Starlight Life Of The Sage

Static noise crackled in the background. The Sage looked down at his hands and picked out the wrinkles and age spots. He didn't succeed in his break through; he fell just short of going beyond Ascendant. 50,000 years of wandering the cultivation world, all to end because he failed. All because he didn't walk enough of the Paths. His legacy would be one of failure...

"Teacher," Aria's voice called out to him, gentle worry in her tone.

The Sage looked up and smiled. Seeing the faces of his disciples, he realized that, perhaps, those 50 millennia weren't wasted. He would have a legacy. His own successes weren't all his life would be measured by.

"I'm dying," he said, telling his students the truth. He couldn't hide it from them any longer. His lifespan was going to run out within the year.

-

Something vibrated. A loud alarm noise played. Cara opened her eyes, shaking off the mental stress from her dream. She looked down at her shaking hands. Her eyes itched and she rubbed them, finding a wetness on her cheeks. She sniffled once.

Lucidity returned to her mind and she realized the blaring alarm was the Array she set up to warn about intruders, this one coming from the east. With a burst of mana, Cara took off on a dead sprint. The sudden speed overwhelmed her and she crashed face-first through several trees, her body unaccustomed to its newfound power.

Only at this point did Cara realize her breakthrough was successful. She regulated her strength and started running again. While moving she analyzed her own body and her cultivation, finding it without visible flaws. She grinned.

Cara measured her physical output while moving, jumping and flexing her muscles as she went. The impact that mana had on her Outer Cultivation was astounding, and, while only in the very early stage of her Zong cultivation, she could output power equal to at least a Zong cultivator at the 5th or even 6th Rung!

One thing did puzzle Cara, though. A breakthrough to the Zong realm should have left numerous injuries in her body due to rampaging energies, especially considering just how rampant and unruly mana was compared to Qi.

So why did she not have a scratch on her? Was this due to her Spirit Contract?

She knew it wasn't. The Spirit Contract only supplied her mana, not lifeblood or physical recovery effects.

Cara didn't know nor did she have time to investigate. The 'intruders' appeared before her rather quickly.

Hiding herself in the branches of a particularly large tree, Cara observed three men moving along the forest floor. Each wore armor, leather interspersed with metal plate, and they all had swords on their h.i.p.s. One carried a kite shield with his free hand.

One had an outer cultivation at the peak of the Xantian Rungs while his two followers were at the middle of the Xantian realm. Their skills were rather profound, with each of them moving silently. If Cara didn't have her Arrays set up she wouldn't have noticed the Knights until they were right upon her…

The leader was a tall man with blonde hair. He had a rugged, box face. He wore a cloak over his armor, but the flashes of an insignia showed from underneath of two magpies crossing flights.

Cara felt the insignia was familiar, but she couldn't put her thumb on it. It felt almost like an afterthought, something she didn't put any stock in earlier…

The thought passed Cara's mind like a warm summer breeze, forgotten like a wisp of smoke. Instead, a new worry came to take its place. A second alarm array went off. She tried to silence it in a fl.u.s.tered panic but not even the Sage could take back a sound once played.

The three knights stopped and turned in Cara's direction. They couldn't see her, but she felt each of them extend their senses over the area.

Cara clicked her tongue. According to her alarm five more intruders were coming in from the north. She was stronger and faster than these men, but she didn't want to reap lives unnecessarily. Nor did she want to give them a reason to send more parties into the woods to investigate what happened to *this* party.

She surmised the whole issue rather quickly. Cara's breakthrough to the Zong realm had been too flashy. Despite her best efforts it drew attention from unrelated parties, and at least two different ones at that. These people were probably afraid some Magic Beast had broken through to a higher tier, or perhaps they were worried that some great treasure had spawned in the forest...

A third alarm went off, buzzing loudly and giving away Cara's position. Another party was coming from the north, following behind the first.

Cara wanted to curse. The three knights near her all moved, running towards her with their weapons drawn. With their senses spread over the area they were able to pick up her location with ease.

Cara started running north, doing her best to keep herself from being seen by the three knights. She realized, as she started moving, that she could lose them easily, but then she'd never get information from them.

Rather than confront them and unlock that Pandora's box, Cara decided the best course of action was to lead this group of intruders into the other intruders. If she gathered all three parties in one place perhaps they would confront each other… Or at the very least she could find out if they were all together as one group. She didn't know much about the situation, and she intended to change that.

If Cara confronted them directly, depending on their purpose, she'd probably have to kill them to keep her presence in these woods a secret. She didn't know much about this world, yet, and she certainly wasn't going to just introduce herself out of the blue. She was a Zong realm Body Cultivator at the age of 15! She wasn't some simple lost child in the woods. She wasn't someone who enjoyed wanton murder.

Cara has been around the block before. In her first life several times she had been pursued by enemies due to their greed. She certainly didn't want to let something like that happen in this life.

Cara realized she needed to develop a technique to properly hide her mana and aura. She could hide them f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y by using mana manipulation for now, but it was a temporary measure at best and it had rather stringent drawbacks. Now that she essentially had a dantian, it was possible for her to develop a proper aura veil, one that wouldn't have any drawbacks and could be used for longer stints. At the Zong realm an outer cultivator could start casting spells that inner cultivators used, albeit sloppier versions, and several spell models were formed in Cara's mind as she moved.

-

Ducking through underbrush, down dales, and across the hills connecting the north to the east, Cara finally sensed the second intruders ahead. She grinned and started cycling her mana in a new way. Her aura distorted like a patch of fog and, after a moment, it seemed to scatter in every direction, draining into the very earth around her.

-

[Skill Gained - Mana Sheathing

Mana Sheathing: 3]

-

Cara brushed the skill gain screen aside. She didn't have time for her 'status' shenanigans. Instead she popped herself up into a nearby tree where she could overlook the coming confrontation.

The group of three ran headlong into the clearing where they last sensed the girl.

The Magpie men, as Cara was calling the men from the East, came face to face with the five men from the north.

The men from the north wore outfits similar to the knights cara saw in the expedition the other day, gaudy metal armor with flashy design, fit to be a decoration more than to block a blow. They wore different insignia, a circle with an arrow crossing it, the same symbol Cara saw on the walls of the Tin City when scouting it before.

"Empire! What are you doing here, bearing the symbol of the House?" The leader of the Tin City Knights asked, his eyes drawn to the insignia bearing the magpies. He, like the leader of the Magpie men, was at the peak of the Xantian Rungs, but his followers were all only at the very first Rung of the Xantian realm.

It was clear which side had more firepower here; those with weaker standing always spoke first, after all.

"We are here under orders from the House of Lords," said the Magpie leader in a pompous tone as he pushed his cloak aside to show off the magpie insignia. "There are rumors of a strong beast in these woods. We are simply investigating to confirm."

"This territory falls under the country of Tin. This is our jurisdiction," said the Tin Knight leader.

Cara wished she had some popcorn now. She listened to every word and tried to follow as best she could. She knew a tiny bit about the Tin City. She also knew that this forest was named Tin's Soldier Garden, so it made sense that it belonged to the country of Tin…

"Our Empire never acknowledged any borders in the Soldier Garden," said the Magpie leader. He smiled but his eyes looked dangerous. He leveled his sword at the Tin City knights. "-Our- borders actually cut through this forest."

It was at this point the romping sounds of the third group could be heard. The Tin City envoy jumped to the western side of the clearing, giving them some distance from the newcomers and forming a triangle among all parties involved.

The Tin City knight leader's eyes went wide. "Shit, it's the Four Families," he said under his breath. Cara didn't miss that mumble, though. She smiled. Factional disputes were wonderful things. She wanted to know more about this world, and she wanted to learn about the Paths to Power here.

In the final group that arrived, there were four knights wearing colored armors; one wore green, one dark blue, one red, and one a garish teal. There was a fifth man who bore the aura of a mage, dressed in a robe also in that ugly teal color. The mage was obviously the leader of the band. He was short, probably not much taller than Cara was, and he had hair so black it resembled the ocean on an overcast moonless night.

"Oh my," said the mage, his voice just high enough pitched to make him sound obnoxious while also distinct, "some dogs from the empire are digging around in *our* Soldier Garden?"

The mage turned his head and smiled at the knights. "And you, Knight Captain Mellorus, to think you'd leave your post so easily. I heard a rumor you were coming here to seek revenge for the failed expedition, but I didn't think they were true. But if you're here... That must mean the *other* rumor was true as well~"

The face of the Tin Knight leader, apparently named Mellorus, went white as a ghost. Cara leaned forward on the tree branch in rapt attention. In both her last two lives she always loved gossip.

Things were finally getting interesting.