The journey back to the Green Mountain Sect was a long and solitary flight through a silent empty sky. He too stayed on the ground until he was clear of the forest and then cautiously took to the air. The Silver-Winged Flying Swordfish, a creature of grace and speed, carried Li Yu away from the blood-soaked clearing. He stood on its back, the wind whipping through his hair. His mind was a calm deep pool but beneath the surface, powerful currents were churning.
He had tasted the terrifying power of a realm far beyond his own. It had shown him with brutal clarity the vast difference between a big fish in a pond and a true leviathan of the deep. His Ninth Stage Qi Condensation foundation, a source of immense pride and secret strength, had been nothing more than a paper shield before the might of a Foundation Establishment expert. He had survived not through his own power but through a borrowed calamity. That was a truth he could not afford to ignore.
When he finally saw the familiar cloud-wreathed peaks of his sect on the horizon a sense of relief washed over him. He guided the Swordfish directly to the Azure Serpent Lake, bypassing the main sect gates. The moment he passed through the valley's concealment formation he was greeted by the anxious and relieved faces of his three friends.
"Junior Steward!" Brother Kai exclaimed.
He began to tell them of what had happened but did not elaborate on the details of the battle. Instead, he spent the next few hours in the main pagoda with his friends. They were discussing the lake's operations, the growth of the Azure-Jade Carp and the progress of their own cultivation. He answered their questions about his journey with vague simple replies, his mind clearly elsewhere.
Later that day he made his way to his master's pagoda. He found Elder Ning in her study, meticulously pruning a bonsai tree that seemed to contain rich spiritual essence.
"You have returned," she said, not looking up from her work.
"This disciple encountered an ambush by the Blackwood Syndicate," Li Yu reported, kneeling respectfully. "They were targeting a group of disciples from the Jade Spring Sword Sect. I was unfortunately spotted and forced to intervene."
He recounted the story he had prepared, the tale of the mysterious, passing expert who had annihilated the Foundation Establishment cultivator and his followers. He presented the storage rings he had collected as proof of the battle.
Elder Ning listened in silence, her shears making soft, precise snips. When she was finished, she finally turned to look at him, her eyes sharp and probing. "A mysterious expert," she said, her voice flat. "How very convenient. It seems you are a magnet for such fortunate encounters, Li Yu."
She knew he was lying. He knew she knew. But the lie was a necessary fiction, a veil of plausibility that protected them both. Over the years of their interactions together there was now some mutual understanding between the two, like from a mother to her child.
"The Jade Spring Sword Sect's First Elder has already sent me a formal message of gratitude," she continued, changing the subject. "He speaks very highly of you. You have forged a valuable alliance for our faction. For that, you have done well." She tossed a small heavy pouch onto the table. "Five hundred mid-grade spirit stones. A reward for your troubles. Now go. You look weary. Consolidate your foundation. The path to the Foundation Establishment Realm is the most difficult step in a cultivator's journey."
"Thank you, Master," Li Yu said, bowing deeply. He accepted the pouch and was dismissed.
He returned to his own pagoda with the weight of the world on his shoulders. That night, he did not cultivate. He did not practice his arts. He sank his consciousness deep into the Koi's Sanctuary.
The small private lake was a haven of tranquility. His schools of minnows and carp swam peacefully. Crimson rested in the misty depths.
His focus, however, was on the Deep-Sea Naga egg. For three years, it had been absorbing the pure energy of the sanctuary. Now, its time had come. The steady rhythmic glow of its shell was a silent announcement.
He watched as the first crack appeared. It spread, not with a violent shattering but with a gentle, crystalline chiming. The shell did not break apart; it dissolved into a fine shimmering blue dust that was instantly absorbed by the crimson-gold mist.
Floating in the center of where the egg had been was a new creature. It was a serpent about ten feet long. Its body was slender and graceful. Its scales were the color of the deepest midnight ocean, each one shimmering with a faint, starlight-like luster that seemed to absorb and refract the crimson-gold mist of the sanctuary.
A pair of elegant, fin-like wings, more for navigating deep-sea currents than for flight, sprouted from its back. A single sharp horn of pure polished silver grew from its brow. Its eyes were open and they were pools of molten gold, filled with an ancient intelligence that belied its newborn status.
It was a Deep-Sea Naga. And the moment it was born its aura flared a powerful unrestrained wave of energy that shook the sanctuary. It was a Rank 5 Tyrant Beast.
The Naga looked around the misty crimson-gold space, its gaze curious but calm. It then looked directly at the source of the sanctuary, the great, blood-red Koi spirit that was Li Yu's martial spirit. It did not feel fear or aggression. It felt a deep instinctual bond, a feeling of kinship, of returning home. It had been nourished by this spirit's energy for three years. It was in a way, its child.
The Naga let out a silent psychic cry of greeting and swam gracefully towards the Koi, coiling around it in a gesture of familiar trusting affection.
Li Yu reached out to it with his spiritual sense, a gentle query. 'You have a name?'
The response was not a word but a feeling, a series of complex melodic notes that resonated in his soul. The closest translation into human language was Lirael. It was a name that spoke of moonlight on water. Of the silent, crushing pressure of the abyss and of a lonely ancient nobility.
'Lirael.' Li Yu acknowledged a sense of satisfaction filling him. Crimson was his shield, his brawler. Khaos was his ultimate, world-ending calamity. But Lirael… she was different. Her aura was not one of brute force but of silent deadly grace. She was a more technical attacker, a shadow born of the deep. She was a perfect complement to his «Abyssal Dragon's Shadow».
The birth of this new, powerful companion solidified a resolve that had been forming in his mind since the battle in the forest. He had new allies and new power. But he was still relying on external forces, on beasts and mysterious experts. His own strength had been found wanting at the most critical moment.
He turned his attention to the other corner of the sanctuary, where a miniature obsidian-black crab rested on a ledge.
'Khaos,' he projected, his will a firm, unshakeable pillar. 'I need your help.'
The ancient, arrogant consciousness stirred. 'The noisy serpent has finally hatched. What is it you require, little host?'
'I need to understand the power of the Foundation Establishment Realm,' Li Yu stated. 'I was helpless against that old man. I cannot allow that to happen again. I want you to train me.'
There was a long, silent pause. Khaos's mental voice echoed back, laced with amusement. 'You wish for me to… train you? A being of my stature, a Sovereign of the Void, to act as a sparring partner for a mortal? The idea is… absurd.'
'Our fates are linked,' Li Yu countered, using the creature's own words against it. 'My death would inconvenience your growth. A stronger host is a safer vessel for you. I do not ask you to fight my battles for me. I ask you to forge me into a weapon that can fight them myself.'
He could feel Khaos considering his logic.
'You wish to temper yourself against my power?' Khaos asked. 'Even a wisp of my true strength would annihilate your soul.'
'Suppress your power,' Li Yu asked. 'Suppress it to the level of a First Stage Foundation Establishment expert. Let me feel its pressure. Let me understand its nature. Let me learn to fight it.'
Another long silence. 'Very well, little host. Your ambition is amusing. I am bored. This game might provide some entertainment during my long growth.'
The miniature crab on the ledge slowly rose, its cold dead eyes fixing on Li Yu's spiritual avatar. 'When you are ready to begin your lesson in true despair, you need only ask.'
Li Yu withdrew his consciousness from the sanctuary, his heart pounding with a mixture of terror and exhilaration. He was about to face the most dangerous opponent of all: the monster he kept in his Koi Sanctuary. It was time to truly begin his training.