Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The black dome was utterly silent, save for the ragged and uneven breathing of two of the cosmos’s most feared warriors.

Zhan Tielan and Li Canghai knelt before the bubble. The temporal anomaly shimmered with a cruel but beautiful light. It was casting warped reflections across their armor. Inside, Li Yu remained frozen as he fought an invisible and crushing ocean of accelerated time.

They had failed. The thought echoed in their minds. It was a jagged blade twisting in their chest. Zhan Tielan had spent centuries bathing in the blood of her enemies. She had forged a reputation as a demon of war as she ensured the horrors of the cosmos never reached the weaker realms.

Once she and Changhai were strong, they began to bear the burdens that came with it. However, amidst the storms and warfare they were able to find some years of peace. They decided to have a family but they knew they had countless enemies.

They made the decision to have their baby in some weak unknown realm. They raised him in a simple village and they themselves took a break. They lived as lowly mortals. The family never truly suffered but they didn’t live in extravagance either.

Their two clans also did not have the best relationship with one another. They made a small peace once they found out that the two had married in secret and being the power houses that they were, the clans swallowed any words to break them apart.

However, they did not want their baby to grow up within such an environment either. They remembered how they had to fight, scheme and protect themselves from such things as they grew up. They had protectors sure, but it didn’t mean they weren’t watching over their shoulders. The cultivation world was a cruel place.

That was why they ultimately settled on letting their son grow up away from that all. They would give him his birthright and the powers that came with that if he so chose later on in life. With their resources, it was almost never too late to begin cultivating if that was what he wanted.

Then disaster happened. The darkness had begun to return and the cosmos became chaotic. The realms needed giants to shoulder the sky. The clans asked for their return, to lead their personal forces and forces from the clan in order to help. They barely had 10 short years with the boy.

That was when they made the impossible and agonizing choice to leave their child behind. They bore the shame of absentee parents, rationalizing that their sacrifice bought his safety. That their work would allow him to grow up with the little peace the realms could give.

Yet, here he was. Trapped in a relic of certain death because he had come to save the father who had left him.

The Li Clan leader and the other blurred leaders stood at a respectful distance. They offered no platitudes. In the brutal reality of the cultivation world, empty comfort was an insult. They understood the crushing weight of duty.

Every leader in this sealed space had sacrificed pieces of their own souls and their own bloodlines to maintain the fragile peace of the realms. They understood the bitter irony that Canghai and Tielan were now facing. They had shouldered the sky, only for it to collapse directly onto their son anyways.

Through the heavy grief, Khaos remained a statue of dark robes and starry eyes. He had not moved a single muscle since the Dao Stone collapsed. He simply stared at the boy.

Minutes stretched into an hour. The supreme leaders began to silently communicate via divine sense, wondering how they were going to extract their forces and break the news to the rest of the cosmos. Break the news that the legendary Li Canghai had been saved from the Temporal Dao Stone but the war was far from over.

"Look," Khaos said.

His voice was quiet but it shattered the silence like a dropped anvil. Canghai’s head snapped up. Tielan wiped the mixture of blood and tears from her face as her eyes locked onto Khaos, then following his gaze back to the bubble.

"His right hand," Khaos instructed as his tone was entirely devoid of its usual detached calm. It carried a razor thin edge of focus. "The index finger."

Canghai pushed himself off the invisible floor and was leaning as close to the temporal barrier as he dared. He stared at his son’s frozen hand. At first, he saw nothing. The boy looked like a statue carved from light and agony. But then he saw it.

When the bubble had first collapsed, Li Yu’s index finger had been perfectly straight, aligned with the seam of his robe. Now, it was curved inward by the smallest fraction.

"He moved," Canghai breathed as his voice trembled with a desperate and terrifying surge of hope. "He is moving."

The other leaders stepped forward to look as well.

"That is impossible," the Li Clan Patriarch murmured. "The Temporal Dao Stone accelerates time within but the person is trapped and is immovable. There are countless texts from those that studied the first one before everyone inside was turned to… Anyways movement implies resistance. He is actively fighting the temporal laws?"

"It must be due to his soul and perhaps his physique? Could it be slowly devouring the pressure... but since time is so quick inside, it is actually…" Khaos began. "He is not frozen. He is just moving at a different flow of time relative to us. He might be able to escape this prison on his own given enough time."

Tielan let out a choked sob. "How long?" she asked while looking at Khaos.

"I do not know," Khaos admitted. "It could be months. It could be years. Maybe eras. He’s only at Divine Transformation. His life span isn’t that long when compared to ours. It will all depend on how much his body is actually affected by the time. Maybe it’s a few years an hour or maybe thousands. But he is alive and he is fighting. He hasn’t given up!"

The revelation shifted the atmosphere in the dome from a funeral dirge to a frantic tactical crisis.

"We cannot move him," Canghai immediately analyzed as mind snapped back to the reality of warfare. "The Dao Stone is anchored here. We can’t move it no matter what. Your original plan was probably to break the trap, extract my forces and leave immediately. But now he is stuck here."

"We cannot leave him exposed," the Zhan Clan leader stated. "If anyone finds out your secret as well as his will be exposed. If he somehow made it out alive, his life would be one where he would need to hide forever. We must hide him now though until he can make it out."

Khaos turned away from the bubble.

"Formulate a plan to secure this area," Khaos said to the remaining leaders. "I leave the logistics to you. I have another fire to extinguish."

Before anyone could ask, Khaos stepped directly through the seal and vanished from the dome.

Away from there, the cosmos was screaming.

The Leviathan Smashing Vanguard, the Golden Shell Phalanx and the ten fleets of the Veiled Lotus were a tidal wave of apocalyptic fury. They had abandoned all formations. They were burning their Qi reserves to the absolute dregs and launching a suicidal charge toward the inner territories of one of the five enemy coalitions. They did not care about holding ground. They only cared about slaughter.

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Because their attack was so fierce and deadly there was nothing that this force could do to stop them. Their first wave of defense was utterly destroyed. Their second wave did no better. The third was even less successful. There was barely any damage to these three legions.

They started adopting the retreat mindset and just gave way. They were frantically requesting aid from the other four forces but no one wanted to go against these three unknown groups. Why they were fighting in such a way and the fact that they were not even asking for terms was terrifying the coalition forces.

Suddenly, the void ahead of the charging armadas ceased to exist.

It was not a metaphor. A wall of absolute nothingness manifested across the flight path of millions of spirit vessels. The stars in the distance were instantly snuffed out. The ambient laws of the universe were forcefully evicted from the sector.

Khaos appeared.

He did not wear the guise of an unassuming wanderer or a quiet guardian. For the first time since a very long time, VoidClaw unveiled his true might.

His aura erupted. It was a suffocating and lightless ocean of supreme power that physically halted the momentum of the three charging legions. The millions of elite soldiers felt an instinctive terror grip their souls. A terror they didn’t even know they processed.

Gongsun Lian was standing upon her command ship. She was nearly paralyzed by it. She knew Khaos was ancient and strong but she had never felt him flex his true foundation. It felt as though he could erase her entire armada with a single passing thought.

But not everyone felt the same way.

At the vanguard of the suicidal charge, the massive and battle-scarred leaders of the Leviathan and Golden Shell legions halted their advance. They felt the terrifying pressure of Khaos’s aura but their expressions remained twisted in rage. They drew their respective weapons. A jagged greatsword and a golden tower shield.

"Step aside, VoidClaw." The Leviathan leader roared. "We are going to burn their realms to ash! We respect you and what you represent to the Young Master but do not think that we will listen to you."

"You are ruining too many plans. You should know better." Khaos's voice echoed directly into the minds of every soldier present. It was a voice that demanded absolute obedience. "And in doing so, you will leave him unprotected."

The Vanguard leaders sneered. "He is trapped in the Dao Stone. He is beyond protection. All that remains is the blood price!"

"He is moving," Khaos stated.

The two Vanguard leaders froze. Their weapons dipped. Lian’s eyes opened wider.

"His finger shifted," Khaos continued as he rolled back his suffocating aura. "His physique and his souls are fighting. He is advancing, slowly. He might have a chance to escape the bubble on his own."

The rage in the eyes of the Vanguard leaders wavered and was replaced by a desperate and burning hope.

"If you throw your lives away in a mutual slaughter now," Khaos lectured. "You will not be here when he finally needs you most. Conserve your forces. Turn back. What is needed is an impenetrable fortress, not a mountain of useless corpses."

The Leviathan leader and the Golden Shell leader exchanged a look. The bloodlust that had clouded their minds receded and was replaced by chilling clarity. Without a single word of argument, they turned their backs on the enemy territories.

"Halt the advance!" The Leviathan leader roared to his legions. "We return!"

When Khaos and the three legions returned to the shattered graveyard, a new and massive operation was already underway.

The force they were attacking was baffled that the attack had stopped as suddenly as it came. They were starting to wonder if the attacking forces were even real. The tale of those forces quickly became legend and tales that were told to scare children and knock sense into younger recruits.

Li Canghai had taken command back at the temporal bubble.

"We will establish a permanent and fortified bastion right here," Canghai ordered. His voice rang across the void as he directed the craftsmen of the Li Clan and the builders of the Zhan Clan. "This sector is now the anchor of our defensive line. We will construct a fortress so strong and so heavily inscribed with defensive arrays, that it will be the new command center for this entire front."

The plan was brilliant in its simplicity. They could not hide Li Yu so they would mask it by building a supreme military installation directly over it. No one knew what had happened inside besides the leaders here today. The only thing that people knew was that Li Canghai and his forces were freed, they had no idea the personal cost it took on him though.

After setting up the plans with the larger group, Canghai met with just the leaders.

"At the very center of the fortress," Canghai continued. "Will be the ultimate vault. A sanctuary designed to hold the most critical war assets."

The supreme leaders themselves personally undertook the construction of this inner core. To the millions of soldiers constructing the outer walls of the floating fortress, it merely looked as though the apex leaders were laying down supreme security measures to protect high-tier military secrets and resources. The space continued to be sealed at all times during this construction.

In reality, they were building a hidden chamber around Li Yu.

They forged walls and lined them with suppression runes. They discovered, to their immense relief, that the Temporal Dao Stone’s energy was entirely self contained. Given just a few feet of distance from the bubble’s surface, the temporal distortion ceased completely. Once the thick vault walls were erected, not a single trace of the temporal anomaly could be detected from the outside.

Within a matter of weeks, the area was transformed. The graveyard of ships had been cleared and was replaced by a sprawling, awe-inspiring military fortress that bristled with offensive arrays and overlapping defensive shields. The allied armies settled into their new garrison and were completely unaware of the young man frozen in time at the very heart of their stronghold.

The fortress was named “Hope” by Zhan Tielan. No one outside the small group of leaders truly understood what it meant. Many just thought the name was used to give inspiration or as the name implies, give hope to the cosmos.

In the deepest and most secure sector of the fortress, the hidden vault was finalized with touches on the outside.

The leader of the Leviathan Smashing Vanguard and the leader of the Golden Shell Phalanx stood before the rune carved vault doors. They had selected a core group of their absolute strongest and loyal experts.

"You are now the Vault Guards." The Golden Shell leader commanded the elite unit. "Your official duty is to guard the supreme treasures of this fortress. Your true duty is to ensure that not a single soul breaches this chamber. If the enemy attacks, you hold this door until your blood runs dry. If you die, get back up and continue fighting. If you fail, do not bother thinking about anything else for I will bring your souls back and punish you myself."

The elite guards slammed their fists against their chests, their silence a vow of absolute obedience. The two Vanguard leaders offered a deep and reverent bow toward the sealed door before turning away. They were needed elsewhere to manage their forces. They continued to make them stronger and further increase their influences in the dark.

Gongsun Lian also stepped forward. She assigned a single general. General Hua was chosen to remain stationed at the fortress.

"Rotate the generals every month," Lian instructed softly. "Keep your eyes on the inner perimeter. We are an independent force here so listen to no one. We will not fail him again."

Khaos and his forces melted into the void before work had even begun in the area. No one knew where he went. He was always always mysterious in this way.

Deep within the fortress, in the quiet and isolated space between the outer security perimeter and the sealed vault door, Li Canghai sat alone on a simple stone bench.

He had dismissed his aides long ago. With the guards outside, his aides wouldn’t have been allowed to make it this far anyways. The so-called ‘vault guards’ did not care about the actual vault and its contents at all. Anyone could literally walk right past them and enter the vault storing resources, take what they wanted, walk right out and they wouldn’t be stopped. They were there to guard one thing and only one thing. The hidden chamber next to the vault. No one knew this of course and no one would dare break in here to test it.

Li Canghai was out of his armor and was wearing a simple robe that made him look older and more tired. He leaned his head back against the cold and inscribed metal of the vault wall. Canghai closed his eyes. A bitter and even more agonizing smile touched his lips. For years he had dreamt of the day the wars would end. The day he could travel back to find his boy and simply sit with him. He had wanted to teach him simple things, lecture on the Dao if that’s what Li Yu wanted to hear. To share a meal with Li Yu again and to be a father.

Now, he finally had his wish. He was stationed here. He would get to spend every waking moment of his downtime sitting right next to his son.

But it was a twisted and tragic parody of his desires. He was sitting next to a tomb of time, separated by a wall of certain death. He still blamed himself entirely. If he had been stronger, if he had seen the trap, perhaps his boy would be somewhere else.

"Take your time, Yu'er," Li Canghai whispered into the empty and quiet room. His voice breaking with the weight of a father’s grief and a sliver of desperate hope. "I am not going anywhere. I will hold this line. I will wait right here."