Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 1057: The Flames of War

Grandmaster Orion stood firmly on the wooden deck of the Lunaris command ship and narrowed his eyes at the glowing figure rising from the royal pavilion. The searing heat radiating from Ancestor Aethon distorted the afternoon sky and painted the clouds in shades of furious crimson. Orion gripped the polished railing tightly while analyzing the fluctuating Qi of his ancient rival."The ancestor feels significantly stronger than when I last saw him," Orion stated with a grim tone as he felt the intense thermal waves brushing against his own Sovereign defenses. "He must have broken through another minor bottleneck during his recent decades of seclusion. It is a very good thing that the mysterious warrior is here today. I will go help him secure the sky and ensure the ancestor does not overwhelm him."

Before the Lunaris grandmaster could step off the ship and join the Sovereign clash above the capital, a sudden and violent shift in the pressure caught his attention. He paused his movement and looked toward the distant horizons.

A grand force arrived from the northern skies. Their imposing war vessels tore through the wind while flying a distinctive banner depicting a fierce dragon swallowing an axe. At nearly the exact same time, a second armada materialized from the east. The eastern ships left thick trails of black smoke and burning cinders in their wake as they closed the distance to the city.

Princess Lena gasped and stepped closer to the railing. It quickly became apparent that the Solaria Kingdom truly intended to go to war with the Lunaris Kingdom, that those weren’t empty threats. King Aldous had already summoned his military allies to bolster his ranks long before the Lunaris fleet even launched their preemptive strike.

If Li Yu and Zhan Chen had not disrupted their sinister plans by arriving early and shattering the defensive gates, the Lunaris Kingdom would have sailed directly into the combined forces. Or they would be back at home with these three forces knocking on their door. They would have found themselves surrounded on three sides and suffering devastating casualties.

King Sterling gritted his teeth upon seeing the reinforcements and understanding what the Solaris Kingdom was planning to do. The added combat power of two allied factions would have tipped the scales of the impending war heavily against his people. Clearly a death of a prince would not have warranted such a response but they clearly felt they were ready to face his kingdom.

By the ruined gates of the capital, Zhan Chen also noticed the encroaching armies darkening the northern and eastern horizons but he did not look worried in the slightest. He glanced over his shoulder and offered his younger cousin a bright chuckle instead.

"I will handle the old man playing with fire," Zhan Chen called out while cracking his knuckles and gesturing toward the glowing ancestor. "I will leave those other two forces for you to manage. You should handle them since it was your grand idea to come here and stir up trouble in the first place."

Li Yu listened to the casual delegation of two entire armies and slowly shook his head. He thought internally that Zhan Chen was actually quite a joker for an esteemed heir. The older warrior simply laughed and treated the arriving armadas like a minor chore to be swept away before dinner. Li Yu did not mind the casual attitude at all because it fit his own carefree style perfectly. Where there was strength, everything could be resolved.

'I suppose I should help clean up the mess I started,' Li Yu thought while tightening his grip on the shaft of his glaive.

He channeled his energy and utilized his spatial arts. The fabric of the void rippled around him and he vanished from the dirt road in the blink of an eye and reappeared high in the sky to the northeast where he positioned himself roughly between the two advancing armies and the besieged capital.

Li Yu floated in the crisp air and analyzed the new arrivals.

The force approaching from the north was the Crest Spine Sect. Their ranks were filled with proud and resilient dragon kin. Some warriors maintained their towering draconic forms while flapping grand leathery wings. Others appeared entirely human while wielding heavy polearms. Many of the disciples stood in a hybrid form possessing thick emerald scales and sharp horns protruding from their foreheads.

Leading the northern formation was Sect Master Korren. The imposing man stood on the prow of his flagship in his dragon kin form displaying thick scales and a pair of wings folded behind his back. The oppressive aura rolling off the sect master indicated a firm foundation at the Tribulation realm.

The force encroaching from the east presented a much more chaotic and destructive presence. They were the Ashen Stone Clan and their members consisted of volatile living elementals. These beings were composed of shifting flames and burning ash but their physical appearances varied wildly. Some took the shape of tall humanoids wielding weapons forged from solidified flames while others roamed the decks of their ships as beasts such as fiery hounds, apes, tigers and various others.

Their leader stood at the forefront of the eastern armada. Patriarch Malphas took the form of a large crow wreathed in dark violet flames. His beady eyes locked onto the capital and his aura matched Sect Master Korren at the Tribulation realm.

While these two leaders were clearly weaker than the Sovereign ancestor defending the city, they were powerful allies brought in to help overwhelm the Lunaris forces. With their added numbers and Tribulation experts leading the charge, the Lunaris forces would have been slaughtered.

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Li Yu crossed his arms over his chest and projected his voice using his Qi so both fleets could hear him from where they were.

"Halt your advance right now!" Li Yu commanded the two armies with a tone that brokered no argument. "The Solaria Kingdom is going to fall today. You should turn your ships around and return to your homes before you share their fate."

He directed this warning specifically toward the dragon group from the north. As he hovered in the sky, he focused his unique instincts and read the karmic threads tangling around the arriving cultivators.

The karma radiating from the Crest Spine Sect felt relatively okay to his senses. It was not pristine or holy by any means but it reflected the standard nature of the cultivation world. They were martial allies seeking profit and resources. All cultivators took from others and fought for supreme treasures to reach higher realms. It was the amount of cruelty and malicious actions that stained a soul and reflected as bad karma. The dragons were ambitious but they were not evil sadists who delighted in torment.

However, the Ashen Stone Clan presented a very different picture. As Li Yu shifted his gaze to the eastern fleet, his stomach churned with disgust.

The living elementals reeked of bad karma. The dark sludge of their sins painted the sky around them in an invisible miasma of suffering. Most of their members carried the heavy weight of slaughtered innocents and who knows what else. The violet flames wrapping around Patriarch Malphas actually possessed a worse aura than King Aldous standing in the city below. The crow leader thrived on unprovoked cruelty and his foundation was built upon the ashes of those he slaughtered.

Since the fire elementals came to help a corrupt king and carried such vile karma themselves, Li Yu decided he would not let a single one of them leave this battlefield alive. He briefly wondered how the Crest Spine Sect, who seemed okay, could align themselves with such vile people from both sides but he pushed the thought aside. Benefits and temporary alliances often made strange bedfellows in the martial world but that would not save the eastern clan today.

Sect Master Korren heard the warning and raised his scaled hand to halt his northern fleet. The dragon kin leader possessed sharp eyes and he quickly assessed the chaotic situation unfolding at the city gates. He saw the ruined walls, the suppressed royal army and the Lunaris Kingdom battleships waiting in the west.

He also felt the terrifying pressure radiating from Zhan Chen. Sect Master Korren chose to keep his forces holding their position far away from the city after hearing the bold declaration from the black robed youth. He did not turn his ships around to flee but he wisely refused to charge blindly into the grinder as well.

Patriarch Malphas offered no such caution. The fiery crow let out a screeching laugh that sounded like grinding rocks and ordered his elemental clan to attack the lone cultivator blocking their path. Li Yu did not bother exchanging pleasant words with the vile patriarch either. The time for talking had passed.

In a single smooth motion, Li Yu equipped his outer defensive armor. Dark plating materialized over his robes and locked into place with a sharp metallic clatter. He lowered his stance in the sky and charged directly at the eastern fleet with his glaive gripped tightly in his hands.

As he tore through the air, his Nexus Mind flared to life. He tapped into his vast mental capacity and summoned his swords to face the incoming horde. The Celestial Star Sword Formation activated and five supreme weapons shot out while taking their designated positions around his charging form. He could now actively defend and attack simultaneously using these five blades while keeping his hands free for his primary weapon.

The Silent Bastion manifested as the immovable defensive center anchor. Pale Extinction took the northern point of the orbit. Firmament's End claimed the southern trajectory while Whispering Frost secured the eastern flank with a trail of icy mist. Gilded Calamity completed the cardinal formation by guarding the west.

He did not stop his summoning there. The Family Trio Pair erupted out to join the sweeping storm as well. Resolve, Duty and Cataclysm took its place in the violent orbit around him. Li Yu crashed into the vanguard of the Ashen Stone Clan like a falling star. His Qi clone peeled back from him as he charged and would offer support from the back.

The fiery humanoids and burning elementals charging at him were instantly torn apart by the blades. The swords acted as an impenetrable meat grinder to the forces sent first. Resolve cleaved three flaming beasts in half with a single heavy sweep while Whispering Frost froze the magma core of an elemental warrior before Gilded Calamity shattered it into dust. Li Yu swung his glaive and crushed the vanguard ranks with overwhelming physical force as he pushed further.

A volley of Abyssal Javelins flew out from behind Li Yu and peppered the crowded decks of the eastern battleships. The dark javelins pierced through the weaker elemental warriors, turning them into paste or mist before erasing their physical being altogether.

Li Yu carved a path through the sky and aimed his glaive directly at Patriarch Malphas. As his swords continued to slaughter the fire elementals closing in around him, he noticed a strange phenomenon occurring in the wake of his destruction.

Whenever his blades struck down a member of the Ashen Stone Clan, the flames making up their bodies did not dissipate into the wind like normal elemental remains. Instead, the vibrant thermal energy was forcefully sucked toward Li Yu. The scattered sparks, the burning ash and the core essence of the fallen elementals swirled through the air and absorbed directly into his chest.

Li Yu felt a sudden surge of heat blooming within his foundation. He realized mid charge that his own natal flame was actively absorbing these flames. The fire resting within him felt an intense and ravenous hunger. It viewed the living elementals not as dangerous enemies but as a rich and nourishing feast waiting to be consumed. The natal flame wanted to devour every single spark of their vile existence to strengthen itself.

A smile stretched across the face of the young cultivator as he felt the greedy pull of his inner fire. He did not suppress the sensation or try to block the incoming energy.

'Sure,' Li Yu thought while swinging his glaive to decapitate another flaming hound. 'I will let you eat them all!'

He pushed his speed further and allowed the Celestial Star Sword Formation to freely operate to its max. The blades went even faster and carved through the Ashen Stone Clan with ruthless efficiency. With every elemental that fell from the sky, a river of dark fire flowed into Li Yu and fueled the roaring orange inferno resting within his soul. The battle had just begun but the eastern clan was already serving as stepping stones for his cooking fire to get even stronger.