Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Before Muten could say another word, one of the heavily armored guards stepped forward.

The guard was a tall fierce looking man with piercing eyes and a rigid posture. His name was Zarek. He radiated a cold and intense loyalty to the young master. He also clearly had zero patience for vagrants.

"Get lost and do not block the young master's path!" Zarek ordered, his voice sharp and aggressive. He rested a hand on the hilt of his sword and was ready to draw it at the slightest provocation.

Muten raised a single hand. "Stand down Zarek. There is no need to be so harsh. They are just two lost travelers after all."

While Muten was certainly arrogant and carried himself with supreme superiority, he was not inherently cruel or aggressive like his guard. He evaluated situations with cold logic rather than hot temper.

Li Yu ignored the hostile guard and offered a polite smile to the young leader.

"Could you point us toward the nearest city?" Li Yu asked. "We are completely unfamiliar with this region and we need to get our bearings."

"We are heading to the city right now." Muten replied while casually adjusting his dark robes. "I am traveling there to attend an academy. The roads in this region are quite dangerous for wandering cultivators. You may come along with us if you want. It would be for your own safety."

Muten narrowed his sharp eyes. "But I will absolutely not have you slowing me down. If you fall behind we will leave you."

"We gladly accept. Thank you for your kindness and understanding." Li Yu smiled back and found the young man's blunt honesty somewhat refreshing. "We will keep up."

The entourage resumed their march down the wide dirt road. Li Yu and Garrick fell into step slightly behind the luxurious carriage. One of the other armored guards leaned in close to Muten. "That large man is an incredibly strong person, young master. I cannot read his cultivation depth at all."

"I know," Muten replied back. He kept a low and even volume. "Those two are not simple at all. But you are looking at the wrong one. The large man is strong but the young one is the true anomaly. I have met others like Garrick before but Li Yu… I have never seen it before."

The four guards glanced back at Li Yu who was currently looking up at the glowing flora in the trees with wide and curious eyes.

"He is quite weak right now." Muten analyzed. His genius level intellect broke down Li Yu's foundation with a few glances and scans. "But for his age, his foundation is completely unthinkable. If we were the exact same age right now he would easily beat me."

The four guards stumbled slightly in their march at those words. They looked at Muten in stunned disbelief. Muten was the absolute and greatest prodigy their clan had ever produced in all their years. He was an unmatched genius at cultivation, strategy and fighting.

Unmatchable at the same cultivation level, no, unmatchable even within the same cultivation realm. He was always ahead of his peers. Hearing him openly admit that a random vagrant possessed a stronger foundation at that age was completely realm shattering to them.

"I do not understand it either," Muten admitted softly while shaking his head. This was the real reason he allowed them to tag along. He wanted to see if he could get some clues on how Li Yu was so powerful. "But the density of his Qi and body does not lie."

As the journey continued down the wide road, Li Yu quickly proved to be the most annoying travel companion Muten had ever experienced.

They passed through several small roadside settlements and trading posts. At every single opportunity Li Yu stopped. He walked up to every food stall and merchant cart along the road to buy roasted meats, strange glowing fruits and warm spiced drinks. He walked at an incredibly leisurely pace and was entirely focused on being a tourist in this new realm.

While Li Yu was fast enough to catch back up and technically never slowed the carriage down, his constant detours deeply annoyed Muten.

Muten saw absolutely no value in such mundane things. He had been raised from birth knowing that he would one day become the clan leader and shoulder the fate of millions. He took everything incredibly seriously and rarely had the time or the desire to do things purely for fun. Every action needed a purpose. Every breath needed to serve his cultivation.

"Why do you insist on eating that garbage?" Muten finally asked as he poked his head out from within the carriage. Li Yu was jogging back to the group and holding several large skewers of grilled meat. "It has absolutely no good spiritual energy value. It does not help your cultivation at all."

"It tastes good," Li Yu answered honestly and offered a piece to the young prodigy. "You should try it. Not everything has to be about cultivation, Muten. Sometimes you just need to enjoy the flavor of life."

Muten scoffed and rejected the offer. But Li Yu was incredibly persistent. Over the next several hours Li Yu slowly wore the rigid Muten down. Never before had Muten put up with such things in his life. The only reason Li Yu wasn’t already kicked away was because Muten hoped to gain insights on cultivation from Li Yu.

Li Yu constantly offered drinks and snacks. He kept talking casually about the different spices and textures. Muten rejected him most of the time but he eventually agreed to try a few things just to make Li Yu stop asking. He was hoping that if Li Yu got over his obsession with food and drinks, they could discuss cultivation at some point.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

To Muten's private surprise, the warm spiced drinks did actually taste quite good. He was used to much grander things. He was fed with the highest quality meats and drinks that helped towards cultivation and often neglected favor. He didn’t even think he cared for favor.

Muten also noticed something else that deeply bothered him and confused him. He rarely, if ever, saw Li Yu actually cultivate. Whenever they stopped to rest, Li Yu would take a nap or look at the scenery. Muten on the other hand sat perfectly still and circulated his Qi constantly. He was always cultivating whenever possible.

Muten was already in a foul mood because of the travel arrangements. He was deeply annoyed that the academy made its students arrive by grounded carriage this way. He could have easily reached the city in a fraction of the time by taking one of the clan’s flying craft. The academy insisted it was part of the foundational training but Muten thought it was a complete waste of valuable time.

During one of these mandatory rests, Muten looked over at Li Yu who was happily eating a glowing blue apple.

"How do you expect to survive if you never cultivate?" Muten asked while shaking his head. He had never met someone like Li Yu before. His foundation was impossibly solid but he never seemed to cultivate at all. "Do you even know the path ahead of you?"

Li Yu swallowed his bite of apple and wiped his mouth. "Honestly, I do not. The realm I came from was quite isolated. I have mostly been continuing in the dark. Would you mind explaining the cultivation levels to me?"

Muten looked at Li Yu in genuine surprise. It was absurd to possess such a dense foundation without knowing the basic structural tiers of the universe.

"Very well." Muten sighed and decided to educate the ignorant traveler. "You are currently in the Divine Transformation realm. That is just the beginning of true power."

Muten held up his hand and began listing the tiers counting them off on his fingers.

"After Divine Transformation comes the Soul Transformation realm, where the soul gets refined further."

"Then comes Half King. Further unity between body and soul."

"Then the King realm. Final unity between body and soul." Unknown to Li Yu, as he never even asked the Demon Lords in the previous realms. The King realm was the realm that Ignis, Morven, Malos and the others were at.

"After King is the Law Seed realm, where laws begin to take the form of seeds and a budding domain begins to take shape."

"Then Law Integration. This is where the body begins to integrate laws into it."

"Then Domain King. This is where a person fully refines their own unique domain based on their understanding up to this point. It is not a technique but something natural."

"And finally Paragon. This is where you can begin to project out your own laws instead of just manipulating the laws of the world." Muten lowered his hand and his aura flared slightly with intense pride. "That is where I currently stand. Of course there is much more after that but there’s no point in you knowing that far ahead. Also, the names will change from realm to realm but they are more or less the same."

Li Yu looked at the young man and offered a sincere bow of gratitude. "Thank you for the lesson, Muten. Where I come from did not have this kind of information. I really have been entirely in the dark."

Zarek and the other guards puffed out their chests with pride.

"Our young master is the youngest ever Paragon in history!" Zarek bragged loudly with his eyes shining with loyalty and pride. "He is the greatest genius of our clan! Of this realm!"

The guards did not reveal Muten's actual age but their immense pride was completely obvious.

Muten remained silent but he subtly shifted his gaze toward the large man standing quietly behind Li Yu. Muten could not read Garrick's cultivation but his Paragon instincts screamed that the large man was beyond his own realm. Garrick was clearly stronger than a Paragon.

‘How can he not know these cultivation levels if his bodyguard or follower is beyond it? Is he just a guard and was told not to help him? What a strange pair…’ Muten thought to himself.

Muten noted this fact internally but he did not say it outright. Clearly Li Yu did not know just how powerful his own bodyguard truly was and Muten had no intention of revealing his hand. He did note that Garrick was also significantly older than himself so the gap in power made logical sense.

The rest period ended and they resumed their slow march down the dirt road. As the sun began to set and was casting long shadows across the landscape, Muten finally reached his limit with Li Yu's leisurely pace.

"Stop annoying me with all these mundane things." Muten declared and suddenly turned to face Li Yu. The young prodigy's eyes burned with a fierce competitive spirit. "I want to see how you handle yourself in a real fight. You have a dense foundation but I want to see your actual combat strength."

Muten crossed his arms. "Let us make a wager. If you can beat me in a spar I will be willing to try more of the mundane things you suggest and allow you to continue to annoy me. But if you lose, you will stop bothering me with your food and your sightseeing for the rest of the journey."

Li Yu smiled and was amused by the young prodigy's intense challenge. He could see that his style of travel did indeed clash heavily with the serious Muten.

"I agree to those terms." Li Yu nodded and began stepping forward into a clearing just off the side of the main road.

Zarek and the other guards immediately backed away and quickly formed a wide circle to observe the match. They were entirely confident that their young master would crush the ignorant vagrant within seconds. Garrick simply crossed his thick arms and leaned against a nearby tree and was waiting to see how the kid handled a true genius of this realm.

Muten dropped into a flawless combat stance. Dense, dark and purple Qi began to swirl around his hands and was bending the heavy space around his fingers.

Li Yu remained perfectly relaxed. He reached his right hand out to his side and channeled his internal energy. He opened a small connection to his Koi Sanctuary and called upon his primary weapon.

A flash of dark light materialized in his grip.

It was Star Crusher. The weapon radiated a deep and terrifying void energy that felt ancient and impossibly dense. The moment the staff appeared in the clearing, the atmosphere violently shifted.

Muten's calm and arrogant demeanor shattered instantly. His dark eyes widened in shock as he stared at the staff in Li Yu’s hand. Zarek and the three other guards immediately drew their weapons and their faces twisted into masks of unadulterated fury.

An overwhelming wave of terrifying killing intent erupted from the five clan members and it was entirely locked onto Li Yu.