The miniature Khaos, a fist-sized speck of absolute darkness, floated serenely in the murky water. It faced the Behemoth Turtle-Snake. The contrast in size was so absurd it bordered on the comical. But the power radiating from the tiny crab was a silent pressure that had brought the entire marshland to its knees.
It was actually stronger than a rank 10 Abyssal Beast, at least in the mid core formation in strength but Li Yu had no idea. He couldn't understand the nature of Khaos's power.
The Beast King, its massive shell groaning and cracking under the domain of Absolute Weight, let out a roar of defiant fury. It was a king. It would not be suppressed by this strange, terrifying anomaly.
It focused every ounce of its will, its ancient, draconic bloodline burning with power and its own domain began to fight back. The glowing runes on its shell flared with a brilliant, golden light and a wave of tyrannical, water-aspected energy pushed back against Khaos's crushing void, a desperate attempt to reclaim its own territory.
"Resistance," Khaos's mental voice was a flat bored statement. "How tedious."
Its second pincer, the one that had been resting at its side, slowly rose. It glowed with a dark, light-devouring energy. Khaos did not use a beam attack. It simply hammered down.
The tiny, crystalline pincer moved with a speed that was impossible to track, striking the top of the Beast King's massive, three-hundred-foot-wide shell.
The moment of impact was silent. There was no explosion. But a web of pure black void-aspected energy, like cracks in the very fabric of space, spread out from the point of impact. The ancient glowing runes on the turtle-snake's shell, which had been shining with a defiant, golden light were instantly extinguished, their power consumed, annihilated.
The Behemoth Turtle-Snake let out a gurgling, psychic scream of pure agony. Its last line of defense, its own innate, domain-level protection had been shattered with a single casual blow.
Li Yu, watching from the edge of the domain, felt his very soul tremble. That shell could have likely withstood the combined assault of all seven Core Formation experts for a long time. Khaos had broken it with a single, effortless tap. The lesson from their last conversation was being demonstrated with brutal, terrifying clarity: cultivation realms were a suggestion, not a fact.
Khaos did not relent. Its pincer rose and fell, a relentless, rhythmic hammer of destruction. Each silent blow sent another web of void-cracks spreading across the massive shell. The sound was not of rock breaking but of a world being unmade. Great, shield-sized chunks of the obsidian-like shell began to break away, dissolving into motes of pure energy before they even hit the marsh floor, consumed by the hungry void.
The Beast King thrashed in its prison of weight, its serpentine head striking out with blasts of corrosive, high-pressure water but the attacks simply dissipated a few feet from Khaos's tiny form, unable to penetrate its personal domain of absolute reality.
This was not a battle. It was a methodical, brutal and utterly one-sided execution.
After a few more blows, the mighty shell of the Behemoth Turtle-Snake, a fortress that had stood for years, finally gave way. With a deep groaning crack that echoed in the very soul, a massive fissure split the shell from end to end. The Beast King's ancient life force, its very essence, began to bleed out into the water, a rich, golden mist of pure power.
It was broken. Its body was shattered, its defenses were gone and its will, the proud will of a king, was finally beginning to crumble in the face of a power that it could not even comprehend.
"Enough," Khaos's voice echoed, its pincer halting mid-swing. "You are beaten."
It flickered, its tiny form appearing directly before the Beast King's massive serpentine head. The king's golden eyes, now filled with a mixture of agony, terror and submission, stared at the tiny world-ending creature before it.
"You have a choice," Khaos projected, its voice a cold, final judgment. "You can die here, your essence a fleeting meal for the mud. Or, you can submit. You will serve my host, Li Yu. You will be his shield, his sword, his loyal servant. But you will answer to me. I will be your master, your king, the absolute law that governs your existence. Your life is now mine to command. Choose."
The offer was not one of mercy. It was an offer of unconditional servitude. But it was also an offer of life.
The great Beast King, its pride shattered, its body broken, did not hesitate. A wave of submission, a complete and total surrender of its soul, washed over the entire marshland. It had chosen life. It had chosen a new king.
Khaos let out a feeling of what might have been a satisfied hum. It turned its attention to Li Yu. "The insect has submitted. It is now your tool, but my property. Do not break it. It has some… minor uses."
Li Yu could only stare, his mind reeling. He had just witnessed a Core Formation level Beast King being casually beaten into submission. Khaos had not even seemed to be trying. "It… it is done?" he projected, his voice a whisper.
"The first act of the play is concluded," Khaos replied. "Now, for the spoils." It looked out at the dozens of Rank 7 Overlord Beasts still pinned to the marsh floor by its domain of Absolute Weight, their bodies groaning, their wills on the verge of breaking. "These lesser insects are beneath my notice. But you seem to enjoy collecting such things. Choose your new pets. Be quick about it."
Li Yu snapped out of his daze. This was an opportunity he could not waste. He shot forward, his form a blur as he appeared in the midst of the immobilized Overlords. His spiritual sense swept over them, his mind a whirlwind of calculation.
But his eyes were drawn to two specific creatures. They were a pair of Rank 7 Abyssal Water-Drakes, a variant with a powerful aquatic bloodline. They were sleeker than the other beasts, their bodies a shimmering, midnight blue, their eyes filled with a sharp, cunning intelligence. They were not just strong; they were leaders.
"I want the two Water-Drakes," Li Yu projected to the now-submissive Behemoth Turtle-Snake.
The great beast, whose name Li Yu now learned was Kui, let out a weak, psychic rumble of acknowledgment. It turned its massive head towards the two chosen drakes and issued a single command. "You now serve the new master. Submit, or die."
The two Abyssal Water-Drakes, their own wills already crushed by Khaos's domain, did not hesitate to obey their king. They lowered their heads in a gesture of absolute, unconditional surrender.
"Their names are Ying and Zhao," Kui's weary voice echoed in Li Yu's mind. "They are my most loyal generals. They will serve you well."
Li Yu did not have time to forge a proper contract. He simply opened the portal to his Koi's Sanctuary, and with a wave of his hand, he pulled the two new, willing Rank 7 Overlord Beasts into its misty depths. He now had two more powerful commanders for his growing army.
"Are you finished with your shopping, little host?" Khaos's impatient voice cut through his thoughts.
"Yes," Li Yu replied, a new, profound sense of security settling over him.
"Good." Khaos turned its attention to the remaining, immobilized Overlords and the thousands of lesser aquatic beasts still pinned in the marsh. "Then it is time to clean up."
It raised its pincer one last time. Once again it simply… squeezed.
The domain of Absolute Weight collapsed in on itself. The dozens of remaining Overlord Beasts, their bodies already groaning under the immense pressure, were not vaporized. Their life forces were instantly extinguished, their souls shattered by the crushing force, leaving their massive, physically intact corpses to fall limp in the water. The thousands of lesser beasts suffered the same fate, their lives snuffed out in a single, silent instant.
Li Yu felt a pang of pain, he didn't know Khaos was planning on killing everything in sight. He had wanted to take a few of the lower ranked aquatic beasts, as different lifeforms in his Koi Sanctuary. Actions couldn't be taken back and so he collected their energies instead.
A massive, invisible vortex, centered on Li Yu's Koi spirit, roared to life. The cloud of pure, refined essence from the dead aquatic beasts, along with the physical bodies of all the beasts—tons of meat, scales, and bones—was drawn into the sanctuary's portal. They would later be used as high quality food for his beasts there. The very water of the marsh, now a thick, nutrient-rich soup, was devoured, filtered, and absorbed.
Li Yu felt his own cultivation, which had been at the Seventh Stage, slightly moved forward once more under the influx of such power. He felt the barrier to the next stage tremble and crack.
The entire process took less than a minute. When it was over, the marshland was a barren, muddy wasteland, its life force completely gone. The miniature Khaos then tapped the head of the beast king, forming a seal on it and then quickly flickered and vanished back into its portal. The mighty Beast King, Kui, now his loyal servant, lowered its head and waited for its new master's command.
His army was utterly destroyed. He now had to nurse his wounds, it would take a while to heal from such injuries, he should have stopped resisting sooner.
Li Yu stood in the center of the devastation, his mind an echoing hall of shock and awe. He had done it. He had defeated one of the four kings and captured two of its most powerful generals.
One down. Three to go.