Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Li Yu moved across Continent Two with a sense of urgency driving his every step but it still wasn’t at the point where he was just rushing everywhere. The dusty roads blurred beneath his boots as he maintained a brisk pace to cover as much ground as possible. He refused to waste too much time dawdling in places that offered no path back to his own world. Li Yu spent no more than a day or two in any given settlement and used those brief stops only to gather local information before hitting the road once again.

The landscape of Continent Two was rugged and unforgiving while the culture of its people mirrored that harsh reality. The environment felt far more violent than the quiet poverty of Continent One. Law enforcement was essentially non-existent outside the fortified walls of the warlords. This land seemed to be one where the bigger stick was indeed the right path or choice.

During a brief stay at a trading outpost built into the side of a deep canyon, he caught the tail end of a group of Foundation Establishment mercenaries slaughtering a merchant caravan right in the middle of the street. They fought over a handful of low grade herbs and a sack of metal coins.

Blood stained the cobblestones while the local townspeople simply locked their wooden doors and waited for the screaming to stop. Li Yu walked right past the carnage without interfering with what was going on as he had seen it all too often here. He had no desire to play the hero in a world that thrived on such chaotic rules and one where he was trying to leave.

Heiyuan observed the endless violence from his comfortable position wrapped around Li Yu’s waist. The sleek black serpent flicked its forked tongue to taste the scent of fresh blood in the air and sent continuous waves of predatory interest across their mental bond. The creature was always hungry and the ambient violence of Continent Two seemed to excite its dark ambitions to eat.

Two weeks into his rapid journey across the continent, Li Yu decided to set up camp in a dense thicket of gray trees far away from the main trade routes. The sun dipped below the jagged horizon and painted the sky in shades of bruised purple and dark orange. He cleared a patch of dry dirt and built a small campfire using fallen branches.

He pulled a thick slab of wild boar meat from his spatial ring and began to prepare their evening meal as usual. Cooking was a familiar comfort that helped ground his thoughts when the stress of being stranded weighed heavily on his mind. He used a sharp iron knife to score the fat before rubbing a mixture of crushed star anise and dried garlic into the meat. Li Yu skewered the boar on a sturdy wooden branch and set it over the crackling flames to roast slowly, not even using his natal flame to cook.

The rich aroma of sizzling fat and spices soon filled the quiet clearing. Li Yu sat on a smooth rock and watched the fire dance while Heiyuan uncoiled from his waist to slither up his arm. The serpent rested its head on his shoulder and stared at the roasting meat with unblinking dark eyes.

"I told you, you need to be patient," Li Yu said while reaching up to gently tap the serpent on the head. "The meat needs to cook through or the flavor will be ruined."

'I do not care about flavor,' Heiyuan projected a raspy thought across their soul connection. 'I only care about the energy. Raw meat is just as good when you swallow it whole.'

"You have no refinement at all," Li Yu chuckled and turned the wooden skewer to ensure an even roast. "A proper meal is one of the few joys we get to experience on this long road. You will wait until it is done."

The peaceful atmosphere of their camp shattered a few moments later. Li Yu heard the distinct sound of snapping twigs and heavy footsteps approaching through the thicket but he had long sensed them from much earlier.

Five men wearing mismatched leather armor stepped out from the shadows of the trees. They held iron swords and heavy axes while their eyes locked onto the roasting meat and Li Yu's robes. The leader of the group was a tall man with a jagged scar running down his cheek and the distinct energy signature of a Core Formation cultivator. The other four men hovered at the late stages of Foundation Establishment. They also brought two large feral hounds with patches of gray scales to cover their flanks.

"That smells very good, traveler," the scarred leader said with a cruel grin as he pointed his sword toward the fire. "It is very dangerous to cook such rich food out in the wild. It attracts hungry wolves and desperate men."

"The forest is wide enough for all of us," Li Yu replied without standing up from his rock. "Keep walking and you will not find any trouble here."

"I think we will stay," the leader laughed and took a step closer. "Hand over the spatial ring on your finger and leave the meat over the fire. Do that and we might let you walk away with your life. Oh, and leave the black snake as well. Its scales look like they would fetch a good price."

Heiyuan hissed loudly and its dark eyes locked onto the scarred man. The serpent sent a wave of pure killing intent across the mental link that made Li Yu smile.

"You can try to take my things," Li Yu offered while remaining seated. "But I must warn you that it will end poorly for your group."

The scarred leader sneered and signaled his men to attack. The two feral hounds charged forward with jaws wide open while the mercenaries raised their weapons and rushed the campfire.

Li Yu stood up and took a deep breath. He had been waiting for a chance to test his combat control since arriving in this realm. His baseline physical strength as a Creation Lord was terrifying and he needed to know if he could fight without destroying the continent beneath his feet.

The first hound leaped toward his throat with glowing yellow eyes. Li Yu did not draw a weapon or summon any grand martial techniques. He simply raised his right hand and flicked his index finger against the skull of the charging beast. He concentrated on using the smallest fraction of his physical strength possible and focused the impact into a tiny point.

The result was instantaneous and devastating. The feral hound did not fly backward or crash into the trees. The force turned the hound into a bloody mist that then was erased from all of existence.

The mercenaries froze in their tracks when they saw the beast get turned into nothingness so effortlessly but the leader shouted at them to foolishly keep going. A man holding a heavy iron axe swung the weapon down toward Li Yu's shoulder.

Li Yu sidestepped the attack with a smooth motion and delivered a soft open palm strike to the man's chest. He adjusted his power some more and pulled his power back so far that he felt like he was moving underwater. The palm connected with the leather armor and a dull thud echoed across the clearing. The mercenary collapsed instantly as the suppressed energy shattered every rib in his chest while leaving the flesh unbroken this time.

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"Kill him!" The scarred leader yelled in stupid rage and lunged forward with his sword glowing with red Qi.

Li Yu easily dodged the clumsy sword thrusts and dismantled the remaining attackers with precise and controlled strikes. He used two fingers to snap the blade of the leader's sword before delivering a swift kick to the man's knee. The bone shattered and the leader fell to the ground while screaming in agony. The entire skirmish lasted less than ten seconds and left the leader alive but the remaining bandits dead in the dirt.

Li Yu stood over the groaning leader and let out a disappointed sigh. His control was okay and he had successfully fought without causing any collateral damage to the environment so that was good. The control was still nowhere he wanted as he had only planned on injuring everyone but he had actually killed all of them besides the leader.

The enemies were also simply too weak to offer any real feedback for his true strength. Beating Core Formation bandits required zero effort and did not simulate the pressure of fighting a peer at the Creation Lord stage. He still had no idea how his body would react if he was forced to unleash his full power in a real battle.

'Can I eat them?' Heiyuan asked eagerly through their mental bond while slithering down Li Yu's leg to reach the ground.

Li Yu looked at the fallen bandits and shrugged his shoulders. "Go ahead. They chose this path when they decided to attack a stranger in the woods."

What happened next surprised Li Yu as Heiyuan slithered over to the remaining feral hound which was easily twenty times larger than the small serpent. The black snake did not bite or tear at the flesh. It opened its jaws incredibly wide until they unhinged with a soft clicking sound. A strange spatial distortion formed within the dark cavern of the serpent's mouth.

The heavy body of the feral hound began to slide forward as if pulled by an invisible vacuum. The large beast shrank and distorted as it passed through the jaws before vanishing into the dark throat. Heiyuan swallowed the entire hound in a matter of seconds.

Li Yu stared in surprise as he realized Heiyuan's body did not bulge or expand at all. The sleek serpent remained the exact same size as before despite having just consumed a creature that large. The bodies disappeared into a spatial void hidden within the snake, the very same place where all of his pills had gone.

Heiyuan moved on to the fallen mercenaries and repeated the terrifying process. The serpent swallowed the men one by one including the screaming leader who tried to crawl away in terror. Within a few minutes, the clearing was empty of all enemies and the only sound left was the crackling campfire.

"You really do have a bottomless stomach," Li Yu noted while watching Heiyuan slither back up his leg. "Swallowing bodies whole without gaining any physical mass requires an innate grasp of spatial laws. That is an incredibly rare trait for a beast that is still in the Qi Condensing realm."

'I told you I was hungry,' Heiyuan replied with a feeling of satisfaction pulsing across their connection. 'The meat was tough but the energy was good. I need more like that. I feel the effects on my body much more than taking pills.'

"That is interesting… those pills should contain much more energy than their bodies… It must be your unique constitution or bloodline. You will get more eventually." Li Yu wondered and then laughed as he walked back over to his roasting boar meat.

The two of them enjoyed their meal in the quiet forest and Li Yu spent the rest of the night thinking about his current situation. He had been on Continent Two for two full weeks and he had seen enough now to make a firm decision. The human continents were a dead end for his goals.

The strongest experts here were only Divine Transformation or Soul Transformation cultivators. They could not offer him a real fight to test his Creation Lord powers and they certainly did not possess the high level knowledge required to locate a spatial anomaly to get him back home.

He decided to skip Continents Three and Four entirely. If he wanted to find rare resources or uncover the ancient secrets of this world, he needed to head into the more dangerous territories. He needed to visit the beast continents next before ultimately heading towards the central continent.

The following morning Li Yu packed his camp and traveled to a large port city on the eastern coast of Continent Two. The city bustled with heavy trade and featured a sprawling market dedicated to intercontinental shipping. He wandered through the crowded streets until he found a specialized merchant guild that dealt in exotic goods from the savage lands.

He entered a dimly lit shop that smelled of dried seaweed and old parchment. The merchant behind the wooden counter was an old man with a thick gray beard and the pale skin of someone who rarely saw the sun.

"Welcome, traveler," the old merchant greeted him with a raspy voice. "What kind of rare treasures are you seeking today? I have pearls from the deep trenches and beast cores from the northern peaks."

"I do not want to buy goods," Li Yu said while approaching the counter. "I want to buy a map. I need detailed navigational charts leading to the beast continents. Specifically, I want to know the route to The Sunken Mires."

The old merchant stopped wiping the counter and stared at Li Yu with wide eyes. "The Sunken Mires? Are you tired of living, young man? Humans do not travel to the beast continents unless they are taken there as slaves or food. The Sunken Mires is a death trap ruled by the Soul Reaping Axolotls. They will drag you into the endless mud before you even see their faces. We only trade with them and they allow it because it benefits them greatly or else they would happily kill us too."

"I appreciate the warning," Li Yu replied with a smile, it was rare to see someone care for another here and pulled some spirit stones from his spatial ring. He placed the glowing gems on the wooden counter and pushed them toward the old man. "But I have my own reasons for going. Do you have the map or not?"

The merchant looked at the spirit stones and swallowed hard. He quickly swept the gems off the counter and pulled a heavy wooden lockbox from under the desk. He unlocked the box and retrieved a thick roll of beast skin parchment.

"This chart details the ocean currents and the safest approach to the shores of The Sunken Mires," the merchant explained while handing the map over. "But there are no true safe paths once you cross into their lands. May the heavens have mercy on your soul, traveler."

Li Yu thanked the merchant and left the shop with the map secured in his robes. He walked out of the port city and found a secluded stretch of rocky beach far away from any prying eyes. Li Yu unrolled the map and memorized the navigational routes leading south across the vast ocean.

With the map in his mind, he was done taking slow trading ships as he had done before. The urgency to progress pushed him to take direct action instead. Li Yu channeled his vast Qi and took to the sky like a meteor as he accelerated over the crashing waves.

He flew across the open ocean and the bright blue sky eventually gave way to thick gray clouds and the air grew heavy with moisture. Li Yu slowed his flight speed as the oppressive atmosphere of the beast continent began to bleed into the surrounding environment.

A dark and endless swamp appeared on the horizon right off the coast, there seemed to be start or end to it. Giant twisted trees with pale gray bark rose from the murky waters and thick vines hung like heavy curtains across the landscape. The air smelled of rotting vegetation and ancient mud. The borders of The Sunken Mires stretched out before him in every direction and a palpable sense of danger lurked beneath the dark waters.

Li Yu hovered above the tree line and felt a thrill of anticipation running through his veins. He had finally arrived in a land that might actually offer him a path home. There was little information regarding the power here. It was clearly higher than the humans, so it must at least be higher than Divine Transformation but Li Yu was hoping for more. He adjusted his robes and prepared to descend into the murky depths of the beast territory to see what secrets this savage continent held.