Dawn broke over Sunken Treasure City, painting the sky in hues of orange and rose that reflected off the gentle morning tide. A small, yet formidable, convoy was assembled before the main entrance of the Jade Sea Pavilion. It consisted of three sturdy land-carriages, each pulled by a pair of powerful, scaled beasts known as Shore Striders, renowned for their speed and stamina on coastal terrain.
An elite security detail of twelve Pavilion guards stood at attention. Each was clad in light, flexible armor made from the shell of some deep-sea creature, shimmering with a pearlescent light. Their leader, a stern, middle-aged man named Captain Feng with the peak Foundation Establishment cultivation, stood beside the lead carriage, his hand resting on the pommel of his longsword. His gaze was sharp, missing nothing.
Elder Quan emerged from the Pavilion, accompanied by Li Yu. The old merchant, whose cultivation was that of a respectable but non-combat-focused 6th-level Foundation Establishment expert, had a look of deep worry that tempered his usual pleasant demeanor. Li Yu, by contrast, was a picture of calm, his 7th-level Foundation Establishment aura a steady, unassuming presence.
"Captain Feng," Elder Quan said, his voice firm with the authority of his station. "Our journey is of the utmost importance. I trust your arrangements are secure."
"Elder, rest assured," the captain replied with a crisp bow. "The route has been scouted, and my men are the best. We will see you safely to Coralspire Harbor."
They boarded the lead carriage, a spacious and comfortable compartment furnished with cushioned seats and a small table. As the convoy set off, smoothly navigating the morning traffic before passing through the city gates and onto the wide, coastal highway, Elder Quan let out a weary sigh.
"Branch Master Jing is a good man," he said, pouring Li Yu a fresh cup of tea as the carriage picked up speed. "Stubborn as a barnacle on a ship's hull, but good. His family has managed Coralspire Harbor for five generations. The Tidal Wrath Behemoth has been their partner for almost as long. It was his great-great-grandfather who discovered the creature as a juvenile, wounded and beached after a storm. He nursed it back to health, forming a bond. Since then, it has been the harbor's protector."
"A bond that lasts for centuries is a rare thing," Li Yu commented, looking out the window at the turquoise sea flashing between patches of dense, green coastal forest.
"Indeed," Elder Quan nodded. "Jing grew up playing near the beast's grotto. He sees it not as an asset, but as an elder of his own family. This madness… it is tearing him apart. He blames himself, though no one can find a cause for the Behemoth's rage. He has aged twenty years in the last three months." The elder's eyes were filled with genuine sorrow for his friend. "He has refused all suggestions of forcefully subduing the beast, fearing it would be injured. That is why he has been so desperate to find someone who can communicate with it, to soothe it."
Li Yu listened quietly. The story added a layer of tragedy to the situation. This wasn't just a dangerous beast; it was a beloved family member turned into a monster. It was a problem that brute force couldn't truly solve.
The morning passed into afternoon. The coastal road began to narrow, entering a stretch where sheer, grey cliffs rose on one side and a dense, mist-shrouded mangrove forest pressed in on the other, its tangled roots creating a dark, uninviting wall. The air grew thick and heavy with the smell of salt and damp earth.
Captain Feng, riding alongside their carriage, suddenly held up a fist. The entire convoy came to a smooth, practiced halt.
"Elder, something is wrong," the captain's voice was low and tense. "The air is still. Too still. Not even a sea bird."
Li Yu's own spiritual sense, far more powerful than anyone else's, had already detected it. He felt the faint, predatory ripples in the ambient spiritual energy, the concealed auras hiding within the mist of the mangroves.
Before another word could be spoken, the attack came.
From the misty woods, dozens of figures clad in jet-black, light-absorbing armor erupted, moving with silent, deadly coordination. At the same time, the cliff face above them exploded inwards, as several powerful cultivators who had been concealed there leaped down, cutting off any chance of retreat. They were surrounded.
"Ambush! Form a defensive perimeter!" Captain Feng roared, his longsword flashing from its sheath as his peak Foundation Establishment aura exploded outwards. His martial spirit, a great, armored Oceanic Crab, materialized behind him, its phantom pincers snapping aggressively.
The Pavilion guards moved instantly, their training taking over. They formed a tight circle around the lead carriage, their own martial spirits—Shark-toothed Eels, Stone-shelled Groupers, and other fierce aquatic beasts—shimmering into existence.
The attackers were a formidable force. There were at least thirty of them, and every single one was in the Foundation Establishment realm. The two who led the charge, one wielding a pair of cruel-looking hooked chains and the other a massive, serrated greatsword, were both at the peak, their power equal to Captain Feng's.
"The Black Reef Syndicate!" Captain Feng snarled, recognizing the wave-and-skull insignia barely visible on their dark armor. "What is the meaning of this, Scum of the Seas? Attacking a Jade Sea Pavilion elder is a declaration of war!"
The leader with the greatsword laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "War? No, this is just business. Your Pavilion has grown too comfortable. We're simply… downsizing your assets. Hand over the old man and everything of value, and we might let your guards live."
"In your dreams!" Captain Feng bellowed and charged, meeting the two enemy leaders head-on.
The battle was a maelstrom of flashing steel and colliding martial spirits. The Pavilion guards were elite, but they were outnumbered nearly three to one. The Black Reef Syndicate fought with a ruthless, vicious efficiency, their water-based techniques perfectly suited to the humid, coastal environment.
Inside the carriage, Elder Quan's face was pale, his hands gripping the table to keep them steady. As a merchant whose cultivation was focused on longevity and appraisal, he was a non-combatant. He was completely reliant on his guards, and the sounds of battle outside were a terrifying symphony of impending doom.
The situation grew desperate. Captain Feng was a valiant warrior, his Armored Crab spirit a formidable defense, but he couldn't handle two peak-level experts at once. He was being relentlessly forced back, his armor already showing deep gouges from the greatsword and his movements hampered by the hooked chains. The defensive circle was beginning to fray as his guards were cut down one by one by the sheer weight of numbers.
Just as the chain-wielding attacker found an opening and whipped his weapon towards the Captain's exposed neck, the carriage door opened.
Li Yu stepped out. With a flicker of spiritual light, his staff appeared in his hand. His expression was calm, his 7th-level Foundation Establishment aura feeling almost insignificant in the face of the raging battle.
The attacker sneered, momentarily diverting his chain to swat this newcomer aside like a fly.
Li Yu didn't move his feet. He simply brought the impossibly heavy staff up in a simple, direct block. There was no fancy technique, no ripple of energy. Just a piece of hyper-dense ore meeting an enchanted chain.
CRACK!
The sound was not a clang of metal on metal, but the sickening crunch of a forging hammer on brittle iron. The enchanted links of the chain didn't just break; they shattered into a dozen pieces from the sheer, focused impact. The attacker froze, staring at his broken weapon, his eyes wide with disbelief at the raw, physical power he had just witnessed. Captain Feng seized the momentary opening, his sword flashing and forcing the other leader back a step, his own face a mask of shock.
Seeing their comrade inexplicably disarmed, a group of five Syndicate assassins broke from the main fight and charged towards Li Yu, intending to eliminate the new variable.
Li Yu didn't even look at them directly. He took a single, deliberate step forward and tapped the butt of his heavy staff on the ground.
Thump.
It was a soft sound, but the effect was catastrophic. A pulse of pure, kinetic force, amplified by his Core Formation control, shot into the damp earth. The groundwater beneath the five assassins erupted upwards with the force of a geyser. The men were thrown into the air like rag dolls, their formations shattered, their bodies battered and their spiritual energy sent into chaos by the unexpected assault from below. They landed in a heap, groaning and incapacitated.
Now, all eyes were on Li Yu. The Syndicate, the Pavilion guards, everyone stared at this young man who had just disabled five Foundation Establishment experts with a single tap of his staff.
The greatsword-wielding leader, his face contorted in a furious snarl, decided to eliminate the threat himself. "Insolent whelp!" he roared, abandoning his fight with Captain Feng. A spectral, venomous-looking serpent with scales of obsidian materialized behind him—his Blackwater Serpent martial spirit. He poured all his energy into his blade, and the spirit let out a phantom hiss, diving into the greatsword, which began to glow with a malevolent black light. "Die! Blackwater Serpent Strike!"
The blade swung, and the attack was no longer just a technique. A massive, writhing serpent made of black, corrosive water, now imbued with the phantom will of his martial spirit, erupted from his sword. It was larger, faster, and its eyes burned with a malevolent intelligence as it howled towards Li Yu, leaving a sizzling trench in the ground.
Li Yu faced the attack head on. He simply held his staff out before him, its dark, heavy form looking like a fragile reed before the raging serpent. He poured his own spiritual energy into the staff, an energy that was impossibly pure and dense.
The roaring Blackwater Serpent, a manifestation of pure destructive power, slammed into the staff.
And vanished.
There was no explosion. No cataclysmic release of energy. The serpent simply disintegrated upon contact, its corrosive energy and spiritual will completely neutralized by the sheer qualitative superiority of Li Yu's power. It was like a wave of muddy water crashing against a wall of pure, solid crystal; the muddy water simply ceased to be.
The silence that followed was more profound than any battle cry. The Syndicate leader stood frozen, his ultimate attack negated as if it were a child's splash in a puddle. The sheer, effortless control was more terrifying than any display of raw power.
In that moment of stunned inaction, Li Yu moved. He didn't rush. He seemed to glide, closing the distance in an instant. He swung his impossibly heavy staff in a deceptively gentle arc, tapping the Syndicate leader's chest.
The leader's eyes bulged as the condensed weight of a small mountain focused on a single point on his sternum. His spiritual protection, his armor, and his bones shattered simultaneously. He was thrown backward, crashing into the cliff face, not dead, but broken beyond repair.
Seeing both of their leaders defeated in such a bizarre and overwhelming fashion completely broke the morale of the remaining Black Reef assassins. A flicker of panic turned into a full-blown rout. They turned and fled back into the misty mangroves, disappearing as quickly as they had come.
They couldn't leave so easily however Li Yu unleashed his beasts, Jolt, Volt, Ying and Zhao. He had them chase down the remaining group and they were easily able to kill those that came, eating their bodies but giving over their storage rings to Li Yu.
The Pavilion guards, battered and bleeding, could only stare at Li Yu with a mixture of awe, reverence, and a healthy dose of fear. He had single-handedly decimated the enemy's leadership and saved them all with an unassuming staff, all while appearing to be weaker than their own captain.
Elder Quan stepped out of the carriage, his face pale but his eyes shining with profound relief and a new level of respect. He looked at the unconscious Syndicate leader, then back at Li Yu.
"Li Yu… my friend…" he breathed, his voice filled with an emotion too complex for simple thanks. "Your methods are… truly extraordinary."
Li Yu simply made his staff vanish back into his storage ring. "Truely rotten people, feeding on those trying to make an honest living," he said, as if the matter were of no real consequence. "We should press on. They may have friends."
The convoy reformed, the guards moving with a new, sober intensity, their respect for the quiet Guest Elder having transformed into awe.