Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 884: A Spectacular Miscalculation

Li Yu looked at the thick wooden barrier separating them from the rest of the hollow. The heavy timber was woven tight and infused with the fading but still potent energy of the ancient tree. On the other side of that dome, Thornwood and a contingent of elite ent guards were waiting.Li Yu rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath. He was furious with himself for being in such a situation.

'Schemes.' Li Yu thought as his mind was replaying the events that led them into this trap. 'It is always the hidden dagger in a smiling hand that cuts the deepest. I walked right into a snare set by a polite host offering a gift.'

He scolded his own complacency. He had allowed the relative peace of the territory and the false benevolence of the ruler to dull his usual caution. He had accepted the Heartwood Fruit without thinking it thoroughly, trusting the facade the ancient tree had so carefully constructed. It was a harsh reminder that in the cultivation world and especially in the Ferine Realm, kindness was often a mask for the most vicious predation.

"Do not dwell on the bait." Zhan said while breaking the silence in the dome. The Heaven Severing Mantis stood nearby was surprisingly good at reading the frustration on his companion's face. "The prey consumed the hunter. You won the exchange. That is all that matters."

"I survived the exchange." Li Yu corrected him. He looked down at his hands and was feeling the staggering physical power of the Paragon level coursing through his veins. "But we are still trapped in the center of his domain. Thornwood is waiting out there. The second in command is much stronger than we are and he has an army of elite guards surrounding the hollow."

Zhan clicked his mandibles in thought. "Elder Mu planned to take your body. He would not want his own elite guards to attack him when he emerged in a human vessel since it would take time to restore his strength. He must have other methods that he would use to accelerate his cultivation after taking over. Elder Mu must have informed his inner circle about the body snatching ritual."

"Exactly." Li Yu said. "Thornwood knows the plan. He is standing out there waiting for his ancient ruler to walk out wearing my face. If we just break this dome and try to run, they will assume I resisted and they will kill us to avenge their master."

Li Yu paced around the flat root and his mind working rapidly to formulate a survival strategy. Fighting was not a viable option. Even with his massively upgraded physical body, his Qi cultivation was still in the Law Integration realm. Taking on a superior commander and an army of timbered ents in an enclosed space was not wise.

"We have to play along." Li Yu declared while stopping his pacing. "We will pretend the scheme worked. I will act as Elder Mu."

Zhan tilted his triangular head. "You wish to deceive the trees? Are you good at such things?"

"Not really but it is our best chance." Li Yu explained. "If they believe I am Elder Mu, they will let us walk right out of this hollow. I will tell them I need time to adjust to my new vessel. The ancient tree always regretted being rooted to this spot. His greatest desire was to roam free. I will use that."

Li Yu closed his eyes for a moment and was recalling the cadence and the arrogant undertone of the ancient tree's voice during their mental battle. He straightened his posture, letting the residual Wood and Life Qi he had just absorbed radiate outward from his skin. The emerald glow gave him an otherworldly and ancient aura.

"How do I look?" Li Yu asked, projecting a deep, commanding tone.

"You just look a bit shinier." Zhan replied. "But the aura matches the dead husk on the throne. It might fool them if you are convincing."

"Just play the subdued servant." Li Yu instructed. "Stand behind me and keep your scythe arms lowered."

Li Yu stepped up to the thick wooden barrier. He did not use Void Qi or his staff. He simply raised his hand, balled it into a fist and punched the timber.

The physical force of his Paragon level body erupted on impact. The thick barrier groaned, splintered and then exploded outward in a shower of heavy wooden shrapnel. The shockwave swept through the central hollow, forcing the waiting ent guards to take a step back.

Li Yu stepped through the falling debris and into the open cavern. Zhan followed closely behind with his eyes lowered in feigned submission.

A dozen elite ent guards formed a wide semicircle around the entrance. Standing at the forefront was Thornwood and his glowing green eyes were fixed intensely on the human stepping out of the dust.

Li Yu raised his chin and swept his gaze over the assembled forces with practiced arrogance.

"It is done." Li Yu announced as his voice echoed off the cavern walls. He channeled the leftover Life Qi to make his words resonate with a deep and rumbling authority. "The rotting roots have been discarded. I am finally free of my prison."

Thornwood did not bow. The towering ent remained perfectly still with his massive wooden arms hanging at his sides. The glowing green eyes narrowed slightly. Li Yu felt a minor spike of anxiety but pushed it down. He needed to sell the performance.

"This vessel is adequate, though it will take time for me to fully consolidate my power and adjust." Li Yu continued while gesturing to his own chest. "The energy of the fruit will sustain the transition. But we will not remain idle."

Li Yu pointed a finger toward the tunnel leading out of the hollow.

"Gather the forces, Thornwood." Li Yu commanded boldly. "We are going to attack the neighboring domain. I can finally roam the world and I refuse to stay hidden in this forest any longer. We will expand our territory and crush anyone who stands in our way. Prepare the others."

Li Yu waited for the salute. He waited for the heavy footsteps of the ent guards rushing to follow their ancient ruler's grand decree. Instead, a heavy, suffocating silence filled the cavern.

The ent guards did not move an inch and Thornwood stood like a statue carved from dark stone. The glowing green eyes of the guards shifted from Li Yu to their commander, waiting for a signal.

Li Yu felt a cold drop of sweat form on his back as his mind raced.

'Did I use the wrong title?' Li Yu thought frantically. 'Did I misjudge his relationship with his subordinates? Maybe Elder Mu never spoke about expanding the territory.'

Thornwood took a slow and heavy step forward. The sound of his roots grinding against the stone floor was deafening in the quiet cavern.

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"You are finally free of your roots, Elder Mu." Thornwood rumbled. His voice did not carry an ounce of reverence or loyalty. It carried a deep and simmering malice.

The elite ent guards simultaneously raised their club-like fists. The ambient wood Qi in the cavern suddenly turned hostile, pressing down on Li Yu and Zhan with crushing intent.

"What is the meaning of this?" Li Yu demanded while trying to maintain the arrogant persona. "You dare raise your hands against your ruler?"

"Ruler?" Thornwood let out a harsh and grinding sound that mimicked laughter. "You were a tyrant. You sat on your throne and fed us scraps of Qi while forcing us to guard your rotting husk. You demanded our servitude just because you sprouted a few centuries before we did."

Li Yu felt his stomach drop. The situation was spiraling out of control faster than he could process.

"Elder Mu." Thornwood continued, taking another heavy step closer. The dark wood of his body began to glow with a violent and destructive energy. "We have waited decades for you to attempt this ritual."

Thornwood raised a massive wooden arm and pointed it directly at Li Yu.

"When you were tied to the deep earth, your power was unassailable." Thornwood declared as his voice rose in volume. "But now? Now you are trapped in a fragile meat vessel. You are disconnected from the ley lines of the forest. You are vulnerable. Our time as your slaves is over. Today is our chance to escape your control."

Zhan shifted his weight as his scythe arms twitched. The mantis leaned in close to Li Yu.

"I think we made a miscalculation." Zhan whispered in a deadpan tone.

"You think?!" Li Yu hissed back through his teeth.

The double backfire was staggering. They had successfully convinced the army that Li Yu was the evil tyrant, only to discover that the army hated the tyrant and was using this exact moment of transition to stage a bloody rebellion.

"Wait!" Li Yu shouted while dropping the arrogant cadence immediately. He raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Stop! I am not Elder Mu!"

Thornwood paused as his glowing green eyes flickered.

"The ritual backfired on him." Li Yu explained rapidly, speaking in his normal voice. "He tried to invade my soul space but I killed him. His soul was destroyed and I just absorbed his energy. I only pretended to be him because I thought you were loyal to him and would kill me for surviving."

The cavern fell silent again. The ent guards looked at Li Yu and then looked at Thornwood.

Li Yu offered a strained but hopeful smile. "So, technically, I did you a favor. The tyrant is dead and you are free. We can just walk away and leave you to your new lives."

Thornwood stared at the human for a long and agonizing moment. The massive ent tilted his head, the wood of his neck creaking loudly.

"A desperate lie from a dying tyrant." Thornwood sneered.

"It is the truth!" Li Yu insisted. "Scan my soul! You will see no trace of him!"

"Even if it is the truth, it changes nothing!" Thornwood rumbled as his malicious intent flared even higher. "You reek of his essence. You carry his Life Qi in your veins. We cannot take the chance that a fragment of his will survived inside you. Furthermore, you absorbed a massive amount of our forest's energy. We will not let you walk away with our resources."

The logic was brutal and unyielding. Whether he was Elder Mu in a new body or a human who had stolen Elder Mu's power, the outcome was the same. The ents wanted him dead.

"Kill them both." Thornwood ordered. "Crush the vessel!"

The elite guards surged forward as soon as the command was given. Massive wooden fists slammed down toward the floor, carrying enough force to flatten a mountain. The cavern shook violently as the hostile Wood Qi erupted.

Li Yu did not hesitate either. He knew he could not fight a force of this magnitude. He lunged to the side and grabbed Zhan by the hard emerald carapace of his shoulder.

"Hold on!" Li Yu shouted.

He channeled every single drop of his Qi and tapped into his understanding of Void laws. He initiated the Void Step. Using the Void Step in the Ferine Realm was draining and doing it with another person was dangerous. Doing it inside a place that was even further reinforced and warded with arrays to prevent such things so enemies couldn’t enter or escape was another thing all together.

From his experience dodging the dragon guards, the spatial laws here were dense, heavy and highly resistant to manipulation. Tearing a hole in the fabric of this realm required a tremendous amount of energy and placed a catastrophic strain on the physical body of the user.

His Paragon level flesh flared with power. As he ripped the spatial fabric apart, the tearing force tried to shred his skin and crush his bones. His new strength fought back, holding his form together through its brute durability. His blood vessels bulged against his skin and a sharp pain lanced through his skull but his body did not break.

The void rift opened, swallowing Li Yu and Zhan just a fraction of a second before a dozen massive timber fists obliterated the stone floor where they had been standing.

A sensation of being dragged through a field of shattered glass overwhelmed Li Yu's senses. The Void Step drained his energy reserves dry and was pulling the last drops of Qi from his body to sustain the jump outside of this heavily warded area.

With a loud and popping sound, the spatial tear eventually spat them out.

Li Yu crashed into a thick patch of damp ferns and was rolling several times before slamming hard into the trunk of a large pine tree. Zhan was ejected as well and was tumbling through the air but was able to land on his feet with his scythe arms slicing into the dirt to brake his momentum. The process was much smoother for him since Li Yu took on all the burden.

Li Yu lay in the ferns and was gasping for breath. His entire body ached with a deep and throbbing pain. His Qi reserves were dangerously empty but his bones were intact and his skin had not torn. The physical ascension had saved his life and was what allowed them to be able to escape that place.

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and was leaning heavily against a tree. Even touching the tree made him flare in anger as his hatred for trees was at an all time high. He looked around to find themselves deep in a dense and unfamiliar section of the forest. The air was thick with humidity and the ambient Qi was still heavily saturated with the wood attribute.

"We are still within the territory." Zhan noted as his eyes scanned the dark woods. "That jump only took us a few dozen miles."

Li Yu let out a hollow and exhausted laugh. He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"We thought we had such a brilliant plan." Li Yu wheezed as a tired smile formed on his face. "We thought we were outsmarting the loyal guards."

"We pretended to be a tyrant exactly when his slaves decided to stage a violent coup." Zhan stated as his robotic voice lacked any inflection which only made the statement sound more ridiculous. "It was a spectacularly failed plan. The irony of it all."

Li Yu laughed harder and was ignoring the ache in his ribs. The bad luck he had faced was almost comical since they were still alive. He had survived a soul invasion from an ancient ruler only to nearly be beaten to death by a group of angry trees because he was too good at acting.

"My luck is truly terrible today." Li Yu sighed while pulling recovery pills from his storage ring and tossing them into his mouth to jumpstart his Qi regeneration.

He looked up at Zhan as his expression sobered. They were stranded in hostile territory with no energy left to fight.

"We need to leave this forest behind." Li Yu said while pushing himself up onto shaking legs. "Thornwood and his rebels will be hunting for us. They know I am drained."

Zhan nodded and came over to where Li Yu was. He lowered himself down and was preparing to have Li Yu get on his back so they could keep going. "Where do we go?"

"The aquatic rulers were located to the southeast." Li Yu recalled the map. "Thalassa, Gart, and Mire. Lead us southeast, Zhan. We are going to find aquatic beasts."

The Heaven Severing Mantis turned his triangular head toward the designated direction. He scented the air and was finding the path of least resistance through the dense foliage.

"Let us go." Zhan said while carrying Li Yu on his back. The two of them had both been tricked and couldn’t wait to get out of here.

Leaving the disaster of the central hollow behind them, the drained human and his insectoid guide vanished into the shadows of the ancient woodland. They were beginning their long trek toward the aquatic zones but Li Yu had other thoughts going through his mind. He was angry with himself and with these people.

He made a vow of vengeance and was planning on how he would raise an army within the aquatic territories to return and extract it.