Tundra watched in amusement as Tia Truehaven set off to the nearest stellar observatory that very night. He sat down, and began to read the actual text that should have been his from the start.

  She would be away for a few days, maybe even weeks, since stellar observatories do need time to check any sort of calculations.

  It would be a brief moment of peace, and so just appropriate to finally visit one of their allies.

  ***

  The Mystical Harbors Sect, led by Lucia Whisperwaters, was always a slightly smaller, more focused sect. The sect master, a mid 6th realm lady, was a feared combatant, and is considered to be a fairly skilled master of the water-element arts.

  The Great Harbor of the Mystical Harbors was, some time ago, a prosperous port. That was a very, very long time ago when the terrain was different, and when some parts of the land were nearer, and the rivers that once ran through the city were much bigger.

  Alas, cultivators and their constant wars changed that a few thousand years ago and now it is a much lesser state. The river that once ran strongly was diverted in a great war, and only a trickle flowed through their city.

  A casual walk along the streets would easily reveal the presence of ancient, well preserved buildings, some from as old as ten thousand years old.

  “I’ve been waiting for years to finally host your party!” Lucia beamed as his entourage arrived on their flying ship. “And you’re moving up in the rankings, Master Fox. Coming here with a flying ship is sure to set the tongues wagging.”

  “People talk even if nothing was done.” Tundra laughed, and returned Master Whisperwaters’ greeting.

  It wasn’t a particularly large party. His elders, Severian and Agnia, and the rest of the core and inner disciples quickly paid their respects to the Sect Master, and their host. They would stay for about a month to trade pointers, discuss matters of cultivation, and generally, make friends. Anna, Annaly, and Larian also joined the visit.

  Anna and Annaly’s presence was expected, but internally, Tundra felt Larian’s acceptance of his role and willingness to still come along was a pleasing set of development.

  “Ah, I don’t see your wives?”

  “They are all a little busy with their own matters.” Tundra said. Celestia wanted to focus on cultivation, Elly didn’t want to leave Edison unattended, and Marin seemed to have something on her mind that bothered her.

  “Interesting.” Lucia Whisperwaters smiled. Her dresses were usually prim and proper, and today was no different. She wore a dark blue outer robe that marked her position as the Sect Master, a lighter blue inner robe that’s also a protective spiritual treasure. Despite being a practitioner of the element of movement, she is an organized, neat and fairly formal person. “Come, come. Let’s start with a meal and our people can trade some pointers afterward.”

  ***

  The meal was grand, but not worth mentioning. The wine was fine, but also not worth mentioning. If there was a thing worth mentioning, Tundra figured, was what Lucia Whisperwaters asked of him.

  There, in that large dining room fit for a hundred but today hosted only eight.

  Tundra and two elders from the Verdant Leaf, and Master Whisperwaters and the four elders from the Mystical Harbors. Unlike the Verdant Leaf, three of the Mystical Harbors’ elders are in the 4th realm, and only one is in the 5th realm. The eight of them sat around a black lacquered slightly elliptical wooden table, covered with a silk red tablecloth, and there they listened to the Sect Master of the Mystical Harbors’ question.

  A favor.

  “It’s been years, decades since we became allies and friends, Master Fox. But there has been something I’ve found myself lacking. Increasingly, I suspect you can help me answer them.”

  “If it is something I am able to answer, please, Master Whisperwaters, do not hesitate.” Tundra offered. There were some things he could say.

  “Oh, it is much simpler than that.”

  She nodded and asked.

  “Fight me at full strength. Show me the strength of someone of your talents. Enlighten this old fool of the difference between those blessed by the guiding hands of heaven, and those who labored over decades.”

  Tundra blinked, and yet the table was silent. He looked around, and noticed her elders clearly already knew this was going to happen.

  “You want a fight?”

  “Ah. Is that unreasonable of me?” Lucia laughed, but hid it behind a fan.

  “No. Not at all.” Her request wasn’t unreasonable, but it has been a while since Tundra fought seriously. She wasn’t a woman who made a request if she didn’t intend to see it through.

  In his first life, the Mystical Harbors was eventually absorbed into the Verdant Snow Sect. That happened much later in his first life.

  She wasn’t even that untalented. In fact, he recalled Lucia rose at least to the high seventh realm, as a member of the larger Verdant Snow Great Sect. Many, many centuries into the future.

  If things went well, maybe this life, he could see Lucia rise into the eighth realm as well. Thoughts like this made Tundra wonder how many talents didn't reach the peak of their potential, because of encounters with misfortune and war.

  The right thing to do is to respect her request, and agree to it. In this life, if she could go further than she did before, she could be useful for the cause. “Very well, I will do so. But, if I may, can we talk about what gave rise to this?”

  “Would you walk with me, Tundra?” Lucia stood and guided Tundra. “The rest of you, enjoy your dinner, I believe this will not take all that long.”

  ***

  Tundra did not know the Mystical Harbors had a secret arena deep beneath their home city. Lucia Whisperwaters of his first life hid certain things from him. The path down into the secret arena was carved out of water, the stones smoothened by erosion.

  A cavern that was here for ages. The place was mostly quiet, the loudest sounds came from the dripping water that flowed from the various small holes and cavities in the cavern's walls. Millions ago, there was a river that flowed through these caverns, and carved these cavities out of ancient stone. Most of those ancient caverns collapsed for some reason or another, and what's left of that ancient river was now a weak trickle, a remnant stream.

  “As a cultivator, we all know we face reality on our own. That when we attempt to reach out and grab more power for ourselves, the world fights against us.” Lucia explained, as she got into position.

  So far, everything is as usual.

  “But, as we rise in power, we lose those who can show us the truth. Our followers cannot challenge our reality, because they are weaker. When we meet others and exchange pointers, most do not go all out, out of politeness and diplomacy, and most importantly, a lack of trust. Those that do go all out against us, only want to hurt us. So, if we cannot trust those that we fight with, we cannot truly bare our souls and see our own reflections.”

  Ah. Tundra nodded. In theory, she claims she needed a whetstone. Someone who knew how to hurt her in ways that would help her learn.

  There were some cultivators that sought epiphanies in the heat of battle. Some cultivators obtained theirs through meticulous meditations. Some indulge in the arts and consumption of ancient texts. Tundra’s preferred source of epiphanies were in the workshops, experimenting on materials.

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  Epiphanies are a great part of a cultivator’s discovery of the world, and themselves.

  To know is to have power.

  “All I have at my current realm are ideas, Tundra. I want to see what truly is my reality.” She stood at the center of that arena, and her left hand reached for her favourite weapon, a fan made of heavenly azurite jade. “Show me how large this gap is between us. Remind me where I am lacking.”

  Yet, he saw in Lucia's eyes and from his gut feelings that what she wanted to verify was something else altogether. Her doubt of her current strength is only a fraction of her concerns.

  Maybe, more than anything, she was worried for him. Tundra walked to his side of the arena and felt the woman release an intense aura of ice and water. Who was he to doubt his friend's resolve? So, Tundra reached into the depths of his soul, and answered her question with power. From his spirit, power flowed through his flesh and arms, and to his limbs. His fingers swirled with his intensely focused metallic energies. “I ask that you do not take this too harshly.”

  She grinned, and eagerly awaited for his coming strike. “Come.”

  The elements of metal flowed through his meridians, and before she even moved, a spear of metal energies had impaled her abdomen, not enough for it to be lethal, but enough that she was immediately flung backwards. A wall of water bubbles on the walls prevented her from smashing into the ancient cavern’s walls.

  The explosion that followed was equally swift, as the regressor followed the strike with a second attack.

  She coughed blood, and yet she looked at Tundra still defiant. It was generally seen as foolish to challenge a person that was a full realm above them.

  The spear, lodged in her abdomen, began to drain her of her spiritual energy. Her heart’s meridian glowed and exploded outwards, and destroyed the spiritual metal spear.

  But Tundra was already next to her, and his hand was on her heart, his spiritual metal energy pierced through her weakened state. The swirl of the metal energies gently touched her heart. He could feel her heart freeze, as if too shocked to react. “I believe you’ve lost, Lady Whisperwaters.”

  “Ah.” She blinked as she felt his spiritual energies momentarily hold her spiritual heart as if it was a chained prisoner. Yet, she looked happy and relieved. “I did not last beyond three moves.”

  The two landed back on the arena and he released the chains on her spiritual heart. She ate a restoration pill and the injuries on her body began to heal.

  “I am a harmless rabbit who foolishly challenged the king of the jungle.” She chuckled, as she adjusted her damaged robes. “I have much to consider about my weaknesses.”

  Tundra didn’t need to say more.

  Then, Lucia Whisperwaters said. “I am glad that your edge isn’t lost, Master Fox. You used to move with more ambition. I remember when we met five decades ago, to reformalize our old alliances, you wanted to grow your sect.”

  “I did.” Tundra blinked, surprised at the little trip down memory lane. There were things they used to say to each other that he only vaguely remembered.

  After ten thousand years, that meeting so long ago felt like a distant, faded memory. She looked wistful. “I was worried that something dulled your edge and made you adopt your current ways. You did not treat your wives and children the way you do now. I, thus, feared for the worst. But I am glad, so has there been an epiphany of some kind?”

  Ah. So even outsiders noticed. Tundra smiled weakly, and realized that was not a good sign. “The world is in turmoil, with undercurrents of darkness. Foul, corrupting darkness. A rot that spreads throughout the land.”

  Lucia laughed. “It always has. Demons, Corruption, Greedy Ministers. What else is new? Surely there is more.”

  He approached Lucia. He could recruit her. He wanted to recruit her. He knew her personality well enough to know that she wasn’t one who favored occult ideas like the Zuja, and as a fellow Sect Master, she was worldly and wise enough to keep her mouth shut.

  In fact, she even died fighting with him in his first life. “Then, Lady Whisperwaters, my old friend Lucia. What if the truth is exactly that. That a few thousand years not far from now, the world ends?”

  “All things end, eventually. Is it not inevitable?” She laughed, but stopped but realized that he meant something else altogether. “What exactly do you mean? I would appreciate it if we spoke in specifics.”

  The arena, ancient as they were, was still after the era of the primordials. Tundra smiled. In their first life, the two interacted frequently, but in hindsight, she was always a little more guarded around him. “That is just what you would say. I saw a vision, Lucia. A vision of a world consumed by a parasitic bug god that offered the temptation of power, but in exchange, those who accept the offer lose themselves to it. Those who take that power gain tremendous strength, but they are almost certainly no longer in control of their own actions.”

  “That sounds very much like demonic cultivators.”

  “But they are of a bug-origin.” Tundra said. “The Zuja. Have you heard of them?”

  The way Lucia Whisperwaters glared at him was all he needed to know. “I heard of them, here and there, but I had the impression they are weak. That they only infest the vulnerable.”

  That was because all the strong ones were hidden away. The weakness was intentional. It made them seem like a harmless threat to the demonic cultivators and the great sects, and lulled them into a sense of complacency.

  Tundra stepped closer and activated a spiritual formation meant to hide their conversation details. She blinked.

  “Wow. It’s that serious?”

  Even that was not enough. Tundra spoke to her through that spiritual transmission. He gave a brief overview, spoke about how they hide their strength and have infiltrated the various royal factions to instigate the conflict, all with the goal to weaken the strength of regular cultivators.

  “That is quite a plot. And you know them because of these- visions?”

  “Yes.”

  “If they are as powerful as you say, they are beyond even the strongest of us.” She stopped, and she looked at him.

  Tundra decided not to answer. “The path is not yet written. And as of now, we do not confront them.”

  “We.” She stopped at that word. “You sound confident I will join you in this wild hunt.”

  Tundra laughed. “Did I presume wrongly?”

  “A little bit.” The master of the Mystical Harbors said, as she suddenly attacked with a blade of water. The blade of water smashed into a wall of steel. “Is this hidden enemy why you’ve changed tactics?”

  “A little bit.” Tundra responded in kind, didn’t need to talk about the family part, and so he didn’t. He wasn’t sure she would relate, as Lucia Whisperwaters did not have children, nor did she seem interested in having her own. She was more than happy to be the generous relative, or the fun elder. “I do not think you should be attacking so soon after our earlier exchange. The wounds-”

  Lucia’s attack continued, as she blasted a few more spiritual energy-propelled jets of water. They all smashed into a wall of steel, and Tundra tapped her on the back. The bolt of paralyzing lightning made her unable to continue. “Oh? You have a hidden move.”

  “More than one.”

  “Good. Now, will you be sharing that good fortune?”

  “Oh? Is that the price to get you aboard this crazy endeavour?” Tundra countered.

  “I heard from the grapevine that you’ve been looking into bloodlines. For yourself?”

  “Maybe. Would you want one too?” Tundra thought that her question implied some interest.

  “No. Am I not too old? Wait. You have something.” Lucia began to regain some of her ability to move. She turned to face Tundra.

  “There is a technique.” Tundra didn’t have to mention he hasn’t tested it yet. “In time, and with materials. The Ancient Titans shared it with me.”

  “Ah. That explains the woman’s presence. I’ve been wondering why an alchemist of the Ancient Titans would make it a point to base themselves in your town.”

  “It is an unfortunate irritation.” Tundra sighed.

  “Irritation! And here I thought she was a marriage candidate.”

  Tundra genuinely choked. The thought of marrying Tia Truehaven never crossed his mind. Lucia smiled, and respected his response.

  "She must be a piece of work for you to react that way."

  “Think about what I’ve said.” Tundra said, ignoring her sentence and reaction, and decided to focus on the bigger picture. “I intend to move against them, but I’ll have to form alliances. I want you to be part of it.”

  “Is the Ancient Titans-”

  “Perhaps. I need to work on that a little more, but yes, I do hope to have them on the team. Let’s go back.” The regressor nodded. It would be helpful if he could get some factions within the Ancient Titans to take the matter seriously. But first, he would need to set the stage, and make some pieces sow the seeds that would lead to his desired future.

  Lucia Whisperwaters waited, and looked away. "You ask for a really difficult thing."

  Tundra laughed. "It's more than that. Much, much more than that. What I ask, perhaps, is for your life. You will most likely lose everything if you join this cause."

  The two masters of their sects allowed what they've said to sink in, but he could feel the chaos of her mind swirling.

  ***

  The rest of the visit was fairly regular. The disciples traded pointers, as they should. Anna, Annaly and Larian had an overview of how the Mystical Harbors were structured, and learned how the disciples moved up the ranks. The three participated in some practice pointers and all that.

  Tundra never brought up the matter again, and Sect Master Whisperwaters was wise enough to do the same. She would likely need to ruminate on the matter for a bit more.

  As far as he remembered, she wasn’t one that made decisions on her gut.

  Tundra and his entire party remained in the Mystical Harbors for about two weeks, and then it was time to leave, this time, to a Sect that was once their rival and maybe even an enemy. The Scarlet Thunder Sect. Scarlet Thunder and the Mystical Harbors were near to each other, hence the earlier territorial disputes.

  Now, Duke Hadrian Thunderstone offered to host them as guests.

  Tundra wondered, perhaps, if he could also recruit Duke Thunderstone for the cause. As someone who faced their attacks, perhaps he would be more inclined to join the opposing camp.