There hadn't been many previous opportunities for John to battle while completely submerged in lava. Tajana would be much more familiar with it, giving her a tactical advantage. However, that would likely serve to make the match something closer to fair. After all, John was in the late phase while she was at the peak of the early phase. Four ranks of cultivation difference was quite significant.

Hopefully, they would both learn something of value. John was well aware that each side would be holding back certain tricks, however. The chance that they might once again be enemies was high enough that they couldn't be fully serious.

The moment the spar began, Tajana made her move. Her spiritual energy rushed forward ahead of her outstretched arm, spreading around John. Immediately, she forced control of the lava around him, nearly solidifying it.

John responded not by resisting her efforts but by enhancing them, in a way. He used his water element to draw out the heat inside the shell she was forming, taking control of his own position in space. If they directly struggled against each other, he would win the battle of spiritual energy.

Tajana must have realized that, but she still remained on the offensive. She swiftly redirected her energy to one side of John, forcing her way through his barrier and causing the lava to flow over his left arm. But her energy immediately left the area as she solidified the lava. It was still deadly hot, but not quite molten.

John pretty quickly formed his picture of her fighting style. She would keep locking down parts of him, where she would eventually fully encapsulate him. Against most of her surrounding cultivators, it would be a battle of skill and endurance. Whoever could be most efficient with their moves would come out on top. Some might not do well with the lava being solidified, melting it in inefficient ways while having to deal with the heat.

But John wasn't a fire cultivator. Nor was he primarily a water cultivator. With the lava solidified, earth was quite happy to crack it apart, freeing his arm in an instant. He swept his sword to fend off Tajana, using principles of fighting underwater to bypass the heavy weight of the lava.

John's next plan was to hide among the lava- a bit of darkness and fire mixed together, and he would feel like any patch of lava. But he had a sudden inspiration that he just had to try out. Nobody could see right now, but he had light elemental spiritual energy for a reason. And there was theoretically quite a lot of light to call upon due to the incandescence of the lava.

It might be better than being in direct sunlight. The one problem? Lava didn't let light pass through. But John thought he could handle that. Just a little bit of manipulation to make the lava glassy and transparent and then…

He never got that far. The task was harder than he imagined, and while he often improvised new abilities he had no light totem which made it quite a bit more difficult. As he tried to blast Tajana with light, the woman continued to swim around him, taking control of swirling trails of lava that tightened in on him like a noose.

John was glad that his body regulated heat quite well, or he would have had to spend far more spiritual energy on that task. His light attack was rather pathetic, causing Tajana little trouble as she moved around him. He disentangled himself from the lava in much the same way as before, solidifying it completely and using earth to break it into pieces, which he then pulled away from.

Tajana wasn't able to constantly oppress his movements, not without directly clashing with his energy. However, John could sense she had something more than gradually building up a sort of cage around him. He didn't plan to let her achieve her tactics.

This time, he manipulated just a small amount of lava in front of his eyes to make sure he was actually making the lava transparent. He spent a few moments making sure he could see as he swam around, keeping away from Tajana. She was certainly faster in lava, regardless of their relative cultivations, but as long as he kept moving it was difficult for her to pin him down. He only needed to last long enough to figure out his next trick, anyway.

It didn't look much different from what he was already doing, but as he put on a burst of speed to pull directly away from her he used various elements to manipulate the lava behind him. He didn't quite need to make it solid, just stable for a moment. Then he focused light from all around with his own spiritual energy, shooting it along the trail that Tajana was following after.

It was quite effective. The other cultivator managed to block it, but she had to sustain a barrier against the assault. John used up most of his light element, but that was something close to one twelfth of his total reserves, while she used far more.

He couldn't use light again, but he might as well make use of other elements she wasn't used to while also taking advantage of the properties of the Molten Sea. When people first looked at it, all they saw was fire- but it was still a proper sea with high water element. That meant that air- and specifically lightning- would flow well. He had to create a path or it would simply blast in all directions uselessly, but it was fairly simple.

The first strike, John managed to hit Tajana with some lightning. He slightly lamented his inability to use his throwing daggers, or he might have been even more effective in guiding his air element. Controlling the lava was fine, but it was a bit ambitious to throw something through it.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The second strike of lightning Tajana created a solid barrier to resist. The third? She manipulated the lava's properties and redirected it, wasting John's third attack with very little gain on his part. They came out fairly even in the exchange, but she couldn't afford even.

Tajana's attack patterns didn't have much variety. Where she might attack from was harder to predict, but she always got close to John and manipulated the lava directly. Occasionally she enhanced its heat in a wave, but most of the time she simply tried to cover him and hold him in place.

The next time she created something solid, John punched it. Spikes of earth shot outward, but with far less force than he would have liked. He was inhibited by the fire element weakening earth. It was too bad, but John wasn't going to win with a disfavored element, even if he thought he was being clever.

The battle dragged on for a while, but it was clear that Tajana's best hope had been locking him down immediately and keeping him that way. Perhaps she had some other techniques she chose not to display, but for the moment she was unable to achieve victory.

-----

After the spar, they were able to talk back inside the sect. It was far more comfortable than projecting sound through lava. And much cooler, even though it was still far hotter than walking around in the heat of the Green Sands in most of the Searing Sarcophagus' grounds.

"Your battle style was quite enlightening," Tajana commented. "It is a good thing I will never be facing against the empress, if she is of similar flexibility."

"It would be difficult to say. I only know my own sect. And there are very few attempting the full cycle. But I do suspect that such a foe would be… difficult to handle."

Even John didn't know quite what he would do. He had trained with his own disciples, of course, but none of his peers were full cycle cultivators. If he were going to fight himself, how would he do it? That was a question he didn't really have an answer to, though there was one thing he would prioritize. Specifically, making sure his foe didn't reach the Exalted Soul Phase. A completed cycle would certainly be far stronger. Nearly impossible for anyone to deal with.

Then again, it wasn't like anyone was prepared for an Exalted Soul Phase cultivator. In all the lands John was aware of, they were merely legends. A potential but perhaps unreachable goal, at least in other ages. He would certainly see how difficult it was to continue soon enough. Just a decade or two, he imagined.

-----

The journey back from the Molten Sea took them through many of the same destinations in reverse. From the Searing Sarcophagus, they briefly visited the Blistering Crest then the Kelemen Clan. They only briefly stopped by the Burning Delta, because everyone was eager to be somewhere with a tolerable temperature. The Encapsulated Flow was a perfect place to spend some time, just meandering along the rivers. Even John, with his self-regulating temperature, grew tired of the heat.

"You have to teach me how to do that," Astrid demanded. "I'm not doing that again without it."

John nodded. "It's about time I formalized more of the body tempering techniques I developed," John said. He'd already done the same for some, though of course the most famous wasn't one he invented to begin with. Diamond Defense was quite popular among any cultivators who had earth element in the sect… John had contributed methods to make the training less expensive by substituting more common but still worthy elemental components. It was an investment in people's future, and passive defense was extremely valuable for a cultivator.

It could save their lives if they lost consciousness or allow them to push a bit further. Some were reckless because of it, but they likely would have made the same mistake with other methods. Very few people earned a sense of invincibility like Ursel had- and she never actually claimed it.

-----

Time continued to flow. To continue to develop relations, John invited some cultivators from the Molten Sea to be part of the tournament. Only those with who they already had established relations. Hopefully, they would speak highly of the event when they returned. A few people might still want revenge against the Molten Sea, but if they pressed on that topic John would point out they'd pretty much slaughtered everyone who caused trouble long ago. Not everyone responsible, but at least the actual perpetrators.

Taking a look at the events, John was glad he had gradually begun to direct management of the tournament away from himself. There were so many alternative categories besides battle. Numerous team sports as well as individual competition. Each decade there were more events, with some of the less popular ones being shuffled out.

John had to say that permanent infrastructure was probably a better financial investment long term than the way things had been done for the olympics on Earth. Then again, Astrein was conveniently located. But if the eventual goal was managing worldwide relations between powers, perhaps they might adopt something similar. If it actually made sense. Given that they barely had any positive connections outside of the continent, that was just a dream for the near future.

Not the foreseeable future, but only because John had already lived more than a human lifetime. He would likely live to at least two hundred- unless he was killed, of course. He didn't have too many enemies currently, but it was always possible to end up with new ones. There were various threats around, and he wouldn't hesitate to face them himself. With allies by his side, of course. He didn't intend to be some sort of sacrificial hero.

John noticed something interesting among tournament participants. All were cultivators, of course. Spiritual energy was far too valuable such that even those that would be participating in events where it wasn't used still needed it… for the purposes of body tempering. John didn't know what the consequences of a new generation of individuals developing their bodies for specific events might be… but there were still far too many people focused on battle. It would be great if some day they could afford to not have that focus. It was a nice idea, at least.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.