Anticipation. That was what Catarina felt as she let energy flow into the formation in front of her. If she was making use of the solar platform for precisely its standard functions, she would have no reason to feel much of anything except confidence. She knew it would work as designed, as it had done so before she reached Domination and had continued to do so afterwards.
But seeing Timothy break rules even normal cultivators had to deal with had inspired her to try more radical things herself. If all that happened with Domination was that her fighting abilities rose another level, Catarina would be extremely disappointed. Combat was never the goal. Even when trying to survive against invading armies, Catarina wouldn’t reach for her sword first.
It was much better to concoct a situation where there couldn’t even be combat. To win before a battle could begin. That hadn’t quite worked against Zaur Beridze, but they had at least achieved the possibility of victory beforehand, which wouldn’t have otherwise existed without formations.
But formations were good for more things than just winning. They had massive utility, and while Catarina thought they had tapped into most of what was possible, she certainly didn’t believe that everything had been achieved. And there might be a few things that simply required extra power.
The formation in front of her was almost fully powered, but Catarina’s energy wasn’t just flowing into it but through her. Unlike Chidi, she hadn’t created specific permanent formations inside of herself, but she could replicate certain applications temporarily with her understanding and sufficient power. Moreso at Domination, where power felt almost limitless.
Power surged and the world shifted in front of her eyes, resolving into... nothing. Or rather, a field of stars around her as was the case anywhere that could see the sky and wasn’t overwhelmed by other light. But nothing of note within a few lightyears. She was between systems, away from anything.
Exactly as intended. That was step one functioning. She did some basic calculations with known stars just to make certain she ended up in the right place- otherwise she wouldn’t want to attempt the next stage of her experiments. To the level of precision her calculations could be accurate, she was confident she had appeared in the correct location. That was important, because for the second step being a tenth of a percent off in the wrong direction would be extremely awkward.
She probably wouldn’t die if she ended up inside a star or buried at the core of a planet, but it was better to not have to test things like that.
Catarina then repeated the process in reverse, activating a temporary formation around and within herself formed of pure energy- but much more solid than she could have previously created. She had a few thoughts about that, but they would be considered in more detail later. First she called out to one of the platforms bound to her, activating it with her energy.
Once again the world shifted, and she was in an entirely different system than when she’d first begun her journey. That wasn’t weird, since they’d been able to perform interstellar teleportation for some time, but being able to go to a somewhat arbitrary location from a proper platform and then to arrive at a different one was new.
So that worked. Now she just had to determine if she could bring anyone else safely. She’d start with her extremely durable husband, just in case. After that, she needed to determine if it was possible to teleport to locations she hadn’t bound. And if it seemed feasible at the end of things, replicating the process entirely without a physical medium on either end, taking advantage of the spatial manipulations around the Scarlet Alliance’s territory.
That last thing was currently more likely than not to fail, but Catarina didn’t know how rules-breakingly powerful Domination might be. Zaur might have wielded his power more like a nearly limitless lake of energy, but that didn’t mean that was all it was good for.
-----
Anton would have thought that plant cultivators would love the rainy season- and some of them certainly did- but some of his watch targets clearly didn’t. So far he had less than a hemisphere to watch over, so the rainy season began at fairly similar times based on the particular climates involved.
Moturn was lucky in that most drugs came from plants that hadn’t survived the emergency transplantation of civilization. However, there were some that made it, and there were other things with legitimate uses that could be abused. Often, people didn’t realize they were becoming addicted to something until too late, at which point rational thoughts didn’t really work to stop them.
Cultivation could surpass that- or make it worse, as someone could survive far more. Abder had been lucky to avoid getting into anything- mostly because he couldn’t steal anything and he certainly hadn’t been able to afford it. Some others had, and for many the treatment was still ongoing. But stories of success and advice from those who had made it through had changed many.
Abder brought in anyone and found someone to help their particular issues. Sometimes, money was a solution. Resources to provide shelter, food, and then training to be able to do something. Finding things people enjoyed was the best, because enjoying daily work led to an overall better life experience. Having the freedom of choice and access to learning was a luxury, but it was one that could be provided through the care of people who understood what it was like.
There were a few rare individuals- very few- who refused to work. They were content with meagre subsistence. Abder didn’t think that was the natural state of humans. Work on its own wasn’t some sort of glorious thing, but seeing something produced by your own hands was a joy that could be repeated. His belief that everyone could find something that fit them if given the chance was inherited from Anton, of course.
The few who didn’t put in the effort to grow even when given every opportunity were usually broken by the world. Everyone was, to some extent, but not everything could be fixed. Or rather, knowing what could be done with cultivation, Abder understood that sometimes it simply couldn’t be done yet. Nobody could cure every physical or mental ailment, but things could be learned one at a time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always in time for certain individuals to be helped.
-----
Anchors were on the mind of most Augmentation cultivators. Velvet knew that, because the possibilities were always on her mind, and she consulted with the others quite often.
For a while, Velvet had wanted nothing as her anchor. Or the concept or nothing. Or the void between stars. However, while concepts were good for earlier cultivation, there was a certain level of physicality that Domination required. Or at least, based on what they knew.
Velvet considered a particular vessel containing a vacuum, but that still didn’t work. She didn’t really want emptiness, just stealth. Ratna did just fine hiding behind space and the like. The details of her anchor were unfortunately vague at best, though that was actually an encouragement to Velvet in some ways.
Domination cultivators needed devotion, but that meant their anchors didn’t always have to be known. Perhaps it made them stronger, perhaps not. That wasn’t something they had been able to discuss with anyone at length, and their pair of new Domination cultivators were both known to pretty much everyone so they couldn’t test anything.
Nothingness might be valid for someone else, somehow, but Velvet had moved on from that. After all, the basis of her cultivation was still the One Hundred Stars, and the concept of light. Light was physical, but usually transitory. Then again, wasn’t everything? If trying to find the oldest thing in the universe, particular motes of light would likely be the winners. Maybe elementary particles, but even those didn’t always retain their form forever.
But light from distant stars could be billions of years old. So worrying about the fact that it was temporary was a bit less relevant than whether she could actually use it as an anchor at all. And if she did, would her source of power be constantly shifting? If so, what would that mean?
Maybe she should pick a nice cave. They were kind of sneaky. But if that worked, it would be a mediocre anchor at best- and that might be worse than not advancing at all.