Chapter 489: No Longer a Backwater

Adrian turned away from the recording device as the station's protective formations settled into a steady glow. Disciples were moving through the docking sections again, checking on one another and answering the messages arriving from headquarters. After confirming that everyone had been accounted for, including those he had moved out of the brothers' control, Adrian sent Hestia a brief report.

Xeolze brought his ship toward an empty berth while remaining inside the closed control cabin. Adrian had no intention of letting the nearby recording devices capture an Elyrian associated with Aeon's actions in Providence Hub. Their communication remained private, and no one emerged from the vessel when its boarding hatch opened.

"Come with me," Adrian told the brothers. "We will continue our discussion at headquarters."

Rethan descended toward the platform with Oskel beside him. Neither argued as Adrian led them aboard, and the hatch closed behind all three. The ship withdrew from the station and joined the route toward Sanguis Prime while the reporter continued recording its departure.

…

At Thousand Veils headquarters, Nightshade sat before a projection of that same vessel leaving the station. He had only recently returned from discussing Andromeda's safety with Hestia and Adrian. Several of the leaders who had asked him to carry their concerns were already sending messages about what they had just watched.

Elder Kaevryn stood across the desk, reading the latest account. "The disciples have all been released. The branch is reporting that it can resume business."

Nightshade nodded, but his attention remained on the two men in the earlier recording. Both had entered Andromeda confident enough to seize a Crimson Vital branch, but now they were leaving it under Adrian's supervision, without having managed a single effective attack against him.

A new notification appeared beside the recording. The reporter's own network had published an explanation of the encounter, available through one of the premium services Nightshade subscribed to. He opened it, expecting it to be locked for him since this included Astral Stage beings.

Instead, it was actually available for him, and the first section explained what the Astral Stage truly meant. Nightshade leaned closer as he read. He already knew that an Astral foundation came from joining two completed Divine Concepts, giving the cultivator a stronger combined concept. However, the report moved past that familiar explanation and described another part of the advancement, one that had repeatedly frustrated his attempts to learn more.

Astral advancement awakened consciousness and allowed willforce to be shaped into deliberate attacks and defenses. From there, consciousness could be developed through stages of its own. The first was called Chime, followed by Anchor, where the mind became far denser and more stable.

He moved down the report slowly, expecting the next section to disappear behind a restriction. But it remained open. The explanation continued beneath his hand, accompanied by references to the brothers' known histories.

For a moment, Nightshade stopped reading. He had searched for this kind of information before, following references through forums and paid services until he reached the records that seemed most likely to answer his questions. Again and again, those records had required Privileged UNI-Authority. Paying for a network subscription had never been enough to pass that final barrier.

He returned to the beginning and read the distinction again. He had usually judged the gap between Astrals through their Divine Concepts and the techniques they possessed. Even when he encountered references to consciousness stages, he had lacked enough knowledge to understand their importance. Now those scattered pieces finally began to fit together, without the Privileged UNI-Authority that had kept the explanations out of his reach.

"Have a look at this," he said, turning a second copy toward Kaevryn. "Start with the explanation of consciousness. We are finally getting access to information we have not been allowed before."

Kaevryn began reading while Nightshade returned to the section about the brothers. A cultivator needed more than a powerful Divine Concept to act. Gathering essence, maintaining a domain, using their authority, and directing an attack all depended upon the mind giving those commands. A willforce technique could interfere with that process before the victim managed to use the strength they possessed.

The report connected this to the recording. The brothers' domains had remained around the station while their movements faltered. There was no visible exchange of spells explaining their distress, yet both had struggled to remain upright before surrendering. Those signs supported the reporter's judgment that Adrian had attacked their consciousness directly.

And the interesting fact was that neither opponent had been an inexperienced Astral. Their histories placed them at Anchor for millions of years, with battles and completed assignments across several galaxies. Their minds had been developed and defended through that long cultivation, and still, Adrian had forced both to surrender while facing them alone.

Nightshade now understood why the report treated the encounter as something extraordinary. The two men had possessed the power to devastate the station, but neither had been able to use it against the person standing below them.

Kaevryn reached the same part of the explanation and looked up. "They could still hold the disciples, but trying to attack him would have made it harder to defend their minds?"

"That appears to be what happened," Nightshade replied. "They had to put everything they could into resisting him, and it still was not enough." He glanced at the station visible behind them. "I have never seen anyone make two cultivators with their history surrender like this."

The report offered no method for reaching Anchor and no instructions for creating a willforce technique. Nightshade nevertheless read several passages again. Even this much gave shape to a part of cultivation that had remained unclear to him despite all the years he had spent at Peak Rule.

The publication page for this story was copied without permission. Reading it where the author posts supports them.

His gaze moved to the network's name above the report. Its reporter had come to Andromeda to cover Crimson Vital's healing artifacts. Now the same visit had produced an account important enough for that network to explain a subject many local leaders knew almost nothing about. Crimson Vital's growth was already changing what reached their galaxy.

For so long, Andromeda had been a backwater where Minor Sects fought over the same territories while larger powers remained distant names. Now those powers were taking an interest in their businesses, and outside networks were following events here. People with knowledge and experience far beyond their own had reasons to visit, trade, and remain in contact.

Nightshade looked at the report again, thinking of the disciples training within his own sect. They could now learn something he had spent years trying to understand. If Crimson Vital continued to grow, how much more would become available to them? What he had just read might be only the first small part of the change coming to Andromeda.

Kaevryn lowered his copy. "The leaders who contacted you need to read this. Most of them will only have seen the recording."

"They will," Nightshade replied, opening Andromeda's local forum. "And so should everyone else who has been trying to understand it."

He attached a full copy of the report, keeping the network's source visible, and added the recording. Many Lesser Minor Sect leaders did not have subscriptions to many premium services like him. Sending them its name alone would leave the explanation beyond their reach, so he placed the contents directly into his public post and forwarded it to the leaders who had contacted him.

He added a short note about his recent meeting. Crimson Vital had promised to protect the local sects, preserve their existing trade agreements, and prevent stronger outsiders from forcing terms upon them. The station incident showed how seriously Adrian intended to enforce that promise. He also urged the leaders to share the explanation with their disciples, so the knowledge reaching Andromeda could benefit their people as well.

Nightshade returned to the final warning in the recording. Adrian had addressed everyone watching, and his protection extended to people who would never be strong enough to face men like those brothers themselves. The leaders who had spoken to Nightshade no longer had to judge that promise from words alone.

"Bring me the outside trade proposals we set aside," he said to Kaevryn. "We should go through them again. There may be good opportunities among them."

"Some of those merchants represent much stronger sects."

"I know. That was why we hesitated." Nightshade glanced toward the report as the first replies appeared beneath his post. "We should still examine their terms carefully. But they can no longer force us to accept whatever they offer."

…

Copies of Nightshade's post spread through Andromeda's local forums as the leaders who received it passed it on. In sect halls and trading stations, people who had already watched the surrender began reading an explanation of what had taken place. Some returned to the recording immediately, following the brothers' movements with a very different understanding.

Knowledge of consciousness cultivation had mostly been absent from Andromeda. Mostly only some names and rumors had travelled across Andromeda without any clear explanations.

And now, Nightshade's post carried the explanation to people who would never have opened the original report. For many smaller sects, it was the first clear account they had received of the consciousness stages that Astrals could pursue.

At one Lesser Minor Sect's headquarters, a leader read the report twice before calling back the elders who had gathered to discuss the seizure. Earlier, they had been worried that their own disciples might face the same thing. Now he showed them the explanation and replayed Adrian's warning, letting them hear exactly whom he had promised to protect.

In a trading hall, merchants gathered around a display that had been left running since the first news of the hostage-taking. When the image reached the brothers boarding the ship, cheers rose from several of the counters. A merchant who had been calling his staff back from an outside negotiation sent another message, telling them to continue their discussion.

Disciples shared the recording with friends on other worlds, adding Nightshade's post when someone asked why the brothers had barely fought back. Relief spread through the conversations, followed by laughter and excited arguments about the visitors their galaxy might receive. People who had feared that attention now began talking about what they could build with it.

While those discussions continued, Crimson Vital's public UNI-Market index changed. Its index value had crossed the hundred-and-fifty-point threshold. Beside its name, the official classification now read Lesser Major Sect!

Till now, even though the Crimson Vital sect had Adrian, an Anchor Stage being, and even Hestia at Astral Stage, its index stood around a hundred and twenty-six points, with the official classification of Upper Minor Sect.

Its businesses and trade connections had since expanded, and recent reports had revealed how far its disciples had advanced. The index weighed all of that alongside its resources, infrastructure, and stability. Adrian's victory now supplied clear evidence that the sect could protect what it had built, carrying its growing score beyond the required threshold.

Images of the updated entry soon appeared beside the report. Leaders opened the listing themselves to confirm it, while the news brought another round of celebration to the crowded displays. Andromeda now had an officially recognized Lesser Major Sect ruling it, and its people had just seen what that sect was willing to do for those under its protection.

…

Beyond Andromeda, the transmission had already reached networks serving the surrounding galaxies. Copies circulated through Kyros, Vanguard, and Oryx, drawing further attention from the regions ruled by Starlight Sanctum, Cerulean Spear, and Veiled Horizon. Adrian's warning accompanied the brothers' surrender wherever the recording went.

In Valtheris, Orveth remained seated upon the circular platform within Ebon Meridian headquarters. His single golden eye followed Rethan and Oskel into the ship, and one of his four hands stopped above the agreement open beside him.

He had believed his envoy's account of Adrian's consciousness. Now, watching two seasoned Anchors surrender made the danger far easier to judge. Had he tried to collect the covenant's original demands by force, his own people could have been taken prisoner.

The modest agreement had been the right choice. It gave his sect an accepted place in Andromeda without requiring him to challenge the power he had just witnessed. He left his earlier instructions unchanged: ordinary trade, patient contact, and no demands beyond the agreed terms.

Yet, even after seeing such things, his interest in Crimson Vital only kept growing. The organization that stood behind Crimson Vital possessed advantages worth years of careful effort, and his office would give him time to learn what those advantages were. The Solvaren Clan also remained under Ebon Meridian's authority. Hestia had secured protections for its people, but their obligations had not disappeared, and neither had her concern for them.

Orveth closed the recording and brought the agreement closer. He intended to keep those protections intact while gaining whatever he could from the relationship. Hestia's attachment had already brought her to the negotiating table once. With the clan still under his authority, he was confident that he could keep her there without pushing her too far.