As he was about to withdraw his consciousness from the sanctuary, a familiar, boisterous voice, filled with a new, urgent excitement, echoed in his mind.
"Wise Host! A moment, if you please! A most wondrous, most magnificent event is about to occur! You simply must witness it!"
It was Kui. Li Yu, his curiosity piqued by the ancient turtle-snake's uncharacteristic urgency, sank his consciousness back into the misty, crimson-gold world. He appeared on the shores of the inland sea, his spiritual avatar as solid and real as his physical body.
He looked towards the center of the lake, expecting to see some new development with the lesser beasts, or perhaps a change in the sanctuary's environment. He was not prepared for what he saw.
Standing on the surface of the water, where his three most powerful, non-humanoid companions had been, were three figures.
The first was a portly old man, his belly round and his face wreathed in a constant, cheerful, and deeply sycophantic smile. He wore the simple, comfortable robes of a wealthy, retired merchant, and his eyes, a warm, golden-brown, shone with an ancient, cunning wisdom. He was stroking a long, white beard, his every movement a picture of leisurely contentment. Li Yu recognized the ancient, patient, and deeply flattering aura immediately. It was Kui.
Standing beside him was a woman who was his complete opposite. She was tall, at least a head taller than Li Yu himself, with broad, powerful shoulders and a physique that spoke of absolute, unyielding strength.
Her hair was a wild, snow-white mane, and her eyes were the color of sapphire chips, cold, stoic, and filled with a regal, untouchable authority. She wore simple, white beast-hide armor that did nothing to conceal the raw, physical power coiled in her limbs. This was Xylia, the Glacial Matriarch, a barbarian queen carved from a living glacier.
The final figure was Lirael. She was an elegant young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She was not a peerless, heaven-defying beauty, but she possessed a profound, quiet grace that was more captivating than any simple physical perfection.
Her long, midnight-blue hair fell to her waist, and her golden eyes were filled with the deep, ancient sorrow of a lost princess. She wore a simple, azure-colored dress, her posture one of dignified, noble bearing.
Li Yu could only stare, his mind a blank slate of pure, dumbfounded shock.
"Ah, Wise Host!" Kui, in his new, human form, boomed, his voice a cheerful baritone. He gave a deep, respectful bow that was slightly hampered by his large belly. "This old one thought it was high time we presented ourselves in a form more suitable for conversing with a master of your profound wisdom! Is it not magnificent? This form is perfect for enjoying tea and contemplating the boundless glories of the Great Sovereign and his Wise Host!"
Xylia simply gave a short, curt nod, her sapphire eyes assessing Li Yu with a new, strange intensity. "This form is… efficient," she stated, her voice a low, resonant alto. "It is fragile, but it allows for a greater degree of subtlety in a world of smaller creatures. It is a practical choice."
Lirael looked at her own hands, a look of profound, sorrowful wonder on her face. "I… remember this form," she projected, her melodic voice still a thing of the mind. "My people… we could shift between our true form and this one at will. To feel the air on my skin, to stand on two feet… it is a memory I thought was lost forever."
It was at that moment that a wave of pure, absolute, and utterly dismissive contempt washed over the entire sanctuary from the obsidian ledge.
"Pathetic," Khaos's mental voice was a razor blade of pure, cosmic arrogance. "You have taken your true forms, your vessels of power, your very laws of being, and you have willingly squeezed them into these fragile, flawed cages of flesh and bone. You have shackled yourselves. You are an embarrassment."
Kui's cheerful expression did not falter. He simply turned towards the ledge and gave an even deeper, more reverent bow. "The Great Sovereign is, as always, absolutely correct! This fleshy form is indeed a pathetic, fragile thing, a muddy puddle compared to the Great Sovereign's boundless, perfect ocean of existence! But," he added with a cunning, sycophantic twinkle in his eye, "it is a useful disguise! A way for this old turtle to better serve the Wise Host in the mortal realm without drawing unnecessary attention to his own, magnificent ventures! It is a tool for the Great Sovereign's greater glory!"
"You have taken on a human form, and you have become even more of a sycophant," Khaos retorted, though Li Yu could feel a flicker of what might have been grudging acceptance in its tone.
"And you, female of ice," Khaos continued, its attention shifting to Xylia. "What is your excuse for this foolishness?"
Xylia met the unseen gaze of Khaos without flinching. "My true form is a vessel of power. This form is a vessel of comprehension. To better serve the master, I must understand his world. And his world is a world of two-legged, soft-skinned beings. This form, for all its weakness, allows me to walk among them, to learn their ways, to understand their weaknesses. It is a strategic choice."
"And the little serpent?" Khaos's voice was a low, dangerous rumble. "You possess a noble bloodline. Do not tell me you have abandoned it for this… deformity."
Lirael looked towards the ledge, her golden eyes filled not with fear, but with a quiet, unshakeable dignity. "My true form is that of a warrior of the deep. It is a form for battle, for survival. But my people… we were also a people of art, of culture, of a life beyond the hunt. This form… it is the form of my ancestors in times of peace. It is not a cage, Great Sovereign. It is a memory. A way to remember that we were more than just monsters of the abyss."
Li Yu was silent, his mind reeling from the sheer, staggering implications of what was happening. These were not just beasts who had learned to take human form. These were ancient, powerful beings with their own cultures, their own philosophies, their own profound, and deeply personal, reasons for their choices.
"Fools," was Khaos's final, dismissive judgment. "My form is perfection. It is a law of nature. All other forms are a lesser, flawed suggestion. I have no need for such… weaknesses."
The matter was settled.
He had read in texts that beasts were able to take on human form after a certain stage but since Khaos never revealed his human form, he figured that it was at a higher level that it could happen but it turns out he was disgusted by the idea or maybe he didn't have a human form to begin with.
It turns out that once a beast was able to break through the barrier and have speech, they were able to take on human form as well. Like humans, their human form was already determined at birth just like humans, they couldn't change it. Sure there were techniques to change your form but rarely would anyone use that outside of hiding or something else.
Li Yu looked at his three new, "human" companions. He looked at the proud, stoic barbarian queen, the cheerful, cunning old merchant, and the sad, noble princess. He then thought of the tiny, terrifyingly powerful crab that refused to be anything other than what it was.
His sanctuary was no longer just a menagerie of beasts, it was turning into a court. A court of powerful individuals each with their own story, their own purpose. And he, the quiet, unassuming boy from the fish ponds, was the one who had brought them all together. This act of building a sanctuary, of gathering these lost and powerful souls, was not a separate path. It was a perfect expression of his two-fold dao. It was the Universal Sea drawing all rivers to itself, creating the perfect, boundless ocean for the Silent Leviathan to roam.