Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Li Yu and Demon Lord Malos were back on the open road.

The heat haze shimmering over the jagged ridges was intense but Li Yu barely felt it. Having recently advanced to the second level of Divine Transformation, his Devouring Abyssal Leviathan Physique hummed with a dense power.

"Ah, the scent of freedom!" Malos declared while taking a deep breath of air that smelled strongly of ash and sulfur. He adjusted his newly acquired crimson cloak and patted the burlap sack slung over his shoulder. "No more claustrophobic palace walls, no more glaring Ash Guards and no more hovering mothers! Just the boundless horizon and the thrill of the unknown!"

"We are only gone for a month, Malos," Li Yu reminded him pragmatically. He was adjusting the straps of his own pack. "And we are walking through a highly monitored volcanic wasteland. The 'unknown' is mostly just different shapes of rocks and occasional magma geysers."

"Spoken like a man who lacks romantic vision," Malos tutted while waving a hand dismissively. "The unknown is everywhere, my friend. We merely have to stumble into it."

As if summoned by the Lord of Foresight’s very words, their path over the next ridge revealed a bustling scene of commerce. Nestled in a wide and relatively cool basin between two flows of hardened magma was a moderately sized merchant caravan.

A dozen reinforced wagons constructed from heat treated bone and dark wood were being loaded with crates and other things were being put into a storage ring. The beasts of burden pulling them were massive, thick scaled Ash Rhinos. They were bred specifically for the harsh terrain of Ignis’s domain.

Dozens of workers were running back and forth. They were securing tarps and checking axles. Near the lead wagon, a burly man with a scarred face was shouting orders but was clearly stressed.

"We need more guards for the rear flank!" The burly man bellowed as he threw his hands up in frustration. "The outer ring cities have been swarming with desperate vagrants who failed the Sovereign's medical trials! The roads are thicker with bandits than usual! I am not moving this cargo without a full escort!"

Malos’s eyes lit up like a pair of brilliant stars. He turned to Li Yu and a massive, delighted grin spread across his face.

"Did you hear that, Li Yu? A caravan! In need of guards!" Malos whispered excitedly. "We get to travel, see the sights and get paid for it. All while returning with probably a week to spare, judging from what I am hearing about their journey, for the wedding!"

Li Yu looked at the caravan and then at the ancient Demon Lord who possessed enough personal wealth to buy it completely if he so desired. "You want us to take a job as hired muscle for a few spirit stones?"

"It is about the experience, Li Yu!" Malos insisted and was already walking down the slope toward the camp. "Come along! I shall handle the negotiations to get us better wages."

Li Yu sighed, shaked his head, but followed anyway. It was certainly better than wandering aimlessly through the ash fields. Malos approached the burly caravan master and effortlessly slipped into his favorite persona. He puffed out his chest, adopted an air of seasoned competence and offered a grand bow.

"Greetings, master merchant!" Malos boomed cheerfully. "I couldn't help but overhear your plight. My companion and I are wandering cultivators of skill and unshakeable morals. We would be honored to provide our services as your rear flank guards for the duration of your circuit."

The burly man looked Malos up and down. He was taking in the fine crimson cloak, the complete lack of visible weapons and the cheerful smile. He then looked at Li Yu, who was standing quietly a few paces back and radiating a perfectly calm, controlled aura.

"You don't look like guards," the caravan master grunted suspiciously. "You look like a retired noble and his silent valet."

"Appearances can be deceiving, my good man!" Malos laughed. "Our blades are sharp but our awareness is sharper! We shall keep your cargo safer than a dragon's hoard."

Before the burly man could argue further, the heavy, reinforced door of the lead carriage swung open.

"If they are willing to work for standard rates and can keep pace with the Ash Rhinos, hire them, Vane," a sharp voice rang out from the carriage. "We are already half a day behind schedule. We cannot afford to loiter."

A young woman stepped out onto the carriage platform. She wore practical, fitted robes of dark gray and deep red. It was clearly designed for travel rather than courtly fashion. Her dark hair was pulled back into a severe braid and her eyes were a striking, piercing amber. Li Yu’s senses immediately clocked her cultivation at the Core Formation realm. It was respectable but incredibly vulnerable in this world still.

She looked down at her ledger and was making a quick notation with a brush. She finally looked up to inspect her newly hired guards. The moment her amber eyes landed on Malos, she froze. The brush slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the wooden floorboards of the carriage.

Malos, who had been smiling, completely stiffened. The theatrical merchant persona evaporated instantly. His eyes widened in shock.

"Lana?" Malos whispered as his voice cracked with an emotion Li Yu had never heard from the Sovereign before. The young woman stared at him and her expression rapidly shifted from shock, to disbelief and finally settling into a deeply defensive glare.

"Father," Lana said tightly.

Li Yu physically stumbled with his head snapping back and forth between the young Core Formation merchant and the ancient Lord of Foresight.

"Father?!" Li Yu blurted out. His composure during this trip was completely lost. He was totally stunned. He stared at Malos. "You have a daughter?!"

Malos didn't answer Li Yu immediately. Instead, a massive, boisterous laugh suddenly erupted from his chest. It wasn't his usual chuckle; it was a loud, joyous and genuinely thrilled sound that echoed across the basin.

"Fate! The grand, glorious tapestry weaves itself in the most magnificent ways!" Malos cheered. He stepped forward and looked up at the carriage. "Of all the roads and of all the caravans in the realm! It is truly you!"

Li Yu watched the interaction. A sudden and poignant realization hit him like a physical blow. She's a merchant. She runs a caravan. Li Yu looked at Malos and was thinking back to all the times the Demon Lord had gleefully haggled over useless trinkets, painted river rocks and bowls of noodles.

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‘Is that why he loves acting like a merchant so much? Because it makes him feel closer to the life his daughter chose?’ Li Yu thought but didn’t know the real answer.

Lana, however, did not share her father's joyous enthusiasm. She narrowed her eyes and quickly stepped down from the carriage with her arms crossed firmly over her chest.

"Don't give me that 'tapestry' nonsense," Lana accused her father. Her voice was sharp with suspicion. "You spied on me. You saw this in your visions. You knew exactly where my route was and exactly when I would need guards. You're hovering."

"Lana, I swear upon the deepest stars, I did not know," Malos insisted while his tone turned remarkably gentle, almost pleading. He placed a hand over his heart. "I haven't looked into your threads in years. I promised you I wouldn't. And even if I wanted to break that promise, I couldn't have foreseen this."

Lana raised an eyebrow and was clearly unconvinced. "You see everything."

"Not anymore," Malos smiled broadly and was gesturing toward Li Yu. "Not when I travel with him. Lana, allow me to introduce my companion, Li Yu. He is a walking anomaly. A complete blind spot in the tapestry of fate. When I am near him, the future is an opaque fog. I truly, genuinely bumped into you by pure chance!"

Lana looked at Li Yu and her amber eyes were assessing him with intense scrutiny. She scanned his cultivation and saw the level that he allowed to be seen to the world. His Core Formation aura was seen and she noted the crushing density of his foundation. To a Core Formation cultivator, Li Yu was a towering powerhouse even at the same realm.

"A blind spot…" Lana repeated with her suspicion slowly giving way to a grudging curiosity. She looked back at her father and saw the undeniable happiness in his eyes. She let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Fine," Lana relented and turned back toward the carriage. "I need guards and I suppose having a Demon Lord and his friend on the payroll is a decent bargain. But you are working for standard rates, Father. And you take your orders from Vane."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Boss!" Malos saluted cheerfully and was already moving to fall in line with the rear guard.

Two hours later, the caravan was rumbling steadily across the dark ironstone highways of the volcanic ridge.

The initial tension of the meeting had settled and was replaced by a strange but quiet curiosity. Because Malos was technically her father, Lana had eventually relented and invited both him and Li Yu to ride inside her spacious and climate controlled lead carriage to escape the midday heat. This left the burly Vane to manage the actual guarding duties along with the others.

The interior of the carriage was lined with cooling arrays and smelled faintly of refined medicinal herbs. Lana sat opposite them and was sipping tea from a delicate porcelain cup while continuing to scrutinize Li Yu.

"I have to admit," Lana said while breaking the silence as the carriage hit a small bump. "I am deeply surprised to see you traveling with a friend, Father. You have never had friends before. You had subjects, you had petitioners begging for prophecies and you had enemies. But never a friend. At least not that I knew of."

"I am a late bloomer in the art of socialization," Malos chuckled and was entirely unoffended.

Li Yu, who was still reeling from the sudden expansion of Malos’s background, finally leaned forward. "With all due respect, Malos... you never mentioned you had a family."

Malos’s cheerful smile softened and was taking on a nostalgic, slightly melancholy edge. He looked out the window at the passing ash fields.

"It was a very long time ago, Li Yu," Malos said quietly. "Before I had my power now. Before I was a Demon Lord. I had a wife. She passed away long ago." He paused, the silence in the carriage grew heavy. "We had three children. Two sons and Lana. I lost one of my boys shortly after his mother passed. My other son, Tuwark, is out there in the realm forging his own path, much like his sister."

Li Yu sat back and was stunned once again. He then realized that he had never asked about Malos’s family. It wasn’t that strange, it’s not something you bring up unless the other person starts sharing about it. The eccentric, rock-painting wanderer suddenly possessed a depth of history and tragedy that completely recontextualized his entire personality.

"You left?" Li Yu said softly while looking at Lana.

"I did," Lana confirmed but her voice lacked any malice. Instead it was filled with a firm, unyielding resolve. "Try to imagine what it is like, Li Yu. Growing up in the house of the Sovereign of Foresight, even if he wasn’t as strong as he is now, he still had his abilities. Every scraped knee, every heartbreak, every success and every failure was already known to him before it happened to me."

She looked at her father and her expression was a mix of love and frustration. "He never let us fall. He never let us make mistakes. He loved us so fiercely that he scripted our entire lives to keep us safe. Under the weight of his foresight, I never felt like my life was my own. It felt like I was just walking a path he had already paved."

"A father's worst flaw is his desire to shield his children from the world," Malos murmured apologetically.

"So I left," Lana continued as she turned back to Li Yu. "I demanded he stop looking at my threads. I wanted to build something with my own two hands. To make my own mistakes and earn my own coin. That is why I run this merchant group. It isn't an empire but it is mine. And we are here in Ignis’s territory because the massive influx of desperate healers has driven the price of medical supplies through the roof. It is excellent business."

Li Yu nodded and was thoroughly impressed. For a cultivator to willingly leave the absolute safety and unimaginable wealth of a Demon Lord’s palace to run a vulnerable merchant caravan in the chaotic realms required a staggering amount of willpower and bravery. She was smart, willful and fiercely independent.

"She is quite magnificent, isn't she?" Malos beamed proudly and was completely failing to hide his fatherly adoration. He then leaned toward Lana and a mischievous glint returned to his black eyes. "But be careful around my companion, my dear. Keep a close guard on your heart. He is quite the prolific womanizer."

Li Yu choked on his tea and was coughing violently into his fist. "I am what?!"

"Oh, yes," Malos nodded sagely to his daughter. "We have barely been traveling together for a few months and he has already captured the heart of the Sovereign of Flame’s daughter. The girl was absolutely smitten. She practically begged him to stay by her bedside."

"I was a medical warding totem!" Li Yu protested loudly and his face was flushing with sheer indignation. "I was literally hired to sit in a chair! She is a friend! There was absolutely no romance involved!"

Lana watched Li Yu’s frantic, desperate defense and a genuine smirk finally broke through her professional facade. She looked at her father and for the first time, a look of shared amusement passed between them.

"A womanizer, you say?" Lana mused as she was taking a slow sip of her tea. "I shall have to keep my wits about me, then. Good thing I only care about profit."

Li Yu groaned and was burying his face in his hands. The ancient Demon Lord had found a new avenue of entertainment and Li Yu was officially the target. When night fell over the volcanic ridges, the caravan came to a halt. The temperature plummeted and the intense heat of the day gave way to the biting cold of the ash plains.

While the ordinary guards set up standard tents and huddled around fire arrays, Lana deployed her own portable pavilion. It was a masterpiece of spatial and array engineering. A beautiful, multi roomed structure woven from thick, insulated silks that expanded outward from a single, fist-sized core. Inside it was warm, brightly lit by floating pearls and smelled of spiced incense.

Li Yu sat at a low wooden table in the main area and nursing a cup of hot broth. Malos and Lana were sitting across from him and deeply engaged in a conversation about the current market rates for deep sea leviathan bones. Li Yu watched them and his mind was turning the day's revelations over and over.

He looked at Malos. The Sovereign wasn't talking about prophecies or cosmic shifts. He was arguing with his daughter about trade tariffs. However, his face was glowing with a quiet happiness. The eccentric and powerful Demon Lord was just a father who missed his child and was desperately soaking up every second of this chance meeting that fate had afforded them.

Li Yu took a sip of his broth and a small smile touched his own lips.

This realm was a place of brutal murder, apocalyptic curses and terrifying monsters. But here, inside a portable silk tent in the middle of a volcanic wasteland, it was just a family having dinner.

‘Three weeks on the road with a willful merchant and her overbearing father,’ Li Yu thought to himself while shaking his head. ‘This is going to be an incredible trip.’