Dawn broke over the southern sea, painting the horizon in strokes of soft pearl and rose. Miles from the coast, far beyond the sight of any observer in Coralspire Harbor, the surface of the ocean swelled. With a silent, majestic grace, Tempest, the Skyshroud Leviathan, rose from the depths after leaving the sanctuary. His pearlescent silver scales shimmered in the new day's light, and the vast, flat expanse of his back was as steady as any island.
Li Yu sat cross-legged near the leviathan's great head, the salty wind whipping through his hair. Beside him, Kui leaned against one of Tempest's dorsal ridges, his cheerful face filled with the genuine excitement of a born adventurer. This was travel befitting their station—swift, discreet, and utterly self-reliant.
"Ah, there is nothing quite like the open sea, Wise Host!" the turtle sovereign boomed over the sound of the waves parting before Tempest's immense form. "A canvas of endless possibility! According to the old sea charts, we are heading towards the 'Churning Grounds.' A treacherous area for ships, with unpredictable currents and jagged, underwater reefs. But it is precisely in such places that lost treasures tend to accumulate!"
Li Yu nodded, appreciating the old turtle's expertise. "The more dangerous the location, the fewer who will have explored it. It is the perfect place to begin."
After several more hours of swift travel, with Tempest moving through the water at a speed that would shame the fastest ship, Kui gave the signal. "We have arrived, Wise Host. The currents below are a true monster's nest."
Tempest came to a slow, silent halt, his massive body a stable platform in the turbulent water. Li Yu walked to the edge of the great beast's back.
'Ying, Zhao,' he projected into his sanctuary. Two sleek, midnight-blue forms, the Abyssal Water-Drakes, materialized in the water beside Tempest with a silent splash. 'I am sending out Caihong. These are unknown waters. Protect her.'
The two Overlord Beasts gave a mental bow of assent, their powerful forms circling with predatory grace. Li Yu then focused his will, and a shimmering sphere of water containing the rainbow-hued form of Caihong appeared in his hand.
'Alright, Caihong,' he projected, his mental tone a mix of excitement and caution. 'The water here is deep and full of old things. Go and see if you can find anything that shines brightly for you. Come back when you find something.'
He released her into the ocean. She vanished into the blue depths like a dropped jewel, with her two powerful guardians flanking her like twin shadows. For a long while, the only sounds were the rush of the waves against Tempest's sides. Kui had produced a fishing rod of all things and was humming a jaunty sea shanty. Li Yu joined him, creating a simple fishing line out of condensed water energy, enjoying the peace of the open ocean.
It was this peaceful tableau that was shattered by a harsh, grating shout from across the water.
"Heave to, you floating rock, or we'll blow you out of the water!"
Li Yu's eyes opened. Approaching them was a brutal, ugly vessel, its hull a patchwork of dark timber and rusted iron, its black sails bearing the mark of a kraken's skull. It was a pirate ship. The pirates, seeing only two figures fishing from what appeared to be a strange, silvery island from a distance, had clearly made a catastrophic miscalculation.
"Well now, this is a bit of a nuisance," Kui said, reeling in his line with a sigh. "They don't appear to be interested in trade negotiations, Wise Host."
The pirate ship, crewed by a motley collection of scarred cultivators, pulled alongside Tempest's massive form. Their expressions of arrogance quickly turned to slack-jawed shock as they realized their "island" was a single, colossal, living beast. But greed and foolishness won out. Grappling hooks flew across the gap, scraping harmlessly against Tempest's tough hide, and a dozen pirates swung across, landing on the leviathan's back. Their leader, a hulking man with a cybernetic arm and the aura of a peak Foundation Establishment expert, stomped forward.
"By the sea devils… what is this beast?" he stammered, before his eyes fell on their fine clothes. "No matter! A beast like this must be worth a fortune! Kill the masters, and the prize is ours!"
Li Yu slowly stood up, dusting off his robes. This was a perfect, heaven-sent opportunity to test his new powers.
"Kui," he said, his voice calm. "Please step back. I wish to try something new."
"As you command, Wise Host!" Kui replied with a cheerful bow, waddling further down Tempest's back.
"Kill them!" the pirate captain roared.
Four pirates charged. Li Yu didn't draw his staff. He didn't erect a shield. He simply took a single, calm step to his left.
And vanished.
He reappeared three meters away, directly behind one of his attackers, the movement as seamless and silent as a thought—his first true application of the Void Step. The pirate stumbled, and Li Yu disabled him with a gentle tap to the back of the neck.
The other three attackers skidded to a halt, staring in shock. Before they could process what had happened, Li Yu's form flickered again, and again, and again. In seconds, the four pirates were unconscious on Tempest's back.
The remaining boarders stood frozen, their faces pale with terror. "What… what are you?" the captain stammered.
After Khaos had consumed the crystal and void energy came over to Li Yu, he felt he was getting more in tuned with the void. While training with Khaos awhile later, he wanted to move even faster to dodge an attack and found himself a few meters away from where he was before he realized it.
Khaos called what he did a form of void step, this the name he gave it afterwards. He's been practicing it recently and was utterly ineffective against Khaos, but it seemed pretty good against the pirates just now.
Li Yu ignored them. His test of finesse was over. Now, for his new power. He turned his gaze to the pirate ship itself.
He raised his right hand, palm facing the enemy vessel. Wisps of his abyss-black spiritual energy, impossibly dense and heavy, coalesced and elongated, solidifying into a dozen sleek, perfectly formed to look like his staff but to others they would have looked like javelins of starless night.
"Abyssal Javelin Volley," he murmured.
With a simple, downward flick of his wrist, the javelins launched. They crossed the gap in an instant, not tearing the air, but seeming to puncture reality itself.
The effect was absolute and catastrophic. The javelins didn't just target the ship; they targeted the men on it. The first javelin struck a pirate standing near the cannon, punching a clean hole through him and the hull behind him before he could even scream he was obliterated into nothingness. The other eleven followed suit in a devastating, silent barrage of death. They pierced through flesh, bone, and steel with equal, terrifying ease. Men were obliterated one after the other, erased from existence as the javelins tore through the vessel.
The ship itself, perforated and its crew annihilated in an instant, began to sink rapidly, taking its dead to a watery grave. It was gone in less than twenty seconds, leaving behind only the unconscious bodies from the initial boarding party and a swirl of bubbles.
Li Yu lowered his hand, his expression cold and impassive. He turned his gaze to the remaining, terrified pirates who were just beginning to stir from his initial, non-lethal attacks. They were on their knees, prostrating themselves, begging for their lives.
"I don't treat my attackers well," Li Yu said, his voice quiet but devoid of any warmth.
He raised his hand again, and four more abyssal javelins coalesced from the air, hovering menacingly. Before the pirates could utter another plea, the javelins shot forward with silent, unstoppable force. Their lives were extinguished in an instant, their bodies pinned to the leviathan's back. A moment later, a wave summoned by Li Yu washed their bodies and the blood into the sea, leaving Tempest's back clean.
"A decisive and terrifyingly efficient cleansing, Wise Host," Kui declared, his voice filled with a sincere, fawning awe that was now tinged with a deep respect for his master's ruthlessness. He always saw Li Yu's care and warmth but how could he only be like that when Khaos had chosen to follow him. He had mistaken Khaos to be Li Yu's main beast or at least equal partner, he's never asked and no one ever spoke of it for him to know otherwise. "They chose the wrong prey to hunt."
"They chose their fate," Li Yu said simply, his cold expression softening as he turned his attention back to the peaceful sea. "Now, we wait."
They returned to their fishing. Nearly an hour later, a flash of rainbow color zipped through the water and leaped onto Tempest's back. It was Caihong, vibrating with excitement.
'Found one! Found one! Big, shiny, pretty thing!'
Li Yu smiled and gently scooped the little fish into a sphere of water. "Alright, Caihong. Show us the way."
Caihong swam to the edge of her sphere, pointing a fin in a specific direction. At Li Yu's command, Tempest began to move, his great form gliding through the water, following the little fish's excited guidance for another ten minutes before she began to swim in frantic circles. They had arrived. Li Yu enveloped himself and Kui in a bubble of air and plunged into the depths, with Caihong and her two drake guardians leading the way.
They followed her down into a beautiful, sun-dappled grotto, where a single, colossal oyster, the size of a carriage, sat on the sandy floor.
At Li Yu's gentle prompting, the ancient oyster slowly opened. Nestled within its folds of iridescent flesh was a single, perfect pearl the size of a child's head. It did not pulse with spiritual energy. Instead, it emitted a soft, warm, and incredibly pure white light that seemed to soothe the soul and calm the mind.
"Well now, that is a fine treasure," Kui breathed, his eyes wide. "A Heartlight Pearl. Quite a rare find, valued more for its flawless beauty than any use in cultivation. It is said its pure light can calm the mind. It's generally given as a gift even in my ancestral knowledge of my bloodline."
Li Yu reached out and gently took the pearl. It was warm to the touch, its light pulsing softly in his hands like a gentle heartbeat. He knew instantly what he would do with it.
"My master has always taken care of me with a gentle light," he said quietly. "It is only fitting that I should offer one in return."
They returned to the surface, the successful trip marking another quiet victory. He had tested his new powers, confirmed Caihong's invaluable talent, and found a perfect, heartfelt gift. As Tempest turned back towards Coralspire Harbor, Li Yu felt a sense of profound peace. It would seem he had gotten enough strength to protect himself from random common occurrences.