Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 940: The Title and the Market

He could not immediately fly off into the cosmos to find them. The universe was incomprehensibly vast and wandering blindly into the zones without a specific destination was tantamount to suicide. However, he was not the type of person to simply sit still and do nothing. He needed information. If he could identify the specific "Human Emperor" legacy that Jian Xuan had inherited, he might be able to find historical records detailing its ancestral enemies or its known people.

Li Yu left his tranquil courtyard and walked briskly through the sprawling estate. He headed straight back to the towering pagoda of the Li Clan library.

When he arrived, the two ancient elders sitting by the grand stone doors simply opened their eyes, recognized his face and offered polite nods. They did not ask for his token again; his presence had already been verified and remembered.

Li Yu wasn’t heading to the upper floors dedicated to sword arts and stepped into the vast, dimensionally expanded second floor. This section was dedicated entirely to history, ancestral lineages and the geopolitical mapping of the myriad realms. The aisles stretched on for what seemed like miles, filled with floating lights and millions of jade slips.

He approached a large indexing array carved into a central jade pillar. He pressed his hand against the smooth stone and channeled a small amount of his Qi into the formation. From his mind, he channeled his thoughts into the array to ask it what he was searching for.

The array hummed to life with the spiritual light within the pillar flashed from a soft blue to a blinding white. Instantly, hundreds of thousands of jade slips began to vibrate on their shelves across the massive floor. Small, glowing wisps of light shot out from the shelves and formed a dense, swirling cloud of text in the air in front of him.

Li Yu stared at the projection in absolute dismay. There were not just a few records. There were thousands upon thousands of them.

He skimmed through the glowing text. The Radiant Human Emperor of the Eastern Nebula. The Iron Human Emperor of the Crimson Wastes. The Supreme Human Emperor of the Seven Valleys.

The list was endless. He pulled a few specific slips to read their detailed contents, hoping to find a connection to the Shattered Spine Mountains or a Sky-Severing Emperor but the information was incredibly dense and often contradictory. To make matters worse, the term "Human Emperor" was used so frequently that many different figures throughout history shared the exact same names.

There were at least forty different rulers recorded as the "Luminous Human Emperor," separated by eras or even at the very same time. After two hours of frustrating research, Li Yu rubbed his temples and cancelled the array. The glowing text vanished.

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

He realized he needed the perspective of someone who truly understood the broader political and historical landscape of the cosmos. Li Yu left the library and made his way toward the central administrative pavilion.

The pavilion was a massive, heavily fortified structure where the daily operations of the Li Clan were managed. Li Yu walked up the wide steps, politely greeting the armored guards stationed at the doors. Because of his status as Canghai's son and the grandson of the Worldkeeper, the guards granted him entry and directed him toward the Patriarch's study.

Li Yu knocked gently on the heavy ironwood doors.

"Enter," a tired voice called out from within.

Li Yu pushed the doors open and stepped into the grand study. Patriarch Li Muchen was seated behind his desk. He was still completely surrounded by towering stacks of logistical reports, border deployment scrolls and resource allocation ledgers. The Patriarch had a brush in one hand and was currently massaging his temples with the other.

"Ah, Li Yu," Muchen said while looking up from a scroll. A polite, if somewhat exhausted, smile touched his face. He set his brush down. "What brings you to my study? Have you come to give me another headache?"

"No, Patriarch," Li Yu smiled apologetically and offered a deep bow. "I apologize for interrupting your work. I was hoping to ask for your wisdom on a historical matter, if you have a moment to spare."

"For a junior, I can always spare a moment," Muchen gestured to a plush chair across from his desk. "Sit. Tell me what occupies your mind."

Li Yu took a seat. "I was just in the library looking into ancestral legacies. I am trying to find information on a specific inheritance but I hit a massive wall. What can you tell me about the title of 'Human Emperor'?"

Muchen let out a sudden and dry chuckle. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"The title of Human Emperor?" Muchen repeated while shaking his head in amusement. "It is a silly, vain title. Do not put too much stock into it."

"A silly title?" Li Yu asked while being slightly surprised. "But it sounds so grand."

"That is exactly why it is silly," Muchen explained patiently. "Cultivators are inherently arrogant beings. When a human cultivator reaches a certain bottleneck or conquers a local cluster of realms, their ego often inflates to match their domain. Too many people have claimed that title over the eras. If a man unifies a single backwater realm, his followers will inevitably crown him a 'Human Emperor'. If a supreme master conquers several realms, he also calls himself a 'Human Emperor'. The title has been entirely diluted by vanity."

"I saw the records in the library," Li Yu admitted. "There are thousands of such legacies. It is nearly impossible to tell which one is which."

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"Exactly," Muchen agreed. "With thousands of such legacies recorded and often several having the exact same names, trying to figure out which one you are looking for without specific or foundational clues is impossible. The legacy you are inquiring about could come from an actual, ancient powerhouse who ruled or it could belong to some small, forgotten legacy where a warlord within a minor realm simply demanded his subjects call him an emperor."

Li Yu leaned forward. "What if I told you this specific legacy possessed a fail safe array capable of physically moving an entire realm through the void to hide it from danger?"

"Moving an entire realm?" Muchen asked. "Not just a pocket dimension or a city but the entire realm?"

"Yes," Li Yu confirmed. "Ripping it from where it was and throwing it into the void."

Muchen exhaled slowly and tapped his fingers against the ironwood desk. "That changes things slightly. Moving a realm requires an understanding of spatial laws and cosmic arrays. It requires an energy source strong enough as well. If the legacy possesses a fail safe of that magnitude, it is not a fake title. It belongs to an actual and powerful human empire."

"Does that narrow it down?" Li Yu asked hopefully.

"A little but not enough," Muchen sighed. "Even among the empires, there are simply too many that have fallen or been lost to narrow it down. The cosmos is older than our clan's recorded history, Li Yu. You are looking for a single needle in a pile of a million other needles."

Muchen looked at the young man with a sympathetic expression. "If you are trying to track someone who is tied to this realm, you will just have to count on your luck and fate. The Dao has a way of bringing intertwined destinies back together when the time is right."

"I understand," Li Yu nodded while accepting the reality of the situation for now.

"Tell me," Muchen asked curiously. "If you have friends or loved ones in this realm, can you not feel where they are through your soul connections? You possess five Nascent Souls. Your spiritual tether should be incredibly strong."

"I can't," Li Yu replied with a hint of frustration bleeding into his voice. "Ever since I was pulled out of that realm through a spatial rift, the connection has been compromised. At first, I could only vaguely feel that they were alive and out there somewhere. But at a certain point, the connection faded entirely. I can't feel it at all anymore."

Muchen stroked his chin thoughtfully. "That is not entirely surprising. If the realm was forcefully displaced into the void, the chaotic currents could easily scramble a soul tether. Furthermore, a fail safe designed to hide a realm from ancient hunters would undoubtedly trigger a realm-wide blocking array. It is highly likely that something is intentionally blocking all spiritual signals from leaving the realm to ensure their survival."

"That makes sense," Li Yu said while feeling a slight measure of comfort. The severed connection wasn't a sign of their deaths but a sign of the fail safe working as intended.

Li Yu stood up and offered a respectful bow. "Thank you for your time, Patriarch, and for entertaining the questions of a junior. I will let you get back to your work."

"It is no problem at all, Li Yu," Muchen smiled warmly while waving a hand to dismiss the formality. "Your father and I are quite good friends. I have known Canghai for a very long time."

Muchen looked down at the massive mountain of paperwork covering his desk and his smile turned into a grimace of pure exasperation.

"In fact," Muchen grumbled while glaring at a deployment scroll, "I wouldn't even be sitting in this chair right now, dealing with these endless headaches, if your father hadn't so masterfully passed up the role of Clan Head when it was offered to him. He took one look at this desk, declared his undying loyalty to the front lines and ran away to swing his swords. I curse his name every time I have to review the annual ledgers."

Li Yu could only offer a polite and amused smile. He bowed once more and quietly slipped out of the study, leaving the Patriarch to his administrative suffering.

Back in the quiet serenity of his private courtyard, Li Yu sat down at the stone table. He realized that tracking Jian Xuan and the Human Emperor’s legacy was a complete dead end for now. He lacked the strength to search the void and he lacked the information to narrow down the target.

"Haste makes waste," Li Yu reminded himself aloud.

He needed to focus on the things he could control. He had just broken through to the Paragon realm. His Qi was vast, his physical body was a juggernaut and his soul space was thriving. However, there was one aspect of his foundation that he had neglected recently: the internal ecosystem of his martial spirit.

He decided to check out the markets around the Li Clan estate.

Li Yu left the inner compound and walked toward the outer sectors where the vassal clans and merchants conducted their daily business. The Li Clan markets were orderly, elegant and smelled strongly of refined herbs, metal, array ink and polished jade.

Because the Li Clan was a lineage of scholars and orthodox sword cultivators, they did not normally use beasts in battle. There were no massive auction houses selling armored war rhinos or storm eagles.

Instead, the beast vendors here catered primarily to the culinary arts and alchemy. The markets were filled with rare and high-quality creatures meant to be served at banquets or harvested for their spiritual cores and blood.

Li Yu wandered through the pristine stalls, his eyes scanning the large water tanks. Now was a perfectly good time to acquire aquatic creatures. He approached a large pavilion run by a vassal clan specializing in aquatic harvesting. He didn't bother haggling; he had a mountain of spirit stones even though he used quite a bit up during his breakthrough.

"I will take half of them." Li Yu said to a stunned merchant while pointing to a massive tank filled with Red-Thread Salmon, a weak but highly nutritious fish that reproduced quickly. "Make sure you include a healthy mix of males and females."

He moved from stall to stall and was systematically purchasing different aquatic beasts. He bought weak creatures to serve as the bottom of the food chain, such as various different Oysters and schools of Gleaming Glider Rays.

He also purchased several aggressive beasts to keep the ecosystem balanced and active. He bought a cluster of Rock Snapping Turtles that possessed jaws strong enough to crush steel and beautiful but highly territorial Sapphire Pincer Crabs.

When buying the beasts, Li Yu always made sure to secure at least a breeding pair. For the weaker, prey type creatures, he demanded at least triple the amount to ensure he had a good and sustainable stock that wouldn't be immediately wiped out by the larger predators.

Nothing he bought possessed great power. He wasn't looking for a beast to fight his battles right now anyways; he was looking to breathe further life into his Koi Sanctuary.

As the merchants happily transferred the massive quantities of live aquatic beasts into temporary spatial pouches, Li Yu channeled his Qi. He seamlessly opened the connection to his Koi Sanctuary and released the thousands of creatures into the pristine oceans of his martial spirit's inner world.

He could feel the massive ethereal Koi swimming happily through the newly populated waters, its presence acting as the apex authority over the new arrivals.

Li Yu stood in the bustling market and was watching the flow of commerce around him. A wave of sadness hit him out of the blue. He was feeling lonely and he was missing his parents.