The Blustering Peaks were a place John had only visited a few times in the past, and he came with an entirely new perspective. Once had been for war, once for training and a certain special event. But now, he was present for the peaks themselves, the sharp winds that flowed over them.

He took everything in as he made his way up the winding paths leading towards where most sects dwelled. Each occupied their own positions, often the higher the better. There were exceptions, of course. For example, Rising Storm Palace didn’t try to occupy the highest peaks even though they had the power and influence to do so. At least, they had no permanent establishments. Instead, they kept their core at a level manageable by disciples of all levels, except perhaps those just taking their first steps in the Spiritual Collection Phase.

The winds threatened to carry John off the side of the trails he was walking and climbing, and he was almost tempted to let them. Not because he had some sort of deathwish, not now. No, because it would be almost akin to flight. Who wouldn’t want to fly? And the more of his cultivation returned, the closer John was to actually achieving that. With the four core elements he might actually be able to manage sustained flight in the mid to late Consolidated Soul Phase. Or perhaps he would have to wait until he actually stepped into the Ascending Soul Phase, whenever that would be.

Behind John, a number of disciples were buffeted by the wind. Air element cultivators, like Ayhan- though he was only half focused on the air element. This was an official sect exchange, after all, and it would be a shame to train only himself and not help his disciples. There were a few disciples who did not have air totems as well- mainly those who intended to attune to air as they stepped into the Foundation Phase or more than a few years down the line the Soul Expansion Phase. Then there were a few who simply wanted to practice against pure air cultivators. John didn’t intend to deny them the opportunity.

Inhaling deeply, John could feel the spiritual energy flowing into him strongly even as the air seemed to thin. Even so, he wondered how he could achieve more lasting benefits. How could his body be affected by the air element long term, if trained properly? For the current John, expenses similar to cultivating Diamond Defense were of little consequence. It was only when he’d been on shaky ground after transmigration that it had been out of the question. He imagined some materials would be necessary to help transform his body. Otherwise, if such body transformations could be done with a simple technique they would be highly coveted.

So perhaps they already existed, but were simply kept secret. Yet John doubted that there were any true powers who had such, for all their abilities were carefully monitored by surrounding factions. Someone would have figured something out. So either it was impossible, very rare, or yet to be discovered.

Sometimes along their path they walked up slopes, sometimes stairs, and sometimes they climbed. There were easier routes, but it would diminish the prestige of the Six Elements Crossroads to not take the challenging path. And it was not like his disciples couldn’t handle it. There would be greater tests beyond simply approaching the sect.

Soon enough they came to an area with wide stairs, leading to large gates that covered the most tolerable access to the sect’s grounds. The gates were open- either because they had no need to keep them closed during the day, or perhaps because they knew who was coming. They could have been watched for most of the day, after all.

“Greetings, Six Elements Crossroads!” a voice echoed from ahead of them, sweeping down the stairs. It almost felt like it had the power to knock them over. No, as John laid eyes and senses on the man, he knew that he could send most of them tumbling down with his voice if he wished to. The old man had long silver hair, fluttering around him in the constant wind. “I am Grand Elder Bahadur, and I will be responsible for taking care of you and your disciples during your stay,” the man said as John reached a more comfortable speaking range. “The sect head will wish to meet with you as well, when he finishes his current cycle of cultivation.”

“Thank you,” John said. “The Six Elements Crossroads looks forward to mutual development between our two sects.”

John knew that even in a training exchange, many people would want to ‘win’. It was like sports, where the elders were coaches and the disciples were the players. Even during the off season, nobody liked to lose. John just hoped nobody took things too far. Proper arenas would usually prevent permanent injuries, but in a way that sometimes made cultivators fighting in them careless.

Grand Elder Bahadur was just over the threshold of the Consolidated Soul Phase, the twenty-eighth rank. It wasn’t a bad cultivation. Indeed, twenty years ago it would have been close to the peak. But much had changed, with a rapid surge of growth seen nearly everywhere. But to John, that just meant they needed to work harder to stay ahead of people like the Molten Sea and the Black Peaks.

-----

When John brought up the idea of body tempering with Bahadur, he was pleased the man took his inquiry seriously instead of being dismissive. He could understand the latter attitude to some extent- why put so much effort into something small when increasing cultivation rank was so effective? But even so, incremental bits of power seemed even more important to John with his recent experiences.

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“Obviously we would not harden our body like an earth cultivator,” Bahadur said. “And yet, enhancing flexibility beyond what we already train would tend to be unnecessary. Perhaps it might not even be quite appropriate to our element,” the man stroked his long beard. “Something involving swiftness, then. The responsiveness of muscle, or possibly reflexes. Though I am intrigued by the thought, it is far too late for me to consider such things.”

John nodded. An older cultivator would find it more difficult to train their spiritual energy, but it would be a step further to train their body any more. While John imagined the old man could likely match most people on Earth with regards to just his body, that was more or less the baseline for a cultivator. More importantly, most of that type of training was common to every element. John was searching for something that meshed with a particular element.

“Reflexes, huh?” John muttered. He flickered a bit of air down his arm, feeling its motion as he considered the idea. Certainly, it was a logical conclusion. But how would it work? There were actual reflexes- automatic responses of the body. That might be useful, but was also something that could be exploited. Then there was the idea of response time, and reacting to events. That would most likely require some amount of mental processing… but the brain was part of the body, he supposed.

The real issue was that cultivators already enhanced these sorts of things. Spiritual energy provided all sorts of benefits, even in a passive manner. Going a step further could be quite difficult. And John had to carefully consider his path so as to not foolishly cause himself further damage. Though he could forgive himself for failing his step towards the Ascending Soul Phase, it was still a sign to be cautious in the future. Within reason. Risks were still required for cultivators unless they had limitless time. And with limitless time they had no enemies to worry about, so perhaps they were not even part of the world.

John had a small back and forth with Bahadur about how one theoretically might manage that, bringing up the concepts of Diamond Body. The elder had a few ideas, but they were just that. Neither of them really knew what would work, and what would not. John would have to dwell on the thoughts and see if he could gain some supernatural insights before attempting anything. After all, it would be his body that he was changing.

-----

Ayhan had a serious advantage over most Rising Storm Palace cultivators. He cultivated both earth and air, so he had a dominating element and a matching one. He understood how air worked, and he could exploit their weaknesses. Because of that, he ultimately ended up facing higher rank opponents. Currently, he was facing off against a somewhat older disciples at the peak of the Foundation Phase, while he was two ranks below in the sixteenth rank.

John watched as many matches as he could, though he had to consider his own training sometimes. Multiple matches would happen at once as well- there were more than just one or two people who wanted a match. But with the battles being in the Foundation Phase or lower, John could catch the details of a handful of matches at once easily enough.

The Six Elements Crossroads encouraged disciples to try out different weapons- especially whenever they unlocked new elements. Ayhan had started with the sword, but now wielded a chain with spikes along its length. He manipulated its motion with his spiritual energy, ready to entangle opponents or strike them with sudden rigid force.

It was pretty good. Too bad he still lost out against greater spiritual energy. John would have some guidance for him and the others. Because he wanted them to be better.

And yes, he did want them to win the matches. Though with Ayhan going against a higher rank cultivator, he was already kind of winning.

-----

John had seen storms in the Shimmering Islands, where the seas and the skies twisted and turned. Lightning rained from the skies, and ships were in constant danger if they did not avoid the core of the storms- unless they had special construction like the Wavecutter.

The storms in the Blustering Peaks didn’t have crashing waves, but the winds made John feel as if he could truly be hurtled off the mountain if he stepped carelessly, even with his cultivation. And the lightning was amplified by the thunder echoing off of the surroundings.

It was quite a bit easier to watch the storms as well, as he wasn’t being dunked under the waves every second or two- or safe on an island where the storms tended to be milder.

Watching lightning strike the surrounding area, John realized that was the best solution to his queries. Wind might not be able to enhance his body, but lightning… Well obviously there was some risk involved- but the pathways to benefit were obvious. The body already sent signals via electricity, so thoughts and reflexes being enhanced by that made so much sense. The question was how to do so safely, without frying himself.

John had absorbed lightning, but only as a power source and basically just for training. Taking it into his body on a deeper level was foolish unless he was fully confident. But it was a path to look into, and John couldn’t help but anticipate the possibilities, tiny electrical sparks dancing between his fingers.

Then again, he didn’t necessarily have to be restricted to one possibility per element. Over the past week or so, he’d had several other ideas as well. The best of which was involving his lungs- the main way bodies normally interacted with air. He wasn’t planning to become a big bad wolf who could blow down houses- that was best reserved for spiritual energy techniques. But he could think of more than a few times where his concentration was split, filtering the air in his own lungs. If that happened automatically, he could be more effective underwater or when dealing with airborne poisons or the like.

John smiled. None of these things were set in stone, nor guaranteed to work. But simply having the ideas and retracing his path through the elements was quite pleasing to him.