With the northern territories pacified and the foundations of a new commercial empire firmly laid, Li Yu's work in the Ironmaw Range was complete. The final days were a flurry of activity as Kui, with the zealous assistance of his new Vice Guild Master, Fat Pig, finalized the grand architectural plans for Traveler's Rest and established the initial trade caravans.
"You have everything you need to begin," Li Yu said to Fat Pig on the eve of his departure. They stood on a high balcony overlooking the burgeoning town, the light of a hundred construction fires twinkling below. "Kui will guide you via communication jade, but the success of this branch now rests on your shoulders. Do not disappoint me."
"Wise Host!" Fat Pig declared, bowing so low his portly belly nearly touched the floor. "This Fat Pig will not fail! I will work until my bones ache and my spirit frays to build an empire of profit in your and Big Brother's name! The wealth that flows from this mountain will be a river of pure gold!"
Li Yu simply nodded, a faint smile on his face. He then turned to Kui and Xylia, who were waiting nearby. "It is time to go."
They left under the cover of night, a small, unassuming party of three. The moment they were beyond the city's immediate surroundings, in a desolate, moonlit valley, Li Yu summoned their transport. With a silent command, the immense, draconic form of Spine materialized, his colossal body blotting out the stars. His great, golden eyes blinked slowly as he lowered his head in a gesture of absolute submission. Li Yu, Kui, and Xylia leaped onto the vast, flat space behind his head, a platform as steady as any island.
With a powerful, silent beat of his fins, the ancient Sea-Dragon surged into the sky, climbing to an altitude that rendered them invisible to the world below. They turned west, towards the vast, untamed wilderness that separated the demonic territories from the central plains.
This journey was not a frantic race against time, but a grand, exploratory tour. There was no rush. Their destination, the Whispering Mountains, was a distant and dangerous land, and their quarry was a proud, ancient sovereign who would not be swayed by a hasty arrival.
As they flew, the landscape below transformed from jagged, demonic peaks into a vast, rolling sea of ancient, primordial forest.
"Look there, Wise Host," Kui said, his cheerful voice booming over the sound of the wind. He pointed a chubby finger towards a great, grey expanse in the center of the forest, a place where the trees were petrified and the ground was littered with colossal, fossilized bones. "The Graveyard of the Ancients. It is where the old sovereigns of my generation, those without a bloodline successor, would go to die. The spiritual resentment is so thick there that no living creature has set foot in that place for hundreds of years. A great treasure trove of ancient beast cores, they say, but guarded by a legion of vengeful spirits."
Hours later, Xylia, who had been standing in silent, watchful contemplation, pointed towards a different landmark on the horizon: a single, impossibly tall mountain peak, its summit perpetually encased in a glacier that glittered under the sun.
"The Frost-Throne," she said, her voice a low, rough rumble. "I fought the old bear king there, a Glacial Patriarch of immense power. A battle of three days and three nights. He was strong," she admitted, a rare flicker of respect in her eyes, "but his claws were not as sharp as mine."
Li Yu listened to their stories, his mind painting a vivid picture of this ancient, savage world. He was a historian, an explorer, and an adventurer all at once. His own purpose on this journey, however, was more practical.
"My sanctuary's power grows with the life it contains," he explained to them, his gaze sweeping over the vast, green expanse below. "Both in quantity and diversity. The quantity will grow naturally over time. But diversity… this wilderness is the only place to find truly unique species, untouched by the world of men. I wish to collect some new specimens of aquatic life along the way."
"A fine goal, Wise Host!" Kui declared. "This old turtle knows of a thousand hidden ponds and rivers! The untamed wilderness is a veritable feast of strange and wonderful life!"
Over the next week, their journey became a grand tour of the wilderness's hidden wonders. Kui would point out a distant, shimmering lake system. "The Sky-Mirror Lakes, Wise Host! The water is so clear it reflects the heavens perfectly. It is said that unique fish that swim through the air as well as water live there."
At his direction, Spine would alter his course, descending with a gentle splash. Li Yu would close his eyes, his profound connection to the water element spreading out, coaxing the local fauna to the surface. He collected a healthy breeding pair of Aether-Fin Skyfish, beautiful Rank 4 beasts whose silvery scales shimmered with the light of the sky and whose wing-like fins allowed them to glide through the air for short periods.
Xylia, in turn, would guide them towards cold, high-altitude regions. In a series of turquoise jewels nestled among the green peaks, he found a bizarre and fascinating creature she had described: a Sentient Coral Drifter. It was a colonial organism, a Rank 5 beast that resembled a massive, floating piece of iridescent coral, with dozens of long, trailing tendrils. Each tendril was a separate, semi-independent life form, all linked by a single, collective consciousness.
He spent the week in a state of pure, joyful discovery. He collected dozens of new, low-rank species: strange, phosphorescent minnows, armored snails with beautiful spiral patterns, and bizarre, multi-legged tadpoles. Each new life form, no matter how humble, was a new note in the symphony of his martial spirit.
During one such stop, as they were exploring a vast, swampy marshland Kui had recommended, they encountered a true, wild Hegemon beast.
"Be wary, Wise Host," Kui said, his voice losing its usual cheer. "This is the territory of a Mire-Walker Behemoth. A notoriously foul-tempered monster."
The moment they drew close to the swamp's heart, the murky water erupted. A colossal creature, a horrifying cross between a hippopotamus and an ankylosaurus, rose from the depths. Its hide was thick, black, and caked with mud and bone plates, and its massive head, all teeth and fury, let out a deafening roar of territorial rage. It was a Colossal Mire-Walker Behemoth, a Rank 6 creature of immense power, and it charged at them, its thundering steps shaking the very earth.
Kui and Xylia both tensed, their own Core Formation auras flaring to life, ready for a difficult battle.
"Stand down," Li Yu's voice was calm but absolute.
He stood at the edge of Spine's back, looking at the furious, charging Hegemon. He did not use Khaos's aura this time. He released his own.
A wave of profound, ancient, and impossibly heavy pressure washed over the swamp. It was only the aura of a 1st-level Core Formation expert, but its quality was something else entirely. It was the crushing weight of an abyssal ocean trench, the cold, absolute finality of the void itself.
The Mire-Walker Behemoth, which had been a terrifying engine of destruction a moment before, suddenly skidded to a halt, its massive hooves digging deep into the mud. Its furious, reptilian eyes went wide with pure, instinctual, soul-shaking terror. It looked at the small, unassuming human, and what it sensed was not a man, but a primordial, oceanic abyss that threatened to swallow it whole.
Its rage was instantly extinguished, replaced by a desperate survival instinct. But it was too late to flee.
Li Yu leaped from Spine's back. He did not fly; he simply fell, his black staff of Condensed Sea Iron Ore in his hand. He met the beast's terrified, upturned face and brought his staff down in a single, powerful blow.
THWACK!
The sound was not a crack of bone, but a deep, resonant BOOM, like a great temple bell being struck. The staff, infused with his impossibly dense abyss-black energy, slammed into the Behemoth's thick, bone-plated skull. The beast's eyes rolled back in its head, and its colossal, multi-ton body simply collapsed, crashing into the swamp with a tidal wave of mud and water, completely unconscious.
Li Yu landed softly beside the fallen behemoth, his expression calm. He had not killed it. He had not even seriously injured it. He had simply asserted his absolute, undeniable dominance. He placed a hand on the great beast's head, and with a gentle pull of his will, drew the unconscious Hegemon into a vacant, isolated island in his Koi's Sanctuary.
'We will call you Goliath,' he thought, a new, powerful piece added to his collection.
He leaped back onto Spine's back, leaving a stunned Kui and Xylia in his wake. They knew Li Yu was powerful. But to make a Rank 6 Hegemon flee in terror was one thing. To knock it unconscious with a single, casual blow was another entirely. It was a reminder that their master's depths were a sea they had only just begun to explore.
After a full week of this leisurely, adventurous travel, the landscape began to change once more. The lush, primordial forests gave way to towering, needle-like mountains. The air grew thin and cold, and a strange, constant wind began to blow, a wind that seemed to carry faint, ghostly whispers on its currents.
"We are close, Wise Host," Kui said, his expression turning serious. "This is the border of the Whispering Mountains. The domain of Fengliu, the Sky-Watcher."
Spine continued his powerful, silent flight, pushing against the strange, whispering winds. The mountains grew taller, their peaks shrouded in a perpetual sea of roiling, white clouds. Finally, one peak rose above all the others, a colossal, solitary spire of black stone that pierced the cloud sea, its summit a lonely, wind-scoured island in the sky.
"There," Xylia rumbled, pointing a clawed finger. "The Sky-Watcher's nest."
Spine ascended, his immense form rising through the thick, white clouds. They emerged into the clear, bright sunlight above, and the sight before them was one of stark, desolate beauty. At the very summit of the mountain was a massive, flat plateau. And in its center, woven from the petrified trunks of ancient, lightning-scarred trees and held together by what looked like solidified wind, was a nest the size of a small palace.
And waiting for them, standing tall and proud in the center of his nest, was the sovereign himself.