Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1222

Once Ty was close enough to get visual confirmation of the chained together asteroids that made up the Esoteric Order of the Blades base, they had probably felt his approach for some time. Some of the Alliance ships had stealth systems- his wasn’t one of those. At best, he would keep his distance and minimize his aura if he wanted to pass unnoticed.

He wasn’t trying to hide from them, though. That would be a good way to provoke a conflict, and he wasn’t planning to do that right now. If they attacked anyway? Well, he was more than ready for that. But Ty needed a sword and investigating their intentions at the same time would be optimal.

At around the point he felt tension building up in front of him, he projected his voice forward. “I don’t have any comms compatible with whatever you’re using,” he commented. “So don’t expect that to work.”

He could have, probably. But using local tech might make it seem like he was part of the establishment. Appearances were important.

It wasn’t long before Ty received a response from a powerful cultivator. He wondered if the Esoteric Order of the Blade called them Cycle cultivators as well, since they were outside the main body of the Origin Cycle.

“We have heard of your presence as of late,” the man’s voice said. “Why have you come here?”

“That’s easy. You have swords. I want a sword. Seems like a simple solution. What’s your name? I’m Ty Quigley.”

“Ejike. I am the leader of this Esoteric Order.”

Ty thought it would be really difficult to redirect the movement of the whole chained-asteroid thing. Rather than a mobile base, it was more of a structure that happened to not be locked into a proper orbit. They would need significant advance notice to avoid any incoming assault force, unless he was missing something.

His ship matched the velocity of the base about a hundred kilometers out, hanging at the same relative distance. “I’m sure you have spare weapons. I’d like to buy or trade for one. Or if you could reforge and repair the enchantments on my blade, that would do just as well.”

He didn’t get a good response for a while. He could feel people shuffling around- because of the swords they carried with him. Ty was tempted to pry into what they were saying, but he kept his energy politely placed. He was kind of annoyed it was taking so long to say one of ‘yeah, we can get you a sword’ or ‘go away’. Ty wondered if he would have to go directly to plan B.

But eventually, Ejike responded. “Fine. You can land on the fourth sector.”

Ty had no idea what that was, but fortunately Ejike was thinking enough to vaguely point with his energy. “I’ll begin my approach right away,” Ty replied.

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He noticed quite a few people converging on that location as he approached. He didn’t let it bother him. He was probably of interest to the locals, so either they were coming to check him out or try to kill him. Either one was fine.

Ejike was a short and wide fellow, bearing a large two-handed straight blade. It was kept sheathed on his back, like all of the other weapons around them, but Ty knew it would only be a single moment before the weapons could be brought to bear.

The man looked over Ty- and his ship. Finally, his eyes settled on the sword at his side. “We’ll go to the vaults. Leave that piece of junk behind.”

Suspicious. This guy was really making Ty lean towards plan B- or D. “Sure thing,” he said, casually tossing it into the open cockpit. He’d already left the ship in ready mode. “I’m sure your vault is full of wonders.”

The man still looked suspiciously at Ty- probably sensing his projectile launchers. Guns, if he was being vague. They just weren’t like most guns, since they had neither standard bullets nor were they lasers or beams. Instead, they would fire razor discs.

Ejike seemed to think the risk was low enough. “This way.”

They began entering the building, then walking down stairs that took them deeper into the asteroid. Ty took note of the artificial gravity- it certainly wasn’t unique, but it said something that even an isolated group like this had access to such things.

Many solid doors closing behind them. Formations. Tech stuff. A secure vault. Also a good place to murder someone, if you wanted to do that.

They hadn’t even gotten to the vault when someone touched Ty’s ship. He cut off their hand. Ty wondered if Ejike still had contact with the surface. Ty wouldn’t be able to sense anything there with the layered formations except for his bond to that very ship.

Nobody was stupid enough to touch the ship for a while. Ty did sense that they were nearing some sort of actual vault with a trove of swords, so maybe it was just some fool on the surface and not a scheme.

A hundred different weapons were displayed in various manners. Some lay flat on a surface, other hung from the wall. Some had sheathes, some did not. There were curved swords, shortswords, and two handed blades. Each was different in some important way.

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They probably weren’t as high of quality as Ejike’s sword, but it would be weird if a sect head was leaving the best weapons locked up in their vault instead of… using them. “See anything that catches your eye?” Ejike asked.

Ty was fond of curved blades- and slashing. He could use thrusting swords as well, but his style wasn’t as focused on that. Of course, there were plenty of weapons that could do both, but they all had an emphasis on a certain style.

He began to approach the one that stood out to him the most. That was when someone tried to activate some sort of formation to restrict his ship. He immediately kicked it into full activity, pulling it away from the asteroid.

“I like this one, I think,” Ty said. “How much would this be?”

“Well,” Ejike stroked his chin. “Given that it’s one of the best blades in the system and we’re the only real option… it’s going to have to be everything.”

Killing intent was not at all a surprise to Ty. Nor did he feel particularly suppressed. In fact, as blades were drawn into direct attacks around him, he raised his own killing intent, forcing his foes to hesitate.

Plan B it was. His ship was facing point downward, and he accelerated at a truly irresponsible level. He reached out for the blade… then dodged around the pedestal as attacks rained down. Ty took clear notice of how everyone avoided actually striking the pedestal.

The earth trembled. Ty’s ship sliced through the surrounding barriers. Several tons of rubble fell on the pedestal, which exploded in all directions. Ty was already behind half of the attackers when that happened, dancing among their swings. There were just a few Cycle cultivators among them… but he sensed many more throughout the Sect.

He might be able to take them all down, but that was plan C. Plan B was first. Ty kicked the wing of his ship to pop it out of the ground where it was half-buried. He grabbed the sword he wanted, chopping at the remaining formations that tried to activate once more. That particular blade still suited him better than any of the others, even if Ejike’s sword was higher quality. Maybe someone else in the sect would have something, but he didn’t have the time at the moment.

His ship spun, its bladed wings pushing people back as Ty leapt into it. “If that’s your price, I’ll have to return it in full. Have fun losing everything.”

Unsurprisingly, Ty’s ship wasn’t meant to fly inside. The thrust it created blasted things off of pedestals, triggering a few dozen more defensive formations. Ty wasn’t certain, but he thought that they could have been set up more… safely. Then again, maybe these guys didn’t care about that. Too bad for some of the swords, though. They were pulverized by the traps.

A bunch of disciples died too, but nobody cared about them.

A brave soul tried to stop Ty on his way out. They were rapidly impaled on the point of his ship, and a flip threw them off. Any one of these people Ty could take on easily… and even when surrounded, he could focus on single individuals well enough to bring them down.

His ship suddenly slowed down as he drew away from the asteroids. Pretty much instantly local ships were chasing after him. That was… exactly what he wanted. Though he really hoped they would redirect their whole base. Plan B relied on that. Plan D, too. “It’s gonna take your whole sect to catch me, fools!”

Taunting would tell them exactly what he wanted… but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t work. Ty also gave them some encouragement by taking some shots rearward, launched blades slicing through enemy ships. A few cultivators parried his attacks, but more fell under the assault. No sect wanted to go all in against a single individual, but if they had to they would. Letting him go would be a stain to their reputation… if they had any.

Ty had slightly hoped that they wouldn’t be huge jerks. But this result was fine. He continued forward, making certain that there were at least a couple ships chasing after him. His ship settled on a lone asteroid. He wondered if his approach had been too obvious.

The Esoteric Order ships withdrew. Ty wondered if they were just going to leave, or if they would lead others after him. It would be a shame if they were level-headed. He should have stolen some more things. Maybe cut off one of Ejike’s fingers.

He kept his senses open as his ship repeatedly yelled at him. He knew it was a danger zone, but he didn’t want to stop it from individual pings. Keeping track of quantity might be important.

Ty looked off into space. He wasn't even that close. Maybe he should have scouted out the location first. Then again, that would have doubly risked drawing attention. It wasn’t unwanted… just not yet.

A few hours later, Ty decided he was a tactical genius. At least, when facing individuals with very specific personalities. The whole chained-together base was flying at him. The entire sect. Ty used a bit of his energy to nudge his personal asteroid towards his final destination. He would arrive about the same time as the pursuers caught him.

He took deep breaths, centering himself. He wasn’t afraid, but there was a certain caution that must be had when dealing with unknowns. More threats were registered, one or two at a time.

It was a big nest. No wonder there was so much trouble for the system. Ty would have offered to send some exterminators in, but the system was currently isolated and all that. So he brought some friends and maybe they’d make a dent in things.

Ty amplified his sword intent to try to overwhelm the senses of those behind him. It might have worked. Either way, they focused on him enough that they didn’t even notice the distortion beasts until one of them stabbed a horn into one of their asteroids.

Several tried to devour Ty at a similar moment. He took off, weaving among the horde of foes. He wondered if multidimensional creatures like them could bump into each other. Ty had a feeling the answer was yes, because he faced attacks that conformed to various patterns indicating at most one or two of them attacking him at a time.

Plan B stood for distortion Beasts. Plan D was of course Distortion beasts. He figured that if the Esoteric Order was a pain, then he might as well take them out while helping to deal with another problem. The locals weren’t willing to visit the nest even though it had been discovered.

They wanted to avoid provoking the beasts. That seemed like a reasonable option, but with the nest drifting towards their planets they really couldn’t afford to sit on their hands. So even if the beasts swarmed, they’d probably devour fewer planets this way. Ty might not make many friends here… but everything made sense in his head. And his intuition wasn’t bad, no matter what people might think of sword cultivators’ recklessness.