Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 886: The Void Thief and the Short Tempered Master

The wide stone ramp leading up to the primary cave entrance was stained with old blood and scarred by deep claw marks. Li Yu and Zhan walked up the incline in silence, leaving the newly subjugated Ouros behind to guard the base of the mountain.The air grew significantly cooler as they stepped into the yawning mouth of the cavern. The headquarters of the mountain ape was not a refined palace. It was a massive, brutal hollow carved out of the living rock by physical force. The ceiling stretched hundreds of feet into the darkness and the walls were lined with crude stone platforms that likely served as resting areas for Gorr's elite guards.

Right now, however, the cavern was dead silent. The heavy scent of iron and fresh blood hung thick in the stagnant air. As they ventured deeper into the main chamber, the source of the metallic scent became obvious.

Lying in the center of the massive stone floor was a mountain of brown fur and thick muscle. It was Gorr. The Tribulation realm mountain ape was already dead. Gorr was a staggering sight even in death. His body was easily the size of a small hill and his arms were as thick as ancient tree trunks.

His fur was matted with dried blood from his earlier war with Elder Mu but the fatal wound was fresh. His massive chest cavity had been violently ripped open. The ribs were shattered outward and a gaping hole sat where his heart and his spiritual core should have been.

Zhan walked up to the massive corpse. The Heaven Severing Mantis inspected the gruesome wound and let out a harsh, clicking sound of deep frustration.

"We are too late." Zhan cursed the heavens, his voice carrying a rare edge of disappointment. "Someone beat us to it. The Tribulation core is gone."

Li Yu stepped up beside his companion and frowned. He looked at the fleshy cavern in the ape's chest and then scanned the rest of the colossal body.

"It is a bit strange." Li Yu noted with his eyes narrowing as he analyzed the scene. "The killer only took the core. The body of a Tribulation expert is a mountain of refined Qi and vital essence. The blood, the bones and the meat are incredibly useful as nourishment and forging materials. Why would a predator in the Ferine Realm leave such a massive feast behind?"

Zhan paused his cursing and looked at the body again. The mantis tilted his head.

"You are right." Zhan agreed, realizing the logical gap. "A beast would never leave this much premium meat to rot unless they were chased off. It is very odd."

"Do not let it go to waste." Li Yu instructed.

Zhan did not need to be told twice. He stepped forward and activated his personal spatial storage. A spatial ripple washed over the colossal corpse and Gorr's massive body vanished from the cavern floor, stored away safely for Zhan to consume and digest later.

With the body gone, the stone floor was left stained with a massive pool of dark blood. Li Yu stood still but his mind was working rapidly.

If the killer had not been chased off, then they were either incredibly arrogant or they were still here, hiding and waiting for an opportunity to strike the scavengers who had just walked into the room.

Li Yu closed his eyes and expanded his spiritual sense. Following the physical ascension he experienced in Elder Mu's hollow, his soul power was sharper and more robust than ever. He pushed his awareness into the darkest corners of the massive cavern, searching for the faintest ripple of hostile intent.

He felt nothing at first. The cavern seemed empty.

But then, his soul brushed against an anomaly near the high ceiling. It was not a physical presence but a subtle distortion in the ambient Qi. It felt like a tiny fold in the fabric of space, a shadow trying very hard to pretend it did not exist.

Li Yu did not say a word. He did not point out the anomaly to Zhan. He knew from his recent experiences that tipping his hand to a hidden enemy only gave them time to prepare a counterattack.

He was still brimming with rage from the deception of the ancient tree. He was not in the mood for an honorable duel or a prolonged game of hide and seek. He wanted to hit something hard and most importantly win.

Without any warning, Li Yu summoned Star Crusher. He flooded the heavy staff with a massive surge of Void and Destruction Qi. He planted his feet, twisted his torso and launched the weapon like a javelin directly at the empty space near the cavern ceiling, catching Zhan off guard as well.

The heavy staff blurred through the air and was vibrating with destructive spatial energy. A sharp and panicked hiss echoed through the cavern just a fraction of a second before Star Crusher smashed into the anomaly.

Space itself seemed to shatter like glass. The staff did not hit stone; it slammed into a localized void pocket, violently collapsing the hidden dimension. A large figure was forcibly ejected from the shadows, tumbling through the air and crashing hard onto the stone floor a dozen yards away from Li Yu and Zhan.

It was a beast roughly the size of Zhan but its form was far more fluid.

It was a Nether Rift Viper. The creature possessed a long, serpentine body covered in scales that seemed to absorb the light around them. The scales shifted and rippled, weaving shadow and void energy together in a mesmerizing pattern that was incredibly hard to see. It had four sharp, scythe-like appendages near its upper torso to assist in close quarters combat and a triangular head with glowing, amethyst eyes.

The viper hissed in pain from the sneak attack, uncoiling its long body from the impact.

"Do not give it room to breathe!" Li Yu shouted but was already moving forward.

He was angry and he was unleashing his fury on the hostile world around him. He wasn't taking any chances with an unknown entity hiding in the dark. He recalled Star Crusher to his hand with a pulse of Qi and activated his domain.

A heavy and suffocating pressure descended upon the cavern. The Nether Rift Viper was caught off guard by the weight of soul suppression of the domain and its chaotic time nature. The beast was strong and was radiating a powerful aura that marked her as a Paragon realm entity in her prime. However, she was visibly sluggish.

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Deep and weeping gashes covered her serpentine body. Several of her void scales were ripped away, exposing raw flesh underneath. She had just fought a life or death battle against Gorr. Even though the mountain ape was gravely injured and on his last legs, a cornered Tribulation expert was still a terrifying force. The viper had secured the kill but she had paid a heavy price in blood to do so.

Li Yu did not care about her previous battle. He saw an enemy and he struck. He channeled his soul power and unleashed a focused mental attack. The Koi Soul from within let out a strike with its tail, it traveled like a spear of soul energy that moved across the cavern and slammed directly into the viper's mind.

The beast let out an agonizing shriek. Her amethyst eyes rolled back and her long body thrashed wildly as the soul strike disrupted her Qi flow and staggered her foundation. Zhan did not hesitate with this opening. The Heaven Severing Mantis capitalized the opportunity instantly.

‘First Step’

He vanished into a blur of emerald light as he bypassed the viper's frantic thrashing and reappeared right beside her upper torso. Starfall Edge flashed in a brilliant arc of highly compressed sword intent.

The sharp blade sliced clean through one of the viper's scythe appendages. The severed limb hit the stone floor, spraying dark and void infused blood across the cavern. The viper screamed again, trying to desperately fold space to retreat into a rift.

Li Yu cut off her escape. He raised his free hand and summoned his Void Qi. Dark, destructive energy coalesced rapidly around him, forming three abyssal javelins. He hurled them forward with great speed.

The first javelin punched clean through the viper's lower tail, pinning the thick serpentine muscle to the stone floor. The second javelin shattered the protective void scales on her gut, burying itself deep into her torso. The third javelin impaled her remaining right appendage, locking her upper body in place.

The fight was over almost as quickly as it had begun.

The Nether Rift Viper lay pinned to the cavern floor, bleeding heavily from her severed limb and the gaping holes in her body. She was a Paragon realm predator, a master of spatial assassination but she had been beaten relatively easily. Her severe injuries from Gorr, combined with Li Yu's overwhelming soul power and Zhan's lethal precision, had left her helpless against the sudden ambush.

Li Yu walked slowly toward the pinned beast. He rested Star Crusher on his shoulder and his dark eyes were still devoid of any pity. Zhan stepped up beside him and pointed a bloodstained scythe at the viper's head.

"Hand over the Tribulation core." Zhan demanded in his cold. "Submit your soul to Li Yu. Do that and we will capture you instead of killing you. You can live."

The Nether Rift Viper glared up at them. Her amethyst eyes blazed with the fierce, unyielding pride of a high tier predator. She was a void walker, a creature that bowed to no one.

"I would rather die!" The viper spat, her voice echoing with a strange resonance. "I fought a mountain for that core! You scavengers will not steal my prize. I will implode my inner space right now. I will take the core and both of you to the void with me!"

Her body began to glow with unstable and chaotic spatial energy. She was preparing to detonate her own foundation, a suicidal move designed to drag her enemies into oblivion and destroy everything within her personal space.

Zhan tensed and was preparing to use his speed to escape the blast radius.

Li Yu did not step back and his expression did not change. The simmering rage from the betrayal of Elder Mu had burned away his patience for dramatic threats and stubborn pride.

"So be it." Li Yu said, his voice flat and remarkably calm. "It is just my bad luck today."

He did not try to negotiate any further with her. He did not try to talk her down. He simply quickly raised Star Crusher high above his head, gripped the staff with both hands and brought it down with the intent to smash her skull into fine dust before she could trigger the implosion.

Zhan watched the heavy staff descend. The mantis noted how incredibly short tempered Li Yu had become since their encounter with the ancient tree. Zhan clicked his mandibles in quiet approval. He actually quite liked this new, ruthless version of his companion. It was efficient. It was the true Dao of the wild.

The heavy staff blurred toward the viper's face, carrying the force of death. The viper saw the uncompromising apathy in Li Yu's eyes. He truly did not care if she died or if he lost the core. He was going to kill her without a second thought.

Her fierce pride broke under the shadow of immediate death.

"Stop!" The viper screamed, the chaotic spatial energy around her body fizzling out instantly. "I submit! I submit!"

Star Crusher halted just a fraction of an inch above her glowing amethyst eyes as it had done with the bear just a bit earlier. The wind pressure from the swing cracked the stone beneath her head just like before.

Li Yu did not give her a moment to reconsider. He reached into his mind and pulled a thick thread of his soul power. Just as he had done with Ouros outside, he forced the soul thread directly into her mind, bypassing her weakened mental defenses. He planted a strict and unbreakable slave seal deep within her consciousness.

The viper hissed in pain and submission as the brand burned into her soul, locking her life and loyalty to the short tempered human standing over her. Li Yu pulled Star Crusher back and rested it on his shoulder once more. With a wave of his hand, he dispersed the Void Qi maintaining the abyssal javelins, freeing her from the stone floor.

"The core." Li Yu demanded while extending his free hand.

The Nether Rift Viper shuddered, she was slowly pulling her bleeding body together. She opened her maw and regurgitated a glowing sphere of condensed earth energy. It was the Tribulation core of the mountain ape. It pulsed with a terrifying power that illuminated the dim cavern.

Li Yu took the core and he could feel the weight of the energy inside it. It was a massive prize, a resource that could trigger an evolution in a beast or serve as the foundation for a powerful array. He placed it securely into his storage ring for now.

"What is your name?" Li Yu asked while looking down at the bleeding serpent.

"Talia." She answered, her harmonic voice carrying a tone of deep resignation.

Li Yu nodded slowly. He looked around the massive cavern. Gorr was a Tribulation ruler who had controlled this territory for centuries. The core was the primary prize but a ruler of that magnitude always had a hoard.

"Where are the rest of his treasures?" Li Yu asked, his dark eyes locking onto Talia. "Gorr's accumulated wealth. You killed him, so you must have claimed it."

Talia shifted uncomfortably on the stone floor. She looked away, her amethyst eyes darting toward the dark corners of the room.

"Ah." Talia said, her voice dropping an octave. "The treasures. I... I forgot about those in the heat of battle. I am not sure where he kept them."

Li Yu just stared at her. He did not say a word, he simply let Star Crusher slide off his shoulder, the heavy tip thudding against the stone floor with a loud, ominous crack. Talia flinched. The memory of the staff stopping an inch from her face was still very fresh. She let out a long and defeated sigh.

"Fine." Talia muttered reluctantly.

She opened her maw again and produced a high tier spatial pouch woven from strange, wooden threads. She pushed it across the floor toward Li Yu with her snout.

"I secured it right after I ripped out the core." Talia admitted with her tone sullen. "It has all of his rare herbs, refined metals and lesser cores."

Li Yu picked up the spatial pouch and checked the contents with his spiritual sense. It was indeed a massive haul of high quality resources. He tied the pouch to his belt, satisfied that his detour to the mountain had yielded the compensation he was looking for.

He looked down at his new companion, ready to figure out the next steps for his growing group of subordinates.