The formerly secret valley was now called Six Element Valley, and was an important part of the Six Elements Crossroads territory. The valley was carefully tended to make certain it would maintain both its elemental balance and abundant spiritual energy. Herbs and beasts were carefully monitored to not overharvest.

The location of the valley had been entrusted by Filimena to John and the sect, and in turn they made sure to take care of the woman. The old herb collector’s cultivation had managed to push through to the Soul Expansion Phase with their help, but was proceeding very slowly from there. However, both her quality of life and total lifespan were much higher than they would have been had she simply tried to exploit the area herself. A worthwhile exchange for all parties involved.

Now John was visiting the valley once more, though not to collect any particular resource, nor to battle the local beasts. There weren’t any creatures that would be a challenge for an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, after all.

Instead, he was simply there to make use of the spiritual energy for a breakthrough- much like Ursel in the Crystal Caverns. The area was much easier to navigate than the Crystal Caverns, and he didn’t anticipate quite as much commotion. Even so, it was important that he make the best use of it that he could, as he intended to break through to the mid Ascending Soul Phase. Advancing from the thirty-ninth to the fortieth rank was not nearly so complex as breaking through from phase to phase, but it was still an important step that took sufficient preparation.

John also intended to use it to bring himself one step closer to the element of light. He knew it would be far too late to gain a mastery over light when he was attuning to his final totem. He had a basic level of control over light, but that wouldn’t be enough for him to survive the process on its own. Thus, he had slowly been acclimatizing himself to light.

Fortunately he had many examples to work with, including Melanthina from the perspective of a darkness cultivator, as well as Ereli and Viriato who made use of both elements from their early career. Viriato was actually something of a genius cultivator who had been too successful, locking himself into the Foundation Phase unable to advance without further knowledge. Ereli had little choice, but she’d held on long enough to choose totems that helped self-regulate.

John made his way towards the center of the valley, where all the elements mixed together. It was much like the majority of Astrein, appearing almost to have no spiritual energy at all to those who were not prepared. Except with the greater density of spiritual energy, even those with less experience would be able to extract whatever element they needed to a certain extent.

Disciples of the sect guarded the area as John readied himself. He had to trust that they would keep him safe, as he needed to focus all of his attention on his advancement. Just because it was safer than stepping into the Ascending Soul Phase didn’t mean it would be easy… and John had failed at the former once. Even with the surrounding circumstances, that was enough to fill him with a greater sense of caution.

John was tempted to reach out for everything at once, to open the floodgates entirely. However, he knew that simply filling himself with spiritual energy was not sufficient to advance. It had to be done properly.

Thus, he began with a single element, reaching out for darkness. The element flowed into him through his meridians, creating a coating of darkness over everything within his dantian. He began to pull it all together, away from the islands that made up the structure of his inner world. The spiritual energy compressed into a sphere resembling a black hole. Or instead of that, nothing at all.

Next, John drew in earth element. It added weight, life, and strength to the mix. Instead of mixing it with the darkness, he wove it into the surface of the core while leaving room for more. Following that came air, following the path he had cultivated the elements. Fluidity, flow, and bursts of strength were added to his elements which he began to braid in with the strands of earth element.

His fourth element was water. The most moldable of elements, it could have elements of solid, liquid, or gas. It was the most tangible of the elements after earth. This mixed with the others. The last part of the setup was fire, a consumptive and growing strength that also provided the necessary energy for life.

Linking fire to everything else completed the cycle of core elements, causing them to amplify. John drew from that power with his darkness, bolstering it.

Then he slowly began to draw in light element. Unlike the others where he had created a complex tapestry all at once, he used single strands of light. It revealed where darkness hid. It was birthed by fire and flowed through air.

Drawing upon prior experience, he didn’t try to mix it with his darkness. Instead, he wrapped light around everything, forming a shell. Light’s natural inclination was to move freely, and more than once it escaped his grasp and he had to start over. But he was also cautious about pulling it in too far, and triggering the attraction of light and darkness. The two would happily annihilate each other, which was not something he wanted to happen inside of him.

John found that he had trouble keeping the light. He hooked it into the core elements, but did not try to weave it in with them- or it would then follow through into the darkness. He needed to find the balance where light was held in by its draw to darkness without dropping. A stable orbit, effectively. He’d done something like that before, but it was always quite difficult. This time, it kept peeling off and dispersing into his inner world.

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Fortunately it didn’t cause any damage, but if he kept up what he was doing he would only risk a greater reaction. Soon enough he realized that the light was being pulled away by the elements in his inner world ‘below’. That was a problem he needed to solve, but nothing he tried worked. Anchoring it more strongly to his other elements resulted in him having to constantly hold it in place, as it didn’t have a solid form.

The core elements were mostly insubstantial as well, but balanced with each other they happily remained. Not so with light, especially as he had to keep it away from the darkness at the core of everything.

Had he made a mistake in his methods from the beginning? John supposed that was possible. He was about ready to dissolve everything and try again, or even give up and make another attempt later, when he realized something.

His spiritual energy was interfering with what he was drawing in. He’d recognized that and thought he had to balance it somehow, but that wasn’t the case. It would only be true if he were incorporating spiritual energy into what existed of his inner world. And ultimately that was something he needed to do. However, his current goal of improving his rank and thus capacity and power output didn’t require that he immediately integrate everything together- especially his greater concentrations of light element.

Thus, he drew away from the broad stretch of islands he had created, taking the orb of mixed elements with him. Away and away, into… nothing. Because there was no true space inside of the world. Once he was separate from the normal ‘world’, he found it easier to balance the light he was drawing in. He wasn’t able to maintain as much light as he would have liked, but he managed first to have a tenth as much light compared to other individual elements.

But that wasn’t enough. He kept pushing, increasing his ratio from about ten percent to twenty percent. Light was constantly slipping through his grasp and tightening his grip on it only accelerated the process. According to his experiences darkness settled into place more easily- though he had no doubt he would find it similarly difficult to shift styles had he started at the other end of the elemental spectrum.

If John simply continued to gather more of the elements as he was, he knew he would break through to the fortieth rank successfully. He just had to hold everything… but he wanted more. To be better. So he pushed for a greater proportion of light. It slowly grew beyond twenty percent, to nearly thirty… then the light unraveled to only half that magnitude.

John’s main limitation was not the total amount of spiritual energy available, but his control- and how long he could maintain more complex maneuvers. Though he was loathe to give up, he realized thirty was too much. But he could do better than a proportional fifteen percent or so.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he added more light back into his mix, a sphere much like its own planet. The various forms of spiritual energy were nothing beyond the pure elements themselves- a far cry from the world he had been building- but out in the void nebulously far from everything else he constructed something new. When John reached a quarter as much light, he decided that was as far as he could reasonably push. That was still far more than he was used to maintaining.

He was tempted to try to tighten the light into his weave… but he followed his insights and slightly loosened his grip. The loose element floated around in almost a haze… but did not detach from what he had constructed.

Then he slowly continued to draw in more of each element in the same proportions- every element but light was perfectly balanced. The sphere he had created continued to grow and expand until… John stopped. Then he carefully released his control.

The various elements weren’t held in place by the concepts of his totems, but instead balanced according to his understandings. And the sphere, or perhaps more of a blob, endured.

It wasn’t the prettiest thing, especially compared to the islands covered in a semblance of life, but it was stable. The final thing John had to do was connect the spiritual energy to his totems- while in concept a balanced mass of pure spiritual energy was valuable, he wouldn’t really be able to draw upon it efficiently.

John watched as slowly, the concepts of his totems began to fill in the spiritual energy. Each spiritual element slowly began to shift… very slowly. John imagined it would take days to properly form into anything, but he didn’t want to rush the process. He would simply have to monitor it. If everything went right… it would form its own separate little world. And once it was a proper world, he hoped to integrate it with the rest of his inner world.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. He wasn’t quite certain how long his breakthrough had taken. The time of day had shifted, but that could mean anything from just a few hours to a few days. Either way, it was quite clear to him that he’d properly advanced to the next rank. He also had significantly more light element within him than ever before. Only the secondary portion reached a full quarter, but with what he learned there he would eventually be able to integrate similar proportions into the other parts he had.

John also realized that he could have separated each element into its own zones all along. Not that such a thing would be conducive to an effective cycle of elements, but it might be useful for people trying to take more esoteric paths. Perhaps some disciples would join the Six Elements Crossroads with unbalanced elements.

Alternatively, those who began with the core elements might need to separate light or darkness from the rest at the Ascending Soul Phase in order to integrate both light and darkness at once in the Exalted Soul Phase. Though that was getting both ahead of himself and any theoretical disciples. No, long term compartmentalization seemed like a flawed path… but a temporary separation should serve him quite well at the moment, as raw elements were converted into a proper world inside of him.

It was also much more comfortable than breaking apart and regrowing the pieces inside of him, though that was still an important tool for him to use between ranks to maintain constant growth.

John was still two ranks behind Sitora, but being in the same general phase filled him with confidence should he spar with her again. And he was also quite certain that a battle against Abritt would be less weighted against him, even if she had continued to develop her cultivation smoothly.