Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 939: The Human Emperor’s Fail Safe

Li Yu stepped forward and reached his hand out toward the jade slip resting beneath the protective barrier. However, as his fingers brushed against the ambient Qi, he frowned.The pull was completely gone.

The rhythmic, heartbeat like resonance that had tugged at him from the stairwell had vanished entirely. Li Yu closed his eyes and swept his divine sense over the pedestal but the jade slip felt completely inert to him now.

It was as if the brief interaction with the Ancestor or perhaps the manifestation of his swords, had fundamentally shifted the karmic lines in the room. Whatever entity or intent had been trying to reach him had seemingly realized something and had withdrawn its invitation.

Li Yu sighed softly to himself. The Dao and fate itself was often fickle. He stepped away from the pedestal and decided to look around the rest of the top floor.

He walked among the scattered pedestals, peering through the protective barriers at the ancient texts. As Ancestor Cangyuan had noted, the top floor was dedicated entirely to the pinnacle of orthodox sword arts. Li Yu found texts like the Void Weaving Sword Labyrinth and the Thousand String Karma Blade. They were impossibly complicated techniques that required centuries of isolated meditation, perfect sword intent and a rigid adherence to orthodox forms.

None of it interested him. His path was not one of just the sword. Realizing there was nothing else for him here, Li Yu turned around. He walked back down the starlight infused spiral staircase, leaving the library behind. It was time to head back to his courtyard and consolidate his new cultivation.

Deep within the central administrative pavilion of the Li Clan, Patriarch Li Muchen sat behind a desk carved from solid spiritual ironwood. Moments before he was fighting a losing battle against a mountain of logistical reports and border deployment scrolls. But now he was having a discussion with the new guest.

Ancestor Li Cangyuan was sitting across from him. Muchen was confused at first when Cangyuan first entered but then at the mention of the swords, a slow and amused smile spread across his face. He poured two cups of calming spiritual tea and pushed one across the desk.

"Calm yourself, Ancestor," Muchen said smoothly. "Have a seat. Drink some tea. The young will eventually surpass the old. It is the natural order of the cosmos."

Cangyuan snatched the teacup and drained it in a single gulp.

"Even though you told me about him," Cangyuan muttered with his hands trembling slightly as he set the cup down, "hearing it from your mouth and having seen it with my own two eyes are entirely different things. It seems even more ridiculous in person. He is carrying weapons I could only dream about at his age."

Muchen chuckled once again, a genuine sound of amusement escaping his chest. He looked down at his own singular clan sword resting against his desk.

"To be completely honest with you, Ancestor," Muchen smiled. "I am incredibly jealous of the kid's weapons too. I am the Patriarch of this clan and I only have one of the Ten Great Swords. That brat has two, plus whatever that pale monstrosity is and a great weapon from Golden Horizon as well."

Muchen leaned forward and lowered his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "His parents and grandfather are gone right now. Perhaps you and I should put on black masks tonight. We can sneak into his courtyard, rob him blind and split the swords between us. Two for you, two for me. What do you say?"

Ancestor Li Cangyuan stared at the Patriarch for a long moment. He imagined the two of the highest authorities of the illustrious Li Clan mugging a junior in the dead of night for his weapons.

The sheer absurdity of the thought broke the tension. Cangyuan let out a sharp bark of laughter. Muchen joined in and soon the grand study was filled with the booming laughter of the two masters.

"It would certainly solve my crisis," Cangyuan wheezed while wiping a tear from his eye. He sighed heavily, the manic energy finally leaving his old bones. "But in truth... it is only a good thing for the clan. The stronger he is, the stronger our foundation becomes. He is a child of the Li and the Zhan. If things go smoothly, he can be a pillar that holds up the sky."

Muchen nodded in agreement with his smile softening into a look of pride. "He will. Now, go back to your meditation, Ancestor. Leave the headaches of the younger generation to me."

Cangyuan walked the long and familiar path back to the library. He ascended the spiral staircase and stepped onto the black jade floor of the top level. The chamber was completely empty. Li Yu had already left.

Cangyuan walked over to his woven mat and sat down. He looked at the empty space where the boy had been hovering the artifacts.

"It is a shame," Cangyuan whispered to himself in the quiet hall. "It is a shame that kid really isn't on the sword path."

However, Cangyuan couldn't stop thinking about the overwhelming density of the boy's Qi. It was thick, heavy and vast like an endless ocean.

Cangyuan looked down at his own wrinkled hands. He was old now. He had been searching for a successor for centuries but his personal cultivation technique was incredibly demanding. It required a foundation of impossibly dense Qi that no one in the clan had ever naturally possessed. No one had fit the bill until today.

"Perhaps I should try teaching the kid my own technique," Cangyuan pondered softly.

He had a potential successor right in front of him. But he also knew that forcing a path onto a prodigy often led to ruin. He closed his eyes and settled back into his meditation posture. He would not force it. He would wait for an opportunity to present itself or perhaps just wait and see what fate had in store for them both.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

A day later, the afternoon sun cast long and golden shadows across Li Yu’s private courtyard.

Li Yu sat at the heavy stone table, exhaling a long and steady breath of pure Qi. He had just finished a grueling cultivation session, circulating the Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art to further consolidate his realm. His physical body felt incredibly light and refreshed.

He poured himself a cup of hot spiritual tea and took a slow sip, enjoying the tranquility of the estate. A faint rustle of fabric caught his attention.

From the shadows of the bamboo grove near the courtyard wall, a middle aged woman stepped into the light. She wore the dark and unadorned grey robes of the Whispering Bamboo Sect. The premier intelligence gatherers and scouts of the Li Clan that was more like another finger of the Li Clan than a vassal clan. She moved with silence and her presence was completely masked until she deliberately revealed herself.

"Young Master Li." The woman greeted while offering a crisp and formal bow.

"Greetings," Li Yu replied. "What brings the Whispering Bamboo to this courtyard?"

"My team and I were recently dispatched on a scouting mission," the woman explained while stepping closer to the table. "We were ordered to investigate a specific realm located on the distant fringes of the cosmic territories."

Li Yu’s eyes widened slightly as he realized she must have been sent by his parents to investigate his home realm.

"What did you find?" Li Yu asked while leaning forward with sudden and intense interest.

"The area itself was exhibiting strange spatial fluctuations," the scout reported professionally. "However, while we were mapping the perimeter, we found a tiny pocket dimension hidden nearby by chance. It was heavily concealed. If we were not told to take extra care and search everything, we probably would not have been able to find it."

She reached into her robes. "Before Canghai departed for the front lines, he instructed us that if we found anything of note regarding that specific realm, we were to bring it directly to you."

The woman stepped forward and placed a small object on the stone table. It was a token carved from a smooth and dark stone. The token had an image of a crab claw. Etched into the center of the stone were rough and hastily carved words: “Praise the crab cult.”

"We analyzed the token for curses or tracking arrays but it is clean," the scout said while looking at the claw with genuine professional confusion. "However, our top people were unable to figure anything out with it. We couldn’t activate it or find what it is used for."

Li Yu stared at the token and a wave of nostalgia and fondness crashed over him. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to suppress the wide and joyful smile threatening to break across his face.

"I see," Li Yu said. He picked up the crab claw token and slipped it into his robes. "You have done excellent work. Thank you for bringing this to me directly. I will handle it from here."

Li Yu waited until his divine sense confirmed that the scout was completely gone. He expanded his senses even further, sweeping the perimeter of the courtyard, the walls and the nearby pavilions. He made sure that no hidden elders, passing servants or Whispering Bamboo spies were lingering nearby.

If anyone in the illustrious Li Clan heard what he was about to do, he would likely die of embarrassment. Satisfied that he was entirely alone, Li Yu pulled the crab claw token back out. He placed it gently on the table.

He remembered the chaotic days in the lower realm. He remembered Jian Xuan playfully starting the 'Crab Cult' as a ridiculous joke to honor Khaos. What had started as a comedic battle cry had eventually evolved into a legitimate, unifying symbol for some.

Li Yu smiled warmly as he remembered the motto Jian Xuan had come up. Taking a deep breath, Li Yu looked at the stone claw and spoke aloud to the empty courtyard.

"Praise the God Crab, his mighty claw! His boundless void are our laws!"

The token vibrated slightly as a faint hum echoing from the stone. Li Yu continued, speaking the second half of the chant.

"The Crab God’s might will never wane!! Through shell and claw his rule shall reign!!"

The moment the final word left his lips, the token erupted with light. The stone shattered and a concentrated beam of white energy shot directly out of the fragments, striking Li Yu right in the center of his forehead.

He didn't dodge as he allowed the light to enter his mind.

Instantly, a voice echoed within his soul space. It was the familiar, energetic and slightly weary voice of Jian Xuan.

“Brother Li. If you are hearing this, it means the Crab God’s luck is still with us.” Li Yu closed his eyes while listening intently as the message unfurled in his mind.

“Great danger is coming for the realm, Brother Li. Lin Xia and I continued taking the Human Emperor’s trials deep within the Shattered Spine Mountains. We pushed through the limits. I made significant progress and the ancient spirits officially recognized me as the true successor to the inheritance.”

Jian Xuan’s voice grew heavy and was losing its usual playful tone.

“But the moment the inheritance fully bonded with me, the trial spirits panicked. They detected a terrifying danger rapidly approaching the realm. Something ancient and powerful is coming to completely wipe out the Human Emperor's legacy before it can take root again.”

Li Yu frowned as his hands clenched into fists upon his lap.

“We couldn't fight it. We aren't strong enough yet. So, I had to use up one of the fail safes the Human Emperor left behind in the array. I am using it to move the entire realm somewhere else completely. I am ripping the realm out of its current location and throwing it into the void. The exact location will be unknown. We are going to hide from the hunters.”

The voice paused and Li Yu could hear the sound of spatial tearing in the background of the memory.

“I am leaving this token here in the pocket dimension for you. By the time I completed the initial trial and emerged, I found that you were already gone. I don't know where you are but I had to trigger the fail safe and leave early due to the danger. I couldn't wait. I am sorry my friend.”

The heavy tone vanished and was replaced by the warm, unyielding brotherhood that had defined their time together.

“I hope this message finds its way to you, Brother Li. Everyone here is doing okay. We are surviving and we are getting stronger. Keep climbing the peak. I hope to see you in the future, if fate allows. Praise the claw!”

The light faded from Li Yu’s mind and the voice vanished, leaving only silence in the courtyard.

Li Yu opened his eyes and looked down at the pile of grey dust on the stone table. The token was gone and he slowly brushed the dust away. He felt a wave of relief wash over his heart knowing that Jian Xuan and the others were alive and had successfully secured the inheritance.

But as he looked up at the vast and darkening sky above the Li Clan estate, a heavy weight settled onto his shoulders. His friends were currently in an unknown area of the cosmos, fleeing from an ancient threat capable of wiping out a Human Emperor's legacy.

He needed to get stronger. And he needed to find them.