Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The massive royal warship sailed smoothly through the sky with authority and awe. Behind it, thousands of smaller flying vessels trailed like a massive colorful tail. The armada crossed the vast distance through the clouds and was traveling far beyond the borders of the Violet Deep. The anticipation in the air was palpable as they finally approached the impact zone.

Li Yu stood on the front deck with Malos and Morven. As the morning mist cleared, the fallen mountain finally came into view.

It was a staggering sight. The monolith of dark stone towered into the clouds and was completely out of place in the middle of a vast plain. It looked as though a deity had simply ripped a peak from a distant realm and carelessly dropped it from the heavens.

The base of the mountain was fused with the ground and had caused no collateral damage to the surrounding earth. At the very top, the glowing golden letters radiated a terrifying pressure.

“A mothers love is a blessing for one but a curse for one's enemies.”

The words burned with a fierce golden light that made the eyes of weaker cultivators water just by looking at them. The sprawling plains surrounding the mountain were already packed.

Thousands of ambitious cultivators, mercenaries and sect leaders had arrived before the royal fleet. They had formed a large and disorganized crowd on the dirt and grass. They were pressing eagerly toward the base of the stone.

"Well that is certainly a lot of people hoping for a shortcut to world domination." Malos remarked while leaning over the wooden railing of the warship. “I suppose that is one way to get what you want. Everyone looks for a shortcut, myself included of course.”

"Bring the ship down," Morven commanded his generals. "We will approach the rest of the way on foot."

The vessel descended and landed softly on the edge of the plains. Li Yu, Morven, Malos and the three elite generals stepped off the deck and walked across the grass toward the mountain. As they approached the base they could finally see the self proclaimed trapped Sage clearly.

Garrick the Garrick was an incredibly imposing figure even while crushed under tons of solid rock. His head and heavily muscled arms protruded from the bottom of the stone. He had wild dark hair, a thick rough beard and eyes that burned with a stubborn but arrogant fire. His exposed skin had a faint metallic sheen indicating his impenetrable carapace.

Despite his humiliating predicament, Garrick was not acting like a prisoner. He was acting like a king that was holding court.

"Next!" Garrick bellowed, his voice echoing like thunder across the plains. "Hurry it up you pathetic weaklings! Do you want to rule the realm or do you want to stare at dirt all day?"

A line had formed and was now stretching from the mountain to far out into the fields. It was moving incredibly fast though.

A hopeful sword cultivator stepped up to the rock. He placed his hands flat against the dark stone and pushed with all his might while channeling his Qi into the mountain. The stone did not react. The golden letters did not fade. Nothing happened at all.

"Get lost!" Garrick laughed loudly while exposing a row of sharp teeth. "You are not the chosen one! Next!"

The dejected cultivator walked away. A massive beast in human form stepped up next. He slammed his heavy fists against the mountain and was trying to trigger a reaction through brute force.

The mountain absorbed the impact without a single sound. It did not even tremble.

"Pathetic!" Garrick mocked while resting his chin on the dirt. "My grandmother hits harder than that and she does not even have arms! Next!"

Over and over, people went up and touched the mountain. Nothing happened and they walked away in disappointment. A few incredibly stubborn cultivators refused to accept defeat and drew their weapons. They unleashed blazing fire arts, cutting wind blades and heavy kinetic strikes directly against the stone surface.

The attacks splashed against the mountain harmlessly. They could not leave a single scratch or scorch mark on the dark rock. Li Yu watched the futile attacks and felt a very familiar sense of dread creeping up his spine.

"Does this remind you of anything?" Li Yu asked while looking up at Morven and Malos.

Morven crossed his massive arms and frowned deeply at the indestructible monolith. "Another impenetrable object. It seems the universe is determined to test my patience this month."

Malos chuckled and patted Li Yu on the shoulder. "At least this one is stationary. I vastly prefer indestructible rocks over slow clams."

Suddenly the bright morning sky darkened violently. Thick, black clouds rolled in from the horizon at an unnatural speed. The air grew incredibly heavy with the sharp metallic scent of ozone. Crackling purple and blue lightning danced between the clouds and was illuminating the darkened sky with blinding flashes.

The massive crowd on the plains looked up in alarm.

A figure descended from the stormy sky like a falling star. It was a woman wearing flowing robes made of what looked like woven thunderclouds. Her eyes sparked with raw electricity and her dark hair whipped wildly around her face.

It was Sovereign Zylith of the Thundering Peaks.

She was one of the remaining Demon Lords of the realm and she had no intention of waiting in a line with commoners. Zylith landed directly in front of the mountain. She did not bother asking people to move. The moment her boots touched the ground she released a massive outward burst of lightning.

The shockwave exploded across the plains.

Thousands of people screamed as the terrifying force of the blast picked them up and hurled them backward. Cultivators and merchants were sent flying through the air and were tumbling violently across the grass. The massive queue was instantly obliterated.

The shockwave rushed directly toward Li Yu and his group.

Malos simply raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A shimmering spatial barrier materialized in front of them, perfectly splitting the shockwave and forcing it to flow harmlessly around their bodies. Li Yu did not even feel a breeze.

"Zylith always lacked basic manners." Morven grunted while brushing a stray spark off his dark coat.

At the base of the mountain Zylith ignored the groans of the blasted crowd. She walked up to the towering stone with supreme arrogance. She placed her crackling hand against the dark surface, fully expecting the power of her lightning to shatter whatever weak seal held the beast.

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She poured her sovereign Qi into the rock. Nothing happened. The mountain did not even hum. Zylith pulled her hand back and her eyes widened in shock. She was a Demon Lord. She could be more than qualified to have this man as her servant.

"What are you looking at, little spark?" Garrick sneered from the bottom of the rock.

Zylith looked down at the trapped man. Her pride was already stung by the failure and being addressed so disrespectfully made her blood boil.

"You should show some respect, beast." Zylith snapped back while sparks leaped from her fingertips. "I am Sovereign Zylith. I came here to claim you."

Garrick threw his head back and laughed, a deep booming sound that rattled the plains.

"Claim me?" Garrick mocked while spitting a mouthful of dirt to the side. "You cannot even tickle this rock! Go home and drink more milk, little spark! Maybe in a few thousand years you will grow strong enough to be useful. My sneeze could kill you if I was not trapped under this pebble!"

The insult hit Zylith like a physical blow. The sheer disrespect was intolerable. The air around her turned blindingly bright as she channeled her ultimate fury.

"Die you arrogant insect!" Zylith screamed.

She summoned a compressed spear of purple lightning and hurled it directly at Garrick's exposed head with the intent to instantly vaporize his skull. But it never reached him.

The moment the attack crossed a certain point, an invisible barrier flared to life. The mountain was actively protecting its prisoner. The sovereign’s lightning struck the barrier and was instantly absorbed into the stone without causing a single ripple of damage.

Zylith stood frozen. One of her ultimate attacks had been swallowed like a single drop of rain in the ocean. Garrick did not even blink. He just stared at her with a wide mocking grin. "Is that it? I told you to go drink more milk!"

Zylith was deeply humiliated. She knew she could not breach the mountain and she certainly could not kill the man beneath it. She let out a furious snort of disgust spun around and shot back up into the stormy sky, vanishing into the dark clouds as quickly as she had arrived.

The clouds slowly parted and the bright morning sun returned to the plains.

The battered and bruised crowd slowly walked back toward the mountain groaning and cursing the Lightning Demon Lord under their breath. They began to rapidly reform the massive line desperate to try their luck again.

Morven cracked his knuckles and took a heavy step forward.

"Right," Morven declared. "The crowd is out of the way. I will go touch this rock and claim the noisy beetle."

He intended to simply walk past the reforming crowd and take his place at the front. He was a Lord of the realm and had no intention of standing behind others, just like Zylith. Before he could take a second step Malos reached out and firmly grabbed his arm.

"Wait" Malos said with a completely serious expression.

Morven stopped and looked down at Malos in confusion. "Wait for what?"

"You must wait in line," Malos instructed while pointing toward the end of the massive queue of dusty cultivators. "You are a Sovereign. You should set a good example for the people by following the established social order."

Morven stared at Malos as if the man had suddenly lost his mind. "I am a Demon Lord. I do not wait in lines. Besides, the social order of this realm is to NOT wait in line."

"You make a good point but that doesn’t mean it’s right! When was the last time you waited in line for anything?" Malos asked, tilting his head curiously.

Morven paused. He furrowed his heavy brow and searched through thousands of years of ancient memories. He thought about grand banquets, royal processions and apocalyptic wars.

"Three thousand years ago?" Morven guessed, sounding incredibly unsure.

“Today, you are going to wait once again." Malos smiled.

Morven grumbled a deep and dangerous sound in the back of his throat. He looked at the massive snaking line of minor cultivators and merchants. He looked at his three elite generals who were suddenly avoiding eye contact.

"Fine," Morven sighed heavily and was admitting defeat. Malos had helped them in the earlier battle after all and waiting wasn’t that bad. "We will wait."

The group walked to the very back of the line. The towering Sovereign who could split the sky with a single swing of his trident was standing patiently behind a very nervous merchant. Malos stood beside him with a serene smile while Li Yu enjoyed the comedy of the situation. The three generals stood stiffly in place and were also looking entirely out of their element.

They waited but they were chatting and actually having a decent time of it. Malos was telling grand stories that no one knew were made up or not but were enjoyable to listen to. The minutes ticked by turning into an hour.

The line moved steadily as person after person walked up to the mountain, touched it and failed. Garrick continued his relentless stream of mockery, telling people they were too weak, too slow or too ugly to be the chosen one.

As the failures piled up, the whispers in the crowd began to change.

"This has to be a scam." A disappointed mercenary muttered as he walked past Li Yu in the opposite direction.

"It is just a talking beast playing a prank on us," another agreed. "There is no chosen one. It is just a rock."

The enthusiasm of the crowd was rapidly deflating. People were starting to think the entire spectacle was a massive waste of time.

Suddenly, the temperature on the plains skyrocketed. The bright morning sky took on a deep crimson hue. The grass around the front of the line instantly withered and turned to ash.

A wave of intense and suffocating heat washed over the crowd. Sovereign Ignis descended from the red sky. She was surrounded by a halo of sovereign flames and her dark armor glowed like molten iron.

She was in a terrible rush. She had heard the rumors of the trapped beast and wanted to claim it immediately. However, Asha was also with her, being carried by a general.

‘Asha must have begged her mother to let her come and see the event.’ Li Yu thought to himself with a smile.

Ignis landed directly at the front of the mountain and completely bypassed the line. In her fiery rush, she did not even look back at the thousands of people standing behind her. She walked straight up to the mountain and slapped her gauntleted hand against the dark stone.

Nothing happened.

Ignis narrowed her fiery eyes. She hated being ignored. She summoned a towering pillar of flames from her palms and was intending to completely melt the mountain into slag and free the beast by force. The flames engulfed the entire stone monolith burning with enough heat to incinerate a city.

When the flames died down, the mountain stood perfectly intact without a single scorch mark.

"Is that a campfire?" Garrick mocked from the bottom loudly inhaling the smoky air. "I was getting a little chilly down here. Thanks for the warmth, lady!"

Ignis bared her teeth and raised both hands preparing to unleash her ultimate technique. Standing about 500 people back in the queue, Morven finally lost his limited patience.

"Ignis! My love." Morven roared, his voice booming over the heads of the crowd. "Stop wasting your Qi and move out of the way! You are holding up the line!"

Ignis stopped channeling her flames. She turned around with a look of fury, ready to incinerate whoever dared yell at her. She looked past the massive crowd. And standing right in the middle of a group of sweating, terrified merchants and minor cultivators was Sovereign Morven, Malos, Li Yu and the three elite generals.

Ignis blinked in confusion. "Morven? What in the world are you doing back there?"

The moment Ignis said his name out loud the massive crowd froze. The merchants standing directly in front of Morven slowly turned his head and looked up at the towering man he had been ignoring for the last hour. The entire crowd suddenly realized they had accidentally made him wait.

Panic ensued.

The line instantly parted like a retreating tide. Men and women scrambled desperately to get out of the way, diving into the grass or pushing into the surrounding crowds. Within five seconds a wide open perfectly clear path was formed directly from Morven to the front of the mountain. Everyone was far too terrified to stand in front of him for a single second longer.

Malos sighed and shook his head in deep disappointment.

"You completely ruined the authentic queuing experience of Morven." Malos scolded while adjusting his robes. "We were doing so well."

Morven simply rolled his eyes and stepped forward into the cleared path. "The line is gone. It is our turn."

Li Yu chuckled and followed the Demon Lords as they walked up the open path, the weight of destiny hanging heavily in the warm air as they finally approached the trapped Garrick.