Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Time was a strange construct. To the cosmos at large the war ground on with relentless monotony. To Li Yu, who was trapped within the Temporal Dao Stone it felt like eras had passed in a dizzying carousel of borrowed lives, thought and advancement.

But to Li Canghai and Zhan Tielan, time was measured in the agonizing visits to the deepest vault of Fortress Hope.

It had been a few years since the rescue mission. The war outside had shifted. Driven by the wrath of grieving parents, the Vanguard and the Golden Shell Phalanx had carved a path of destruction through enemy territory. Yet no matter how fierce the frontlines became, the Supreme Commander and his wife always returned to this hidden chamber.

Today was a quiet day in the vault. The heavy doors sealed shut with a dull thud to lock away the noise of the fortress above.

Zhan Tielan walked forward. Her heavy armor was replaced by a simple and elegant robe. In her hands she carried an intricately woven bamboo basket. Beside her Li Canghai walked with his hands clasped behind his back. His golden eyes fixed entirely on the center of the room.

There suspended in the air was the iridescent bubble of the Temporal Dao Stone.

Inside the bubble, Li Yu looked exactly as he had the day the trap was sprung. His youthful face was frozen and illuminated by the faint golden light of the Koi Soul that flickered beneath his skin.

"He hasn't moved again." Zhan Tielan whispered as her voice carried an ache. She knelt on the cold stone floor a few feet from the bubble and began to unpack the basket. She pulled out plates of roasted fowl, steamed buns and a small jug of sweet wine.

"He shifted his posture a few years ago." Li Canghai replied as his voice was low and steady. He stood beside her and gazed at the temporal shell. "Going from a suspended float to a cross legged meditative position. That was a conscious action. He is alive in there, Tielan. Our son is fighting."

"I know." She said softly while setting a pair of chopsticks on a clean porcelain plate. "I just wish I knew what he was experiencing. We know he is alive but what kind of state is he in. What about his thoughts and mind? You said you couldn’t really think within there. That time seemed to have just frozen and then you were out. What if he gets out but...."

She didn't finish the sentence. She couldn't.

Today was a specific and painful milestone. If he had just remained in the outside world, today would have been Li Yu’s twenty-fifth birthday. They had brought the food to share a meal with him even if there was a wall of impenetrable time between them.

Li Canghai sat down heavily beside his wife. He poured a small cup of wine and set it on the floor nearest to the bubble.

"Happy birthday, my son." Li Canghai murmured as a rare vulnerability cracked through his iron clad demeanor.

Inside the bubble, Li Yu was entirely unaware of the food or the parents holding a vigil outside. He had reached a point of stability. His mind was clear with his own being and any residue remains from his other lives were gone. He was himself only, only tempered by those lives at a subconscious level.

The Temporal Dao Stone was a terrifying relic but it was not invincible. It had already been critically weakened during the initial rescue mission when Li Yu had forcefully cracked its influence to save Li Changhai and the others. It had been bleeding its original power ever since.

Now with Li Yu fully stabilized in the Law Integration realm the tide finally turned. His Golden Koi Soul which had fought a desperate and agonizing battle for so long surged with newfound authority. Empowered by Li Yu's integrated laws and his chaotic domain, the ethereal Koi Soul let out a silent roar. It pushed outward and crushed the remaining temporal pressure of the weakened Dao Stone.

The bubble began to crack.

Outside, Zhan Tielan froze. She dropped a steamed bun back onto the plate.

"Did you hear that?" She breathed as her eyes widened.

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Li Canghai was already on his feet. "Get back Tielan. It is destabilizing."

The cracking started slowly at first. A hairline fracture appeared on the surface of the iridescent bubble. Then another. Within seconds, a massive web of fissures spread across the sphere. It got faster and faster and faster.

Then it shattered.

From within it Li Yu remained in his cross legged position. He looked completely unchanged from the day he was trapped. His aura was stable and he seemed unharmed on the service.

However as the bubble shattered the fragmented laws of accelerated time violently condensed. It collapsed inward and pulled all of its residual energy into a single point directly in front of Li Yu. It formed a singularity. A swirling black marble of exhausted time.

As the singularity formed, a bizarre event occurred within Li Yu’s soul resting place.

His fifth soul which he had named his Human Soul had grown during this time of meditation. It no longer looked like a child. It had matured into a young adult that looked exactly like Li Yu did right now.

Suddenly, the Human Soul split apart. It seamlessly tore down the middle and reverted its form. The adult soul became two identical child souls just like how they looked when he first manifested the fifth soul.

One of the child souls stumbled but remained safely in his inner world.

The second child soul instantly disappeared. It reappeared in the physical world right next to the collapsing singularity in front of Li Yu’s chest. Li Yu couldn’t react to this at all, it happened instantly. He could only open his eyes just in time to catch its last moments.

The ethereal child turned to look at Li Yu and offered him a small and knowing smile. Then the child vanished along with the singularity. They simply ceased to exist in that physical space.

Li Yu sat there completely stunned. It had all happened too fast. A piece of his soul had just left with the collapsing anomaly. Before he could even begin to process the event, movement caught his eye.

His parents were stunned to see him finally breaking out. Zhan Tielan took a step forward as maternal instinct screamed at her to run up to him and hug him. But Li Canghai caught her shoulder. They could not reveal their true identities to him yet. The war was still raging and the danger was too great.

It would also completely change what he would do and how he would act moving forward. If Li Yu learned that he had parents, he could no longer go back to that life he was living before this. They didn’t want to take that away from him, what they cared more than anything else was that he was safe and living a good life that was his own.

They had to instantly blur their forms. A thick obscuring aura of light and shadow enveloped them to hide their facial features.

Li Yu stood up slowly. He dusted off his robes and felt the immense physical power of his Law Integration body for the first time outside the crushing pressure. He looked at the two blurred figures standing near a basket of food.

"What happened?" Li Yu asked as his voice carried the subtle resonance of his new strength. "And who are you?"

Li Canghai stepped forward.

"You are in a secure vault." The disguised Li Canghai said. "I am the Supreme Commander of the forces that operate in this sector. One of the leaders of the group you saved. This woman next to me, I have been told, you have already met before you embarked on the mission to save me and my army."

Li Yu relaxed slightly and a genuine smile broke across his face. It was extremely vague but he remembered this man. He had seen him several times across multiple lives and he stood out in each one of them. The deep respect they all had for this Supreme Commander.

"I am glad to meet you." Li Yu said politely. "Your actions and leadership are greatly respected. I am happy my actions saved a lot of lives."

Zhan Tielan stepped forward. She did her best to hold herself back.

"We owe you a great debt child." She said as her voice wavered with a warmth she couldn't suppress. "Time has indeed passed while you were trapped in there. In fact you should be roughly twenty five years old now."

Li Yu blinked and was thoroughly startled.

"Twenty five?" Li Yu asked with his brow furrowing in confusion. "Wait. You know how old I am?"

A spike of panic shot through Zhan Tielan. She had spilled the beans by accident.

Li Canghai stepped in smoothly. "A supreme expert can easily read a cultivator's bone age at a single glance, young man. We scanned your skeletal structure just now to evaluate your condition. We extrapolated the time passed since your entrapment."

Li Yu paused and looked between the two blurred figures. Then he let out a short laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Of course." Li Yu smiled. "I forgot that was possible. My apologies."

Zhan Tielan let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"There are a lot of people that will be happy to hear you are back." Li Canghai added while gesturing toward the heavy vault doors. "When you are ready, we will lead you out of this chamber."

Li Yu nodded and followed the two supreme experts out of the hidden vault. He had survived the prison and forged a Law Integration foundation but the cosmos outside was still waiting for him.