Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The memories of different lives continued on but now Li Yu was more of a passenger than the driver. He was now experiencing their lives instead of living it himself. He still saw the world through their eyes but he could no longer change what was happening.

He opened his eyes as Ma Feng, a hot blooded, young spearman in an ancient war from eras past. Ma Feng’s instinct was unadulterated aggression. He never retreated. He would always charge the enemy vanguard. Li Yu rode this momentum, learning the Scorching Sun Thrust, a technique that compressed Fire Qi into the tip of a spear to create a localized armor-melting explosion.

Because Ma Feng never retreated, he lived a remarkably short life but he blazed brighter than most. He wasn’t that old when the first Temporal Dao Stone was detonated on his battlefield. As his youthful flesh turned to ash, Li Yu absorbed his final realization.

'Courage without restraint is just a brighter flame,' Li Yu thought. 'It blinds the enemy but it burns out twice as fast. Aggression must be tempered by patience.'

Li Yu awoke as Vane, a heavy infantry shield bearer in the current era. Vane was a veteran, a man who had fought for centuries. Li Yu learned the Mountain Aegis Law, a defensive art that linked his ground Qi with the ground beneath him and made his shield as immovable as a continent.

During a horrific battle against a cosmic Beast Tide, Vane’s line broke. Li Yu felt the despair of the host who was expecting to be slaughtered. But then, a man descended from the heavens like a god. It was Supreme Commander Li Canghai. The legendary general.

He landed directly in the mud beside the foot soldiers as his golden sword carved a path through the beasts to rally the broken line. Vane survived to be an old and gray haired man before his unit was eventually caught in the current Temporal Dao Stone.

'What a titan of a man,' Li Yu thought and felt an awe for the Supreme Commander. 'True leadership is forged in the mud, not on a throne. He bleeds with his men.'

He shifted into the body of Su Lin, a paranoid poison master from the ancient era. She trusted no one and was hiding in a secluded swamp. Li Yu learned the Thousand Venom Synthesis, a terrifying Poison Dao technique that allowed him to turn his own blood into a corrosive mist that could melt souls.

Su Lin lived a very long and isolated life. She survived assassination attempts and rival sects, growing into a withered and ancient crone. She was incredibly old when the first Dao Stone swept across her swamp and ended her life. Su Lin was incredibly unlucky, she had nothing to do with that battle or the groups involved but she died all the same. Without even understanding what had happened.

As she crumbled to dust, Li Yu felt her profound loneliness. 'A life built entirely on suspicion and poison leaves you dying in an empty room. To protect your life by pushing everyone away is to ensure you never truly live.'

Li Yu awoke as Nguman, a youthful aerial scout who rode a massive Spirit Falcon in the current cosmic war. Nguman was fast, brilliant and possessed the Piercing Gale Archery, a Wind Dao technique that allowed him to control arrows of condensed air Qi and strike targets extremely far away.

Nguman’s defining moment came when he flew through a suicidal blockade to deliver critical intelligence to the allied command. Li Yu lived the moment Nguman stumbled into the command tent, bleeding and exhausted. Supreme Commander Li Canghai took the blood stained scroll. Instead of a dismissive nod, Li Canghai, the most powerful man there, bowed to the young and lowly scout for getting the valuable intel back. Nguman’s scout division was later trapped in the Dao Stone.

'Humility is the crown of the truly powerful,' Li Yu thought as his respect for Li Canghai deepened. 'I have seen this man several times but each time his face is blurred. He must have been the supreme commander of the army trapped inside the bubble. Lian’s friend that she was trying to save.'

The stone thrust him into the mind of Jin, a rogue assassin conscripted against his will into the grand army. Jin was rebellious, angry and a master of the Shadow Severing Blade, a Darkness Dao art that allowed him to cut a person's soul by slashing their shadow.

Jin hated the army and tried to desert. Li Yu felt the host's shock when Li Canghai personally caught him. But instead of executing Jin for treason, Li Canghai saw his potential. He gave Jin a choice: die a coward and have a worthless life or take a suicidal stealth mission to save ten thousand trapped civilians. Jin took the mission, succeeded, and found his purpose afterwards. He became a loyal and middle aged looking commander before falling into the temporal trap.

'Purpose can forge a sharper blade than hatred ever could,' Li Yu realized. 'And General Li Canghai knows how to forge people.'

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Li Yu opened his eyes and he was Tariq, a young illusionist in an ancient and endless desert. Tariq loved his small oasis tribe and used the Mirage of the Sunken Oasis, a complex Water and Light technique to hide their home from the brutal warlords of the dunes.

Tariq was naive. He believed his illusions were an absolute defense. The conquering empire simply decided to burn and destroy the entire desert to get his people, ignoring the illusions entirely. Tariq wasn’t there when it happened.

He vowed vengeance against the group and was eventually able to get it many years later. After a long time of wandering around aimlessly with no real purpose, he was captured and dragged into the great war back then. He died when the first Temporal Dao Stone.

'An illusion only works on an enemy willing to look,' Li Yu thought while thinking back to the heartbreaking memory when Tariq came back to his devastated home. 'Against absolute and indiscriminate force, a mirage is just painted air. You must have solid reality to withstand a siege.'

The next person he experienced was Master Hua, a combat medic and alchemist in the current war. Master Hua was an old and gentle soul. He had mastered the Jade Marrow Regeneration, a Life and Wood art that could knit shattered bones and cleanse demonic corruption in seconds.

Master Hua spent his long life in the blood soaked medical tents. One evening, after a brutal engagement, the flaps of the tent opened. Li Yu watched through Hua’s eyes as Li Canghai walked in.

The Supreme Commander was covered in his own blood and physically carrying two heavily wounded, unconscious soldiers on his shoulders. He refused treatment until his men were healed. Master Hua was later trapped within the Dao Stone while treating people aboard the ships.

'A commander who bleeds for his men commands their very souls,' Li Yu thought as he could feel the deep respect Master Hua had for Li Canghai. 'If the cosmos had more people like Li Canghai, there would be no need for this war.'

He awoke as Batu, a young and wildly ambitious Beast Tamer in the ancient era. Batu possessed the Soul Linking Resonance, a Soul technique that forced beasts into submission.

But Batu’s ambition outpaced his foundation. Believing himself invincible, he attempted to soul link a cosmic serpent that was two major realms above him. The backlash instantly shattered Batu’s mind. He was left a drooling husk and just happened to be caught when the first Dao Stone detonated.

'Ambition is a ladder,' Li Yu thought as he was feeling the terrifying agony of a shattered mind. 'But if it scales faster than your capability, it simply becomes a noose.'

Li Yu plunged into the life of Fen, an Array Master tasked with maintaining the defensive perimeters of the current allied armadas. Fen utilized the Overlapping Hexagram Bastion, a Space and Array Dao technique that layered dimensional shields over physical fortresses.

During a horrific siege, Fen and his team had to repair a critical array outside the safety of the walls. Enemy techniques rained down upon them. Li Yu felt Fen’s terror which was then suddenly replaced by awe.

Li Canghai had stepped outside the walls and was standing directly in front of the array masters. The Supreme Commander used his own body and sword to deflect the annihilating techniques, acting as a human shield so Fen could work.

'Trust,' Li Yu realized. 'When the shield protects the wall, the wall can hold the world. Li Canghai inspires his troops with their trust in him. He will protect them if he can, putting his own life in danger to do so. I wonder if I will ever get a chance to meet him. I wonder if I was able to save these people.'

The final life in the sequence was Chen, a mortal scholar from the ancient era who found cultivation in his twilight years. Chen had no interest in fighting. He learned the Soul Piercing Calligraphy, a unique Sound and Soul Dao art that infused the truth of the heavens into written ink, preserving history against the erosion of time.

Chen lived to be incredibly old. He did not fight in the ancient wars; he simply sat on a mountain, documenting the fall of empires and the rise of tyrants. He was an ancient and white haired scribe when the first Temporal Dao Stone expanded across his mountain and turned his fragile body to dust.

‘It would seem that the first Temporal Dao Stone was much more powerful or he person using it was stronger. The area that the first Temporal Dao Stone affected seems to be massive.’ Li Yu thought as he pieced together the different lives he’s experienced that ended up being collateral damage from it.

As Chen’s ink dried for the final time, Li Yu felt a sense of peace from him.

'Flesh rots and empires fall to ash,' Li Yu thought as the darkness claimed the tenth life. 'Swords rust and shields break. But the truth, recorded and understood by future generations, is the only true immortality.'

Li Yu’s consciousness detached from the archive of the Temporal Dao Stone and was now floating freely in the lightless expanse of his own mind.

He was entirely separated from his physical body, which was still waging its silent and horrific war against the temporal laws inside Fortress Hope. But mentally and spiritually, he had just lived tens of thousands of years.

He had died of extreme old age. He had died in his youth. He had done so much and experienced many failures. Threaded through half of those recent lives was the towering figure of Supreme Commander Li Canghai.

'I do not know if I will ever escape this stone,' Li Yu thought as his soul radiated a light. 'But if I do... I want to meet this Li Canghai. I want to stand before this person that so many admire and look up to.'

Li Yu had no idea that the person he had grown to respect through the memories of others was his own father. He only knew that the cosmos contained both terrifying cruelty and unbreakable righteousness.

He was an amalgamation of all of those lives and yet he was still himself, Li Yu.