Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The transition was no longer a jarring shock but a familiar, heavy plunge into the cold waters of a forgotten history.

In the physical world, hidden within the vault of Fortress Hope, Li Yu’s physical body remained locked in the agonizing tug-of-war. The Golden Koi Soul bled its resonance to fend off the accelerated millennia, while the Devouring Abyssal Leviathan Physique greedily ate the leaking temporal laws and forced his flesh to evolve.

But within his mind, the carousel spun. The spiritual residue of the Dao Stone’s countless victims offered up another soul. He opened his eyes.

The scent of burning incense and lotus blossoms filled his lungs. He was sitting cross legged on a cushion of woven silk and surrounded by walls of carved ornamental stones. The ambient Qi here was thick and heavy with moisture and the shifting nature of the Dao of Water.

He was Ouyang Ke, the Second Young Master of the Whispering Tide Clan.

The memories cascaded into his mind like a waterfall and stopped abruptly at this exact moment in time. He had been raised from the moment he could walk to be a weapon of the clan. The Whispering Tide Clan was an elite, orthodox faction that ruled a vast archipelago. Their power was not built on brute force but on political maneuvering, espionage and the mastery of water and illusions.

His training had been a nightmare of psychological conditioning. He was taught to smile while drinking poison to build immunity, to weave complex illusions while his bones were broken to build focus and to never, under any circumstances, trust his own blood.

He possessed the Formless Mirage Art, a cultivation technique that allowed him to manipulate water Qi to create tangible illusions and to dissolve his own body into water to evade fatal blows or sneak around.

According to the memories that had just settled in his mind, the clan was currently in mourning. The Patriarch had died the night before. He was poisoned by an unknown hand. The succession crisis had officially begun. The elders were divided and the archipelago was holding its breath. It was waiting for Ouyang Ke and his elder brother, Ouyang Ming, to tear each other apart in a bloody shadow war for the throne.

'A pit of vipers,' Li Yu thought while opening his eyes to look at his reflection in a polished bronze mirror. He looked young, handsome and utterly exhausted. 'I have lived as a violent storm, a stubborn wall, a cornered beast and more. Every time I fought back, I only invited more destruction. In this life, I have the power to stop the war before it begins.'

The clan was currently in mourning. The Patriarch had died the night before. He was poisoned by an unknown hand. The succession crisis had officially begun. The elders were divided and the archipelago was holding its breath. They were waiting for the two brothers to tear each other apart.

Li Yu stood up and smoothed his silk robes. He did not gather his hidden assassins. He did not activate his defensive arrays. He simply walked out of his jade pavilion and made his way toward the central palace.

He found his elder brother, Ouyang Ming, standing before the Patriarch’s empty throne. Ming was surrounded by heavily armed guards and his eyes darted toward Li Yu with paranoid intensity.

"Brother," Li Yu said as he stopped at the base of the dais. He kept his hands open and empty to show that he meant no harm. He let his Qi settle like a calm and unthreatening lake.

"Have you come to contest the seat, Ke?" Ming asked. His hand hovering near the hilt of his sword. The air in the throne room grew dense with water vapor. It was ready to explode into lethal icicles at a moment's notice.

'I could fight him,' Li Yu thought, feeling the Formless Mirage Art humming in his meridians. 'I could plunge this clan into civil war. But what is the point of ruling a graveyard? I don’t want to rule this clan anyways.'

"No," Li Yu said as his voice echoed clearly through the grand hall. "I have not come to fight. The clan cannot survive a divided house. The surrounding sects are watching us like starving wolves. If we bleed each other, they will feast on our corpses."

Ming’s eyes narrowed and was searching for the trap. "Then what are you saying?"

"I am stepping down," Li Yu declared. He bowed his head slightly. "I acknowledge you as the Patriarch of the Whispering Tide Clan. My faction, my resources and my loyalty are yours. Let us lead the clan to prosperity, together. With you leading and me supporting."

A murmur of shock rippled through the gathered elders and guards. In the elite clans, power was never surrendered; it was pried from dead hands.

Ming stared at him for a long and silent minute. The tension slowly bled from the elder brother’s shoulders. He stepped down from the dais and placed a hand on Li Yu’s shoulder.

"You are wise, my brother," Ming said while offering a warm and magnanimous smile. "You have saved our family from ruin. I accept your loyalty. You shall remain by my side as one of my most trusted advisors."

Li Yu felt a sense of relief. He had bent instead of break to prevent a war.

That evening, Li Yu returned to his pavilion. He dismissed his guards and wanted to enjoy his first night here in peace. He didn’t know what this life would offer but he was curious how it would be living in such a clan. He sat by his indoor pond and was meditating on the Laws of Water. He learned how to make his Qi flow like a quiet stream, how to reflect the ambient light to turn invisible and how to heal internal injuries.

He was deeply immersed in his cultivation when the spatial array in his room silently deactivated. Li Yu opened his eyes.

Twelve figures clad in form fitting black clothes stood in his chamber. They carried weapons forged from a metal designed to bypass water based defenses. They were the Patriarch’s personal execution squad when someone within the clan broke the rules.

'He accepted my surrender,' Li Yu thought as his heart sank.

"The Patriarch sends his regards." The lead assassin whispered. "A throne cannot be shared, and a living rival is a seed of treason."

Li Yu reacted instantly. His body dissolved into a splash of clear water just as twelve blades pierced the space where he had been sitting. He reappeared across the room and unleashed the Formless Mirage Art. The room filled with thick mist, manifesting a dozen illusions of himself to confuse the attackers.

But it was too late. He had offered his neck and his brother had gladly taken the axe to remove it. The assassins were ready and deployed a suppressing artifact that shattered his illusions. A blade caught him in the back and the poison from the blade instantly froze his meridians.

Li Yu fell to the floor and was gasping for air as the venom stopped his heart. He looked up at the assassins and was feeling the bitter irony of his choices.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

'Mercy,' Li Yu thought as the darkness rushed in to claim him. 'Mercy is a luxury only the absolute strongest can afford. In a pit of vipers, surrendering your fangs just makes you food. Water can be gentle but it must be a tsunami when threatened. I yielded and I died for it.'

The cold floor faded and he was once again plunged into darkness. He awoke to the deafening crack of thunder.

A smell burned his nostrils. He was kneeling on a platform of scorched black stone, high above a stormy sea. Purple lightning arced through the sky and struck the pillars around him. He was Sikong Zhen, the First Young Master of the Heavenly Calamity Sect.

The memories struck him like the lightning above, filling him in on everything up to this exact breath. The Sikong Clan was an aggressive and tyrannical faction that cultivated the Laws of Lightning and Arrays. They were loud, arrogant and ruled through terrifying power.

His training had been brutal. He had been thrown into lightning storms to temper his flesh and forced to memorize millions of array runes until his eyes bled. He was taught over and over again that the only universal truth was power. Currently, a fierce succession battle was brewing. The aging Patriarch was stepping down and his ambitious younger brothers were already plotting to usurp his position as the eldest.

Li Yu felt the residual bitterness of his previous life as Ouyang Ke burning in his soul. He felt the terrifying and explosive power of the Purple Void Lightning crackling in his palms.

'Not this time! Never again!' Li Yu thought as his eyes narrowed. He was watching the storm rage. 'I tried peace. I tried mercy. They both led to the grave. I do not know how Sikong Zhen originally handled this but if this world demands a monster to secure the throne, then I will be the monster. I will take the seat and only then will I have the safety to live as I please.'

Li Yu did not wait for the Patriarch to officially retire. He did not wait for his siblings to strike first. He went on the offensive. He utilized his host's knowledge and pushed it further.

He began furthering his mastery over the Laws of Lightning. Learning how to compress storm clouds into a single and lethal needle of Qi. He studied Arrays, learning how to weave invisible traps into the very floorboards of his enemies' homes.

His rise was a masterclass in ruthless efficiency.

His second brother challenged him to a public duel to test his strength. Li Yu did not show mercy; he used the Purple Void Lightning to incinerate the boy’s Soul in front of the entire sect to establish dominance. Ouyang Ke’s original memories and personality aiding to his ruthlessness.

His third brother attempted to poison him a week later. Li Yu anticipated it and reversed the trap on his third brother instead. He watched on coldly as his brother choked on his own venom.

He bribed the elders. He blackmailed the generals. He purged the sect of anyone who showed even a hint of disloyalty. He surrounded himself with heavily vetted guards and slept in a chamber protected by a localized Heavenly Tribulation Array.

He became a paranoid but untouchable king.

Throughout it all, he ignored his youngest sister, Sikong Yue. She was a quiet and sickly girl who spent her days reading poetry in the gardens. She possessed a mediocre cultivation base and showed no interest in the bloody politics of the sect. Li Yu spared her, keeping her as a decorative symbol of his "mercy" to appease the few traditionalist elders left.

Ten years passed. Li Yu had secured the Heavenly Calamity Sect. He was the undisputed master. The day of his official ascension arrived. The grand courtyard was filled with thousands of kneeling disciples. The elders stood in their ceremonial robes. Li Yu stood at the apex of the central altar and the crown of condensed lightning resting in his hands.

He had won. He had played the game with absolute ruthlessness and he had survived.

'I am now safe,' Li Yu thought while preparing to place the crown on his head. 'Now, I can finally rest.'

"Brother," a soft voice echoed across the silent courtyard. Li Yu paused. He looked down.

Sikong Yue, his quiet and sickly sister, stepped forward from the ranks of the elders. She was not wearing her usual simple silk; she was wearing the dark robes.

"You have fought well, brother," Yue said. Her voice carried an unnatural and chilling calm. "You killed our siblings. You purged the disloyal. You built a perfect and untouchable throne."

Li Yu felt a sudden, terrifying spike of danger. He immediately circulated his Purple Void Lightning and was preparing to strike her down. "What is the meaning of this, Yue? Step back."

Yue smiled. It was not a sweet smile; it was the smile of a predator watching a trapped beast. The very same beast that had been trapped within her control this entire time. Things had gone too smoothly. Li Yu was not a schemer, even with Ouyang Ke’s memories, Li Yu was not Ouyang Ke. Yet, he had somehow out maneuvered everyone. Or so he thought.

In actual fact he was but a pawn being manipulated by the true schemer. Li Yu thought he was achieving results when they were directly given to him.

"You focused so much on the wolves, brother, that you never looked at the spider," Yue whispered.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

The grand courtyard erupted. But it was not an attack from the outside. The very stones beneath Li Yu’s feet glowed with a sickening, crimson light. The defensive arrays that Li Yu had personally designed, the arrays meant to protect the altar, were instantly taken control of.

Li Yu gasped as the ambient Qi in the air was violently sucked away and his meridians locked.

'How?!' Li Yu thought as panic set in. 'I vetted every array! I controlled the elders!'

He looked at the elders. The very men he had bribed and blackmailed were drawing their weapons and they were aiming them not at Yue but at him.

"You ruled through fear, Zhen," Yue said as she walked slowly up the steps of the altar. "Fear is a powerful motivator but it breeds hatred as well. You thought you bought their loyalty but I had gotten there first. On top of that, they like me more than you."

While Li Yu had been overtly fighting and slaughtering his brothers, Yue had been quietly moving in the shadows. She had expertly played the role of the harmless victim. She used her perceived weakness to gain access to his inner circles. She had secretly altered the master runes of the sect’s core arrays, waiting patiently for the day he gathered all his power in one place.

"You were a brilliant executioner, brother," Yue said while stopping a few feet from him. "But a terrible ruler."

Li Yu roared. He was able to overpower the array and exploded with Purple Void Lightning.

The battle was apocalyptic. Li Yu fought with the desperation of a cornered king. He showcased his mastery of the Lightning Dao, calling down pillars of heavenly tribulation that vaporized dozens of treacherous elders. He wove intricate and explosive arrays with his bare hands. Those shattered the surrounding and the courtyard into a crater.

He was a god of storms.

But Yue was a phantom. She didn't fight him directly. She used the master arrays of the sect to continuously drain his power. She was redirecting his own lightning strikes into the ground and everywhere her people were not. She commanded the hundreds of elite guards, guards Li Yu had personally trained, to wear him down in waves.

He fought for an hour. His body was scorched and his Qi reserves ran dry. He stood in the center of the ruined altar and was surrounded by the corpses of the elders. However, he was bleeding from a dozen fatal wounds.

Sikong Yue stood safely behind a barrier of shifting light and was entirely unharmed.

"You lose." She whispered.

The grand array beneath his feet flared one final time. It summoned a spear of compressed and crimson lightning that pierced directly through Li Yu’s chest.

He fell to his knees. The crown of lightning clattering across the broken stones. He coughed up blood and looked at his sister. Even though he knew it wasn’t his life, he had lived it nonetheless. His anger for the betrayal was real. His anger for himself for never even making it as far as the others had, all but one single time, to reach the temporal Dao Stone was also real. The true time of their deaths or entrapment was much later and he had failed where they had succeeded. He felt a bitter amusement.

'I thought ruthlessness was the answer,' Li Yu thought as his vision darkened. 'I thought the loudest thunder was the most dangerous. But I was wrong. The loudest thunder is just a distraction. The lightning that kills you is the one you never hear coming. Schemes… Once again the terror of schemes.'

He had mastered the explosive laws of Lightning and the intricate logic of Arrays. He had learned how to kill for selfless gains. But he had failed to understand that paranoia without omniscience was just digging his own grave.

'There is always a deeper scheme,' Li Yu realized as his breath faded. 'True power isn't just the sword you hold but seeing the daggers hidden in the dark. Balance. It always comes back to balance.'

The storm above the Heavenly Calamity Sect raged on but Li Yu was no longer there to hear it. The stone pulled him deep into the abyss, the weight of his accumulated lifetimes forging him further.