Truthful Transmigration

Once the four travelers were safely on the ground- as safe as one could be near the edge of a sky island, at least- they took a few moments to gather themselves.

“Good job countering a new technique,” John commented to Ayhan and Lir. “I certainly hadn’t anticipated something to drop people out of the sky, though perhaps I should have.”

Lir shook her head. “I don’t think we could have, if they hadn’t started with you. That gave us the necessary time to prepare. And you recovered almost instantly.”

“Too slow, in my estimation,” John said. “Remember, I’m an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator. I shouldn’t have dropped out of the path. Especially not to such a simple and straightforward lump of energy. I think all of us need to practice countering such techniques.”

Viriato also had some comments. “I’m not sure I was as effective as I should have been. Being unable to fly, I held these two back.”

“I brought you for what you can do,” John explained. “Flying wasn’t one of them, though I imagine that some day you’ll be able. You still fought well, bringing down the enemy cultivators. However, it wouldn’t hurt if you also learned to counteract their… grounding techniques. You do have fire, after all, so you should be able to eradicate the earth element if you’re prepared.”

Viriato nodded. “I’m concerned about those people, and who they are allied with. It might be unsafe here for us.”

“Might be?” John raised an eyebrow. “It was always going to be unsafe. Now, our enemies have revealed themselves. If we notice any more of their disciples, we can learn who they are. They already passed up their best chance. And I don’t believe we could have been random targets. They should have noticed I was an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator. They weren’t so incompetent to have missed that.”

“What are we going to do about it?” Viriato asked.

“We figure out what faction they’re from, which should inform how we react. To have a reason to risk sending Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators after us, they should have had specific reasons. We might find allies in their enemies, depending on the social situation. If it places us in an untenable situation, we throw ourselves into the sea and have a grand old time swimming back to land.”

“So our next move?”

“We go into this town over here and start asking questions. Then we get in some training before we head on to the next island.”

-----

There was only so subtle they could be when asking about the group. Any delicacy was to avoid any immediate friction, as the group that attacked them would inevitably learn the results of the attack- their three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators had flown off, after all. John might have been able to chase them down, but he wasn’t certain the other three would have made it to land safely. The three hadn’t been particularly injured either, so there was some risk to himself if they stood and fought.

Perhaps he should have brought more guards with him, but he felt the results would have been the same. The enemy should have known their numbers and judges they had a reasonable chance of success- more people who could be knocked out of the sky would have been a liability. And the point was to not be seen as an invading army, which certainly could have happened.

It was fairly clear that the inhabitants of their current islands had felt the battle- Four Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators and an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator clashing could be felt from quite a distance. People from several islands over might have felt something, and they certainly could have seen figures if they were looking. There was no horizon that got in the way, just other islands.

The locals were clearly a bit uncomfortable, but John learned that the people were disciples of the Third Peak. Which was both frustrating and completely believable. That was certainly likely to restrict their passage. It was something that had to be considered further before they got to that point… but they needed to reach the Fifth Peak regardless. Giving up before then would feel like a failure.

If the Fifth Peak could contact Sitora, her response would dictate where things went from there. If she rejected meeting with John, then he would do his best to ingratiate himself to those of the Fourth and Fifth Peak, just to establish some sort of diplomatic rapport with the Sky Islands. But if Sitora gave him permission, it was unlikely the Third Peak would cause too much of a fuss. Though he anticipated they would already be saying he attacked them.

-----

Though they could reach the Fifth Peak in a day or so of travel, John and the others took a full day off from traveling. Instead, they used the opportunity to train- specifically both on utilization and countering of the grounding techniques. Ayhan and John were the only ones who could use the earth element, which meant John’s training to resist was a bit lackluster. Still, he was able to observe from both sides of the techniques, and he knew he would be able to react faster in the future.

In truth, John wanted a variety of elements to be utilized at all times to begin with. Adding fire into his flight wasn’t unreasonable, and he could burn away earth techniques before they took hold.

It didn’t have to be earth, however. The group theorized ways to strip flight with pure air techniques, and even water might be able to do it. It would have the disadvantage, but it wasn’t necessary to completely prevent flight- just making someone drop out of the proper pathways meant they had to expend more energy to stay in flight, and it might be possible to fight from above, keeping an enemy down.

Things might have gone more poorly if the three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators had stayed vigilant, instead of assuming John was out of their hair for the moment. If they’d fought from just inside the ‘path’, he would have been much less efficient than them. Of course, he would have found a way to fly around them, but even that left openings.

John found that he liked the way he had linked them together, so that they weighed each other down. He tried something like that with Lir and Ayhan- with them all practicing just over the surface of the islands, of course. Nobody was going to risk falling ten kilometers into the ocean. Even if they could probably survive it, there was no point. They had already experienced the true risks, and needed some safe training.

Refined techniques couldn’t be created in a day, so everyone stuck to basic things. Lir and Viriato could burn away any earth, while Ayhan could use the same sort of technique to bring down enemies. Even if they were experienced enough to resist their own techniques, it was better to make the attempt.

Viriato also planned a method to use his interplay of light and darkness to confuse his enemies in a more beneficial way. Illusions had become the backbone of his fighting style, and his plan was simple. All he had to do was lure people out of the safe zone. Then he could bombard them with attacks while they were focused on trying to return to an easy place to fight.

All three of them practiced various other pieces of aerial flight, but ultimately they could only do so much in the course of a day. Too much caution might look like weakness, so they decided to continue their journey with their new preparations fresh in their mind.

-----

The four took great care watching the island ahead of them before continuing their journey, with none of them spotting anyone waiting where they might arrive. Their enemies might have other plans to continue the harassment, but with wide open skies it would be difficult for them to approach unseen. Even if they were hidden somehow, they could be picked out. No longer was traversing from one island to another a casual affair.

They did not encounter any trouble along the next leg of their journey, but they were more aware of what it might look like. They did notice some people watching them, though it was unclear if they were curious about some fairly obvious foreigners or potential informants.

Travel ended with them one island away from the Fifth Peak- the first of the islands that significantly broke away from the general height of the other islands. From there, the peaks spiraled upward quite steeply, each towering over the next beneath it.

There was enough time in the day for them to make the approach, but they opted for another round of training. It was best to arrive in their peak condition in the morning, and while a few more hours of practice might not drastically change any future outcomes, sometimes the deciding factor in a battle was a small improvement in speed, power, or efficiency.

-----

The island where they spent the night was just beneath the Fifth Peak, while maintaining a relative position off to the side. There was some drift between the two, but none that was relevant in a short timeframe.

John and the others noticed a gathering of air cultivators in the morning, all on the edge of the island facing the Fifth Peak.

“Do you need transport?” some of them approached the group, and specifically Viriato. “It is only a small fee.”

Viriato was the one in charge of managing money, but he still deferred to John in situations like that. They were present on a diplomatic mission, after all, so it was his job as Sect Head.

“We appreciate the offer,” John said. “But the Six Elements Crossroads will be ascending under our own power. I’m sure you understand.”

They did, in fact, and quickly withdrew- looking for other travelers who might wish to try to climb the peaks. Their prime targets were cultivators not confident in their flight as well as cultivators of other elements who truly couldn’t fly.

There was a fairly steady flow of people. The Sky Islands were not terribly populous, but there were a handful of people moving between each of the peaks at any time. There were always many moving between other islands, though that was spread out between the various routes.

The path to the Fifth Peak was a little bit less generous than the others. Which is to say it supported flight less than the bubbles around most islands. Having flown up from sea level, however, it was still much easier than that.

There was a clear entrance to the Fifth Peak. Large gates swung wide open. Ceremonial in purpose, perhaps, but still a clear guide on what they desired. John had no reason to try to circumvent their obvious structure. That would be a good way to get booted over the edge.

The four of them landed outside the gates, slowly approaching. John felt comfortable in doing so, because while he could vaguely sense some Ascending Soul Phase cultivators further up, the strongest in the Fifth Peak was simply at the peak of the Consolidated Soul Phase. Now that they were closer, John could vaguely feel what he thought was Sitora, and he thought the other Great Peaks had at least one Ascending Soul Phase cultivator each. Even four gathered together in such close proximity was something to take seriously, and there might be more.

That information hadn’t been freely available along their route, however. Sects didn’t always like to reveal their exact strength.

They were met at the gates by a young female disciple- she was the strongest of those available. “Greetings. What is your business with the Fifth Peak?”

“We wish to ascend the Peaks,” John answered in much the same way as others who had come through ahead of them. “But we also wish to pass on a message to a higher peak if it is possible.”

“You will have to ask Island Master Mirka about the latter,” the disciple said. “Though you should be able to meet with her directly. You shouldn’t need to take the test to ascend to the next peak.”

John nodded. “Very well. However, my retinue might still wish to engage in the tests.”

“Absolutely,” the disciple nodded. “We will arrange for them at your convenience.”

John hoped that Sitora would respond promptly, and would be willing to meet. On the other hand, if they completely bypassed normal protocol they might lose some respect. There was no point in him fighting here on the Fifth Peak if they didn’t have an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator- unless they could arrange some other test- but Viriato and the others needed to garner some respect of their own. There was also the looming form of the Third Peak, from which John could clearly feel the cultivation style of those who had caused trouble. He hadn’t expected the information they gathered to be incorrect, but that was going to be a serious obstacle.