Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The vanguard shattered the final bone doors leading into the central chamber of the flesh fortress with a deafening crash. General Goliath lowered his spiked gauntlets while stepping through the ruined entryway as bone fragments rained down across the soft floor. General Draken followed right beside him and his heavy battleaxe dripped with blood. General Draken still hadn’t had his fill of killing yet but the battle was already nearly over. They had carved a direct path through the strongest defensive lines the stronghold had to offer and left nothing but a trail of ruined bodies in their wake.

Zhan Tian walked past his two commanders and entered the command center with his glaive resting casually against his shoulder. Elder Huo Zheng and Li Yu flanked the Worldkeeper as they took in the sight of the enemy leadership.

The chamber was a wide cavernous space constructed from hardened cartilage and pulsing veins. A shallow pool of glowing green liquid occupied the center of the room where several large Hollow Husk creatures stood in a state of panic. These were the leaders and commanders of this fortress. They possessed thicker hides adorned with sharp chitinous armor and their tentacles writhed with agitated energy but they made no immediate move to attack. The oppressive aura radiating from Zhan Tian and his elite generals pinned them in place like insects trapped under a heavy stone.

One of the leaders let out a desperate screech and lunged forward with a pair of bone blades extending from its arms. Zhan Tian did not even change his expression as he swung his glaive in a simple upward arc and another crescent of Qi flashed across the room and cleanly bisected the charging creature before it could cross half the distance. The two halves of the alien commander fell into the glowing pool and sent green ripples echoing across the surface.

The remaining leaders realized they stood no chance against such overwhelming martial power. Their bulbous black eyes widened in a collective decision and a familiar destructive heat began to radiate from their skulls. They were triggering their biological suicide seals to deny their enemies any chance of extracting intelligence from them.

'I need your help now,' Li Yu called out with his divine sense while stepping out from behind his grandfather.

Within his inner soul space the Fisherman Soul heard the call but already knew what was happening. He raised his long ethereal rod and prepared to do what he had done before. The ancient entity flicked his wrist and sent his glowing hook flying across like before. In the physical world, Li Yu reached out and projected his soul power over the group of alien commanders.

Invisible lines of spiritual energy shot out to pierce the foreheads of the desperate creatures. The heat building within their minds was suddenly hooked by an unstoppable force and couldn’t continue. The Hollow Husk leaders shrieked in confusion as the destructive energy of their own suicide seals was violently yanked out of their bodies. The glowing seals materialized in the air for a brief second before the fisherman crushed them into harmless sparks of light.

"Secure them," Zhan Tian ordered the moment the threat of self destruction faded with a smile on his face. His grandson had really not let them down and now they were able to extract more information.

General Yue stepped forward and plucked a rapid series of notes on her guqin. Lethal threads of Qi wrapped around the limbs of the surviving commanders and bound them tightly against the cartilage walls. They struggled and hissed but the musical bindings were infused with a suppression technique that drained their physical strength with every movement. Li Yu was also now draining them of their Qi as well with his Koi martial spirit to aid in the capture but more for his own gains.

"Bring in the interrogators," Elder Huo Zheng announced while lowering his broadsword.

The three of the Silent Night stepped into the chamber from the ruined hallway. Su Yin clapped her hands together with a bright smile as she looked at the bound leaders. Li Yu still found her to be quite creepy and wasn’t sure if she was happy with the work she does because it is going to help countless lives or if she just wanted more people to torture.

"Oh, they look very strong," Su Yin giggled while walking toward the nearest captive. "Strong minds always have the most interesting layers to peel back. I wonder what kind of songs they will sing for us today."

Warden Mo leaned on his crooked bone staff and nodded to his disciple. "Do not waste time playing with the meat, Su Yin. This is serious business and at least behave while the Worldkeeper and other generals are around. Extract the information we need for additional gathering points and look for additional information we can use. We need actionable intelligence."

"I will be quick, Master," Su Yin promised before plunging her glowing green hands directly into the chest of the bound squid. Warden Mo got to work as well, it is as he said in that this was important. While it was good for Su Yin to get more experience, results were what was important here.

The chamber quickly filled with the horrific sounds of burbling screams as they began their precise torture. Li Yu watched with a calm detachment as Su Yin flayed the creature's soul to bypass its mental barriers once more.

Li Yu did not feel any pity for the monsters but at the same time wasn’t on his high horse and judged them too harshly either. This was the cultivation world after all and such things sadly happened all the time. He happened to be on the opposite side of these creatures so he would kill them and it was as simple as that. If they were on his side and killing his supposed enemies, he would let them be most likely. It was a cruel and bleak way to look at things but those were his thoughts. Li Yu now only focused on the results and the potential resources they represented.

While Su Yin and Warden Mo conducted their grim work, Li Yu expanded his divine sense across the ruined sections of the flesh fortress and he was looking for those still alive. His thought was to take these species in as part of his Eternal Koi army since they possessed an aquatic bloodline and use his enemies against his other enemies.

He had not asked the generals to hold back during the assault because giving such an order would only complicate their roles and add unnecessary risks to the operation. He would never ask his allies to fight with restraint against a threat of this magnitude just to secure some additional troops. He decided he would simply capture whoever happened to be lucky or unlucky enough to survive the initial slaughter to secure the leadership.

His divine sense located roughly two hundred Hollow Husk creatures scattered throughout the corridors and outer chambers. They were heavily injured and bleeding from severed limbs or crushed organs but they still clung to life due to their resilient biology. Li Yu walked back out into the ruined hallways and began his harvest around the fortress. There was nothing left behind that could threaten him in their condition but Yue followed him anyway just in case.

He used the connection with the Fisherman Soul to rip the dormant suicide seals from the minds of the injured survivors. Once the seals were removed, he imposed his own soul seal upon their weakened consciousness. Because these creatures carried a distinct aquatic nature, his Koi martial spirit provided him with an overwhelming authority over their bloodline that made things go smoother than it normally would have for those at a higher cultivation than him.

As he placed his brand upon them, Li Yu opened a spatial pathway directly into his Koi Sanctuary. He funneled the crippled squid creatures into his Koi’s inner world and deposited them in a section that was away from everything else. He wanted to use them as part of his future aquatic legion and their current injuries did not matter much as they would heal over time. The dense spiritual energy and the healing properties of the sanctuary would slowly mend their rubbery flesh over time. He would sort out their specific uses later once the campaign was finished. In total he acquired nearly two hundred of them of varying strength.

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When Li Yu returned to the central chamber, Su Yin was wiping glowing residue from her hands with a bright smile. Three of the leaders had survived from their interrogation methods though their minds were left severely fractured. After getting the okay from his grandfather, Li Yu did not hesitate to place his soul seal upon the broken leaders as well and sent them into his sanctuary to join the growing number of his personal troops.

"We have the information we need," Warden Mo reported while turning his hollow eyes toward the Worldkeeper. "They are operating a chain of these points to funnel resources deeper into the void. The next fortress is located in a region dense with spatial storms. Their numbers at the next location are roughly the same as this one from what we could gather."

Zhan Tian absorbed the intelligence and looked toward his generals who had gathered in the chamber. "You have all tested their defenses and felt their strength. What is your assessment of this branch?"

"They are noticeably weaker than the forces we fought inside the zone before," General Goliath stated while crossing his thick arms. "Their physical density is lacking and their combat instincts are sluggish even if we had caught them by surprise. It would seem this group or horde are not even close to the level of what we have faced. I suppose that it is a good thing that they aren’t all just at that kind of level."

"Their souls break much faster as well," General Yue added with a serene nod. "The techniques we are using shattered their coordination almost instantly and those that didn’t were nearly put to death. They do not possess the veteran discipline of the hordes we faced in the past."

"This must be a weaker force and led by a weaker leader." Elder Huo Zheng concluded. "They are targeting isolated and weaker realms to build up their foundation and grow their strength. They have not yet encountered true resistance so they have been getting away with what they have done."

Zhan Tian smiled a cold and dangerous smile. "I agree with what you all are saying, that is my assessment of them as well. We hold the absolute advantage in speed and power here, overwhelmingly so. We will push forward aggressively and tear down every gathering point they have built in this sector before they even realize they are under attack to clean this all up."

The Worldkeeper raised his hand and channeled his immense Qi to tear open a new spatial rift right inside the ruined chamber. The portal swirled with energy and locked onto the coordinates Warden Mo had extracted.

The team emerged into a chaotic region of the void where fierce spatial storms whipped around a second flesh fortress. This organic structure was similar to the first one but it featured thicker bone plating to protect against the environmental hazards. The Hollow Husk defenders here were already on high alert due to the swirling storms but they were still caught off guard by the sudden appearance of experts directly on their doorstep.

General Zane was the first to strike this time. The lean athletic man darted forward with incredible agility and threw his chakrams into the void.

"Keep your footwork light and do not stay in one place," General Zane instructed his serious successor who moved like a shadow beside him.

The chakrams spun with a sharp whistle and generated towering typhoons that swept across the outer membranes of the fortress. The typhoons acted as both a devastating offensive weapon and a powerful defensive barrier. The tearing winds shredded the rubbery bodies of the squid creatures into pieces while simultaneously deflecting a barrage of bone spikes fired by the defenders. General Zane manipulated the air currents with fluid grace and his successor used smaller circular blades to execute any enemies that slipped past the main storms.

General Seraphina moved like a phantom through the chaos generated by general Zane. She swung her segmented whip sword and the metal serpent uncoiled with a metallic hiss which began to strike from blind spots the defenders could not perceive.

"Strike where the eyes cannot see and where the armor is weak," General Seraphina commanded her three young assassins.

Her whip sword bypassed the thick bone shields of the alien warriors and sliced their throats with surgical precision. The three assassins utilized stealth techniques to blend into the shadows cast by the spatial storms and disappeared from sight. They darted behind the enemy lines and drove their daggers into the spines of the Hollow Husk commanders before moving onto the next targets. This caused a wave of death to radiate out from the commanders and caused the local defensive formations to collapse into disarray in an instant.

A deep booming resonance echoed through the void as General Tarkus stepped up to the fortress walls. The sturdy cultivator ignored the frantic attacks of the squids and slammed his heavy iron mace against the bone plating. He did not rely on physical force to break the barrier like his size would suggest. He sent a concentrated frequency of sound and vibration rippling through the structure from his mace..

"Let them feel the power of our grand techniques," General Tarkus said calmly while his two disciples raised their shields to block incoming fire.

The vibrations bypassed the external armor entirely and traveled through the flesh of the fortress. The Hollow Husk defenders hiding inside the corridors shrieked in agony as the sound waves turned their internal organs into liquid mush. General Tarkus stepped forward and delivered another strike causing a large section of the bone wall to simply crumble into dust under the sheer stress of the frequency.

General Rai brought the fury of a thunderstorm to the dark void. The speed focused warrior channeled lightning through his blue armor and his silver spear. He became a blinding flash of light that pierced through enemy lines before the creatures could even register his presence. He was focusing on the stronger beings and rushed to secure important locations as the others would sweep in behind him to take care of the rush.

"Speed is the greatest weapon," General Rai shouted as he thrust his spear through the chests of three commanders in a single heartbeat. The smell of ozone overpowered the scent of alien blood.

The young man standing beside him raised his hands and unleashed chains of crackling electricity that danced across the battlefield. The sparks jumped from one creature to the next, paralyzing their bodies and leaving them frozen in place.. General Rai used the opportunity to sweep his spear in a wide arc and sever their heads in one fluid motion to finish up the job.

From a safe distance away, General Ghost provided overwatch for the team and to eliminate any forces trying to flank. The silent marksman stood on a floating chunk of debris and drew his great bow. He did not issue commands to his two masked successors. They simply knew their roles and raised their own bows in perfect synchronization.

General Ghost released a volley of condensed arrows that flew through the spatial storms without being affected by the heavy winds. The ethereal projectiles phased directly through the physical bodies of the frontline grunts and materialized inside the skulls of the commanders hiding in the rear. The silent execution disrupted the chain of command for the defenders and caused their counterattacks to fall apart into disorganized panic. They were left with no opportunities to fight back.

Li Yu watched the spectacular display of varying martial techniques and prowess from the safety of General Yue's musical domain once more. He also kept his focus on where his ethereal Koi swam happily through the sky of the Koi Sanctuary. The giant fish projected its massive suction force outward once more into the physical void and began drinking the seas of Qi spilling from the enemy army.

The battle for the second base ended just as quickly as the first and seemingly just as easy. There was no resistance that could be put up by the defenders. Before they could get any momentum for a counterattack, that counterattack was slaughtered by one of the generals or their trailing disciples. The Hollow Husk forces were simply no match for the elite generals of the Worldkeeper. They lacked the strength, the discipline and the laws required to stand against cultivators of this caliber.

As the combat died down, Li Yu walked through the ruined corridors of the second fortress and performed his harvest once again. He found several hundred survivors groaning in the wreckage. Like before he used the Fisherman's hook to remove their suicide seals and imposed his soul seal upon their minds before sending them into his Koi Sanctuary. His aquatic legion was growing at a rapid pace and he was securing a tremendous amount of cultivation resources in the form of the Qi he was drawing from them during the battles and after.

Zhan Tian stood atop the ruined command center and looked out across the void with a satisfied expression. "Two bases destroyed and their intelligence secured. They are too weak to stop us and their numbers mean nothing against our power. We will not give them a moment to breathe or a chance to regroup."

"We will burn a trail of ruin through their territory until we find the root of this plague," Elder Huo Zheng agreed while cleaning blood from his blade.

Feeling confident in their overwhelming superiority, the strike force extracted the next set of locations, finding two more this time, from the broken minds of the second base leadership. They prepared to push forward aggressively and continue their relentless assault through the void where these creatures were hiding.