The immediate aftermath of Li Yu's agreement was a surge of frantic, hopeful energy in the Asura Demon Clan's grand hall. Clan Lord Mo Jian, his face a mask of desperate relief, immediately began barking orders.
"Kaelen! Gather our ten best Foundation Establishment disciples! Equip them with the finest armor and elixirs from the treasury! They will accompany Guest Elder Li into the realm!" he commanded, his mind already shifting into war-footing. "Ready the fastest demon ship! We will escort them to the realm's entrance and…!"
"Clan Lord Mo," Li Yu's calm voice cut through the Clan Lord's impassioned commands, instantly silencing the hall.
Li Yu stepped forward, his expression serene but his eyes holding a strategic depth that commanded attention. "Your concern for my safety is appreciated, and your disciples' courage is commendable. But we must think logically. A large, well-equipped party moving towards the Shattered Moon Realm's hidden entrance will be detected. The Wraith Hand Clan is not foolish; they will have scouts. They will see us coming and tighten their trap, or worse, harm the hostages to force our retreat."
He looked at the grim faces of the Asura Clan elders. "Furthermore, a large party moves slowly. Time is of the essence. A single individual can travel far faster and with much greater stealth than any group."
His gaze settled on Mo Jian, his voice firm but respectful. "I will go alone. It is the fastest, safest, and most logical course of action. I can move without being seen, and I can strike before they are even aware of my presence. Trust me in this. Your disciples' role is to be here, ready to defend the clan, not to be sacrificed in a reckless charge."
His reasoning was cold, impeccable, and undeniably correct. To send a small army would be to announce their intentions to the world. To send one person was to send a ghost. Mo Jian looked at the unshakeable confidence in the young man's eyes, a confidence he now knew was backed by an unfathomable power, and his own frantic energy subsided, replaced by a deep, humbling trust.
"You are right," Mo Jian finally conceded, his voice a low rumble of awe and gratitude. He gave Li Yu a deep, formal bow. "The lives of my clan's children, and my own daughter, are in your hands, Guest Elder Li."
"I will not fail you," Li Yu replied simply.
Preparations were made swiftly. There was no need for a grand entourage. Li Yu simply requested the most detailed map of the Shattered Moon Realm the clan possessed and a token that would identify him to Mo Ling and her surviving disciples. After a brief but sincere farewell to the clan's leadership, Li Yu and Elder Kaelen walked to the main landing platform. Kui was already there, his cheerful smile a stark contrast to the grim atmosphere.
"The Wise Host is embarking on another righteous crusade! This old turtle is always ready to assist in matters of justice and… ancillary profit acquisition!" Kui boomed.
Under the cover of the caldera's perpetual twilight, Li Yu summoned his transport. With a silent command, the immense, draconic form of Spine materialized, hovering silently above the obsidian platform. The few Asura disciples who witnessed the sight felt their souls tremble. They had no idea what this creature was, no context for its origins, but the sheer, overwhelming scale and the profound, ancient power rolling off its colossal form was a sight that burned itself into their minds. It was a being far beyond their comprehension, and it bowed its head in submission to their young guest.
Li Yu, Kui, and a now deeply humbled Elder Kaelen (who had been invited along to guide them to the precise location) boarded the great beast. With a powerful, silent beat of his fins, Spine surged into the sky, vanishing into the dark clouds above.
The journey was swift and silent. Spine flew at an altitude that rendered them invisible to any ground-based observation, his speed making the jagged, demonic mountains a blur below. The trip that would have taken Kaelen's Skeletal Roc half a day was covered in just a few short hours.
Kaelen pointed towards a particularly desolate and unremarkable stretch of barren, windswept badlands. "There," he said, his voice tight. "The entrance is hidden in the valley below. It is a place of weak spatial laws, warded by our ancestors to prevent accidental entry."
Spine descended, landing with the silent grace of a falling shadow in a deep, hidden ravine. The air here felt strange, thin and unstable, as if reality itself were frayed at the edges. Before them stood a simple, ancient-looking stone archway, carved with faded, barely-visible runes. The space within the arch shimmered with a faint, milky-white light. This was the entrance to the Shattered Moon Realm.
And it was not unguarded.
Positioned in a semi-circle before the gate were five figures in the soul-grey robes of the Wraith Hand Clan. They were elders, their auras ranging from the mid to upper stages of the Foundation Establishment realm. They sat in a meditative formation, their spiritual senses a net cast over the entrance.
"Five of them," Kaelen hissed, his hand moving to his weapon. "Their First Echelon guards."
"Bypass?" Kui chuckled, his eyes gleaming with a greedy light. "My dear Elder Kaelen, where is your sense of enterprise? These are not obstacles. They are deliverymen, here to present us with their life's savings.."
Li Yu simply nodded. Spine, who had remained coiled behind them like a living mountain, understood the silent command. He did not move. He did not roar. He simply opened his eyes.
From the colossal beast, a sliver of his true, 7th-level Core Formation aura washed over the five meditating elders. It was not an attack. It was merely a presence.
For the Wraith Hand guards, it was as if the sky had fallen and the abyss had opened beneath them. Their eyes snapped open, not with alarm, but with pure, soul-shattering terror. They couldn't breathe. They couldn't move. Their spiritual energy froze, their martial spirits cowering. They were fish on a chopping block, utterly, completely helpless.
While they were pinned by the terrifying pressure, a portly, cheerful figure waddled past them with a jaunty gait. Kui moved from one frozen elder to the next, deftly plucking the storage rings from their unresisting fingers.
"A fine collection! A very fine collection indeed!" Kui hummed to himself, dropping the rings into a large, clinking pouch. "One must always appreciate the hard work that goes into accumulating such wealth."
Once the looting was complete, Kui waddled back to the group, bowing to the immense dragon. "Your assistance was most efficient, Honored Spine! A perfect execution of non-lethal asset acquisition!"
Spine's great golden eyes blinked slowly, his gaze still fixed on the five terrified men. He looked at Li Yu, awaiting the final command.
Li Yu's expression was cold. "It is better that no one reports our arrival. Leave no witnesses."
With a sigh of what might have been satisfaction, Spine acted. A wave of pure, concussive force, stripped of all overt energy but carrying an absolute finality, washed over the five elders. Their eyes went wide for a split second before their bodies were simultaneously and silently crushed into dust, their robes and everything but the stolen rings disintegrating into nothingness.
"Now that is a proper cleaning!" Kui declared approvingly.
With the guards dealt with, Li Yu turned to the shimmering, milky-white portal. He could feel the law of the realm pressing against him, a faint but absolute barrier that rejected his Core Formation essence.
"It is time," he said. He looked to his companions. "Kui, Spine. Wait for me here. Guard this entrance. Let no one in or out."
"As you command, Wise Host!" Kui said with a bow. Spine let out a low, rumbling sound of assent.
Li Yu closed his eyes, focusing inward. 'Khaos. I am ready.'
"Finally," the sovereign's voice echoed in his mind, full of arrogance. "Hold still, boy. This may feel… strange."
Li Yu felt a profound, almost terrifying sensation. It was as if a sliver of the absolute, starless black of the void itself was seeping from his inner sea, wrapping around his very soul. It was not a layer of energy or a shield.
It was a fundamental alteration of his existence. The veil of void energy did not make him invisible; it made him… irrelevant. It edited his presence out of the local reality, turning his Core Formation essence into a concept that the realm's weak, natural laws simply could not perceive. He was a ghost, a whisper, a thought that had not yet been formed.
He opened his eyes. The world looked the same, but he felt different, disconnected, as if he were watching a play from behind a one-way mirror. He took a deep breath and stepped towards the portal.
He passed through the milky-white barrier without a hint of resistance.
The world on the other side was a place of breathtaking, melancholy beauty. He stood on a floating island of crystalline rock, suspended in a silvery, twilight sky. Below him was not an abyss, but a sea of slow-moving, silver clouds.
Above, a colossal, shattered moon hung in the sky, its broken halves casting a gentle, ethereal light over the entire realm. Other floating islands, large and small, drifted in the distance, connected by crumbling, ancient bridges of light.
This was the Shattered Moon Realm. It was a beautiful, broken world, and somewhere within its silent, floating islands, Mo Ling and her disciples were fighting for their lives. His rescue mission had begun.