Elder Cultivator

Among the many things that Vari now believed the Harmonious Citadel did wrong, there was one that might actually come back to haunt them. It was one thing to indoctrinate their disciples- it had been done well, such that Vari had to be pulled far away from their influence to even consider there was something wrong. That sort of thing would also make any disciples unlikely to believe outsiders on anything. But there was one area that they had made a mistake.

The saints. Something there was a weakness. She wasn’t sure if it was the aura of invincibility they had or the merging of their identities which led towards that, but something in that area could be exploited. Easiest would be to just kill one of the saints and those who were in line to replace them. Well, instead of easiest that would be most straightforward.

Revealing they were different people to the internals of the Harmonious Citadel likely wouldn’t affect the favored disciples. Practitioners of the Glorious Harmony Technique would no doubt be aware of when the roles of saints changed over, infrequent as it likely was. The subordinate disciples, however, would be kept in the dark. They were the important part of the whole structure, and if the Harmonious Citadel had been willing to admit that they occasionally replaced their saints then they would only grow more tight knit when one was killed in battle.

If they managed to show the death of one in public, witnessed by many of the lesser disciples, it would be quite different. Revealing at the same time the various changes in the saint’s positions would break the aura of invincibility and spread doubt.

Of course, if it was so easy to kill their saints, the Harmonious Citadel could just be wiped out. Vari understood she wasn’t on that level yet, regardless of any potentially inflated information about them. Anyone who had surpassed Ascension two centuries before would far outclass Vari’s experience regardless of other factors. It wasn’t like she could just expect the saints to be average members of the upper realms, either. Those who underwent Ascension from the lower realms stood above those who only ever touched upper energy, but there were methods to struggle for the most power. Resources from the lower realms were actually quite valuable for the process, from what Vari understood.

Since she couldn’t straightforwardly overcome them, either by herself or with varying levels of allies in those originally from the lower realms to the Dark Ring, Vari was focused on other methods. And she still wanted to learn more about the former spear saint, Silvija. That was her current mission, visiting yet another Harmonious Citadel planet to gather information.

Spikes and Chikere were with her for when things went wrong. Vari rather preferred that to be ‘if’ things went wrong, but she knew better. Vari had entered the cities herself, as she seemed to be a natural fit, but after learning where their target was the three moved together.

An old vault, sealed some centuries before by the spear saint. Apparently not looted yet, but nothing could be sure about that. The local news indicated that many people tried rather frequently.

“We will not be alone,” Chikere declared. “Others have arrived before us.”

“How do you know?” Vari asked to confirm, though she thought she knew the answer.

“Unless this location carries dozens of swords that move on their own, there are people wielding said swords.”

“Got it,” Vari confirmed as they crested a rise. She could possibly make out the shape of the structure they were supposed to be entering from this distance, but it could have been her imagination. “What about you, Spikes? Notice anyone?”

Spikes shook her head. Not yet, it seemed. Though once they were slightly closer, they could expect the wolf to pick up people with her nose regardless of whether they came by the same route.

Travel took several more minutes to cover kilometers of ground at a measured pace. Vari had now confirmed the presence of the structure they sought, and Spikes noted the presence of enemies before Vari could sense them. Her numbers diverged from Chikere which was not a surprise- as presumably the extra individuals were not carrying swords. Vari understood specializing from the Harmonious Citadel’s training, but most didn’t grow to the sort of obsession people like Chikere had. Not even the most passionate. Perhaps the saints might reach that level of devotion to their weapons. Vari couldn’t say she felt that for any weapon, or even her preferred lack of them- though at one point she might have had it for the saints themselves.

“Seems to be… six Integration cultivators?” Vari confirmed with the others.

“Three with swords,” Chikere confirmed, “And there should indeed be three others.” Now that they were within normal sensory range, she could pick out the people and not just swords.

“Well then, we should probably…”

“Leave the sword cultivators to me,” Chikere said. “You two deal with the others.”

“That’s basically what I was going to suggest, yeah,” Vari admitted. Normally she would have preferred to split things evenly between them, but in addition to having to admit that Chikere was a superior combatant in general, when it came to swords… she could pull the weight of more than two cultivators. “That leaves us a few dozen Life Transformation dudes and one and a half Integration cultivators to manage each, Spikes. You alright with that? Obviously, we’re not going to just attack them head on. And by us I mean the two of us specifically.”

Spikes nodded. If she had something important to say, she could write a response in the dirt, or form one out of stone itself. Simple agreement was fine, since she expected Vari to be sensible.

“We’ll try to find a small corridor. Just a bit more than you sized, I guess,” Vari said. “I’ll try to keep two at bay, while you focus on one and the weaklings. They’ve probably noticed us by now, but they shouldn’t be on high alert. We’ll wait until they’re distracted. That includes you as well, Chikere. We might not have to fight. If they get turned away by the vault itself, we can just leave them.”

Vari was now used to considering herself in the elite category of Integration cultivators. If she wasn’t, she would have not even considered approaching the group. Picking out which enemies were exceptional was an important skill to manage, and none of them felt like they would be trouble. Worst case, Vari should be able to ride Spikes away. Chikere… she’d have to grab to come with them. Or perhaps the actual worst case was she died without reacting. It would be unfortunate, but she wanted whatever information the vault contained. Just assuming this group would fail to get it didn’t sit well with her.

The surface was a large rectangular building with little adornment- abnormal for the Harmonious Citadel. As they stepped inside, Vari could pick out signs of what might have been valuable inlays and now were nothing. Perhaps some individuals, frustrated with not being able to enter the vault, had decided to loot the decorations.

Inside, two stairways flanked either side of the open room, headed underground. It was trivial to sense they went to the same place, but it was slightly comforting to note there might be multiple escape routes.

Down the stairs they found large crisscrossing corridors- starting from the stairs it could either be considered a rectangle with a cross splitting it apart, or simple four individual segments sharing hallways between them. Straight ahead was a large door flanked by statues of spear wielding individuals. Most of those currently present were there, several turning to take note of the new entrants.

There were two distinct visual groups, though all seemed to share the same basic cultivation technique. Just having them look at her made Vari feel weighed down, as if she were on one of the planets with higher gravity than average- this one was actually a bit light.

Approximately half of the group wielded swords, or at least weapons that could be called swords. They were uncomfortably large in all dimensions, nearly dragging on the ground behind the bulky men- and a few women. The blades were as wide as two hands, and several times as thick along most of their body as the majority of Chikere’s swords were at their thickest point.

The other half wielded large halberd, held in their hands like a walking staff because they couldn’t possibly fit comfortably on anyone’s back. They were somewhere around four meters in length, nearly scraping on the high ceilings, and the curved heads of their weapons were almost as big as Vari herself.

Both sets of weapons seemed so heavy and unwieldy as to be unusable, which meant there should be a trick to them. Or all of their enemies would be quite ineffective- but Vari wasn’t going to count on them being terrible with their cultivations.

Two of the Integration cultivators stepped towards them, while the rest of the groups followed behind. One of the pair was a woman, a rarity among the bulky individuals. The other was a man who carried one of the swords, face and arms scarred. He was the one who spoke first, stopping at the central cross of the area. “This area has been claimed by the Black Hole Blades. Scarper off.”

Having received no information about such a thing, Vari knew it wasn’t an actual claim, but one they had simply decided upon. Either just now, or when they set their eyes on the area. Still, she attempted to be diplomatic. “We had not heard of that. We are simply interested in the information this vault might contain. We could share it.”

“Yeah? And let you slip away with pockets stuffed full of the best stuff in there?” the man shook his head. “No way. And don’t think you’re entitled as a member of the Harmonious Citadel either. You lot lost any claim to this thing long ago. Actually… I changed my mind,” he said. Vari knew that didn’t mean he was suddenly agreeing, though. “Since it’s just you, it would be easier if you didn’t leave. And I’m interested in the collection of swords that other woman has as well.”

Vari could say she tried. She really had. But now things were out of her control. At the moment that things were shown to have broken down and that her own swords were coveted, every blade Chikere had was drawn. The drawstrings on a storage bag at her waist twisted open as she charged forward, since even the uncomfortable number of weapons carried openly was not anywhere near the limit of what she actually used.

The man was ready, his blade off his back in an amazingly swift motion. The world tore apart as he swung, his blade pulling away chunks of the structure around them as he swung it without even touching anything. Even Vari found herself pulled a half step forward. All of the blades around Chikere were yanked forward as well- but instead of gathering around the swinging sword, they orbited their way around it as Chikere angled two swords on either side of the blade of the giant weapon, causing it to shove her away instead of slicing through her. She tumbled down the corridor to the center right.

Vari was already moving as well, though slightly delayed. Spikes didn’t appear to be in motion at first, but once she saw that the structural integrity was being messed with regardless, with a howl she crossed spikes of stone through the corridor behind the center, impaling or nearly impaling a handful of individuals in the way. Some dodged backwards, others forward, but either way the two leaders were stuck with only a handful of Life Transformation cultivators- and two of the other Integration cultivators. It was still more than two to one, but the odds were much better for the moment.