Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 928: The Price of Broken Chains

A few peaceful days passed within the heavy walls of the Zhan Clan courtyard. Li Yu simply existed alongside his mother, his father and his grandfather. But peace in the cultivation world was always a temporary luxury.One quiet afternoon, Li Yu walked out of his room and saw Zhan Tian standing in the center of the courtyard. The Worldkeeper was no longer wearing his simple white tunic. He was strapping on his radiant white battle armor. A heavy and terrifying glaive rested against the stone table beside him.

The casual and loving grandfather was gone. The real warlord had returned.

"What is happening?" Li Yu asked while walking over.

Zhan Tian picked up the heavy glaive as the curved blade caught the afternoon light.

"It is time to settle the affairs of the Gongsun Clan." Zhan Tian stated firmly. His voice carried a cold and absolute edge.

Li Yu frowned slightly. He remembered the brief mention of the clan from a few days ago. They were the ones who had broken an ancient oath and disrespected his family.

"Is it truly needed right now?" Li Yu asked. "The clan head said they were already collapsing and bleeding out on their own."

"It is absolutely needed." Zhan Tian told him as he turned to face his grandson. "Oaths should not be forgotten. If one clan breaks a sacred bond and gets away with it, it is a glaring sign to all the others that they can do the same. That is not the correct message I want spreading across our territories."

Zhan Tian rested the glaive against his shoulder.

"Our clan are not tyrants who rule over our vassals with an iron whip." Zhan Tian explained. "We protect those who stand with us. An oath is something that is accepted by both parties. They chose to break one that was vastly beneficial to them and not to us. I must correct this."

Li Yu understood the logic. In a cosmos ruled by strength, reputation and word were the only things holding empires together.

"Can I come?" Li Yu asked.

"Even if you did not ask, I was going to bring you." Zhan Tian smiled slightly. "Put on your inner armor and your outer black armor. You are coming with me to witness how a Zhan handles a broken promise."

Tielan and Canghai walked out of the main hall a moment later. They were both dressed in their dark robes and they were coming as well. This was not a military campaign. It was a family affair.

Li Yu quickly summoned the Phantom Aegis to coat his skin in weightless moonlight before pulling the heavy black plates of his grandfather’s armor over it. He grabbed Star Crusher and stood next to his grandfather.

“Does this black outer armor have a name?” Li Yu asked at the sudden thought.

“Nightfall.” Zhan replied with a smirk. It didn’t have a name but he just named it on the spot. Zhan Tian raised his hand and tore a large rift in the fabric of space. The four of them stepped through the portal.

They emerged into absolute chaos.

The void surrounding the core realms of the Gongsun Clan was a burning graveyard. Thousands of shattered spiritual ships drifted aimlessly through the dark space. The realm barriers of the clan were cracking under a relentless and multi front siege. Several different powerful factions were swarming the crumbling defenses like vultures picking at a dying beast.

Explosions of elemental Qi lit up the void. The screams of dying cultivators echoed through the spiritual currents. The Gongsun Clan was truly on its very last legs and Zhan Tian did not try to sneak in. He stepped forward and unleashed his aura.

The crushing weight of a Worldkeeper exploded outward. The sheer density of his pressure snuffed out any fighting that was occurring instantly and the massive shockwave halted the entire battlefield. The attacking ships and cultivators froze in their formations and the defending Gongsun cultivators dropped to their knees under the oppressive weight.

"Listen to me!" Zhan Tian roared. His voice overpowered the explosions and vibrated through the hulls of every ship present.

"I am Zhan Tian." He announced. "I am here to destroy the Gongsun Clan. Any other force not wanting to be caught up in my wrath will withdraw immediately."

The battlefield fell into a terrified silence. The leaders of the attacking factions stared at the massive white armored figure floating in the void.

"I do not plan on sharing any spoils." Zhan Tian continued ruthlessly. "The Zhan Clan claims all the lands that once belonged to the Gongsun Clan and all their treasures. I will purge the leadership of the clan today. Anyone within the clan that wants to live will be allowed to work under the Zhan Clan to keep these lands running. Those who want to survive will enter a new soul oath of submission."

A heavy murmur rippled through the attacking armadas. They had spent months bleeding and fighting to conquer these territories. A brave and incredibly foolish commander from one of the attacking sects stepped out onto the deck of his warship.

"Worldkeeper!" The commander yelled back while channeling his Qi to be heard. "We respect your power but we have been the ones conquering these lands! You cannot just show up and expect us all to leave empty handed!"

Zhan Tian did not argue back with the man. In fact, he did not say a single word in response. The Worldkeeper simply raised his heavy glaive and swung it casually through the empty void.

Stolen story; please report.

A blinding arc of white light detached from the blade and it crossed the space in a fraction of a second. The light descended upon the speaking commander and it cut through the defensive arrays of the warship, sliced the commander perfectly in half and then cleaved the entire dreadnought down the middle.

The two halves of the massive ship drifted apart and exploded violently as Zhan Tian lowered his glaive.

"It would seem the Zhan Clan has been too nice and merciful during the time I was away." Zhan Tian roared into the silence. "I do not remember anyone talking back to my commands before. Especially not in the territories of the Zhan Clan’s influence. Leave now or die."

The terror of the strike broke the resolve of the attacking forces instantly.

The invading armadas frantically turned their ships around and fled as fast as their ships could carry them. They did not want to test Zhan Tian any more than that. They also saw Commander Tielan and Li Canghai floating right behind him. Those two were monsters in their own right as well. The attacking factions had far too much to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by fighting them now

Within minutes, the burning void was completely empty of invaders. Canghai and Tielan floated behind the Worldkeeper and looked at him in surprise.

They looked at the shattered defenses of the Gongsun Clan and what he was doing. They realized exactly what Zhan Tian had just done. He sounded ruthless and demanding but his actions told a different story entirely. He was not destroying the Gongsun Clan. He was actually cutting off their path to extinction. Zhan Tian had just saved the Gongsun Clan from being completely wiped out by the vultures.

They would never be able to go back to how they were before. They were effectively servants now but their bloodline and their legacy would not be erased from history. He was clearly saving them even though his words did not show it as so.

Zhan Tian looked back at his daughter and his son in law. It was as if he could read their exact thoughts.

"Be quiet." Zhan Tian simply told them with a gruff tone. "Follow me."

Far away from the immediate battlefield, three figures were standing in the void. It was Lian Gongsun, her mother Hua Eversong and her father Gongsun Ming. They had been watching the collapse of their former home. They saw Zhan Tian arrive and they understood what the Worldkeeper had done as well.

Ming let out a long and shuddering breath as tears welled up in his tired eyes. He placed his hands together and offered a deep and respectful bow toward the distant figure of Zhan Tian. The Worldkeeper had actually given his people a way out. They were servants now but this outcome was about the best they could have hoped for now. Hua smiled warmly and placed a hand on her daughter's armored shoulder.

"You have an amazing grandfather in law now." Hua teased Lian softly.

Lian froze at the words. The fierce general of the Veiled Lotus felt a sudden and violent heat rush directly into her cheeks. She blushed a furious crimson color again. She turned around quickly and walked away from her parents without saying a single word.

Ming and Hua chuckled quietly to themselves.

“It would seem there were some things even a supreme general of her caliber simply could not deal with.” Hua said to her husband.

Zhan Tian and his family arrived at the headquarters of the Gongsun Clan without facing a single array or defensive soldier. The Gongsun Clan was already on its very last legs. The troops that were left over were completely exhausted. Everyone had heard the booming declaration from Zhan Tian. If they wanted to live, they would be allowed to do so. Even as servants, it was vastly better than dying a dog's death in the dirt.

Those who had never wanted to break the oath to begin with were actually slightly happy that the nightmare was finally over. But the clan itself was decimated. They had a few powerful elders left and still held some vassal populations. But overall, their combat power had dropped by over fifty percent with all the recent wars.

But Zhan Tian did not need them as a fighting force. He just needed them to govern these lands and pay regular tribute to the Zhan Clan. The bare minimum really.

Deep down in his heart, Zhan Tian was honoring his own father. The Worldkeeper knew his father and an ancient ancestor of the Gongsun Clan had been like brothers eras ago. That was why the first oath came to be in the first place. It was designed to shelter this weaker clan from the harsh cosmos.

Despite his harsh words and his terrifying entrance, Zhan Tian relented. In honor of his father and that ancestor who had always treated him like a second father when he was a boy, Zhan Tian stepped back from total annihilation for this clan.

However, it was not going to be easy for the sinners.

Zhan Tian landed in the center of the ruined ancestral courtyard and he ordered the remaining leadership of the Gongsun Clan to come out. A group of battered and bloody elders stumbled out of the main hall. Leading them was Gongsun Yi. He was the current Patriarch and the father of Yue. He was the man who had officially broken the oath and doomed his people.

Gongsun Yi looked up at the Worldkeeper. His eyes were hollow and he knew exactly what was required.

"The leadership must take responsibility." Zhan Tian declared coldly.

Zhan Tian did not offer a grand speech or say anything else. He simply swung his heavy glaive. The blade separated Gongsun Yi's head from his shoulders in a single and fluid motion. The Patriarch fell to the stone floor.

"I am sparing the rest of you." Zhan Tian told the trembling elders. "Besides one more. Where is the girl? Where is Yue?"

The elders fell to their knees.

"She is off defending another front." An elder cried out desperately. "She left days ago."

"Bring her back." Zhan Tian ordered. "I am ordering her execution as well. She and her father are the ones who must die for this insult. If you are not able to bring her back, more of you will be punished."

The elders scrambled to organize search parties and send urgent transmissions to bring the foolish girl back to the capital.

Meanwhile, Zhan Tian forced the remaining leadership to take the new soul oath. As he had decreed, they would govern these lands themselves and pay tribute to the Zhan Clan. In return, they were sheltered by the Zhan Clan name once again.

Zhan Tian then turned his gaze toward the sky. A moment later, Gongsun Ming materialized in the courtyard as he knew what Zhan Tian meant by looking in their direction.

"I am naming you the new Clan Leader." Zhan Tian told Ming bluntly.

Ming was absolutely stunned. He looked at the kneeling elders and then back at the Worldkeeper.

"Lord Zhan." Ming tried to refuse respectfully. "I left this clan long ago. I am not worthy of leading them now."

"I went in this direction partly because of my relationship with you now." Zhan Tian stated firmly.

Many of the kneeling elders looked up in confusion. They wondered what kind of relationship Ming could possibly have with the Worldkeeper. Zhan Tian did not say anything further about Li Yu or Lian. He simply stared Ming down.

Ming hesitantly accepted the decree, these people were his family after all. He would reform them and ensure they never made such foolish mistakes again. The rest of the leadership accepted the soul oaths. Every single person in the clan was required to take it outside of Ming himself. The Worldkeeper granted Ming a special privilege due to their relationship.