Chapter 1127
Though Anton was making progress on the local star, he was coming to a realization. The more he managed to remove the corruption and push back against its growth, the more a certain sort of pressure was building up in the quarantined zone. He thought it would become easier as he was able to work with a small area, but it was staying fairly constant… and it might even grow more difficult.
As always, situations turned out more complex than things appeared on the surface. The Lower Realms Alliance couldn’t just show up and make everything okay, even as they grew strong. Even if they could solve some of the current problems, they couldn’t bring back the planet everyone had lost. Not without it being something else entirely, a recycled mass of rock and little more.
Between Moturn and Unov, there was less than a single percent of the previous population. If they were going to rescue the planet, they needed to have done it at the end of the cycle. But they simply hadn’t reached far enough.
Not that it had been feasible. Time was required for everything. The Alliance couldn’t suddenly expand into every star in the galaxy just because they wanted to. Though they were making a good effort at least to visit.
The smaller scale growth that individuals from the system were undergoing also took time. Even discounting cultivation, developing skills to fit into necessary industries took time. Finding people suited for particular sorts of work was a long process, though fortunately there were specialists. The Lower Realms Alliance couldn’t guarantee matching people with a career that was a perfect fit, but they could guide them towards something at least suitable. Ultimately, that would result in people being happier and more efficient- and they could always try to experiment on their own.
Abder was carrying around a bundle that was heavier than himself. Anton wouldn’t have suggested that level of physical training at any point, particularly not after just a couple of years, but the young man was only partially his responsibility now. He liked body tempering, and Anton wasn’t going to say that he was putting in the wrong kind of effort. He was working towards what he wanted, and Nthanda was teaching him in the way she thought would be most effective.
The one insistence Anton had was that the pack he carried be for a practical purpose, so the young man was running between districts distributing finished goods and materials to various places that needed them. Flight was barely available for the locals, and for Abder who was focused on a low-energy style it was even less achievable at his low cultivation. Though there might eventually be a certain point where he could manipulate matter around him like Nthanda. He might end up on a different path, though. Nothing could be certain, especially with unique situations like Nthanda. Cultivators who focused on advanced body tempering rarely made it past Life Transformation- though Anton supposed that neither did most others, stagnating a bit lower even with reliable methods.
Despite being trained by Anton and Nthanda, Abder had not adopted the shared combat style they had. That was to say archery, though their styles there had also quite diverged out of necessity.
Rather than rejecting it, Abder had rejected combat as a basic part of his training. He learned basic martial arts to be able to defend himself, and because they suggested it he had practiced with the bow- but it was clear his heart wasn’t in it.