Not with there being so many ways it could go wrong.

“So, Bear Hug,” Lev said. “What are your plans?”

“I’m going to grow big and strong and make friends with everything. Even the briar patch. Then I think I will go to our other planets and do it again. Though maybe I will find a very nice lake and live there instead.”

Studying Bear Hug, Lev couldn’t say he had any more insights into how they cultivated than Anton did. A lack of a central energy system with meridians and a dantian just didn’t quite fit. Not for active and intentional control. But he was here- and not intending to interfere with things over the border anytime soon- so he was interested in trying to help Bear Hug’s growth.

“Did Anton help you train?” Lev asked.

“He taught me how to twist energy,” Bear Hug said. “And Anton made the sun good. But I already know how to grow.”

“I see. Let me know if you want to try to grow... differently.”

“Seems like you’ve already decided which side is righteous and which is not,” the woman spat.

“I’m at least willing to give you a chance,” Timothy said, turning his head to survey the ship. His point every so slightly wavered from its position. On purpose, of course- there was no way his body would lose control so easily even for such minor things.

It was just an excuse for the woman to try to attack him when his back was turned, an opportunity she didn’t miss. She drew a dagger and struck Timothy’s neck. Her blade shattered. Apparently she hadn’t been able to sense Timothy’s layered energy under his general aura- though he could have easily formed such a barrier in an instant either way.

Timothy scanned the rest of the ship with his insight. The vessel wasn’t particularly large, but it could still put it to use. It was only a question of whether any of the crew aboard deserved another chance.

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Velvet hadn’t been on a rescue mission in ages. This one was a bit more difficult, as she was going deep into enemy territory. Well, occupied territory. This was closer to belonging to the Alliance than anyone else. But now the two great powers were making a mess of things, and the locals were losing out.

Poetic justice said Velvet should steal some of their warships to transport people off planet. Practicality said that she was going to have to find whatever was available and fit as many people as possible. They would be monitoring ships going in and out of the system, and while they might let some smaller ships flee they certainly wouldn’t let stolen ships get away, on either side.

Velvet wasn’t the only one. It would have been kind of a waste for her to go somewhere and save what, a couple hundred people over the course of a week or two? Quantity wasn’t the only factor, but it was certainly a large one.

There wouldn’t be enough ships, but if they could sneak ships out they could also sneak them back in. Hopefully, it would be fast enough.

Velvet was surprised that some sects that had ships hadn’t made their way off planet. They likely didn’t have sufficient numbers to bring everyone, but they sure were risking a lot. Either side would happily take over their sects and take everything they had, and they simply hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

That was because they were currently killing each other. Quite blatantly, in fact. Fortunately, it was mainly the Twirling Forest and the Ponderous Turtle Clan here. Nobody taking bites out of the planet like would happen if the Disciples of the Beyond were present.

Yet battles between Augmentation cultivators could cause aftershocks that made a whole country tremble, and if a battle was particularly poorly placed could have wide ranging ecological consequences into the future. Though Velvet didn’t care what was going to happen to the planet in a few years as much as she was the immediate future.

Choosing who to tell was difficult. Was it an unreasonable bias to mainly pick out the young and the healthy? Was it unfair? They would have the greatest chances of survival if things were tough. Plus, kids.

Whatever, others could make their own judgments if they wanted to. Obviously Velvet would be taking whole families where she could. Though she had to make quick decisions. If she told the wrong people, the ships she knew about could easily be swarmed by crowds and draw the wrong sort of attention.

Speaking of ships, some of them would be stolen. Just not from the Exalted Quadrant or Trigold Cluster. Not yet, anyway. Personally, Velvet thought that anyone staying around this long was in for trouble anyway.

Along with routes out, Velvet and the others would be making plans to smuggle ships into the systems. Unfortunately they couldn’t use the largest vessels because even Velvet couldn’t keep one of those hidden from the eyes of two fleets. But at the very least they could use whatever was local to shuttle people back and forth, saving some of the population. And indirectly choosing who would die.

Too bad it wouldn’t be either of the aggressors. Though, maybe one or two important individuals might mysteriously go missing or even more mysteriously wind up dead. Velvet had to determine if that would cause the war to heat up in a problematic way or not.