The silence that fell upon the Black Reef chokepoint was a profound, unnatural thing. The gentle lapping of the river against the hulls of the merchant barges was the only sound in a world that had, moments before, been a cacophony of clashing steel and desperate screams. The surviving caravan guards stood frozen, their swords hanging loosely in their hands, their minds struggling to process the silent, absolute apocalypse they had just witnessed.
Mei Lin, Chen Fan's mother, was a statue of pale stone, her kitchen knife still held in a white-knuckled grip, her body a trembling shield for the crying children who huddled behind her. Her gaze was fixed on the calm, unassuming young man who had appeared from the heavens, a figure whose gentle demeanor was a terrifying, irreconcilable paradox with the silent, world-ending power he had just unleashed.
It was Chen Fan's landing that finally broke the spell. He stumbled from his flying sword, his face a mess of tears and relief, and ran to his mother. "Mother! Are you alright?"
Mei Lin's composure finally shattered. She dropped the knife with a clatter and pulled her son into a fierce, sobbing hug, her tears a mixture of terror, relief, and a profound, overwhelming gratitude that was beyond any words.
Li Yu stood, a silent guardian in the middle of the carnage he had wrought. He looked at the kneeling, whimpering pirates, their minds completely broken by the casual, absolute display of power, and the cold, killing intent in his eyes slowly faded. He had come here to help a family. He had not come here to be a butcher.
He turned to the stunned, speechless caravan guards, whose gazes shifted from the wreckage on the river to him, filled with a deep, primal fear and a dawning, reverent awe. "Tie them up," he said, his voice calm, but carrying an authority that was impossible to question. "The town guard can deal with them."
The guards, jolted into action, scrambled to obey, their movements clumsy in their shock.
Li Yu then walked over to the Chen family. Mei Lin looked up from her son's embrace, her eyes filled with a gratitude so profound it was a tangible weight. "Honored Master Li…" she began, her voice a choked whisper. "You… you saved us. You saved these children."
"You offered me a home-cooked meal and a cup of wine, Auntie Mei," Li Yu replied, a small, genuine smile on his face, the monstrous god of war once again replaced by the kind, unassuming boy. "In my experience, that is a debt worth repaying."
The journey back to Riverbend Town was a slow, somber procession. The remaining pirate vessels were lashed to the merchant barges, the captured and bound pirates a grim, silent cargo. The news of their arrival, and of the impossible battle that had taken place, had already reached the town, carried by a fast-moving messenger bird sent by one of the guards.
When they arrived at the docks, the entire town seemed to be waiting for them. The silence was absolute. They stared, not at the defeated pirates, but at the single, calm young man in simple, dark robes who stood at the prow of the lead barge. The story, which had surely been exaggerated in the telling, was now laid bare before them. The wreckage of the pirate fleet, the captured survivors, the grateful, weeping faces of the caravan members… it was all true.
The town's mayor, an old, pot-bellied man at the peak of the Body Tempering Realm, rushed forward, his usual, blustering authority replaced by a deep, trembling reverence. He fell to his knees on the hard, wooden planks of the dock. "Riverbend Town greets the Honored Master! We are forever in your debt for eradicating the scourge of the Black Fin Pirates!"
The rest of the townsfolk, the fishermen, the merchants, the common people, followed his lead, a wave of kneeling figures, their heads bowed in a gesture of profound, heartfelt gratitude.
Li Yu, who had spent his entire life trying to be invisible, now found himself the unwilling center of an entire town's adoration. He let out a quiet, internal sigh. This trip, meant to be a simple, quiet act of kindness, had become unnecessarily complicated. The public attention was a departure from the quiet life he preferred, but he accepted it as a natural consequence of his actions.
That night, in the quiet of the room the Chen family had insisted he take, he finally allowed himself a moment of introspection. He had won. He had protected the innocent. He had displayed a fraction of his power, well within the bounds of a Foundation Establishment expert, so he was not worried about exposing his secrets. He simply acknowledged that his path was becoming more public. The stories would inevitably spread, a ripple effect from the choices he had made.
He sank his consciousness into his sanctuary, a quiet, internal world that was his only true refuge. He found Kui resting at the bottom of the misty lake, its shell now almost completely mended.
"Ah, Wise Host!" the great beast's boisterous voice echoed in his mind. "This old turtle has felt the ripples of your recent… excursion. A fine, decisive display of power! You have the heart of a true sovereign!"
"It was a noisy, brutish affair," Li Yu countered, his mind still troubled by the interruption to his quiet journey. "I used a sledgehammer to kill a few flies. My control is still too crude."
"Nonsense!" Kui boomed. "A sovereign's duty is to protect the peace of his domain. Whether he does so with a gentle word or a thunderous roar, the result is the same. The people are safe. That is the only measure of a true ruler."
Li Yu was silent. The ancient beast's simple, straightforward logic was a comforting balm on his own, overly analytical mind. The outcome was what mattered. The Chen family was safe. The town was safe. The method, while loud, had been effective.
He spent the next two days in quiet seclusion, using the time to consolidate his own foundation and analyze the spoils of his brief, violent battle. The storage rings of the pirates were filled with a chaotic jumble of low-grade spirit stones and common herbs, but the ring of their Ninth Stage leader was a minor treasure trove in itself. It contained a rare, water-attribute defensive art and, more importantly, a detailed, hand-drawn map of the upper Azure Serpent River, marking not just trade routes, but also the hidden dens of other pirate crews and the lairs of several powerful, wild river beasts.
It was a map of danger, but to Li Yu, it was a map of opportunity.
On the third day, as he was preparing to make his quiet departure from the town, Chen Wei, the family's patriarch, approached him, his face a mask of solemn, determined sincerity.
"Honored Master Li," he said, bowing deeply. "My family… we have nothing that can truly repay the debt we owe you. But we cannot let you leave empty-handed. This… this is our family's greatest treasure. It has been passed down for ten generations. We do not know its true purpose, only that it is a piece of our history. We wish for you to have it."
He held out a small, heavy, and incredibly ancient-looking box, carved from a dark, water-resistant wood that Li Yu did not recognize.
Li Yu, seeing the absolute sincerity in the man's eyes, knew that to refuse would be to insult their gratitude. He accepted the box. "Thank you, Master Chen. I will treasure it."
He did not open it in front of them. He waited until he and Chen Fan were miles away, soaring through the sky on the back of Tempest.
"Sir Li," Chen Fan said, his voice quiet. He had been unusually silent throughout their return journey, his mind clearly struggling to reconcile the kind, gentle physician with the terrifying god of war he had witnessed. "That box… it is a fool's treasure. It has been in my family for as long as anyone can remember. It is said to contain a map to a great fortune, but it is sealed with a lock that no one has ever been able to open. I am sorry that it is all we had to offer."
Li Yu simply smiled. He looked down at the ancient box in his hands. He could feel a faint, almost imperceptible pulse of spiritual energy from it, a power that was so old, so deep, that it was almost a part of the wood itself. He could also feel the lock. It was not a physical mechanism. It was a seal of bloodline and Qi.