Myriad Rivers to the Sea

After some time, the dark stone tiles of Titan's Keep were slick with dark blood and glowing green residue. Su Yin pulled her hands from the chest of the final Hollow Husk captive and the creature let out a final gurgling breath before its soul shattered into scattered fragments. She stood up and wiped her hands on a cloth Mo Chuan handed her while maintaining that bright cheerful smile on her youthful looking face which Li Yu only found to be quite creepy now.

"That is the last of them, Worldkeeper," Su Yin announced happily as she tossed the soiled cloth aside. "Their minds were a tangled mess of instincts and violent urges but we pulled every useful thread we could find before the pain destroyed their core memories."

Warden Mo stepped forward and tapped his crooked bone staff against the ground. The ancient man closed his hollow eyes and processed the fragmented soul memories his team had extracted over the past several hours. He sorted through the chaotic images of endless dark voids and organic structures to piece together a somewhat coherent picture of their enemy.

"The truth is troubling," Warden Mo spoke with his deep and serious voice while opening his eyes to look at Zhan Tian. "These creatures do not belong to the horde we fought in the zone before. They appear to be a separate branch of the species with a different origin point or had split off long ago. They have been spreading across the void outside the established realms and consuming more isolated worlds to build their strength in the shadows."

"A separate branch…" Zhan Tian crossed his arms and looked at the lifeless rubbery bodies scattered across the square. "That explains why their cultivation levels are generally lower than the forces we faced before but their biology remains mostly identical. This group is expanding its hunting grounds. Did you find a staging area or a central command?"

"We extracted the spatial coordinates of one hidden base or gathering point floating in the void," Mo Chuan answered while cleaning his hooked blades with a piece of rough leather. "There are likely others scattered throughout the darkness but this is the only one these fourteen knew about in detail or was what we were able to extract."

Li Yu watched the dead creatures and did not feel much for them. They had destroyed Yuehan's home and eaten her people without mercy but he didn’t feel joy in their death nor sadness. They were simply dead and that was it. 'This is justice of a sort but it is only the beginning.' Li Yu thought while looking around at the bodies. 'We need to rip this weed out by the roots.'

"If they are spreading across the void, then they are a plague we need to burn out right now," Li Yu stated firmly. "We have a location so we should strike before they realize that we could possibly know."

"We will strike fast and we will strike quietly," Zhan Tian agreed while turning away from the bloody scene. "I will not call upon the coalition forces this time. Summoning the various sects and empires would draw too much attention and take too long to organize."

"Are you worried about spies leaking our movements?" Elder Huo Zheng asked.

"Our enemies might have eyes everywhere and a large mobilization might alert this Hollow Husk branch in some way and they scatter into the void." Zhan Tian explained. "Furthermore, tipping off other rivals who wish to see our forces weakened is a risk we do not need to take. We will handle this threat internally. A swift strike utilizing only my forces will leave no room for information leaks or political delays."

Zhan Tian reached into his robes and retrieved eight distinct tokens carved from black stone. He infused his Qi into the tokens and this was the direct summons for his eight generals under his command. He did not want to call on them so soon after returning, hoping he could give them a few years of peace but this was more important and he had no choice.

"Clean up this mess and prepare yourselves," Zhan Tian ordered the Silent Night unit. "Your skills might be needed again soon."

Warden Mo and his team bowed respectfully before gathering the dead bodies to dispose of. While they haven’t been able to capture any alive, they had plenty of bodies over the long years to study. There wasn’t much else to learn if anything at all at this point. Li Yu kept his bound Sovereign restrained near the edge of the square and the creepy looking creature had trembled as she witnessed the fate of her subordinates but she remained quiet under Li Yu's strict soul command.

About half way through the information extraction, it was thought that they would have had to perform such techniques on her as well. The Silent Night were not able to extract much useful information at that time and everyone believed more bodies would be needed. Thankfully or perhaps not thankfully for her, they were more or less able to get the information they needed and kept her alive to serve Li Yu.

The wait did not last long for the generals. Titan's Keep soon vibrated as multiple spatial rifts tore open in the sky above the fortress. The oppressive aura of martial experts descended upon the dark stone walls and the armored soldiers on the battlements stood taller in reverence. The air grew heavy with raw power as the highest ranking experts of the Worldkeeper's personal forces arrived to answer the call.

The first to step through the portal was First General Yue. She was Zhan Tian's closest confidant and a woman possessing an average looking face, serene features but as one of Tian’s generals was definitely deadly. She wore flowing robes of silver and blue while carrying a guqin strapped across her back as if she didn’t want to part with the weapon for even a second.

The instrument hummed with latent Qi and Li Yu could sense the dangerous energy coiled within its strings. Yue plucked those strings in battle to release lethal Qi threads that would cut as sharply as any weapon and cast disorienting illusionary domains across the battlefield. She was accompanied by two young female disciples who carried their own stringed instruments and observed the keep with sharp analytical eyes.

"Worldkeeper," Yue greeted with a soft bow and a warm smile that reached her eyes. "My strings are ready for war. Just point me toward the dissonance and it will be no more."

Following right behind her was Second General Zane. He was a lean athletic man wearing light armor designed for maximum mobility and fluid strikes but of course carrying great defensive capabilities. He uses a pair of chakrams as his weapons of choice. Zane possessed the skill to generate tearing wind typhoons to shred enemies as the chakrams flew through the air. A single serious looking successor walked silently in his shadow while carrying a smaller set of circular blades and mimicking his master's light footsteps.

The ground shook as Third General Goliath landed heavily on the stone tiles. He was a towering brawler with muscles bulging beneath his thick iron armor. He utilized spiked gauntlets covering his large hands and practiced explosive physical arts that could shatter anything in his way with raw kinetic force. Goliath let out a booming laugh and slapped the shoulder of his lone disciple who stumbled forward but managed to keep his footing with a strained grunt.

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"Point me at the enemy, Lord Tian," Goliath grinned while cracking his knuckles and sending shockwaves through the air. "My fists have been itching for a good fight and the relative peace I returned to is boring."

Fourth General Seraphina emerged from a rift with a cold calculating grace. She was a deadly woman wrapped in dark crimson leathers and her eyes held the sharp gaze of a hunting viper. She wielded a segmented whip sword coiled around her waist like a metal serpent resting in wait. Her combat style relied on striking from unpredictable angles to bypass any defense and slice vital points. Three young assassins followed closely behind her and they all kept their hands resting near their hidden weapons while scanning around.

Fifth General Tarkus stepped onto the square carrying a heavy iron mace resting on his broad shoulder. He looked like a traditional earth cultivator with his sturdy build and brown robes but Li Yu sensed a strange distortion around the man. Li Yu didn’t know it yet but Tarkus surprisingly manipulated sound and vibrations to shatter his enemies internally instead of using typical earth elements. A single strike from his mace could turn a victim's organs to liquid through frequency rather than just force. Two sturdy disciples marched behind him carrying heavy shields and hammers while their armor hummed with a low resonance. They looked like people from the Zhan Clan but were not.

A crack of thunder echoed through the keep as Sixth General Rai arrived in a flash of bright light that momentarily blinded the guards. He was a speed focused warrior clad in blue armor and holding a long silver spear. Rai channeled lightning through his body and his weapon to outmaneuver and pierce his targets before they could even blink. The smell of ozone followed him and a young man with crackling sparks dancing across his fingers stood beside Rai while bowing respectfully to Zhan Tian.

Seventh General Ghost materialized without a sound as if he had stepped directly out of the shadows cast by the pillars. He wore a hooded cloak that obscured his features and carried a grand greatbow slung over his shoulder. He was a master marksman known across the realms for firing arrows capable of phasing through physical shields and distance to strike a target directly. Ghost rarely spoke and his two masked successors mirrored his silent demeanor as they took their places in the formation without making a single sound on the stone tiles.

The final portal unleashed Eighth General Draken. He was a towering brute with wild hair and scarred skin who looked more like a wild beast than a military commander. He dragged a heavy battleaxe across the stone tiles and the weapon radiated an aura of carnage. Draken was fueled by violence and his strength uniquely grew stronger as a battle raged on and blood spilled around him. He brought no disciples because his fighting style was not teachable, too chaotic and dangerous for anyone to stand near him in the heat of combat.

The Eight Prime Generals stood in a neat row before Zhan Tian and their combined presence created an oppressive pressure that weighed heavily on the fortress. These were the elites of the Worldkeeper's personal forces and they represented the pinnacle of martial destruction. The successors and disciples stood behind their respective masters while observing Li Yu with curious glances. They knew who he was by reputation but seeing the grandson of their lord in person was a rare event they wanted to analyze.

Zhan Tian looked across his elite commanders and nodded in approval as the residual spatial energy from the portals faded away. "You answered the call quickly. We have uncovered a new threat lurking in the void that needs to be taken care of. They are a separate branch of the Hollow Husk species and they have already consumed several realms while gathering their strength."

The generals reacted with varying degrees of hostility at the mention of the Hollow Husk. Yue narrowed her eyes and her fingers twitched toward her guqin while Goliath slammed his spiked fists together with a resounding clang. They all remembered the brutal wars in the zone and they held a deep hatred for the squid creatures that had taken so many lives.

"We have extracted the spatial coordinates of one of their hidden organic bases," Zhan Tian continued while his voice carried across the square with unquestionable authority. "This is a surgical strike. We will breach the void and annihilate this base before they can send a warning anywhere else. We will not leave a single creature alive and we will harvest any further intelligence we can find from their commanders who are the most likely to know further information."

Li Yu stepped forward and stood beside his grandfather as he addressed him. "Lki Yu will be joining this raid. He has a method to bypass their biological suicide seals and secure live captives if we need more information. He was the one that was able to secure captives that we obtained the information from."

Yue looked at Li Yu and offered a respectful nod. "Having the young lord with us will be a great advantage. I will ensure no enemy gets close to him during the chaos of the fighting. Stay close to me, young lord."

"He can handle himself, Yue," Zhan Tian smiled proudly while looking at Li Yu. "But we must work as a single cohesive unit to minimize risks. Draken and Goliath will form the vanguard to break their front lines and shatter their defenses. Zane and Seraphina will flank their formations to cut down their elites."

Zhan Tian pulled out another token and sent a message through it for the other commanders of his personal army to prepare the troops. They would not go with them to these initial bases but they could be needed later when they finally locate the main headquarters. At that point, they would need more numbers to ensure that the force was crushed and none could escape.

Zhan Tian then drew his legendary glaive from his spatial ring and the heavy blade hummed with a silver light that pushed back the gloom of the fortress.

"Rai and Ghost will provide cover and eliminate their commanders to prevent coordinated counterattacks," Zhan Tian outlined the rest of the strategy while the generals nodded in understanding. "Tarkus will focus on shattering our way through their base. Yue will control the battlefield and provide support where needed. At the end of the day it is simple and what we do well. We hit them hard and we hit them fast."

The generals drew their respective weapons in unison and the clash of steel echoed through Titan's Keep. The chakrams spun with a sharp whistle and the whip sword uncoiled with a metallic hiss. The disciples readied themselves and the heavy martial aura of the strike force peaked as they prepared for war.

Li Yu felt his own blood burning with anticipation as he was going to get to witness them in action. His grandfather had rarely talked about these people before and he was curious to see their laws and techniques.

Li Yu had seen the devastation the Hollow Husk caused in the Frostveil Realm and he was ready to bring that same destruction directly to their doorstep. He wanted to test his Creation Lord cultivation against a real army and see how much Qi his Koi martial spirit could harvest from the alien creatures.

“Now that we are all ready, let us begin. Open a passage to the coordinates we obtained." Zhan Tian ordered Huo Zheng.

Elder Huo Zheng channeled his Qi and activated the coordinates extracted by Silent Night. A giant spatial rift tore open in the center of the square and revealed a swirling vortex of dark energy leading into the unknown depths of the void. The Worldkeeper led the charge and stepped into the rift with his glaive held high and his aura blazing like a beacon. There was no hiding here, there was only rapid destruction before them.

The eight Generals followed closely behind him and their disciples marched in step. The disciples moved with determination to make their masters proud and to make the Myriad Realms a safer place.

Li Yu gripped Star Abyss and walked into the darkness while his bound Sovereign trailed behind him under his command. She was far too weak to help out in battle but perhaps she could be used to bypass certain security measures later on. The storm was gathered and they were bringing it directly to the enemy hidden in the dark.