Elder Cultivator

Another week and a half out of five thousand went by in the blink of an eye. Work started early and lasted until the evening, then practicing archery techniques until he was sufficiently tired to sleep, all interspersed with meals and occasional lectures. Anton learned quite a bit, including how to properly balance his environment while cultivating. It wasn’t as important as having abundant natural energy around, but it was still a factor. That included taking care of his mental state. Anton wasn’t sure if his mind was exactly serene with constant thoughts of revenge, but what was he going to do about it? Focus was necessary to overcome it.

The most useful after the tips Vincent gave for cultivation was sparring practice. He was still a beginner in cultivation, so when he found himself struggling with unarmed combat he didn’t feel bad. He had gotten in a few scraps in his days, but had no formal training. His muscles were decently strong, but the rest of his body just wasn’t up to par. All of the others seemed to have begun lessons before him as well, but Anton didn’t like making excuses. He might only rarely need to fight unarmed, but he should at least put in the effort to cover the basics.

The anticipated lecture with Elder Kseniya arrived in due time. When Anton arrived at the training field only to find it sparsely attended by merely a dozen others, he asked one of the nearest disciples, “Is this the right place for Elder Kseniya’s lecture?”

The young woman nearest to him shrugged, “Lectures have words. But this is the place.”

“It’s… surprisingly empty.”

“Elder Kseniya is the best archer in the Order,” The young woman looked around before finally whispering, “...but she’s not the best teacher.”

Anton nodded. That often tended to be the case. Eccentric masters of one thing or another often had trouble communicating. It was certainly not impossible to be a skilled teacher and a master of something, but the skills didn’t necessarily go together. Still, he might be able to learn something.

He almost didn’t notice when she showed up. Anton had been conditioned into the idea that elders would look younger than they were, so when a truly ancient woman with baggy skin and thin limbs stood in front of them, he almost didn’t think it was her. However, as he sensed her energy he knew it had to be her. He couldn’t sense exactly, but she was at a great number of stars. Perhaps fifty or more? That would place her in the final tier of cultivation, the stage that was referred to as Galaxy Construction in the Ninety-Nine Stars method.

She said nothing, merely pulling out a bow from a magic bag- like Elder Evan had. The bow appeared quite plain- merely some sort of dark varnished wood and a string that seemed no different from many others. She had no quiver on her back, but that wasn’t a surprise. Without even saying a word to those watching, her movement started.

Anton’s eyes barely tracked the movement of her hand grabbing the string, the forming of a Spirit Arrow and the pulling of the string, and the arrow was out of his vision as if it completely disappeared. Then Elder Kseniya disappeared as well. However, Anton still sensed her- and his eyes snapped to her location, far from where Anton thought it should have been possible to move.

Even with his eyes already having been tempered, Anton was barely able to follow her movements. Activating the vision techniques from Hawk Eyes allowed him to not completely lose sight of her, but he was barely able to make out her specific movements even still. She drew and shot the bow, then moved to a seemingly random place to fire again in another similarly random direction. Anton’s eyes occasionally followed the spirit arrows, realizing that he was half right. They did disappear, but their trajectory through the air up to the point where they vanished has also simply been too fast for him to see. Each of the Spirit Arrows destroyed itself at a specific point, though the distance wasn’t always the same. Anton supposed that was the only way she wasn’t going to put holes in everything around them… including the walls of the training areas and perhaps several buildings over. He was absolutely certain she would have, if the arrows didn’t collapse into themselves.

Anton watched in a trance, trying to catch something from what was happening. He felt like he was on the verge of understanding, but he wasn’t sure what he might learn. Then Elder Kseniya stopped. Anton reached down and found his chest was damp. He was sweating from just watching. He was almost entirely drained of energy just to catch a glimpse of what was going on. The others were in a similar boat, except a pair who grumbled to each other, “... didn’t teach anything. Just showed off and left…”

Technically Anton agreed that she didn’t teach anything… but the chance to see something like was still good for his developing skills. Many years of hunting and some competitions were nothing compared to her experience with the bow… but how could he make use of it?

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Every time he formed a Spirit Arrow, Anton pictured those made by Elder Kseniya. They were thinner, not because they contained less power but because it was even more concentrated. He had barely been able to sense how it worked with the immense power involved, but he tried some things he thought were involved. Had she started the formation at the tip? No. Though he couldn’t be sure, since they seemed to appear instantly. He tried starting with the arrowhead, in the middle, and from the end with the fletching. The middle was the worst, since if he was misaligned it could scrape up against the bow at the front or slip past the string in the back. Fortunately the bow had enough durability to ignore such incidental energy.

Anton tried to imagine what her movements were for. He couldn’t possibly move as she did, especially with his joints… though perhaps hers weren’t any better at whatever age she was. He would have to work on his flexibility. At the very least, moving around was a good idea. Anton didn’t exactly dash around, but he started incorporating movement and turning into his practice. He didn’t have targets and didn’t want to destroy the walls, so he just made the arrows dissipate. He wasn’t confident in doing that while they were in motion, so he made sure to practice on his actual target for actual practice firing.

The other residents of the complex did their own cultivation at different times, though there was never really a time when nobody was cultivating unless the complex was empty or they were all asleep. On a particular evening another two weeks later, Catarina was cultivating in her own courtyard. Anton felt she was at a particularly crucial moment, so he decided to take a break so as to avoid disturbing her with his energy fluctuations. She was at the peak of the fourth star… and if he guessed correctly she planned to break through to the fifth. The feeling of her cultivation let Anton know she was finishing the refinement of her meridians- a solid choice, apparently. Much less foolish than doing it too early, but Anton supposed he couldn’t be blamed for his thoughts. He really should have been more cautious, though.

As Catarina pushed herself to the edge, Anton sensed a sudden boost of energy from her. It didn’t feel like a danger, and indeed it only took a moment for the energy to settle down and come under her control. A short time later, the scene settled down and Anton knew she had reached the fifth star. Since it wouldn’t be a problem to interrupt her anymore, Anton was about to go back to training archery. However, she stepped out of her gate and he was curious where she was going to go. Spying on his neighbors wasn’t proper… but he would have had to intentionally ignore her to not know where she was. Besides, she was coming towards his gate.

A moment later, she knocked. “...Anton?”

He made his way over to the gate and opened it. “Catarina, come on in,” he gestured.

She shook her head. “Not necessary. Here.” She held out her hand, and Anton instinctively reached out to take what she dropped. A small round pellet.

She was halfway turned around when Anton called after her. “Wait! Isn’t this your last tempering pill?” Anton was quite certain that she had just used one.

“No. I have one more left.”

He still didn’t let her leave, “Why give it to me?”

“... For the help. Before. Save it for breaking through to sixth star.”

Now that he’d gotten her to admit why, he wasn’t going to refuse. He sensed she was telling the truth about having another. It seemed likely she hadn’t actually used one for the fourth star. “I will graciously accept,” Anton said as she was already stepping out of sight back towards her dwelling. He slowly closed the gate behind her and smiled. He would save the pill for a breakthrough. Though if she needed it before he used it, he would gladly give it to her. Better to foster someone younger who had their whole life ahead of them rather than an old man.