Though it had taken some time for the continent’s counterattack to gain momentum, they were now pushing back against the Sovereign Primacy with success after success, driving them out of the Muted Crags. Some portion of their success was based on martial superiority, another part their access to reinforcements, and the final part was that the Sovereign Primacy wasn’t fighting that hard to keep the land they had taken.

  Having occupied it for a time, they had achieved their goals of stealing the region’s wealth. It wasn’t clear if they had further goals, but either way they didn’t fight tooth and nail to keep their positions. They provided more than token resistance, but they didn’t risk severe damage to their forces.

  For the span of several months as the continent pushed the invaders back towards the coast, no Ascending Soul Phase cultivators were slain on either side. John’s killing of Akash had been one of the rare exceptions in the earlier battles.

  However, the continental forces did gain a slight advantage in that arena regardless of the lack of deaths. Arkaitz of the Silver Haze Sect advanced to the Ascending Soul Phase, and even if he was merely at the thirty-seventh rank, he was still a foe to be reckoned with. John’s earlier assessment of his talent had been correct. If only he’d been born a few years earlier, he might have reshaped the whole invasion.

  While the continent was achieving a series of victories, ultimately they were just compressing the remaining power of the Sovereign Primacy towards a single place. That wasn’t their intention, but that was where they would find themselves eventually.

  That meant fighting a battle that would be closely matched, if the Sovereign Primacy didn’t simply choose to withdraw. The continent would lose some good people. John didn’t want that.

  So before they got to that point, John planned to do something about it. If they could get rid of one or two more Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, it would greatly sway things in their favor. The problem was that they were willing to retreat from battle, so even if he was stronger than his foes there was no guarantee of killing or heavily wounding them.

  But of course, there was one time cultivators were vulnerable above all older. A time when they were effectively nothing more than common folk. That was when they were asleep- and sleep was something all people needed, even cultivators. They could push themselves to sleep only once every few days, meditating to extend that duration, but ultimately at some point their conscious functioning would cease… and their spiritual energy would likewise no longer protect them.

  John didn’t think assassination was an unreasonable tactic- just an unreliable one. Important targets tended to be the most well defended, with numerous guards who could detect an infiltrator. And less direct methods like poisoning could be detected by the target as well as resisted by conscious cultivators.

  Personally, he didn’t see a reason that assassination would be unreasonable if you were at the point you were going to kill someone anyway. Fewer people had to die. The main reason to discourage it was because other people might do it in turn. There was something to be said about it being problematic during times of peace, but if you were at war there was really no reason to give people a ‘fair battle’. Was it really fair, if they wanted to fight in a particular manner? Of course not. They would pick circumstances in their favor.

  The main problem with assassinations were the failures. In a world of cultivation, only a decently strong cultivator stood a chance of success. Otherwise, they would be caught and killed- which was then a loss for the side trying to get ahead. So you had to send some of your best, and if your best weren’t enough… then you simply made things worse.

  Of course, assassins were generally considered to be darkness cultivators. They were the ones that by default were best at hiding. Others could learn, but it was a self perpetuating cycle where darkness cultivators found it easy to conceal themselves and came up with techniques that made them better… and others didn’t usually bother. Though some came up with techniques for specific environments- water cultivators in water, earth cultivators underground or surrounded by boulders, and the like.

  Light cultivators could be invisible, but they still had to manipulate their spiritual energy to be unnoticed. They were probably the second best option for generic stealth, if they had the right techniques.

  Given all of that, the best assassin the continent could send was probably John himself. Possibly Melanthina or someone from the Darklands… but John wasn’t going to ask his daughter to go where he would not, and they weren’t even on the same battlefield.

  For somewhat obvious reasons, John didn’t advertise his intentions- even within his own forces. He merely told them to remain on alert. If he was successful, they could launch an attack on the city. If he failed… he might need them to fend off his pursuers. The latter might also be appropriate if he was successful, though generally he expected to be spotted going in if at all.

  The city of Gesa had once contained some weaker sects that didn’t have the influence of the Black Peaks. Now, it mainly contained the Sovereign Primacy. It was less well fortified than the Black Peaks, with smaller walls, but because the enemies had been gradually pushed back there were denser forces within.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  John didn’t intend to battle them, however. And if he was revealed, his escape plan involved a direct exit into the sky. He would be blatantly obvious, but rapidly leave the effective reach of his foes.

  Darkness formed a barrier around him as he approached the walls. Where other elements were prominent it might have been obvious, but this was carefully shaped to match the ambient levels of the Muted Crags.

  Gesa was less well cleared of the native stone than the Black Peaks. In short, the sensory dampening spiritual energy was a constant feature. That did make things slightly more difficult for John, but even his passive senses would be superior to most of those around him. Ultimately, it would be to his advantage.

  To climb the walls, he shifted his spiritual energy to mesh with the enchantments. Their main purpose was to fortify the walls against attack, with a secondary effect of pushing away people climbing them.

  Because John had to minimize his active use of spiritual energy, the climb was slow for just a few meters. However, he was able to take advantage of imperfect brick placement to slowly work his way upward using just his own body. He was uncertain if Ursel would have found it easier or not. Perhaps she would have broken the footholds with her weight and that of her armor, but her body itself wouldn’t fail.

  John’s was only slightly better than a fit human on Earth. The thing he was lacking was the expertise that practiced climbers had- it wasn’t that he didn’t climb, but was rarely restricted to using just his body. Ultimately, he could have probably gone faster, but twenty minutes wasn’t a terrible pace either.

  He waited for a passing patrol before slipping over the wall and making his way down a set of stairs on the backside of the ramparts.

  Once moving through the patrols of other cultivators, he had to change his balance of energy. There was one particular combination that he knew that most people couldn’t sense, especially if he kept it to low levels. That was to say, a perfectly even mix of all elements. Most cultivators would pass it over as an area lacking in spiritual energy.

  If he pushed it too far it would look unnatural, but with the sensory dampening in the area it was a good base, and he could adjust it slightly for those he was passing. For the most part, that meant matching the dominant energy in the area- but only to a small extent. He wasn’t trying to feel like a particular fire sect when he added fire element- just to be a close enough feeling that even if anyone actively sensed his position he wouldn’t stand out.

  Actual stealth skills were important, which was where having a slight advantage in passive energy perception helped greatly. He could tell which way people were moving- and thus where they were looking.

  Of course, despite all the effort John put in once he got past the walls he’d done about half the work. They didn’t have people on every corner. The only real resistance he met was when he approached the building his target was in. Various scouts had worked for a few days to determine that location, but there hadn’t really been many options. Because a high ranking cultivator would inevitably stay in only the biggest and most impressive locations. Thus, there were a few clan halls and certain sects to consider. Once the location had been confirmed, John initiated his plan.

  The target was a fire cultivator by the name of Yehel. As John approached the location, he noticed an ever increasing quantity of light element. It hadn’t been obvious from a distance, but once he approached he found the whole palace surrounded by a barrier of light.

  John could manipulate his way through. He was nearly certain of it. Without any active cultivators maintaining them, barriers of that sort were easily overcome. However… there was a small chance that he would screw something up and be discovered. In that case, they would be doubly cautious in the future, likely ruining his chances of success entirely.

  If he had so far gone undetected… he could simply retreat and come back better prepared. And if he had been noticed, then it was foolish to go into a more secure area as he was. Thus it was that he slowly began making his way outward, taking a different path both to observe more of the patrol routes and to avoid falling into any potential traps.

  It was almost relaxing, like going on a midnight stroll. It was just that there were people around who would want to kill him if they spotted him. That didn’t make John afraid, however. Most of them couldn’t kill him. At most, he expected to lose his opportunity.

  Back at the walls, he found another set of stairs going up. He silently walked a few steps behind a patrolling guard before levering himself over the wall and beginning to climb down. He could have dropped, but he would have needed to display a smidge of spiritual energy. Best to get completely away from the city without leaving any traces.

  The following day, they would prod the enemy’s defenses- and it wouldn’t be just a ploy. If there were any immediate weaknesses, they might capitalize on those and risk the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators running away. If they could cause enough losses to those at lower ranks, they might still pull ahead.

  But if nothing happened, John would return… with an ally in tow. Astrid had trained specifically to match with him, and this would be another good test. Failure wouldn’t mean they were incompatible- just that there was more to work on.

  John was confident that things would work out. At the very least, he expected that she could match with him well enough that any failures would be for a different reason. Their chances of success together should be less risk than that small chance of him screwing up with the light barrier. She would be much better for it, and he could get her to it.

  Besides, shouldn’t couples do things like go out at night and look at the stars? It was unfortunate that most of their proper relationship had been during a war so far, but sometimes that was just how things went. Astrid would be pleased that he trusted her with an important mission.