Elder Cultivator

Moving larger numbers of people- even cultivators- was relatively slower. Thus, when the invaders were approached with any sizable group they began to pull back to fortified locations.

That was useful for the sake of extracting people from Tranquil Cloud Palace, but not so great if they wanted to whittle down enemy forces. There were always exceptions where they could take out a few enemies. Ambushes worked to some extent, but ultimately the invaders were taking notice of the renewed resistance in the area and keeping safe.

The next goal was finding more survivors in Estary. The general patterns of destruction continued, though a few remote villages remained unscathed. Further information about the occupied cities indicated that at least some of the locals were still alive, but information was scarce. Plans were being developed for how to retake the cities while not opening up other countries to counterattacks.

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In northern Estary but not so far north as to reach the coast was a sizable forest. The individual trees seemed to be nothing impressive, but the vast expanse they covered had once made the area nearly unpassable. Long in the past beasts had fully taken over the forest, but up until the time of the invasion safe passageways had been maintained by a sect that moved into the depths of the area. Infinite Wisdom Forest found that while the trees were bland on the surface, their value as materials for paper was exquisite, and there were cultivation secrets to be gleaned from the entirety of the forest itself.

Now that same forest protected them. Unlike Tranquil Cloud Palace, their location was not concealed to any significant degree. The core of the sect grounds was at the intersection of main highways, including the one from the coast that eventually ended up in Yedo. With such an obvious path, the effort required to conceal themselves would have been tremendous. Yet they still stood strong against the invaders, if isolated.

Sieges had come, but none had broken through their defenses. The power of formations was determined both by the maximum intensity that could be withstood as well as the total amount of power that could be drawn on. The replenishment rate was also a key factor in the latter, and Infinite Wisdom Forest made use of what they had available to achieve all three.

The functionality was a secret, but one that once known would be completely devastating. Fortunately there were no traitors in their midst. They had eradicated the members of the Twin Soul Sect that had wormed their way in, and any information they had gathered clearly had not been disseminated to the invaders. Not that many knew exactly how the defensive formations functioned.

Before the recent boost in cultivation around the world, it would have been unlikely for them to withstand the sieges they’d now weathered. It wasn’t due to a great increase in knowledge or changes in the formation itself, but simply the power was greater… without it being obvious that anything had changed.

The source of power for the formation was the forest. The entire thing, not some small portion of it. Nor did it mean there were energy gathering formations throughout to channel power to the core. Instead, the trees themselves had the property to evenly distribute the natural energy in the area around them. Nobody was quite sure exactly how it functioned, but the root systems connecting them together were a significant part. Most importantly, it was so efficient that it was nearly impossible to feel the flow of energy.

There had been some concern when the invaders began looting the forest and cutting down the trees, but they soon gave up on that project. Nothing of the trees immediately displayed value, though the invaders certainly took advantage of the herbs that had been encouraged to grow wild, synergizing with the trees as their growth and energy dispersal cycles alternated. It would take decades to replant them and a similar length of time to return the populations of beasts back to where they ought to be, but for the most part the trees had been left alone after a certain point. It was a great swath of area, and even though the invaders were greedy for everything they could get their hands on they had standards… and didn’t know what they were dealing with.

The initial siege had been easy to withstand, though they were unable to cause significant damage to the invaders in turn. As Estary began to be overrun, several groups had banded to gather at various points to try again, but the defenses held firm, seeming to be indefatigable. And in a way they were. Compared to the invaders at least, the forest as a whole recovered expended natural energy at a faster rate. The invading groups would have to sustain a full power bombardment for long enough to at least half exhaust themselves before they would really notice a drop in the forest’s reserves, and thus with days or weeks between the attacks nothing really happened. There were concerns about a combined attack by all of the invading forces. That seemed to be inevitable, especially with the disturbing breakthrough that had happened recently.

Yet for the moment the invaders seemed content to sit in their cities and count their loot. Not that Infinite Wisdom Forest had much more information about that topic, though they were constantly sending out their best scouts hoping the situation would change. And something had. Infinite Wisdom Forest hadn’t just been left alone, but a number of watchers had been assigned to the area to keep tabs on them. Now there were fewer, and word was that other places saw similar drops in free cultivators. It was unlikely they just got bored, but without knowing what caused it it didn’t make any difference . They still couldn’t fight back against even a moderately sized group, and thus they had to shelter in place, no matter how demeaning it was to avoid combat. As many pairs of eyes that could kept watch for further changes, hoping there might be something… but not counting on it.

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The eventual retaking of Estary started from the east, with significant portions of the armies set to intercept anyone from the rest of Estary. Gathering all in one place would make it easy for their enemy to move however they wished, potentially surrounding them- though they would likely be more effective behind their fortifications on an individual basis.

If some progress could be made in retaking Estary’s territory and there were fewer concentrations of invaders to worry about, the locals could begin consolidating into larger armies- though they were already working with the combined might of several large sects at minimum. The invaders at base had high cultivations, and no amount of anti-ascension techniques was enough to completely overcome that point. The actual strength of each sect was also significantly reduced from the recent losses, and though the invaders’ losses were unclear in Estary their remaining numbers were concerning.

When they began the first attack, the biggest concern was that other occupied settlements would come with reinforcements. The outer edge of the area was carefully monitored, but there was a good quarter portion of Estary occupied and many large cities dotted about. The full extent of the invader’s forces couldn’t be determined, though at least it was fairly certain they only had one of the second-tier ascended cultivators. And that one seemed happy to remain in Yedo despite certainly knowing about their presence in the area. And why not? They had a fortified city… and perhaps no sense of unity with the rest of the invaders as a whole.

That was what they were hoping, and as the first city fell there was an amount of justification felt. It was unfortunate that they weren’t able to annihilate the invaders, but their forces simply weren’t sufficient for that. Still, they inflicted more casualties than they took, and the invaders could only flee into already-occupied territory. Though they would inevitably join up with other invaders, as long as they didn’t proactively organize themselves into a greater force the allied armies of Brogora had plans to take them apart piecemeal.

It would be a problem if all of them fled to Yedo, but if their plan worked they could carve out a section that would allow them to make a move on the central city. It wasn’t quite clear if that was ultimately the best move, but they couldn’t just ignore the strongest congregation of enemy forces either.

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Anton didn’t like that he couldn’t tell what was going on in Yedo. The main bulk of the army was still fifty kilometers away, but he should be able to sense that far easily. If he was blocked by a formation that would be one thing, but finding himself blocked by the aura of another cultivator was… concerning. He was reminded of his first encounters with Vandale, a vast gulf of power between them- except without any of the kindness or warmth that came with it.

Instead the power was… bright. Even as enemies it wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but it was concerning in the same way as any other source of power that couldn’t be controlled. Knowing that this cultivator would actively work against them didn’t make things any better. At least it seemed they didn’t have long range sniping abilities like himself. If they did, there was no doubt they could wander about the region and pick people off as they pleased. Unless they had some major deficiency that made them slower than would be expected for their cultivation, killing a few key targets and leaving would be trivial. Even if they were attempting to conserve their ascension energy, it would be more efficient to kill people who weren’t expecting it and rest, rather than face everyone at once.

The problem was… how much range did they have? Maybe they were a melee combatant, as so many were. In that case Anton could still imagine the destruction they could wield, sweeping swaths of death through the lines of their armies. But if they had an effective attack that could reach even ten or twenty kilometers, serious damage could happen if they attempted an attack. The trebuchets would need to be within that range to attack the city, and there were precious few things with longer ranges or more efficiency than the weaponry put together by Grant.

Perhaps if he had been given time, resources, or motivation they might have something more grand to make use of, but ultimately most sources of attack simply fell off with range. Even Horizon Shot technically grew weaker at the end of the range, but due to special control techniques and the speed of the projectiles it was minimized. It required both, since an attack without natural energy augmenting it became instantly worthless in most cases- and slow attacks were both easily dodged and required more effort to sustain.

Their forces were now at a strange impasse, as armies worked their way in from the east. Yedo couldn’t be put out of consideration, but they also couldn’t necessarily deal with it. Yet the thought of leaving it was unpalatable. Just because the invaders would be leaving at some point didn’t make things better. Anton would have found it more disturbing if the bandits had taken up residency in Dungannon, but just because they took what they wanted and left behind only destruction didn’t make the situation better.

For the moment Yedo was standing, and possibly even had civilians from Estary inside- likely being forced to labor under the invaders. When the time came for them to leave, would they simply go, or would they raze the place to the ground, causing as much destruction as possible? Anton would bet on the latter.

A brief thought passed through his head. He knew such an intrusive thought was ultimately unfair, but teaching people to cultivate and be able to stand up for themselves might have made things worse. It might have made them be seen as a threat.

Or the invaders might have simply wiped out cities with a wave of their hand, nobody even having the slightest hope of resisting their every whim. Keeping your head down when facing overwhelming forces was something people might accept, but if there was a real opportunity to fight back most humans would prefer that option. And Anton had given it to them.

His only regret was maybe that it hadn’t been enough. Yet he couldn’t say that despite all the destruction they had witnessed, they had survived. And they would continue to, as a whole if not the specific individuals alive at this instant. He would like to shift the numbers as far in their favor as possible though, but he was unsure if that meant more fighting or simply letting things be. And he hated that he wasn’t strong enough to force his preferred option, though he was unsure if it was even possible. After all, he had forsaken ascension, and even if he could he would be taken away from this world. That brought up more thoughts… but those would best be explored after the war.