The wedding was a grand and glorious affair with visitors from all over the continent. John was glad to see… some of them. Mainly his family and personal friends, the majority of which were part of the Club. Then there was Sitora, who perhaps should be formally inducted into the club. She fit the qualifications, including loyalty to the same cause. At present she was able to walk with dignity, not outwardly displaying any injuries… but John could feel that it took some effort. Either way, he was glad for her presence.

John missed the simple style and beautiful surroundings of Pualani. Lunson had beautiful places in its own right, but it didn't have much in the way of water features. But it was a greater political event than his wedding to Matayal, which had been important for a few clans and a few other groups in the surrounding regions. His wedding to Astrid ended up a continental affair because of how far John's own position had risen in the intervening years.

Not that Astrid's own importance didn't contribute to the size of things. As an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, even just at the thirty-seventh rank, she was one of less than a hundred such individuals throughout the continent. Though, that number kept growing.

The wedding and the various festivities lasted several days, as well as the political maneuvering that came with it. Not everyone was there specifically for the sect head of the Six Elements Crossroads, but instead to rub shoulders with various groups from around the continent. People could gather in Lunson at any time, but there was rarely such a high proportion. The next tournament had been delayed slightly, because of the wars. John would have liked it to stay precisely on schedule, but it just wasn't practical.

-----

When everything was over, John was glad for the peace and quiet of his personal courtyard. Their personal courtyard. It wasn't the sort of marriage where he and Astrid kept separate chambers- though they did have various other rooms that were meant for one or the other. Astrid could have had a whole wing of clothes… but she kept it to a single large room. John wouldn't blame her for wanting to have options for how she dressed, though when it came to battle it was impractical to have multiple sets of enchanted armor. Sometimes that armor was actually clothing, but the point remained regardless of how heavy it was. For the price of several options, one could have a single more effective option.

Ultimately, cultivators had to remain practical. But neither John nor Astrid were concerned about being attacked at arbitrary moments. Astrein was likely the most peaceful place, as it was surrounded by allies several regions deep on all sides.

Astrid had taken over one portion of the sizable courtyard to grow firegrass. It was important to her own training, of course, as well as being aesthetically pleasing. John accommodated her by rearranging some of the garden, which was balanced to have a mix of the six elements. It wasn't the best spot for training since they weren't all extraordinary in their spiritual energy, but it was pleasant.

Proper earth element bamboo supported the fire element adjacent to it, and a wall of hanging air element plants completed the separation of the allied cycles. A few of the plants were actually from the sky islands, growing atop small floating crystals that filled the area. Their specialized roots drew water, nutrients, and spiritual energy from the air around them. A more mundane version of air plants existed on Earth, usually quite small due to the limited nutrients that could be drawn directly from the air. Of course as with everything where spiritual energy was involved, these plants went beyond the norm, long tendrils filling the area.

John found Astrid meditating among the firegrass, as he expected. The plants flickered and twisted in the sunlight, happily absorbing the spiritual energy it provided. The firegrass had taken some time to adapt to its surroundings and had to be coaxed to draw upon the smaller proportion of appropriate elements. However, once it got going and the surroundings were properly in place, it had grown just as eagerly as within the Sunfields.

Maybe with a bit more maintenance required. Though John helped fix any elemental imbalances, he didn't actually take on all the work of maintaining his own gardens. For one thing, he wasn't going to be around at all times. For another, while as a cultivator he had some intuition for how to care for everything it was really better to have someone properly trained for the task. They had an old gardener who took care of most of the work himself.

Since he didn't need to disturb Astrid for any particular reason, John made his way to the center of the gardens, just taking everything in. He wasn't even cultivating, just relaxing. There would be plenty of time for proper cultivation later, and he even had an excellent partner.

-----

Dual cultivation was an activity far more intimate than sex. After all, there was entrusting your body to someone and then going deeper and entrusting your soul to them. It still came with significant bodily risks, of course. Spiritual energy inside the body could tear it apart with ease, either accidentally or intentionally.

John and Astrid had spent quite some time familiarizing with each other's energy externally once they were seriously committed. That didn't have much benefit for cultivation, it was just a necessary step along the way. It was also helpful for fighting alongside each other in battle, as it allowed them to coordinate their energy without pushing against each other. It was natural to reject unfamiliar energy.

Together, the sum total of energy was biased towards fire. That wasn't necessarily a problem. After all, Astrid's totems were three-fifths fire element, though her spiritual energy was closer to an even split. Averaged together with John's spiritual energy- which wasn't quite correct- it ended up with fire element being less than twice the smallest elements. However, Astrid's fire element directly supported John's earth element which helped bolster the cycle and raise the others to similar levels.

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As for light element, John had a small portion of it himself. The delicate part was including Astrid's, but with active control they had already gotten past the issues of mixing it with dark element. They never mixed the two opposites directly between them. That was a bit much for their current stage, though they were slowly moving towards that point with guidance from those who had successfully balanced light and darkness.

The greater effect on cultivation speed ended up going to Astrid, or at least it was the most visible. She would likely surpass the early Ascending Soul Phase rapidly. Whether that was as quick as a handful of years or a decade or two, she might step into the fortieth rank in that time. In that time, John could expect to finish the last steps to reach the forty-first rank, but not necessarily step through into the late Ascending Soul Phase at the forty-second.

But even if it wasn't perfectly balanced, that didn't mean it wasn't beneficial for him. He would be a bit faster, but the biggest benefits would come if he actually reached the peak of the Ascending Soul Phase and tried to break through to the Exalted Soul Phase. It was quite ambitious, but a greater proficiency with light was absolutely required. Besides, even if Astrid had gotten all the benefits John wouldn't have minded too much. It was worth spending time with loved ones to help them. Receiving tangible benefits in turn was simply a bonus.

-----

The plains around Lunson were being carefully managed. So many things could go wrong if they harmed the environment, and if the elemental balance of the region was upset- which wasn't terribly likely- then their prosperity would drop. And there were also local dishes to consider.

Calling bison burgers a delicacy was stretching things a bit far. They were common food, and tasty. Just not a delicacy until you started putting gold leaf on them. Was gold leaf tasty? Absolutely not. But sometimes, people wanted to make sure their food was more expensive than everyone else's.

Permits were required to hunt the bison, as the herds were carefully managed. They ran free outside the cities, for the most part. Rather than restricting their movements, carefully guiding where they went was the main controlling factor. It was simple, really. Nobody wanted to cut all that grass, so they needed the bison. They did protect the herds from predators, though only to some extent. Losing a few now and then was expected and good for other parts of the environment.

John didn't have his own permits, but nobody was going to begrudge him going along with someone who did and hunting a single individual. Even if he planned to take the whole thing, the Six Elements Crossroads wasn't going to miss a single bison from their share. And he wasn't really looking for a whole tonne of meat. He just needed a little and it felt appropriate to hunt it with his own hands.

Though John had hunted them for food before, methods had changed slightly. It was preferred for him to draw one away from the rest of the herds so as to not unnecessarily spook the rest. It was a fairly easy technique to manipulate an animal. Even if the bison had a decent bit of spiritual energy, they didn't actively use it. It just helped them to grow large and strong.

There was a proper technique to get a painless death, which John appreciated. He hadn't kept himself involved in the minutiae of this business, but seeing his general guidelines be followed pleased him.

He came out of nowhere and stabbed with a small blade coated in his spiritual energy, killing his target instantly. Then he lifted it, requiring a good bit of effort. It would need to be drained of blood soon, or the meat would go bad. Ursel might have lifted the creature with just her body, but John wasn't that devoted to advanced body tempering.

With some proper tomatoes he grew himself as well as cheese and various condiments, he had gathered what he needed. After that, he worked with a butcher to carve out some good cuts of meat for himself.

He called Astrid to watch the cooking process. That was part of the whole event, after all. They'd been so busy before the wedding that they'd never gotten around to this particular plan, but now John had a bit more free time.

Astrid watched as he put the meat through a grinder. He prepared seasonings as he threw the ground meat onto a grill, heated by his own spiritual energy. He hadn't practiced cooking much recently, but the memories were still there and his body and spiritual energy control were in better shape than they'd ever been before.

John had ruined several batches of buns before he finally managed to cook them right. It would still be better for him to just buy from a baker, but that wasn't the point.

The smell of sizzling meat was tantalizing. John was glad he'd brought a lot. Cultivators could be quite big eaters, and that included Astrid. Though, neither of them were anything compared to Ursel, whose body needed more sustenance.

John had already asked about Astrid's tastes, so he prepared an arrangement he thought she'd enjoy the most. The ingredients were arranged to avoid ending up with a soggy bun. Juicy was good, but the bun shouldn't fall apart while eating. Structural integrity was important, as well as individual size. Wide was better than tall, for purposes of actually consuming the food.

Meat, vegetables, and condiments piled up onto the bun. John handed it over to Astrid, who was looking at it with determination.

John didn't think there was a way she didn't like it. He didn't need it to be her favorite thing, though.

Seeing Astrid take a bite, immediately followed by a much larger bite, John enjoyed her smiling face with just a bit of juice dripping down it.

For the sake of honesty, he gave voice to his thoughts.

"It's too bad Matayal never had a chance like this. I never made these while she was alive."

Astrid nodded seriously. "That is a shame."

"There were many things I planned to do that we never got a chance to. I don't intend to make that mistake again," John declared.

While Astrid would occasionally have to deal with matters related to the Summer Sun Sect even after abdicating the official role of Sect Head, most of the time that could come to her. In the worst case, John expected to spend a couple months a year apart- instead of just a pair together.

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