Myriad Rivers to the Sea

For the next three days Li Yu played the part of a diligent mercenary that was taking on some modest tasks.

He rented a modest room at The Gilded Leaf. It was a cleaner establishment than the Grey Hearth. He spent his mornings at the Commission Hall picking through the lower ranked tasks that wouldn't draw too much attention.

He cleared a nest of Obsidian Vipers from the southern geothermal vents. He gathered Ash Lotus seeds from the edge of the magma lake. He escorted a local alchemist to harvest Sulfur Moss from the lower caves.

It was honest work as he was learning more and more about his surroundings. It was also excruciatingly slow.

"Seventy five points," the clerk at the counter droned. The clerk handed him a slip of paper. "Current total: one hundred and fifty."

Li Yu pocketed the slip. At this rate he would earn his audience with City Lord Taren sometime in the next century.

'The ladder of merit is long,' Li Yu thought. He then went and stepped out into the bustling street. 'Perhaps too long.'

He was considering taking on a higher level bounty. Something like hunting a Magma Turtle King. He calmed himself down though. There was no need to rush, he had plenty of time. As he went to buy some meat skewers at a stall, the air in the city changed.

It wasn't a subtle shift either. A siren erupted from the central Citadel. It was a sound that vibrated in the teeth. It could probably wake the dead.

WOOOO-OOOOOO.

The street traffic stopped instantly.

"Code Red!" A shopkeeper yelled while slamming his shutters closed. "Border breach!"

Li Yu looked towards the Cinder Peaks. Several signal flares, blood red and frantic, were arching over the mountains. They were coming from Fortress Iron Wall.

"The Fortress is under attack!" A man screamed. The city garrison mobilized instantly. Soldiers in white and gold armor poured out of the barracks. Some mounted swords while others mounted their armored drakes.

Li Yu didn't wait around either. Void Step and he blurred away. To the civilians around him, he simply vanished. Leaving behind a small gust of wind in his wake.

When Li Yu arrived at the ridge overlooking the valley, the scene was chaotic. The massive walls were under siege. A demonic force, easily five thousand strong, was swarming the defenses. They weren't the ragtag mercenaries of the Beast Army he had witnessed before. These were Nether Corrupted Demons. Creatures with translucent purple skin and extra limbs that seemed to phased in and out of reality.

Siege beasts were also present. Massive, lumbering turtles with cannons mounted on their shells were pounding the gates. The defensive arrays were flickering and were overwhelmed by the barrage of corrupt Qi.

Li Yu scanned the battlefield. His eyes narrowed.

'No Demon Lord,' he assessed quickly. 'But strong. Very strong.'

He saw the defenders on the walls buckling. A section of the rampart exploded and a squad of winged demons poured into the breach and was slaughtering the humans defending there. With no Demon Lord in sight or an extremely powerful general, Li Yu took action.

He leaped from the ridge and he descended like a meteor. He was aiming for the breach in the wall. He slammed into the ground amidst the squad of winged demons. The impact created a shockwave that pulverized the stone beneath his feet.

"Who—" a demon captain started to hiss. Li Yu didn't let him finish. He spun his Star Crusher staff.

CRUNCH.

The captain’s head vanished.

Li Yu became a raging storm. He was using brute force and speed. Every swing of his staff was a death sentence. He moved with a fluidity that belied the weight of his weapon. He was dodging claws and blades by millimeters before delivering bone shattering counters.

"Push them back!" Li Yu roared to the stunned human defenders. "Fill the gaps!"

Seeing an unknown expert decimate the enemy, the soldiers rallied. "For the Iron Wall! For humanity!"

Li Yu didn't stay to lead them. He saw the real threats. Floating above the battlefield and directing the siege beasts were two massive figures. They were clearly the ones in charge. Both radiated the oppressive aura of the 1st Stage Divine Transformation realm. One was a hulking mass of purple muscle with four arms. The other was a slender robed figure wielding a staff of bone.

They were tearing through the fortress's aerial defenses and anyone that came up to challenge them. They were swatting human Core Formation captains out of the sky like flies. Li Yu tightened his grip on his staff.

'Two of them. 1st Stage.'

It was slightly risky but if he didn't stop them, the fortress would fall in minutes. Li Yu wasn’t sure why there weren’t more powerful humans here. They were either away from this area or something else.

He checked his escape route and he was constantly scanning the horizon. His nerves were pulled taut from the threat of the unknown. If a Demon Lord appeared, if he felt even a whisper of that pressure, he would be gone before the echo faded.

Li Yu launched himself into the air. He bypassed the fodder and was aiming straight for the four armed General. The General saw him coming. "A human fly?"

The General swung a massive hammer made of black nether steel. Li Yu didn't dodge it. He channeled his Opalescent Qi into his staff. The black staff hummed with increased power. Staff Art: Splitting the Mountain.

Li Yu swung upward to meet the blow.

CLANG.

The collision was deafening. The General's hammer shattered under the impact. The force of the blow continued upward and smashed into the General’s chest. The General’s eyes bulged. His ribs collapsed. He was launched backward and crashed into the canyon wall with incredible force.

The second General shrieked. "How dare you! Do you not know who we are?!"

He waved his bone staff. A swarm of spectral skulls erupted from it and came screaming towards Li Yu. Li Yu spun his staff in front of him and created a shield of spinning Qi. The skulls smashed against it and dissipated.

He pushed through the cloud of necromancy. He closed the distance. The Robed General tried to retreat, long since realizing this "fly" was a dragon in disguise.

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"Too late," Li Yu said.

He threw his staff. It spun like a buzzsaw through the air. It caught the General in the midsection and severed him cleanly in half. Li Yu caught the returning staff and landed on the rampart. Two Divine Transformation experts, beings that could rule entire cities in the wilds were dead in seconds.

The demon army wavered at their leaders falling. Their commanders were gone. But then the ground shook. From the rear of the demon formation, a third presence emerged.

This one was different. It wasn't loud. It was heavy.

A Demon Titan. A creature the size of a large hill and covered in weeping sores and purple crystals. The Demon Titan stepped forward. Riding on its head was a figure clad in armor that seemed to be made of liquid darkness.

Peak of the 2nd Stage Divine Transformation. Possibly touching the 3rd. The figure pointed a curved blade at Li Yu.

"Impressive," the voice boomed. "But insufficient. You humans will always be flesh for us demons to devour."

The figure leaped. The killing intent locked onto Li Yu. It was sharp, focused and overwhelming. Li Yu gritted his teeth. He prepared to Void Step away and regroup. He didn’t want to be facing an unknown 3rd Stage of Divine Transformation. If there was one thing he had learned in this realm was it was always better to run away.

He had also done his part. He had killed two. He wasn't going to die for a fortress he just met. But before he could step, the sky above them turned white. It was a blinding light. A sword intent so sharp it cut the clouds.

"You overstep, filth!"

A voice that was calm and authoritative echoed from the heavens above. A single beam of sword light descended.

SHING.

The beam passed through the armored figure. It passed through the Titan. It passed through the earth itself. The armored figure froze in mid air. A thin red line appeared on his forehead and then traveled down his entire body.

He split in half. The Titan below him split in half. A chasm, miles long and perfectly straight, opened up on the valley floor.

“Nooooo!! The valley!” A man had fallen to his knees and was crying. It was the manager of the team that had to repair such things once the fighting was over. He was grateful but dread overwhelmed his gratefulness.

The man sent that sword attack landed on the ground as softly as a feather. He was a middle aged human. He wore white robes embroidered with gold thread. He had a short beard and eyes that looked like polished steel. He held a simple straight sword in his hand.

City Lord Taren.

"Reinforcements have arrived," Taren said calmly.

Behind him the sky filled with cultivators. Hundreds of elite cultivators charged forward. They were raining down all kinds of techniques on the disorganized demon remnants. The rout was instantaneous. The demons broke and tried to flee away. Not many if any actually made it out though.

Li Yu stood on the rampart and was studying that sword strike that had come. He watched the City Lord.

'That sword,' Li Yu thought. 'One strike. Clean. No wasted energy. Incredibly powerful.'

It was the most beautiful strike that Li Yu had ever seen.

The aftermath was a flurry of activity. Healers tended to the wounded. Grateful but grumbling people were patching the walls and valley.

Li Yu tried to slip away. He had done enough and didn't want the spotlight. But from the instant that the City Lord had arrived, he could feel the area around him locked in. He wouldn’t be able to Void Step if he wanted to.

"You there," a voice called out.

Li Yu turned to meet the voice but already knew who it was. City Lord Taren was standing ten feet away.

"The one with the staff," Taren said. His eyes scanned Li Yu. It was an intense and probing scan. The man made no effort to hide it either. "You killed the two generals."

Li Yu bowed slightly. "I got lucky. They underestimated me."

Taren walked closer. "Luck does not seem to have played any role here. Come with me."

It wasn't a request. Li Yu followed Taren to the commander’s room in the center of the fortress. The soldiers saluted Taren with awe but they looked at Li Yu with confusion. They had seen him fight earlier and were impressed by him but Taren over shadowed him so much, they barely remembered.

Inside the tent Taren dismissed his guards. He poured two cups of tea from a pot on the table. He pushed one cup to Li Yu.

"Sit," Taren said while gesturing for him to sit down.

Li Yu sat. He kept his posture relaxed but his muscles were coiled. Taren sipped his tea. He looked at Li Yu over the rim of the cup.

"I have looked at you with my Spirit Eyes," Taren said quietly. "Usually, I can see the cultivation base of anyone below my own realm."

He set the cup down.

"With you... I see fog. A dense, shifting fog. I am clearly stronger than you so why is that the case?"

Taren’s eyes narrowed. "You are not simple. Who are you? A spy? A rogue cultivator? And don’t tell me you are just some traveler."

Li Yu held the cup and thought briefly. He looked at Taren. His gut instinct was screaming. But it wasn't screaming danger. It was a screaming of opportunity. Taren had saved the fortress. He had fought to protect his people.

He was a Disciple of a Savior. He exuded an aura of righteousness that was rare in this world. If Li Yu wanted answers, he had to give something first. Trust was a currency, just like merit points.

"I am not a spy," Li Yu said. "I am... a traveler. I know you said not to say that but it is actually true. Not an ordinary traveler though, I am from very far away."

Taren waited.

"I arrived in this realm by accident," Li Yu continued as he was testing the waters. "I was in a spatial tunnel, dragged through by another person from this realm. Something happened within that tunnel and I ended up away from that being, on some unnamed mountain realm. After traveling around for a bit, I ended up here. In search of answers, mostly how to get back home."

Taren’s eyebrows rose slightly. "Your own world? You are from another realm?"

"Yes," Li Yu said.

Taren leaned forward. "Crossing the boundary between worlds is impossible for anyone below.... Unless..."

"Unless I was dragged through by a Demon Lord, yes." Li Yu finished.

The air in the tent grew cold.

"Balor came to my realm and through a series of events he was defeated. In his anger he grabbed me with him." Li Yu said quietly. "It was Demon Lord Balor."

"Balor," Taren whispered. The name hung in the air like smoke.

"Yes," Li Yu said. "Balor."

Taren went rigid. His hand drifted toward his sword unconsciously. "You encountered a Demon Lord and lived? Even I would die from such an encounter."

"I didn’t fight him at all. It was some of the guardians of my world." Li Yu corrected. "And he... he effortlessly took me here."

Li Yu looked Taren in the eye. Li Yu leaned forward.

"He was badly injured in the tunnel. That was when I went unconscious and ended up on that mountain range in this realm. Clearly something happened to Lord Balor or else I wouldn’t have gotten away. Perhaps his injuries were too bad or he died going through the tunnel."

Taren stared at him. The City Lord’s composure cracked for the first time. His mouth opened slightly.

"He’s either dead or severely injured?" Taren whispered. “No, he had to be dead. If he was that badly injured the other Demon Lords would learn about it quickly from all their spies and he would be killed.”

"All I can confirm is that I was able to get away. When he promised to kill torture and kill me. So something must have happened to him. That is all I know." Li Yu said firmly.

Taren sat back. He let out a long breath. He looked at the tent ceiling and it was clear his mind was racing.

"If this is true..." Taren murmured. "If Balor is truly gone... the balance of power shifts. The Pact weakens. The other Lords will start moving."

He looked back at Li Yu. The suspicion in his eyes was replaced by an intense curiosity and a strange relief.

"This attack was a probe," Taren said while gesturing to the battlefield outside. "The demons are on the move. We have been noticing increased activity and you just confirmed why."

Taren stood up. He paced the small tent.

"This information is incredibly important," Taren said. He stopped and looked at Li Yu.

"My teacher... Grandmaster Thorne. He needs to know this."

Taren extended a hand.

"Li Yu. You have done humanity a great service today. Both with your staff and your words."

Li Yu stood and shook his hand. It was calloused and strong.

"I just want to go home," Li Yu said honestly. "I hoped you or your teacher might know how."

Taren nodded solemnly.

"If anyone knows the way between worlds," Taren said, "it is the Grandmaster. Come. We return to Highland Reach. We have much to discuss."