Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 915: The Path of Simplicity and the Nexus Mind

The routine of the camp fell back into a grueling and predictable rhythm. Three days passed in a blur of dust, sweat and physical agony.Li Yu felt his physical vessel condensing further with each passing cycle. The tears in his muscle healed denser every night under the restorative effects of his meals and his physique. The concept of the Absolute Impact that Lei Gang had taught them began to feel much more natural. Li Yu could align his bones and compress his physical mass with far greater efficiency now. He no longer leaked as much kinetic energy through his joints when he struck the empty air.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, the recruits gathered in the central plaza once again. They stood in their neat formations and waited for what was to come. Lei Gang walked up the stone steps of the raised platform. He looked unusually tired. Deep bags hung under his sharp eyes and he carried an air of frustration.

The chief instructor had spent the last three nights agonizing in his private office. He had tried to invent a brilliant and elegant combat technique to appease Commander Tielan. He had drawn complex diagrams on his walls. He had referenced ancient scrolls regarding shifting arrays and intricate sword movies. He wanted to figure out a way to weave the army's brutal methods into something that looked like a profound martial art.

He finally reached a breaking point that morning. He looked at a complicated diagram mapping out thirty different footwork variations and he simply crushed the parchment in his massive fist. He decided he was not smart enough to come up with any brilliant technique. He was a brute. He was a hammer, not a scholar.

Lei Gang stepped to the edge of the platform and looked down at the recruits.

"Listen up." Lei Gang announced. His voice was completely devoid of its usual booming theatrics. It was just a heavy and honest rumble. "I was originally going to try and teach you some complex combat forms today. I was going to talk about elegant footwork and the mysteries of misdirection."

The recruits leaned forward eagerly. This sounded like secret techniques or teachings.

"But I decided to throw all of that garbage away." Lei Gang stated bluntly.

A collective wave of confusion washed over the plaza.

"We are not that kind of army." Lei Gang continued as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "We do not dance around our enemies. We do not use flashy techniques and we do not try to trick people into dying. We focus entirely on brute force, overpowering pressure and being direct. Flashy techniques are completely useless when you can just destroy the technique with a fist."

Some nodded while others kept waiting for more.

"A cultivator might spend three centuries perfecting an illusion array that traps the mind in a maze of mirrors." Lei Gang explained. "They will call it a brilliant scheme. They will call it special. But if you can punch the area so hard that the localized space shatters and the mirrors turn to dust, then their three centuries of elegant work means absolutely nothing. Of course it will probably take you that much time to reach the level of power needed to do that though."

Lei Gang stepped forward and his aura flared slightly.

"Returning to simplicity is the ultimate goal." Lei Gang instructed them. "In the chaos of a cosmic battlefield, complex techniques fail. Intricate plans fall apart the moment a supreme beast screams. The only thing that remains reliable is your foundation. The end result is the only thing that actually matters."

Li Yu listened intently. He had fought cultivators, beasts and demons. He had a very similar fighting style to the doctrine Lei Gang was describing. Li Yu relied on his immense physical power, his vast ocean of Qi and his monstrous soul to simply overwhelm his opponents and gain the upper hand. He rarely used subtle tricks when a crushing blow with Star Crusher could end the fight instantly.

"If your flashy technique or your brilliant scheme can get you the result you want in battle, then that is the best path for you." Lei Gang admitted openly. "I will not claim that scholars and array masters are weak. But if a simple fist can get you that exact same result, then the fist is best. It comes down to the person and the individual foundation."

Lei Gang looked across the crowd and his gaze lingered on Li Yu for a fraction of a second.

"That is why everyone walks their own path." Lei Gang said quietly. "That is why there are countless Daos in this universe. You must embrace the truth of your own existence. If you are a hammer, do not try to act like a scalpel. Find the most direct route to victory and crush whatever stands in your way. Now pair up and resume the drills."

The recruits broke into their pairs and began practicing their kinetic strikes. Li Yu moved through the motions with a renewed sense of clarity. The lecture had stripped away the lingering doubts he held about his own lack of elegant martial arts. He did not need to learn complex sword techniques. He just needed to make his strikes heavier and his control sharper.

The afternoon session eventually ended and the sun dipped below the high walls of the camp, casting long shadows across the dusty plaza. Lei Gang dismissed the recruits for the evening.

Li Yu walked back to his courtyard and he felt highly motivated. He wanted to test the limits of his direct and overwhelming combat style. He bypassed the main living quarters and walked straight to the smooth stone training floor in the center of the yard. He took a deep breath and centered his mind.

"Let us see how far simplicity can scale." Li Yu whispered to himself.

He activated his internal Qi. A dense shroud of chaotic energy enveloped his body. He raised his hand and summoned Star Crusher, it materialized with a deep hum. The dark weapon felt perfect in his grip.

He then activated his Qi Sentry technique. A vast amount of energy poured out from his core and formed a perfect physical replica of himself a few feet away. The Qi clone stood silently and awaited a command.

This was his standard dual combat setup. His primary mind controlled his physical body. His second mind piloted the Qi Sentry to provide flanking attacks and defense. But Li Yu wanted to push his limits today.

With a thought, a flash of light illuminated the courtyard. Firmament's End and Whispering Frost appeared in the air. The green blade and the elegant white blade hovered beside him.

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He drew both swords from their sheaths using his divine sense. The naked blades gleamed in the twilight but he did not stop there. He commanded the dark green scabbard and the pale white scabbard to float in front of him as well.

He wanted to use the durable sheaths as autonomous floating shields to block incoming strikes while the swords attacked. While a shield would cover more area, it would mean he would need to obtain such treasures separately. Using the sheaths of the sword, he could continue to increase the quantity of the swords he had and their defensive sheaths would increase as well.

The setup was magnificent to look at. A physical brawler holding a crushing staff, an identical Qi clone, two flying swords and two floating shields. It was an arsenal designed to overwhelm any opponent through volume and power.

Li Yu took a step forward and tried to initiate a mock battle. It quickly became apparent that it was an absolute disaster. His primary mind focused on moving his physical body and swinging Star Crusher. That required maintaining his structural density and managing his internal blood vitality.

His second mind tried to pilot the Qi Sentry. But his second mind also needed to calculate the coordinates and attack vectors for Firmament's End and Whispering Frost. It also needed to continuously adjust the defensive trajectories of the two floating scabbards.

The cognitive load was instantly crippling.

Li Yu swung Star Crusher forward. The Qi Sentry was supposed to step to the left and provide a covering strike. Instead, the clone stumbled awkwardly because the second mind was entirely distracted by the flying swords.

Firmament's End shot forward perfectly but Whispering Frost veered off course and nearly sliced the Qi Sentry's arm off. The two scabbards simply dropped out of the air and clattered uselessly onto the stone floor because Li Yu ran out of mental bandwidth to keep them afloat.

A sharp and blinding pain spiked behind Li Yu's eyes. It felt as though a hot needle had been driven directly into his temples. He lost his grip on his structural alignment and staggered backward.

The Qi Sentry dissolved into harmless mist. Firmament's End and Whispering Frost lost their momentum and fell to the stone floor next to their scabbards.

Li Yu dropped to one knee and leaned heavily on Star Crusher. He rubbed his temples and let out a long breath of frustration.

"This is impossible." Li Yu muttered to himself.

He realized the fatal flaw in his grand design. He possessed the physical strength and the Qi reserves to power all of these weapons simultaneously. But he did not possess the mental architecture to pilot them all at once.

His second mind was an incredible asset but it was still just one mind. Trying to control the clone, two swords, and two shields was essentially asking his second mind to perform five entirely different complex tasks at the exact same time.

He could not split his focus that many ways without his concentration shattering. He had acquired some techniques to split his thoughts further in the past but they were not strong enough at his current level anymore. They couldn’t handle the load he was trying to place, he needed something better.

Li Yu stood up slowly and he commanded the swords to return to their sheaths and stored his entire arsenal back into his Koi Sanctuary. He walked over to the large stone table near the spatial pavilion.

The evening meal was already prepared. The eight retainers were sitting around the table in their comfortable routine. They had just finished their own sparring sessions with the veteran soldiers and were discussing their progress.

Li Yu took his seat and accepted a bowl of steaming rice from Solstice.

"You look terrible, Grand Envoy." Spring laughed warmly. The wild haired tracker pointed a chopstick at his pale face. "Did you push your blood vitality too far again?"

"No." Li Yu replied while taking a slow bite of his food. "I encountered a different kind of bottleneck today. I am trying to expand my combat style. I want to fight with my staff while simultaneously controlling my Qi clone, two flying swords and two floating shields."

The retainers stopped eating and stared at him.

"That is six distinct points of intense concentration." Oram stated calmly. The tattooed Core Warden set his cup down. "Any cultivator would struggle to manage two or three active artifacts in the heat of a chaotic battle. Your soul strength must be immense to even attempt such a feat without going mad."

"It is immense." Li Yu admitted honestly. "But it is not infinitely divisible. I have a second mind of sorts already. It can control my clone perfectly. But when I try to force my second mind to also control the swords and the shields, everything collapses. My focus shatters."

Li Yu looked around the table at the elite operatives of the Omen Realm.

"Do any of you know of a solution?" Li Yu asked. "Did you see any techniques on the camp merit list that allow a cultivator to split their thoughts or multitask more efficiently?"

Solstice frowned and tapped her chin. "The camp quartermaster offers a few low level focus arts. They help steady the mind against illusions. But they do not offer anything that actually divides consciousness. These soldiers do not usually juggle multiple artifacts. They just punch or smash things."

Li Yu sighed. He had expected as much. The army's philosophy of simplicity meant they had no need for complex mental division arts. Fenric and Oram exchanged a long and meaningful glance. The two ancient titans communicated silently for a brief moment. Fenric gave a slow nod.

Oram reached into his dark robes and his tattooed fingers glowed faintly with soul energy as he pulled a pristine white jade slip from his spatial storage. He placed the slip on the stone table and slid it across to Li Yu.

"The Eidolon Court does not rely on physical brawling." Oram explained quietly. "We are an empire built upon the mastery of the soul. As Core Wardens, Fenric and I possess access to the deepest and most forbidden archives of our people."

Li Yu looked down at the white jade slip. He could feel a strange, ethereal hum radiating from the smooth surface.

"This is the Nexus Mind Technique." Oram said. His voice carried a heavy tone of warning. "It might suit your needs. It is an ancient art designed to expand a cultivator's cognitive capabilities during large scale array manipulations."

"Does it create another mind?" Li Yu asked eagerly.

"No." Fenric rumbled from his seat. "Creating a true second mind is a miracle of fortune and foundation. The Nexus Mind Technique cannot replicate that. What it does is allow you to actively fracture your existing thoughts. It allows you to split your mind slightly so that small fragments can operate on their own to a much lesser degree."

Oram nodded in agreement. "It creates sub threads of consciousness. You could assign a sub thread to manage the basic trajectory of a flying sword or maintain the defensive orbit of a scabbard. It requires minimal active focus of the main mind. You could work out the balance so that your primary mind and your second mind still operate at nearly full strength for combat."

Li Yu picked the jade slip up. The solution sounded perfect. It was exactly what he needed to manage his overwhelming arsenal.

"But you must understand the cost, Grand Envoy." Oram warned strictly. "Fracturing your own thoughts places an unbelievably heavy burden on the soul. It is exceptionally taxing. If a normal cultivator attempted to maintain four or five sub threads during a battle, their soul would overheat and shatter like glass. That is why this technique is heavily restricted even within our own Court."

Li Yu held the jade slip tightly in his hand. A massive smile broke across his face. He was not worried about the burden in the slightest because his soul strength was monstrous.

"A heavy burden on the soul is a price I can easily afford." Li Yu said confidently.

He thanked the Core Wardens and finished his meal with renewed enthusiasm. The path of overwhelming simplicity was finally coming together even though it would begin with getting more complex.

He just needed to master the Nexus Mind Technique and he would become a one man army capable of burying any opponent under a storm of violence.