Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The morning air of the desolate realm vibrated with a sudden and terrifying intensity.

Li Yu stood in the center of his courtyard and paused his sword control practice. He looked down at the smooth stone floor and the ground was trembling. It was not the violent and localized shaking of an earthquake. It was a deep and resonant hum that seemed to originate from the very fabric of space itself.

The eight retainers stepped out of their spatial pavilion. They looked at the sky with narrowed eyes. The vibration was powerful enough to rattle the defensive arrays of the military camp.

Across the camp, Lei Gang stood on the raised platform and looked upward. Far away from the military camp, the true source of the cosmic vibration stood triumphant in the dark abyss of space.

Zhan Tian lowered his massive arms and let out a roar of pure and unadulterated excitement. The sound echoed across the void and shattered the drifting remnants of dead enemies. He stood at the vanguard of a colossal armada. Thousands of massive war vessels floated behind him. Their hulls were scarred by fire and stained with the black blood of cosmic horrors.

They had finally done it. They had eradicated the threat within the mysterious zone. The endless tide of the Eclipse Swarm was broken. The Ancient Dragons and the Void Chimeras had been slaughtered to the last beast. The perimeter in that zone was finally secure.

Zhan Tian stood on the prow of the flagship. He wore his pristine white armor with the jagged black accents. His wild white mane blew in the residual energy currents of the battlefield. He was covered in soot and blood but his eyes burned like twin suns. He had spent thousands of years holding the sky upon his shoulders. He had fought a crusade that most of the rest of the cosmos did not even know about.

Now he had finally defeated his enemies and more importantly had found a way home. He was finally going home.

He turned around to face the armada. The leaders of the coalition forces stood on the decks of their respective ships. There were emperors from different races, sect masters of ancient orthodoxies and patriarchs of supreme clans. They were all figures of authority in their own territories. But right now they all bowed their heads in deep reverence toward the Worldkeeper.

"The zone is sealed at last!" Zhan Tian bellowed. His voice carried across the silent vacuum of the void to reach every single soldier through Qi. "We have won this age! You fought like true warriors and you survived the abyss! I am leaving the logistics to the generals. Bring our brothers and sisters home!"

A massive cheer erupted from the armada. Millions of surviving cultivators raised their weapons in triumph.

Zhan Tian did not wait for the ships to turn around. His patience had run dry the exact moment the final enemy fell. He wanted to see his family.

He raised his bare hands and grabbed the empty space in front of him. He simply pulled his hands apart. The fabric of reality groaned and tore open like a piece of cheap fabric. A massive spatial rift stabilized in front of him. Zhan Tian stepped into the void and vanished.

Countless realms away, the Zhan Clan estate sat upon a massive continent of dense iron and spiritual stone.

The Zhan Clan was not built like a traditional sect. There were no elegant pagodas floating on clouds and no gentle streams of spiritual water. The architecture was brutally functional and breathtakingly grand. Massive fortresses of dark metal pierced the sky. The training grounds spanned for hundreds of miles.

The entire continent was layered in gravity arrays. The ambient pressure here was heavy enough to crush a normal cultivator into paste. The disciples of the Zhan Clan used this environment to temper their bodies every single second of their lives. In the main courtyards, young talents could be seen carrying special weights on their backs while sprinting. Elders sparred by punching the space until the localized reality shattered.

It was a sanctuary of physical dominance.

The sky above the central fortress suddenly distorted. The dark clouds parted violently as a massive tear in space opened up. The pressure radiating from the rift forced the arrays of the clan to whine in protest.

Zhan Tian plummeted from the rift like a white meteor and he crashed into the center of the main courtyard with an apocalyptic thud. The impact sent a shockwave of kinetic force outward that knocked several nearby disciples flat on their backs but he did not care.

The dust settled slowly while Zhan Tian stood up to his full height and rested his massive halberd on his shoulder. He took a deep breath of the air and grinned.

The heavy iron doors of the central fortress flew open. The current Clan Head rushed out. He was a man of immense power who governed trillions of lives and commanded legions of forces. He moved with a frantic speed and skidded to a halt a few yards away from the crater.

"Worldkeeper!" The Clan Head shouted. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head deeply. "You have returned!"

"You grew a beard, brat." Zhan Tian laughed loudly. His voice shook the stone pillars of the courtyard. "Stand up. From your clothes you are the Clan Head now. Stop kneeling in the dirt."

The Clan Head stood up quickly but kept his posture incredibly respectful. Zhan Tian called nearly everyone a brat. It was a term of endearment and the clan head took no offense to such things.

A moment later the air shimmered. Three elderly figures materialized in the courtyard. They looked ancient and their physical bodies were withered but the aura they carried was unfathomable. These were the true ancestors of the Zhan Clan who spent the current eras in deep slumber.

Zhan Tian stopped laughing. He planted his halberd in the stone and offered a deep and respectful bow to the three elders. They were some of the only few people in the clan older than him.

"We felt the cosmic resonance." The oldest ancestor spoke. "Is the crusade finished?"

"We were victorious." Zhan Tian answered directly. "We shattered their leaders and sealed the zone completely. The forces are returning home."

A collective sigh of relief washed over the Clan Head and the gathered elders. One of the shadows that had threatened this cosmos for thousands of years was finally gone.

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"However." Zhan Tian added casually. "I investigated that area before we sealed it. That zone was just a single staging ground. There will be more of such zones opening in the future. The war is not permanently over."

The elders froze and the Clan Head stared at Zhan Tian with wide eyes. The stunning revelation that the apocalyptic threat would return was enough to send the entire cosmos into a panic.

"But do not worry about that right now." Zhan Tian waved his large hand dismissively. "That is a problem for another time or era. I am back and everyone who went with me just wants to rest. We held the sky for long enough. Let the other empires and sects panic when the time comes. I am going to see my family."

He pulled his halberd from the stone and walked past the stunned leaders. He did not care about the distant future of the cosmos at this exact moment. He only cared about the present, of which he had missed so much of.

Meanwhile at a distant command outpost, Zhan Tielan stood frozen in her office.

She had felt the cosmic vibration the moment her father tore the void. The unique signature of his bloodline resonated perfectly with her own. She dropped the ledgers she was holding and she did not issue any orders to her adjutants. She simply tore a spatial rift of her own and stepped through.

Zhan Tian walked through the sprawling estate and arrived at his old private courtyard. The space had been kept perfectly clean and untouched during his long absence. He pushed the wooden gates open and stepped inside. He looked at the familiar stone benches and the ancient spirit tree growing in the center.

The air behind him warped. Zhan Tielan stepped out of the spatial tear.

She wore her dark commander robes. She was the terrifying supreme commander so many knew of but the moment she saw the broad back of the white haired man standing in the courtyard, all of her authority melted away.

"Father." Tielan breathed as her voice trembled.

Zhan Tian turned around and his fierce eyes softened completely. He dropped his halberd onto the grass and opened his massive arms.

Tielan ran across the courtyard and threw herself into his embrace. Zhan Tian wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. He buried his face in her dark hair and closed his eyes. The thousands of years of slaughter and isolation finally lifted from his shoulders.

"I am home." Zhan Tian whispered. "I am so sorry it took this long."

Tielan hugged him fiercely. She did not care about the war or the zones. She only cared that her father was alive and standing in front of her. They held the embrace for a long time before Zhan Tian finally stepped back to look at her.

He placed his heavy hands on her shoulders and smiled. "You grew strong. You make me incredibly proud."

Tielan wiped a stray tear from her eye and smiled back. "I had to be strong. Someone had to watch over the clan while you were gone."

Zhan Tian nodded slowly. His expression then shifted from warm affection to intense eagerness. He looked around the empty courtyard.

"Where is my grandson?" Zhan Tian asked. His voice boomed with excitement. "I have been looking forward to seeing him since I broke the siege! Where is the boy?"

Tielan blinked in shock. Her smile vanished and was replaced by pure confusion.

"How do you know about Li Yu?" Tielan asked. "I had him long after you were stuck inside the zone. The communication lines were completely severed and I have been keeping it a secret. It was impossible for such news from the clan to reach your armada."

Zhan Tian threw his head back and laughed. "News? I do not need scouts to tell me about my own bloodline! I met the boy myself. We crossed paths in the Law River."

Tielan stared at him blankly. "The Law River? Which one?"

"The River of Souls." Zhan Tian stated proudly. "I was walking the grey mist and the boy just strolled right up to me. He was hopping and skipping like he was in a spring meadow. The crushing pressure of that place did not even touch him."

Tielan stepped back. She was stunned. She knew her son possessed a strong soul from the few reports she got on him but she didn’t understand the extent of his power. She knew he could endure physical punishment but she had no idea that his soul was strong enough to walk the River of Souls to the same point that her father could. That river was a death trap for even supreme experts.

"He walks the River of Souls?" Tielan whispered.

Zhan Tian stopped laughing. He looked at her shocked expression and frowned slightly.

"What kind of mother does not know much about her own son's cultivation?" Zhan Tian asked with a lighthearted chuckle. He was trying to tease her. "Do you just let the boy run wild without checking his foundation?"

The teasing words hit Tielan like a physical strike that few could deliver to her.

The stoic and terrifying supreme commander shattered completely. The guilt and the sorrow that she had buried surged to the surface. Tears welled up in her cold eyes and spilled over her cheeks. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand and let out a broken sob. She reverted completely into the little girl she once was when her father was around.

Zhan Tian was stunned by the reaction and he froze in place. He had faced down Ancient Dragons without blinking but the sight of his daughter crying uncontrollably terrified him.

"Tielan?" Zhan Tian asked softly. He reached out with panic in his eyes. "I am sorry. I was just joking. Please do not cry."

"I did not know." Tielan cried out. Her voice was thick with anguish. "I do not know much about his cultivation because I was not there."

She looked up at her father while the tears streamed down her face.

"We were separated." Tielan explained through her sobs. "He grew up mostly entirely on his own in a lower realm. He fought his way up from the very bottom without any guidance. I missed his entire life. I missed everything to keep him away from the dangers and burdens."

Zhan Tian stood in silence as she poured her heart out. She told him about the separation and why she and Li Canghai had done it. She told him how Li Yu had survived and thrived on his own. She explained that he was living a good life now and had grown into a remarkable young man but the lost time could never be recovered.

The Worldkeeper finally understood. He understood why she cried and he understood the immense gap in her knowledge and his heart broke for her. He looked at his daughter and saw the exact same sorrow that he had carried in the dark zone for thousands of years.

"I am so sorry." Zhan Tian said quietly. He stepped forward and pulled her back into a tight embrace. "It must have been so incredibly hard on you."

Tielan buried her face in his chest and wept openly.

"I left to shoulder the sky." Zhan Tian whispered while resting his chin on her head. "I thought I was making the ultimate sacrifice for the cosmos. But I just left my family behind to bear my burdens. I forced you to fight a war here while I fought a war out there. I should have been here to protect you. I should have been here to protect my grandson."

They stood in the quiet courtyard and hugged tightly. The tears ran down their cheeks in a shared understanding of one another's heavy burdens. They were both leaders who had sacrificed their families for the sake of the greater picture. They finally had the chance to mourn the time they had lost.

The wooden gates of the courtyard creaked open. Li Canghai stepped into the space and he wore his elegant robes and carried a calm demeanor. He saw his wife crying in the arms of the massive white haired warrior. He did not interrupt the moment immediately. He simply waited respectfully near the entrance.

When Tielan finally pulled back and wiped her eyes, she looked over at her husband. She offered him a small and watery smile. Zhan Tian turned his gaze toward the man standing at the gate. The Worldkeeper analyzed Li Canghai with a sharp and calculating look. He noted the profound Qi reserves and the steady foundation.

Li Canghai walked forward. He stopped a respectful distance away and bowed his head deeply to the ancient warlord.

"Father in law." Canghai said. His voice was steady and full of genuine respect. "Welcome home."

Zhan Tian looked at the man who had married his daughter and fathered his monstrous grandson. A wide grin slowly spread across his scarred face. He had a lot of catching up to do and a massive amount of inheritance gifts to hand out. The Worldkeeper was finally back where he belonged.