Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The command center of the Veiled Lotus was a cavernous hall carved from dark stone. It floated in a secluded pocket of space far away from the prying eyes of the larger cosmos. Glowing maps of starlight drifted through the air and displayed the shifting borders of countless realms.

Lian Gongsun stood at the center of the room and she wore her dark dragon scale armor. She was reviewing the latest intelligence reports from the various different battles and areas she was keeping an eye on. The ten generals of her supreme legion were currently deployed across the stars to monitor the escalating chaos and she was alone in the quiet command center.

The space behind her suddenly rippled.

The defensive arrays of the Veiled Lotus did not trigger. The formidable spatial locks remained entirely dormant. There were only a few people in the entire cosmos who possessed the specific Qi signature required to bypass Lian’s personal wards without setting off alarms.

Lian turned away from the star maps to look at the person that had arrived. The cold and professional mask of the supreme general melted away. A genuine and rare smile touched her lips.

A woman stepped out of the spatial distortion. She possessed the same striking beauty and cascading dark hair as Lian but her features carried a softer and more maternal warmth. She wore elegant robes woven from pale silk and silver threads. This was Hua Eversong. She was Lian’s mother and a respected elder of the Eversong Clan.

"Mother." Lian greeted her warmly and with love in her eyes. She closed the distance and offered a respectful bow.

"You are working too hard again." Hua smiled at her daughter. She reached out and gently smoothed a crease in Lian’s armored shoulder. "I worry that you never take the time to simply rest."

"The cosmos is not resting." Lian replied to her. "Therefore I cannot rest either. But there is always time for you. Please, come sit."

Lian led her mother to a small wooden table situated in a quiet alcove of the command center. She waved her hand and a clay teapot materialized along with two delicate porcelain cups. The water boiled instantly under a brief application of her Qi and Lian poured the fragrant spiritual tea for her mother. She set the cup down in front of her mother.

Hua took a slow sip as she looked around the vast and empty dark hall.

"Your generals are busy." Hua noted.

"They are gathering information and doing other important things." Lian explained. "The cosmic board is shifting rapidly. I need eyes everywhere to ensure the Young Master’s interests are protected while he travels."

Hua frowned slightly as set her teacup down. Her expression grew serious. The maternal warmth in her eyes dimmed slightly as a heavy sorrow took its place.

"I am sure your intelligence network is vast." Hua began quietly. "You likely already know why I have come to speak with you today. It concerns the Gongsun Clan of your father."

Lian’s expression immediately hardened. The name alone brought a cold edge back into her eyes. She knew exactly what was happening to her former clan. Her spies had delivered detailed reports on their ongoing collapse. But Lian remained silent. She poured herself a cup of tea and listened respectfully because it was her mother speaking.

"There has been a lot of trouble for the clan since Yue and your father broke their ties with the Zhan Clan." Hua sighed. She looked down at her hands. "It was the most foolish decision in the history of their lineage."

"It was arrogance." Lian stated coldly. "They thought they were cutting a chain of servitude. They did not realize they were severing the only rope holding them above an abyss."

"You are right." Hua nodded in agreement. "After they broke off the engagement, at first not much actually changed. The cosmos remained quiet for them. When Li Yu’s mother was soon told what had happened, she accepted the broken oath. But she was incredibly angry."

Lian took a sip of her tea. She knew the stories of Zhan Tielan’s wrath very well and already knew what she did. After all, it happened several years ago now.

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"She descended upon the Gongsun territories." Hua continued. "She berated their elders and shattered their pride. She sent her forces to forcefully take vast amounts of treasures from their main vaults as compensation for the insult."

Hua paused and looked up at Lian.

"But she did not destroy them." Hua pointed out softly. "She could have wiped the entire clan from the map in a single afternoon if she truly wanted to. She held back her true wrath and she did not take too much. It was out of consideration for you, Lian. She knew you were doing so much for her son in the shadows for so long as well. She spared your father's clan as a favor to you. Her actions were more of a show of anger than a true declaration of war."

Lian once again felt a surge of gratitude toward Zhan Tielan. The mother of the Young Master was a terrifying entity but she was also deeply honorable. She recognized loyalty and rewarded it with mercy even when she was insulted.

"They should have fallen to their knees and thanked her for that mercy." Lian said. Her voice was devoid of any sympathy for the Gongsun.

"They did not." Hua shook her head sadly. "They celebrated their survival and thought they had weathered the storm. But the news of the broken engagement slowly got out into the wider realms. The enemy clans of the Gongsun slowly started poking their territories and assets."

Hua traced the rim of her teacup with a pale finger.

"The enemies were cautious at first." Hua explained. "They operated without the overarching protection of the Zhan Clan to fear. They probed the borders for strength and weakness. They attacked small supply convoys and tested different areas."

"The Gongsun handled those early skirmishes." Lian noted factually. "They are not weak. They have significant military assets of their own. It was for that reason that they felt they could do what they did."

"It wasn’t anything the clan couldn’t handle at first." Hua agreed. "But war is a matter of attrition. Without the deterrent of the Zhan Clan casting a shadow over them, things eventually broke down. The enemies realized no supreme force was coming to save the Gongsun. They were picked apart by several other clans working together."

Lian looked out at the glowing star maps drifting in the hall. She could see the red markers blinking furiously in the sectors that previously belonged to her former clan. The territory was shrinking by the day now.

"Then things got more chaotic for them." Hua said. Her voice dropped to a somber whisper. "The rescue mission that Li Yu went on with the others to save his father sparked a massive cosmic conflict. No one knows what happened on that mission, only that overwhelming force was displayed. If you hadn’t told me what happened, my own intelligence networks would not have been able to tell me. It is amazing that they kept everything locked down so tightly."

Lian nodded slowly. She remembered that day perfectly. It was the day the cosmos held its breath.

"While Li Yu was trapped within the temporal bubble, his father and mother went to war in vergence." Hua recounted. "They did not sit idly by. They attacked alongside the Leviathan Smashing Vanguard and the Golden Shell Phalanx. They burned paths of destruction through the enemy coalitions."

"They had to." Lian stated firmly. "The enemies crossed the ultimate line and touch upon something they never should have."

"This caused chaos throughout the cosmos." Hua continued. "Various different forces fought all over the place. Realms burned and ancient alliances shattered. And in the middle of all that blood and fire, Li Yu’s mother finally lost the last shred of her patience."

Hua looked directly at Lian. The weight of the impending disaster was heavy in her eyes even though Lian already knew.

"In her anger and grief over losing her son to the temporal relic, she went public." Hua said. "She formally denounced the Gongsun Clan. She let it be known that the Zhan Clan had absolutely nothing to do with them anymore. She revoked every last ounce of lingering protection."

Lian closed her eyes. It was the final and most devastating blow to the Gongsun Clan.

"This was where the true trouble started." Hua whispered. "Many of their ancient enemies still didn’t know if the bond was truly broken until that declaration. They thought the earlier raids were just a temporary falling out. But the public denouncement erased all doubt and that was when they got courageous."

Lian opened her eyes and looked at her mother. The reality of the cultivation world was brutal and unforgiving.

"As the crazy woman from the Zhan Clan went off to wage massive wars, she seemed even more demon-like than ever before." Hua explained. "No one wanted to draw her ire. No one wanted to stand in her way. But they all saw the bleeding carcass of the Gongsun Clan left behind in her wake. They saw unprotected wealth and undefended territory."

Hua set her teacup down. The tea had grown cold.

"The enemies began to come." Hua finished softly. "They did not come to probe anymore. They came to conquer."

Lian stared at the glowing red markers on the star map. The borders of the Gongsun Clan were collapsing from every side for some time now. The arrogance of a single prodigy and the foolishness of a proud patriarch had doomed countless lives to the fires of war.

Lian watched the map in silence while her mother sat quietly across the wooden table. The storm had finally broken over their former home and there was no shelter left to hide under.