Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1223

Teeth were fine. Claws and anything sharp? Very avoidable. Random clouds of acid that stretched across many kilometers were concerning but not unknown- that was just the inside of some distortion beast’s stomach.

Ty Quigley could handle normal distortion beast stuff. He wasn’t so good at the other things they were doing- cultivation insight related things. If they were able to properly focus on him, he would probably be annihilated. Illusions were all over, but fortunately they were half-baked at best. They weren’t high quality illusions, but the sensory bombardment made it difficult to track where other attacks were coming from.

The good thing was that the nest seemed to be running into an issue where the beasts were interfering with each other. Oceans of fire and ice clashed with each other in a discordant mess that negated the majority of the power behind the attacks. Not that it wasn’t a bit sketchy sometimes, but Ty was managing to avoid taking any serious damage.

The Esoteric Order of the Blade… not so much. Unlike him, they hadn’t been expecting a distortion beast nest. They had just thought they were about to catch a single cultivator and take his nice, sharp-winged ship. Of course, the fact that it would have had the blood of some of their members on those very wings if Ty’s cuts allowed any such lingering filth was probably an afterthought in their minds. He ran, so he was afraid. That was the natural instinct of a predatory cultivator.

For being surprised, he thought they were doing quite alright. The people on their asteroids were cutting at the countless surrounding enemies. A few of the smaller ones had been crushed, with fragments dragged into subspace to be consumed. Presumably some of their people were on those. But overall, they were still alive.

Ty considered carefully the balance of powers. It was heavily weighted towards the distortion beasts. That wasn’t good, because they were the main problem the system had. If he kept moving as he was, the sword cultivators might also give up their chase and try to flee the beasts. It would be a shame to miss out on maximum damage, and he wouldn’t get another chance like this. Presumably the sword cultivators would be smarter. The distortion beasts would happily try to devour an army again, even if it was a bit spicy.

His ship ‘unfortunately’ had to turn to avoid certain attacks that ‘coincidentally’ carried him back through the central mass of the distortion beasts, swiping and undulating through space and subspace beneath it. His ship cut through impediments, razor discs launched ahead finding small but vulnerable targets. Including a couple of the chains holding the mass of asteroids together. They were enchanted, as it wasn’t possible to just yank masses of stone around at speeds relevant for traveling throughout a system, but their defenses had been worn down by everything going on around them.

Wherever a good target arose, Ty took it. A vulnerable bit of monster flesh? He cut. An incoming ship? He sliced. Ejike, the sect head? He stabbed, specifically with the nose of his ship. The cultivator managed to dodge, his energy carrying him out of Ty’s path but into a storm of lightning that caused some damage.

Ty didn’t engage. It would have been fun, but foolish. Instead, he twisted and wove his way through the asteroids, never remaining as a target for any cultivator or beast. Except for Ejike who chased after him, which greatly weakened the Esoteric Order’s chances of survival. He should have been fighting for that, rather than petty revenge. Revenge that was only necessary for his own villainy.

He refused to give up, which was part of Ty’s plan. The man chased after Ty’s ship with a bare blade, not fully comprehending that Ty could move far faster than he or their ships or their traveling sect could match- if he really wanted to.

He accepted a single exchange, then moved on to another section. A parry and riposte combo, then he flipped around and reversed his momentum. Ejike almost seemed to have given up for a moment, but Ty read his killing intent. The man landed on the surface of one of the larger asteroids and sprang forward, his blade slicing through space and cutting off thousands of kilometers of distance. It wasn’t quite enough to transport him, but his attack reached Ty.

In turn, that meant Ty could reach his sword. He twisted his ship, slicing forward with the wing. The man had asked for it. His sword caught on the wing instead of slipping- Ty’s intention, of course. The durable and highly enchanted metal of the ship- just touched up by the locals- held strong against the large blade. As for the sword in Ejike’s hands? It cracked.

Ty was disappointed it wasn’t a clean slice. He needed to work on that. But to fix that flaw, he had to survive. And despite his displays, he didn’t have boundless energy to fight endless numbers of foes. He broke away from the battle, streaking towards an unoccupied sector of the system- so that he would not have any distortion beasts trail after him towards occupied planets.

-----

“... and that’s why the paint is chipped,” Ty explained to Uzochi.

“That’s… a great story.” His pale face didn’t exactly match his words, nor did the nervous tone. “But I think it should probably be brought to the attention of someone like Nekesa.”

“Yeah I’m meeting her in a couple minutes. Don’t worry,” Ty waved him off. “She was just busy on the other side of the planet with something, and I didn’t want to intrude.”

Ty was not good at politics. But having now done what he was good at, he was going to explain. Some people said it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Sword cultivators knew better. If you were always right, you didn’t need either.

Granted, they were wrong more than half the time. But that was still at the heart of their beliefs. Either way, Ty wasn’t going to ask for forgiveness for killing enemies of the state and monsters. He just wanted to make sure Nekesa was ready when other people inevitably found out about it.

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Nekesa arrived rapidly- as she should, given that Ty had emphasized the discussion was time sensitive. Urgent wouldn’t have been quite the right word, though more important than his actual words was that she respected his assessment.

“What did you do?” she asked after they entered a secure meeting room- before they were even seated. And they didn’t even have snacks yet.

Ty raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think I did something?”

“I probably would have heard if someone else did. Plus, you’ve been going out on all these… leisure flights.”

“Which were wonderful, by the way,” Ty said. “This system is great. That’s why I wanted to make sure it was full of fewer villains and distortion beasts than when I arrived. Obviously it’s inconvenient for me to leave just yet- though if you can convince the Origin Cycle to declare their presence to the Alliance I could just get picked up- but I won’t be here forever. So I led the Esoteric Order into the distortion beast nest. Thanks for finding that, by the way. Very helpful.”

He could tell she was parsing his sentences. “Repeat that, please. With more detail.”

“I went to find the Esoteric Order. They offered to sell me a sword. I thought this one looked nice. They tried to murder me instead of accepting payment, and then I let them chase me into the distortion beast nest. Ejike’s sword is busted and probably half the sect is wiped out. Maybe a quarter of the nest, if that. Though that depends on if I successfully spurred any infighting among the distortion beasts.” He hadn’t lingered around to watch the aftermath, obviously.

“Some people are going to be very cross with you,” Nekesa said.

“Including you?” Ty asked. “You didn’t even bring snacks.”

She just looked at him for a few moments. Then she sighed. “I fully understand why you acted the way you did. And I hate to do this, but I need a favor from you. Whoever the sympathizers of the Esoteric Order are… I need you to help root them out.”

“Fine,” Ty said. “But it will cost you.”

“How much?”

“Didn’t I already mention there were no snacks here?”

-----

Picking the very first person he met in the system as his ‘side’ for internal politics might not have been the most ‘correct’ move, but Ty didn’t think it was the wrong one. He might have, after careful months of deliberation and maneuvering, ended up in the same position. She was a decent person and that was good enough for him. Her sister, too. Makinia was explaining to him some of the potential sympathizers- people he needed to pay special attention to.

Ty had his own ideas. He would remember the faces and names she mentioned, and then also do his own thing. Because there was one connection he was especially suited to make. “What sort of trade agreements did you guys have with the Esoteric Order of the Blade?”

“It was banned,” Makinia said. “It would be… better… if you did not bring your sword. Even if you stole it from them. I know you don’t want to disarm-”

“Yeah that’s fine. Just wondering about official things. How much trouble would someone be in, if they were locals?”

“Enough.”

Ty kind of wanted to know if it was the amount he was allowed to cut them down on the spot. But he supposed he would let the locals handle that stuff, unless someone came for him. Before a bunch of grumpy people from other planets showed up, though, he needed a nap.

-----

Unsurprisingly, a bunch of people were mad that someone actually did stuff. This was how systems became isolated for thousands of years without even meeting their neighbors! Well, the Origin Cycle didn’t have any immediate neighbors. They were a couple hundred lightyears from the closest major colonies of the Lower Realms Alliance, like the Unified Sector. Even so, Stagnation. And a lack of growth. And not risking their lives for the blade.

Too bad the Esoteric Order was so unhinged. There was a time and place to start chopping things up, and trying to rob people wasn’t one of them. Ty could have gotten along with them well, otherwise.

A bunch of people walked in. Ty remembered names and faced as had been told to him. They were just suspected, of course. If they actually had proof, something would have been done. Or at least, if Nekesa and Makinia had proof. Some others might have very well just ignored it. Frankly, the system either needed to fully accept or fully reject the sword cultivators. Leaving what was effectively a bandit group around was dumb.

Some of the suspected sympathizers had very harsh things to say about Ty. In turn, Ty insulted their clothes. He didn’t even know what fashion was, but other people did and the reactions were hilarious. But as he slowly checked people off the list of those that he could verify, he wasn’t finding much of anything.

Then a cyborg showed up.

First off, Ty had to say that he loved it. The world needed more cyborgs. It was nice to be in a tech-dominant place that wasn’t just using the Ruteran origin. People were going to go nuts once they saw this stuff- even if it wasn’t higher tier or anything, there was a lot to learn. Like picking up an old sword style from a long-dead master.

Pavan wasn’t great, though. First, he didn’t replace his graying hair with fancy silver strands. That was just an aesthetic choice, though, and natural gray looked fine on some people. Just not cyborgs who should go full metal once they reached a certain threshold.

Mostly, it was how the guy wanted to kill Ty but didn’t have the guts to say it. He said things about ‘reckless action’ and ‘stirring up distortion beasts’- though as far as Ty understood the scouts had reported things were settling there.

Ty wasn’t good at words, but he could cut out his own section of conversation from time to time. It took a while, but he finally came up with a decent move. “So you’re totally fine with the part where I led the Esoteric Order of the Blade into a deathtrap, then?”

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“Of course,” Pavan said, standing far too straight. “They are scoundrels and villains.”

Ty leaned forward and sniffed. “Then why did you buy tech from them? What’s so important about that left leg you couldn’t get it done by someone else?”

The man’s response was only natural. “What are you talking about? You have no proof of any such thing.”

Ty had the perfect scenario in mind to guide the rest of that interaction, so he was fully ready to strike. With words, unless the guy was dumb enough to try to kick him.