Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The ancient trees of the Mosaic Realm towered high into the sky while their thick canopies filtered the afternoon sunlight into a soft green glow. Two days had passed since the group departed from the towering walls of Silverguard City. Li Yu wandered through the dense wilderness at a leisurely pace while taking a slow approach to adventuring.

He wanted to appreciate the natural ambient energy of the forest after dealing with the suffocating politics of the Astor and Thorne clans. Borum walked heavily behind him while Faen scouted the surrounding brush with her innate woodland agility. A sudden and sharp tug vibrated deep within his soul.

Li Yu stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes to focus on the unexpected sensation. The invisible thread pulled at his senses and directed his attention toward a specific direction deep within the dense woods. He recognized the feeling immediately since it carried a very familiar presence. It was the distinct resonance of someone bound to him via a soul contract.

This realization confused the young cultivator though. He had just arrived in this foreign realm a few weeks ago and the only two individuals bound to his service here were currently standing right next to him.

Trusting his instincts, Li Yu adjusted his path and rushed toward the source of the pull at a quick pace. Borum and Faen quickly matched his accelerated pace as they darted past thick roots and sweeping ferns. They traversed the uneven terrain for several miles until the dense forest abruptly gave way to a towering cliff face. The jagged stone wall stretched high into the clouds and offered no obvious path forward.

The invisible tether attached to his soul was still pulling him forward and leading directly into the solid rock.

Sensing the strangeness of the situation, Li Yu stepped closer to the cliff and scanned deeper with his spiritual senses. His eyes gleamed with a faint light as he peered past the physical surface as he quickly discovered several intricate arrays and concealment formations layered over the stone to hide a secret entrance. The runic work was decent but it lacked the depth needed to fool him when he was actively searching for it. If he was just walking by there was almost no way he would have been able to detect it though.

He raised his right hand and gathered a surge of dense Qi into his palm as he struck the rock wall with a precise palm thrust and injected his energy directly into the illusion array. Since he wasn’t well versed in arrays or formations, he just brute forced it. The stone rippled like disturbed water before shattering into fragments of fading light. A dark and damp cave entrance was revealed behind the broken formations.

Li Yu stepped into the cavern and his eyes widened in surprise. Lying on the cold stone floor was Queen Morrigan of the House of Night. The regal demoness was currently unconscious and suffering from severe physical wounds. How the Night Queen managed to arrive in this distant realm was a mystery he had no idea how to answer but he quickly rushed forward and knelt beside her to check on her critical condition.

As he probed, the situation was really bad. Her silver hair was matted with dried blood and her clothes were torn to shreds. While her physical lacerations were severe, they were not the worst part of her injuries. Her internal foundation was suffering catastrophic damage.

After the probe on the surface, Li Yu sent a gentle thread of spiritual sense into her body. Her meridians were broken up in many places and resembled shattered glass. Her soul flickered with a weak and dying light while her King realm core actually possessed a distinct crack running down the center. The core damage was not enough to be lasting or permanent but it was more than enough to be life threatening if left untreated and it would currently make it incredibly tough to draw Qi from.

He detected a few strands of medicinal Qi flowing through her sluggish bloodstream but the energy was incredibly weak. Clearly she had taken some healing pills to try to aid her own recovery before succumbing to her grievous wounds and passing out in this hidden cave.

"Borum," Li Yu called out without looking back toward the entrance. "Guard the front of this cave and do not let anything approach. Take these array disks and set up a portal perimeter to hide our location from any wandering beasts or passing cultivators."

The earth golem caught the bundle of metallic disks thrown his way and immediately stomped toward the threshold to execute his orders.

Li Yu then turned his attention to his other companion. "Faen, strip her of those ruined garments. They are covered in dirt, dried blood and residual Qi from her attacker which will only hinder things. Put her in a set of clean loose fitting robes so I have easier access, I need to prepare a specialized treatment."

Faen nodded and quickly approached the fallen queen. Li Yu stepped outside the immediate cavern to give them privacy while he retrieved the necessary medical supplies from his storage ring. He selected a restorative pill containing gentle nourishing properties since her cracked core could not handle a violent surge of potent energy.

When he returned to the cave a few minutes later, Morrigan was dressed in simple grey robes and resting on a soft woven mat Faen had provided. Li Yu knelt behind the unconscious queen and propped her into a seated position. He gently opened her mouth and fed her the restorative pill before pressing both of his palms flat against her back.

He wanted to feed her more powerful medicine but he was afraid her fragile body could not handle the sudden influx of power. Instead, he decided to manually facilitate the healing process himself. He drew upon his understanding of the body and slowly infused his vibrant Life Qi into her damaged system.

Warm green light illuminated the dark cavern as the life Qi flowed from his palms into her broken meridians. He spent the next several hours working in total silence and focus to mend her damaged system. He meticulously guided his Life Qi to work in tandem with the dissolving medicine.

He acted as a spiritual bridge to reconnect her torn meridians one by one where they were broken. It was a slow and painstaking task that required incredible focus, control and understanding of the overall meridian system. The queen twitched and groaned in pain several times despite remaining unconscious but the delicate work needed to be done to save her foundation.

A full day passed before Li Yu finally withdrew his hands and let out a long breath of exhausted air. He wiped the sweat from his brow and checked her condition once again.

Since he first reunited with her twenty four hours ago, her condition had finally stabilized. Her breathing was steady and a faint trace of color had returned to her pale cheeks. Her core still possessed a crack in it but the damage was no longer spreading or getting worse.

During the lengthy healing session, no enemies or pursuers had arrived at the cliff face. Li Yu still had no idea what happened to her or who inflicted such terrible wounds upon her. Faen was sent out to scout the surrounding forest a few times but she found no one else in the area.

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It was quite a strange predicament as he never would have expected to meet her here to begin with. Li Yu remembered hearing that the Night Queen had gone missing back in what he had called the ‘Demonic realm’ but never knew what the realm was actually known as. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He had even investigated the matter during his time there but found zero clues regarding her disappearance. He began to wonder if she was sent to this distant realm via some sort of ancient method or hidden spatial rift as had happened to him before.

If she did end up here through a rift, how did she end up in such a miserable state? She was knocking at death's door when he found her. Her cultivation rested at the King realm so she was not considered that weak in this territory, nor was she considered an untouchable expert. She possessed enough strength to protect herself against most common threats so it must have been something much more dangerous.

Li Yu sat near the cave wall and thought back to her complicated past. He first met her after asking Lian to save her life. He arranged that rescue since her daughter Vespera had helped him and he was traveling with her at the time she found out what happened to her mother.

During that conflict, Morrigan was ambushed by rival lords and sealed herself inside a block of impenetrable amber to survive. She was eventually freed and reunited with Vespera thanks to Lian. The mother and daughter then started the arduous process of rebuilding their fallen kingdom together.

Then she mysteriously went missing without a trace before the realm was attacked. It seemed every single time he ran into this woman, she was suffering in a terrible state.

‘Some people seem just naturally unlucky or unfortunate when it comes to the cosmic flow of fate. Or perhaps these events are trials for her to get stronger? Or is there no great flow or anything like that at all and everything is down to simple chance and luck.’ Li Yu thought and began to ponder as he rested.

After resting for a bit, Li Yu reached into his robes and took out his communication token. He infused a strand of Qi into the surface to establish a long distance connection with his Core Warden. The token hummed with a faint light before Fenric responded.

"Are you in trouble, Grand Envoy?" The voice of the Core Warden echoed through the device.

"Fenric, I need you to execute a specific tracking task for me," Li Yu spoke into the token while watching the sleeping queen. "I need you to locate Xerxis, he is known as the Hive Emperor in his realm, is well known so you can’t mistake him. You can find him by using my mother as a tracking point."

"Understood," Fenric replied steadily. "I will seek out Commander Tielan."

"Garrick is currently traveling alongside Xerxis," Li Yu continued to outline the steps. "Garrick carries a soul seal placed upon him by my mother a while ago. So you can ask her to use that connection to track Garrick down which will lead you directly to Xerxis."

"I see the path," Fenric confirmed. "What do I do once I find him?"

"Xerxis has been to the realm that I am looking for. I called it the ‘Demonic realm’ but don’t know its true name or location.” Li Yu explained. "That is the realm where Vespera originates from, the person I want you to finally get in touch with. Xerxis can help you reach that specific world because he has been there before. Tell him he met me in person and officially on that realm for the first time. Once you arrive in that realm, you need to find the kingdom that Vespera is currently ruling in place of her missing mother."

Li Yu paused to gather his thoughts before delivering the core message.

"When you find Vespera, let her know that her mother has been found," Li Yu instructed. "Tell her the Night Queen is alive but in bad shape right now. Assure Vespera that I am currently treating her injuries and I will return her back to their kingdom safely after she has fully healed."

A brief silence hung over the communication link before Fenric let out a low rumble of amusement and mild confusion

"If you do not mind me saying so, Grand Envoy. That is an incredibly convoluted chain of events just to deliver a simple message," Fenric noted with a respectful chuckle. "Tracking a soul seal to find a man, to find another man, to find a realm, to find a princess, to then ultimately tell her, her mom is okay."

Li Yu laughed softly as well and shook his head as he realized the ridiculousness of his words. "I know it sounds overly complicated but it simply cannot be helped. I do not actually know where those realms are located in the grand cosmos. I merely traveled to them by chance during a chaotic escape or some other chance encounter. This is the only way to send word back there. The task would need to be done sooner or later anyway since I would need to go through those same steps to return her mother if we didn’t send word first."

"That is true. Before I acted as a teleporting array for you, taking you from realm to realm. Now I will act as a message delivery courier.” Fenric chuckled once more “I will depart immediately and follow the chain as you commanded.”

The quiet atmosphere of the cave returned as Li Yu leaned his head against the cool stone wall and closed his eyes to rest further. He made a mental note to himself to treat Fenric to some good meals and cultivation resources. He did indeed send him on many errands and tasks and he wasn’t even his servant or someone bound to him. Fenric was following Li Yu’s orders because of the Ancestor Soul he was carrying.

A few hours later, the token resting in his lap vibrated with an urgent hum and woke him up from the nap he was having. Li Yu picked up the artifact and channeled his Qi to open the link. "Did you find Vespera already?"

"Grand Envoy." Fenric spoke with a grim and serious tone that lacked any trace of his previous amusement. "Commander Tielan was resting in your lakes, through her I was able to locate Garrick and secured the assistance of Xerxis just as you instructed. Your mother nearly took off his third leg upon meeting back with him though, if you understand what I am saying. She also nearly beat him to death but she left him back with Xerxis. Anyways, I traveled through the void using the coordinates he provided. However, we have encountered a big problem."

"What kind of problem?" Li Yu went from chuckling and finding amusement in Garrick’s received treatment from his mother, that guy had always just been indulging himself. But as Fenric went on, he sat up straight and furrowed his brow.

"The realm that Vespera should have been residing on is not there anymore," Fenric reported. "The entire realm has disappeared from its cosmic location."

Li Yu felt a chill run down his spine, this news surprised him greatly. A realm did not simply vanish without leaving a massive trail of destruction if it was destroyed so it must have moved like his home realm or something else entirely. It was the second time now that this had happened, making him grow concerned about the overall cosmos.

"Are you certain you arrived at the correct coordinates?" Li Yu asked while keeping his voice steady.

"Xerxis swore upon his life that this was the exact place," Fenric answered. "The beast is currently terrified and trembling out here in the void next to me."

Li Yu stared at the flickering shadows dancing across the cave ceiling. A disturbing pattern was beginning to form in the dark corners of the universe.

"Tell Xerxis to calm down," Li Yu ordered with a firm tone. "I need you to check the surrounding area very carefully for any residual clues. Look for shattered spatial fragments, lingering combat auras or any signs at all. Do not engage any unknown entities if you find them. After you finish the investigation, you may return back to your regular duties at the Zhan Clan."

"It shall be done, Grand Envoy." Fenric acknowledged the command.

"Thank you for checking on this matter for me, Fenric," Li Yu added with sincere gratitude. "Also, please remember to reward Xerxis on my behalf for his cooperation."

"I offered him a reward earlier but the beast did not dare to accept it," Fenric noted with a sigh. "He was far too consumed by fear upon seeing me. I will ensure he receives proper compensation once he calms his nerves."

The communication link faded away and left Li Yu sitting in the dim light of the cavern. He looked over at the sleeping form of Queen Morrigan and a heavy weight settled over his shoulders. He began wondering what kind of terrifying events could be happening.

‘Was this a sign that the dark shadows are coming sooner than anyone had predicted?’ Li Yu thought to himself. His thoughts drifted to his parents and grandfather who were shouldering the sky for him. Of all the other forces that were out there fighting things he didn’t even know about so that he and countless others could live and grow.

Either way, he needed more strength and more information to uncover the truth hidden behind the missing realms.