Truthful Transmigration

Rather than John having to go all the way to the Sky Islands, he was quite pleased that Sitora came to meet him in Lunson. Technically it was the same travel distance for either of them, but in some ways it was more practical for Sitora since there was more business for her to take care of on the continent. It was also a sign of trust, that she would come visit with only a small entourage.

They sat down atop one of the towers within the Six Elements Crossroads, designed specifically to channel the maximum amount of wind around it. It also had a nice view of the city in one direction, and the sect and then the plains in the other.

“I appreciate you coming to visit,” John said. “I very much prefer that we become actual allies instead of just scattered groups held in submission by power.”

Sitora grinned. She was clearly more relaxed around him now, which he appreciated. Though he doubted she was lacking in vigilance. “Are you sure? Many people prefer the latter so that they can show off their strength.”

John shook his head. “I don’t know about them, but I’m enjoying my life. I’d rather not have to worry constantly about whether a slip-up will lead to my demise.”

“You get numb to it,” Sitora shrugged. “But take some advice from this old woman. Make certain your friends are genuine.”

“I absolutely do,” John said. He took a sip of tea. “How is Abritt?”

Sitora raised an eyebrow. “Why should she be any different?”

John chuckled to himself. “Last I heard she was contemplating her cultivation. It’s been a few years, and I wondered if the changing circumstances had any impact on her.”

He was dancing around the true topic, not because Ursel’s advancement was secret- it might be the least secret thing to happen in the last year- but just because he enjoyed it.

“As it turns out,” Sitora began, “Abritt is seriously reconsidering her impressions of continentals. She might also be attempting to convince herself that Ursel was always in the Ascending Soul Phase, but she doesn’t seriously believe that.”

Abritt had come across quite an unfortunate incompatibility in that battle. She didn’t have sufficient force to properly defeat Ursel, and she had underestimated Ursel’s offensive abilities. Against many opponents Ursel didn’t even need to make use of her roots, so it was easy to assume that she relied on brute force. And Abritt had shown that her defenses were sufficient to resist direct assaults.

Perhaps if she had been more in tune with her earth element, she could have dismantled Ursel’s defenses more effectively, or noticed the infiltration within herself. However, she had believed herself invincible against Ursel given the severe gap in cultivation… and that simply hadn’t been true.

John looked vaguely off to the south. “I hope to show her soon that there’s more than one person who can defeat her.”

“You think you can?” Sitora asked.

“Maybe not just yet. But I have a greater chance when I reach the mid Ascending Soul Phase.”

“You’d be right about that. Even I can defeat her on occasion. But she would have the right to require multiple bouts for me to take over her position.”

“Really?” John asked. “I thought Venera and Morana only had a single match.”

“They did. But Morana didn’t want to lose two or three in a row. She was forced to accept her defeat in a… dignified manner.”

“That certainly doesn’t sound like the woman I remember,” John said. She had attacked him after his victory, after all. That hadn’t exactly been dignified.

“She’s gained some humility from being down a limb. By which I mean she’s been stricken by melancholy.” Sitora gave the slightest shrug of her shoulders. “Though I would say she deserves it.” Sitora’s eyes looked around the rooftop. “How is the privacy here?”

“We’re visible from the other towers. Or by random fliers,” John said. “Concealing our voices would be simple enough, however.”

Sitora nodded, gently creating a barrier of air around them. “I’ve found a few interesting people. And there’s reason to believe that Mandlen is one of them.”

“Of the Indestructible Kapok Grove? They’re a bit far for you to pay attention to,” John said. “But I agree that every Ascending Soul Phase cultivator is worth paying attention to.”

“I speak of people like us. Though not precisely. Mandlen has displayed none of the oddities of transmigrators. But his growth was swifter than natural. Most likely, he is a reincarnator. Like Gesine. Or… some of your friends.”

It wasn’t clear exactly what she knew. Sitora certainly knew about Deirdre- that was their initial point of contact, back during the whole leviathan debacle. John hadn’t shared details about the others in specific, however.

John thought for a few moments. “It would explain a few things. He seemed to reach the Ascending Soul Phase out of nowhere. Though perhaps we were simply paying too little attention beyond the Shimmering Islands.”

“I have no confirmation. But my spies indicate he has a few techniques that seem to have come from nowhere.”

“Oh, and what do they say about me?”

Sitora crossed her arms. “You have a few main techniques… and otherwise tend to use adaptable strings of elements to create whatever effects you desire.”

That could have all come from watching him in the tournaments. It didn’t really confirm the presence or absence of spies otherwise. Mainly, John would be interested if there were any within the Crossroads itself. It would doubtless be trivial to find someone within Lunson who wanted to receive payment for passing on information, but whether they could get anything truly secret was another matter.

“I haven’t really seen signs of any others,” John admitted. “I didn’t think you had been looking.”

“You made me curious. Unfortunately, I have no way to tell if there are particularly higher numbers of reincarnated or transmigrated individuals in the current time… or if the surge of cultivation is caused by something else.”

“Many others are growing to levels that previous generations did not,” John pointed out.

“Yes. But most cultivators tend to drag others up with them… either allies, or those enemies trying to keep up. It’s not so unusual to have surges. Take for example the Sky Islands. A couple centuries ago, there were no Ascending Soul Phase cultivators at all.”

“Not even Abritt?” John asked.

“She was the first. I was more than a few decades behind, even with my advantages. Either way, there was another surge of cultivation growth on the continent around that time. Our records are incomplete, but it seems that nobody surpassed the Consolidated Soul Phase. And that most ended up killing each other off.”

“That actually makes sense,” John said. “Faramund of the Society of Midnight was from that time.” Which also meant that Ciaritzal and Cuah’arn were as well- but John already knew they’d been around at the founding of the Tenebach clan. That had been before his grandfather, so it all fit. “I’d appreciate you keeping me informed. If nothing else so I know who to pay attention to.”

“Naming other names at the moment might compromise some of my spies,” she said. “But I can share in the near future. Of course, I would like it if you reciprocated.”

“I certainly will, if I find anyone new.” He wasn’t going to confirm the exact status of the club members without good reason.

Sitora bringing up the matter was actually good motivation for John to do something besides slowly growing stronger. There wasn’t much further their alliance’s influence could spread without clashing with other established groups closer to the Molten Sea, and not everyone was fully on board. Though personal power was always useful in this world, finding Transmigrators in particular to determine if it was merely a coincidence that all four he knew of spoke English would be enlightening.

-----

Outside of the constraints of the Sky Islands, John found battling with Sitora to be much easier. Or perhaps he should say he found her to be weaker.

When trying to determine why that was he was stumped for a while… but then it dawned on him. “You’ve grown too used to your flight being augmented,” John said, circling behind her at the same time as he dodged a bolt of lightning. She easily caught his sword, her defenses augmented by earth, but the fact that she had to block him at all proved him correct.

“Even with that, I’m still far ahead of you,” Sitora commented. Her earth element surged from her hand along his sword. It was prepared to drag him down, while at the same time lightning gathered in the sky above.

John let go of his sword before her energy reached him, flying backwards and drawing out two throwing daggers. With his left he threw upwards towards the gathering lightning, attempting to lure in the attack. The other was coated in Ethereal Flames, the effect nearly invisible as it fed on a coating of earth that was what he hoped for her to see.

Unfortunately she didn’t take the bait, and twirled out of the way of his assault instead of taking it head on. She also managed to redirect her attack around his other dagger, though the slight delay allowed John to focus his energy within his skin… recreating a technique he’d seen from Sitora in the Sky Islands. Her lightning attempted to follow her will, but it never made it deeper than his skin as it danced along his body.

“That shouldn’t have worked,” Sitora commented. “It was one thing when I did it with my own energy you redirected, but I still had control of that energy.” Lightning crackled around her. John knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. She was a full three ranks ahead of him, and she had another century of practical experience as well. The only reason he didn’t lose faster was because his own style was far out of the norm.

“I’ll tell you how I did it if you can block this,” John said. The four core elements swirled together between his palms. With a push, it flew forward like an energy blast- a core of earth around which water, air, and fire raged.

Sitora didn’t let his taunt get to her. Instead, she simply let herself drop, after throwing some of her energy up and behind John. Her energy moved so quickly that even though John could read the flow, he couldn’t react perfectly. Lightning flashed between herself and her extended energy, catching John in the middle. He didn’t manage to completely redirect the lightning, and the arena’s formations had determined that his defenses were insufficient.

John slightly disagreed. Either way, it was a good part to stop.

“It’s something about your skin itself,” Sitora declared. “That’s how you can replicate the diversion technique.”

It was true. While Diamond Defense was naturally durable against more direct attacks, it didn’t necessarily stop lightning. But he could channel an incoming lightning attack through it with only minor damage, instead of burning off his skin and likely a good bit of muscle beneath.

Sitora looked towards where the ball of energy had faded away, perhaps wondering how the attack John threw could have defeated her if she met it head on. The answer was, of course, that it wouldn’t have. While simply letting the four core elements feed into each other resulted in a decent amount of power, when naively combined together like that it merely looked cool. Sure, it would create a sizable explosion, but it would be undirected- thus mostly wasted.

Changing it around to cause it to actually focus all the damage on his intended target wasn’t feasible in that form. But John wasn’t going to share that information. Best to pretend he had a secret explosive technique, and then stab someone on the sly with a good one or two element combination.

Though if John could add light and darkness into the mix, it would either create something very stable and thus useless as an attack… or explode with many times more force. He could see it going either way, but he simply didn’t have enough light element to do more than small scale experiments. And without going full power, he couldn’t know if it would hold together or not in a real battle.

Still, it was a very pretty feint, and if John hadn’t been taken down so directly he was prepared to follow up with a better and less obvious attack.