An exhausted Steve and Yustina showed up Urdcliffe a few hours after John made it back. The damage was extensive, though things hadn’t gotten nearly as far as the Sovereign Primacy’s previous assault on the Muted Crags. Then again, it was likely that this particular attack had been more of a probing operation. Word had come of attacks on other locations on the northern edge of the continent.
Yustina summarized it as best as possible. “The cultivation surge seems to have hit them just as strongly as everyone else. So many new Ascending Soul Phase cultivators.”
John leaned back in his chair. He’d have to meet with local leaders later, but he had to at least relax a little before then. And there was nowhere better to vent than surrounded by friends. “I hope they don’t have so many Ascending Soul Phase cultivators they can just throw them away like this. Presumably they expected better results. Then again, if they really have three Exalted Soul Phase cultivators…”
If the continent had time, they might have been able to make up for those numbers. They had quite a few people on the verge of advancing, such as it was. Unfortunately, they weren’t so close that they could be expected to grow immediately. A war might spur them onward… or it might be their end. John didn’t want to have to bet on things always going the right way, but the war seemed to have already begun.
“If they send any envoys demanding surrender, we’ll have to delay them,” John said. “Or kill them, if we can’t. At this point, they already have given themselves whatever excuse they want to attack us- even if it’s merely us defending our borders.”
Steve was passed out. One of his best traits was the ability to call upon large amounts of his spiritual energy all at once. Of course, that meant he would run out faster- but it also meant he would defeat his opponents first. Yustina stroked his hair as his head lay on her lap.
“It does appear we have little choice,” Yustina agreed. “The only question is how we will respond.”
“We bring troops, of course. But…” They couldn’t afford to leave any of their borders undefended. Furthermore, keeping armies raised long term was expensive both in terms of money and political capital. “We might not be able to launch a counterattack at the moment, even if that would be the correct call.”
It was easier to defend territory one controlled. More forces could be brought to bear in a shorter time. That included those at the top, of course. They might have a decent chance fighting against this ‘triptych’ near their own borders. John would have to be part of that, of course, and he would need as much support as possible. He was thinking humans and spirit beasts. He couldn’t exactly ask people to risk their guardians, especially the sects and clans he was close to… but they might not be able to afford not to do so.
-----
The Muted Crags weren’t happy… but they could hardly be angry at John. Even if he’d been at home in Astrein, he would have been too far to respond to the current mess. He also saved them from even worse losses.
They had reason to be upset, though. Even Arkaitz was mad, and his sect hadn’t lost anyone. The Silver Haze Sect wasn’t reachable immediately from the coast, despite its positioning. Most of the damage had happened to the patrolling vessels or in ports. Arkaitz wasn’t mad at anyone but himself. He had talent. Power. He was angry at himself for not being in the right place at the right time.
John didn’t bother arguing with him. He did bring up some details of the Silver Haze Sect. For the future.
“We will likely commission you to create bewildering formations,” John said. “Can you form them out at sea?”
“Technically, yes… but we would need something to anchor them to. The coast is mostly clear of obstructions.”
“We’ll have to change that. I’m sure we can have people build something.”
Reshaping the local terrain was something that would take a nation vast quantities of work… even with cultivators. However, stronger cultivators could handle more of that. Quite some time before, they had terraformed an island in enemy territory in the middle of a war. Surely they could alter their own shores. As for why they hadn’t done it before, even foreseeing the threat… it would have completely quashed trade.
Maybe they should focus on better overland routes. Perhaps flight. The time for that sort of innovation wasn’t in the middle of a war, though. Probably. John supposed that many advancements were made precisely because of war, but he’d have to consult people on whether it made sense.
Covering their entire northern border would be difficult, and it might not even be enough. At least it was nearly impossible to attack the continent east of Urdcliffe, as the Frozen Heights were just beyond. Then the Molten Sea not far after.
Could the Molten Sea be drawn into this? They weren’t really allies, but John could argue some value for mutual defense. He couldn’t imagine they’d never received trouble from the Sovereign Primacy, despite the difficulty of navigating the Molten Sea.
-----
John had to put his spiritual energy where his mouth was. Great spires of stone were formed out of sand and rock below. He had moved far to the west, near the territory of the Silver Haze Sect. It was to be a testing ground for the plan, hasty as it was. John would have to engage in a lot of political maneuvering in the near future, but at least the southern coast should be on board given how they had recently been attacked themselves. And the central regions were closer to his influence, so he could probably manage something.
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If only they had some spare sky islands to toss over the northern coast. They would be great scout towers. John wondered if they could nudge around the actual Sky Islands to spread wider along the southern border. There were probably a million reasons it wouldn’t work, but he might bring it up to Sitora first. At least she could laugh at him in private. Though if they could actually form more Sky Islands somehow… spreading them out wouldn’t be bad.
John thought he was on to something. It was crazy, of course, but the thing was that there were very few natural phenomena that cultivators couldn’t replicate. He’d studied the physical components of the Sky Islands that kept them afloat without consuming huge volumes of spiritual energy. If they couldn’t replicate that, they could at least make use of scouting balloons. They weren’t a long term solution, but catching enemies far from their shores would greatly improve their defensive strategies.
-----
“Aren’t you tired of managing things here?” John asked Viriato. He had apologized for how often he was gone, and the fact that he wouldn’t be sticking around even just after having returned from a trip to the Empire of Elements.
“Fatigue from any station may accumulate,” Viriato shrugged. “But I don’t dislike managing the day to day. And I’m going to send petitioners up north to find you.”
John grinned. “What a great plan. I’ll be able to point to places and ask them what they’re going to do to defend a particular length of shore. I can get people invested that way.”
“I hadn’t considered it quite like that,” Viriato admitted. “Think you can manage that?”
John thought for a few moments. “We might be able to get people to pay for the privilege of fortifying a stretch of land. Of course, it would be just about the same amount they would otherwise have to contribute to the mutual defense. I would simply endeavor to make them feel better about it.”
Stumbling into interesting options was quite nice. If only it would be enough. John was aware he shouldn’t worry about the future or fear the unknown… but he kept thinking about a trio of Exalted Soul Phase cultivators. He’d already sent a message to the Empire of Elements, even if he was personally reluctant to ask for aid. It wouldn’t do him or anyone he cared about any good if help came after they had been annihilated.
“We should check on the western archipelago,” John commented. “Perhaps they have some trouble with this group as well.”
If everyone they were trying to recruit asked for compensation… they would have to pay it. Bankrupting their coffers would be better than being taken over and having everything stolen anyway. Besides, he could make it sound like less of a threat the more groups they included. Whether or not that was true, he was uncertain.
Three Exalted Soul Phase cultivators. Had that taken all of their resources, or were they merely beginning? Would there be more?
-----
It was a relief that they could consider the border with the Molten Sea secure, even if not the western edge of the continent. Not because of the western islands, but because… it was the ocean. Nobody was stopping the Sovereign Primacy from just sailing all the way around. Except their own forces, of course.
Neglecting the western and southern borders would be no good. John hardly expected the Sovereign Primacy to make it all the way around to the south, but they might do it. And the Windswept Sea might have been cowed recently, but there were more sects where the ones they crushed came from. Simply assuming that they were dealt with was like asking for disaster.
John couldn’t imagine handling all of this himself. If he didn’t have a wide array of people he trusted to handle details… he would have gone mad. Trying to micromanage an entire continent’s defense would have been simply foolish, no matter how competent he was. There would have to be a hundred of him to even start. Though if there were a hundred of him he could just crush their enemies directly so it wasn’t quite like that.
John remembered people comparing war to chess… back when he had been young, on Earth, and literally never expected to interact with war. In a world of cultivators, taking the king might still result in victory- but it wasn’t a weak piece. Top cultivators were more like a fusion between king and queen. And maybe even a knight, able to attack from all angles.
That applied in both directions. John and the other leaders wouldn’t be easy to kill. Likewise, stopping the Sovereign Primacy meant they had to deal with three Exalted Soul Phase cultivators that he had to presume were all similar in power to himself- or stronger. Killing them all might not be necessary as they might cut their losses after one. Even significant injuries could be sufficient. On the other hand, they might continue until their last breaths. Provoking them to anger could result in them leveling entire regions in their anger before they were finally taken down.
It really wasn’t much like chess at all. Not unless there were special rules John didn’t know about where the king could explode and wipe out a mountain.
-----
Things were stable for the next few months. Most likely, the Sovereign Primacy had waited some time for their fleets to return from Urdcliffe. The other locations that were attacked- further west in the Muted Crags, the Boiling Springs, and as far around as the Shining Coast- had mixed results on dealing with their assailants. It depended in large part on which patrols had been nearby. Some were stronger, obviously. It wasn’t possible to perfectly match the power of every group, not without mixing cultivators from different sects and clans together.
That might create a homogenized, technically-balanced set of sailing vessels- but they would probably all be weaker. Humans weren’t machines, and even cultivators of the same rank from the same sect could be wildly different in strength. They just did the best they could, and sometimes that meant unbalanced forces.
The locations that had already been attacked got the most reinforcements… but they weren’t going to presume that would be the same in the future. Ships watched the seas, ready to carry squads of soldiers where they were needed. Others watched the skies, taking advantage of the far horizons to calculate enemy movements. They also had to watch for aerial attacks, because even a small number of Ascending Soul Phase cultivators attacking a relatively undefended location away from the frontlines would be a disaster.
And if it was the Exalted Soul Phase cultivators… well, they’d send everything they had after them if they had a real chance of catching them.
That of course included John. It seemed that for the near future, he would be living on the northern coast. It wasn’t the prettiest one, but he could cultivate anywhere. And being surrounded by large quantities of determined cultivators was motivating for him to grow even stronger. Every step he took could save many other lives. Perhaps that was why they felt so heavy.
