Cloaked in an invisible veil of Koi Qi, Li Yu and Spine remained as silent as the crushing deep, east their forms and auras perfectly erased from the world. From their concealed position in the abyssal canyon, they continued their observation. The six beast tamers on the canyon floor worked with a detached, methodical rhythm.
The leader, his face a mask of concentration, steadily fed his spiritual energy into the pearlescent conch. The artifact's silent, soul-grating hum pulsed outwards, a wave of pure irritation that drove the surrounding demonic beasts into a mindless, aggressive frenzy.
Another man, his face gaunt and pale, manipulated a faceted crystal with practiced ease. He acted as the operation's spotter, carefully adjusting the crystal's angle to focus the wave of manufactured rage, herding the frenzied creatures upwards like a shepherd guiding a flock of wolves.
They were not controlling the beasts; they were simply winding them up and pointing them at a target. It was a crude but brutally effective strategy, leveraging the creatures' own destructive power without the need for complex soul-taming arts.
Li Yu watched, his gaze cold and analytical. He absorbed every detail: the grade of their equipment, the nature of their murky green Qi, their practiced efficiency. It all pointed to a well-funded, well-organized group.
This was no band of rogue cultivators trying to make a quick profit. This was a professional operation with a clear, sustained objective. He listened to their sparse, voice-projected conversations, catching snippets about spirit stone consumption rates and the structural integrity of Seaside's pathetic wall.
After an hour, it was clear they would learn nothing more from simple observation. The tamers were disciplined, speaking only of the task at hand. Their objective was clear: the complete annihilation of the fishing town. The motive, however, remained shrouded in mystery. Li Yu met Spine's gaze through the veil of their shared invisibility and gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. The time for observation was over.
Spine moved.
He was not a blur of motion; he was simply there. One moment he was beside Li Yu, the next he was in the midst of the five lesser tamers, his arrival as silent and absolute as the deep sea pressure. The power gap between them was not a gap; it was a chasm, a void so vast the tamers' senses couldn't even register his presence before their lives were forfeit.
Their protective barriers, designed to withstand the attacks of powerful sea beasts, shattered like brittle glass against his casual, almost lazy, strikes. A palm-heel strike to one man's chest caused his entire torso to implode. A precise chop to another's neck severed his spine. Two more were dispatched with simultaneous hand-strikes that phased through their barriers and extinguished their life force. The fifth, the man holding the crystal, had a brief, horrifying moment of awareness as Spine's hand clamped over his face, a surge of deep blue energy turning his world to eternal blackness. It was over in the space of a single breath. A silent, brutally efficient slaughter.
The leader, the man at the peak of Foundation Establishment, was completely oblivious. His focus was entirely on channeling energy into the conch. He only realized something was wrong when the background hum of his subordinates' barriers vanished. His head snapped up, his eyes widening in pure, uncomprehending terror at the sight of his five companions collapsing like puppets with their strings cut. He saw a tall, black-robed figure standing amidst the bodies, his face a mask of cold, utter indifference.
The leader's training and battle instincts screamed at him to act, but his body could not obey. Before a single thought could translate into a defensive art, before he could even draw a breath to shout, Spine was before him.
The conch was plucked from his grasp as if from a child, and a hand of iron clamped around his throat. He was lifted from the seafloor, his feet kicking uselessly in the water, his own potent cultivation base completely sealed by the crushing, effortless grip of his captor. The chasm in power was so absolute that resistance was not even a concept.
Spine dragged the terrified, gasping man over to Li Yu, who had now shed his invisibility and stood calmly amidst the silent carnage. The surrounding demonic beasts, their source of agitation suddenly silenced, were beginning to swim in confused, agitated circles, the residual effects of the conch still addling their primal minds.
"Who is your client?" Li Yu asked, his voice calm and pleasant, a serene counterpoint to the brutal scene. "Why are you attacking the town of Seaside?"
The leader, terror warring with a fanatic's loyalty in his eyes, managed a bloody sneer. "You'll get nothing from me! Kill me! Our organization will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"
Li Yu sighed, a soft sound of disappointment. "He seems determined." He looked at Spine. "See what you can find."
Spine's golden eyes were devoid of any emotion. "As you command."
The interrogation that followed was a masterclass in controlled, dispassionate cruelty. Spine was not driven by anger or sadism; he was simply a tool performing a function. He broke the leader's fingers one by one, the sharp snaps echoing eerily in the silent water. He dislocated joints with precise, practiced twists. He was an artist of pain, applying it with a surgeon's knowledge of the human body, keeping his victim alive, conscious, and lucid to experience every wave of agony.
The leader was tough, his will forged in whatever brutal organization he served. He held out, screaming silent, agonizing shrieks into his barrier, his body convulsing in Spine's unbreakable grip. But everyone had a breaking point. When Spine began to systematically shatter the bones in his legs, turning them to pulp from the ankle up, the man's will finally shattered.
"STOP! I'LL TALK! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!" he shrieked, his mind a ruin of pain and terror. "WE ARE… WE ARE THE…"
He hesitated, his body trembling with a fear that suddenly had nothing to do with Spine's torture. It was a deeper, more absolute fear, the terror of betraying his masters. As he struggled to force the name past his lips, his eyes bulged, a look of horrified surprise contorting his features. A network of fine, black lines erupted across his face, spreading from his temples like fractured ice. A low humming sound emanated from within his skull.
"Master, step back," Spine's voice was a low, cold warning. "It is a Soul-Destruction Seal. A suicide curse to protect secrets. His soul is about to be annihilated."
Before Li Yu could even process the words, the leader's head erupted in a silent, gory explosion of bone and brain matter. His life force and soul were utterly extinguished, leaving nothing behind for even the most powerful necromancer to question. His headless body went limp in Spine's grasp.
Silence returned to the canyon floor. Li Yu looked at the floating remains, his expression thoughtful. An organization that used such ruthless, absolute methods on its own members was not to be taken lightly.
"No loose ends," Li Yu murmured. He then turned his attention to the hundreds of demonic beasts still swimming in a confused frenzy nearby. They were a valuable resource, conveniently gathered. He extended his will, the irresistible pull of the Koi sanctuary washing over the area.
He was discerning, selecting a dozen different species he had not yet collected, plucking only the strongest and healthiest specimens from the agitated horde and absorbing them into his ever-growing menagerie.
For the rest, he gave Spine a simple nod. "Clean up."
Spine dropped the headless corpse and became a phantom of death once more. He moved through the remaining beasts, a blue-robed reaper. It was a massacre. Water blades, condensed from the surrounding sea, flashed into existence, bisecting creatures in silent, bloody arcs.
In minutes, the water was thick with blood, the canyon floor littered with hundreds of valuable demonic beast carcasses. Spine, with practiced efficiency, moved from body to body, transferring the corpses into a high-capacity storage ring. The materials would be a welcome addition to the Golden Shell Guild's coffers.
When the cleanup was complete, Li Yu picked up the pearlescent conch. Its agitating hum had ceased, but a faint, malevolent energy still clung to it. He also collected the storage rings from the six dead tamers. Their contents were weak: spirit stones, low-grade pills, and a few manuals on beast agitation techniques, but no tokens, letters, or anything that would hint at their identity.
"Let's go," Li Yu said. "Our work here is done."
They ascended from the dark canyon. As they neared the surface, three streaks of light shot towards them. It was Caihong, Ying, and Zhao, their treasure hunt concluded. The two drakes took up their positions behind Li Yu, while Caihong swam in excited circles before spitting out its final and most significant find: a deep blue pearl the size of a goose egg. It radiated a pure, potent wave of spiritual energy, a decent treasure for any water-attribute cultivator.
Li Yu smiled, scooping up the Boreal Sea Heart Pearl. "Good work, Caihong." He absorbed its energy, the cool, pure power flowing into his spiritual sea, a refreshing river that further nourished his foundation.
They surfaced and flew back towards Seaside. This time, they did not leave an anonymous note. They landed just outside the town's gate, their sudden appearance causing the guards to cry out in alarm and awe. The mayor was quickly summoned. He rushed out, his old face a mixture of fear and hope.
"Great cultivators!" he stammered, bowing low. "You have returned!"
"We have found the source of your troubles," Li Yu said, his voice calm and reassuring. " The beast tides will no longer plague your town. You are safe now." He didn't go into detail of what happened, there seemed to be a larger plan at work here. The less he knew the better for his own protection. Should that group find out the major knew something, he would be in even more danger.
The wave of relief that washed over the mayor was so profound it almost brought him to his knees. Tears of gratitude streamed down his weathered face as he poured out his thanks. Li Yu accepted them gracefully before informing the mayor they would be staying for a short while before departing. The grateful townsfolk insisted on giving them the best rooms in their humble inn and plied them with delicious seafood.
For the next two days, Li Yu explored Seaside. He walked the cobbled streets, ate at the local food stalls, and listened to the fishermen's tales, all the while subtly extending his spiritual sense, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He was trying to understand why this specific, unremarkable town was targeted. He found nothing. It was just a simple, hardworking community with no hidden treasures or secret resources. The motive remained a frustrating mystery.
On the evening of the second day, Li Yu made his decision. He took out a communication talisman and sent two separate messages. The first was to Fengliu, the second to Kui. He informed them both that Spine would be coming soon, carrying items for them and crucial information.
Having alerted his spymaster and his guild master, he turned to his retainer. "Spine," Li Yu said, handing him the strange, pearlescent conch. "Your mission is twofold. First, take this to Fengliu. Tell him to use all his resources to identify its origin. The energy signature and purpose are too similar to the beast agitations his agents reported in the south. I am almost certain they are connected. This artifact is our first real clue."
"After you meet with Fengliu, find Kui. Deliver these materials to the Guild. They will add to our resources."
Finally, he relayed one last order through the talisman to his spymaster. "Fengliu, this town, Seaside. The reason for the attack is still unknown. Keep an eye on it. Place an agent here if you can. If these people were willing to go to such lengths to destroy it, there must be something here we are missing."
Spine took the items and bowed his head. "It will be done, Master."
Without another word, Spine vanished, shooting into the sky towards the south. Li Yu remained in Seaside, waiting. He enjoyed the town's simple hospitality, a quiet observer in a world of turmoil. About a day later, as he was sampling a bowl of savory fish stew, Spine reappeared before him as silently as he had left.
"Fengliu has the conch and has already begun his investigation, Master," Spine reported. "He has also confirmed he will place the town under long-term surveillance. Guild Master Kui has received the materials. He sends his… gratitude."
Li Yu nodded, his decision made. The north had been profitable, but it was time to move again. The threads of a conspiracy were beginning to surface, and the best way to see the whole tapestry was to step back and let the weavers reveal themselves. Li Yu was no master chess player, but he knew that time would reveal all. All he had to do was focus on getting stronger, a large fist can destroy anything he's learned from Khaos.
"Our journey here is over, for now," Li Yu said, finishing his stew. "The seeds are planted. The clues are in the hands of those who can follow them. It is time to return to the Green Mountain Sect. It is time to go home."