Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Li Yu traveled for another full week. He was traversing the deep jagged canyons and descending into a sprawling depression in the earth known as the Blacksand Basin.

The Basin was a major central trading hub for the Aegis Legion. Unlike the brutal military fortifications of the border cities, this area was dedicated entirely to commerce and resource refinement. The ground was covered in a thick layer of coarse black sand that absorbed the intense heat of the three suns. The sand then radiated a comforting warmth through the soles of his boots.

Massive refineries built from dark stone and iron pumped thick white smoke into the sky. They were processing the raw mineral ores harvested from the deeper underground territories. The air tasted of sulfur and hot metal.

Li Yu secured a quiet room in a sturdy stone inn near the center of the Basin. He spent his first two days exploring the local markets, adding a few rare underground spiritual herbs to his spatial ring and observing the shifting dynamics of the newly conquered empire.

It did not take long for the grand political theater to reach the trading hub.

Just a little over a week after he officially seized the throne, King Venrik proved he was not a shy ruler. He did not hide behind the high walls of his royal palace to quietly consolidate his stolen power. Instead, the usurper decided to announce his supreme authority to the entire realm.

Heralds clad in dark spider silk and crimson chitin rode through the wide streets of the Blacksand Basin. They utilized powerful sound talismans to broadcast the royal decree to the masses.

King Venrik was hosting a grand coronation banquet. He officially invited the supreme rulers of the other three great empires to attend his ascension ceremony in the capital. He was inviting the entire realm to witness his crowning moment.

The audacity of the invitation was a major topic of conversation in the local taverns and teahouses. Such was the way of the cultivation world. Power dictated truth. Venrik had stolen the throne through treachery and deceit but he now held the supreme seat of the Aegis Legion. He demanded to be recognized as an equal by his peers.

Li Yu sat on the open air balcony of his stone inn and was looking out over the busy black sand streets.

He tapped his fingers against the wooden railing and thought about going to the capital to see what kind of festivities a usurper would hold. He possessed the honored guest token from Emperor Xerxis and he had received an open verbal invitation from the Moth Queen via Lord Moros. If he showed up at the banquet, he could likely leverage those things to secure a prime viewing spot.

It would be a fascinating opportunity to observe. But his pragmatic nature quickly crushed the fleeting temptation. Someone of his actual stature had no business being anywhere near a gathering of Domain Kings. He was just a cultivator at the fourth level of Divine Transformation. He did not have a true seat at the table.

Relying on a precarious web of misunderstandings was a lethal game. If Xerxis or the Moth Queen realized he was just a lone boy traveling without supreme protectors, the illusion would shatter instantly. He would be exposed in a room filled with the most ruthless predators in the realm.

He did not want to push his luck. He was simply too weak to navigate a room full of supreme rulers. He decided he would stay far away from the royal capital and remain in the quiet anonymity of the Blacksand Basin.

The realm waited with bated breath to see how the other Domain Kings would respond to the bold invitation. They did not have to wait long.

To the immense surprise of the general populace, the first response was a brutal public rejection. The Moth Queen, the supreme ruler of the Eclipse Court, announced her decision through her own network of heralds and spies.

The declaration was posted on the major bounty boards and public squares of the Blacksand Basin. Li Yu read the transcript while buying a skewer of roasted meat in the market.

The Moth Queen stated she would not attend the coronation. She publicly denounced Venrik, calling him an untrustworthy and treacherous snake. She explicitly warned the other rulers that the banquet was most likely a massive trap designed to capture them, just as Venrik had captured his own sister.

The public rejection was a massive slap to the face of the new King. It stripped away the thin veil of royal courtesy and exposed the deep distrust festering between the empires. The dominoes fell rapidly after the Moth Queen made her stance known.

The very next day the Fly King, the elusive ruler of the Aether Swarm issued a brief statement declining the invitation. He offered no grand insults or warnings. He simply stated he had more pressing matters to attend to within his own borders.

Two days later Emperor Xerxis delivered the final crushing blow.

The ruler of the Hive Empire did not even bother sending a formal diplomatic envoy. He simply ordered his border guards to turn Venrik’s royal messengers away at the gates and telling them the Emperor of the Hive did not share wine with oath breakers and thieves. An odd thing for Xerxis to say, Li Yu thought to himself when he heard it.

The entire realm was shocked.

The three supreme rulers had completely isolated the new King and gave him absolutely no face on the global stage.

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The taverns in the Blacksand Basin buzzed with frantic and energetic gossip. The citizens were divided on the reasoning behind the political snub.

"It makes perfect sense." A veteran mercenary argued, slamming his fist onto a stone table. "Venrik got to the throne by scheming and trapping his own blood. He used a supreme earth treasure to drain a Domain King dry. Why would the other rulers not think he is scheming against them as well? Walking into his capital is asking to be put in chains."

"You are giving them too much credit." A cynical ore refiner countered while taking a deep drink of his ale. "They are not making a moral stand. They are scared of him. Venrik pulled off the greatest coup in a thousand years. He outsmarted everyone. The other Domain Kings are terrified that he possesses more traps and hidden weapons. They are staying home because they fear his intellect."

Li Yu sat at his table and continued listening to the debates. Either way, the result was the same. They were not coming. The grand coronation banquet was going to be missing the three most important people in the realm besides himself.

Li Yu took a sip of his drink and wondered what Venrik would do next. From his declarations the usurper seemed like a proud and arrogant man. However, his victory over his adopted sister showed he was also a smart and cunning man. Now this man, who had just achieved his ultimate ambition, was now being publicly humiliated by the very peers he sought to join.

A man like that would not simply sit on his new throne and accept the insult. He would do something, maybe not now but eventually. The answer came three days later, shaking the foundations of the realm once again.

The heralds rode through the Blacksand Basin, their sound talismans blaring with a new dark decree. King Venrik officially declared war on the Eclipse Court.

The decree was ruthless and deeply personal. Venrik announced that since the Moth Queen was the first ruler to publicly reject him and slander his name, he would direct his full military might to attack and destroy her empire first.

The decree ended with a chilling promise. Venrik swore he would drag the Moth Queen from her high perch and make her a concubine for his new royal court. The declaration set off a massive wave of panic across the trading hub.

The citizens of the Aegis Legion had barely recovered from the internal coup and now they were being plunged directly into another major conflict in such an incredibly short time. The war drums were beating before the blood from the rebellion had even dried.

The sheer foolishness of the declaration was the main topic of conversation among the seasoned merchants and veteran guards in the Blacksand Basin.

"He has gone mad with power." A wealthy beetle merchant whispered his compound eyes wide with sheer disbelief. "This is martial suicide. He is leading us into a slaughter."

"The Eclipse Court was ranked number one in the grand tournament for a reason." A retired ant captain agreed. "The Moth Empire is vastly stronger than the Aegis Legion as a whole. And that was before the Queen was taken out and our own armies were battered during the coup. We are a fractured and weakened force right now."

Li Yu listened to the veteran captain and analyzed the military logistics in his head.

The assessment was entirely correct when looking at it from the surface. The Aegis Legion had just survived a massive civil war. Countless elite loyalist generals had been purged or killed along with their troops. The capital was still recovering from the violent transition of power.

To declare war on the unified elite forces of the Moth Empire in this current state seemed like the frantic flailing of an insulted child. It defied all pragmatic logic. But Li Yu remembered his own internal observation from just a few weeks ago.

Venrik was a brilliant patient schemer. He orchestrated a who knows how long plot to capture his sister without fighting a direct grueling war. He used misdirection decoys and supreme patience to achieve his goals.

A man with that level of cunning did not suddenly throw away his intellect because his feelings were hurt. He did not launch a suicidal war against a superior enemy out of blind rage.

Li Yu stared into his ceramic cup as his mind was racing.

‘If Venrik was declaring war it meant he believed he could win. It meant the usurper possessed a hidden trump card that the rest of the realm did not know about. But if I can think of that, others will think of that too. Or perhaps that is what he wants them to think? I have no idea.’ Li Yu thought.

Perhaps it was the underground army of rogue insectoids he had amassed in the neutral zones. Perhaps he had discovered a way to weaponize the special rock that drained his sister, turning it into an offensive weapon. Or perhaps he had struck a dark secret alliance with another faction in the shadows.

Whatever the reason, the realm was about to burn once more.

The Blacksand Basin shifted into a frantic state of high alert. The ore refineries doubled their output, churning out raw iron and steel for weapons and armor. Military recruiters set up booths in the market plazas and were conscripting rogue cultivators and mercenaries with promises of vast wealth and high grade resources. The price of healing pills and travel rations skyrocketed over night.

Li Yu walked through the bustling and now chaotic streets feeling the oppressive weight of the impending war pressing down on the city. He needed to make a decision.

He was currently deep inside the territory of the Aegis Legion, the empire that was initiating the aggression. If he stayed here, he risked being caught in massive draft sweeps or caught in the crossfire of retaliatory strikes from the elite moth assassins.

He had no desire to fight for Venrik and he had no desire to fight against the Eclipse Court. He returned to his stone inn and began packing. He paid his final tab with the innkeeper and stepped out into the black sand streets.

He decided he needed to get out of here. He wanted to find a quiet and isolated region to digest his recent combat experiences and temper his laws without the constant threat of political violence hovering over his head.

As he walked toward the western gates of the Blacksand Basin, he saw an army. A battalion of Venrik’s new royal army was flying and heading toward the Moth Empire border. The soldiers were a terrifying mix of massive spiders, venomous scorpions and the remaining heavy ant infantry. They carried towering black banners depicting a jagged spider web wrapping around a crushed crown.

Li Yu stood in the shadow of a tall refinery building and watched the army fly past. He felt a deep sense of detachment. The grand ambitions of Domain Kings, the pride of emperors and the endless cycles of war seemed incredibly hollow when viewed from the outside. They fought for land, resources and face but in the end they all bled all the same into the dirt.

He turned away from the marching army and slipped through the gates. He was leaving the Blacksand Basin behind. He walked out into the arid rolling plains and let the harsh wind wash over him.

The realm was plunging into chaos but Li Yu was simply going to keep walking and not get caught up in it. He would let the Domain Kings play their deadly games of pride and conquest while he focused on his own cultivation.