The mix element supportive fleets moved into a full retreat as their ships began to sink, with their flagship having sections of its belly burned out by Verusha. The fire element cultivator had fairly quickly hopped to another ship, as well as most of those remaining. With denser populations on their ships, they were better able to defend their remaining ships.
Tirto and Verusha decided to prioritize their own forces and returned to Storm Rock Isle instead of giving chase. They did not arrive in time to help defend against the assault, but were at least relieved the defense had gone well.
“Maybe we should have focused on killing that fire cultivator,” Tirto commented. “We could have dealt a serious blow to the allies of the Stormy Sea Sect.”
Verusha nodded repeatedly, though not necessarily in agreement. “This is why it’s good that we’re partners. Most of the time I come up with plans that go overboard and you have to get me on track. And sometimes I get to do that for you. If we killed an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator here, what do you think would happen?”
“They’d fear for their lives?” Tirto asked.
“And what do cultivators do when they’re afraid and feel like they have nowhere to go? They might run back to their sects and hope we never set our eyes on them. Or they might panic and try to convince the whole region that we’re out to exterminate them and turn this into a full-blown war.”
“They could still do that while alive,” Tirto pointed out. “They’d just be weaker.”
“Maybe,” Verusha agreed. “But they’d also have to face us again for that to happen. Do you think that guy wants to come back? I would bet they’ve already fulfilled any obligations they had to the Stormy Sea Sect. A little bit of fear is probably better than a great amount of fear and anger if we’re trying to predict what people will do. Your father will certainly agree with our choices.”
“Thank you,” Tirto said. “I feel more assured now.”
Verusha grinned smugly. “Feels good to be on this side of things occasionally.”
-----
John hoped that their current debacle was almost over. Their initial assault showing off their might had led to the hostage exchange. Duha no doubt felt her hands were tied in that matter, as leaving her disciples to die would have tarnished her honor.
However, the following direct clash had allowed her to compare the might of herself and her people against the continental forces. John was glad that they’d managed to achieve decisive victories on all fronts, as that should hopefully accelerate the end of things.
John let a small ship go with a message for the Stormy Sea Sect. Ruha hadn’t exactly waited around to hear John’s demands, after all. He directly sent his terms, including the specific amount of remunerations he demanded. The price was significantly more weighty than the prior hostage exchange, though it would come with the return of the recent captures of people and ships.
Since they weren’t meeting in person, John decided to make explicit some of the threats he might have merely implied with his presence. Further battle wouldn’t be tolerated. The price of continued conflict might easily escalate to be the lives of all members of the Stormy Sea Sect and everything they had. John might not actually make this the final opportunity, but if the Stormy Sea Sect tried to delay and call in new allies, he would certainly increase the level of devastation inflicted upon their islands.
Ursel had apparently toppled a nice coastal castle into the ocean. That hadn’t exactly been planned, but John didn’t know what else he should have expected from the orders to cause damage and gather loot. It was a worthy display of an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator.
John continued to watch from the skies. He was just barely able to track the progress of the messenger ship they sent, even when he focused spiritual energy on his vision. Perhaps he should find a specific enhancement technique for long distance viewing. Or get a good spyglass. It was strange that he considered supernatural solutions first, but that just showed he’d gotten very used to the world. It was likely that a combination of both would be optimal.
Maybe a light element technique would be best, though it would have to be low intensity as it was still difficult for him to use it. Without a totem and with the opposing element of darkness it was still quite difficult. But he had plenty of examples of the two elements living together in harmony, or at least tolerating each other. He felt confident in his continued growth, though the final step would no doubt be the most difficult.
-----
A sizable fleet approached the meeting location, but John wasn’t worried. Frankly, if Duha hadn’t been taking things seriously he would have been disappointed. It was possible that she was planning to try one final, desperate battle. If she made that choice, she would meet more than her match in return. Ursel was holding Storm Rock Isle safe in case they missed approaching fleets, but that would still make it three-to-one against Duha.
If she managed to bring another unknown Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, she would still be outnumbered. And if there were two, John would find himself confused at why she had come alone to assault Storm Rock Isle. After all, she would have known there were several of them to face, and even if her allies had met up with her she could have only hoped to match their forces with three.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But all of John’s information indicated that the Stormy Sea Sect shouldn’t have any more Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, either part of their sect or easily accessible from allies. Nor did they have sufficient time to send far afield. John simply maintained what he felt was a healthy paranoia against cultivators who sought out trouble.
Once again, they met on one of the former outposts of the Stormy Sea Sect. John kept his senses open for that darkness cultivator who Tirto felt slip away, but unless the man had gotten more skilled since the previous encounter John could fairly safely say he had not joined them.
When they first met, John had kept his forces modest. This time, he made no secrets of bringing Tirto and Verusha as his backup to the island, a reminder of his advantage in the negotiations, such as they might be.
Ruha was not happy, and she was either making no attempt to conceal it or she had never learned how to. John was frankly not pleased with the situation either. The Stormy Sea Sect had thrown their weight into a region and conflicts they didn’t understand, and now they were suffering the consequences.
“Have you prepared the remunerations?” John began, bypassing all social niceties.
“We have brought valuable resources according to your overbearing demands,” Ruha said. That was somewhat of an acknowledgement, at least. “In exchange, we expect you to return to your lands and stay out of our seas. Our alliance will not tolerate any continued foreign intrusion.”
A brave stance, but not one she could back up at the moment. John could feel that it was more than just bluster, however. If John insisted on annihilating the Stormy Sea Sect, he would encounter more trouble than he wanted. Ruha didn’t seem to fully understand that she would be dead before those consequences arrived, however. Or perhaps she was just lying to herself, thinking she could escape again if things went wrong.
“As long as the value is sufficient, we have no reason to remain here. We were quite comfortable managing our internal affairs,” John explained. “Understand that anyone from your seas is likewise forbidden to approach the continent, except a single ship under a flag of truce. We are not entirely opposed to opening up diplomatic channels once tension from this squabble dies down.”
If Ruha had felt any sort of shame, or seemed to have any regrets except that her people had been caught or that she was not strong enough, John might have been more polite. But from his current position it would be more strange if he weren’t a bit overbearing and dismissive. As for it being a little squabble… when he was young and had just come to the world he couldn’t have imagined that so many Soul Expansion Phase cultivators would die, and how could Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators die if they practically didn’t exist on the continent?
Yet as things were now, he found that the words almost rang true. If the circumstances had been different- a mutual misunderstanding or a conflict over some sort of resource instead of straight up piracy while paired up with Morana- it might have actually been a minor matter.
“We will likely have no need for further interaction,” Ruha said. “But we will keep your proposal in mind.” Her face still showed bitterness. John wondered if she knew that some people would find that disrespectful enough to attack her. John just happened to think ahead more than some others. He planned to live… however long a cultivator could live. He had no doubt he could hit two hundred as an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, even if he failed to advance further in rank.
The following exchange went smoothly enough. Some of the disciples and elders were better at hiding their enmity than Runa… and some were worse. But none were stupid enough to do more than say a few words that people could pretend weren’t overheard as they began to exchange resources and people.
John and Ruha signed a pair of official documents on behalf of their own people. Paper literally couldn’t do anything on its own. It wasn’t somehow magically binding. Then again, it also didn’t do anything on Earth. Yet often enough, it provided a strong enough basis for trust. People had to act within a certain expected framework or no others would work with them. And unless they were capable of standing completely independent against the rest of the world, that meant honoring treaties to a certain extent.
The terms were quite acceptable, and since the continent wished to be done with the conflict they accepted fairly easily. The exact region that the Stormy Sea Sect claimed belonged to their alliance might have been more in debate if the Gloom Desolation was interested in exploiting their coastal waters. John pushed Ruha to acknowledge their actual area of control to be a bit smaller than that- after all, John had come all the way to Storm Rock Isle without spotting a single local ship. That was already several hundreds of kilometers away from the continent.
Surviving captives and ships were released a little bit at a time, and they departed.
-----
Ursel kicked down the new harbor walls of Storm Rock Isle after their fleets withdrew from the harbor for the final time.
“These people don’t deserve my artistry,” she declared.
It made the island more or less unusable, unless earth cultivators came to sort things out… or a much larger number of others willing to manually shuffle rocks around.
John just found himself amused. She’d done the majority of the work, so he couldn’t be too mad. It was mostly funny. It also made some strategic sense, given that it would prevent them from easily making use of it as an outpost closer to the continent.
-----
Returning to the Gloom Desolation, the fleets dropped off the local darkness cultivators who had participated in the expedition. Given the region’s position, it was most at risk of retaliation, so in addition to providing their portion of remuneration John opened up discussions about joint defenses. If they wished, they could refuse aid- stationing cultivators of ships from outside might limit their own independence. However, given that they had previously faced the piracy of the Stormy Sea Sect, John expected them to be open to some level of cooperation.
Tirto’s first visits and Melanthina’s current presence would no doubt help sway them further. John hoped that things would remain safe and secure for some time, but one could never fully predict the future.