The world outside the Myriad Mountains Guardian Array was a sea of chaos and death. The ground was a churned-up mess of rock and viscera. The air was thick with the stench of blood and the prima, maddening roars of demonic beasts. Li Yu moved through it all like a ghost. He saw many of the beasts eating the dead bodies of other beasts on the ground.
His «Abyssal Dragon's Shadow» was a heaven-defying concealment art. It did not just make him invisible; it made him a part of the world itself. He flowed between the stampeding feet of colossal, four-armed apes and slithered through the shadows cast by massive lumbering behemoths. He was a drop of water in a raging river, his presence completely unnoticed by the simple, instinct-driven minds of the beasts.
His destination was the southern edge of the pass, where the great river that flowed through the Right Flank originated. It was a vast, sprawling marshland, a network of deep, dark pools and treacherous, grasping mud. The air here was thick with a damp, ancient scent and the spiritual energy was heavy with a wild, untamed water attribute. This was the domain of the first Beast King.
As he drew closer, he could feel its ancient presence that seemed to press down on the very water itself. He finally saw it and the sight took his breath away.
In the center of the largest, deepest pool, a colossal creature rested. It was a Behemoth Turtle-Snake, a beast from the ancient eras.
Its shell, over three hundred feet across, was a living fortress of jagged, obsidian-like rock, covered in ancient glowing runes of power. Its head was not that of a turtle but a fierce draconic serpent. Its golden eyes filled with an ancient cruel intelligence. This was the Aquatic King, one of the four sovereigns of the tide.
Surrounding it were its subjects. Dozens of different Rank 7 Overlord Beasts—amoung them massive, armored crocodiles and gigantic, multi-headed hydras—patrolled the waters, their powerful auras a clear warning to any who would dare to approach.
The four Beast Kings had stationed themselves far from one another, each commanding a different section of the battlefield. Their distrust for each other is as great as their goal to conquer new lands. It was a fatal mistake.
Li Yu found a secluded spot in the murky depths of a nearby pool, concealing himself behind a massive gnarled root. He was a safe distance away, a silent unnoticeable observer. He took a deep, steadying breath, his heart a calm steady drum. He was about to gamble the fate of the entire war on a single, insane throw of the dice.
He sank his consciousness into his Koi's Sanctuary.
"Khaos, it is time."
A wave of ancient amusement washed over him. "Are you certain, little host? Once this begins, there is no turning back. Someone will figure out that you had done this, there is no explanation in the world that could cover this up."
"The alternative is to die here, waiting for a shell to crack," Li Yu replied. "I prefer to choose my own stage."
"Very well," Khaos's mental voice was a low, hungry rumble. "Let us begin."
A swirling crimson-gold portal opened in the murky water in front of Li Yu. It was a silent, almost imperceptible event. But from that portal, a presence of absolute coldness began to leak out that the very water around it began to freeze into black crystalline ice.
The Behemoth Turtle-Snake, which had been resting in a state of regal calm, suddenly lifted its massive, draconic head. Its golden eyes, which had been filled with a lazy contempt for the battle raging in the distance, now narrowed with a look of soul-shaking shock and a dawning, instinctual terror. It sensed something. Something that should not be here. Something that its ancient bloodline screamed at it to flee from.
But it was much too late.
From the portal a miniature, fist-sized crab emerged. It was Khaos, in its small unassuming form. For some reason he liked to stay in his small form most of the time. But the moment it appeared, it acted.
It raised one of its tiny, galaxy-shelled pincers. It did not attack. It simply… squeezed.
The world changed.
An invisible and utterly irresistible pressure descended upon the entire marshland. It was not the spiritual pressure of a cultivator or the aura of a beast. It was the weight of a dying star, the crushing, conceptual force of a black hole. The very laws of space and gravity were being controlled.
"Domain of the Stygian Void: First Edict - Absolute Weight," Khaos's voice echoed, not in Li Yu's mind, but in the very fabric of reality itself.
The effect was instantaneous and absolute. The dozens of powerful Rank 7 Overlord Beasts that had been patrolling the waters let out silent, psychic screams of agony. Their massive, powerful bodies, which could have shattered mountains, were slammed into the marsh floor as if struck by an invisible continental hammer.
The water around them exploded into plumes of mud and steam. They were not killed instantly but they were pinned, their bones groaning and cracking, their powerful forms completely immobilized under a weight they could not comprehend.
This happened across the area, bodies were pinned down but not killed. This was an extraordinary display of not just power but also control.
The Behemoth Turtle-Snake, a mighty Rank 10 Abyssal Beast, a king of its own domain, let out its own silent, psychic scream of agony. Its massive, fortress-like shell groaned and cracked under the strain.
Its powerful, draconic limbs buckled and its hundred-foot-long neck slammed into the water, its head barely able to stay above the surface. It was not just pinned; it was being actively, relentlessly and absolutely crushed.
Li Yu, who was at the very edge of the domain, felt the pressure wash over him. But a small, almost imperceptible bubble of "normal" reality formed around him. A silent, effortless act of protection from Khaos. He could only stare, his mind a blank empty slate of dumbfounded shock, at the absolute casual power on display.
It now made sense why Khaos had called them insects. 'How is Khaos so strong? Wasn't he just at early core formation?' Li Yu thought to himself. The conversation with Khaos from earlier came to mind. Cultivation level was a poor judge of strength. Isn't this just overboard though?
What Li Yu didn't know at the time is that Khaos had touched upon the void laws, a unique trait from his ancient and powerful bloodline. Something only cultivators at a much higher level could do. If one had some control over laws, the fundamentals of the Dao, those that didn't touch upon the laws would stand no chance against them. That was where Khaos's overwhelming power came from but Li Yu wouldn't understand that until much later.
The miniature Khaos floated calmly in the water. It looked at the struggling, cracking form of the mighty Beast King and a feeling of ancient disdain washed over Li Yu.
"You call this a king?" Khaos projected, its voice a mixture of contempt and genuine disappointment. "Pathetic."
It flickered, its tiny form moving with a speed that transcended space and appeared directly above the struggling Beast King's head. It raised its other tiny, crystalline pincer, which began to glow with a dark, light-devouring energy.
The first king was about to fall.