Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The next few days of travel were uneventful. Li Yu worked his way steadily across the arid plains and was heading toward the true borders of the Ant Empire. The harsh winds and the rust colored dust eventually gave way to softer terrain as he entered a lush valley nestled between two towering mountain ridges.

He found a slow moving stream cutting through the center of the valley. The water was crystal clear and teemed with small silver scaled fish.

Li Yu decided to take a break from walking. He found a comfortable spot on a flat river rock and cast a simple fishing line into the water. He did not use a physical hook or bait. He simply condensed a tiny thread of his own Qi and let it drift in the current and was waiting for a fish to bite. It was time to practice his craft a bit so he could have a rematch with his Fisherman Soul.

The three suns beat down on the valley and were providing a deep comforting warmth. The gentle babbling of the stream and the rustling of the green canopy above created a serene atmosphere. Li Yu closed his eyes and let his breathing synchronize with the natural rhythm of the water.

Then the rhythm broke.

Li Yu did not hear a twig snap or a leaf rustle. He simply felt a sudden and violent disruption in the Qi of the valley. His predatory instincts flared, screaming at him to move. He dropped his fishing pole and triggered his Void laws instantly.

He vanished from the river rock just a fraction of a second before a massive barrage of lethal attacks struck the exact spot he had been sitting.

Four shadow webs dropped from the thick canopy above and slammed into the stone with enough force to shatter the rock into powder. At the exact same moment, the ground near the riverbank erupted. Several streams of concentrated green acid shot through the air and melted the remaining fragments of the rock into a bubbling toxic puddle.

Li Yu reappeared fifty feet away and was hovering in the air above the stream.

He looked down at the riverbank and saw his attackers stepping out from the shadows and the disturbed earth. There were twelve figures in total. They wore no faction colors and bore no standard empire insignias. They were dressed in functional dark leather and segmented bone armor.

They were a mix of terrifying insectoid integrations. Half of them possessed the multiple erratic limbs and the clustered eyes of spiders. The other half possessed the long segmented bodies and the massive dripping mandibles of centipedes.

They did not speak a single word to Li Yu. They did not demand a storage ring or announce a blood feud. They simply locked their cold predatory eyes onto Li Yu and shifted their stances to attack again.

Li Yu scanned the group rapidly and was assessing the threat level.

The power was staggering. Four of the assassins radiated the heavy oppressive Qi of the Soul Transformation realm. They were a full major realm above Li Yu. Four others were at the peak of the Divine Transformation realm. The remaining four were in the Soul Formation realm serving as support and flankers.

Under normal circumstances a cultivator at the fourth level of Divine Transformation would be instantly crushed by four Soul Transformation experts. The gap in power and Qi density was a massive chasm.

But Li Yu was not a normal cultivator. Since they attacked right away Li Yu did not waste his breath asking them who they were. They wanted to kill him and that was all the information he needed.

Li Yu raised his hands and unleashed his soul domain.

The opalescent ocean flooded the river valley and was expanding outward in a massive shimmering dome. The spiritual water instantly crashed down upon the twelve assassins. The crushing weight of the soul forced the weaker Soul Formation fighters directly onto their knees.

But Li Yu did not just rely on that. He willed his new insights into the projected water. A faint gray and purple tint swirled through the shifting colors of the domain.

The Destruction laws activated. The corrosion effect began to aggressively eat away at the protective Qi barriers the assassins had around them. Their bone armor started to hiss and began decaying under the insidious power.

Li Yu then reached into his Ocean of Qi. He needed a frontline bruiser to match the numerical advantage. He called upon his companion that he had not truly used since meeting. Muddy materialized on the riverbank. The water buffalo soul was no longer just an ethereal projection. It possessed a solid physical presence. Its hide shimmered and its massive curved horns looked capable of piercing a mountain.

Muddy let out a low and resonant snort that shook the trees. The creature possessed its own deep intelligence. It lowered its heavy head and scraped its front hoof against the dirt and was locking its large dark eyes onto the four Soul Transformation leaders. They could communicate to each other instantly and Muddy was already a seasoned fighter.

Li Yu was not finished. The space right beside him rippled and his unified Sentry Clone stepped out into the physical world. The clone possessed ashen gray skin and chaotic purple eyes. It was now also radiating an aura of decay.

The battle lines were drawn in an instant.

‘Clear the weak ones first.’ Li Yu commanded.

The Sentry Clone shot forward like a gray blur. It bypassed the Soul Transformation leaders and dived directly into the group of struggling flankers. The clone did not use any weapons. It channeled Destruction laws through its fists.

It struck a Soul Formation spider in the chest. The gray energy instantly destroyed the spider's sternum and expanded inwardly. It decayed its heart and killed it. The clone pivoted and was weaving through a spray of venom needles. It grabbed a centipede assassin by the throat. The corrosion melted the centipede's head right off its segmented neck. It was brutal, heartless and effective.

In a matter of seconds the Sentry Clone slaughtered three of the Soul Formation assassins and brutally crushed the skull of one Divine Transformation fighter who tried to intercept it. On the other side of the riverbank Li Yu initiated his own culling.

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He created dozens of Abyssal Javelins into the air. The remaining one Soul Formation and three Divine Transformation assassins charged at him trying to overwhelm him with numbers. A spider assassin leaped into the air and was spitting a barrage of sticky shadow webs.

Li Yu stepped right through the physical space between the webs. He appeared directly above the spider. A javelin struck the assassin and disappeared from this world. The three Divine Transformation centipedes tried to attack him from below.

Li Yu slammed his boot down into the air. His Soul Domain activated and they were immediately slowed down. Their souls aching in pain and their heads disorientated. While they were paralyzed, Li Yu kept going. He formed a blade of Void Qi over his hand and cleanly decapitated all three of them in a single fluid sweeping motion. He had taken inspiration from Muten but thought that the claw was a bit much and changed it to a blade.

The eight weaker assassins were dead.

Now only the true threats remained. The four Soul Transformation experts had been stalled out by Muddy during this time. Two centipedes and two multi-limbed spiders turned their full killing intent toward Li Yu.

Muddy once again charged forward with the unstoppable momentum of a tidal wave. The ground trembled beneath its heavy hooves. One of the Soul Transformation centipedes met the charge. The assassin expanded its segmented body and revealed dozens of razor sharp scythe-like limbs. It tried to coil around Muddy to deliver a lethal bite with its dripping mandibles.

Muddy was more than just brute force. It created a dense sphere of water Qi right around the centipede's head. The laws of pressure and crushing depth forced its mandibles shut.

Muddy then slammed its massive horns directly into the centipede's exposed underbelly, pinning the long creature to the bedrock of the valley.

Li Yu used a Void Step to appear directly above the pinned centipede. The assassin was a full realm above him so its physical defense was incredibly dense. Li Yu channeled his Void laws into the staff. He then willed a heavy dose of Destruction Qi to coat the striking end. He brought the staff down like a meteor.

The gray Destruction Qi instantly decayed and eroded the defensive barrier of the centipede. The physical weight of the Star Crusher smashed through the decaying barrier and shattered the centipede's armored shell. The strike crushed the assassin's head and spine in a single devastating blow. From within Li Yu’s body, the Koi Soul sucked in and destroyed its soul, the final nail in the coffin.

Muddy pulled its horns free and let out a victorious snort. The first Soul Transformation expert was dead. But the remaining three assassins escalated their tactics. They realized the human and his helpers were incredibly lethal despite their lower cultivation.

The two spider assassins worked in tandem. They opened their mandibles and unleashed a massive wave of shadow webs. The webs were not meant to bind. They were infused with sharp Qi designed to slice the entire valley into pieces. The threads crisscrossed across the domain and quickly formed an inescapable grid.

The remaining centipede assassin utilized the distraction. It spat a torrent of concentrated green acid that began to rapidly melt through Li Yu's opalescent water. Li Yu felt the immense pressure bearing down on his foundation. Fighting three Soul Transformation experts simultaneously was pushing his body and Qi to their absolute breaking point.

He dismissed the Sentry Clone as he couldn’t keep it going under their attacks. He absorbed its lingering Qi back into his body to replenish his reserves. He sent a mental command to Muddy, ordering the water buffalo to run interference and distract the centipede.

Li Yu gripped the Star Crusher with both hands. He could not dodge the massive grid of shadow webs so he decided to break it. He poured his Destruction laws into his opalescent domain. The gray tint darkened into a thick, churning ash. He commanded the domain to violently corrode the incoming web grid.

The razor sharp shadow threads hissed and rusted as they entire its radius. They were beginning to snap apart in small areas just moments before they could slice him into ribbons. Li Yu used the small gaps created to dodge the net coming his way. Li Yu pushed through and charged directly at the first spider assassin.

The spider raised its multiple arms and quickly formed a thick shield of dark Qi. Li Yu did not try to bypass the shield. He swung the Star Crusher with every ounce of physical strength he possessed.

The gray Destruction Qi coating the staff melted the dark shield slightly on contact. The heavy weapon crashed through the failing defense and slammed directly into the side of the spider's head. The kinetic impact shattered the assassin's skull, spraying dark blood across the riverbank. The Koi Soul once again sucked in the soul, killing the assassin and preventing any kind of soul escape.

Two left.

Li Yu did not stop his momentum. He used the recoil of his swing to launch himself backward and dodged a lethal web attack. Muddy was currently locked in a brutal wrestling match with the centipede and was trying to drown the assassin in a sphere of dark water. The centipede was slowly overpowering the buffalo, its massive scythe limbs cutting deep into Muddy's form but the beast was relentless.

Li Yu utilized his Void laws one more time. He warped the space around his own body and folded the distance between himself and the centipede. He appeared directly behind the segmented creature.

Before the centipede could turn its head, Li Yu drove the Star Crusher directly into the weak joint between its armored plates which momentarily prevented the creature from moving its head. Li Yu formed another blade of Qi with his right hand and stabbed it in the opening that his staff had created.

The Qi exploded inside the centipede's body. The internal pressure combined with the destructive nature of his Qi blew the centipede entirely in half. The two severed pieces hit the ground and were twitching violently before going still. The Koi Soul claimed another soul in the process.

Muddy gave a low exhausted moo as its body fell down on the ground. The beast was a spent force having held the four off at the beginning and its fight just now. It dissolved and entered Li Yu’s body once more. It would take some time before it was fully healed and Li Yu could use it again in battle.

Only the final spider assassin remained.

The assassin looked at the slaughtered remains of its eleven comrades. It did not show fear or panic. It simply calculated that the mission was a failure and survival was the only logical option left. The spider turned its back and leaped toward the thick forest canopy. It was aiming to escape into the neutral zones.

"You do not get to leave!" Li Yu growled but his voice was ragged and breathless.

He gathered the very last dregs of his Qi. He gripped the Star Crusher and pulled his arm back like a javelin thrower. He aimed at the fleeing spider and infused the weapon with both Void and Destruction laws.

He hurled the staff with all that he had left.

The Star Crusher did not fly through the air normally. The Void laws warped the space around the weapon allowing it to bypass the physical distance in a single heartbeat. It appeared directly in front of the fleeing spider, its trajectory impossible to dodge.

The heavy staff slammed into the center of the spider's back. The Destruction Qi violently erased the assassin's defensive aura and the weight of the weapon drove the spider out of the sky. The assassin crashed into the ground with staff pinning its broken body firmly to the dirt.

The spider twitched once and died. The quiet serenity of the river valley slowly returned. The sound of the babbling stream replaced the deafening echoes of combat. Li Yu stood alone amidst the twelve mangled corpses. He retracted his opalescent domain.

He took a single step forward and his legs gave out completely. He dropped heavily onto one knee and was gasping for air. His lungs burned and his meridians ached with a deep throbbing pain. Sweat poured down his face mixing with the dirt and the stray drops of alien blood. He quickly took out some Qi restoring pills to regain some strength.

He had killed twelve elite assassins including four who were a full major realm above him. It was a staggering martial achievement but the physical and mental toll was immense. After taking the pills he leaned heavily on his hands and was staring at the clear water of the stream. He was trying to remember how to breathe.