Myriad Rivers to the Sea

The expeditionary force stood on the snowy ridge and stared down once more at the ruined capital of the Frostmoon Empire before heading down. The biting wind carried sharp needles of ice that stung exposed skin and tugged at their robes. What was once a sweeping beacon of pale blue architecture now lay in scattered and desolate ruins. Towers were shattered into jagged fragments that littered the valley floor. Grand courtyards meant to host thousands of citizens were buried under thick layers of unnatural snow.

The silence hanging over the valley was suffocating and heavy. There were no cries for help and no clash of weapons ringing through the frigid air. It was a dead city resting in a now frozen grave.

Elder Huo Zheng tightened his grip on the hilt of his broadsword while his scarred face twisted into a fierce scowl. The elder had fought in countless battles now and had seen places fall to attacks before. A conquered city usually held the chaotic noise of looters or the weeping of survivors. This silence felt incredibly wrong and deeply unsettling to even his honed instincts. These were his allies after all, he knew generals and commanders from here. He would consider several of them his good friends as well and for nothing to be here at all made even his tough heart tighten.

"Form up and ready your weapons," Huo Zheng commanded his team with a stern voice. "We are descending into the capital. Keep your spiritual senses expanded to the maximum limit and do not break formation until I give the order."

The ten elders drew their respective blades so they were ready for anything and formed a protective vanguard at the front of the group. Ren Shu nodded sharply and signaled for the twenty five disciples to fall in line behind the elders in one of their established formations. The young swordsmen and swordswomen unsheathed their weapons as well and were quite nervous due to the nature of the surroundings. The sharp hum of drawn steel echoed faintly against the howling wind. They channeled their Qi to ward off the biting cold of the Frostveil Realm while keeping their eyes scanning around at all times.

Li Yu walked near the back of the formation, observed the tense atmosphere and was feeling it himself as well. He allowed his Qi to flow smoothly through his meridians and the opalescent energy provided a comfortable layer of warmth against the freezing environment. His aura remained sharp and focused like a polished spear tip ready to strike at a moment's notice.

The group made their way down the steep ridge and stepped onto the paved streets of the capital. The ground was covered in a mixture of powdered snow and crushed ice. The pale blue stones that formed the roads were cracked and heaved upward in strange patterns. As they moved deeper into the outer districts, a haunting realization began to settle over the disciples.

"Elder Huo," Ren Shu spoke up quietly while keeping his twin slender blades raised in a defensive posture. "Something is very wrong here. The buildings are destroyed and the defensive arrays are shattered but where are the people?"

Huo Zheng had already realized this and had been scanning around the ruined streets. Ren Shu had pointed out the most disturbing detail of the tragedy. A city of this size should be littered with the tragic aftermath of a siege. There should be bodies scattered across the cobblestones and pools of frozen blood staining the pale blue ice. There should be broken armor and discarded weapons indicating a fierce struggle to defend.

They saw none of those things at all. The streets were barren and devoid of any human remains.

"Keep your guard up," Elder Cai warned from the left flank. The older man held his astrolabe in one hand and a thin rapier in the other. "An enemy that cleans up the battlefield so thoroughly is not looking for territory. They are looking to erase a population for one reason or another. We need to spread out and cover more ground to find clues. Whatever did this seem to have done this looks to already be gone. I have not detected any living beings with my senses since we arrived."

Huo Zheng agreed with the assessment and raised his hand to halt the march.

"We will divide into three teams," Huo Zheng instructed the group. "Elder Cai and Ren Shu will take ten disciples and search the eastern side which should have military barracks. I will take the remaining elders and disciples to push toward the central royal palace. We need to find out how they breached the inner walls so quickly."

Li Yu stepped forward from the back of the formation and looked toward the sprawling residential sector on the western side of the city.

"I will take the western flank and search the residential areas," Li Yu offered calmly. "My senses are sharp enough to detect any lingering traps and I can cover a lot of ground on my own. It will allow you to focus your numbers on the high value targets."

Huo Zheng looked at the young man and weighed the request. Splitting the party in a hostile zone was always dangerous but Li Yu was not a normal junior and wasn’t his to technically command. He had demonstrated overwhelming power and an understanding of combat that should keep him safe. Huo Zheng also trusted that he would have been given plenty of defensive treasures to keep him safe.

"Very well," Huo Zheng nodded in agreement. "Do not hesitate to fall back if you encounter an overwhelming force. We will regroup at the gates of the main palace after a short amount of time unless anyone finds anything."

The expeditionary force split into their designated teams and vanished into the swirling snow. Li Yu turned away from the main avenue and walked alone into the ruined heart of the western residential district. He had decided to go off on his own because he didn’t detect any enemies but more importantly because he wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

The wind suddenly picked up and howled through the skeletal remains of the pale blue houses. The Frostmoon Empire was famous for weaving their ice aspected arts directly into their architecture. The homes were built from a specialized frost glass designed to absorb impacts and insulate the interiors against the harsh climate. Now those resilient walls were melted and broken.

Li Yu walked slowly down a narrow alleyway and observed the tragedy with a heavy heart. He saw the frozen remnants of daily life violently interrupted for seemingly no good reason at all. There probably was never a good enough reason to end life on this kind of scale but sadly such was the way with the cultivation world sometimes. Li Yu then saw a wooden cart filled with root vegetables overturned in the snow. A delicate teacup rested on a shattered stone table with the tea inside frozen solid into a dark block of ice.

He paused near a collapsed doorway and noticed a small wooden toy half buried in a snowdrift. Li Yu then reached down and brushed the freezing powder away from the toy. The simple object resonated deeply with his own memories having a beloved place destroyed.

'Peace is always so fragile,' Li Yu thought to himself while holding the toy. 'People build their homes and raise their families believing the walls or others will keep them safe. But there always seems to be a storm waiting on the horizon.'

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He remembered the Green Mountain Sect from his time in the lower realms. He remembered the helpless feeling of watching his first place of belonging be completely destroyed because powerful forces decided to strike. The citizens of this capital had likely woken up to a normal morning before the sky fell on their heads just like those from his own sect. They had no warning and no chance to fight back at all.

Li Yu gently placed the toy back on the stone step and continued his solitary walk. He expanded his senses to push through the layers of snow and rubble in an effort to find an unlikely survivor. He searched for hidden cellars or buried panic rooms hoping to find a faint heartbeat or a trembling survivor. His sharp intent swept through the ruins like a fine net but he found only dead cold and empty stone.

While Li Yu explored the residential sector with a heavy heart, Ren Shu and Elder Cai led their team through the devastated eastern military barracks.

The barracks were originally designed as a fortress within a fortress. The outer walls were constructed from the thickest and most resilient frost glass the empire could produce. The material was renowned for stalling blunt force strikes and deflecting sharp Qi attacks instead of the fragile properties of normal glass.

Elder Cai held his astrolabe out as they approached a massive breach in the main defensive wall of the barracks. The needle on the device spun wildly before settling on a faint and strange energy signature lingering near the broken ice.

"Halt," Elder Cai commanded his team. He knelt down next to a jagged chunk of the fallen wall and motioned for Ren Shu to join him. Ren Shu sheathed one of his slender blades and crouched beside the veteran elder. He looked at the shattered frost glass and immediately noticed something odd about the destruction.

"This wall was not broken by a strong technique," Ren Shu observed while pointing at the edges of the breach. "The Frostmoon ice arts are designed to spiderweb and absorb kinetic force. If a brute had smashed this wall, we would see a wide crater and branching cracks. This hole is smooth and the edges are rounded off."

"Your eyes are sharp," Elder Cai praised the junior disciple softly. The elder reached out with a hand and carefully scraped the surface of the rounded ice.

A thick and translucent slime clung to the leather of his glove. The substance was gelatinous and emitted a faint hiss as it reacted with the ambient cold air. The ice beneath the slime was actively bubbling and melting away despite the freezing temperature of the realm.

"This is not a martial strike," Elder Cai stated grimly while examining the slime. "It is a highly concentrated acidic compound. It looks natural as well, not manufactured. They ate right through the barriers in their assault on this place."

Ren Shu felt a shiver run down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold wind. He looked around the empty courtyard of the barracks. The training dummies were melted into puddles of rotting wood and the weapon racks were dissolved into rusted slag.

"Elder Cai," Ren Shu began with a hesitant voice. "If they used this to breach the walls and breach the defenses, then what happened to the soldiers stationed here? We have not found a single drop of blood or a torn piece of uniform. Even a routing army leaves behind stragglers or the wounded."

Elder Cai stood up and wiped the gelatinous residue onto a nearby stone. The wrinkles on his face deepened into harsh lines of disgust and growing horror.

"Think about the residue we just found," Elder Cai told the senior disciple while sweeping his gaze across the barren courtyard. "The attackers possess an acid strong enough to melt specialized ice in a matter of seconds. If they unleashed that same substance on human flesh and bone, there would be nothing left to find. The soldiers were not routed and they were not taken prisoner."

The ten junior disciples standing behind them heard the grim deduction and their faces turned pale. The implication was horrific.

"They were consumed," a young swordswoman whispered while gripping her hilt so tightly her knuckles turned white. "The enemy melted and ate them right here in the courtyard."

"Stay focused and do not let fear cloud your Dao," Elder Cai ordered the group with a stern but guiding tone. "We are cultivators of the Heavenly Sword Sect and we do not cower before beasts. We must document these clues and bring this information back to Elder Huo Zheng. The Sect Master needs to know exactly what kind of threat we are dealing with as well."

Ren Shu nodded and forced his breathing to steady. He was a senior disciple and he needed to set an example for his peers to follow. He drew his second blade and took the lead position once more.

"We sweep the inner armory and then we head to the rendezvous point," Ren Shu instructed the team. "Keep your eyes on the shadows and watch where you step. Avoid any puddles of melted ice and keep your wits about you. If the enemy eats their victims, we need to be especially careful."

The team moved carefully through the remains of the barracks and found more of the disturbing gelatinous residue painted across the ruined halls. Every new discovery reinforced the horrifying truth of the silent capital. A while later the expeditionary force began to converge on the sprawling courtyard that led to the main royal palace.

The central palace was a towering structure carved directly into the side of a frozen mountain. It was the heart of the Frostmoon Empire and the seat of power for the imperial family. The grand staircase leading up to the main doors was heavily damaged and the towering statues of ancient kings were melted into unrecognizable lumps of stone and ice.

Elder Huo Zheng stood at the base of the stairs with his team of elders. They had encountered similar scenes of devastation during their push through the central districts. The elder looked up as Ren Shu and Elder Cai arrived with their disciples.

"Report," Huo Zheng demanded while keeping his eyes fixed on the dark and gaping entrance of the ruined palace.

Elder Cai stepped forward and explained their findings in detail. He described the acidic burn marks and the gelatinous slime they found on the unyielding walls. He shared their grim conclusion regarding the missing population and the terrifying method of consumption used by the attackers.

Huo Zheng listened to the report and his scarred face grew dangerously rigid. He knew of many beasts and demonic factions that fed on human cultivators but the scale of this massacre was deeply alarming. Wiping out an entire capital city and consuming everyone in such a short window of time required a massive and organized force.

Li Yu arrived a few moments later and walked out from a side avenue. He joined the group and listened to the end of Elder Cai's detailed explanation.

"I found the same residue in the residential sectors," Li Yu confirmed with a calm but heavy voice. "The homes were melted and I found no bodies. The attackers struck without warning and overwhelmed the citizens before they could even step out of their doors. There are no survivors in the western districts and I could not detect any lingering life forces in the rubble."

The expeditionary force stood in silence at the base of the royal stairs. The wind whipped through the courtyard and carried the faint scent of the slime that coated the ruins. The realization of what they were dealing with weighed heavily on every person present.

They had come expecting to find a battlefield and perhaps a few pockets of resistance holding out against a conquering army. Instead, they had walked into an empty dining hall where an allied empire had served as the main course.

“The royal palace is the last place we need to search. The King and imperial family possess personal defensive treasures that far exceed the city walls. If anyone managed to survive the initial feeding frenzy, they could be hiding deep within." Huo Zheng spoke up once more. He was beginning to understand what had happened here but hoped that he was wrong. If he was correct, the issue here was grim news for the Myriad Realms and did not just impact them or what had happened here.

The elder looked at the twenty five disciples and he saw the lingering fear in their eyes but he also saw a growing spark of anger as well. The tragedy of the Frostmoon Empire was a cruel reminder of how unforgiving the cultivation world could be for everyone present.

"Keep your senses sharp and your formations tight. We will find out what dwells in the dark and we will bring answers back to our home." Huo Zheng ordered the group as he turned to face the entrance of the palace.

Li Yu stepped up beside Ren Shu and the other disciples as they began the slow ascent up the damaged stairs. The silent frost of the ruined capital held many dark things and they were about to pry the deepest ones open.