The Six Elements Crossroads was one of the rare places where techniques of all elements could be seen regularly. There were a few other sects trying to achieve the same sort of growth, but for the most part they were destined to fail.

It was rather simple, really. The Six Elements Crossroads was the best. Any competition needed to take place within Astrein, or the difficulty of gathering all six elements grew significantly. With that being the case, anyone with serious ambitions would choose to join the Six Elements Crossroads, if they could. Most people who made the attempt were able to join, so there was little reason for them to settle for the second or third best sect.

There were few artificial limitations on the growth of the Six Elements Crossroads. They didn’t have strict limits on the quantity of disciples recruited, and for good reason. From the very beginning the sect had been meant to expand, and over the few decades of their existence they had gotten quite good at making sure the contributions of sect members outweighed the expenses.

While that might seem like a counterintuitive proposal, since the disciples were joining to have resources poured into them that they could not obtain alone, it was actually quite achievable. At least when competent people were placed in charge of finances and the like. Bargaining for resources on behalf of an entire sect instead of as an individual granted more leverage, allowing them to pull ahead in quantity and quality of available resources over time.

The other factor was that many of the resources they poured into their disciples were renewable. John wasn’t simply thinking of grains or the local bison- though when carefully monitored and with land properly managed, they were. He was thinking of training and techniques. The experiences of himself and the other leadership could be shared with others without being lost. While filling their libraries with technique manuals did have initial cost, as long as everything was properly maintained such techniques could last more or less forever. Meanwhile, purchasing just one manual would likely bankrupt a lone cultivator.

But of course, all of that was no good if they did not gain something from their disciples. While there was something to be said for eating early losses to develop great talents, focusing only on those who had the potential to reach the Consolidated Soul Phase or even the Ascending Soul Phase would be shortsighted.

With proper application, John believed that everyone had the potential to reach the Soul Expansion Phase. Even if they could only reach the Foundation Phase- which he would consider more of a failure on the part of those teaching rather than the disciples themselves- they could still provide valuable services.

Cultivators still needed labor, labor which could not be provided by the common folk. Though there were fewer and fewer people who had not picked up at least the basics of cultivation, as people no longer felt the need to so jealously guard the information regarding the early Phases.

There was some legitimate concern that a plethora of cultivators could drain an area’s spiritual energy dry. However, even that wasn’t quite as problematic as it seemed. Doing so briefly was certainly possible, but that was usually with regards to a single element. It would still generally be present among the others, just less prominent. Thus, it was good practice drawing out strands of spiritual energy from seemingly depleted zones. And the Six Elements Crossroads did not have to worry about fully draining an area of spiritual energy.

It might not even be possible, but if it was they simply were not large enough yet for it to be a concern. John wasn’t ignoring the possible risk factors- but compared to the sorts of ecological devastation cultivators could enact on an elemental zone the concept of truly finite quantities of spiritual energy were still far off. The real concern was harvesting without planting, overhunting an area or otherwise aiming for short term gains at the cost of the future.

That might be a problem with the constant expansion humans tended to undergo, however there was something important about this world that set this world apart from Earth. This world fought back. Of course, mighty beasts had been a source of trouble for a large portion of human history- but danger and resources didn’t necessarily go hand in hand. With Spiritual Energy, however, beasts dwelling in an area would absorb said energy and grow strong.

That might make humans seek them out even more… but it also meant more people died. And despite the intentions of the alliance, interpersonal conflicts were still prevalent enough that humans were still the greatest source of human death. That had dropped recently, but it would be some time before that would be a concern.

The true source of Spiritual Energy was not entirely clear. Were the Sky Islands filled with air and earth element because of their special makeup, or was it that the Sky Islands could exist because there was an abundance of elements? Were the Green Sands and Zolvolj a product of fire element, or did they create them? John thought the answer might be a little bit of both. But either way, Spiritual Energy remained abundant. And as long as they didn’t tear up every plant by the roots and core out the ground beneath them, it seemed things might last forever.

While stone and metal didn’t seem like a sort of renewable resource, John wasn’t certain that was true. At the very least, spirit stones were formed directly out of spiritual energy building to a certain density. Furthermore, with access to flows of magma the ground itself was not necessarily in a state it would not ‘grow back’. It might simply be a much slower process.

Either way, the Six Elements Crossroads kept a stable balance of extraction, both of their fields and flocks as well as their mines and of course the secret valley that was no longer quite as secret as it once was- but still well guarded. While it was technically wild, good stewardship of the area allowed them to get a constant draw of resources from the area, most of which were renewable on some timescale. Trees merely took decades, which wasn’t so bad when you considered a cultivator’s lifespan.

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For the most part, John didn’t have to personally mediate in the conflicts within the region. Indeed, if an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator was required, things had gone much too far. That said, occasionally his presence was still required not to fight in battle but to be a mediator in a dispute. A powerful and generally neutral party was helpful in getting people to settle their differences.

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Not every conflict involved someone clearly in the wrong. Sometimes, there was no Molten Sea stomping through territory as they pleased in an attempt to slay a leviathan for its heart. Sometimes, two neighboring factions couldn’t quite agree where boundary lines should fall… or even if there was an official agreement, one or both sides felt that they had received the worse end of a bargain.

Sometimes they had, and John did his best to make certain those who lost out received fair reparations. But sometimes it was just feelings, and both parties might just want more than they had.

There were also old grudges that people were reminded of. Clans fighting each other for hundreds of years didn’t just suddenly stop, not entirely. And when economic warfare went too far, one group might retaliate with direct violence- often excessively.

Sometimes it was John’s position to determine what was fair, in which case he had to balance loss of life or limb with economic damage and broken contracts. Nobody ever liked the value he placed on a particular individual. For those who lost lives, it was a member of their own with unrealized potential. For the other side, potential was often disregarded. Or at least, that was how things tended to work out when factions could not settle things on their own. If they could agree on things, he wouldn’t be called in.

This time, he had been called to the Stone Conglomerate to work out a conflict between the Northwestern Quartz Clan and the Silverfield Quartz Clan. Normally the Order of the Amber Heart would have taken the task, but the Silverfield Quartz Clan had loose ties to the Order. John was only one step further removed, but for the sake of a quick resolution to the conflict the Northwestern Quarts Clan found him acceptable, instead of trying to call upon someone further. Getting anyone completely unentangled might require calling Mandlen of the Indestructible Kapok Grove… or accepting a mediator in the Consolidated Soul Phase. But as each clan had Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators of their own, it wouldn’t have felt proper to them.

John found himself looking at the entrance to a mine, with two grumpy middle aged men staring at each other. Technically, he was younger than them by a couple decades- but with his greater cultivation he looked one step further than that. John still seemed to be in his prime, or perhaps just past it.

The dispute was over the mine, and how particular old contracts provided ownership based on various factors. The Northwestern Quartz Clan had a crackling old scroll that described their territory. The Silverfield Quartz Clan had a series of documents indicating contracts that detailed the passing of ownership of the mine, or at least so they argued.

“The entrance to the mine- a natural cave, you will notice, begins on our territory,” the Northwestern elder argued. “In addition to the traditional operation being at our hands.”

“Perhaps, but a majority of the mine is now in our territory. And what is above and below the ground come together, as is necessary for the Stone Conglomerate to function.”

John had already heard those arguments. He also heard how the Silverfield Quartz Clan had been mining for some years, when they were attacked on the way out of the mine- as they were still in traditionally Northwestern Quartz Clan territory.

Both sides had issues. Older documents could be persuasive, but newer ones tended to supersede them. The problem was the wording in the Silverfield documents certainly indicated an extension of ownership to the territory containing the entrance, but might have also included provisions specifically excluding the underground. But that wasn’t fully clear, and the Northwestern group had good arguments that the mining had been done in secret, indicating the other side was aware they did not have the rights.

But now people had died on both sides, and the documentation wasn’t clear. Furthermore, the natural caves did not extend to every area that had been mined beyond the border so another factor weighed against the Northwestern clan. Despite moving around at night, the Silverfield clan had good reason, which was avoiding certain diurnal beasts in the area.

The two elders were calm as they had presented their first arguments, but soon their discussions became more heated as they argued that obviously this or that meant they were clearly in the right and they deserved compensation for all of the damages the other side had caused.

It was giving John a headache, and neither elder seemed to take that into account. Nor that he was slowly building up his Spiritual Energy.

While he would have loved to smash their heads together, instead he stomped his foot and shook the earth, collapsing the entrance tunnel. That shut them up at least.

“Here is what is going to be done,” John said. “The territorial edges will be formalized to the current ridgeline. A proper survey will be done, and then new entrances will be delved. Each clan will be constrained to their own sides of the territory, both aboveground and underground. As the first perpetrators of violence, the Northwestern Quartz Clan owes a blood price. But, because the territory was reasonably marked regardless of the disputes, a portion of the mined ores will be taken from the Silverfield Quartz Clan according to the records.”

Did this mean that essentially one would end up buying ore from the other? Yes. But it was better to force them to make the exchange than to say neither side owed each other anything. The veins had diverged sufficiently that the Northwestern Quartz Clan would have sufficient quantities for their needs and would not have to concern themselves with the dearth of natural caverns.

John shook his head. This should never have gotten so far. They needed a better system to stop these things before it came to violence. There was no way that either had gone completely unnoticed by the other.

Also faster communication. Though that was already fulfilling itself through various means. Properly trained flying beasts were competing with enchantments attempting long range communications and the communications towers. Perhaps some of them would die out, or perhaps they would all remain in competition for the various advances they had. Either way, if it was easier to ask for resolution things might not have escalated to begin with. At the very least, some of the latest skirmishes and deaths could have been avoided.

But it was still better than simply trying to wipe each other out, fighting until one side capitulated or was annihilated- or another group sought to entangle themselves. That was how things used to be… and probably still were, in some places even within the broader region. The conflicts just tried to be more subtle to avoid people like him making people compromise.