Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The staircase leading into the subterranean depths of the royal palace descended into a deep and suffocating darkness. Elder Huo Zheng led the main group through the grand halls above ground while Li Yu decided to explore the lower levels on his own once more. He was too deep in his own thoughts to want to travel with anyone else at the moment.

The upper floors were coated in the gelatinous slime they found in the barracks so there was little hope of finding anyone alive up there. Li Yu walked down the frozen stone steps and his opalescent Qi provided a faint light in the gloom, not that he needed it to see.

The lower levels were designed as a labyrinth of vaults and secluded training rooms for the royal family. The air down here was stagnant and tasted of crushed stone and old frost. Li Yu moved through the winding corridors and kept his steps light and his senses spread out.

He ran his hand along a wall made of smooth frost glass while in thought. The glass was unblemished in this deep section and it seemed like the attackers never went here but the lack of bodies or anything else down here showed that was unlikely. They had probably made it here as well and taken everything they wanted to.

Li Yu tried to detect any lingering life forces or hidden traps waiting in the dark. The silence was heavy and pressed against his eardrums in a strange way. He surprisingly found himself not nervous or scared which was quite an unsettling feeling for him at this moment. He turned a corner and found the corridor blocked by a pile of collapsed rubble and gently pushed the heavy stones aside using his physical strength.

Li Yu stepped through the opening and entered a long hallway that felt vastly different from the rest. The ambient Qi here was thick, turbulent and stood out against the rest. Li Yu noticed a faint shimmering distortion in the air a few paces ahead that did not look natural but would have been virtually undetectable without his mastery in the void.

It looked like a powerful array or a powerful treasure was actively masking whatever lay beyond it. Whatever it was, it looked to be weakening and that was probably the reason he could detect it in the first place. His senses could not pierce the veil but it could detect it.

Li Yu stepped closer to investigate the distortion as it was the first clue they might have. He did not draw a weapon but he kept his domain ready to deploy at a moment's notice. As his boot touched the edge of the shimmering air, the distortion violently shattered like brittle ice and four figures erupted from the shadows with lethal intent.

They did not shout or announce their presence. They struck with a desperate ferocity born of terror and survival. The attackers had been hiding inside a sealed space generated by their protective treasure and had no idea who or what was wandering outside. The four chose to take the initiative and eliminate the threat before it could get them.

A flurry of ice arts and techniques descended upon Li Yu like a storm. The temperature in the corridor plummeted as three distinct blades aimed for his vital points. The fourth figure hung back and channeled a powerful binding technique using thick chains of woven frost.

Li Yu did not panic at the incoming attack as he was already prepared for a confrontation. He stepped into the assault and let his opalescent Qi flare outward. A sword thrust aimed at his chest met a wall of hardened energy and deflected harmlessly to the side. Another blade swept toward his legs while the third aimed for his neck. The attackers were highly skilled and their coordination was flawless but Li Yu was powerful as well.

Li Yu shifted his weight and used his bare hands to parry the incoming strikes. He caught the flat side of a blade with his palm and pushed it away while dodging a sweeping attack from another attacker. The frost chains snaked around his wrists but Li Yu simply flexed his arms and shattered the icy restraints into a cloud of glittering powder.

As the battle happened, he quickly realized these were not mindless beasts or corrupted soldiers. They were human cultivators using sword techniques and not the beasts he was expecting. He quickly held back his own destructive power to avoid hurting them as he recognized one of the people there.

"Stand down," Li Yu spoke with a calm but commanding voice. "I am not here to hurt you."

The sound of his voice echoed through the dark corridor and the four attackers froze mid counter attack. The glowing light of their drawn swords illuminated their faces and revealed their exhausted features.

The person leading the assault was a young woman with pale blue hair and striking features. She wore elegant silks that were torn and stained with dirt. She breathed heavily and her eyes were wide with a mixture of fear, panic and sadness. She was the one that Li Yu recognized, he had met her during the sword conference. It was Crown Princess Yuehan.

The three people standing around her were her personal guardians. One was a middle aged man with a stern face and broad shoulders. Another was a younger woman holding a shattered frost chain. The third was a highly skilled swordsman who still kept his blade raised in a defensive posture.

Yuehan stared at Li Yu and her tense posture slowly relaxed. She lowered her sword as recognition dawned in her eyes.

"You are Li Yu," Yuehan whispered with a trembling voice. "The Holy Son of the Heavenly Sword Sect."

"I am," Li Yu nodded gently and lowered his hands to show he meant no harm. "Elder Huo Zheng and a rescue team are searching the upper levels of the palace right now. We came as soon as Sect Master Ling Wuji received word that your empire went completely quiet."

The middle aged guardian let out a long breath and sheathed his sword. He stepped back and bowed his head respectfully. The younger woman collapsed to her knees and began to weep silently into her hands. The relief of seeing a friendly face after surviving an unknown nightmare was too much for her to bear.

The skilled swordsman kept a wary eye on the dark corridor behind Li Yu. "Are you alone down here? Where is the enemy?"

"The enemy is gone or it seems that way." Li Yu answered while looking at the group of survivors. "We have not encountered any hostile forces since we arrived in the city. The capital is empty."

Yuehan stepped forward and her hands shook as she sheathed her own weapon. She looked at Li Yu with desperate hope burning in her eyes.

"Empty?" Yuehan asked while stepping closer to him. "Did my father send you down here? Did the King and the rest of the royal family manage to evacuate the citizens? Please tell me they made it out."

Li Yu felt a heavy weight settle in his chest from the string of questions. He could quickly gather from the questions that the princess did not know what had happened to her empire. He looked at the young princess and saw the desperate need for good news. Li Yu hated being the one to deliver a tragedy but lying would only make the eventual truth much worse. He needed to be honest and direct as she would find out soon enough anyways.

"I am sorry," Li Yu spoke softly. His voice carried a deep and genuine sympathy. "We have not found any survivors outside of the four of you. Not in the residential districts or the military barracks. The city is in ruins and there are no bodies in sight."

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Yuehan stopped walking as the hope in her eyes shattered into pieces. She shook her head slowly and refused to accept the words.

"That cannot be true," Yuehan protested while her voice cracked. "My father possessed a defensive treasure just like mine. The King and my brothers all had high tier artifacts designed to shield them from attacks. They must have survived. They must be hiding somewhere else in the palace or perhaps they retreated to the northern fortress."

The skilled swordsman placed a comforting hand on her shoulder but he looked at Li Yu with a grim understanding. The guardian knew that if the Heavenly Sword Sect had searched the city and found no one, then the worst had already happened.

Yuehan let out a choked gasp and covered her mouth with her hands. The younger female wailed out loud while the middle aged man closed his eyes and bowed his head in silent mourning.

"How did you survive?" Li Yu asked to gently guide the conversation away from the gruesome details. He wanted her to focus on the present moment and keep her from being overwhelmed. Yuehan wiped a tear from her cheek and struggled to compose herself. She took a few deep breaths and looked back at the space where the shimmering distortion had been.

"I was down here in the secluded training rooms," Yuehan explained with a hollow voice. "My guardians and I were practicing a new sword array. We heard a terrible rumbling sound from above and the entire place shook. Before we could even run up the stairs, my protective treasure activated automatically and formed a sealed space around us. It must have been my father who activated as there was no attack being directed towards me at the time"

She looked down at the dark stone floor and her shoulders slumped.

"It happened so fast," she whispered. "We were trapped in the dark and we could not see anything outside the shield. We did not even see what the enemy looked like or hear what was happening. I had been instructed if the treasure activates, to just wait inside no matter what until it turns off. We just hid here and waited just like my father had instructed me. I thought my father would come down and get us once the danger was repelled."

Li Yu understood her survival now. She had been deep underground and shielded by a powerful artifact before any enemies had actually reached her. Seeing her activate a treasure after being spotted was completely different than not even knowing she was there to begin with.

The enemy likely swept the upper floors and consumed the visible population before moving on. They probably did not bother to dig through all the collapsed rubble to find hidden training rooms and the small amount of beings below. Her father and the other royals were likely caught in the main halls or defending the gates where their treasures were eventually overwhelmed by the attackers.

"You were lucky to be down here," Li Yu said softly and thought of the familial love that protected her. "The rubble and the treasure kept you hidden from their senses."

The heavy reality of the situation began to settle over the small group. The Frostmoon Empire was gone. The bustling capital was a frozen graveyard and the royal family had been reduced to a single young woman.

Yuehan walked over to a fallen stone pillar and sat down. She looked incredibly small and fragile in her current state and nothing like how he had seen her back at the sword conference. The middle aged guardian stood beside her and offered a silent presence of support.

Li Yu stood a respectful distance away and allowed them time to process the devastating news. He remembered how he had acted when the Green Mountain Sect was destroyed. He knew that grief was a turbulent river and everyone had to cross it at their own pace or they would drown within. He would not push them to move or speak until they were ready.

'She is experiencing the exact same pain I felt,' Li Yu thought to himself while watching the young princess weep. 'She believed her world was secure and woke up to find everything she loved turned to ash. The cultivation world is truly unforgiving and cruel.'

"My father is gone," Yuehan murmured into the cold air. She stared blankly at her hands. "My brothers and my uncles are gone. The generals and the ministers are all gone. I am the last one left…"

She looked up at Li Yu and her eyes were filled with an existential dread.

"I am the Crown Princess," she said with a bitter and hollow laugh. "I am supposed to lead my people and protect the empire. But what is an empire if there are no subjects left to govern? What is a crown if there is no kingdom to rule? I am a leader of ghosts and empty stones. No… I am all alone."

The skilled swordsman gripped his hilt tightly. He looked around the dark corridor and his face was etched with conflict. His bound duty was to protect the royal family but the royal family was essentially dead. The kingdom he swore to defend was erased from the realm and there was nothing he or anyone could have done about it.

Li Yu heard her words and felt a deep ache in his own heart. He remembered looking at the hole where the Green Mountain Sect once stood and feeling the exact same emptiness. The titles and the responsibilities meant nothing when the people you cared about were gone. Your entire world just gone in mere moments was hard to process.

"You are alive," Li Yu offered the only comfort he could find. He spoke with a steady and grounding tone. "That means the Frostmoon legacy is not dead and can be carried on in one way or another. As long as you draw breath, your family and your people are remembered. A kingdom is not just buildings and walls. It is the memory and the spirit carried by those who had lived in it."

Yuehan looked at him and a fresh wave of tears spilled down her cheeks. She did not argue with his words but she could not find comfort in them right now. The pain was too fresh and the loss was too deep. Nothing could change that now and Li Yu knew it all too well and did not blame her at all.

Li Yu reached into his spatial ring and pulled out a small glowing crystal that he was given. It was a localized communication stone used by the expeditionary force. He channeled his Qi into the crystal and sent a brief message to Elder Huo Zheng to signal that he had found survivors and needed them to converge on his location.

He put the crystal away and walked over to the young princess. He did not say anything else to her as words were cheap right now. He simply sat next to her and offered a silent pillar of strength in the dark subterranean corridor. The heavy grief settled over the group like a thick blanket of snow and the ruins of the Frostmoon capital felt colder than ever before.

The time stretched on in agonizing silence and self reflection. The younger female continued to sob while the middle aged man kept his stoic vigil beside the princess. The skilled swordsman paced back and forth near the collapsed rubble and cast nervous glances into the shadows. His restless energy was a stark contrast to the numbing sorrow gripping the others.

"How long have we been down here?" Yuehan finally asked while wiping her face with the back of her sleeve.

"We are not entirely sure," the middle aged guardian answered gently. "The protective treasure disrupts the flow of ambient Qi so measuring time is difficult. It feels like days but it could have been mere hours."

Yuehan nodded slowly and understood. She also appreciated the swift response of their allies even if they arrived too late to save the empire. Everything had happened so quickly that it seemed unlikely that there was any message sent out and even if there were, it was unlikely that it could be responded to so quickly. Even if it was responded to quickly, the people coming could have met the same fate as the empire as well. She looked at the torn fabric of her pale blue dress and took a shuddering breath.

"I need to see it," Yuehan stated with a sudden burst of resolve. She pushed herself up from the stone pillar and stood tall. "I need to see my home and witness what happened to my people. I cannot hide down here in the dark while their spirits cannot rest."

"Princess," the skilled swordsman warned while stepping forward. "The surface is a wasteland. The enemy might be gone but there could still be traps or lingering hazards. It is not safe."

"My entire family was slaughtered up there," Yuehan countered with a fierce edge to her voice. "I will not cower in a basement. I am the last royal of the Frostmoon Empire and I will walk the streets of my capital to see for myself."

Li Yu admired her sudden strength as it took him much longer to process his own grief. She was forcing herself to confront the tragedy head on rather than letting the despair consume her entirely. It was a painful path but a necessary one for healing.

"Elder Huo Zheng and the rest of the team will be here soon," Li Yu advised her. "They are clearing a safe path and making sure there are no hidden dangers around. We will escort you to the surface together."

Yuehan looked at Li Yu and offered a small and grateful nod. "Thank you, Li Yu. The presence of the Heavenly Sword Sect brings a measure of calm to this nightmare."

Li Yu offered a polite smile and returned his gaze to the dark corridor. He could hear the faint sounds of shifting rubble echoing from the stairs above. Elder Huo Zheng and the disciples were approaching.

The discovery of the survivors was a small beacon of hope in the endless devastation but Li Yu knew the true trial for the young princess was only just beginning. She had survived the initial attack but now she had to survive the crushing weight of losing everything.