Decisive actions were necessary to live long as a cultivator. At any moment, you could make a fatal mistake… and delaying action by not choosing any path was a near guarantee of that. As Ursel clutched onto her ankle, dropping the pair of them towards the ground, Abritt gathered a burst of her dual elements. Air element fed into earth, augmenting its power as she focused on her ankle, pushing outward. It was just enough to dislodge Ursel's grip, throwing off her energy as well as she tried to lash onto Abritt.

John had really been hoping it would have been a direct attack. Ursel wouldn't go down in a single blow that easily. But alas, she actually managed to make the right call in the moment instead of doing something stupid like trying to bend down and attack with the claw weapons she wore.

For his own part, he was cutting his way through Sky Island forces, following behind Tirto and Verusha. John could see his son paying close attention to the battle ahead. It was quite possible that he would rush past foes if he thought Ursel was in real trouble.

Should John be more directly involved with Abritt? He didn't think it was necessary. He already dropped an island on her. However, he was doing his best to recover his spiritual energy at the moment.

Abritt's downward momentum was quickly negated as she began to fly back upward. Meanwhile, Ursel dropped like a sack of bricks. A particularly heavy one. Actually, quite a bit faster than that since she lashed herself to the ground to descend even faster.

As she fell Ursel focused her energy, dropping into the ground and then springing forth atop a pillar of stone that pushed her into the sky. Abritt ducked under Ursel's flying tackle, but her upwards flight was halted in that moment.

Renato was locked in combat with a cultivator in the Ascending Soul Phase. It was a shame that Abritt, formerly of the First Peak, had so many talented individuals under her command. The continent would have gladly accepted them.

Another faced off against Tirto and Verusha… briefly. The cultivator tried to strike Tirto with lightning, but he couldn't have lived where he did and let that weakness remain fully potent. He skillfully redirected the attack with a shell of water that directed the lightning. If his opponent was less skilled he would have forced him to hit one of the other Sky Island cultivators. Instead, it went into the ground.

Verusha's counterattack came at the same moment, a wave of fire that sought to burn away the free energy their foe had. Fire overcame earth, and the flames that could cling even underwater were not perturbed by a sudden whirlwind.

Speaking of which, Abritt wasn't making use of said technique. John was all for letting Ursel fight her own battle in theory, but in practice this was a war. And he'd been fighting Abritt first. He flicked a few mixed element throwing daggers towards Abritt, hiding their presence among the chaotic flow of elements on the battlefield. Abritt smoothly avoided the first decoy and deflected the second. Technically, they could have been just as damaging as the third and fourth attacks if they hit, but they were still decoys because he expected her to handle some of them.

But Abritt also had to think about Ursel who was rapidly descending back towards her. She had to ready her energy for a serious danger, so she wasn't able to completely stop John's attacks. One dagger brushed her cheek, creating a line of blood, while another stuck into her forearm. It hadn't pierced all the way through like John desired, but it was good enough.

Then John returned his focus to the foes in front of him, fighting alongside his Six Elements Crossroads cultivators and helping to direct the overall flow of battle. Astrid stood along with him, providing her much needed light element. Her fire element wasn't bad against the Sky Islands either.

As Ursel fell back towards Abritt, the latter tried to blast her with lightning before attempting to push the two of them apart with a sudden gust. She managed to avoid a web of earth element spread around Ursel to catch her. Abritt's centuries of experience seemed to be adding up, and she was wise enough not to let Ursel touch her after their first battle.

Ursel wasn't without options, however. Even if Abritt had superior mobility in the air, Ursel didn't seem to care. Rather than launching herself directly back at her, when she hit the ground again she blasted a shower of rocks into the air. Abritt was quite capable of deflecting them, but Ursel just stood there.

"Can't fight me, huh?" Ursel taunted. "I guess that's what happens when you're no longer at a Phase advantage. Six ranks isn't enough, is it, Master of No Peaks?"

A wise cultivator wouldn't be taunted. However, it wasn't a wise cultivator but a proud one that decided to push towards the highest Phase by assaulting those with which they had a contract of peace, along with those of their own region.

Abritt crashed to the ground- not near Ursel, but a couple dozen meters away. "You are not the only one with expertise in earth."

She finally began her whirlwind, picking up heavy chunks of stone as well as piercing shards. It was an impressive display of power, even more so now that she had grown two ranks higher. As she strode towards Ursel, John's daughter responded by throwing chunks of rock into the maelstrom. Each time, Abritt simply caught them and added them to her attack.

Ursel zig zagged across the battlefield, throwing things seemingly at random.

"What happened to your earlier confidence, now that you have seen my display of power? I can catch anything you throw at me."

"Oh good," Ursel said. "I didn't even have to provoke you to say that."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

John knew from the slight shift in her voice that she was grinning widely. He saw her thrust her arms into a huge boulder- a chunk of the First Peak- up to her elbows. Ursel had to reinforce the ground beneath her so that she didn't sink into it as she hefted the boulder that was approximately five meters across.

"Catch."

Abritt, of course, did not catch it. Perhaps she could, but it would be a serious investment of energy. Instead, she carefully tracked its arc, twirling around it at the last moment. Right into Ursel's grasp.

"Hi."

Ursel wrapped both arms around Abritt, completely ignoring the whirlwind. John had seen the move coming, but he could see how Abritt would have been caught off guard. It was a simple trick, launching mass of stone wrapped in Ursel's energy… which she then leapt after.

Normally John would say that it was impossible to leap after something that had been thrown and match its speed, but there were several mitigating factors. First, cultivators didn't follow normal rules.

Normally, you couldn't throw a boulder like that. So common sense was already out of the question. Besides, the boulder was thrown quite slowly… precisely to provide a clear sense of crisis that was at the same time easy to handle. Then Ursel had let a portion of her energy drag behind her as her 'attacking' energy on the boulder also happened to contain her.

Now her energy snapped back, losing some part of it… but it didn't matter. Ursel was actively manipulating the ground beneath them, and a moment later Abritt and Ursel were neck deep in the ground. Abritt fought back fiercely, but she had to prevent her arms and ribcage from being crushed while also stopping their movement. Ursel focused all her muscle on offense and all of her earth element on burying the two of them.

What was Abritt going to do, dislocate her own shoulder to stab Ursel in the eye? John thought she tried, actually. She had extremely thin claws, clearly learning from her previous lesson. They could have stabbed deep enough into Ursel's helmet.

But even though Abritt fully messed up one of her shoulders, she didn't actually escape Ursel's grip. Which meant that Ursel just twisted back and forth, causing Abritt great pain and distracting her from her spiritual energy manipulation by forcing her to focus solely on herself. And then they were underground.

At that point, it was over. Sure, Abritt wasn't dead yet… but her air element would barely do anything there. John did admire her stubbornness as blasts of lightning tossed rocks into the air, but he could sense them two meters below the surface, and then three. She wouldn't even be able to move because of the weight of the ground soon, but it would only press Ursel's arms into her even more.

John stomped on the head of a man who thought he was cleverly hidden underground for an assassination. "Stay." He heard something crack.

Seriously, the wanna be assassin was so unqualified. He'd matched his earth element with the ground around him, but he'd only covered up his air element. And it was weird to have a person shaped mass of precisely the same quality of rock.

Astrid's surprise as John lashed out indicated that those with less sensitive elemental distinguishing abilities might have had a harder time. Astrid wasn't bad either, but John was used to Astrein where there was a perfect balance of elements that most people had traditionally perceived as nothing. A bit of weird earth covering air element was easy to pick out.

Tirto and Verusha's enemy was ash. Renato had moved onto a second Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, and while it would take him a while to win alone… the Sky Islands cultivators were faltering as a whole.

"Surrender!" John called. "All of those below the Ascending Soul Phase can live."

That caused a sudden split. Truthfully, John wanted to let the Ascending Soul Phase cultivators live… but there was too much risk of something like this happening again.

Renato's opponent fought more fiercely. A few others simply turned to flee. And many Sky Island cultivators began to surrender, though some were clearly hoping that somehow Abritt would spring forth and dominate the battlefield.

But local Wuthering Steppes cultivators were already arriving. They intercepted two of the fleeing Ascending Soul Phase cultivators- most of them wouldn't get far on their own even if they managed to fly away from the battlefield.

From the time the First Peak crashed atop Abritt and the others, it had only been a few minutes. Then Abritt's energy burst forth from underground. Not with Abritt, unfortunately for her. Instead, it was a consequence of her energy losing direction as she died. A fountain of air and earth scattered chunks of the First Peak everywhere.

Ursel leapt out of the ground a few moments later. She looked around, then back at the rubble. "Oh, should I have brought her head or something?" Her eyes landed on John. "Or are we burying her?"

"She should feed the land. No one needs to see her face." John shrugged, "But of course, if any of you wish to see her body it's right down there," John gestured.

John saw familiar figures from the Entrapping Vortex Sect, the Silent Breeze Sect, and the Gale Palace. From the latter, he specifically noted Sect Head Avenir.

"It is unfortunate that this event came to pass," John said. "However, I think you will find this cannot be an issue again. Behold, the First Peak," John spread his arms wide, showing only rubble, dead cultivators, and captives. "Continental forces will always come to the aid of our brothers. It seems Abritt consumed resources at a maddening pace for her rushed empowerment… but you now possess everything she had left."

John followed up with promises to help them rebuild, though he couldn't openly declare any specific amounts of resources that would be committed. They would have to see how things stood when the ashes of war finally settled.

The First Peak's invasion hadn't lasted nearly as long as the Sovereign Primacy, but its sudden and unexpected arrival had caused a significant amount of damage to the sects and clans in Abritt's path. Many of them had been wiped out completely, mostly lesser sects, which was almost a relief as they could be left as they were.

John kept his disappointment internal. They had withstood trouble better than before, he supposed. Nobody had made it to the core of the continent on a whim. Even so, their outer edges were vulnerable. It was likely impossible to create perfect defenses, but they needed to fortify their borders even more, however they could. At least they should be able to trust the rest of the Sky Islands, as those who remained had stood against Abritt… and suffered some immediate consequences. John also wished to support their recovery, though he wondered how they would feel about what happened to the First Peak. A necessary move in his opinion, but one that could certainly be controversial.

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.