He announced the news of the "Deepwater Menagerie" to his three friends. Their initial shock quickly gave way to a roaring, boisterous celebration.
"A whole valley!" Hu Jian bellowed, his voice echoing in the pagoda. "They're giving us an entire valley! We're going to be the kings of the sect's beast division!"
"It is a great responsibility," Brother Kai said, his voice laced with worry. "It will be a lot of work and resources to get started. This is a testament to the sect's faith in you, Junior Steward."
"They haven't approved anything just yet. I wanted to share the plan with you three because I will need your help even more moving forward. Right now I need to understand my own foundation before I can build one for the sect," Li Yu replied, his calm voice cutting through their excitement. "I will be in seclusion for a few days. Please continue with your duties and mine until I come back out."
He retreated to his cultivation chamber. He needed to explore the changes in his body, the gifts and mysteries of his unique breakthrough. He sat in the center of the room and began to circulate the new, higher-grade energy of his Foundation Establishment Realm. The sphere in his dantian, a perfect fusion of abyss-black void and a vibrant emerald-green star of life, pulsed gently, a silent, powerful heart.
He first focused on the gift of the ancient being: something he identified as the Qi of Life. He drew a small dagger from his storage ring and with a steady hand made a shallow cut on his forearm. In the past, a wound like this would take a bit of time to fully close and then a day for any signs of it to go away entirely.
Now, as he watched the emerald-green life energy within his own blood immediately went to work. The wound stitched itself together at a visible rate, the skin knitting back together without a scar. In less than ten minutes, it was as if the cut had never been there. His body's natural recovery speed had become monstrous.
Next, he tested his digestion. He consumed a tough, difficult-to-digest piece of dried Rank 3 beast meat. The 'Abyssal Vortex' of his physique, now supercharged by his new foundation, roared to life. The meat was broken down and its spiritual energy absorbed in a matter of minutes, a process that would have taken him about an hour before. His body had become a supremely efficient engine, wasting nothing.
He walked to a small, private pond in his courtyard where he kept a few Azure-Jade Carp. One of them had recently scraped its side on a sharp rock, a minor but annoying injury. Li Yu stood at the edge of the pond, ten feet away from the fish. He focused his will, drawing upon the emerald-green star in his foundation. A faint, almost invisible green light enveloped his hand. He extended his palm towards the fish.
He did not release a wave of Qi. He simply… willed it. A gentle nourishing stream of pure life energy flowed from him, passed through the air and enveloped the injured carp. The fish, which had been swimming sluggishly, immediately became energetic. The raw pink scrape on its side visibly began to heal, the scales slowly regrowing over the wound.
Li Yu's eyes widened. This was a great ability. He could help heal his beasts from a distance without touching them. In the chaos of a battle, it would be an invaluable tool. For the delicate process of beast taming and nurturing, it was a gift. He wasn't sure how quickly higher ranked beasts would take to heal but something was better than nothing.
He then turned his attention to the other side of his foundation: the void. He could feel its influence in the abyssal-black nature of his True Qi. The energy was incredibly heavy, dense and carried a subtle, all-consuming quality. While the life energy was for nurturing, this was for destruction.
He knew, instinctively, that any attack infused with this void-aspected Qi would be much more destructive than a normal attack, capable of corroding and annihilating an opponent's own spiritual energy.
After three days of this quiet, internal exploration, he emerged from his chamber, his understanding of his own power solidified. He was a being of two extremes: a healer and a destroyer, a prince of life and a sovereign of the void.
Li Yu received word from his master that the sect had approved construction of his Deepwater Menagerie. He would need to work out the details with the construction groups tasked with helping him. His master sent over a map of the area that he was now in charge of running.
His first act as the new head of the Deepwater Menagerie was not to requisition land or demand resources. He took the Silver-Winged Flying Swordfish and made a solitary journey back down the mountain, to a place he had not seen in years: the outer sect Aquatic Pens.
The place was just as he remembered it: a collection of crude huts and muddy lakes, a world away from the elegance and power of the inner sect. He found Uncle Wei mending a net on the same dock where he had once been a boy dreaming of a better life. The old man, thanks to the Longevity Pill, looked healthier and more vibrant than Li Yu had ever seen him but he was still just a simple laborer, mending his nets.
"Uncle Wei," Li Yu said, his voice soft.
The old man looked up and his wrinkled face broke into a wide, joyful smile. "Brat! You've come back to see this old man!" He looked Li Yu up and down, his eyes filled with a pride that was as deep as any ocean. "I heard what you did. A true hero of the sect, you are."
They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, watching the Green-Scaled Carp swim lazily in the pond.
"I am leaving the Azure Serpent Lake," Li Yu said finally.
Uncle Wei's face fell. "Leaving? Where are you going?"
"The sect has granted me a new responsibility," Li Yu explained. "They have given me the entire Southern River Valley. I am to build a new, grander home for the sect's aquatic beasts. A 'Deepwater Menagerie'."
He looked at the old man, his expression sincere. "It is a massive project. I will need men to help me, men with real practical knowledge of raising fish, not just the fancy theories of the inner sect disciples. I need men who understand the water, who know the difference between a happy carp and a sick one just by the way it swims."
He paused, his gaze steady. "I need you, Uncle Wei. I want you to be the head caretaker of the new menagerie. You will have your own courtyard, your own staff. You will answer only to me. I am not offering you a job as just a laborer. I am asking for your help as an expert."
The old man stared at him, his mouth opening and closing, deciding what to say. He had spent his entire life as a menial worker, looked down upon by every disciple. To be called an expert, to be offered a position of such respect… it was more than he had ever dreamed of.
"Brat… Li Yu…" he stammered, his voice choked with emotion. "I am just an old, untalented man. I am not worthy of such a position."
"You are my first friend in this sect," Li Yu said, his voice gentle but firm. "You are the most experienced fish breeder I know. And you are the only one I trust to lay the foundation of my new home. If you will not help me then I do not know who else to ask."
The old man looked at the determined, sincere face of the boy he had once offered a meat bun to, and a great, shuddering sob escaped his lips. He wiped his eyes with his calloused hand and stood up, his back straighter than it had been in years.
"This old man… accepts," he said, his voice filled with a new sense of purpose.
Li Yu smiled. He had laid the first and most important stone of his new kingdom. He had not chosen a powerful cultivator or a brilliant strategist. He had chosen a kind old man with a good heart and a lifetime of simple, honest wisdom. It was a choice that would define the very soul of the home he was about to build.