Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 920: The Missing Home

Her son had just effortlessly crushed the spirit of a natal weapon that had terrorized a cosmic battlefield."Do not look at me like that." Tielan sighed and rubbed her temples. "He must have had fortuitous encounters during this journey."

Zhan Tian let out another boisterous laugh that echoed off the stone walls of the courtyard. He was in an incredibly good mood. He turned back to the massive pile of treasures he had dumped onto the table.

"Take these for now." Zhan Tian commanded while pushing a pile of spatial rings and glowing jade boxes toward Li Yu. "There are spirit herbs, defensive arrays and metals in there. But the really good stuff must wait."

"The really good stuff?" Li Yu asked while looking at the absolute fortune already sitting in front of him.

"When it comes to the beast cores and the pure natural materials I harvested from that zone and my enemies, you need to be much stronger." Zhan Tian explained seriously. "If you absorb the marrow of the kind of Emperor Dragon I went against right now, your meridians will simply detonate. I will hold onto the best materials until your physical vessel can properly contain them."

"That is okay." Li Yu nodded in agreement. "I do not need so much right now anyways. Steady progress is good. I do not want to rush my foundation."

Zhan Tian smiled approvingly. He reached across the table and firmly gripped Li Yu by the shoulder. The Worldkeeper sent a tiny sliver of his divine sense into his grandson to check the exact age of his bones. The old warlord instantly froze and his fierce eyes widened in shock.

"How are you this young?" Zhan Tian gasped loudly. He pulled his hand back as if he had just touched a hot coal. "You are barely older than a fresh disciple!"

Tielan and Canghai exchanged a knowing look. They had experienced the exact same shock when they first monitored his progress.

"I was trapped inside the Temporal Dao Stone." Li Yu explained. "The flow of time inside the relic was vastly different from the outside cosmos. My physical aging was essentially halted while I spent years fighting and comprehending laws. So my age is not exactly quite right."

"An opportunity that came with disaster." Zhan Tian noted with a sudden heavy tone. The jovial atmosphere around the table cooled significantly.

The mention of the Temporal Dao Stone instantly reminded the Worldkeeper of the cowards who had ambushed Li Canghai. That specific ambush was the catalyst that had nearly destroyed his family and forced his grandson to fight for his life inside the dangerous stone.

Zhan Tian narrowed his eyes and a terrifying pressure leaked from his broad shoulders.

"Your father has already told me the names of the five factions that attacked him." Zhan Tian growled as his voice vibrated with lethal intent. "I want to march on their borders and slaughter every last one of them tonight."

"Then why do we not?" Li Yu asked. He felt a surge of his own anger at the factions that had caused so much suffering to him.

"Because I cannot." Zhan Tian sighed in frustration. "The returning armada is massive but it is not entirely for me to control. It is a coalition of many different empires, sects and clans. I cannot order them to wage a personal war for my family."

The Worldkeeper looked down at his scarred hands.

"However." Zhan Tian continued firmly. "My own personal troops are more than enough to wipe those factions from the cosmic map. My legions are the strongest. But I will not ask them to fight right now. I want to give everyone time with their families before asking for such a massive campaign."

"They have been fighting for a long time." Canghai agreed quietly.

"Like me, the soldiers have been away for so long." Zhan Tian said with a trace of sorrow. "They have fought in that dark zone for eras. I do not have the heart to call upon them again so soon. They deserve peace. It will be at least several years before I call the banners for vengeance. But that vengeance will come eventually."

Li Yu nodded in understanding. He knew the heavy toll that endless combat took on the mind and the body. The soldiers deserved to go home to their own families or be able to do their own thing. The tense conversation naturally shifted away from the impending war. Tielan looked toward the locked wooden gates of the courtyard.

"Speaking of armies," Tielan said while looking back at her son. "Who exactly are those people waiting outside?"

Li Yu smiled and took a sip of his tea.

"The shark is Gart." Li Yu explained. "He is someone I captured on a recent trip to a random realm. As for the other seven, two of them are the Core Wardens and the other five are elite operatives of the Eidolon Court."

Li Yu then spent the next several minutes explaining exactly what had happened with the spectral empire. He told his parents and his grandfather about the poison, the desperate negotiations and how he had forcefully bound the ruling council members to his will for safety.

Canghai and Tielan stared at their son in disbelief. He had not just survived his journey. He had casually subjugated an entire empire without waging a single battle.

"You bound their ruling council?" Zhan Tian roared with a mixture of shock and immense pride. "That is brilliant! You truly act like a Zhan!"

"There is one more detail." Li Yu added carefully. "I have a foreign soul residing within me right now. She is the Ancestor of the Eidolon Court and is the reason that all happened."

Zhan Tian stood up instantly from the stone bench and his massive frame knocked his teacup over. His eyes locked onto Li Yu with panic and defensive fury.

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"A foreign soul inside you?" Zhan Tian demanded loudly. "Are you insane? An ancestor like that could devour your consciousness in your sleep!"

"It is completely fine." Li Yu quickly raised his hands to calm the massive warrior down. "She is bound by a strict soul contract that she agreed to and created herself. She is absolutely not able to harm me and her life is entirely tied to my own survival. If I die, she dies."

Zhan Tian frowned deeply but he slowly lowered his guard. He knew his grandson possessed a monstrous soul foundation after seeing him crush the spirit of Pale Extinction and he wouldn’t lie to them when it concerned his own safety.

"Let me see this ancestor." Zhan Tian ordered strictly. Li Yu closed his eyes and sent a gentle pulse into his inner world.

"Elysia." Li Yu called out internally. "You can come out for a moment. I want you to meet my family."

A brilliant flash of radiant white light illuminated the evening courtyard. The light swirled and condensed next to the stone table and Elysia materialized in her physical projection. She wore simple but elegant white robes and her dark hair cascaded perfectly over her shoulders.

Zhan Tian tensed his muscles as he could instantly feel the terrifying power of her ancient soul. Elysia looked at the three incredibly powerful experts sitting around the table. She understood who these people were.

She saw the mother, the father and the grandfather of the soul who she was deeply in love with and had spent eras with. She immediately put on her brightest and most charming smile.

"It is an absolute honor to meet you all." Elysia said with a melodic and incredibly respectful tone. She bowed deeply and gracefully to each of them.

She did not act like an ancient tyrant who ruled an empire. She acted exactly like a sweet and eager daughter in law trying her absolute best to endear herself to her new family. Elysia walked smoothly to the table and picked up the clay teapot.

"Please, allow me to pour fresh tea for you." Elysia offered warmly. She filled Tielan's cup first with perfect etiquette. "You must be so incredibly proud of Li Yu. He is the most remarkable and kind young man I have ever met in all my eras."

Tielan blinked in bewilderment. She had read the cosmic intelligence reports on the Eidolon Ancestor before. The reports described a ruthless, paranoid monster who cursed her own bloodline to ensure loyalty. Yet the woman currently pouring her tea was radiating affection and domestic sweetness.

"You are very kind." Tielan replied cautiously while accepting the cup.

"She is very nice." Canghai noted with a surprised but genuine smile. He looked at Li Yu and gave an approving nod.

"Thank you so much!" Elysia beamed with happiness. The fact that Li Yu's parents thought she was nice made her heart soar. She quickly moved to fill Zhan Tian's cup. "And you must be his grandfather."

Zhan Tian sat back down heavily on the stone bench. The fierce warlord was somewhat disarmed by her relentless politeness. He let out a booming chuckle and accepted the tea.

"Well." Zhan Tian laughed. "You certainly know how to brew a good pot of leaves. You can stay in the brat's soul space as long as you behave. If I ever sense something is off though, I will not be polite."

Elysia smiled brightly and bowed again. She chatted with them for a few more minutes, answering their questions with grace and ensuring they felt comfortable with her presence. Once she was certain she had made an excellent first impression, she politely excused herself and returned to Li Yu's inner soul space as a flash of white light.

The courtyard felt incredibly peaceful after she left. The family fell into a comfortable silence as they finished their meal under the starry sky of the desolate realm and Li Yu looked up at the unfamiliar stars.

A sudden pang of deep nostalgia hit his chest. He was surrounded by his true family and he possessed supreme treasures. His world was completely turned upside down in a single day but as he was sitting here with his parents, his mind wandered back to the simple dirt roads and the quiet mountains of his youth with them.

"Mom. Dad." Li Yu spoke up quietly. The words were still a bit strange to his lips since it's been so long since they have been spoken regularly. "Do you know how to get back to the original realm where we were? The place where I grew up?"

Tielan smiled warmly and reached across the table to pat his hand.

"Yes." Tielan answered immediately. "That is easy enough. We know the exact coordinates of the lower realm where we left you. We can take you back there right now if you want to visit our old home."

"I would really like that." Li Yu said with a hopeful smile. He had missed his home and the friends he had made back in that realm for a very long time but he had never possessed a way to return there on his own.

Canghai stood up from the bench. "I will open a viewing portal to check the spatial currents before we tear a rift. It has been a long time."

Canghai raised his hand and channeled a surge of blue Qi. The energy expanded in the air above the table and formed a massive and glowing cosmic map. The map detailed the intricate web of higher realms, void spaces and the clusters of lower realms drifting at the edges of existence.

His fingers moved rapidly as he input the specific spatial coordinates burned into his memory. He navigated through the glowing blue pathways and zeroed in on the exact sector where he had left his infant son all those years ago.

Canghai stopped moving and his warm smile faded entirely. He pushed more Qi into the map and forced it to expand the specific sector.

"This is strange." Canghai muttered with a deep frown.

"What is wrong?" Tielan asked while leaning closer to the glowing projection.

"I cannot find the realm." Canghai stated. A look of confusion crossed his elegant features. "The location where it is supposed to be is completely empty. There is nothing there."

"Nothing?" Li Yu asked as his heart skipped a beat as a cold knot formed in his stomach.

Tielan quickly stood up. She channeled her own Qi and interfaced with the star map. She ran a secondary scan to make sure.

"He is right." Tielan confirmed with confusion as she stepped back from the projection. "It is just empty void space. There is no realm barrier."

Li Yu stared at the blank spot on the glowing blue map. The quiet village, the familiar rivers and the people he had known. They were all supposed to be right there.

"What could have happened to it?" Li Yu asked with rising panic in his voice.

"We are unsure." Canghai replied heavily. He placed a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder. "A lower realm is fragile compared to the supreme territories. It could have been destroyed by a wandering cosmic beast. It could have been shattered by a rogue spatial storm. Or it could have been moved."

"Realms can be moved?" Li Yu asked in total disbelief. Moving an entire world sounded like a myth.

"Anything is possible if a cultivator is strong enough and possesses the right treasures." Zhan Tian explained quietly from the bench. He stared at the empty spot on the map with narrowed eyes. "Ancient experts can uproot entire worlds and place them in their own private dimensions or move them across the cosmos."

Canghai tightened his grip on Li Yu's shoulder.

"We will not give up." Canghai promised firmly. "We will use our intelligence networks to see if we can find it elsewhere. We will deploy the best trackers in the Li Clan immediately."

Li Yu kept his eyes locked on the empty blue void of the map.

"I hope you are able to find it." Li Yu whispered softly.

He had finally found his parents and his grandfather but the sudden disappearance of the only true home he had ever truly known left a hollow ache in his chest.