It was obvious to John that Aldara was not the Matayal he had known. How could she be? Even he wasn’t the same person as that time. They were nearing a century since that time, so how could they possibly be the same?

  Yet the time they spent together had left some memories that made it to Aldara, or perhaps they were reawakened by recent interactions. Either way, she remembered some things about John. If she was trying to impress most cultivators, bringing the absolute best the Empire of Elements had would be the natural choice. And she did, but she also chose to make a few more personal touches.

  John had to admit that the food she made with her own hands was, technically, not as good as what her full time chefs had made. Cooking clearly wasn’t a deeply devoted hobby of hers, and in fact he expected that she was frequently denied the opportunity to engage in such things.

  The dumplings she made were technically worse than most of what he’d had recently, but… “They’re good.” John nodded seriously. “Thank you.” If he only ever ate the best thing he’d ever eaten, John would have become a spoiled brat.

  John couldn’t quite tell what Aldara’s reaction was. Decidedly neutral, by his assessment. She must have felt something about his response, but she wasn’t making it easy to figure out. Perhaps she had hoped for a stronger reaction. John wasn’t the poetic sort to begin with, and he certainly didn’t tend to gush about food.

  “It could have been better,” she said. With that response, John thought she might be most judgmental about her own results.

  John shrugged. “Everything can be better. We’re Exalted Soul Phase cultivators, but there’s no way you believe this is it. I doubt you have spent nearly as much time perfecting your food, but it was still good.” John pondered for a few moments. This wasn’t necessarily the time for advice. Support was better. However, he couldn’t help but draw a parallel. “Depending on the results I want to create, I’ve found that intentionally influencing the balance of flavors and spiritual energy is just as important as in combat. Though usually I use less pepper in combat.”

  Then John had to seriously consider using spices in combat. Surely most people would block small particulate matter from reaching them. Yet at the same time, common spices would register to people’s senses as innocuous. As long as he wasn’t trying to choke someone with the quantity of dust, he might have something there.

  “Hellfire peppers are actually devoid of spiritual energy,” Aldara commented. John was confused until he realized she’d actually gone down the same line of thought that he had. “I once saw someone incapacitate a spined elephant with a fistful of powder.”

  “I bet it wouldn't be that hard to make people sneeze, either.” Surely some poisoners had to have considered this already. Then again, most cultivators would try to prevent any powders an enemy threw from reaching them. “I’m not sure if it would be better than trying to sneak something else past people’s defenses, though.”

  He could just as easily maneuver metal shavings or something similar. John had to stop and consider whether his own advanced body tempering would deal with such things. He might need to update Pure Blood… and possibly Diamond Defense. Ursel could already have solutions, given how many conflicts she’d no doubt found herself in.

  John was glad they’d turned to topics of cultivation and combat. It was difficult to linger on personal moments. Aldara clearly wanted their relationship to be friendly. John probably wanted that too, but only sometimes. The rest of the time, he wanted to be as far away from her as possible. It didn’t matter that it was only partially Aldara’s fault. In fact, human psychology might not have spared her even if she was truly innocent of any wrongdoing.

  -----

  Had he been on Earth, John would have kept the memories of his visit to the Empire of Elements as the greatest vacation possible. There were truly amazing things to be seen… though there were just as many back at home. He wasn’t discounting the grandness of different elemental regions. Ultimately, John just found that smaller moments were more important.

  For example, though Steve would happily eat actual hellfire if they could find it, his tolerance for spice was only middling by cultivator standards. It was funny to see him try to alternately burn away the flavor or freeze his tongue after he ate a specific meal. Yustina just grinned at what she had fed him.

  Sitora mostly kept her reactions minimal, but she seemed pleased to be able to visit new places. Despite her high cultivation, the travel was difficult for her. She was likely nearing the end of her lifespan. It was regretful, but she wouldn’t be the first John had seen pass on like that. And it was still better than a violent death by far. It might still be a decade or two, but such time could pass in the blink of an eye.

  Mandlen seemed pleased to be included. He might still be getting used to the idea of long-term allies. The continental alliance had created the most peace that anyone had seen. It did come with some people being annoyed they couldn’t settle their grudges as they ‘used to’, but in truth the older generations were dying out. It was only people around John’s age or a bit older that were used to a localized rule by the strong.

  Technically, the threat of violence was still one of the controlling factors- everyone had just agreed to take a wider view to things. It also had to be admitted by most that the increased trading opportunities made it easier to obtain whatever resources they wanted without having to fight- and die- as frequently. John wasn’t quite sure how people would have acted without outside threats, but things seemed like they would at least hold together for his lifetime. John thought that was looking to be a very long time. Anything less than another century would be considered short for his cultivation, and he could easily hit two more. Assuming he wasn’t killed, obviously.

  -----

  The best thing about being pestered regarding local politics was that John didn’t actually have to do anything about anything. At most, he had to retain strict neutrality. And nobody was stupid enough to actually say anything against Aldara, so he didn’t have to pick a hard stance.

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  If they had been against Aldara, it would have been a question of who killed them first between John and Aldara- only because they would have the common sense to prevent being overheard… by most people. But John was quite certain that Aldara could and would listen in on any secret conversations people were having, no matter how people did it. There were just so many ways to use the six elements that most people wouldn’t notice, it almost felt like cheating.

  But John had worked to get to where he was. Had he been lucky, both with where he started and along the way? Absolutely. He’d needed both luck and effort. Anyone who said otherwise was lying.

  Everyone was openly pleased to have Aldara. An Exalted Soul Phase cultivator made their empire more powerful, and she was generous. It helped that she’d relatively recently removed a large number of dissidents- resulting in more fear and more resources to placate people with. He liked to think that people would have been appreciative of her unifying efforts anyway, but people weren’t always like that.

  There were negatives about Aldara too. The war in the Molten Sea hadn’t been necessary. He understood the desire for revenge, but it could have been avoided. And of course, it went much too far. She was overly eager to accomplish multiple things… and that had resulted in great harm. That included both mostly innocent parts of the Molten Sea, and everyone from the continental alliance that had gotten involved. They could have avoided conflict with the Empire of Elements, but the most likely future predicted was that a war would have still happened but without the benefit of fighting alongside the Molten Sea.

  John hoped that he made mistakes infrequently and with relatively small impacts, but he knew that from certain perspectives he was a terror upon the world. But the continent hadn’t started any of the conflicts with the Windswept Sea, so he didn’t have much pity there. He didn’t think they’d gone too far in retaliation.

  As he pondered the future, John was fairly certain he would die in battle. Yet he’d already lived so long in his second life, and he couldn’t say that it would be unfair. He still wanted to avoid it as long as possible.

  -----

  The return trip through the northern seas was mostly peaceful. At least, when one considered a certain scale of violence. For example, they were beset by beasts from the skies and the seas. John thought there were even a few creatures that had wandered out of the Molten Sea- he didn’t expect them to last long in such a different environment.

  But he only fought in every second or third battle, so it really hadn’t been that much. And it was better that their ship get attacked than trading vessels that might not be so well defended. It was going to take some serious effort to make the passage viable in the long term, though perhaps that would just be minimum defensive crews.

  Nobody died, and injuries were minor. Ultimately, everyone was better off.

  They almost made it back home before real trouble appeared. In fact, John saw the trouble from far off- as he was trying to catch a glimpse of the port they were approaching. He flew up into the air, but he hadn’t even reached his maximum height when he noticed ships that did not fly the flags of the continent.

  John didn’t like jumping to conclusions, but… “Who wants to help me go slaughter some invaders from the Sovereign Primacy?” John asked.

  Steve raised an eyebrow. “You need help? How many vessels are there?”

  “Just four. But they’re splitting up.”

  Yustina placed a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “We can catch a couple of them. I’m swift in the water.”

  “Good,” John said. “The rest of you… should probably head for the port and see if you are needed there. As for us… I’ll trust Yustina’s judgment on whether or not to actually attack. They could be peaceful.” Steve made a face. “I’m just saying it’s possible. Not that I actually believe it.”

  Yustina nodded. “I will confirm hostile intentions before we sink them.”

  “Great. I’ll direct you towards a pair that were close together. I’ll be able to catch others from afar.”

  -----

  Catching up to ships that were a couple dozen kilometers away wasn’t a trivial task, especially if John wanted to remain unnoticed. However, he had a pretty good idea how to do what he wanted. He just carried a storm front with him. The huge amount of natural air and water elements coming with him would overwhelm any distant sense of his own power while still allowing him to maintain real speeds. Then once he got close, he could drop into a stealthier mode.

  The ships he was following were fast, but they weren’t flying Exalted Soul Phase cultivator fast. They were merely fast ships. It took him a number of hours to overtake them, but he did it- and he was certain Yustina and Steve would soon do the same. He couldn’t pick them out at the moment, but they’d only have to get somewhere near their targets to lock onto them.

  John could properly sense individual people aboard his first target now. An Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, and a number of Consolidated Soul Phase. And… some spiritual energy signatures that didn’t fit in with the rest. Weak. Injured.

  Though some of the latter were clearly members of the Sovereign Primacy, it didn’t really change the result.

  John wanted to blast the ship in half with a bolt of lightning. He could do it, too. Sadly, the mere possibility that they had captured people aboard meant he had to hold back.

  He dropped into the ocean, letting the storm continue on its own. By the time anyone noticed any difference, it would be too late. He didn’t plan to spend more than a minute or two cleaning up, and then he could be back in control of things.

  Darkness and water surrounded him. John was directly beneath the vessel, and he could confirm there were cultivators from the continent. About half were from the Muted Crags- it was their misfortune to be the closest targets- but he also noticed a number that were likely part of the patrols. It seemed they hadn’t quite been enough.

  John considered how to fix the situation… and decided to sink the boat. He just needed to do it fast enough.

  He recalled the leviathan. It had unintentionally created a massive downward current. John didn’t need to go quite that big, but he did need the whole thing to drop deep enough that the cultivators would have to fight underwater. And he also needed to keep the air in the lower decks, where the prisoners were.

  John wanted to keep the ship intact if possible. If he had to carry all of the prisoners along with him, he might not reach the second vessel.

  He could have sunk the ship right away, but he waited for better terrain. He needed just the right distance to the seafloor to optimize his efforts. Too deep and it would take more energy to control the water, too shallow and he would likely wreck the boat.

  Once he found the right spot, he moved slightly ahead and created a large bubble of air beneath the ship. In the time it took him to make it, people were reacting to the massive amount of power. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t stop the ship. And then they dropped a hundred meters down. The pressure wouldn’t be enough to break a decently enchanted ship, and John could direct some of that force against the cultivators.

  There was no point in being an Exalted Soul Phase cultivator if he couldn’t show off a little. Not that any of his enemies would get to tell anyone about it, because he didn’t plan to let them live.