The Prism Underfields contained more sects than just the Combining Luster Sect. Though they had benefited greatly from their connections to the Tenebach Clan and ultimately the Six Elements Crossroads, there were some older sects that were equally well established.

  The most interesting of those to John was the Radiant Soul Sect. They focused not on longer ranged light techniques like the Combining Luster Sect, nor on close range light element combat like the Golden Tomb Guardians. Instead, their style was based around battle formations, augmenting the flow of power through their ranks rather than focusing on any individual cultivator.

  In fact, the strongest among them focused their power on their weaker allies. John at first thought that would make them less capable of taking on stronger cultivators- if the top level cultivators weren’t particularly, a powerful enemy could take them out one at a time. That was true to some extent, but of course their methods compensated to mitigate that.

  They didn’t simply leave their power distributed evenly among the battlefield, but also made use of middle and back ranks to support those in front. The difference there was that not all of the energy flowed through an individual. Decision making was based on the judgment of the whole group. Without practice John could imagine that they might work towards different ends- but of course they did practice. All of their training was accomplished in groups, so they became more familiar with group combat than individual combat.

  It was good, but it lacked some amount of flexibility. As long as the majority properly judged the situation, choosing where to attack and where to defend, few could overpower them. The issue was when they faced unfamiliar situations… such as battling against those with unusual combinations of elements. In their case, that included those with a cycle of core elements. Aside from John, the first he was aware of on the continent had reached that level within the past decade.

  It wasn’t an overwhelming advantage for the Six Elements Crossroads. Among equivalently ranked disciples they won skirmishes barely more than sixty percent of the time. That was good, but the interesting part was that number was going down the more the Radiant Soul Sect battled against them. It wasn’t an immediate jump- over the course of weeks it merely moved closer to fifty percent, which could have simply been a statistical anomaly in either the early or later matches.

  Even so, John believed he could pick out the general trend in their effectiveness. Meanwhile, his disciples were also trained in group battle formations, but not to the same extent. John wondered if they should focus more on that area in the Six Elements Crossroads. After all, winning individual tournaments wasn’t really important. Winning wars was. He didn’t plan to get into any wars, but given the track record of the continent, he couldn’t expect the troubles to simply end.

  Not everyone was suitable for group combat, nor did John think that one solution solved every problem. Instead, making certain they had specialized squads that made the best use of individual talents in that regard would be best. Obviously they couldn’t use precisely the same techniques for battlefield harmony as the Radiant Soul Sect, but they could take advantage of the cycle of elements for significant power. Normally they had focused on smaller groups of close disciples, but they could expand to somewhat larger forces. John decided that they would try swinging more in that direction to see how well it worked. They might even want to promote inter-sect battle formations, just in case.

  Never again would they simply have to accept an invasion and its consequences.

  -----

  The Wuthering Steppes. It had not been terribly long since the Brandle Clan and others from the Shimmering Islands had come to help them with the piracy issues- enacted on by the Stormy Sea Sect and spurred on by Morana.

  The fourth out of five air element regions they would be visiting. John did intend to visit the Sky Islands at some point, but not on their current expedition. It was simply too troublesome to bring large numbers of cultivators to the Sky Islands… nor would they necessarily be receptive. Ten or twenty was one thing, but the numbers with John currently were over a hundred. Either way, it was best to save it for a later date.

  Air was wind, air was lightning. Air was the breath inside people’s lungs. Air was oxygen, nitrogen, even carbon. Air was each of those things, yet to different people it might be only some. The same was true of other elements- perception mattered. Completely inaccurate or self-conflicting perceptions might not work, but many techniques could be made that would make use of spiritual elements of any sort.

  John didn’t try to push his perception of how things should be too far. If he could control oxygen or carbon with air element, couldn’t he affect the oxygen in water or the carbon in plants? He certainly could, but air elemental spiritual energy wasn’t necessarily the best method. If he wanted to move water, he could blow it around with air or control its movement directly with water elemental spiritual energy. He could try to freeze it with air element, but pulling away heat would get exponentially more difficult since he would be using an element for a purpose that didn’t really fit.

  If he wanted to break water into oxygen and hydrogen again… perhaps air might work, calling upon the elements to become air. As they were currently water, that sort of spiritual energy might be best. He could also imagine fire breaking bonds.

  Ultimately, it came down to what felt most correct. Perhaps not a particularly scientific approach at first, but considering things were being controlled by a human mind it was best that it worked that way. If John had to consciously control every tiny detail of everything he did, then he might never get anything done. Even if he could perfectly accomplish what he intended, it wouldn’t matter if someone could undo half his work with a sweep of the arm.

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  The point was, there was only a certain level of practical depth that he could think his way through. He had certain insights that he couldn’t even put into words that went beyond normal human thought. That was a part of this world that came naturally through contact with spiritual energy, if not necessarily rapidly. Cultivation spurred that process to greater heights, so that one could gather and contain more spiritual energy safely.

  -----

  The Darklands were the next stop on their route, curving north and west. It wasn’t the most comfortable route, but they would go through all the remaining regions and end up in Astrein at the end.

  They would be heading along the southern and then western end of the Darklands, where there were more traditionally friendly factions. That would also set them up to move through more of the width of the Stone Conglomerate, where they would doubtless meet with many Quartz Clans.

  Before then, they were finally in a tolerable darkness zone again. The Soulrot Bog was quite unpleasant, whereas the Muted Crags were strange- and dangerous, when the natives were setting up traps against you- but not inherently negative. That was the one proper darkness zone they had visited since John first left the Gloom Desolation to begin the journey.

  Darkness was the opposite of light. Hidden attacks and secrets. The domain of assassins and not true warriors.

  At least, that was the conventional wisdom of those who did not use the element of darkness. Other cultivators could be just as duplicitous, they just weren’t always good at it. Ultimately, it was just people being obtuse about what they didn’t understand.

  It would be possible to create a darkness style that didn’t rely on deception at all, just as it would be possible to create a rigid water style, a heavy air style, or a fire style that didn’t burn people. John didn’t think any of them were necessarily the best idea… but darkness wasn’t light’s opposite for nothing. It wasn’t just the absence of light, but a tangible thing that he could use to attack. A beam of darkness was just as real as one of light. John wondered if he could make his attacks freeze where they landed as well.

  That was probably a better direction than gathering swarms of bugs.

  Relatedly, the Calamitous Swarm was one of the locations they were visiting. They had been on good terms with both the Tenebach Clan and that had transferred through John to the Six Elements Crossroads.

  John had nothing against their techniques. He thought they were neat. He didn’t even mind insects when they were in their proper places- the denizens of the Soulrot Bog being an exception, as they carried disease.

  It would just be a massive departure from his current abilities. John had tested out their techniques his first time through the Bog and found them effective, but you didn’t really use that as part of your fighting style. It was the whole thing, or not present at all. After all, any cultivator of anything beyond the Spiritual Collection Phase could trivially wipe out a swarm of free-roaming insects. They had to be imbued with spiritual energy from a cultivator, and at that point it was all that you were doing.

  There were two sorts of cultivators in the Calamitous Swarm- those who you could see, and those who you couldn’t. Bodana was the latter sort, though it wasn’t hard to find her. She was simply surrounded by a cloud of insects so dense that it was impossible to make out anything about her features. Even her voice was distorted by the buzzing of millions of wings. That was an estimate, of course, since John couldn’t exactly count a swarm.

  “I see you are doing well,” John said. He had first met her as a guide through the Soulrot Bog- but even the Calamitous Swarm didn’t prefer to dwell in the area. John imagined they had their origins there, however. “You might even reach the Ascending Soul Phase.”

  “Kind words,” Bodana said. “But I am aware your daughter has already surpassed me. Alas, though she showed signs of interest, she did not continue her technique learning in our direction.”

  “It simply isn’t practical without taking advantage of native insects,” John said. Unimbued insects could still be controlled by the Calamitous Swarm’s techniques, but they would have difficulty with insects imbued with elements other than darkness. “Perhaps she might renew her interest, if certain eventualities come to pass.”

  The Tenebach Clan’s home as in the Stone Conglomerate now- though John wasn’t certain they intended to stay forever. There were certain rumors that Melanthina had plans to move back, after a couple centuries gone from the Darklands. Just picking up and moving a clan wasn’t an easy process, though. The Tenebach clan had lost much when they fled- Ciaritzal being the factor that allowed them to recover and grow to be a prominent clan in a zone that was merely allied with their element.

  “I’m sure we would be quite pleased to have new neighbors,” Bodana said. There didn’t seem to be any indication she thought the Tenebach clan might actually be close- the Darklands weren’t a small country- but she was merely being polite. “Do you wish to sample some of our techniques?”

  “I am quite interested in some more formal conversation on that matter,” John agreed. “Though I do have some questions. How do you spar?”

  “Much like anyone else, I would imagine,” Bodana said.

  “And you… never lose any insects?”

  “There is a certain expected rate of replacement. We are able to select for those that are more likely to expire in the near future. And we don’t fight fire or light cultivators.”

  “Good thing the Sunfields are so far, hmm?” John grinned.

  “Not far enough,” Bodana turned up her head. “The other option is to have one-on-one matches.”

  “A battle without insects? It would certainly place your sect at a disadvantage against others.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Bodana said. “Why would we exclude insects? We just remove the people from the equation.” She held out her hand, the layers of insects peeling back to reveal pale skin- and a single beetle in her palm. “Finely tuned control is also a valuable skill to have.”

  That was something John could get behind. Though generally, he understood bugs to be a weak type.