Elder Cultivator
Chapter 1321

Everything was still awkward on Ecuma, at least for Anton. Perhaps even Bear Hug sensed it, which was why they were being extra friendly to everyone. So far, they hadn’t met anyone in a position of leadership. Any requests they had as far as their accommodations or activities during the day were fulfilled, though neither of them were particularly demanding. Ultimately, it appeared as though the locals were trying to make up for the whole thing where they captured them.

In such an atmosphere, Anton wasn’t really comfortable going much further in terms of sharing information. He wanted some sort of official agreement in place, and he didn’t think they were ready to do anything of the sort at the moment.

He hoped they were more receptive on his return journey- when they’d had time to think about things.

“We can probably take one or two others along with us to visit the black hole,” Anton commented. “If you’re interested.”

“I believe I will have to pass,” Janer said pleasantly.

“Same,” Felicitas commented.

Marty looked a bit interested, but he really had no reason he should visit a black hole with his cultivation. It would just be neat. Besides, his status- or lack thereof- might be an issue should they encounter any other civilizations. It seemed that Aretis had spread out from their first planet and system quite some time before but had no neighbors in the lower realms.

That did make Anton question what Reneden was, but Janer had obliquely mentioned various losses. That might include systems. Anton didn’t really think they were hiding anything. Full transparency was a different matter.

“When will you be leaving?” Janer asked.

Good. That was what Anton had wanted to imply. The man understood perfectly. “Tommorrow, I think.”

Bear Hug leaned over. “But I haven’t seen everything yet!”

“There’s quite a lot of everything,” Anton said. “It will take time. We can visit again on our way back.”

“Great! I’m sure we can see a lot of neat places. I think they have cool stuff here.”

“Indeed,” Anton smiled.

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They asked if he needed transportation through their systems, perhaps as a courtesy. Then again, it was quite a bit harder for most Life Transformation cultivators to fly within the atmosphere so that should be their standard. It would require an appropriate cultivation method and proper techniques. Anton hadn’t been able to fly at that point… it had just been so long before that it felt insignificant.

Obviously they knew he could fly in space. That was where they’d seen him arrive- at two separate systems.

Ultimately, Anton decided it would slow them down too much. Not because he was certain they were slower than him, but because if they weren’t they would choose to be slower. That was just the position things were at, where they wouldn’t be willing to display the maximum speed they could achieve.

It might make them more comfortable to transport him through their systems, but they didn’t complain when Anton turned them down.

Soon enough Anton and Bear Hug were off.

The next couple of weeks, they were still in Aretis territory. Right along their path were three more systems owned by them, following the path Anton and Bear Hug had previously planned. They did take their time drifting through the actual systems. Anton could have completely gone around, but he didn’t want to demonstrate too much about his stamina. Bear Hug also wanted to at least look at all the planets, but they kept their distance from any passing ships. People could get nervous about strangers, but there was plenty of space to be had.

There was no need to strain whatever relation they’d built by worrying random civilians.

Anton did spend some effort trying to figure out their cloaking technology. Specifically, how his senses might bypass it. He never lingered too long, but as he left the systems a bit of him trailed behind. Passing out, he had a better sense of things- but when his energy passed into a system he somehow didn’t register even what he knew was there. Perhaps it replaced his sensations somehow. Or maybe it was a spatial redirection- his energy might be going to random empty space. That could protect from attacks as well.

As for their physical bodies and the energy carried with them, they either couldn’t or didn’t block that. Anton had the feeling it would be more obvious as they were approaching, though an invisible barrier that people just splattered against would work wonders… on whoever was in front. Then people would have their defenses and either rebound or smash through. At least, if they had any proper training at all. Anton didn’t think he would die from impacting something unbreakable at high speeds even if he wasn’t prepared for it, but that was a greater extreme of reactions than most.

“Goodbye Aretis!” Bear Hug waved as they left the last system. “Ugh, speech is so exhausting.”

Anton patted Bear Hug on the ‘head’. “Maybe next time we can teach them how to speak ‘properly’. Like this.”

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Anton was getting suspicious. They hadn’t run into another cultivator civilization in a hundred lightyears. That wasn’t too unreasonable, but at two hundred it was pretty far. Anton was beginning to think humans simply hadn’t spread so far in the lower realms… but that thinking was a bit too focused on Ceretos as the center of things.

Ultimately, they did notice several more groups, it just took a while. And they didn’t faceplant into any of them, as their systems weren’t concealing their existence. At least not well enough to stop Anton.

There was one that Anton took special note of, but had no intention to visit at the moment. He’d gotten entangled in too many important things for the near future. Sensing them from a neighboring system, he could vaguely pick out post Life Transformation existences. If he’d focused harder he could have picked out individuals, but it seemed a bit aggressive. With high enough cultivation, they might actually sense him and react.

One system over was easy enough even outside of one of his bound systems. His range wasn’t as good without his full power, but he could even fight at that distance if he needed to. That limit was more than a handful of times greater when in an optimal position. Of course, his power suffered somewhat at such distances but it rarely mattered. If he needed maximum destruction, within the same system was best- but if he had time then distance was far superior.

“We should say hi!” Bear Hug commented.

“I’ll think about it,” Anton said. “Not everyone is friendly. Perhaps they will note my passage and prepare some sort of response on our return.”

“I hope so,” Bear Hug said.

Things were quite sparse, with the rest of the approximately thousand lightyear journey revealing only two further, weaker civilizations. The first Anton thought might have had additional systems- though if they did they were not adjacent to his path. The latter two seemed to be confined to a single system, perhaps not even capable of space travel yet. Anton would have liked to offer them protection, but they were quite near the beginning of the cycle still… and they were far outside of the Alliance’s reach.

If done improperly, trying to enlighten them might just make them more attractive targets. At some point, either Anton or someone else capable of long distance travel with sufficient authority would return.

Anton sensed some mixed tech from the third. He was a bit more bold with his senses, poking around on their planets. There was nothing particularly special, except people. All people were special. Anton didn’t particularly think they needed to start strong, but groups that were already strong were notable for what the Alliance might learn from them.

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Eventually, they were able to spot the black hole, specifically by how the light from other stars was distorted around it. The actual entity was of course entirely blank. As they grew closer, it began to blot out points of light behind it until finally after many more lightyears of travel they finally arrived ‘in system’.

If a lone black hole could be called a system. It barely even had any debris around it. No planets, no proper asteroid belt, very little dust. Perhaps it had always been alone, or already consumed such things.

“It’s so weird,” Bear Hug commented. “I know it’s right over there but then- nothing!”

Bear Hug was referring to how their energy just… disappeared.

Anton experienced it as well. Sensory energy was just lost. There was just no connection after a certain point. Presumably, that was the event horizon. It might be possible to break that threshold with sufficient effort, but Anton wasn’t intending to test such things at the moment. Those with more concrete ideas might do such experimentation with the Scarlet Alliance’s new candidate. If they were wise, they wouldn’t put any part of them there.

Before that point, it was just like approaching any celestial body. Anton could feel the gravitational pull, though without as much additional stimulus he might be lulled into a false sense of security that he wasn’t close enough to get into trouble. Anton was spending quite a bit of energy getting himself and Bear Hug to a safe distance, with much of that lost from creating a sort of mesh of energy around it through trial and error.

He might actually have been a good bit outside of the absolute limit, but that was the point where his energy was difficult to keep in place. The black hole, counting its event horizon, was small. Smaller than Azun, the neutron star. That was a radius of around ten kilometers. This was more like five. Anton had been fine approaching the star, but gravity and distance meant that a smaller area meant more danger. The masses were similar enough- within an order of magnitude at least. It was simply that the density of one was pushed even tighter.

The event horizon wasn’t anything, simply the point of no return. Anton stopped about twenty kilometers out, where Bear Hug could safely handle themself. “Be careful, okay?”

“I’m very careful,” Bear Hug said. “I wasn’t even thinking about hugging it at all.”

“If you do, make sure it’s energy only. Don’t get closer than this.”

It was easy enough to see the black hole now. It took up much of his vision. It was nothing. A void of stars. It was miserable and dull.

It was an amazing power, but it wasn’t like anything Anton wanted. His goal was to improve the energy of the world, for people to use. Mostly, that meant doing a better job of storing what stars put out instead of losing most of it.

A black hole was just not that. It was condensed power that didn’t do anything and most certainly did not share.

It wasn’t wrong. It was dangerous, but it was simply part of the natural world. That didn’t stop Anton from being uneasy. It had been a long time since he was threatened by anything that wasn’t actively trying to kill him. He could walk around a star that wasn’t even bound to him if he wanted, fly through the crushing pressure of gas giants, withstand the freezing cold of the void and breathe without air.

And if he happened to move too close to a certain spot, he would be crushed. Perhaps with the power of Unity he could fight back against it, but there was no reason to test that. Besides, Anton couldn’t have his full power. Not unless he came across a black hole in a binary system.

It was awesome and fearful. Terrifying and peaceful. Nothing and everything. A pit of darkness that bent light around it into a brilliant corona.

Anton was glad he made the trip. He felt like everyone should do it precisely once- unless they had an affinity for them in some manner. It could be a valuable target of study, then.

He released the drones to take measurements.

When they were ready to leave, Bear Hug named it Buddy. The black hole, not one of the drones. Anton wasn’t sure if it had an official name already- beyond its designation. He didn’t care. He would be calling it Buddy.