Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 957: Fear and Responsibilities

The ship of the Li Clan finally arrived back at the ancestral estate. Li Yu did not linger to chat with the elders or the other disciples. He offered a respectful farewell to Ancestor Cangyuan and immediately headed back to his private courtyard. The journey had given him ample time to study the green jade slip in his mind but he needed silence to actually begin the process.The courtyard was entirely quiet when he walked through the heavy wooden gates. He secured the perimeter arrays and walked into his meditation room. This was a terrifying technique and the very first step demanded a foundational rewriting of the human body.

He closed his eyes and began to circulate his Qi. He did not attempt to create the second storage immediately. That would be suicidal. The first step of the scripture was purely a preparatory phase. It required him to reshape his physical vessel and reinforce the walls of his current Ocean of Qi so it could survive the violent splits that would come in the second step.

Li Yu guided a thick stream of his opalescent Qi with the pain coming on immediately and blinding. His muscles seized violently and his bones creaked under the immense strain. The scripture demanded that he expand the internal walls of his core while simultaneously compressing the dense energy inside it.

It felt as though he was trying to hold a collapsing star inside his stomach. He gritted his teeth and forced his breathing to remain slow and steady. Sweat poured down his face in thick rivulets and instantly soaked his grey robes. The physical demand was terrifying but the spiritual pressure was far worse.

His soul space trembled violently as the technique began to pull on his mental energy. His Human soul sat firmly in the center to anchor the entire process. The ethereal Koi soul swam around him in wide circles to provide a soothing and cooling calm to his burning nerves.

Muddy stood like a mountain of iron to bear the crushing weight of the compression. The massive Whale soul floated silently below to stabilize the pressure. The Fisherman simply watched and did nothing at all.

Li Yu continued to push forward despite the agony. He forced his body to adapt to the new pathways. It was an incredibly complex process that would take multiple sessions to complete and he could not rush it. His body was being reconfigured. If he pushed too quickly, he could explode.

He cultivated in silence for six hours straight. He finally stopped when his chest heaved and he coughed up a mouthful of dark stagnant blood onto the stone floor.

Li Yu wiped his mouth and drank a healing pill while he rested for a few hours to let his torn body heal. This technique was so incredibly painful but his will to become stronger was stronger still. He then started the cycle all over again. He repeated this brutal process for two entire days. He slowly expanded his foundation and hardened his internal walls layer by layer. It had to be done perfectly before he could even attempt the second step.

Two days passed in a blur of agonizing pain and deep meditation. Li Yu was sitting in the courtyard and drinking some tea on the third morning when he heard the doors groan open. He opened his eyes and saw a familiar figure stepping into the bright sunlight. Tielan wore her dark commander robes and she carried her helmet under her arm. She looked deeply exhausted but her posture was as straight as a spear.

Li Yu instantly stood up from the stone bench and rushed across the courtyard. He did not offer her a formal bow or a polite greeting. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a massive and tight hug.

"Oof." She laughed softly and returned the warm embrace. "It is good to see you too."

Li Yu pulled back quickly and immediately began checking her over. His eyes scanned the dark metal of her armor for any fresh cracks or deep stains of blood. He looked at her arms and her neck to make sure she was not hiding any injuries beneath her clothes. He only allowed his tense shoulders to drop and relax when he saw that she was completely fine.

"I am alright." She said gently, clearly understanding what he was checking. She reached out and brushed a stray lock of dark hair from his forehead. "There were no major battles this time. The borders are relatively quiet."

Li Yu let out a heavy breath and nodded his head.

After seeing those terrifying images in the Temple of Purity, his anxiety had spiked drastically. He had always known that his parents and his grandfather were the ones fighting on the different lines. They were some of the titans helping to hold up the sky for everyone else in the realm.

But he had never truly visualized their defeat before. The temple had forced him to watch them die on a mountain of shattered corpses. The illusion was burned deeply into his mind and it haunted his quiet moments. He had just gotten his parents back after years of isolation. He did not want to lose them now.

They walked over to the stone table in the center of the courtyard and sat down together and Li Yu poured them both a cup of warm tea from a jade pot.

Li Yu spent the next hour telling her everything that had happened at the Heavenly Sword Sect. He told her about the strange token he received and how it had summoned a giant sword of light into the sky. He then told her about Sect Master Ling Wuji and the ancient ancestors making the massive public announcement.

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"The Holy Son." Tielan repeated the title and took a slow sip of her tea. She let out a loud snort of amusement. "Those rigid sword fanatics rarely act in predictable ways."

"I told them I needed your permission first." Li Yu explained carefully. "I told them I belong to the Li Clan and the Zhan Clan. But they announced it to the entire world before we even reached the bottom of the stairs."

"There is absolutely no reason not to accept it." She said pragmatically. "It is far too late to decide otherwise anyways. The entire cosmos knows the decree by now. If you reject it, you will embarrass them and make a bitter enemy out of a faction. Besides, free resources are free resources. We will gladly take their spirit stones and use their trial grounds."

She set her teacup down on the stone table as a dangerous and familiar glint appeared in her dark eyes.

"However." She continued with a cold smile. "Ling Wuji announced it without waiting for my official blessing. That is a heavy slight against our house. I will need to have a few words with the Sect Master very soon."

Li Yu knew exactly what that meant. She was clearly going to visit the Heavenly Sword Sect and either beat the Sect Master up or extort resources from him as an apology. The Zhan Clan did not let perceived slights go unpunished and Tielan was fiercely protective.

The courtyard fell quiet for a long moment after they finished discussing the politics. The wind rustled the leaves of the ancient trees overhead and sent a few stray blossoms drifting across the stone table.

Li Yu looked down at his hands as he fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve. He had a question burning in his chest but he was afraid to ask it. He gathered his courage and finally looked up to meet his mother's eyes.

"Do you really have to go back to fighting all the time?" He asked. His voice was quiet and it cracked slightly at the very end. Tielan froze. The confident and aggressive warlord demeanor vanished in an instant. She looked across the table at her son and saw the raw fear shining in his eyes.

"I don't want to lose you." Li Yu continued. The dam holding his heavy emotions back finally broke apart. "I am scared to lose this family. I just found you both. I saw you die in the temple illusions. I saw grandfather impaled by a shadow spear. I don't want that to be real."

Tielan stood up quickly and walked around the stone table. She pulled him up from his seat and into another deep embrace. Li Yu hugged her tightly and buried his face in her shoulder and he began crying. He was a cultivator who had killed numerous enemies and survived impossible odds but in this quiet moment, he was just a young man who was terrified of being alone again. To lose his parents once again.

Tielan held him close and rested her chin firmly on the top of his head. She felt her own tears forming as a few stray drops fell onto his robes as she cried quietly alongside him. They shared a warm and desperate embrace for a long while as the wind drifted past them. The silence of the courtyard was only broken by their soft and shaky breaths.

"There isn't any choice." She whispered softly into his ear. "There are dangers everywhere in this world. The cosmos is vast and it is filled with ancient horrors and ambitious empires. If we do not stand on the borders and fight, those horrors will eventually come here. They will destroy our home and they will destroy us all."

Li Yu sniffled and nodded his head against her shoulder. "I understand." He said quietly.

He truly did understand the grim logic and it was the brutal reality of the cultivation world. Weakness invited death. But still, deep down, he did not want his mother to be the one to endanger herself all the time. It was selfish but Li Yu didn’t care. He wanted her to stay home and be safe within the estate. He wanted them to simply exist as a normal family without the crushing weight of the world on their shoulders.

His determination to get stronger skyrocketed once again in that moment. The fear in his heart morphed into a burning resolve. He needed to reach a level of power where she no longer had to fight at all. He vowed to become the supreme entity that held up the sky so his parents could finally rest.

Li Yu wiped his face and stepped back from the embrace. He offered her a small smile to try to show that he was okay and she returned it warmly. They spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the courtyard and talking about mundane things.

For the next three days, Li Yu did not cultivate at all. He put the Boundless Source Scripture and everything else away. He spent every single waking moment with his mother. They walked through the massive gardens of the Li Clan estate and admired the blooming spirit flowers.

They drank tea on the high balconies and watched the sun set over the distant mountains. The two of them ate large meals together and simply enjoyed each other's company without any mention of war or politics. It was a precious pocket of peace that Li Yu desperately needed after witnessing the nightmares.

On the morning of the fourth day, the peace finally ended. Tielan had to leave the estate to resume her duties. The borders required her commanding presence once again.

"Before I go." She said as they stood together by the heavy courtyard gates. "There is an event coming up that you should attend. The Zhan clan juniors are heading out to The Vajra Peaks for a martial competition."

Li Yu listened closely as he memorized the name.

"The monks at The Vajra Peaks are hosting it." She explained smoothly. "They are a powerful faction that focuses entirely on body refinement. You should travel with the juniors and learn from the event. Watch how the different factions cultivate and fight in close quarters. Observe how they utilize their physical bodies."

"Will I be fighting?" He asked.

"No." She shook her head. "Do not take part in the actual matches. The numbers for the fighters are already set and this tournament is meant for their own tempering. You are just there to watch and expand your horizons. There will be others going to observe as well so you will not be a burden on anyone."

"I agree." He nodded firmly. "I will go and observe."

"Good." She smiled warmly and reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "I will arrange for your eight guards to come get you. Haelan, Jhyra and the six shadow guards will arrive here in two weeks when the Zhan delegation is preparing to head back. They will bring you directly to the Zhan clan estate so you can travel with the rest of the group."

"I will be ready when they arrive." He promised.

Tielan nodded and gave him one last firm and lingering hug. She turned around and walked out of the courtyard gates without looking back. Li Yu stood by the entrance and watched her figure disappear down the long stone path. He remained standing there for a long time as his heart settled into a cold and unyielding resolve.