A solid layer of air was protecting the residents of the lower decks of the ship. Enchantments meant to keep them captive were now shielding them against danger, though some portion of that was the will of a powerful cultivator.

  The ship was now sunken beneath the ocean, a hundred meters down. The crushing pressure was directed by John towards the Sovereign Primacy cultivators aboard. Individually, they had been crushed. Some of them had been wise enough to act together, though John could easily annihilate them as well. Ultimately, they managed to gather around an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator.

  The man had quite a fascinating combination of elements. Just two, but it was one of the strangest John had ever seen. Obviously light and darkness was the most extreme example, but this man’s fire and darkness cultivation was quite interesting. An insidious flame that sought to burn away everything he desired.

  But of course, that was only its intention. John found it akin to a more refined form of clinging affliction, but unfortunately the man didn’t have enough power to completely resist. He might be able to cause John some trouble, but if there was a layer of water between them he couldn’t do very much. John was mostly controlling the pressure of the water on the ship, and he didn’t have to be intermingled with every bit of it.

  His actual position was just beneath the vessel, clinging to the position closest to the captives. Saving them was the most important task, so he devoted maximum attention to their position.

  Sound echoed through the water to his own spiritual energy. “Do you even know who you are dealing with?!”

  John was impressed. He hadn’t thought people could embody a trope so well. He could practically feel the arrogance radiating off of the man. “Someone who is about to be crushed to death.” John pulled back the water for a moment, then let it rush forward with greater strength. However, he targeted not the Ascending Soul Phase cultivator but some of those next to him. The overall power of the group fell as more perished.

  “It is not me that you should fear!” Well at least he wasn’t entirely stupid, then. “It is the power of the-”

  John was confused to not know a word. He’d Transmigrated into this world speaking the language- it did occur to him that it was weird they had a single planet spanning language, but cultivators traveled far and wide. They could have done so for countless centuries as empires rose and fell. But ultimately, it didn’t matter.

  Fortkran Tenebach had been kind of a terrible person, but he was well taught. He knew his own language very well, and for those few words he didn’t already know, he could pick them out with context.

  Obviously the word was a person or group. But it wasn’t an elemental descriptor or anything of the sort.

  John increased the pressure. He was physically forcing the remaining cultivators closer to the man. Their spiritual energy wasn’t compatible enough that they could function perfectly in such close quarters, so it would be increasingly uncomfortable for all of them even if they weren’t crushed… just yet.

  “Tell me why you think that matters, when you are here and-” John used the new word. Some pieces sounded familiar. It wouldn’t take long to figure it out once he wasn’t focusing on controlling so much spiritual energy, he imagined. “-they are not.”

  The man looked shocked, as if he couldn’t comprehend why John wasn’t afraid. But if there was someone that could kill him from afar, they would have already done so. No, why would they even have subordinates doing anything? “The Exalted pillars of the Sovereign Primacy will strike you down once they learn of this!”

  Did they have those? Exalted Soul Phase cultivators? Maybe they were new. Or the previous war hadn’t been serious. However, that seemed unlikely. At least John confirmed the plural. “They have already chosen to act against me. Why would my response make the results any different?”

  “Well-”

  John reinforced the body of the ship with his spiritual energy, because otherwise the enchantments wouldn’t be able to keep up when he amplified the pressure once more. As it was, he collapsed doors because he didn’t bother with anything non-structural. Wood didn’t easily succumb to pressure, but everything had a limit. Including the man whose name John never bothered to get.

  The pressure helped offset the spiritual energy bursting out of the corpses. John took a few moments to extinguish the fires aboard the ship, including some of the man’s power that had ignited the water. Then he pushed the vessel upward, making use of what buoyancy the air on the lower decks had to ease his task.

  He cleared out most of the water once the vessel settled on the surface, then headed below decks. He found the keys to the restraints on the corpses as he passed by. The prisoners weren’t surprised to see him, because even if they couldn’t actively sense anything it would have been impossible to not notice what he did. Even if he didn’t personally know most of them, they’d probably seen him during a tournament… and it wouldn’t take many guesses regardless.

  There were precisely two Exalted Soul Phase cultivators that practiced six elements, and only one of them should be here. Though it did concern John that there might be more other Exalted Soul Phase cultivators they were now at war with, it also wasn’t entirely unexpected.

  Everyone tried to tell him what happened all at once. John could guess well enough.

  “You can sail the ship?” he asked.

  A cultivator from the Shimmering Islands looked at him like he asked if she could walk. John was pretty sure Tirto learned to swim about the same time as he could walk, actually. Sailing might not have been quite that early, but close enough.

  “Just get back home. I’ll take a look at potential dangers for you before you go. Make sure you grab everything they have as you clean up,” he waved generally towards the cultivators above. Any cultivation methods would be copied- if they could. Some didn’t really work without infusing insights directly into the pages. Or at least, progress would be slower. It was like having a personal teacher rather than a textbook. Obviously they wouldn’t get anyone to actually teach them.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  John flew up into the skies, confirmed Steve and Yustina had already reached one of their target vessels, and made certain that there weren’t any other ships fleeing the northern shores. The route back should be safe, as long as everyone returning properly displayed their spiritual energy. Otherwise, they would risk being killed. John let them go with that warning as he went after the ship that was now the furthest.

  -----

  Triptych. That was the word. It was an art phrase for paintings that came in three parts. Triumvirate might be more appropriate when referring to cultivators and leaders, but maybe they thought they had become art upon reaching the Exalted Soul Phase.

  Previously, John would have thought that insane. Cultivators could be eccentric, but that was a bit much. On the other hand, his own fusion of elements did feel… beautiful. Describing it as art might not be a stretch. If some of this trio were already inclined in that direction, it wasn’t as crazy of a name to take as he supposed.

  There might be other implications than the English translation, but John would have to look up the word in a dictionary. It simply wasn’t one that cultivators used often. Triptych might also imply they functioned as a single entity- though John doubted it was literally. The idea of unity was good optics for their group, though.

  As John neared the second ship, he considered who this trio might be. He’d learned as many names of powerful cultivators from the Sovereign Primacy as he could, during the previous war. It was possible that some names hadn’t come up. They should be new Exalted Soul Phase cultivators- within the past few decades- because otherwise they should have been bragged about. Were there any three that were close enough to form such a group, and of sufficient talent?

  John had some ideas, but it would be easier to just ask. Or he could pretend he knew and judge the reactions of certain individuals to see if they were wrong.

  Two Ascending Soul Phase cultivators this time. What a shame for the Sovereign Primacy that they were going to lose so much. John hoped that the continental forces hadn’t suffered too many losses. None of their Ascending Soul Phase cultivators appeared to have been captured, but that didn’t mean none died.

  The Muted Crags had only recovered recently, though the fleets patrolling the area should have helped. They hadn’t anticipated this much all at once, though. And while John was away… it could have been a coincidence, or there were some spies. Probably the spies.

  John readied himself to fight. He didn’t think he could manage the same thing he’d done before, not with two Ascending Soul Phase cultivators. Strong ones, too. One was water and darkness elements, a fairly traditional pairing. The other… John was surprised to find that she was at the peak of the Ascending Soul Phase with three elements that weren’t an allied cycle. Air, earth, and fire. Should he expect everything to feed into fire, then?

  It wouldn’t matter if the second ship was destroyed. He could carry back the prisoners by hand. He’d just wanted to avoid carrying people between battlefields, and the first one had been easy enough.

  There was only one element the two didn’t have between them. John found he didn’t use light quite as much as he should. It was still new to him, even though he had a totem. Yes, light would be good. And he would need to manipulate other elements for it to flow perfectly.

  John wasn’t enough of a physics geek to know the full mechanics behind a laser, but forcing a large amount of light element in one direction would do for the moment. He’d seen people perform plenty of attacks, though they were often restricted by the refraction of the air or water. John was instead going to take advantage of it by adding vacuum.

  His attack appeared to be going in a straight line towards the water and darkness cultivator. Both responded together, creating a multiple layers of defenses.

  At the last moment, John’s light based attack refracted through a layer of water, suddenly moving at a different angle. It didn’t turn, it just was. If he had forced it to actually curve or change to a specific direction, he would have spent far more energy on it.

  The beam hit them at an angle they didn’t quite expect. The darkness cultivator had that element layered between sheets of her own water, which meant when the darkness detonated all of her defenses were annihilated. However, the inner layer did protect her sufficiently.

  John, of course, wasn’t done. He was approaching even as they shielded against him. He wanted to overwhelm the two of them before the Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators could join in, but sadly that didn’t work out.

  He landed atop a light cultivator, kicking the man into another as his sword swept wide arcs around him, cutting down person after person. John could avoid collateral destruction if he was working together with his opposites, but he wasn’t quite powerful enough to avoid that here. Or at least, it wasn’t worth the risk.

  He was right about the strange tri-element user using fire. And, if she’d had six totems to create an even combination… it might have actually worked out. She certainly had explosive power as two supporting elements flowed into fire.

  She would have absolutely been devastated by Steve or Yustina. John was just stronger, though. She clearly had experience fighting against water, and his first few efforts to flood and freeze here were neutralized with lightning and heat. So John attacked her where she was weakest- her earth element. Not only was that her single totem, but it was also merely transitionary.

  He petrified her own spiritual energy before she could set it alight, converting it into a form that was difficult to burn. That meant she was spending almost sixty percent of her spiritual energy flow failing to activate the other forty percent to its fullest potential. Of course, she didn’t let him do that- but while she was blocking his sword and throwing daggers she left openings.

  The water and darkness cultivator tried to disappear. She was pretty good at blending in with background elements, but pretty good wasn’t sufficient for fighting John. Perfection was required. When she tried to grab him with a net, he dragged her companion into the way. Then he stabbed his sword through the tri-element cultivator in the moment before she could become disentangled.

  John was still being overwhelmed with Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators, so he couldn’t immediately focus on the second woman. They all had to die anyway, so it was a perfectly fine battle strategy.

  The Ascending Soul Phase cultivator merely did something unexpected. John hadn’t predicted it, because it wasn’t a risk to him.

  She ran. She jumped right over the railing of the ship and slipped into the water.

  John could have caught her, but he wouldn’t also be able to save the people aboard. Someone was already below decks, preparing to slaughter the prisoners. John cut his way through the ship to reach them. He also happened to cut through some of the hull of the ship in the process- though he kept his power from going deep enough to harm the captives.

  John grabbed the man, who had raised up a wicked looking dagger to slaughter a young earth cultivator. “We’re going to have none of that.” He cut off the man’s hands. Then he thought about how hard it would be to put restraints on him like that and cut off his head. He could interrogate someone else anyway.

  By the time he was done, John had captured six people. The ship was chopped to bits and the sails had long been burned. The water and darkness cultivator… might be better served as a warning. The Sovereign Primacy had to already know he was a six element Exalted Soul Phase cultivator. It wasn’t as if she could give away any specific techniques. John had already been pretty fluid before reaching six elements. Now, it was natural. Though he still practiced a few of his self created techniques.

  John looked at his captives and freed allies. Another war already? Well, he supposed the Windswept Sea had hardly counted. Three Exalted Soul Phase cultivators was going to be pretty tough, though. He’d have to see if Aldara was willing to help take them out. The Sovereign Primacy had been trouble for the Empire of Elements in the past. If not… they were going to have to be very creative. John was confident in facing one Exalted Soul Phase cultivator, but three was pretty arrogant.