Even if a honeymoon trip wasn't a tradition in this world, John still kind of wanted one. It might happen to be a few years late, but by cultivator standards that was right on schedule. For anything that didn't require specific timing, cultivators were extremely relaxed. Obviously when interacting with others it was necessary for everyone to agree on a time, but when planning to do something in the near future it was like meeting an old friend on Earth and agreeing to hang out sometime. It might or might not happen at some point.

The current world didn't really have the idea of a honeymoon anyway. Despite about a fifth of John's current memories being from Earth, they were his core memories around which everything else had to be measured. No matter how much he adapted to the current world he might not fit perfectly… and that was fine.

At least he wasn't alone in that regard, with his friends from the club, and he thought he at least looked like he fit.

There was one significant difference from Earth. If he was going on an ocean cruise, he wouldn't have expected there to be so many weapons. However, it wasn't like they were going somewhere expecting a fight. They simply didn't know what to expect, and no self respecting cultivator would go on a long journey unarmed.

Astrid stood near the prow of the flagship. "Exploring is quite exciting, don't you think?"

"Except for the many days we'll be sailing through the open ocean, I agree," John commented. "Though I do wish we had proper records of the area west of the continent."

Given that they had experienced trouble from all other sides of the continent, the plan was to be proactive in this case. They didn't plan to start a war, they just needed to know if there was anything around to worry about. Or rather, how much was there because there were old maps that had some islands out to the west.

Old maps. Clearly not made by cartographers that cared about accuracy or… anything, really. John understood that cultivators were usually pretty insular, but he still thought they should have more accurate understandings of what was around them.

Supplies had been prepared for a journey that could last up to three months, however even if that turned out to be an inaccurate prediction they wouldn't be too concerned. The biggest issue that long sailing voyages had on Earth was water. It was strange to consider given that sailors were literally surrounded by water for the entire duration of their voyage, but it wasn't potable water.

But any water cultivator worth anything could extract pure water from sea water. John could probably manage it for the whole fleet if he had to, with the biggest roadblock being that he would get bored.

The next biggest issue tended to be other supplies such as food, though at a certain length of voyage scurvy was also an issue. Scurvy wasn't an issue that cultivators suffered much for various reasons. Not being at sea for so long was one of the main things. However, even Spiritual Collection Phase cultivators had healthier bodies than Earth humans.

Ultimately, those issues were something that could be bypassed with proper cultivation like anything else. First, gathering food was simple when you had people that could dive and fight at full capacity underwater. Even if there were dangerous sea beasts, this fleet had sufficiently powerful cultivators to overcome anything- even leviathans, if it was necessary. As for vitamin C to stave off scurvy, it seemed that sea mammal livers would do. It sounded right to John, but he couldn't say he was an expert.

There was one method he was certain of, however. Earth cultivators could grow fruit on the ships, especially citrus. It required lugging around some amount of soil and trees, which was a bit of an issue for the weight of the vessels. However, enchantments helped overcome some of the weaknesses in that regard. At the point where people could throw floating islands at each other, John really didn't think that seafaring should be an issue.

It had only been any effort at all because the Shimmering Islands didn't have any issues of the sort, as they didn't have such long journeys. It only took them a few weeks to go across the whole breadth of the Shimmering Islands, and they'd have to specifically choose to not encounter any islands. Thus, while they had general seafaring knowledge, long voyages were their weak point. Even now that they were circling the continent for trade, they still didn't generally go far without resupplies.

The seas were calm and peaceful, at least on the surface. And for a good distance beneath the surface, that remained true. Enough so that John stretched leisurely. "Alright, time for training."

Astrid looked back at him. "Sure, what kind were you thinking?"

John grinned evilly, causing Astrid to take a step back. Even so, he still got an arm around her and hopped into the sea. "Swimming!"

John could only detect Astrid rolling her eyes because of how his spiritual energy senses worked, since he couldn't actually see her face from his angle as they splashed into the water. If they were in private, he would have expected an exaggerated protest, but she cared too much about her dignity. John maintained a serious manner when he needed to, but he couldn't very well tell his disciples to enjoy life if he never bothered.

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Obviously if John kept his hold on Astrid she wouldn't get any proper training. He could absolutely do anything he was going to do with her under one arm, but that wasn't saying much. One extra person wasn't a big deal past a certain point.

"First, laps!" John declared. "We'll start with the flagship. Maybe later we'll work our way up to the whole fleet."

Astrid wasn't a terrible swimmer. If she was able to use spiritual energy, she would outperform anyone on Earth, though that wasn't a really fair comparison. Without spiritual energy, she was decent enough now. She'd been quite embarrassed at her weakness when they stopped at the Lunar Island, and he knew she'd trained in her own time. John thought it was adorable. And also practical.

It was still difficult for her to swim faster than a proper sailing ship, however. That was why it was training. Obviously it was easy to swim to the rear of the vessel, but circling around back up towards its front was quite difficult for a cultivator that was primarily fire. John kept a pace where he remained just in front of her so that she could follow through the smoothed out flow of water he created. Skilled water cultivators didn't leave a notable wake- that would imply they were imparting more energy unto the water than they needed to. With the supernatural abilities afforded by Spiritual Energy, they could avoid creating even ripples.

John could have left the waves in the same state they were in when he first reached them, but that wasn't his point. He was a goal for Astrid as well as a slight decrease in difficulty. The ability to keep up with ships was important, though they were maneuverable enough that they could go back and pick people up. They wouldn't abandon the most lowly cultivator in their ranks, let alone an early Ascending Soul Phase cultivator.

A number of other individuals were inspired to swim laps around their own ships, coming up with impromptu competitions. It was good for the fleet to remain active. Being confined to a small area was rough on people… though in this case many of them could move between ships on occasion.

Everything was peaceful until the call of alarm from the northern flank of the fleet. Tenzing of the Dark Shore amplified his voice to speak to the fleet. "Trouble in the waters! Ready yourselves."

There went the fun swim. John immediately dropped back and took Astrid by the hand. She mixed her own energy with his as he lifted the two of them out of the water. However, instead of depositing them onto the flagship, he flew towards the source of the trouble. Once his attention had been drawn to the area, he was able to pick out the incoming threat.

Two long necks rose up between several ships. It would be an easy mistake to assume they were under attack by multiple creatures as the necks snapped down towards cultivators atop the decks. That would be an incorrect assumption, however. John could sense that beneath the long necks was a single creature. A turtle… if he was generous with his definitions.

A barrier of darkness from Tenzing deflected the creature's strike towards one ship, while the other was protected by a unified squad. However, that was only part of the creature's efforts. It also created a vortex in the surrounding water, pulling ships closer towards it… and its sharply spined shell.

Astrid launched an attack from her elevated position, a beam of light striking one of the creature's eyes. In return, it shot a jet of water. John deflected it, taking note of the creature's strength. The large beast wasn't quite comparable to an Ascending Soul Phase cultivator, though that didn't mean it would be trivial to defeat. Beasts had to be judged differently, as they had more than their cultivation. For example, cultivators didn't happen to wear armor more than a meter thick.

Besides, even if it could only call upon a maximum quantity of spiritual energy for any single task, its total amount was quite high. A troublesome foe, such that John wished they had brought along Carl. The leviathan youth could probably match the creature… and more importantly keep it away from the ships.

As the surrounding handful of vessels were pulled inward, their pilots and crew strained against it. John didn't plan to let it act as it pleased, gathering lighting on one of his throwing daggers. He launched a fairly straightforward attack, but aside from blinking closed its eyelid the turtle didn't react much. Though the creature's spiritual energy displayed only water element, its body appeared to possess earth elemental properties. John determined that as his spiritual energy spread over the creature's skin instead of penetrating through it like he intended.

The creature charged towards one of the nearest ships, as they weren't being drawn in as fast as it liked. However, John managed to bring himself and Astrid into striking range. They landed heavily on one of the heads, dropping it into the water instead of letting it chomp at the ship. The turtle's shell still sliced along the hull, splintering the wood, but the cultivators aboard and the vessel were all mostly alright. No huge holes yet.

John sliced at the turtle's head, wiping away the water element spiritual energy as Astrid pelted its skull with darts of fire which grew as she continued to add more power. The head dove further underwater, but that forced the rest of the turtle off course. A little bit of natural water wasn't going to stop Astrid's attacks.

The second head of the beast bit towards the two of them, but they simply changed their target to the inside of its mouth. Astrid targeted the creature's tongue, relying on John to disrupt the spiritual energy defenses and dry out the area. The turtle was not happy with them, diving down into the ocean while trying to shake them off.

They didn't let it flee. After all, the beast would be enough turtle soup for the whole fleet. More practically, they didn't want to let a beast that attacked humans live. Especially not if it continued to grow more powerful and held a grudge. Once they got through some of the scales on its head, the creature was quite vulnerable. And unlike tortoises, sea turtles couldn't retract fully into their shells. The creature's size worked against it as the pair of Ascending Soul Phase cultivators doggedly pursued it, with others from the fleet diving after them- but only a few of the stronger water cultivators managed to keep up. That included Sthithulf, one of John's first proper disciples.

The cultivators people from the Shimmering Islands happened to be on the southern end of the fleet so they had the most distance to travel. Tirto and Verusha were back at the northern part of the continent helping to train up the local fleets, but there were still representatives of the region. Of course, the fleet had cultivators from all over as evidenced by Tenzing from the Gloom Desolation. Even though he had a city to govern, it was a show of solidarity from the relatively recently acquainted allies.

The turtle meat was tough. Stronger beasts weren't necessarily tastier. Still, it had a whole lot of water and earth element for those who were interested, and the shell could be considered a treasure. It did take up half of the deck of two different ships, though.

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