Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Heiyuan opened his eyes and found himself trapped in a bizarre flat world. The ground beneath him was an endless grid of bright green squares stretching toward a dark horizon. He tried to coil his body into a defensive posture to survey his surroundings but his muscles refused to obey his standard commands.

He could only move forward in a straight line or make sharp turns at perfect right angles. It felt incredibly unnatural for a serpent accustomed to fluid and slithering motions. The rigid laws of this digital space restricted his natural grace and forced him into a mechanical rhythm. It would take some getting used to but that was part of the challenge being presented before him.

A glowing red fruit materialized a few squares ahead of him. The fruit pulsed with a tempting spiritual essence that called directly to his devouring bloodline. Heiyuan did not hesitate and darted forward to swallow the prize in a single gulp. The moment the fruit slid down his throat a surge of pure energy rushed through his meridians and throughout his entire body. His tail tingled and his physical length extended by one full square in an instant.

'What kind of strange realm is this?' Heiyuan thought while being forced to continue slithering forward. 'I cannot stop moving. If I do not turn I will hit that invisible barrier ahead.'

He turned sharply to the left and avoided the edge of the grid. Another red fruit appeared in the distance and he immediately redirected his path toward it. The mechanics of this world were strange but the reward was undeniable. He swallowed the second fruit and felt another surge of power increase his length.

Back in the dark void of the administrative space, Li Yu sat on his chair and watched the large floating monitor. The screen displayed a simplified top down view of Heiyuan navigating the green grid. The fierce cosmic serpent looked like a pixelated shadow darting across a bright lawn. Li Yu chewed on a piece of jerky meat and raised an eyebrow at the display.

"This trial seems rather simple, Jirno," Li Yu noted while swallowing his food. "He just moves around and eats the glowing dots. Is there a hidden danger I am not seeing here?"

Jirno took a sip of wine and pointed at the screen. "The rules are deceptively simple, Li Yu. From what the system has told me, the serpent must consume the targets to gather energy and grow. However, he cannot stop moving forward and he must never collide with the outer boundary or himself. The true danger of the latter reveals itself as he grows longer. If he bites his own tail, the trial ends in failure as well."

Li Yu watched Heiyuan make a series of rapid turns to capture three fruits in quick succession. The dark serpent grew longer with each successful meal. "So it is a test of spatial awareness and patience. Heiyuan is used to swallowing his enemies and being direct. Forcing him to calculate his own ever growing length while moving at a constant speed will definitely challenge his instincts."

"The system always targets the weaknesses of the participant," Jirno added while reaching for a skewer of grilled fish. "It wants to force an evolution of the mind just as much as the body. Your companion will have to learn restraint if he wishes to conquer this challenge."

A few days passed in the quiet sanctuary as the trial progressed. Li Yu and Jirno developed a comfortable routine of watching the screen and sharing various meals. Time flowed peacefully while they observed the relentless hunt on the monitor. On the third day, Li Yu prepared a spicy herbal soup infused with mushrooms and they enjoyed the warm broth while discussing the ancient stars. On the seventh day, he roasted honey glazed root vegetables and they drank rich wines while laughing at the strange situations unfolding on the glowing screen.

On the monitor Heiyuan was facing a true test of his temper. His length had increased drastically over the past few days. He now took up a significant portion of the green grid and navigating his own body became a complex puzzle that he had to work out himself without a top down view like Jirno and Li Yu had. The speed of his forward momentum had also increased steadily to punish his continued success. The rigid right angle turns frustrated his primal instincts.

'This is humiliating,' Heiyuan hissed internally as he made a sharp right turn to avoid a long section of his own black scales. 'I am a supreme predator destined to devour the heavens. Why am I running in squares to eat floating apples? My body was meant to weave and strike, not march like a wooden soldier.'

A bright golden fruit spawned directly in the center of a tight spiral created by his own coiled body. Heiyuan glared at the prize and calculated the required maneuvers. He had to weave through a narrow gap between his midsection and his tail before the tail moved forward enough to close the path.

He surged forward and slipped through the closing gap with only a hair of space to spare. He snapped his jaws shut around the golden fruit and felt another surge of potent bloodline energy. His length increased again and the available space on the grid shrank even further.

"He is getting very angry," Li Yu observed with an amused smile while handing Jirno a plate of sliced spirit fruits. "I can see his scales flaring even on this strange display. He hates being confined and he despises puzzles."

"He is performing exceptionally well though," Jirno praised while taking a slice of fruit. "One of my summoned dragons went through this trail before. It failed at this stage because it lacked the foresight to plan its path. They just chase the food blindly and end up trapping themselves in a corner. Your companion possesses a sharp mind beneath all that aggression."

Li Yu nodded and took a bite of a crisp green apple. "He knows how to survive. He lived in a hostile swamp before I found him so he should understand the value of patience. He just prefers to use violence whenever possible instead of his mind. He would actually get along with my mother’s side of the family quite well."

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The trial stretched into the second week and the nature of the digital world began to shift. The simple green grid expanded and transformed into a dark starry void. The basic fruits were replaced by glowing spirit cores and eventually evolved into small floating moons.

Heiyuan adapted to the changes with a fierce determination and an unbreakable will. The constant movement no longer felt like a restriction but rather a relentless hunt. He devoured the moons and felt his bloodline purify with every bite. The ancient devouring power hidden within his soul began to awaken and resonate with the simulated energy. The system was feeding him compressed packets pure vitality and his avatar grew to reflect his true cosmic potential.

He grew to a size that defied standard logic. His dark coils spanned across the digital starry void and created a labyrinth of moving scales. He had to think dozens of steps ahead to ensure his head did not crash into a wall of his own making.

The trial demanded perfect focus and a flawless understanding of spatial geometry but it was also getting bigger and bigger as the stages progressed. He was not just limited to the area that he once did when he started but his size continued to take up an increasing percentage of the stage.

'I will eat everything this false world offers,' Heiyuan roared in his mind while swallowing a cluster of glowing stars. 'No cage can hold me and no puzzle will deny my birthright. I am the apex of this void!'

By the end of the second week, the final stage of the trial was initiated. The digital void zoomed out to reveal a vast cosmic sector filled with vibrant planets and swirling nebulas. The target objects were no longer simple fruits or moons. They were entire worlds brimming with simulated life force.

Li Yu stopped eating and leaned forward in his chair. He watched the screen with genuine awe as the pixelated serpent navigated the cosmic grid. Heiyuan was living up to his lineage in this digital space and realizing his destiny as a world eater.

"The system is pushing him to his utmost limit," Jirno whispered while gripping the edge of his light chair. "If he can consume these planetary targets without trapping himself, his bloodline will experience an evolution. The strain on the simulation is incredible."

"He can do it," Li Yu stated with quiet confidence. "He is too stubborn to fail now."

Heiyuan stared at the floating planets and felt a deep primal hunger roar in his chest. This was what he was born to do. He opened his jaws wide and slithered forward at a terrifying speed. He swallowed a blue water planet and his body expanded to dwarf the surrounding stars. The taste of a whole world was intoxicating even in a simulation.

He navigated his endless coils with a practiced rhythm. Up and right and down and left. He wove through the digital cosmos like a dark ribbon of destruction. He ate a red gas giant and then a dense metallic world. Each planetary meal sent a shockwave of energy through his simulated form and echoed back into his physical body resting on the sanctuary floor.

The grid became dangerously crowded with his own immense length. He was running out of empty space and the final target appeared in the very corner of the cosmic boundary. It was a radiant golden sun pulsing with supreme energy.

Heiyuan calculated the path and realized it was a near impossible maneuver. His tail was currently occupying the only safe route leading to the sun. He had to stall for time while maintaining his relentless forward momentum.

He initiated a tight zigzag pattern in a small pocket of empty space near the center of the grid. He moved up and down in rapid succession to waste time while waiting for his tail to clear the path. The margins were incredibly thin and one wrong turn would end the trial in failure. He had to trust his own speed and spatial memory.

'Move you stubborn tail!' Heiyuan urged his own body as he continued the zigzag dance. The digital walls closed in around him and his vision narrowed to a single point of focus.

The tip of his tail finally slithered past the crucial junction and Heiyuan did not hesitate. He broke out of the stall pattern and surged toward the golden sun. He opened his vast mouth and swallowed the radiant star in one triumphant bite.

A blinding white light filled the monitor and the cheerful music shifted into a grand victorious fanfare.

The beam of light connecting the screen to Heiyuan severed itself. The dark serpent gasped and opened his real eyes on the invisible floor of the administrative space. His physical body shuddered as the simulated rewards manifested in the real world.

The dark scales covering his body hardened and gained a deep abyssal sheen. The crimson glow in his eyes intensified and a subtle pressure radiated from his core. His dormant devouring bloodline had increased by a full ten percent from taking this trail. This was a monumental leap that would normally take possibly thousands of years of careful cultivation and rare resources to achieve.

'I did it, Li Yu!' Heiyuan hissed proudly while raising his head high. 'I swallowed the sun and conquered the space I was in. I feel stronger than ever before.'

"You did excellently, Heiyuan," Li Yu praised his companion and stood up from his wooden chair. "You showed great patience, spatial awareness and of course hunger for more. I am very proud of your progress."

Jirno clapped his ethereal hands and smiled brightly. "That was a spectacular performance! The system records show a flawless clear rate. Your companion truly is a Hero type unit and his future is limitless."

Li Yu opened his mouth to thank Jirno for the opportunity but a sudden agonizing pain ripped through his chest at this time. It felt as though invisible blades had pierced his soul at the exact same time. He gasped for air and stumbled backward while clutching his robes from the intense pain he was undergoing..

The dark void of the administrative space seemed to warp and distort around him. A strange humming sound filled his ears and a forceful pressure pressed down on his shoulders and spread throughout his entire body. This was not an attack from the system or a betrayal by Jirno. Li Yu recognized this specific sensation from his past experiences with entering a realm through a rift but this time it felt much more painful.

It was a rejection force.

The realm itself was trying to push him away and out of this timeline now. He had spent weeks interacting with Jirno and uncovering the secrets of the Dragon Core. He had altered the trajectory of Heiyuan by allowing him to undergo the system trial and gain a vast amount of unearned power. His continued presence in this timeline was finally creating too much friction with the established Laws of Time. The timeline was rejecting the anomaly and attempting to correct the deviation before it caused permanent damage to the future.

Li Yu dropped to one knee and gritted his teeth against the searing pain. He did not know the truth about the timeline yet but he believed this strange realm was finally expelling him as an unwanted intruder. The peaceful sanctuary was unraveling and his time in the Dragon Core was coming to an abrupt and painful end.