Everything would have been easier for Anton if he could tten the gxy into a two-dimensional ne. s, that was not the case. To draw the ire of tens of systems that were surging along the border, Aerona’s abilities would be highly valuable. Unfortunately, she was not present.

    Anton did not have the sort of device that had created an artificial flow of the Tides of the World, bridging the gap between realms. He didn’t have Bear Hug’s expertise with both upper and lower energy- even if he used Ascension energy through Fleeing Youth, it was not the same as having it inhabit him at all times. Otherwise, he might recreate such an effect on his own.

    If everything was t, Anton could draw away the ascension energy from several systems- taunting it with his own energy- and create something that would appear like a bridge spanning the realms. Of course, it would only work for those with poor observational skills. Almost emunthinking/em. Yet, the Swirling Swarm might fit that description.

    If he did the same not counting the varied depth of the gxy, even if he was otherwise sessful he’d only have the opportunity to draw in three or four groups, while others would pass far enough away that they never even sensed any change.

    Even so, Anton wasmitted to the task of drawing away as many as possible, to reach out and emsomehow/em bring them towards him. If he’d know he would end up in such a situation, he would have brought allies. Yet even then, he couldn’t help but wonder if they might not have been needed elsewhere except that cultivators couldn’t, or at least wouldn’t, cross directly between the realms. The Swirling Swarm wasn’t doing that either.

    Aerona might think the same as him, though. Or those further west might decide it was best not to meddle with the current chaos in the upper realms. Ultimately, they would make that choice. Anton had made his.

    If his opponents were relying on instinct, could he taunt them? Would it be more or less effective? He doubted his emwords/em could reach them. He was far better at sending arrows such a distance. And so he did,unching attacks at every fleet he could reach and hoping that more would continue along into his domain. He had no certainty at killing all of the cultivators he was bothering on his own, but he could hope that they caused their emown/em defeats.

    Anton was always drawing upon his stars, and the local one more powerfully. However, the emway/em he drew upon it and empowered it could have some effects. He wanted this one to be… tempting. Something shiny, up for the taking. He sent along the emfeeling/em of that and the area around him, following the trail of his arrow. It wouldn’t be perfect, unless people were looking at just the right levels of subspace. But it was something.

    After two days of effort, Anton really wasn’t certain he’d managed anything but pestering people. He’d killed some Swirling Swarm cultivators, but they were weaker ones- and it was a number he could easily count to which made it quite insignificant. He wasn’t sure it was working. No, he was certain that it wasn’t.

    Perhaps he was going around it the wrong way. He might have to focus on a smaller group. Maybe just enough to cover the Shrieking Spirit Sect. It would be reasonable.

    But that wasn’t the right way to go about things. Morally… whatever he could make work was eptable. No matter how he would feel, he wasn’t responsible for anything except making his best effort. Emotionally, he needed to seed.

    What he could do differently was change his perspective on the Swirling Swarm. They weren’t a bunch of individuals. Nor were they all controlled by one consciousness. Even if that consciousness was a great fool, it would be emsomewhat/em more cognizant of the damage it did to its own parts and suffered from outside attacks. Even so, it was closer to presume that they were one than many. At least, for his current purposes.

    Maybe he emcould/em create that ‘bridge’. It would be far too small for them to actually cross, but anything that drew their attention would be good. Then, focusing the appeal on one ce…

    It wasn’t like anything he had done before. Anton just began to get to work. His arrows flew towards the upper realms then… turned about. Ascension energy chased after his attacks, but he dispersed his own before they could do anything. Further and further, he teased out small rivers of energy, twisting them together into somethingrger.

    At the same time, he reached further beyond, striking the Domination cultivators within one group repeatedly. He didn’t use any tricks to hide himself or his attacks. They were always ready to block him, as his attacks constantly came from the same angle. Over and over, without even making use of the way the Ascension energy wanted to annihte his own energy. Each attack was weak.

    Weak might be good.

    Anton had no way to be certain exactly what worked. Maybe it was his untiring perseverance. Maybe he finally got through their thoughts. A group turned towards him… and Anton kept going.

    He kept pestering the mass of the swarm that was focused on him, tempted by the trail of energy… or at least not discouraged from following it into the area between realms. However, he merely did that to maintain what he already had. He picked the next closest group and assaulted them the same way.

    Fighting for days- over a week now- was draining. Anton had emenergy/em, but his body was still human. He wondered if Nthanda could endure longer, or if mental fatigue still built up in the same way. He could still endure, and he did so. Even as the first cluster crossed the halfway point, he didn’t try to wipe them out. He had another group following. And another. It was almost like there was a emreal/em path.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelFire.

    He couldn’t kill all of the iing cultivators. Probably not even a single group. And yet, Anton kept drawing them closer. He was hoping that they would kill themselves. He might encourage that just a little.

    The Domination cultivators were already his targets. He began to mix up his attacks, targeting random points of their body. An ear- not a shot that would drive into the brain, but just the tip of an ear all on its own. An ankle. A single fingertip. The sternum. Lower spine. No doubt he had emsome/em pattern from his habits, but Anton was intentionally targeting ces that weren’t all lethal or even relevant to attack. It was random enough to draw the enemy’s defenses back and forth, twisting around in on itself.

    Anton could feel more and more groups moving towards him. He truly had their attention. And now, the closest group was beyond the ny percent mark. They’d be reaching him in a matter of hours.

    He wondered if they would chase him into the star. No, he felt they would. He wondered if their deaths would be a problem for it. Anything less than a Domination cultivator he wasn’t worried about. Without very particr techniques, destroying a star simply wouldn’t work. Certainly nothing the Swirling Swarm was suited for. So that was fine.

    Ultimately, Anton decided they couldn''t be allowed to reach him. He focused more on a single target. He hadn’t killed emany/em of this batch yet, and he couldn’t be sure his destabilizing method was doing enough. But he was getting better at it, and it seemed like the defenders were getting emworse/em at resisting. They weren’t emsupposed/em to be Domination cultivators after all. Seeking excessive power was not without consequence. Or gaining it, since he wasn’t certain any of them emchose/em this.

    Not that they appeared upset. Indeed, they were rather manically pleased, even when Anton could spot signs of instability.

    The first one to die Anton wasn’t even attacking. It was one of the ‘spontaneous’ deaths. They just broke down, a single instant being enough to annihte their body. The shockwaves spread throughout the mass of enemies, including into the other Domination cultivators. An hourter, Anton actively caused another. Saying he killed them wasn’t emquite/em right, because his attacks never even got through their defenses. Fifty minutes after that, a third. Half an hour, a fourth. Then another died almost simultaneously.

    They were like massive explosives. The particrly unstable kind. Anton was aware how emuncharitable/em such a perspective was, but in their current state he really wasn’t getting any sense of humanity from them. Less than usual, and they weren’t great to begin with. But they’d gone from terribly evil people to wild beasts that happened to be humanoid in shape.

    Anton had been worried that enemies might stoping when he wasn’t focused on taunting them. But now that a trail had been zed, he would have been harder pressed to stop them- even if there was less and less actual energy along the way for them to make use of.

    They were getting closer. Anton could actually hit harder, now that they were out of the upper realms- and ‘nearby’. But instead, he continued to bleed them out a little bit at a time. Anything to destabilize them, focusing only on the stronger cultivators. The closer they got, the longer they had been without proper support of ambient upper energy. As a whole, they had also been active for about as long as Anton had- without sleep. Constantly moving or scourings. No rest. Once he realized that, he felt more confident.

    He managed to annihte the second group, but the third, fourth, and fifth were practically one mass. He couldn’t do enough before they reached his little system. What was Anton to do?

    Run. Or fly. This was now an endurance match.

    Humans were quite good at endurance. That should normally apply to the Swirling Swarm as well, however with their current mentality they were more like animals. If they didn’t intentionally pace themselves, their physiology would only go so far.

    West, towards his emother/em nearest bound star. He just had to make sure they chased him… and chase they did. Anton flew backwards, so that he could always face his targets. It wasn’t like moving himself through space required him to see where he was going.

    Anton was probably twice as fast as them, if he wanted to be. They were new Domination cultivators without practiced techniques for such things, away from their source of energy. They could begin adapting to the natural energy of the lower realms and maintain some of their energy that way but… they emweren’t/em.

    He was twice as fast… but moved at exactly their pace. They were always on his heels- he kept them close enough that they could almost emsee/em him. As far as spatial distances went, they were practically touching.

    They copsed in spectacr ways. When their front ranks were annihted, he slowed down until the next group caught up. Anton thought he was doing quite well. He wondered what percentage of the Swirling Swarm he was actually dealing with. Was it even a single percent? There were so many… but they had upied a great many systems.

    Anton continued to harass them. A hip. The other hip. The first hip twice in a row, just so that their energy never gotcent. Constant output, dragging entires full of people along with them. Was it correct to say they were surprisingly stable for what they were doing, or expectedly unstable?

    If just the Domination cultivators chased Anton they might catch him. If they did, more than a few would certainly kill him, unstable and improper Domination or not. There were… enough that Anton didn’t count them. He didn’t need to know. He just needed to be aware of the closest. He kept the distance. More and more frequently, they began to fall. Anton hoped that others hade up with clever ns that worked just as well, but he knew that emmost/em ces would only be able to wear them down with their own deaths. At least he could help protect some of the sects he knew, even briefly.

    And then, perhaps he could take a nap. Nobody would begrudge him that, would they?

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!