Though John preferred to constantly have Astrid by his side, he was aware that they couldn't always be. The Empire of Elements was keeping constant pressure on the frontlines of the war, and sometimes people were needed in multiple locations. Ascending Soul Phase cultivators were at the top of the totem pole and were almost required for a proper fighting force. They did still spend the majority of their time together, and even if it was in the context of a war John was just glad for the time.

This time he was the one going off while she remained to keep one of their locations secure. The battle lines were drawn all across the midline of the Molten Sea, and the support of the other Molten Sea cultivators and the continent kept the lines pushing back and forth in various places. Nobody was making any great progress, though John hoped they were wearing down the enemy forces. It was difficult to say, as they were dealing with another entire continent.

The northeastern end of the Molten Sea met with traditional seas in rather violent ways. For the most part, various forms of igneous rock formed a barrier between the two- but such a barrier was always collapsing and reforming. Sometimes the Molten Sea would spearhead out into the salty ocean and other times the waters would break into the lava, generally building up beneath before superheated steam burst out in large bubbles. These were dangers that could be found in other portions of the Molten Sea, but somewhat more frequent on the 'shores'.

Different vessels were required to traverse water seas, and there were others assigned to dealing with any foes that might go past by traditional water routes. What John was watching for was passage through the Molten Sea, where they would try to sneak around and flank defenses. John's monitoring of incoming ships involved a lot of flying.

Each time he flew above the Molten Sea, John was reminded that spiritual energy didn't necessarily follow the laws of physics. Things were hottest near the sea itself, and he would have expected a gradual falloff as the heat dissipated- but that was not so. Instead, while the temperature did dip for a certain distance it then rose once more until it hit a peak below the cloud level- regardless of whether there were any actual clouds present at the moment. Fire elemental spiritual energy built up there, before the atmosphere rapidly began to thin.

John idly wondered if there was any utility to it. It would actually make hot air balloons harder to use, as they took advantage of the differences between internal and external temperatures. Not that the continent had much of that, despite the recent design work. The point was, it made it hard for John to do anything but fly himself.

It would have been highly unpleasant if he didn't have a fire totem. As it was, it felt like exercising on a day that was just a bit too hot. Unpleasant and muggy, instead of nearly deadly. No, perhaps it would be actually deadly without both spiritual energy control and his body tempering to regulate temperature. He had gotten rather far removed from what was 'normal', and he didn't have convenient temperature comparisons to work from. The only thing he was certain of was that the temperature in the sky was lower than that of boiling water, which wasn't a terribly comforting threshold.

His eyes scanned the horizon for ships. He did so frequently. Several times a month he went out on a scouting mission, usually after receiving reports of ships in a particular area. Depending on the situation they could attack enemy ships, go support a local fort that might fall under attack, or call for reinforcements. Of course, there were also situations where there was just nothing- either the ships turned back or had otherwise been misidentified.

People also tried to hide their vessels. Light and darkness were the most common stealth related elements, but in the Molten Sea almost anything could be used. Air could capture the common wisps of steam to create a haze. Fire and water were of course the dominant elements in the region, so while they could alter the visual feedback through means of mirages they were the best at simply hiding from cultivators. Earth was perhaps the only one with no value, at least while actively moving. If they were anchored somewhere, a small shell of stone could obscure the signs of a ship.

John had seen many such tricks, and he didn't rely on any one sense. Obviously if there were obvious signs he focused on those first, but he didn't discount the possibility that two fleets might be sailing alongside each other, one hidden. It was not beyond the Empire of Elements to conceal a modest fleet for days, and they certainly didn't have any limitations based on the type of element they were using.

Some low clouds passed in front of John's vision. He carefully dispersed them- he didn't want to alert anyone below of his presence. He had his own ways of hiding himself, but a backdrop of clouds was actually better for him than the skies of the Molten Sea. Mostly blue skies- but tinged by the local elements. John could rather easily replicate the light of clouds close behind him, but it was more difficult with distant skies.

John spotted his quarry, and after determining with reasonable certainty that there weren't any other fleets within a few dozen kilometers he slowly descended, lowering himself gently down. Not revealing himself through excessive spiritual energy usage was even more important than visually hiding himself. Of course, there might be times he wanted to reveal himself as a deterrent, but for the moment he was looking forward to opportunities to hit enemy forces.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

When he landed, he directed the ships in the right direction. Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators were tasked with their own stealth methods as they sought out the diverse enemy fleet. The Empire of Elements sometimes only had one or two sects together, while other units were fully mixed between elements. Unlike the Six Elements Crossroads, however, they were clearly still distinct groups, merely trained to work together.

Unsurprisingly with an empress like Aldara, mixing elements was understood to be beneficial. It was a shame that they didn't go for single elements more often, because it allowed the western continent a chance to pick a dominant element ahead of time- not that they always had access to whatever forces they pleased.

John felt the familiar distortion of a heat haze hiding their ships as they approached. The point wasn't to be completely invisible, just to not show up immediately as they crested the horizon. They wanted to get a jump on their foes, but they couldn't reasonably expect to actually reach the enemy fleet before they were noticed. Though John himself could actually do a pretty decent job of blending into the background without using much of his own spiritual energy.

To most, even elements appeared as nothing. Against a background of water and fire, he merely had to adjust what elements displayed themselves. The advantage here was that the enemy wouldn't flee too quickly if they didn't realize he was around. With no Ascending Soul Phase cultivator among this fleet, they wouldn't stand and fight if they knew he was present. It wasn't anything about John in particular, but what any Ascending Soul Phase cultivator could do to the balance of a battlefield.

They were spotted a couple hundred meters away, but that was close enough that they might as well have met. Ships that could maneuver the Molten Sea weren't precisely known for their ability to make tight turns, and it was also a distance that cultivators could cross in a handful of seconds. They did begin to turn their vessels, but that also allowed them to bring more of their cultivators to bear at once. Ships didn't tend to have cannons, but why would anyone need them when they had control over elemental forces?

Actual cannons would be great if they weren't subject to a single tiny spark blowing up your own ship. Doing anything similar with fancy enchantments was quite expensive, especially when you could put that same money into a mighty spear that would see more use.

John didn't discount the possibility, of course. He just found he could follow the general logic that this world used, and he didn't necessarily have the capacity to invent a functional version of things all on his own.

Balls of lava were flung at John's fleet. They were neither fast nor slow, as they had to be deflected regardless. Otherwise, they would land on the decks of the ships. While they were somewhat resistant to heat, only the outer hull was completely resistant to the power of the Molten Sea. Besides, cultivators could boost their own attacks.

Fountains of water struck down flying lava, both slowing the momentum and cooling the attacks. They dropped down towards the sea as a counterattack was launched, lightning bolts from air cultivators and spears of stone from the solidified blobs of stone that had been lava moments before.

Longer ranged battles rarely lasted long- few cultivators were efficient at such a long range- but it kept people occupied for the approach and could cause injuries or otherwise tire out foes, if one was more efficient.

As their ships just about caught up, John revealed his presence with a flash. Light was his weakest element, thus nobody expected it from him. He didn't know how far details about him in particular had spread, but he wanted to be as disruptive as possible and his surface resemblance to their empress should be sufficiently effective.

John joined his allies in a melee assault, leaping between vessels and cutting down those around him. He sought out his opponents according to the cycle of elements, as much as possible. If he couldn't find someone weak to the next step in the chain, he at least could find someone with a neutral element. His cultivation advantage would carry him far.

He could fight two or three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators easily. Four or more became a bit troublesome as they might surround him, and John wished to avoid that as much as possible. He had no intention of dying to recklessness when he had perfectly good subordinates to rely upon. He couldn't take all of the burden onto himself. He wouldn't. There were people waiting for him to return, after all.

It wasn't long before their foes began to retreat. Their furthest ships had completely turned about, and their fighters abandoned the front half of the fleet. John could have ordered his own fleet to chase after them- but as the lava-splitting ships were empowered by the cultivators aboard they would have to expend their own spiritual energy to chase the tail ends of the ships.

Complete annihilation wasn't necessary- they could be happy with those that they had killed and the ships they seized. This was just one battle of many. The enemy would lose sufficient morale from their failure and the war would continue regardless.

One year wasn't long so far, but John could foresee things dragging on. He wasn't sure if he should be happy that his personal cultivation was advancing due to the hardship, but since the war was happening anyway he wasn't going to complain. Some days he had more worthy opponents, but even facing multiple individual foes revealed flaws within himself- even if they didn't notice or failed to take advantage of such things.

John's cycle of elements was still imperfect, that he knew. He continued to spend time in the sea of spiritual totems, hunting down the perfect light element totem. Or perhaps creating it in his own mind. Either way, he needed to be able to access it comfortably for his advancement, whenever that came about. He would reach the forty-fourth rank soon. The forty-fifth was the peak of the Ascending Soul Phase. But of course, that wasn't sufficient, just the bare minimum requirement to advance. He needed to be the best version of himself to reach the Exalted Soul Phase… or acknowledge his limits.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.