Elder Cultivator

Chapter 870

An unexpected message from Varghese got Antons attention. Or rather, considering its contents, it was in his capacity as the head of the Inistra branch of the Order of One Hundred Stars. Anton was still on Mazlerth, doing what he could to help clean up the mold plague. Things were in a state of recovery, but it wasnt completely eradicated. That would be a matter of months, if they were lucky, but the recovery of the world would take far longer.

Anton had been hoping to speed up the process with some well placed farming tips, but it seemed he would have to give up personal involvement now. Because Inistra also had pockets of the plague mold spring up. They would likely be alright- information had been shared with them precisely because they were in the area. Varghese didnt focus on Inistra at all in his message, instead revealing something important.

They had detected unknown ships leaving the system. Inistra was better situated to pick such things out than Mazlerth had been with its early stage of development, and they had been in a state of alert. Theyd managed to determine the ships trajectories while leaving the system, but didnt have anything they could spare to chase after them.

Which was where Anton came in, potentially. With the time lag involved, he might already be a week behind but they had been heading generally towards the galactic northeast. In short, vaguely past Mazlerth. Their trajectory would likely take them more east, but the point was Anton might have a chance to cut them off. Varghese reminded Anton that it was ultimately up to his judgment if it was a good idea. This wasnt a crisis situation but it was a chance to confirm suspicions. Or perhaps discover things were completely wrong.

If only Anton knew the proper route the ships were planning to take instead of just their initial trajectories, he could fairly well predict if he even could catch them. As it was, he would have to make some assumptions, and perhaps get lucky.

As for the risk Anton couldnt be sure if these unknown enemies were a threat to him in general. After all, in many places he was only as strong as an Assimilation cultivator, and theyd seen the emergence of post-Life Transformation cultivators in four separate locales now. While theyd only recently stumbled across the Shining Cooperative, it wasnt crazy for them to have unknown neighbors they were butting up against that were close to a similar level. Anton could likely beat any individual Assimilation equivalent enemy, but more than a few or even a pair of particularly strong ones would be difficult.

Then again, he didnt intend to take such a risk. He was going to choose a spot along what he determined as the most probable route, and if they passed through the chosen system- or vaguely alongside it- he would bind the star to himself. Even if they moved at close to the fastest the Lower Realms Alliance had, Anton would have ten or twenty minutes before they could approach him. Plenty of time to bind the star with his experience, and at that point even if they were a bit swifter than the best ships theyd seen Anton would be able to catch them.

And if they could defeat him with his full power as an Enrichment cultivator, without Anton being able to sense such strength ahead of time or even flee, then it was already hopeless. They would likely be able to do whatever they wished to Inistra and the eastern part of the Shining Cooperative. In which case, they likely wouldnt have bothered being stealthy.

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Most likely, Varghese had known what Anton would choose. But it was still his own choice. If these people were responsible for the plague? There was no excuse that would result in their survival. Though of course, they would live long enough to be interrogated.

And if they were not responsible, Anton would find out soon enough. He wasnt going to start with shooting holes through their ships. Nor was he going to slice it into tiny pieces. He could do that, of course, but he intended to use the Star Catching Net technique to entangle as much of this small fleet as passed by. There was also the possibility they would have split up already, but that only increased the probability that one of them would cross his path.

And if their flight habits were at all similar to their own, Anton had a better than fifty percent chance of them passing through a particular system. It had a number of gas giant off of which various materials could be scraped, and it had a pair of stars. One orange, one yellow. Both were in a reasonable range to approach with a proper ship. Finally, there were a few rocky worlds that they might pick up physical materials, if they needed them for fuel for one reason or another.

For Anton, it was a trip of twenty lightyears. For them, it would be a bit shorter, with some assumptions about their speed up to that point. But Anton had no reason to be conservative with his speed. If he arrived ahead of them, he would have time to recover. If he did not, then he would never be certain they even passed through.

Antons thoughts cycled through all sorts of different things. Anger. Curiosity. Worry. Back to anger, quite often. But ultimately, he managed to redirect himself towards calm. If he missed this group? It would be unfortunate, but a waste of hardly more than half a month. There was a high chance they were enemies, but he would approach them calmly regardless.

He arrived and supposed he had a few days of waiting ahead of him. Sitting close to the slightly larger yellow star, he drew in the abundant natural energy from the system and from his own stars. He felt the warmth infusing into him.

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His senses stretched out far beyond him, a thin half shell feeling only for any odd fluctuations in the flow of natural energy. It was possible that he would feel speeding ships passively, but as they had concealed themselves before, they might do so again. Some days passed, by the standard of Ceretos at least. Anton wondered if he had been too late or simply misjudged their path. But he continued to wait, prepared to spend a full month in the system if he had to.

He didnt have to wait nearly that long before he sensed what were unmistakably ships, and of no design he recognized. They did fit more of the sailing aesthetic that cultivators tended towards, but it wasnt quite that. Then he began the process. Anton was nearly conservative- he could have chosen to bind just one star. The range they covered was sufficient that the second one was unnecessary to reach a significant spike in power. But it wouldnt really be his peak unless he had both. There was no insight into the future that told him he would be in danger but also one that told him he would be safe. So nearly two decades of cultivation progress were poured into the binary stars. It was not lost, merely solidified in place, unable to be used elsewhere. Except as much as he naturally drew upon all his stars at any distance, now.

The fleet was heading right towards him- most likely intending to pass near the yellow star, either for some sort of maneuver to speed them along or for fuel. But even without specialized sensors, it would be difficult for them to not notice the change. Perhaps the stars might feel much the same, but Anton suddenly stood out.

The ships turned to flee. They made the smartest choice, which was to scatter. Their problem was that they were too slow. Anton could already almost catch them from where he was. No, he could have shot them down. But he was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and stop them gently. Until he managed to chase after one, dispersing a Star Catching Net which clung to them, grinding their momentum to a halt. And the moment his senses pierced through their formations and sensed their cultivations, he pulled out his bow. Then he checked deeper and confirmed his suspicions.

Too bad. Or perhaps it was good, to know that they were minions of the Trigold Cluster. That meant there wasnt suddenly another enemy. Though it was worrying to see them moving around with relative freedom.

Arrows of light that surpassed the speed boundaries set by that very same form shot from Antons bow at the dozen or so ships, hitting everything that resembled any form of propulsion or directional control. Then he began rounding them up, anchoring their momentum with his technique, drawing upon the power of the star- without using its heat, since he didnt want to melt their ships. Yet.

Anton felt some sort of energy transmission between the ships, and they fired simultaneous attacks from some sort of cannons that swiveled towards him. Though their actual directionality didnt seem that important, since the energy twisted towards him anyway.

Anton knew that people from Rutera were going to be very upset with how many parts he shot off their ships- he would bring back the pieces, of course, but it wasnt the same as bringing in fully intact ships.

Merely their origin would have been bad enough, various groups tied to the Trigold Cluster, but Anton found a number of canisters with concealment formations, containing the virulent mold. Anton almost wanted to break them open and have the people die to their own monstrous plan. But he thought himself slightly better than that. They would die, but not in unnecessarily painful ways.

With their ships disabled, they couldn't do much. Anton wondered if binding the stars had been excessive, as there were no powers beyond Life Transformation among the people or the ships but he might not have caught them all without. It was a nice system, Anton just thought it was a bit far right now.

All of you will submit to containment, Anton said clearly. There was a slight problem- he didnt have the hundreds of energy binding shackles necessary to contain everyone from even a small fleet of ships. He could individually suppress their energy, but that meant keeping them here near his bound star to be safe. Which meant he would be here for longer than he wanted, waiting for reinforcements. At least they had their own supplies, not that cultivators couldnt manage without food for a month or two if necessary anyway.

One fellow from the Twin Soul Sect was filled with initiative, killing himself. Anton responded by reaching out with a hand made of spectral energy. He crushed the young looking mans soul, rendering it useless. He overstated the action to make it clear to all of the Twin Soul Sect members what he could do to them.

Well have none of that, either, Anton declared. This was at the same time he was already grabbing people off of the first ship and shackling the more powerful ones, while using his own energy to keep the others from trying anything stupid. Like blowing up their selves and/or ships. They needed both intact to find out where these people came from.

All of the cultivators and supplies were rounded up into a single ship. Anton set the others into a long orbit around the binary stars. It might decay in a decade or two, but if he was here that long something went seriously wrong. And he could easily fix it by then.

Anton figured out a system through which he bound pairs of cultivators to each other and the chains in turn wrapped around others to stretch the effectiveness of the energy binding shackles. If they werent being constantly watched, the captives might be able to eventually wrangle their way out of them. But they were constantly watched, and Anton made examples of the first few who tried to break out by destroying their cultivations. They didnt need natural energy to answer questions. And it freed up a few pairs of shackles.

With their energy bound in one way or another, they couldnt kill themselves even if they wanted to. Anton made certain to force them to eat the proper amount of food to maintain their health while he waited. It could be a month or two before people arrived to take these fools off his hands. It was annoying. He almost wanted to toss them into the sun, but that was more of an Everheart move. And even then, hed have already finished interrogating them first.

Anton probably could have gotten something out of the lot in front of him, but to be honest he was going with the tactic of just being terrifying. That way, theyd be much more inclined to cooperate with anyone else, at the threat of him coming back.