Fortifying the Gloom Desolation was a delicate project that would take time. The expedition against the Stormy Sea Sect had united them in purpose with the rest of the continent, but developing long-term connections would take time.
The continent had sufficient forces to spare to defend against any anticipated attacks, but the Gloom Desolation wouldn’t necessarily want the defenders. Being safe was important, of course, but if that safety came at the cost of their independence, was it really worth anything? More importantly, they couldn’t necessarily trust random people to be better for them.
That issue would merely take time to resolve, as trust was built up. John couldn’t even say they would be incorrect to be cautious, because the continental alliance wasn’t perfect. Within his very lifetime, they had been little more than individual sects and clans squabbling against each other with only a token loyalty paid to larger elemental regions for purposes of mutual defense.
Tying together diverse groups wasn’t simple, though some of the greatest struggles weren’t with the weaker sects but with those who already felt secure. What would they need help to defend against? Aside from maybe the Molten Sea or the Sky Islands. John didn’t actually know, but he was glad for the threat of the Stormy Sea Sect- and Morana’s inclusion in that. It was a reminder that threats still existed.
Whether he should be glad for enemies was another question that John couldn’t answer. There was only so much unity that could be fostered by promoting trades of materials and information, especially since most people were used to being insular. Having an outside threat simply made things easy.
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As the sect head of the Six Elements Crossroads, more often than not people came to John if they had some matters of political import. However, that only gave him a limited impression of the true people of the continent. Only those who had matters that his influence could help with, connections, and the capacity to travel.
John wasn’t some mighty king that could solve everyone’s problems under his own power, but he’d found himself at the core of continental matters in several ways. He was a core pillar of a strong alliance, and head of an influential new sect. Little by little, he had become important.
That left him with a sense of responsibility- to his friends and family first, then everyone else. He wanted the alliance to persist through his life, and hopefully after. Though he also hoped that his life would be long. That was what everyone around would want for him.
John decided that the next step on his journey would be visiting… everywhere. He figured he might as well start in the Gloom Desolation, since he was there. Melanthina had established her reputation in the area, so he relied on her guidance.
“Any luck figuring out why the area is so…” John pondered for a few moments, “Desolation…y?” Darkness wasn’t the first thing people thought of when they thought of a healthy ecosystem, but it wasn’t inherently an element of corruption or death. The Darklands were proof of that, as they had a healthy and viable region where people lived comfortably with strong darkness element around them.
“A bit,” Melanthina admitted. “Historical records indicate that things weren’t always like this. Though details are sparse.”
“Anything I can help with?” John asked.
“Just keep your senses open. Maybe you’ll spot something I didn’t.”
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The coasts of the Gloom Desolation were the most prosperous in all ways. Flora and fauna, wealth, and spiritual energy. Further from the coast had only relatively faint levels of darkness. It was like a desert of spiritual energy, so even though it rained the ground and plants remained thirsty. John couldn’t quite tell if the spiritual energy was responsible for keeping things that way, or existed in spite of the surrounding circumstances.
The local cultivators were used to getting by with limited spiritual energy, which actually made them develop interesting techniques for battle. Efficient uses of what they had, as much as possible. Melanthina was able to introduce John to some people who focused on small weapons- needles, wire, and the like. Such assassin-like implements actually fit well with darkness to begin with, and fighting in a constrained manner made them develop technique over everything else.
Thin wire could be augmented by only a small amount of spiritual energy to not only be freely manipulated, but also resist attack and pierce defenses because the energy was focused. That was a principle every cultivator understood to some extent, but the Gloom Desolation took that to an extreme. John found himself quite interested, though he didn’t intend to upend his personal style developed over a lifetime.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t add details. Thrown needles were not that different from his throwing daggers, and could be used with his free hand. The main difference would be that they would cause deep wounds instead of wider cuts. It was possible to precisely target weak points, or to generally try to puncture organs or damage joints. Even if a needle didn’t hit a critical target, if it drove deep enough it either forced the enemy to take a moment to remove it or risk damage while moving around. Of course, they could also be used to deliver poisons.
John wasn’t strictly opposed to the idea of poison. If he was fighting to the death, could he really cry out about honor when everyone was trying to kill him? One might focus on causing many wounds to bleed him out, others might go for single powerful blows. Poison was much like the first, except more efficient. Using poison to kill someone wasn’t any worse than any other method. Assassinating people by cutting them in half wasn’t more morally upright than poisoning their drink.
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Then again, maybe he was biased because he was resistant to poisons. He would never claim immunity, but he had trained the Pure Blood technique, one of his various methods of advanced body tempering.
John didn’t personally tend to use poisons because he was not trained in their various complexities. Carrying them long term while keeping them potent was important, and for the foes he was facing in particular he doubted that cheap or expired poisons would do much good. It was the same reason he didn’t train in every type of weapon- just against them when he got the chance.
Wires were… also good. For non-cultivators they were mainly good for their ability to be concealed, but with spiritual energy manipulating their positioning and power was entirely possible. No doubt individuals could spend limitless time mastering various ways to attack people with them.
John had time, but not unlimited amounts. He had to pick and choose what elements to focus on, and what techniques within those elements. Wires were a good addition to his off-hand arsenal, however. Distracting people with his sword while a true attack came from his free hand- or vice versa- was his standard method of battle. Adding another tool was worth looking into, even if he didn’t specialize in such techniques.
In exchange for teaching him some of their techniques- but certainly not their most valuable tricks- John taught people based on his own understanding of darkness. That was different even from Melanthina and the Tenebach clan, because John had a unique style- at least for the moment. There were more than a few disciples of the sect attempting to replicate his path, but the best disciples were only just reaching the Consolidated Soul Phase.
Thus, John’s experience with darkness and how it interacted with other elements was extremely valuable. What people wanted more was advice about the Ascending Soul Phase, but honestly John couldn’t give anything useful unless people were at the peak of the Consolidated Soul Phase and he took time to get to know them. With the weak spiritual energy in the area, he couldn’t do much for them.
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The Gloom Desolation looked much the same throughout, scraggly bushes and bare trees where there was any vegetation at all. Sometimes, there were durable grasses. John hadn’t seen anything quite like it, but he couldn’t help but be reminded of somewhere else. However, he had difficulty tracing what that other place was.
It certainly wasn’t the Darklands. The Muted Crags didn’t feel right either. That didn’t leave many options. The Soulrot Bogs were unpleasant, but it was difficult to say they weren’t… lively. They were teeming with life and spiritual energy. That left nowhere else with the darkness element on the continent.
What else could it be? Somewhere with low levels of spiritual energy? There weren’t many of those- which was exactly what made the Gloom Desolation odd. However, there was the Annihilation Strip. The Gloom Desolation didn’t have the destruction of clashing with light. But that did leave one place. The Deadfields. It wasn’t quite like that, and the fact that the Prism Underfields were light element had thrown John off, but eventually he realized that was the vibe he got.
But the Prism Underfields were vibrant, with the Deadfields atop them being even more barren than the Gloom Desolation. So while John recognized some similarity, he determined it wasn’t a perfect analogy. Still worth noting. Maybe Melanthina could make something of it with her longer stay in the region.
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John’s next step was the Breathless Plains, where he met with more members of the Six Elements Crossroads who had not gone on the expedition. Combat experience hadn’t been the necessary factor for some of them, and there were many sects besides the Six Elements Crossroads involved.
But now that he was on his journey, he had sent for some of them specifically, with an allotment for other members who wished to join. Members of the Six Elements Crossroads could undoubtedly grow from exposure to every elemental region. That was part of his reason for the journey himself, after all.
Among those were Lir and Ayhan, two of his first disciples and former street urchins. Now, after multiple decades, they had just completed a cycle of core elements, becoming Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators. This journey would be a good opportunity for them to get used to their new abilities and compare themselves to those of other styles.
If all went well, they should match up against the best other sects had to offer. John wasn’t willing to go so far as to say a cycle of elements was superior in every way to traditional single or dual element methods. Until a proper cycle was completed, such methods were notably lacking. But with a cycle of core elements completed… he could feel the qualitative difference in the two of them. As long as they didn’t neglect any of their elements, they would always be formidable opponents.
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John of course wished to stop at familiar locations within the Breathless Plains, but only going to friendly sects he had good rapport with would undermine the point of his journey. He couldn’t visit every sect and clan, but he could certainly try. Some places they would stay just for a day, but even that was enough to build a greater understanding of various groups.
He didn’t rely just on his own opinions, however. John also spent time on the road hearing from his disciples. They had always things to say about how they were treated and the styles of the groups they visited.
“Perhaps it’s because my air totem isn’t suited for it,” Ayhan began. “But I feel that the last clan we met was… inefficient with their techniques.”
“They’re terrible,” Lir said more straightforwardly. “If you can rip the air out of someone’s lungs, you could have already killed them a hundred other ways. They take the name of the Breathless Plains too literally.”
John nodded. “If you can reach inside someone’s body for any reason, there are more efficient things to do. It’s mostly impressive with a cultivator of greater strength against many weaker opponents. More efficient is forming a vacuum around a cultivator’s head to make breathing difficult, but even that’s a bit… difficult to maintain. A cultivator’s strongest control is around their own body, after all.”
Most of John’s teaching was public to every disciple traveling with them, but John left some explanations for later in private. It was a small part favoritism, but also practicality for his own sake. He explained to Lir and Ayhan how he had removed the oxygen from air people were going to move into. It was a unique situation where he could predict the path of ships, but something similar could be done in wide scale combat.
Against a single opponent, they had to be distracted from what was really happening… or completely inept at refreshing their own air supplies and confined to a tight area. None of John’s disciples would be so easily overcome, but it was possible for them to come across opponents with gaps in their knowledge. John expected to find some trips on this very journey he hadn’t even considered, and while he could improvise a solution mid-combat, being aware of threats ahead of time was much better.
