Discussing body cultivation with Ursel, it was clear her actual expertise extended only to earth. That didn’t mean she was without valuable insight, only that she couldn’t directly tell John what to do. Ultimately, she had experimented for her own advancements, studying anything she felt valuable from the strongest beasts. Not that her abilities particularly resembled any beasts, as she didn’t attempt to change her body away from being human at its core.
John could certainly see advantages in her method, but he felt that style wouldn’t suit him. Furthermore, it would be likely that specific traits would be incompatible with beasts of different elements.
When trying to determine what traits of fire he should try to adopt- or if it would even work at all- John considered what he’d done already. For the most part, his different augmentations were unrelated. Eyes and skin for darkness and earth. Then, deeper inside, he effectively changed his nerves for Air’s Swiftness- his improvement in reactions. That was a process that took a long time, and even now it was not fully complete. For water, he was slowly changing the function of his blood to be able to expel impurities more easily.
There was little relation between any of those, except John had also started another transformation with regards to air. His lungs would theoretically filter out toxins he breathed in. He had completed the transformation to a certain standard, but ultimately he hadn’t run into poisons terribly often. Focusing on that over other things seemed wasteful.
But perhaps he should not consider it like that. If he could find a connection between the different elements he could also imbue in his body, what he learned might be more valuable than the actual practicality of his accomplishments. If he improved his understanding and control, as long as his body was better off than he had begun, it didn’t matter if it was something that would come up frequently.
From that perspective, he could think about how to incorporate at least the four core elements into filtering his body. The important part was, of course, actually knowing what to target. Even some necessary compounds could become toxic in too great a quantity. In fact, almost everything was, even things considered normal vitamins and minerals.
The body already dealt with such things for the most part. Even actual poisons were usually filtered out- a fatal dose simply meant overwhelming the body, causing enough damage before anything could happen. And there were damaging thresholds far below fatal, where permanent damage could be caused.
Ultimately, John’s intent was to focus first on an aspect he’d been having success with and see where that took him. As long as he took his time he should be able to avoid harming himself. And even if he failed to accomplish his goal, he would still learn something. Or he would waste a bit of time, but he would have spent it improving his ability to manipulate spiritual energy within himself so it couldn’t be a complete waste.
With a goal in mind, John considered how he would add ‘earth’ and ‘fire’ into the mix. Some part of elements was how they were perceived- cultivators could bring out different qualities in earth or water depending on their understanding and practice. Earth could soften blows like dirt, or fully resist them like stone. Water had many forms, shifting between gas, liquid, and solid within temperatures humans frequently observed. It was easy to think of the water element as ‘liquid’ and therefore ‘blood’, but that wasn’t the limit within the human body.
Earth at its core tended to be structure. Diamond Defense caused the structure of skin to hold together without losing its other valuable properties. That had taken some valuable materials at the time, but ultimately it was about spiritual energy with certain qualities. Finding such energy naturally wasn’t easy, but it was possible to modify internal energy for a purpose. That was something John had vast experience with, especially as he even transformed spiritual energy between elements regularly.
When thinking about the structure of the body, bones were a big part of it. Looking at the aspect of purification, bones even housed the marrow that helped to create blood. But the organs could also be considered structure, and there were more than a few that were meant to filter things out of the body in different manners. John saw that he might need to do a comprehensive assessment of his internal organs to figure out where his efforts might best be served.
Then there was fire. What was the purpose of fire in purification? The idea of fire purifying things was long established, and indeed even alchemists used such thoughts. Heat was an important catalyst in most reactions, from melting down simple metals and scraping away what didn’t belong to speeding up chemical reactions. Fire did the same to support the element of water, aiding its transformations- even in a somewhat contradictory manner when it was formed into ice.
John didn’t know if he had any intention to try to transform any impurities inside of him, but separating them out might be valuable. Alternatively, he could burn them away- if the body was unable to dispose of them properly. That would be more of an emergency measure, but he at least considered the idea.
The first and most obvious steps, at least to John, were to focus somewhat more on the most well known filtering organs, the liver and kidneys. He was aware that most organs actually participated in filtration of toxins to some extent, including the intestines, but he had to start somewhere.
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John felt a sort of relief as he continued his internal observations. He didn’t feel pressured to come up with something that would make him directly stronger. This was just another way of understanding himself and the various elements. If he failed… well, failure was the first step to success. The only true failure would be causing actual harm to himself. Even that could be a valuable learning experience, he would just prefer to have smaller failures that caused only minimal damage.
Was John suddenly going to become invincible, even if he made great strides in body tempering? Certainly not. But he might be able to improve upon the more practical changes he had already made, with more practice. And if he discovered a practical avenue of advancement along the way, he would certainly pursue it.
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Body tempering was certainly something that John had passion for at the moment, but he wasn’t going to forget the main point. He wanted experience with spiritual energy. Just because he’d reached the Ascending Soul Phase didn’t mean he could just stop learning. Even if he had been able to win every battle in his recent journey- which he most definitely hadn’t- it wouldn’t have been an excuse to stop seeking strength.
That strength would be necessary in the future, of that he was quite certain. It wasn’t as if the Molten Sea and Sky Islands had suddenly disappeared. They were still there, even if the particular groups involved had been beaten back. There was no guarantee that any of the rest would come to cause trouble- but in that case, someone else would. That was the way the world worked, and John needed to be strong enough to face it.
That meant both personal strength, and that of the alliance they were forming. The alliance might never be perfect, as there would always be different factions with different goals, but it was better than simply assuming that people had to be split into different group based solely on geographical and elemental differences.
John felt the battles, even if they were just spars with the strongest people he knew, were of great value to him. Because of that, he intended to seek out more. Notably missing among the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators- or equivalent spirit beasts- were air and water cultivators. There might be some that arose within the next decade or two within the region, but John didn’t intend to wait that long.
There was something else he had to do anyway, and that was continue to expand the area of communication. Even if there were no alliances made, actually keeping in contact with neighbors would result in a better future, or so he believed. There was one way he knew to accomplish both goals together, and he figured it was finally time.
The Sky Islands. For him, usually far to the south and then to the east. They hovered over the Crystal Sea, and were the home of powerful air and earth cultivators. That included Sitora, with whom John was on… decidedly neutral terms. They had technically worked together to stop Gesine, but there hadn’t been much in the way of actual camaraderie despite the circumstances.
And there was another minor goal he could accomplish. Gesine was a transmigrator, just like himself, Steve, and Deirdre- or perhaps he should call her Odette in that context. John didn’t have any reason to believe there was some purpose to their arrival, but he was interested in an opportunity to speak about it, if she would. And since there wasn’t mail service to the Sky Islands, he would have to go in person.
To get there… well, he would have to fly. That meant he couldn’t exactly bring a large number of companions with him. He wanted to be secure, but also to not look like he was coming with an invading army. Thus, he found taking three people along with him was appropriate.
He decided on that number through a simple method. The Six Elements Crossroads didn’t currently contain an abundance of Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators. They had several up and coming individuals, but it was still just Raul and Viriato. Raul was focused on his work as an alchemist, providing value for the sect. Viriato also provided his own value, through trade deals and the like, but having him present at all times was less required.
Thus, Viriato would once again be John’s traveling partner- and he might even be able to negotiate for a trade agreement with the Sky Islands. They had their own methods to reach the world below if they wanted to, so it was possible. And if not, Viriato was still there to lend legitimacy to John, and backup just in case. He couldn’t guarantee that people would be friendly or even that they wouldn’t be openly hostile. John didn’t intend to commit to a fight, but if he was backed into a corner he wanted some more power with him.
The other two would be Ayhan and Lir. They were among the best of his disciples, and while they were only just reaching the mid Soul Expansion Phase they were young enough that they should still be respected for that level of strength. Unless the Sky Islands were completely full of Ascending Soul Phase cultivators. It seemed more likely that Sitora was an exception- one among an elite few, rather than a typical example.
If the Sky Islands were so powerful, that was still another reason to try to open diplomatic channels. It wasn’t as if they were unaware of the rest of the world, after all, so it would still be better to try to curry some favor with them. John had no intention of prostrating himself and begging for their attention, but he could certainly show proper respect for stronger cultivators should he encounter them.
Ayhan and Lir were both in part air cultivators, but that didn’t mean they could fly independently. At best, they could support John. Viriato was in no part an air cultivator, his core being light and darkness. With John’s guidance he had added water and fire to help balance the two elements, using totems that represented elements of both light and dark. Viriato would likely continue his difficult and winding path with either earth or air next, but he was quite far from settling on that decision and thus had no more control over the air element than John had over light.
In short, John would be doing most of the work flying them up. But first they had to travel through to the Wuthering Steppes, then the Crystal Sea. And from there, they had to pick a destination not knowing who would be waiting in any particular place.