The Silver Haze Sect practiced fairly typical darkness element stealth techniques, but at least they didn’t focus on flooding the area with spiritual energy. Such techniques had their place, but it was more efficient to let people fool themselves. However, completely controlling the feedback of spiritual energy senses required reaching a depth of control at which the enemy might as well already be incapacitated, so replacing sensory information of that sort required some manual input. Thus the likelihood of finding an improper arrangement of elements, among other things.
Unlike the Honorable Lake Compact, the Silver Haze Sect was fairly open with their exchanges of insights. Obviously they wouldn’t be sharing certain core methods at the heart of their sect, but they were willing to demonstrate many of their techniques for the Six Elements Crossroads. The initial approach to the sect had been something like that, settled into a permanent form by the formations.
Ultimately many of their techniques relied on the local terrain, but their dependence on the Muted Crags was thinner. Or at least, John thought they would likely better adapt to other terrain, though they might need time to pick up the local idiosyncrasies so that they could create functional illusions.
Being timid with their sharing like the Honorable Lake Compact would mean that the Six Elements Crossroads would be limited with their sharing in return. Conversely, being more open came with greater risk. But as long as both sides were sincere with their intent to help each other grow, everyone would reap benefits.
-----
Arkaitz was just a single step short of the Ascending Soul Phase. John knew himself how difficult that step could be, yet the ability Arkaitz displayed indicated to John that the other man would likely be successful. He just needed a decent push.
John couldn’t give any straightforward advice for a mono-element cultivator to break through, but he could at least allow his host to experience the Ascending Soul Phase from the outside.
Their duel was likely to end up fantastically uninteresting to most observers, though those who managed to pick out the subtle details might have much to learn. Their weapons were only a relatively small part of the battle, with them focusing on manipulating their surroundings.
John’s goal was to win not by overpowering Arkaitz, but instead by outmaneuvering him. Almost immediately the battlefield became a place of illusions where John was uncertain if left was right or front was back. The arena did have several obstacles, but aside from his knowledge of their initial positions it was difficult to keep track of them. Each time he took a step, his understanding of whether the pillars had been evenly spaced or how he was oriented with regards to them began to slip away.
John could have tried to hold onto the feeling of Arkaitz, but instead he created a whirlwind around him. Omnidirectional attacks meant that he didn’t have to know where his opponent might come from, as long as he didn’t exhaust himself.
The long spear that Arkaitz wielded was meant to make it difficult to launch counterattacks, but the other man would have to get close enough for that to matter in the first place. The winds weren’t so simple that he could simply stride up to John.
Of course, John wouldn’t limit himself to a single element. That would be bad for him, and wasteful for Arkaitz as well. Not to toot his own horn, but there weren’t many people who could demonstrate the same things John was about to. Two of those who were closest also happened to be his disciples.
The ground wasn’t made to be dismantled and turned into a weapon- it was one solid, durable slab- so John left it alone. He used earth to boost fire, forming a fire tornado around him that might have even been too much for him if he didn’t keep himself cool with water element. John knew that fire cultivators had ways to protect themselves from the intensity of their power, but then there were people like Steve- Lucanus- who made use of the intensity for even more power, with some side effects.
John figured he could make pretty good use of his spiritual energy by attacking with boiling water element. And though it was a bit unfair to Arkaitz, he wasn’t using so much spiritual energy that his opponent should be unable to overcome it. He’d just have to find a weak point in John’s seemingly omnidirectional defense and exploit it- without tipping off John.
That meant to everyone else, it looked like a lot of standing around. Arkaitz circled around John, if anyone else could even feel him, occasionally testing his defenses. Though the intensity of the whirlwind seemed like it would exhaust John quickly, he was actually able to maintain the momentum of the system such that it was only a slow drain on his spiritual energy, unless anything acted upon it.
A longspear came in from various angles, finding areas that John had left open- intentionally or not. But John was able to tighten up the flow of his energy, focusing on Arkaitz’ attacks and sending him back. He would even fling a few throwing daggers out of his whirlwind to make sure the other man didn’t forget about defense.
Arkaitz seemed enthralled by the challenge and was unwilling to give up. He continued to poke and prod at John’s defenses, his spear flashing forward, effectively extending its length with spiritual energy whenever he thought he had an opening. John had to go beyond the allotment of spiritual energy he’d been intending to use, not because he was so concerned about winning against someone of a lower rank but because he could see the other man was getting something out of the process.
He wasn’t annoyed at his lack of progress, but intensely focused on the flow of spiritual energy, both his own and John’s cycle of elements. That continued until he completely exhausted himself, stumbling forward and just barely catching himself with the butt of his spear to hold him up. The slight grin on his face spoke volumes.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
-----
“Your totems are amazing,” Arkaitz commented later. “None is weaker than any others, not the new or the old.”
John nodded. “It seemed especially important for what I planned to do,” John explained. “Some styles can handle the earlier totems remaining at whatever rank they were naturally present, but I would lose balance if I did the same.”
“Did it help?” Arkaitz asked. “I mean, with your advancement to the Ascending Soul Phase.”
That was the man’s chief concern- and why shouldn’t it be? That was likely true of every cultivator who had the potential. Arkaitz was quite close, as his cultivation was at the peak of the Consolidated Soul Phase.
John took some time to think about his answer carefully. He had already had strong totems when he made his first attempt at breaking through, with disastrous results. “It’s helpful,” John said. “But not sufficient on its own. You need to be ready to accept the power that comes with the Ascending Soul Phase.”
It was possible his own advancement was a bit harder as he’d also been completing the cycle of core elements- the last piece was certainly the hardest. But nobody else had ever claimed the final step was easy. Even those who made it look easy.
Ursel had advanced her earlier totems, but her first totem still wasn’t fifth tier even though she was in the Ascending Soul Phase, so it wasn’t a strict requirement. Then again, the total balance of her totems was certainly above that level.
John provided the best advice he could to Arkaitz, reminding him not to underestimate how much power he would need. Beyond that, improving totems was certainly useful.
“Try to pick a location that is both powerful and meaningful to yourself,” John said. “Perhaps your sect has some sort of sacred ground. That would likely be better than an unfamiliar location, even if it contained more power.”
“How much of a factor would you say that is?” Arkaitz asked.
John pondered. Lucanus and Yustina certainly went with something familiar, but Zolvolj was also the strongest source of fire element they would have access to. Tirto and Verusha didn’t go anywhere particularly special, but choosing totems for each other was part of the difficulty.
“Perhaps it seems like I am deflecting,” John said, “But you’ll have to decide what is important for yourself. Put in careful consideration. Above all else make sure you are in a good state of mind. There’s no need to rush, with your age.”
John hadn’t needed to rush either, but in the years after Matayal’s death he hadn’t been entirely stable. He still felt the other factors were important to his failed advancement, however. Perhaps if some other things had been just right, his hasty push for power would have been successful.
-----
It was time to move on from the Muted Crags to one of the final regions John simply hadn’t been to. It wasn’t like he had been avoiding the area, he’d simply never had an occasion to visit the final region.
Traveling along the northern shores of the Muted Crags, John once again thought it was a waste that no sects of note seemed to live precisely on the sea. Frankly, even if the ports froze up part of the year, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Then again, it hadn’t been terribly long that they would have wanted to trade with anywhere else.
Even with the efficiency of water travel, shipping to the Darklands directly was still almost as good as going all the way around the western end of the continent and then back into the Shimmering Islands to then end up in the Darklands.
The Gloom Desolation was not much further on land, though that would take them through the Frozen Heights and Breathless Plains, neither of which were good for a caravan. The Frozen Heights were not friendly to any travelers, and the Plains were difficult to navigate with pack animals. Some amount of resources could be exchanged by cultivators carrying storage bags, but they’d have to have actual connections.
For most of recent history, they simply wouldn’t have. After the conflict with the Rolling Dunes, people weren’t particularly eager to see Muted Crags cultivators. John did intend to push things further with the western region, though. The Shadowed Union seemed like they would be at least tolerable trading partners. The Honorable Lake Compact was fine, and John quite liked the Silver Haze Sect.
The northern coast reminded John of looking out over the ocean on a foggy day- except without there actually being any fog. His senses were simply dulled enough that he couldn’t even quite pick out the horizon. The black sand beaches were nice, too.
John thought that he might just walk along the beach into the Boiling Springs region, but alas they had set up a clear dividing wall where the Muted Crags began to fade. There weren’t many guards who would see them right at the end, but he really didn’t want to cause any trouble. Thus, he approached and asked where a proper gate was.
About a day’s travel south, apparently. They were lucky John wasn’t actually an enemy because their defenses were pretty thin, spread out over such a large area. The terrain wasn’t to their advantage, as the Crags faded away rapidly. But they had some sense of sovereignty, and John didn’t intend to walk all over it. They took the extra time to reach a proper border crossing.
The first thing John noticed after they crossed the border properly were the Boilings Springs themselves. John had figured that the region was named after a mountainous region that had some hot springs, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. There were a few higher peaks, but they were at a fairly low elevation and there were just random hot springs strewn about- in the sorts of places he might expect to see regular ponds. There were even a few steaming streams, and John almost wondered if they’d ended back up in the eastern end of the Encapsulated Flow.
Then again, why shouldn’t there be some similarities between two water and fire element regions? The Boiling Springs was far more on the tolerable end of what could happen when one mixed fire and water, however. Even if some of them were actually boiling, that might still be a thousand degrees cooler than actual lava.
