Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Li Yu and Lian were left completely alone on the stone benches. The afternoon sun cast a warm and golden glow over the private courtyard. The heavy iron doors were sealed shut and the sounds of the bustling continent were entirely muted. The silence between them was heavy but it was not uncomfortable. It was just filled with a massive amount of unspoken tension.

Li Yu looked at Lian and he saw her sitting there in her dark dragon scale armor. She looked exactly like a warrior who commanded endless legions. He felt a deep and persistent sense of inadequacy washing over him. He was a junior who had barely stepped onto the true cosmic stage.

"You do not need to take anything my grandfather says too seriously." Li Yu began immediately. He wanted to clear the air before the silence stretched too long. "He likes to make grand declarations and force his will upon the room. But you are not stuck with me. You can of course be with anyone you want to be with like my father said."

Lian turned her head slowly to look at him. She saw the genuine insecurity swimming in his eyes.

She internally thought in a playful manner that he was a complete fool. He had absolutely no idea the depths of her loyalty. He did not know that she had devoted her entire life to helping him from the shadows. He did not know that she had built a hidden force specifically to act as his sword and shield when the time came.

Being engaged to him was not a political burden or a forced duty. It was an incredible blessing that validated centuries of solitary planning. She understood the intentions of Zhan Tian, Canghai and Tielan perfectly. She was thanking them from the bottom of her heart for giving her this official opportunity.

"I am fully aware of my own choices." Lian replied softly. "I do not feel stuck in the slightest."

"I will work hard though." Li Yu went on earnestly. He clenched his fists on his lap. "I promise I will focus entirely on my cultivation. I want to build a foundation of forces as well that is worthy. I want to be able to stand on the same stage as you within the next one hundred years."

Lian smiled at him. It was a warm and genuine expression that softened her sharp features.

"I believe you can do it." Lian said back to him.

She thought to herself how ridiculous such a bold statement would be coming from anyone else in the cosmos. Cultivating to her level took thousands of years of endless struggle, countless life and death battles and dedication to the Dao. A normal genius claiming they would catch up to a supreme general in a single century was laughable.

But Li Yu was not normal. His cultivation speed had been completely insane since he first started on his path. He possessed the bloodline of two powerful clans and the personal guidance of a Worldkeeper now. She actually believed he could bridge the massive gap in that short amount of time.

"You should know something else before we make promises." Lian told him calmly. She adjusted her posture on the stone bench. "I am several thousands of years old. Are you going to be okay with a wife that old?"

Li Yu was slightly taken aback by the direct question. He knew logically that cultivators of her realm lived for entire eras. He knew the adults in his family were ancient as well even though their appearance didn’t show it. He just never put the specific thought into his own mind regarding her until it was actually said out loud.

He looked closely at her flawless skin, her vibrant dark eyes and her cascading black hair. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"It does not matter." Li Yu said honestly as he offered a small smile. "You have thousands of years left to live. And you certainly do not look old."

Lian let out a bright giggle. The sound was completely out of character for the stoic and fearsome general of the Veiled Lotus. It was light, musical and incredibly charming. Li Yu was instantly mesmerized by the sound of her laughter.

"Thank you for the compliment." Lian smiled warmly at him. "But the path in cultivation is very long and filled with immense suffering. You will have to put in a massive amount of effort if you want to keep up with me."

"I will." Li Yu promised with determination.

They relaxed their tense postures and sat down properly on the bench at the far end of the courtyard. The initial awkwardness faded away as they spent the next few hours just chatting and getting to really know one another for the first time. They had 100 years to figure things out but all paths start somewhere.

Lian of course lied to him quite a bit during the conversation. She carefully avoided revealing everything she had done in the shadows. She kept the real reason for the existence of the Veiled Lotus a complete secret. She mostly talked about her experiences from before she left the Gongsun clan. She told him about her early days of training, the ancient martial tournaments she had entered and the various beautiful sights she had seen in her youth.

Li Yu in turn told her about his journey so far. He kept to the broad strokes of his adventure and did not go into any actual details regarding his deep secrets while speaking about the general path he had walked. Li Yu talked about his time on the farm, his recent brutal training at the vanguard camp and the various odd characters he had met along the way.

His mouth was moving a bit too fast. He was incredibly eager to share his life with her up to this point. He wanted her to know who he was.

He got to the part where he was discussing his mental discipline exercises. He casually mentioned that at one point in his journey, he was training against resisting the allure of women to ensure his Dao heart remained completely stable.

Lian stopped listening to the rest of his sentence. She blinked in mild surprise and then laughed cutely at him.

"There is such training?" Lian asked with a highly amused smirk.

Li Yu froze completely and he felt his face heat up instantly. He was completely embarrassed by his own words. Li Yu internally cursed himself for bringing the topic up. He thought he should have never mentioned resisting female allure to his newly minted future wife. He was just too caught up in telling her about his life that he completely messed up his filter.

"I was quite weak to it at first but soon became like a monk when it came to such things. It was just a mental discipline exercise." Li Yu tried to explain weakly. He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Is that so?" Lian joked. Her dark eyes sparkled with sudden mischief. "You might have gotten good at resisting other women and their sexual appeal. But let's see if you can resist my charms and appeal?"

Before Li Yu could even process the sudden challenge, Lian waved her armored hand. She placed a dense Qi barrier around them, blocking between their bench and the main hall where the adults were currently chatting. The opaque shield completely blocked the view and senses of their corner of the courtyard.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A soft and luminescent light enveloped her body. The heavy, intimidating dragon scale armor vanished into her spatial storage. She transformed into a set of elegant sleeping clothes. Li Yu had only ever seen her wearing heavy combat gear or formal military robes. The soft silk robes were incredibly alluring. The thin material perfectly outlined her great curves and clung to her figure in all the right places.

She shifted her posture on the bench gracefully. She moved into a few seductive positions that were specifically designed to captivate the gaze and test the absolute limits of a man's focus.

She knew exactly how to do this flawlessly. She had actually received training in this exact art. In her meticulous preparation to do absolutely whatever was needed for Li Yu, she had sought out advice and physical training from women highly skilled in the craft.

She had hired top courtesans from different pleasure houses to teach her how to properly entice and please him if he ever desired her body. She did her best to prepare for what was needed.

Across the courtyard, the sudden appearance of the dense privacy barrier surprised the adults. They paused their amiable conversation on the wooden porch.

The opaque shield only made them curious and Zhan Tian raised a thick eyebrow. The Worldkeeper sent out a casual probe of his divine sense to see what the younger generation was doing without thinking about it much.

He easily bypassed Lian's barrier without breaking it or triggering her defensive alarms.

His vision pierced the veil instantly. He saw the alluring silk sleeping clothes and the highly seductive posture. Zhan Tian instantly snapped his divine sense back and stopped probing. He cleared his throat loudly in embarrassment.

He raised his massive hand. He created another barrier directly around Lian's own shield. His domain flared into existence and completely blocked the incoming probes of Canghai, Tielan and the Eversong parents before they could even cast them.

"Do not look." Zhan Tian commanded the group with a stern voice. "Give them their privacy."

The adults pulled their divine senses back immediately without getting to see anything. They all nodded in knowing understanding.

"My boy works fast!" Tielan laughed brightly. She was incredibly proud of her son's apparent initiative.

Back inside the dual barriers, Li Yu was completely oblivious to his grandfather's intervention. He was currently blushing like crazy. His face was entirely red and his eyes were going all over the place as he tried desperately not to look at her. He stared at the stone floor, the sky and his own boots.

But his eyes kept snapping back to her different curves and her beautiful face. He was losing his mental battle spectacularly. His vaunted temptation resistance training was completely crumbling under the focused assault of the Black Lotus.

Lian giggled at his panicked state. She leaned slightly closer to him as the scent of jasmine and steel washed over him.

"It looks like the training was not enough after all." Lian teased him softly. Her voice was a purr. "You clearly need more training."

Li Yu was really embarrassed now. His heart was hammering against his ribs and he did not realize that Lian had this kind of playful side to her. She was teasing him relentlessly and he had absolutely no defense against it. He felt like a cornered prey waiting to be eaten.

Lian looked at him closely. She thought Li Yu was really cute as he panicked like this. It was highly endearing to see him completely flustered by a simple change of clothes and a shift in posture.

"We will have to have this kind of training more often." Lian told him with a soft smile. She traced a finger lightly over the edge of the stone bench. "You clearly are not strong enough yet. You might get stolen away by some vixen on your travels. That would not be good for me."

"I am only like this because I have a crush on you!" Li Yu quickly corrected her.

He clamped his mouth shut the exact second the words left his lips. He realized what he had just revealed. Li Yu was completely embarrassed and wanted the dense stone floor to swallow him whole. He had just blurted out his deepest feelings like a frightened child.

Lian paused her movements entirely.

Her teasing smile shifted into a bright and incredibly genuine smile. She had a feeling that was so but hearing the actual words themselves was much nicer than she anticipated. It filled her heart with a deep and unexpected warmth.

She decided to spare him any further torture. She stopped teasing him and channeled her Qi. The alluring silk robes vanished instantly and her dark dragon scale armor returned with a heavy clack. She was back to being the stoic and untouchable general.

She waved her hand to lower her privacy barrier.

The opaque Qi dissolved into the wind but the view of the main hall did not return. Lian found herself staring at a second barrier forged from white energy. Lian froze. She stared at Zhan Tian's barrier.

Then it was her turn to blush. She realized exactly what had happened in her brief moment of playfulness. The adults had noticed her barrier go up. The Worldkeeper had bypassed it, saw exactly what she was doing in her silk clothes and then the Worldkeeper had shielded them from the rest of the parents.

Her face turned as red as a setting sun. She was a supreme commander caught acting like a seductress by one of the terrifying warlords in the cosmos. The white barrier faded away a moment later after Lian knocked on it slightly. They began walking back to the parents waiting on the porch.

Lian was bright red. She kept her head slightly bowed to hide her burning cheeks.

"It is not what you think." Lian told them quickly as they approached the steps. She tried desperately to maintain her professional military dignity.

"Do not worry." Tielan smiled warmly at her. Her eyes crinkled with amusement. "You two can do whatever you want. We do not mind at all."

Hua agreed right away. She nodded enthusiastically at her daughter, clearly pleased by the rapid progress. Gongsun Ming and Li Canghai were both smiling broadly. They were just happy for the kids and glad they were getting along so well in private.

Zhan Tian crossed his massive arms over his chest plate. He looked down at the two blushing youths.

"You should be more bold, Li Yu!" Zhan Tian declared loudly. What little he did see, it was Lian pushing the advantage instead of Li Yu. His voice boomed across the courtyard. "If anything, you should hurry up and give me some great grandkids as soon as possible. Do not wait the full hundred years for that!"

Lian turned completely red now. Her skin was practically burning under her heavy armor. Li Yu was in the exact same state. He coughed awkwardly and stared intensely at the sky to avoid eye contact with anyone.

"I need to return to my work." Lian said rapidly.

She instantly tried to leave to escape the overwhelming embarrassment of the situation. She channeled her Qi to open a rift back to her command center. A heavy wave of Qi crashed down over the courtyard though. Zhan Tian stopped her with a flawless spatial lock.

Lian was stunned. She found herself completely frozen in place. She could not move a single muscle or channel a single drop of Qi.

"Not so fast." Zhan Tian chuckled deeply. "I want to see my cute granddaughter in law blush some more."

Lian felt her cheeks heat up even further under the playful scrutiny. She realized in that exact moment that what Li Yu had said earlier was entirely true. Zhan Tian really did like to tease his family without mercy.

But as she stood there frozen and blushing under the laughter of the adults, a strange and wonderful feeling washed over her. It made her feel incredibly good. She knew the Worldkeeper was a terrifying warlord to the rest of the cosmos.

He was ruthless and unyielding to his enemies. To have him playfully lock her in place just to tease her meant he was already treating her like true family. That was absolutely not his personality to outsiders.

Zhan Tian laughed one final time and finally let her go. The spatial lock vanished as quickly as it appeared. Lian did not waste another second. She bowed hastily, opened a rift, and stepped through immediately. She fled back to the Veiled Lotus to cool her burning face and process the incredible events of the day.

Gongsun Ming and Hua Eversong laughed warmly at their daughter's hasty retreat.

"We should go as well." Ming said with a respectful bow to Zhan Tian, Tielan and Canghai.

They said their final goodbyes and opened a spatial tear of their own. They stepped into the void, leaving the Zhan family alone to enjoy their peaceful courtyard once again.