Chương 94: Two Sides

The next field trip brought them to Fort Cambridge in the Boston Catacombs. Mr. Morimoto had different goals for his three students. The Napa vineyard had taught derivation through comparison. Fort Cambridge would teach them the difficulties formation masters faced when drawing formations designed by higher realm cultivators. Their job this time was to help Boston Command with land reclamation.

Decades of Corporate Bombout Raiders deploying Atomic Qi Bombs had turned the surface of the Catacombs into irradiated wasteland. The contamination ran deeper than physical radiation. The ambient qi itself had been poisoned. Spirit veins radiated ambient qi into their surrounding territory in proportion to their strength. A Tier 3 vein like the one anchoring Fort Cambridge saturated the immediate area with Tier 2 ambient qi. Farther from the source, the concentration dropped to Tier 1.

This diffuse energy couldn't advance a cultivator's realm. Breaking through realms required direct access to pure spirit vein energy. But ambient qi served a different purpose. Spiritual crops captured and stored the diffuse energy, and cultivators ate the harvest to maintain their cultivation and prevent regression. The atomic contamination poisoned this cycle. Crops planted in contaminated soil absorbed radioactive qi strands.

Cultivators who ate the harvest pulled the isotopes into their own dantians, where the accumulated radiation would poison them from within. For years, Earth had ignored the problem. The poisoned soil held only Tier 1 ambient qi, and Earth possessed sufficient Qi Refining cultivation resources. Recent campaigns changed the calculation. Earth's forces had captured several recondensed Tier 3 spirit veins. These high-grade veins radiated Tier 2 ambient qi into their surrounding territory.

Tier 2 ambient qi meant Tier 2 spiritual wheat, which could support Foundation Establishment cultivators and ease the constant pressure on Earth's limited spirit vein access. Reclamation required purification formations applied acre by acre. Isotope Binding Complex Arrays could filter the contamination, but each array had to be calibrated to the specific mixture of isotopes present in that particular stretch of earth. The radioactive qi itself accelerated formation decay.

Arrays that might function for years under normal conditions degraded in days. The only way the land could be reclaimed was through perfect custom formations. Leo was proud to be here. The work was difficult, but he felt like he was finally contributing to society. Every acre they reclaimed meant Earth could maintain two or three more Foundation Establishment cultivators. What confused him was everyone else. Ella worked just as hard as he did, if not harder. And Thad had been enthusiastic all day. Thad.

Enthusiastic about formations. Leo couldn't wrap his head around it. The sun had set by the time they returned to Fort Cambridge. Their private residence was a converted officer's quarters, three small bedrooms branching off a common sitting room. The military had cleared out most of the furniture, leaving only essentials. Leo collapsed onto the couch. His divine sense ached from a full day of formation work. Ella settled into one of the chairs and pulled out her phone to check something.

Thad raided the small kitchen area and returned with three cans of soda.

"Good day." Thad tossed cans to each of them.

"We purified, what, a quarter acre?" Leo caught his drink but didn't open it. He turned it over in his hands, watching condensation form on the can.

"Hey, so..." He trailed off. Ella glanced up.

"Hmm?"

"Never mind."

"What is it?" Leo shifted on the couch.

"It's stupid."

"Most questions are." Ella smiled slightly.

"Ask anyway."

"Okay." Leo took a breath.

"Why are you two working so hard on this?" Ella tilted her head.

"On the reclamation?"

"All of this." Leo gestured vaguely.

"The reclamation. The formations. You've been at it all day. And Thad was actually taking notes during the lectures."

"Hey," Thad protested.

"I take notes sometimes."

"Your notebook was empty before today." Thad shrugged and took a long drink of soda. Leo turned back to Ella.

"I just don't get it. Why are you both working so hard on this?" Ella studied him for a moment.

"Leo. Are you asking why we, the divine children of the Oblivion Cult, are helping you, Earth, reclaim irradiated land you own in the Catacombs?" Leo felt his face heat up.

"When you put it like that..."

"Yes?"

"... yeah. That's what I'm asking." Ella set her phone down on the armrest. She leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

"You're thinking too small."

"How so?"

"You see two sides. Earth and the Catacombs. Enemies." She shook her head.

"I see a longer timeline." Leo frowned.

"There's a sizeable faction in the Cult. We call them the doves. They believe that over the next few hundred years, Earth will be absorbed and integrated into the Catacombs. This isn't the first time a realm has been absorbed. Earth won't be the last."

"Eventually, the two sides will have to learn to coexist." Ella spread her hands.

"The doves want that integration to be peaceful rather than violent." Leo sat up straighter.

"So you're saying the war is pointless?"

"I'm saying that this is how it has worked in the past. How wars with other realms have gone." Ella's expression turned thoughtful.

"Let me ask you something. What do you think happens if Earth wins? If somehow you seize the Tier 6 spirit vein and defeat the Eternal?" Leo blinked. He had never really thought that far ahead. The war had always seemed like something that would continue indefinitely.

"I don't know. Maybe instead of worshiping the Oblivion Cult, people in the Catacombs would say the Pledge of Allegiance?" Thad snorted. Ella shook her head slowly.

"No. Once your cultivators advance into Void Refining, they will realize they need faith power to maintain their cultivation at that level. And what better source of faith power is there than a ready-made religious institution with millions of devoted followers?" Leo's mouth opened. Then closed.

"Even if Earth wins," Ella continued, "the most likely outcome is that the Oblivion Cult grows and absorbs part of America. The structure remains. The hierarchy remains. The only thing that changes is the person at the top." She gestured at the walls around them, at the Fort, at the Catacombs beyond.

"To the people of the Catacombs, and even to myself, very little would change. We've seen this before." She paused.

"In fact, our divine bloodline has no relation to the current Eternal. We're descended from the previous one. The one he replaced hundreds of years ago." The room went quiet. Leo stared at her.

"Wait. Your ancestor wasn't the current Eternal? He died and was replaced?"

"Her. And yes." Ella shrugged.

"Power changes hands. The Cult endures. That's how it has always worked." She gestured toward the window, toward the darkness outside where their newly purified land waited for spiritual crops.

"All this land will eventually belong to the Oblivion Cult anyway. One way or another. At least you Earthlings know to clean up your own messes." Leo didn't know what to say. His can crinkled in his grip.

"And we aren't the only ones working toward peace," Ella continued.

"Earth has a dove faction too. They brought us here. The Thousand Talents Program. Wasn't that their initiative?" Leo winced.

"I thought I was influential in defeating that. It never made it out of committee." Ella's eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Fine. The Two Talents Program, then."

"That's not..."

"Leo." She leaned back in her chair.

"If anything, we aren't the ones helping the enemy. You are. You brought us here. You're training us in your formation techniques. You're letting us help with military infrastructure." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it She waved at the room around them.

"The reclamation work. The Grand Formations Summit itself. It's all just a way for Earth to get used to coexisting with the Catacombs. Your dove faction is building bridges." She looked at him.

"And you are walking across them." Leo's chest felt tight. He had wanted to do something good today. Reclaim some land. Help the war effort. Instead he felt like a piece on a board again.

"I don't know what to think," he admitted. Thad pushed himself off the wall where he had been leaning and crossed the room. He dropped onto the couch next to Leo and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Then don't."

"What?"

"The politics. The grand designs. The schemes of the people above." Thad shook his head.

"That stuff will drive you crazy."

"But Ella just said..."

"Ella said a lot of things. She's smart like that." Thad grinned at his sister, who rolled her eyes.

"But here's what I know. Cultivation is a struggle. You fight. You advance. You get stronger. You protect the people next to you." He squeezed Leo's shoulder.

"Everything else is semantics and framing. That's why I don't think about it. I want to fight. See an enemy, beat an enemy. Simple." Leo looked at him.

"Is it really that simple for you?"

"Yeah." Thad didn't hesitate.

"Politics is pointless. The divines will do what they want regardless of what we think. Better to focus on getting stronger. That's the only thing you can actually control." Ella must have seen something in Leo's expression.

"Leo. The people here aren't fighting for nothing. If Earth surrendered tomorrow, everyone in this fort would live out their lives at their current cultivation level. That's why your soldiers are fighting. That's why our soldiers are fighting. They're fighting for the chance to advance. To grow stronger. That's their journey to longevity." Leo was quiet for a while. Then a thought occurred to him.

"What happens if we meet each other? In the Catacombs. On opposite sides." Thad grinned.

"We fight and the loser surrenders gracefully." Despite everything, Leo felt himself smile.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." Thad extended his hand.

"Deal?" Leo looked at the offered hand. Then he clasped it firmly.

"Deal." They shook.

"Besides," Thad added, still gripping Leo's hand, "although my mom and Ella don't let me have much pocket money, I can easily afford the handful of spiritstones you Americans consider a ransom."

Azure Profound Continent A few days later, Leo received a message from Vivian. Something important had come up in the Azure Profound Continent. It took a few more days for everyone to coordinate their respawn timers. Once they all aligned, Leo found an empty VR pod at Fort Cambridge and logged in. He flew over to the excavation camp and found the others already gathered beneath a canvas awning, sitting together at a table drinking tea. Shen Tianyi rose to greet him with a short bow.

"Leo Chen. I appreciate you coming so quickly. There have been developments." Leo took a seat and accepted the cup of tea Vivian pushed toward him. The warmth settled into his hands as Tianyi began to explain. The Iron Rhinoceros Sect had sent a messenger three days prior. The upcoming war with the Western Seat had prompted the sects of the Lanternmarches to begin planning retreat paths. The Savage Mountains presented an obvious barrier.

The beast kings who controlled those peaks tolerated small groups of wandering cultivators, but they would never permit humans to establish any meaningful presence in their territory. This left two options for any large-scale retreat. The first was the perilous journey across the mountains themselves, a path that claimed lives even in peacetime. The second was to find a place where the beasts themselves dared not tread. The area surrounding the Karma Severing Sect Profundity was exactly such a place.

Tianyi spread a scroll across the table, revealing detailed plans for a settlement called Stonehaven. The schematics showed walls, defensive formations, residential districts, and agricultural zones spreading outward from a central plaza.

"They intend to build right next to the profundity," Tianyi said.

"The beasts know that lingering near the profundity invites misfortune. The humans fleeing the war will take that chance and hope the confounding formation keeps them safe." Arthur's fist came down on the table hard enough to rattle the teacups.

"We were here first! We spent months excavating that field. I must have died hundreds of times clearing those wheat stalks. Hundreds! And now they just waltz in and take over?" Mike set down his tea with careful deliberation.

"Arthur. The Iron Rhinoceros Sect gave us the location in the first place. We wouldn't even know this profundity existed without their information."

"So what? Are you just going to roll over and let them take our merit?" Arthur's face had gone red.

"The merit we earned with our blood and sweat?" Tianyi raised a hand, and Arthur fell silent.

"I have already addressed this. Would I let someone steal the rice from my own pot? Rest assured, your merit is protected." He reached into his sleeve and produced a jade slip, its surface covered in dense script.

"I presented the Iron Rhinoceros Sect with a complete accounting of our methodology. Every step walked. Every technique refined. Every formation schematic, the Breaching Cylinder included. Nothing was held back." Arthur's mouth opened to protest, but Tianyi continued before he could speak.

"This serves your interests, Arthur. I described our methods in excruciating detail precisely so that the Heavenly Dao will recognize them as our creation. If others use the techniques we developed, the merit will still flow to us." Arthur settled down. He stroked his chin, working through the implications.

"So every time someone uses our methods to harvest that wheat..."

"The Heavenly Dao remembers those who first opened the way." Tianyi smiled.

"Your labor bears fruit even when others do the picking." Arthur settled back in his chair, mollified.

"Well. When you put it that way." Leo had been listening quietly, but a question had been forming in his mind.

"What about the other rewards? When we killed Luo Mingxia, we recovered her heart and the Singular Formation. If they build a city here and start clearing more of the profundity, won't they claim those kinds of treasures?" Tianyi shook his head slowly.

"Consider the name of this place, Leo Chen. The Karma Severing Sect Profundity. Not the Strange Wheat Field Profundity. Profundities are not named carelessly." He gestured toward the confounding formation, a giant wall of fog that hid the profundity and his wheat field.

"Monarch Scatterstraw is merely the dog guarding the gate. The true profundity lies deeper still, and if the historical records speak true, we may end up uncovering the remnants of a Great God. A Void Refining realm cultivator, in your terminology." The words hung in the air. Even Arthur looked slightly pale.

"Slaying the Monarch might yield a straw hat. The real prize would be access to whatever Tier Five spirit veins that sustain him." Tianyi's expression grew distant.

"Though even that may prove hollow. If such a vein were exposed, the beast kings would descend upon it eventually. What use is warming yourself by a fire that belongs to someone else? Sooner or later, the owner returns." Kevin stopped his pacing.

"So what do we do? Just pack up and leave?"

"Destroying the wheat accomplishes nothing until the war concludes and the refugees depart this land." Tianyi folded the scroll and tucked it away.

"For now, we should consolidate what we have already secured." He pulled out a smaller document showing their current holdings. The group had spent about five months excavating and clearing Monarch Scatterstraw's wheat fields. The Monarch was slowly crumbling, forced to spend all his time repairing the holes in his body. By cutting off the wheat fields, they would sever his ability to repair himself, and he would eventually crumble away.

Shen Tianyi had told the group that the T4 soil they had been blasting and excavating was extremely valuable. He had made arrangements to farm and cultivate it elsewhere. Now whenever the Americans brought soil out from the profundity, Shen clan retainers transported it away after processing.

"Our excavation has cleared just over forty acres of Tier Four spiritual soil. The Beast Kings who protect our fields and provide Tier Four Spiritual Qi hold a sixty percent share. My Shen clan, responsible for the labor of farming Tier Four spiritual wheat, holds fifteen percent. That leaves ten acres for your group." Arthur scowled.

"After all this work, they are taking my farm? Ten acres? What can you even grow on ten measly acres?"

"Your share is enough to provide daily cultivation maintenance for approximately ten Nascent Soul cultivators." Kevin's eyes went wide. He grabbed the document and began running calculations, his lips moving silently.

"If we translate that to Earth value..." He looked up, his face slack with disbelief.

"We're looking at over forty million dollars annually. Just from our share." Silence descended on the group. Arthur whistled low through his teeth. Mike set down his tea. Vivian's pen had stopped moving. Tianyi's smile carried a hint of satisfaction.

"Nascent Soul is Nascent Soul. With that income, any one of you could live as comfortably as a guest elder at the Shen clan in Fog City. And over time, you will have enough wealth to advance to Nascent Soul yourselves and the fields to sustain your cultivation afterward." The implications rippled through the group. Nascent Soul level cultivation. Guaranteed. From soil they had already excavated.

Leo remained quiet as the others began talking over each other, their voices rising with excitement about possibilities and plans.

"I've been thinking," Leo said. The conversation quieted. Everyone turned to look at him.

"I've been working a lot with agricultural formations recently. Reclamation arrays, purification systems, that sort of thing. If Stonehaven is going to be established here..." Leo waved around at the small base they'd built outside of the Profundity.

"They'll need food. A lot of it," Leo continued.

"Refugees fleeing a war won't have cultivation resources stockpiled." Mike nodded slowly.

"You're thinking we grow crops and sell them?"

"There's not enough space here to grow crops if millions of refugees come." Leo leaned forward.

"But if we can find somewhere else to grow them, we can help prevent starvation and keep people from regressing their cultivation. Make a real difference for people who are going to arrive here with nothing." The table went quiet again. Arthur was the first to speak.

"I'm with you, kid." Leo blinked. He had expected Mike to back him, maybe Vivian. Arthur was the last person he expected. Arthur caught his look and shrugged.

"What? I know what it's like to lose everything. To watch your cultivation slip away because you can't afford to keep it." His voice had gone rough. Mike nodded. Leo turned to Tianyi.

"If we're already growing T4 wheat in Lord Flockfeather's fields, do you think he'll have extra land and let us grow food for refugees there?" Shen Tianyi's expression had grown thoughtful. He studied Leo for a long moment, then rose from his seat.

"If you wish to pursue this path, Leo Chen, you will need to accompany me to Skyhome, The seat of the Silvercrest Cranes." Tianyi pulled out another scroll, this one showing a mountain range with a single peak marked in gold ink.

"This is where we have relocated the Tier Four wheat fields. Lord Flockfeather, the Nascent Soul patriarch we are collaborating with, governs all cultivation activities in this region." Leo studied the map. The marked peak rose fourteen thousand feet according to the annotations, with a Tier Four spirit vein running through its core.

"The Silvercrest Cranes have a long history of cooperation with humans," Tianyi continued.

"During the great wars against the demonic cultivators, human cultivators rode into battle on their backs. Of all the beast races, the Cranes understand best that two swords pointed in the same direction cut deeper than one."

"So they'll agree to let us farm?"

"Perhaps. The beasts tolerate small groups of cultivators passing through. They might even overlook a modest excavation operation." Tianyi's voice carried a note of caution.

"But large-scale agriculture is another matter entirely. We will need to negotiate terms directly with Lord Flockfeather." He began walking toward the edge of camp, clearly expecting Leo to follow.

"As long as we restrict ourselves to Tier One and Tier Two spiritual wheat, an agreement should be within reach. The Silvercrest Cranes possess thousands of acres of lower-tier spiritual soil that lie fallow."

"But?" Leo prompted.

"But humans and beasts cannot truly coexist." His voice had gone quiet.

"This is a lesson written in blood across ten thousand years of history. The wolf and the sheep may share a field for a season, but only an idiot believes it will last forever."