Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 864: The Arena and the Clinic

The grand arena of Gilded Fate City was a colossal structure built from dark polished stone and reinforced with heavy iron bands. It sat in the very center of the entertainment district like a sleeping giant. The roar of the massive crowds inside could be heard from several streets away and the air around the building smelled faintly of ozone and spilled blood.Li Yu walked up to the main entrance and paid the standard entry fee to a bored looking guard wearing heavy armor. He did not ask for VIP seating or a private viewing box. He simply wanted to blend in with the normal crowd and enjoy the spectacle. He walked down a long stone corridor and emerged into the blinding light of the spectator stands.

The arena floor was massive. It was a wide oval of packed sand surrounded by incredibly thick protective arrays that shimmered like a wall of water. Tens of thousands of people filled the tiered seating. They were shouting, cheering and waving betting slips in the air with wild enthusiasm.

Li Yu found an empty stone bench near the middle rows. He bought a large bag of roasted nuts from a passing vendor and settled in to watch. High above the arena, hidden within the folded layers of the void, the five elite stealth experts were watching him with intense anxiety.

"He is at the fighting pits." Winter stated. His voice was grim. He crossed his arms and stared down through their scrying array. "Prepare yourselves. If he places a wager we must ensure his champion wins."

"Rigging a live combat match is incredibly difficult." Solstice complained. He rubbed his temples in frustration. "We cannot just change things without the fighters noticing. If we suppress an opponent too much, they will realize an outside force is interfering."

"We will do whatever is necessary." Winter commanded coldly. "Even if we have to secretly drug the opposing fighter. Keep your eyes on him. Autumn, is he moving toward the betting windows?"

Autumn focused her tracking senses on the young master sitting in the crowd. She watched him crack a roasted nut between his teeth.

"No." Autumn reported. A sense of relief washed over her face. "He walked right past the wager stations. He did not buy a betting slip. He is just eating."

Spring let out a long breath and leaned back against the void wall. "Thank the heavens. I did not want to spend the afternoon trying to secretly trip a cultivator during a death match."

"Maintain vigilance." Winter ordered but the tension in his shoulders visibly lessened as well. "We watch and wait."

Down in the stands, Li Yu was perfectly content. The first match of the afternoon began with the loud ringing of a massive brass gong. Two cultivators stepped onto the blood stained sand. One was a tall woman wielding a pair of curved sabers that crackled with blue lightning. The other was a heavy set man carrying a massive iron shield that pulsed with deep yellow earth Qi. The announcer declared it a standard survival match.

The woman moved first. She became a blur of blue light as she dashed across the sand. She swung her sabers in a rapid flurry of strikes but the heavy set man simply planted his feet and raised his shield. The earth Qi flared and formed a solid wall of stone. The lightning sabers crashed against the barrier and sent sparks flying high into the air but they could not break through.

Li Yu chewed his snacks and analyzed their movements. To a mortal or a low level cultivator it was a dazzling display of speed and power. But to someone at the Law Integration level, it was painfully slow and riddled with flaws. The woman was wasting too much energy on flashy strikes that lacked penetrating force. The man was relying entirely on the defensive arrays in his shield and had no counterattack strategy prepared from what Li Yu could tell.

The match ended exactly as Li Yu predicted. The woman exhausted her Qi reserves after ten minutes of relentless attacking. The heavy set man simply pushed forward with a massive shield bash, knocked her off her feet and held a stone dagger to her throat.

The crowd erupted into cheers and groans as fortunes were won and lost.

Li Yu stayed in his seat and watched several more fights unfold. He saw a beast tamer command a pack of spectral wolves against a fire aligned spearman. He watched two Core Formation martial artists engage in a brutal hand to hand brawl that shattered the stone floor beneath the sand.

It was highly entertaining in a very simple way. He did not have any stakes in the outcome so he could just appreciate the raw effort the fighters were putting into their survival. There were no deaths during the time Li Yu was watching but from listening in on what others were saying, death was pretty commonplace here. Fortune and fame usually did indeed walk side by side with death.

By the time the sun began to dip past its highest point in the sky, the matches hit a scheduled intermission. The arena staff flooded the floor to repair the broken arrays and rake the bloody sand.

Li Yu realized his stomach was rumbling. The roasted nuts were a good snack but he wanted a proper meal. He reached into his robes and pulled out the small jade communication token he had given to Mei.

He channeled a tiny pulse of Qi into the jade and spoke into it.

"Mei." Li Yu said casually. "The fights are on a break. Do you know any good places to get a hot meal near the arena."

He waited for a response but the token remained dark and silent. Li Yu frowned slightly. He waited for another five minutes. In a city this crowded, it was entirely possible she was just distracted or dealing with the noisy streets. He sent another pulse of Qi.

"Mei, are you there?"

Still nothing but silence.

Li Yu stood up from the stone bench. His casual demeanor shifted slightly. Mei was a very diligent guide. She had been incredibly grateful for his help with the slum enforcers earlier that morning. It was highly unusual for her to simply ignore a direct message from her employer.

The jade token was not just a communication device. It possessed a basic spatial tether that allowed the two halves to locate each other. Li Yu closed his eyes and focused his senses on the small piece of jade in his palm. He felt a faint pulling sensation directing him toward the western side of the city.

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He left the roaring arena behind and stepped back out onto the streets. He followed the invisible tether through the dense crowds.

The pull led him away from the wealthy entertainment districts and the grand avenues of white stone. He found himself walking back into the poorer neighborhoods where the cobblestones were cracked and the buildings leaned heavily against one another. He navigated the winding alleys with a brisk pace.

Li Yu finally arrived in front of a small rundown wooden building located right on the absolute edge of the slum district. The paint on the door was peeling but the front steps were swept completely clean. The strong sharp smell of medicinal herbs and boiled bandages drifted out from the open windows.

A wooden sign hanging above the door simply read, Old Chen's Clinic. Li Yu pushed the door open and a small brass bell chimed softly above his head. The interior of the clinic was dim but meticulously organized. Walls of wooden drawers held countless dried herbs and roots. In the center of the room a frail old woman was lying on a clean white cot.

Mei was sitting on a stool beside the cot. She was holding the old woman's pale hand and weeping silently. Standing directly behind her was a middle aged man with heavily calloused hands and a pronounced limp. A middle aged woman with sharp tired eyes was pacing nervously at the foot of the bed. They were the parents he had watched in secret before.

An elderly man wearing a stained white apron was leaning over the old woman. He was carefully inserting thin silver needles into specific pressure points along her chest to stabilize her breathing.

Mei heard the chime of the door. She turned her head and her tear filled eyes widened in shock.

"Young master." Mei gasped.

She immediately dropped her grandmother's hand and scrambled to her feet. She rushed toward Li Yu and tried to drop to her knees to perform an apologetic bow right there on the wooden floorboards. Li Yu stepped forward smoothly and caught her by the elbows before her knees could touch the ground.

"There is no need for that." Li Yu said firmly but gently. He pulled her upright.

"I am so sorry." Mei cried. Her voice was thick with panic and guilt. "I missed your message. I abandoned my duties today. I am a terrible guide."

"You did nothing wrong." Li Yu assured her. "I was simply trying to find a place to eat and you did not respond. I was concerned something bad had happened to you so I tracked the token. I am glad you are safe."

The middle aged parents stared at the young man. The father stepped forward and placed himself slightly in front of his wife. His posture was deeply respectful but undeniably cautious.

He recognized Li Yu from Mei's descriptions of him. This was the incredibly wealthy and dangerous stranger who had casually given their daughter a lot of money and then paid off their debts. It all seemed too good to be true and he might have evil plans for them.

Li Yu could easily see the wariness in their eyes. They were protective parents standing in a room with a being of unknown power and thoughts. He offered them a polite non threatening nod.

"You must be Mei's parents." Li Yu said softly. "Do not worry about me. My tour can wait. What happened here."

Mei wiped her face with the back of her sleeve. She took a shuddering breath. "It is my grandma. When I ran home to tell them the good news about the debt, she suddenly started coughing up black blood. She collapsed on the floor. The neighbors helped me carry her to Doctor Chen."

Li Yu looked over at the old man working over the cot. Old Chen finished placing the final silver needle and let out a long and weary sigh. He wiped his hands on a rag and turned to face the family.

"I have temporarily stabilized her meridians," Old Chen explained. His voice was raspy and tired. "But it is only a temporary measure. The damp and foul Qi of the slums has settled deep into her lungs. It has caused Withered Vein Syndrome. The corruption is slowly freezing her internal organs."

"Can it be treated?" The father asked desperately. His hands gripped his wooden cane tightly.

"Yes, it can be treated." Old Chen nodded slowly. He looked at the family with deep sympathy. "But not with normal herbs or boiling broths. To completely purge that level of corruption and warm the body back to life, she requires a Crimson Sun Vitality Pill."

The entire room went dead silent. Mei's mother closed her eyes and let out a broken sob. The father bowed his head in defeat.

Li Yu recognized the name of the pill. A Crimson Sun Vitality Pill was a mid tier medicinal item. It was fairly common for cultivators in the Core Formation or Soul Formation realms. They used it to recover from severe frost injuries, to cleanse their bodies after exploring toxic environments and to also increase their own vitality.

But to a mortal family living in the slums, it might as well have been a star plucked from the heavens. It cost an absolute fortune. Even with the massive tip Li Yu had given Mei the night before, it would drain nearly all of their newfound wealth to purchase a single pill from a certified alchemy pavilion.

"It costs too much." The mother whispered. The crushing reality of the world was settling back onto her shoulders.

"I can try to keep her comfortable." Old Chen offered quietly. He knew their financial situation. He did not charge them just to open his door but he could not manifest a high tier pill out of thin air either.

Li Yu watched the family break down again. He reached into his spatial ring.

During his travels he had looted a lot of wealth, defeated elders and traded with countless merchants. Everyone he defeated, he took their storage rings and he was not lacking in wealth. His inventory of medicinal pills was vast and highly disorganized. He mentally sifted through a pile of jade bottles until he found the correct pill.

He pulled the small jade bottle out of his robes and he popped the wooden cork with his thumb. The moment the bottle opened a wave of intense comforting heat washed over the entire clinic. The sharp smell of medical herbs was instantly overpowered by a rich vibrant fragrance that smelled like a warm summer morning.

Li Yu tapped the bottom of the bottle and several bright red pills rolled into the palm of his hand. They glowed with a soft inner fire. Old Chen gasped. His eyes locked onto the pills and he took a stumbling step forward.

"By the heavens." The old doctor breathed out. "Those are flawless quality Crimson Sun Vitality Pills."

Li Yu looked at the small handful of pills. He then looked at the desperate family. If he gave them the entire bottle, they would instantly become targets. Handing them an excess of medicine was not a blessing. It was a curse that would drag them into the violent underworld of cultivator greed.

Li Yu picked a single glowing red pill from his palm and he put the rest back into the jade bottle and sealed it away. He walked over to the cot and handed the single pill to Old Chen.

"Administer this to her." Li Yu instructed calmly.

The doctor took the warm pill with trembling hands. "Young master this is... this is a fortune. Are you certain."

"It is just a common pill where I come from." Li Yu simply replied. He turned to look at Mei and her stunned parents. "You will not have to worry about the dampness of the slums affecting her ever again."

The father dropped his cane. He fell to his knees on the wooden floorboards and pressed his forehead against the ground. The mother immediately followed him, weeping loudly in gratitude. Mei stood frozen with her hands covering her mouth as fresh tears streamed down her face.

"Thank you." The father sobbed into the floor.

"You owe me nothing." Li Yu said softly. He stepped back toward the clinic door. "Just focus on your family. I am going to go find that meal now."

He did not wait for any more praises. He simply smiled at Mei, pushed the wooden door open and stepped back out into the bustling streets of the city. He left the small clinic behind and let the brass bell chime softly in his wake.