Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Zhan Tielan stood upon the prow of her personal command vessel with her hair whipping behind her in a gale of her own making. In her hands, she gripped the handle of Doom Cracker, a grand war hammer. It was a weapon devoid of sharp edges, clearly made for pure physical law. For a body refiner of the Zhan Clan, a blade was a finesse they didn't require. They didn't need to cut through the enemy when they could simply erase them.

A cluster of heavy spirit vessels from the Fiend Sovereign Armada attempted to intercept her path. They formed a defensive array as their hulls glowed with protective runes.

Tielan didn't even slow down. She stepped off the prow of her ship with her boots cracking the reinforced timber. She launched herself into the distance.

"Out of my way!" She muttered just to herself.

She swung the hammer. There was no flash of light or elemental roar. There was only an absence of sound as the hammer struck the lead ship’s defensive barrier. The barrier didn't shatter; it disintegrated. The force traveled through the ship’s hull and quickly turned the wood and metal into fine gray dust. The shockwave continued and rippled through the remaining five ships in the formation. Just as quickly as they had come, they collapsed as if they were made of parchment.

She landed on the debris of a shattered deck and her gaze was still cold. She swung again, a horizontal sweep that sent a physical ripple through the void. It caught a squad of armored commanders. They were flattened into pancakes of flesh and metal before they could even scream.

‘I might have overdone it this time.’ She thought as she watched a third division of the enemy break and flee in terror. ‘The group assembled here is quite something. Even I am surprised by how many people have come and the actual quality of their power.’

But the thought was quickly followed by a sense of relief. The overwhelming brutality of this assault was a perfect shroud. Amidst the slaughter, the collapse of entire armies and the presence of all these powers, no one was looking for a single young man in the center of the formation. Li Yu was a ghost in this hurricane and was protected by the very chaos his mother was sowing.

However, even as she laid waste to the Fiend Sovereign’s elite, her analytical mind remained troubled.

She turned her head, her divine sense sweeping across the battlefield to the front and rear. She was well acquainted with Lian’s Veiled Lotus. She had seen them before. It was also in secret but she had at least met them. But the other two?

To the front, the Leviathan Smashing Vanguard was moving with a savagery that made her own clan look restrained. She watched a leviathan snap his jaws around the midsection of a ship. The reinforced ship snapping like dry twigs. To the rear, the Golden Shell Phalanx sat like an immovable god. Their shields reflected the enemy’s most powerful array attacks as if they were harmless sunlight.

‘Who are they? I only know the name of their legions because VoidClaw told me.’ Tielan wondered as her hammer came down to crush another interceptor.

They fought with the coordination of a single mind. They possessed power that rivaled her own clan’s main branch, yet they had no heraldry she recognized. The only other person she could think of was that they were following VoidClaw but even for a being of his stature, this was unlikely. To hide two entire legions of this caliber in the shadows for who knows how long without someone noticing was impressive.

‘It is as if they appeared from nowhere.’ She mused as she leapt toward a cluster of enemy bunkers. ‘VoidClaw... what have you been doing all these years? Why did you volunteer to protect my son and why do you seem so close to him?’

In the heart of the allied formation, the central flagship moved through the devastation with an eerie and protected silence.

Li Yu was mixed in with a crowd of people that were reporting to Khaos and it seemed like that couldn’t tell he was there at all. Li Yu let everyone go about their business as well. His hands gripped the polished wood so hard his knuckles were white. He was a cultivator of the Divine Transformation realm, a level that made him a king in Silkwood and a powerhouse in many places. But here?

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He watched a beam of light from the Nebula Scythe Vanguard strike the Golden Shell Phalanx. The resulting explosion of energy was so vast it would have vaporized the entire Hive Empire in a heartbeat. No, it would have taken out the entire realm. And yet, the defensive formation didn't even flicker.

He watched the Leviathan Vanguard generals move through the enemy fleets, their every gesture causing space to fold and scream. He felt small. Very small. Not just physically but conceptually. He felt like he wasn’t even a piece of dust anymore. He wasn’t even significant enough to be considered that.

"It is quite a sight, is it not?"

Khaos was now back standing next to him. Not only was he giving commands to people and dealing with the situation. He was also keeping an eye on Li Yu. The warrior now wasn’t looking at the battle; he looked at Li Yu. Khaos’s presence was a pillar of stability in the middle of the cosmic storm.

"I can't even imagine it," Li Yu managed to say. He was overwhelmed by what he was witnessing. "I thought I was getting strong, Khaos. I thought I was finally becoming someone who could protect what he cared about. But this... I couldn't even stand in the wake of one of those ships."

Khaos leaned against the railing and his eyes reflected the distant fires of dying vessels. "You will reach this level one day, Li Yu. And you will surpass it."

Li Yu let out a hollow laugh. "Surpass this? I don't think I have enough lifetimes for that. I just wanted to protect those and things that I cared about, Khaos. I wanted to grow radishes and heal a few sick bugs. I wanted to enjoy the sun."

Khaos turned to him and his expression was uncharacteristically solemn. "Then you must become stronger than everyone you see out there. Do you understand why?"

Li Yu shook his head slowly.

"Because peace is the most expensive commodity in the cosmos," Khaos said. His voice carried a weight that Li Yu felt in his very marrow.

"To live a life where you don't have to worry, where you can enjoy the simple act such as watching a seed sprout, requires a foundation of absolute power. If you are weak, your peace is a gift given by the strong. A gift that can be revoked at any moment. To truly own your life, you must be the giant that ensures the sky does not fall upon it."

He gestured toward the distant fleets. The Li Clan, the Zhan Clan, his own legion, the Veiled Lotus and the two mysterious Vanguards.

"Look at them closely. Really look at them." Khaos commanded. "They are the giants shouldering the sky for you right now. For everyone. They are the reason you could live the way you have been living. They allow you to spend months in Silkwood without a care.”

Li Yu's gaze swept across all the forces once again. As he was slowly moving his head, Khaos continued.

“They are fighting for all that you know. For all of the things you hold dear. Holding back the dark so that the billions below can live their 'simple' lives. While you can’t do anything about it now, I want you to also understand that you need to reach this level in order to achieve your goals."

Li Yu continued to look. He saw the Fiend Sovereign Armada being crushed. He realized that the quiet life he cherished was a bubble protected by an ocean of blood and sacrifice he had never known existed.

"I feel truly insignificant," Li Yu admitted. "How can I even affect anything here? You brought me to save people but I'm just... I'm a grain of sand in a desert."

Khaos placed a hand on Li Yu’s shoulder. The touch was grounding. It pulled Li Yu back from the brink of existential despair.

"It is okay to feel small, Li Yu. The cosmos is vast. But never mistake size for significance. A single grain of sand in the right place can stop the largest machine. You have your own path and part to play in all of it. Follow your heart as you always have and walk your path with resolve."

Khaos looked toward the front of the armada where the light was beginning to change.

"There is always another giant to shoulder the sky," Khaos said softly. "You just need time to grow into your own strength. And time is exactly what we are fighting for today."

Li Yu took a deep breath and was trying to steady his racing heart. He looked at the chaos, the destruction and the sheer majesty of the high level cultivators. He didn't understand his place in it yet but the awe was slowly being replaced by a cold and sharp determination. He would grow. He would become one of these giants one day and earn his peace.

The ships began to slow. The chaotic heat of the battle started to fade and was replaced by a chilling and unnatural stillness that made the hair on Li Yu’s neck stand up. The debris of the Fiend Sovereign rearguard was behind them. Ahead, the void was no longer empty.

A massive and shimmering bubble of distorted light hung in the darkness. Within the bubble, the space was blurred. It was as if looking through thick and rippling water. Li Yu could see the faint and frozen silhouettes of thousands of ships, men, women and all other kinds of cultivators and war beasts within.

They were approaching the Temporal Dao Stone bubble. The graveyard that would be Li Cangha’s army final resting place. Li Yu felt the Koi Soul begin to stir, its scales pulsing with a rhythm that matched the distortion of the bubble ahead. His real mission was about to begin.