Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The gentle chime of wind bells drifted through the open windows of the teahouse. Li Yu sat at a wide wooden table on the second floor while the morning mist slowly burned away under the artificial twilight. He held a cup of warm and bitter tea in his hands. A few weeks had passed since he first stepped into the Pagoda of the Unbroken Step and his routine in Kyokai City had settled into a comfortable rhythm.

He looked down at the bustling streets below. Daiki and Sora sat across from him and enjoyed their own morning meals. The Trial Grounds were already active with candidates moving toward their assigned pagodas. However, the atmosphere in the city had noticeably shifted over the past few days.

A heavy sense of fatigue hung over many of the cultivators.

Li Yu watched a group of three candidates walking slowly toward the distant white stone pier. They were not wearing their dark purple jade badges. They carried large spatial sacks over their shoulders and their expressions were a mixture of deep relief and lingering disappointment. They reached the edge of the docks where a small and levitating wooden skiff waited for them. It was not Old Du steering the boat but another ferryman dressed in similar grey robes.

"Another group is cashing out," Daiki noted while tearing a large piece of roasted meat from a bone. He chewed thoughtfully and pointed his chin toward the docks. "That is the third group I have seen leave this week. The attrition rate is starting to climb rapidly."

"They reached their limits," Sora added quietly. She took a delicate sip of her clear water and kept her silver eyes on the departing skiff. "The trials have escalated significantly in the last month. Those who are lacking are simply failing over and over again. When you fail the pagodas, you do not earn any resources. You just suffer the mental and physical backlash for nothing."

Li Yu watched the skiff drift away into the unnatural grey fog that bordered the realm. He had learned from his friends that candidates were not prisoners here. If they hit a bottleneck they simply could not pass, they had options.

"It is a fair system," Li Yu said while resting his teacup on the wooden table. "They survived for a long time and they get to keep everything they earned up until this point. Taking their total accumulated rewards and returning to their home realms is the safest choice."

"It is the most popular choice," Daiki agreed with a heavy nod. "But it is not the only one. Some candidates refuse to go back empty handed or face the shame of giving up. If they officially surrender their candidate status to the artifact, they can choose to stay in Kyokai City permanently. They lose access to the major pagodas but they can live among the natives and run the minor trials for soul drops just like Master Nornick and Elian."

Sora set her cup down and lightly traced the grain of the wooden table. "And then there are the fools. The ones who let their greed blind their judgment. They give up the trials but they refuse to stay in the safety of the city. They bypass the barrier and wander out into the shattered wilds of the broken realm."

Li Yu looked up toward the artificial sky. Beyond the protective dome of The Veil, he knew the massive and bleeding fault lines still existed along with the decaying spiritual veins.

"They go looking for ancient treasures," Li Yu deduced easily. "They hope to scavenge the battlefields of the Great Devastation."

"Exactly," Daiki snorted with a dismissive wave of his massive hand. "They think they will stumble upon a lost sacred technique or a dormant weapon. Most of them just end up getting devoured by the beasts that slip through the cosmic cracks. It is a terrible way to die."

The conversation paused as a loud roar of triumph echoed across the city from the direction of the central plazas. The sound was raw and primal.

Li Yu leaned slightly toward the window. He could see a massive gathering of candidates near a towering crimson pagoda. Jin Wu was standing at the entrance. The ashen skinned warrior was covered in deep and bleeding lacerations. However, he held a glowing crystalline orb high above his head. The members of his clan alliance cheered wildly and thumped their chests in unison.

"Jin Wu cleared the Pagoda of the Thousand Cuts!" A candidate at a neighboring table whispered loudly to his companion. "I heard that trial requires you to navigate a storm of spatial blades using only your soul sense. The reward for clearing the ninth floor is a solidified orb of martial intent."

"He is definitely a front runner," the companion replied with a tone of pure envy. "But Princess Linnea's faction cleared the Labyrinth of the Drowned King yesterday. She secured an entire chest of liquid soul amber. The difficulty is becoming insane but the rewards are scaling just as fast."

Li Yu listened to the gossip with genuine interest. Astramentis was a highly intelligent artifact but it completely refused to provide any sort of public leaderboard or ranking system. The candidates had no official way to know who was truly in the lead or who had the highest overall score.

Because there was no scoreboard, the candidates relied entirely on observation and rampant rumors to guess the hierarchy.

"The gossip is getting louder," Daiki muttered and rolled his golden eyes. He tossed his clean bone onto a plate. "Everyone is obsessed with finding out who the front runners are. Jin Wu and Princess Linnea are obvious choices because they are so loud about their victories. They use their rewards to recruit more followers."

"They are strong," Sora admitted objectively. She was constantly analyzing the martial prowess of others. "Jin Wu possesses an incredible tolerance for pain. His soul is anchored by pure physical endurance. Linnea is entirely different. She uses the collective soul strength of her followers to bypass the artifact's traps. Her strategic formations are flawless. They both stand out even among this gathering of ancient monsters."

Li Yu also learned that you didn’t have to go into the trail alone. You could bring in others with you but the rewards would be lessened if you did so. Being a leader was another form of strength and the artifact didn’t want to take that away from others.

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"There are others as well," Daiki pointed out. "There is an ancient Seraph named Elydor who rarely speaks to anyone. He just cleared a gravity pagoda that completely crushed two Paragon experts last week. He walked out without a single scratch on his golden armor. People are terrified of him."

Li Yu remained quiet while his friends discussed the heavy hitters of the Trial Grounds. He had deliberately kept a low profile since his arrival. He cleared his assigned pagodas with efficiency but he never lingered to brag about his rewards. He simply collected his soul nurturing resources, returned to his pavilion to use them and then spent his free time with Daiki, Sora and the natives.

However, as he listened to the candidates at the neighboring tables marvel at the escalating rewards, a subtle realization began to form in his mind.

He looked out the window and stared at the towering pagodas in the distance. He thought about the glowing fragments he had absorbed in the Pagoda of the Heavy Crown. He thought about the glass vials of soul drops the natives harvested from the minor trials. Li Yu then thought about the immense and staggering wealth required to hand out solidified martial intent and liquid soul amber to hundreds of candidates on a daily basis.

"Something does not add up," Li Yu spoke softly. His voice cut through the ambient noise of the teahouse.

Daiki and Sora stopped talking and looked at him. They had learned over the past few weeks that when Li Yu spoke with that specific tone, he was usually unraveling a complex truth.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked and tilted her head slightly.

"Think about the economics of this realm," Li Yu explained while tracing the rim of his teacup. "Old Du told us that The Veil is dying. The spiritual veins are bleeding into the void. They lost their greatest cultivators and their most powerful artifacts during the war. They are so desperate for help that they are dragging people from across the cosmos just to act as foundational pillars."

Daiki nodded slowly. "That is the story they told us. That is why we are here."

"If a realm is truly on the brink of collapse and starving for energy, how can it afford to hand out treasures every single day?" Li Yu asked and looked between his two friends. "Where is Astramentis getting all of this liquid soul amber and other items? You do not pour endless buckets of pristine water into a dying field just to test if the seeds are strong enough. The rewards are far too generous for a recruitment drive that might not even result in actual recruitment. The candidates can just cash out and leave with the realm's wealth."

Sora’s silver eyes narrowed as she processed his logic. She was a wanderer who understood the brutal scarcity of the cosmos. "You suspect Astramentis is lying about their desperation?"

"No," Li Yu shook his head firmly. "I believe they are truly dying. I believe they desperately need us to stay and help. But I also believe the Trial Grounds are not just a testing facility. The sacred relic is gaining something massive while we take these trials. There is an exchange happening that we cannot see."

Daiki leaned his massive frame over the wooden table. His voice dropped to a low rumble. "Are you saying the pagodas are draining us? Are they stealing our cultivation?"

"If they were actively stealing our cultivation, we would notice the loss in our foundations," Li Yu reasoned carefully. He thought back to his own experiences inside the Unbroken Step and the Heavy Crown. He had never felt his actual soul power being siphoned away.

"I do not think it is a malicious theft," Li Yu continued as the pieces of the puzzle clicked together in his mind. "I think it is an engine. A sort of symbiotic engine."

He pointed out the window toward the crowds of candidates. "Look at them. These are some of the most powerful, dense and vibrant souls in the cosmos in our respective realm. When Jin Wu fights through a storm of spatial blades, he unleashes massive amounts of Qi, soul power and effort. When Linnea commands her formations, her followers burn through immense reserves of soul energy and focus. When you face the illusions of the Chanting Blade, your soul vibrates with intense kinetic friction as you resist the pressure."

Sora’s eyes widened in sudden understanding. "The exhaust," she whispered sharply.

"Exactly," Li Yu smiled and nodded. "We are the fuel burning inside the engine. The pagodas apply the pressure. We push back with everything we have. During that struggle, we release Qi, sweat, intent and emotions into the enclosed space of the trials. We do not lose our core foundation but we shed an enormous amount of excess energy simply by surviving."

Li Yu looked back toward the towering pagodas. "Astramentis is capturing all of that excess energy somehow. The artifact gathers the byproduct of our struggles, refines it and uses it to create the rewards or use it for stability to the realm. That is probably one of the reasons why the trials are getting harder. The realm needs more fuel. It needs us to push ourselves to the absolute breaking point because the harder we struggle, the more energy the engine harvests."

Daiki stared at Li Yu in silence. The giant demon slowly rubbed his jaw as he digested the scale of the concept.

"That is brilliant," Daiki finally muttered. He did not sound angry. He sounded incredibly impressed. "It is a perfect cycle. They use a fraction of their remaining resources to bait us into the pagodas. We fight for the rewards and bleed our excess energy into their world. They use that energy to heal the realm, probably replenish at least some of the treasures and we get stronger in the process. Even if a candidate cashes out and leaves, The Veil still profited from all the Qi and soul power they generated during their stay."

"The Dao is always an exchange," Sora stated quietly. She looked at her wooden sword with a renewed sense of respect for the artifact's design. "We refine our souls in their crucible and they harvest our efforts to save their home. It is a fair trade. I prefer this brutal honesty to the hidden daggers of a royal court or sect."

Li Yu agreed completely. He did not feel betrayed or used by the revelation. In fact, it made him respect Astramentis and Old Du even more. They had engineered a masterpiece of cosmic survival. They were not begging for charity. They were facilitating a mutually beneficial transaction on an apocalyptic scale. From what he could see, the candidates were not harmed at all in all of this and both sides were gaining.

"It means we do not need to feel guilty about taking their rewards," Li Yu concluded while finishing his bitter tea. "We are earning every single drop by powering their world. The harder the trial, the more we are helping the natives."

As if waiting for his declaration, the dark purple soul-jade badge resting inside Li Yu's robes pulsed with a sudden and intense heat.

He pulled it out and set it on the table. The smooth surface of the jade glowed with a brilliant silver light. A new set of characters etched themselves into the stone. Daiki and Sora leaned forward to read the instructions.

"The Pagoda of the Sundered Sky," Sora read aloud. Her voice carried a rare note of caution. "That is located in the inner sanctum of the Trial Grounds. Only the front runners are usually assigned to that quadrant. I have not even been called there yet."

Daiki let out a low whistle and clapped Li Yu on the shoulder. The force of the strike would have shattered a boulder but Li Yu simply absorbed it.

"It looks like the artifact finally figured out you are holding back," Daiki grinned and showed his jagged teeth. "The engine needs more fuel and it just invited you to the main furnace."

Li Yu looked down at the glowing badge and smiled. He stood up from the wooden table and adjusted his dark robes.

"I suppose it is time to burn a little brighter," Li Yu said smoothly. He offered his friends a nod and walked out of the teahouse. He was ready to push his foundation further and see just how much energy he could feed to a dying world.