Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The spatial tear ripped through the fabric of the void. It was a stark contrast to the sterile and heavily warded stone of Fortress Hope.

Li Yu exited out of the rift. His boots touched the soft and dark soil of Silkwood. The air here was different. It smelled of blooming flowers, damp earth and the crisp breeze rolling off the pale silver forest.

Lian stepped through a moment later as the rift sealed itself with a quiet snap behind her. Khaos materialized seamlessly beside them.

For a long moment, the three of them stood in the center of the quiet courtyard. The three suns of this realm were beginning their slow descent. As before they were casting long and golden shadows across the neatly fenced fields and the sturdy wooden table Li Yu had carved months… no, years ago.

Lian turned to face Li Yu. The elegant robes she wore fluttered gently in the evening breeze.

‘She’s never looked as beautiful as she does now.’ Li Yu thought as he looked at her but quickly dismissed the thought from his mind. She was one of the giants that held up the sky and he was but a farmer in comparison.

Lian bowed deeply to him once more.

"I cannot say it enough, Li Yu." Lian said as her voice was filled with a quiet and ringing sincerity. "Thank you. For answering my call, for risking your life and for enduring the nightmare of the Temporal Dao Stone. The realms owe you a debt but I owe you my life and the lives of my people that you saved."

Li Yu reached out and gently lifted her by the shoulders and righted her posture.

"You do not owe me anything, Lian." Li Yu smiled. "I am just glad that I could help when you needed it. We are even."

Lian looked at him and her eyes searched his face. She could sense the terrifying depth of his new cultivation base at his level.

‘The young man was now a Law Integration expert within just a few short years since I have met him. Yet, his smile is still exactly the same.’ Lian thought.

"I must return to the front." Lian said with a touch of reluctance in her tone. She wanted to stay with him longer. To somehow make up for some of the suffering he had endured these recent few years. "The war does not wait and my absence has already been too long. But if you ever need anything, anything at all, you only need to send a word. We now owe you a favor."

"Stay safe out there," Li Yu replied softly and didn’t think anything of the favor being offered. He realized how small and tiny his matters must be to someone like her. Before he didn’t know and could accept. However, now that he knew, he didn’t want to bother such an expert with his small matters.

Lian nodded while offering another grateful smile to both Li Yu and Khaos. She then triggered a movement technique. She shot into the evening sky like a brilliant streak of light, disappearing over the horizon to return to her own matters.

The courtyard fell silent.

Li Yu turned around. Khaos was still standing near the edge of the property with his hands tucked into the wide sleeves of his dark robes. He was gazing out at the flowing river and looking like a natural fixture of the landscape.

Li Yu had questions. He had harbored them since Khaos was able to ask Lian for his original favor to begin with. If a being like that owed Khaos a favor, Khaos was someone special. Li Yu had known this for quite some time now but Khaos never answered him. After all that had happened, Li Yu wanted to try his luck once again.

"So," Li Yu began while walking over to the wooden table and leaning against it. "Are you going to tell me how you actually know her?"

Khaos did not turn around immediately. "I know many people, boy."

"Lian is a giant." Li Yu pressed with his eyes narrowing slightly. "She commands legions. She traverses the void. Yet, she has always acted very respectful towards you. It is much more than something like you saved her life or something else when she was much weaker. You and her also orchestrated a rescue mission that involved what seemed to be top powers within the realms. I know you have never answered my questions but perhaps it's time now?"

Khaos finally turned. A faint and almost imperceptible smirk touched the corners of his mouth.

"I am actually quite powerful," Khaos stated simply and his tone was completely deadpan.

"I know that," Li Yu sighed as he was rubbing the bridge of his nose. "That much has been abundantly clear. But that doesn't explain your origins, what you are doing with me or why those people seem to respect you."

"The truth is remarkably simple," Khaos said while stepping closer to the table. "Long ago, I was severely injured in a conflict. My foundation was damaged and I fell into the lower realms to recuperate. I ended up resting in that miserable swamp where you eventually found me early on in your cultivation path. I am an ancient expert who suffered a setback. Lian simply recognizes my seniority."

Li Yu stared at him. He let the silence stretch for a long and heavy moment. He analyzed the ancient being's aura and was looking for the subtle fluctuations of a lie. But Khaos was an impenetrable fortress.

"Is that really true?" Li Yu questioned him as he was crossing his arms. "Just an injured expert in a swamp? Nothing more to it?"

Khaos’s smirk widened into a challenging smile. "What if it isn't?"

Li Yu frowned. "What?"

"What if it is a complete fabrication?" Khaos asked as his dark eyes gleamed with a mix of amusement and challenge. "What if I am an exiled demon emperor or a manifestation of evil itself?” Khaos let out a loud chuckle. “To be honest, it does not matter what the truth is. Because you cannot force me to speak it. I am definitely stronger than you. If you want the real truth..."

Khaos leaned in slightly with a big smile on his face and his voice dropping to a vibrating rumble.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"...get stronger and beat it out of me."

Li Yu let out a long and defeated exhale. He then shook his head. He should have known better. Khaos never simply handed out answers. Everything had to be a test, a riddle or a challenge meant to spur motivation.

"I never get a straight answer," Li Yu muttered but there was no real anger in his voice. He was already used to this and the fact that it remained actually brought him some form of comfort from everything he had experienced and seen lately.

Khaos chuckled once more.

"Answers given freely are rarely valued," Khaos said to him. He looked at Li Yu and his gaze pierced past the physical flesh and directly into his soul. "Remember what I told you during the battle. Follow your own heart. You have your own path to walk, Li Yu. Do not try to walk mine and do not try to walk the paths of the ghosts you lived inside the Dao Stone. Find your own meaning."

With those final words, the space around Khaos rippled. The ancient warrior dissolved into a mist of deep purple energy and returned to the quiet depths of the Koi Sanctuary.

Li Yu was finally alone.

He turned his attention back to his estate. He had been gone for a few years. In the fertile and Qi rich environment of Silkwood, an untended farm should have devolved into a wild jungle. The Azure Cloud Cabbages should have rotted, the Void Pod Peas should have strangled the fences and the silver weeds should have reclaimed the dirt.

But as Li Yu looked around, he was surprised.

The wooden fences were perfectly intact. The soil in the main field was neatly tilled and completely devoid of invasive weeds. While there were no active crops currently growing in the primary plots, the land was healthy, rested and perfectly maintained. The fields seem to be waiting for seeds.

He didn't have to wonder why for very long. A sudden fluctuation of Qi announced a spatial tear just outside the front gate.

Garrick stumbled out of it. He smelled faintly of expensive perfume and strong wine. But the moment his eyes landed on Li Yu standing in the courtyard, the usual arrogant swagger melted from his face. It was replaced by a look of panic and then that gave way to relief.

"Thank the heavens! Thank whoever is listening!" Garrick shouted while practically sprinting through the gate and dropping to his knees in the dirt.

"Hello, Garrick," Li Yu said while being mildly amused.

"Do you have any idea what you put me through?!" Garrick gasped as he was clutching his chest dramatically. "A few years ago, my soul connection to you just... vanished! It didn't snap but it was like you were completely swallowed by something! I couldn't sense you at all!"

Li Yu realized that the Temporal Dao Stone's isolation had likely severed the passive feedback of the soul binding contract. To Garrick, it must have felt like standing on a cliff edge in the dark.

"I was trapped in a rather unique artifact," Li Yu explained simply.

"I thought I was a dead man!" Garrick continued, ignoring the explanation. He pointed frantically at the tilled fields. "I have been coming here every single month! I weeded the dirt! I fixed the fence when a wild boar broke it! I made sure everything stayed exactly as it was, praying to the heavens that you would come back and that my soul wouldn't randomly detonate while I was drinking!"

Li Yu couldn't help but laugh softly. It was a purely selfish motivation, Garrick would die if Li Yu died. Still, the result of Garrick being worried was a perfectly kept estate.

"I appreciate it, Garrick," Li Yu said and offered a genuine nod of gratitude. "Thank you for looking after my land."

Garrick let out a long and shuddering sigh of relief as he stood up. The worry was quickly replaced by his usual hedonistic complacency.

"Well, since you are clearly alive and stronger than you were before," Garrick noted as he was eyeing the subtle pressure of Li Yu's Law Integration aura, "I am going back to my place. I was in the middle of a very promising evening."

Li Yu crossed his arms and was looking at him. "You have been enjoying yourself and playing around in the cities for years now. Aren't you tired of having all that fun? Don't you ever want to actually cultivate or build something?"

Garrick laughed out loud. It was a booming sound that echoed through the quiet silver trees. He adjusted his silk collar.

"Why would I be tired of it?" Garrick asked and was looking at Li Yu as if he had just asked why water was wet. "If I am having fun, what does it matter if it has been days, months or years? The whole point of gaining power is to enjoy the fruits of existence. You sit in the dirt; I sit on silk cushions. To each their own."

With a cheerful wave, Garrick activated his movement technique and vanished. He was eager to return to his endless cycle of wine and revelry. Li Yu could only shake his head. Even after years, some things remained exactly the same no matter what.

The silence of the estate returned and it was pressing against Li Yu's ears.

He walked over to the wooden table he had built with General Rawtus. It actually took him awhile before he could remember that he had. His previous life here seemed so long ago.

He moved mechanically. He gathered dry wood and sparked a small flame with a flick of Fire Qi. He set a kettle of water to boil. He retrieved a small jar of dried floral tea leaves from his storage ring and dropped a pinch into a clay cup.

He poured the hot water in. The fragrant steam rose into the cool evening air. Li Yu sat down in the wooden chair. He wrapped his hands around the warm clay cup and stared out at his empty but perfectly tilled fields.

He sat there for a very long time. The three suns finally dipped below the horizon, plunging Silkwood into a twilight of deep purples and blues. The glowing insects emerged from the grass and the nocturnal birds began to sing.

It was beautiful. It was the exact peace he had worked hard to secure. Yet, as Li Yu stared at the dirt, a cold and hollow feeling began to spread through his chest.

He looked at his own hands. They were the hands of a Law Integration expert. He thought of the grand battle Lian had brought him to. He remembered the Leviathan Smashing Vanguard crashing through the void. He remembered the Golden Shell Phalanx holding the line against a tide of demonic horrors.

He thought of the two figures of Li Canghai and Zhan Tielan. Two figures that were carrying the weight of billions of lives on their armored shoulders. They were the giants that were shouldering the sky so that the realms beneath them would not be crushed.

And here he was. Sitting in a chair. Getting ready to plant cabbages and continue with his normal day. A normal day that he would have greatly enjoyed not too long ago now felt empty and aimless. Li Yu took a slow sip of his tea but the floral taste felt like ash on his tongue.

During his time inside the Temporal Dao Stone, he had lived as Ma Feng, who burned his life away charging the enemy line. He had lived as Master Hua, who bled his own vitality to heal broken soldiers. He had lived as Vane, holding a shield against a tide of monsters.

Every single one of those lives, regardless of how they ended, had originally been driven by an unyielding purpose. They fought, they bled and they died for something greater than themselves or some great reason.

What was his purpose?

He had cultivated to survive in the harsh world, to then be able to live life how he wanted to. He had grown stronger to protect himself and the things he cared about. But after seeing what he had just seen, his power seemed absolutely worthless.

The prospect of waking up tomorrow, taking an iron hoe and weeding a patch of dirt suddenly felt empty. It felt like a monumental waste of time. A heavy and suffocating blanket of depression began to settle over him. It was a quiet and insidious crisis of his life.

Khaos had told him to follow his own heart. But as Li Yu sat in the dark and continued staring at the empty fields, he realized he didn't know what his heart wanted anymore. The simple and attractive path of the quiet farmer that he had enjoyed so much had lost its luster. It was overshadowed by the burning reality of the war he had just witnessed.

He was feeling more and more hopelessly lost. He was a person with the power to do nearly what he wanted but was now paralyzed by the realization that he had absolutely no idea how to make his life mean something.