Truthful Transmigration

The optimal way to negotiate with numerous individual regions and the powers within them would be for all of them to directly make contact with the twin continents. However, for various reasons, most people hadn't done so.

Some might be afraid, hoping to go unnoticed. Of course, if they were notable in any way it would be rather difficult to be overlooked. Others would simply mistrust any outsiders, or perhaps they retained loyalty to the Sovereign Primacy alone for some misguided reason. Beyond that, there were certainly a few that tried and had their messages intercepted by opponents of the twin continents.

There had been a few incidents of the latter. The solutions had been quite similar… anyone who tried to make diplomacy more difficult would die. Violence being the first solution was a consequence of the way the world worked. John hadn't been able to influence the entire world in a different direction… but that was before. Now, he might actually be in such a position. It was a heavy burden. That was why he was pleased to interact with simpler things whenever possible.

His personal gardens had been tended while he was away, but it just wasn't the same as his personal care. John also did his best to maintain Astrid's favorites just as she had. Certain memories hurt, but John would rather feel that ache than to feel nothing. Besides, if he was honest there were more good memories than bad, even with the end.

He wanted the whole world to experience that. But of course, not everyone got to be the survivors. Some were the people who passed away… and John couldn't ask most of them how they felt. Though… he did actually have a few. Renato didn't really talk about his former life. Yustina died in what later became the Empire of Elements, but she hadn't been interested in revenge. Aldara, on the other hand, wished for retribution based on the memories of Matayal.

Considering those examples, John couldn't say that death was much worse than any other terrible experience. People would react differently. There might be a number of people that would be reincarnated and want revenge on him… or perhaps they would all see it as part of the way things worked and move on, living their next life to its fullest. John couldn't guarantee that anyone he'd been involved with killing would come back to life, but the quantity was high enough for there to be a few.

Considering that, John still didn't think he would change most of his decisions. Small ones, perhaps, but the largest conflicts hadn't really been his choice to begin. And ending them as efficiently as possible was the only way to save his people.

But of course, there were always consequences. Innocent people connected to others that might or might not have deserved their life to come to an end. People like Rukiye.

Her life would have been better with her mother, who she loved with all her heart. Even with whatever flaws that mother doubtless had, Rukiye would have lived a good life. She might not have grown as quickly as she was now, and Rukiye's cultivation wouldn't reach the same peak, but she likely wouldn't need it.

Yet despite all that, in her current life she was happy. Not all the time, but that was unreasonable. Often enough, at least. She had many friends among the diplomatic mission- though few of her own age. In their own way, many were like family.

Rukiye could smile now, not just frown. She could show things more than anger and frustration. Happiness, curiosity, and sometimes annoyance- but the sort of annoyance one had around those one cared for.

Curiosity was a frequent one. There was so much of the world she hadn't seen, and she loved to learn. Truthfully, John didn't know everything either- knowing everything about a 'normal' planet would already be a great task, but with the variations that spiritual energy caused in living creatures and the environment it seemed dozens of times more difficult. Even an extended lifespan wasn't enough to truly understand the world.

Even now, Rukiye bore curiosity as she browsed the gardens. "What is this for?" she asked, plucking a red berry from a cluster of those growing on a particular bush. Her face scrunched up as she consumed the bitter fruit. "Medicine?"

"Aesthetics," John commented. "The berries look nice. Also, they're toxic to humans."

"What?!" Rukiye clawed at her tongue. "Why didn't you warn me?" It took her a moment to realize that she could just directly pick the berry out of her stomach. It wasn't a comfortable process, but it was a fairly easy manipulation of spiritual energy. Not quite so bad as vomiting, and more precise. She spit the berry over to the side. "What if I died?"

John just grinned. The berries weren't that toxic. It would probably take eating a whole bush full to threaten the health of a normal person. A cultivator would have to be extremely careless, especially since they didn't taste good. "Have you been training Pure Blood?"

"Ugh. Yes," she rolled her eyes. "I've been training your anti-poison thing. But you should still have warned me."

John plucked a berry and ate it. "They're pretty terrible," he commented.

"I know!" she said. "Why not get rid of it?"

She reached down into the ground, manipulating earth element to pluck the plant straight out of the ground. It took quite a bit of restraint on John's part not to suppress her. Instead, he let her act. So far, at least, her actions were reversible.

"It belongs there," John said. He could have shoved the plant back into the ground, and Rukiye wouldn't have been able to stop him. In fact, he could have imbued it with spiritual energy that would make it pretty much impossible for her to ever do it.

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"Why?" Rukiye asked. "It doesn't do anything. If you want something that looks good, just plant something like… celestial clusterberry."

She was idly spinning the plant as she spoke.

"If I wanted one of those, I would have planted it," John said calmly. "Astrid liked that one."

The bush dropped to the ground as Rukiye paled. Then she nearly crushed it in her frantic attempts to put it back into the ground. That was where John stepped in, gently guiding her energy.

"I-I-I didn't mean…" The look on her face was difficult to parse. Regret, perhaps fear?

Perhaps he had been a bit too firm with his energy. She might have expected retaliation of some sort, even though John had never hit her outside of sparring- and never excessively in sparring. Though if he was overly gentle with her, even a slight injury in an actual fight might have made her lock up.

"I can get you your own garden plot," John said calmly. "To do whatever you want with. But you should probably leave other people's gardens alone."

"Y-yeah."

Most of what followed was her trying to discern the meaning of each and every thing. Some of them were pretty simple. Various of the plants did have practical uses, and were harvested for use by the sect. Whether medicine or food, John had some of the best plants on the planet- though even with a complex energy flow, most plants would be more prosperous in their natural environments if he wasn't tending to them daily.

"This one?" she pointed to another plant with flowers that transitioned from yellow through orange to red. A type of hibiscus.

"Matayal enjoyed it. You might have seen some growing around the clan."

"She's… I think I heard…" Rukiye made a face. "Something about Aldara…? Do people… actually reincarnate?"

John took a moment to answer that one. "Not in the way that people might prefer. It is quite a rare phenomenon, even with the vastness of the planet. Between the twin continents, I am aware of a couple dozen."

"... so many?" Rukiye frowned. "But the total population is…"

"Billions," John said. Close to two and a quarter billion, which changed only minorly when counting the Molten Sea. That was because the Molten Sea only had cultivators, since no population of commoners could survive.

Accurate population census data was actually fairly recent. In the past, most regions would have gone with some approximate- after all, even elemental regions were usually only unified against outside threats, with most sects and clans being generally independent. Or factions made up of some number of other powerful groups.

Only a small percentage of the population were cultivators of any note, but stronger cultivators were more capable of defending the rest against the various hazards that came with living in the world. Thus, the population had been able to grow continuously, even with frequent conflicts.

"Do you think… my mother…?"

She didn't have to finish her question for John to understand.

"I wouldn't put any hope in it," John said. "She has just as much of a chance ending up in another world as here, even if she retained her memories."

Rukiye tilted her head. "... What?"

"Haven't you heard of transmigrators?" John asked. It was the sort of thing he expected people to hear about, even if they never met one- or believed in it. "It would be strange if it only ever went in one direction."

"Other worlds… I wonder what they would be like."

"Who can say?" John shrugged. "Most of it is imagination. Ida and Kori don't talk about their world much, so I can only tell you about mine."

"Yours?" Rukiye's eyes opened wide. "You are from… outside?"

"Just a short life," John admitted. "The majority of my time has been here. But the world was called Earth. Just a big ball of dirt and water." John grinned. "It was beautiful. I wish I could show you."

John realized he hadn't seen this planet. No, probably nobody had. After all, it wasn't normal to see a planet, just parts of it. He was suddenly tempted to try to fly up hundreds of kilometers to maybe see half the planet. That shouldn't be impossible, with his current abilities. He could refresh his own air, too.

"What was it like, besides beautiful?" Rukiye asked. "Were people very strong there?"

"On Earth?" John shook his head. "No. People were extremely, terribly weak. Because on Earth, there was no spiritual energy."

Rukiye just blinked, dumbfounded. "But how? Can you even survive without it?"

John tilted his head. "I had the same questions about how people can survive with it, in some ways. There might be different physical laws, even if they are very similar on the surface. Anyway, despite individual weaknesses… the people of Earth performed mighty deeds through cooperation."

"It must have been a good place," Rukiye said. "A place without fear."

John shook his head. "If only it were so. If nobody is truly stronger, everyone is a danger. Or at least, it is easy for those with ill intent to convince people of that. And people simply gathered power in different ways. Influence and wealth have some meaning here, but far more in a world where they are the main forms of power. But truthfully, I barely understood how that sort of power worked while I was there. Sometimes, it's more pleasant to be naive."

Rukiye pondered for a few moments. "... Are 'burgers' Earth food? It is a strange name."

John grinned. "You got it. I actually ran a restaurant that made them. Part of a chain."

"No wonder you like them," she nodded. "Can you tell me more about the world?"

John did. Though, he tried to focus on the good things. The pleasant sides of technology, and all the good things it did. There were already too many negatives in this world to bring more over. Of course, he wasn't attempting to deceive Rukiye into thinking the world was truly better. It was difficult to compare. Maybe if he'd been one of the top influences on Earth, he could have compared inequality and corruption.

Maybe that was a fruitless idea. After all, he would have simply been working off memories. All he really needed was to see the current world, and try to make it better for everyone who still lived in it. Unfortunately, some people seemed determined to take everything for themselves at any cost. Since they had made that choice, John didn't mind serving them the consequences of their actions. He would probably have to get back to that in a month or two.