The Mozdar clan made use of their lightning based attacks in both traditional and nontraditional methods. Guiding lightning through the air was the basis of most lightning based assaults, and they were quite proficient in such things, even circumventing complex defenses. But their addition of the earth element to their cultivation even as primarily air cultivators provided them surprising utility.

Normally, when lightning struck the ground it dissipated within it, rapidly shrinking to nothing. That was the natural state of things, as earth was a good conductor of electricity and generally held the opposite charge. The special technique the Mozdar clan brought was the ability to control the flow of lightning through the ground. Since the ground was a naturally good conductor, creating a better path without letting it dissipate was quite difficult.

From what John saw, they lost some power by attacking through the ground, but they were effective enough that the unexpected assaults were worthwhile. Indeed, even when expecting it, tracking the path through the ground was rather difficult for most people. Only earth focused cultivators possessed a real advantage against the Mozdar clan in that regard, but most would be counting on their element to naturally handle lightning, when they actually needed to outclass the clan’s control.

It was good practice for the cultivators of the Six Elements Crossroads to fight against them, and while learning some of their secrets made it easier to fight against them it wasn’t necessarily the case that people could actually make a simple counter. Time spent countering their particular techniques might instead be used to develop their core strength, and not everyone practiced the proper elements. Others could still rely on their various defenses, from direct resistance to avoidance and counterattacks to disrupt their enemy.

There was no such thing as an invincible technique. Everything had tradeoffs in skill required, energy expended, and training time. But their skills were still high quality, and the versatility it allowed for compared to other lightning cultivators had been valuable to them over the years.

John was happy to incorporate parts of what he saw into his own techniques. It was always good to see more multi-elemental cultivators, and he was already considering ways to improve upon things. For example, water was traditionally weak to air, but that meant he could augment lightning with water elemental spiritual energy. And while it was risky to try to control the path of lightning with it, as a simple addition to air or earth it could be valuable.

His recent sparring with the clan heads in the Glass Hills solidified John’s confidence in himself, as he could match up against late Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators to a certain extent, despite being many ranks below them. Simple spars couldn’t predict how an actual battle would go, as both sides would have techniques that were either secret or simply unsuitable for anything short of lethal combat. The most important thing to John was he didn’t lose out in simple power with his various elements supporting each other- and his high tier totems. He’d spent a lot of effort over the years improving his totems, and everything had paid off.

When he actually reached the Ascending Soul Phase, he figured he would be a match for Gesine or Sitora as they had been during the Leviathan incident. And given their age, he wouldn’t expect that much change for the living Sitora. But they’d parted amicably enough, so preferably they wouldn’t have to butt heads again.

John had no guarantees for how he would fare against other Ascending Soul Phase cultivators. It wasn’t as if average cultivators reached that level, so even the worst among them were some level of genius. But knowing that he wouldn’t be inferior to those he’d encountered was good enough. That included the half-advanced Faramund as well as Rezso of the Black Peaks. Either of them he imagined he would be able to take down without support- though he would still bring strong allies if he had any choice. He’d seen the effects of cooperation to a great extent. That was ultimately what had brought down all of those Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, confident in their own strength.

-----

The time came to move on to their final and previously unplanned stop in the Glass Hills. That would be the Flowing Sand Sect, headed by Musa, the brother of Kehinde Abiodun. John had personal investment in such a trip, as Musa was known to practice body tempering involving lightning, and it would also be valuable for the disciples to see how much a style could change even between siblings of the same generation. From what John understood, there were quite a few differences beyond just the body tempering aspect.

Since they were going further than intended, their return trip might also be changed up. They might go through the Green Sands instead of directly retracing their route through the Glass Hills, as that would be a more direct route back to Astrein. Or they could take a more circuitous route and go through the Wuthering Steppes to the southwest, curving around through the Darklands and up through the Stone Conglomerate. John liked that idea, except for the time it would take. It would be better for them to return to the sect sooner, and that route could easily add a week or two of travel even if they didn’t make long stops. And if they weren’t going to train, it was mostly pointless.

Though lightning frequently appeared with minimal clouds in the Glass Hills, it wasn’t without rain occasionally. That made their journey a greater slog than normal, as they had to either face deep mud or sudden rivers depending on the exact state of the area around them. If enough of the ground in a particular area had been turned to glass, water couldn’t penetrate through and would often end up gathering along the roads. That could range from annoying ankle deep water to flash floods that threatened to blow everyone away.

Of course, they were cultivators so they could handle a bit of extreme water. Rather than aiming for slightly rougher terrain above the roads, they pushed forward through rushing water, working together to deflect the water in various ways. Earth cultivators created temporary barriers they pushed along in front of them, while water cultivators more directly changed the flow. It was a good opportunity, because while the raging waters in some way seemed more threatening than sparring… they were actually not all that dangerous.

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Even if a disciple had been swept away in the currents, their energy defenses would protect them from being dashed against the rocks. There was only so quickly the water could flow, after all. The roads tended to be somewhat lower than the surroundings but they weren’t that sharply below everything else. It wasn’t like what could happen in an actual riverbed, and even that they could probably handle.

It was a good opportunity for the disciples to work together against an obstacle of unknown power and duration. Even protecting their carved out camps at night had a set duration, though they might not know how much lightning had to be dealt with during that time. Though in such cases there wasn’t anything people actually had to do if they set things up correctly. Lightning would always prefer to strike a higher target of similar or greater conductivity.

-----

Everything was once again dry by the time they had reached the Flowing Sand Sect. John had sent a messenger to them while they were staying with the Mozdar clan, and the affirmative reply had come easily. Not that there was any particular reason for them to refuse. The Six Elements Crossroads was rapidly growing in power, and had a good reputation. Of course, if they had refused John would merely have been slightly disappointed and moved on.

Their style was once again quite different from the tall towers of the Abiodun Clan or the primarily underground Mozdar clan. Instead, they seemed to cover a broad stretch of land with only a token wall surrounding the area. Most of their claimed area appeared to be empty of structures at the moment, though he didn’t think it went unused. He saw various disciples training, and he could see why they needed so much space.

First they would create lightning, striking a patch of ground and turning it to glass, which they would then reshape. It didn’t seem much good for attacking as he saw, but he figured it was more akin to strength training. And if they could catch someone with molten glass, it would be a powerful move.

Another thing John couldn’t fail to notice about the disciples was how they seemed to have a constant flow of electricity around them, much like Kehinde and the Abiodun clan. In some cases, John saw disciples take advantage of this by focusing the power between their fingers or in their palm, scooping up some sand and dirt. That nearly instantly melted into glass, which they reshaped with their hands and some earth element spiritual energy. Once again John didn’t see their specific actions as practical in combat, but their control was remarkable.

Musa was easily recognizable as Kehinde’s brother, except with more scars. He had many of the traditional sort, even atop his head making his hair grow in wild patches. Musa also had numerous lightning scars, where it was clear electricity had flowed under his skin.

“Welcome,” Musa called out. “It is good to see a fellow man devoted to progress.”

John wondered if he was referring to leaving a clan to start a sect- which they’d done for different reasons- or perhaps his studies of body tempering. He’d mentioned those in his missive, and the man had studied John’s form just as much in return while John took in his scars. “Indeed it is,” John replied. “I’m certain we can learn much from each other.”

The man grinned, a wild but friendly look. “It appears you have made fewer obvious mistakes than myself, though clearly you’re not above treading unexplored ground. Five elements… and yet, a modest number of scars.”

John shrugged. “I simply stumbled into one particularly large mistake. Otherwise, I could not have five totems at my current cultivation.”

“Indeed,” Musa nodded, gesturing for him to follow along. “I have heard the common knowledge about what happened with you. Many are curious about whether you can actually reach the Ascending Soul Phase.”

“They’ll know soon enough,” John said. It might be a decade or two, but that wasn’t particularly long as far as cultivators were concerned.

“Confident,” Musa said. “I like that.”

“I certainly wouldn’t succeed without it,” John said. Indeed, he had to believe in his ability to reach the Ascending Soul Phase until he proved otherwise. He had learned much from his costly and long term mistake, and already had plans how to do better.

“What is your intent for the lightning you carry within you?” Musa asked straightforwardly.

“Improved reactions and the response of my muscles,” John said. “And perhaps feedback from my body.”

Musa nodded. “The body is the core of cultivation. It provides the framework on which we deploy our spiritual energy. There are clear natural limits that most cultivators reach… and few have the bravery to push beyond. What led you down this path?”

“I saw one such technique near the beginning of my cultivation,” John said. “Though it was much later before I had a proper chance to learn it. That might have been the end of it, if my daughter hadn’t stolen my materials to learn it as well.”

“Melanthina? No, your darkness should be common to all of the Tenebach clan. So it would be your other daughter, Ursel.”

“That’s right,” John nodded. “Anyone who catches sight of her would no doubt notice where she has gone with such techniques… though she certainly hasn’t neglected her strength of spiritual energy either.”

“Indeed,” Musa agreed. “One must be able to guide the spiritual energy as it affects the body, and have the insight to know when one is going too far. I… have failed in both, at various points.”

“That means you could help me avoid future mistakes,” John said. “Which I would be quite grateful for, as I currently find myself with a burdensome amount of caution where I make only slow progress.”

“Slow progress is not bad,” Musa said. “Though perhaps a younger version of myself would have disagreed. But neither is slow progress always safer. We can compare what we have learned, as I imagine that even insights from different elements will be valuable.”