Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 1078: The Flaws of Karma?

Li Yu sat by the open window of his rented inn room and watched the dark sky above The Onyx Market. The chaotic energy from the earlier explosion still lingered in the air while the city guards frantically tried to repair the damaged sections of the defensive arrays. The rumors spreading through the streets below proved to be incredibly accurate as a vast fleet of flying ships breached the cloud layer just roughly an hour after Seline vanished.Tens of thousands of warriors stood on the wooden decks of the flying warships. The vessels descended toward the city and cast long shadows over the city. At the forefront of the central warship stood a coalition of seven powerful cultivators who led this sudden invasion. The group consisted of four men and three women belonging to a diverse mix of races.

Darius was a human cultivator wielding a heavy broadsword and he stood at the very center of the formation. Kaelia was an avian kin with sharp metallic feathers resting along her forearms. Zeria was a fluid water elemental who floated slightly above the wooden deck. Liora possessed the subtle and alluring traits of a fox kin. Kael was a towering stone golem with glowing cracks along his skin. Varis wielded dual sabers that hummed with wind Qi and Rhyker was a shadow beast kin shrouded in dark mist.

Their cultivation bases ranged between the Tribulation and Origin Awakening realms which made them an incredibly powerful group of seven for this realm. While they were not at the perceived top power of Sovereign, seven of them together could close that gap. They were an elite strike force but they normally would never possess the strength to challenge a city ruled by two Sovereigns. Tonight however, was an exception because Lord Vance and Commander Seryn were nursing severe injuries and that was exactly what they were counting on.

Darius raised his hand and tossed a glowing black orb toward the city. The treasure crashed into the weakened barrier and released a shockwave of corrosive Qi that ate through the remaining defensive runes. The protective dome shattered into falling light and the fleet rained down upon the market.

Darius infused his voice with spiritual energy and projected his words across the valley. "Anyone who resists us will be slaughtered where they stand. We are only here for Lord Vance, Commander Seryn and their direct underlings. Lay down your weapons and you will live to see tomorrow."

Li Yu leaned against the wooden sill and listened to the locals talking in the street below. The veteran mercenaries and others were already sharing the background of the invading coalition.

"That is Darius from the Western Reaches," a seasoned guard whispered to a nearby merchant while hiding behind a stone pillar. "Years ago his lover was captured during a border skirmish and sold into slavery right here in our city."

"Why did he not just buy her back?" The merchant asked while keeping his eyes on the descending ships.

"He tried to buy her," the guard explained with a grim tone. "He found her in the slave pens but the slavers refused to just hand her over and told him he had to pay the market price. By the time he gathered enough spirit stones to afford her, she had already been sold to a vile rogue cultivator. Darius eventually tracked them down but he found out she was violated repeatedly and tortured for the amusement of that buyer before she died."

"What did he do next?"

"He slaughtered the buyer and all of his associates," the guard replied as a chill ran through the alleyway. "But he was not strong enough to fight against the Sovereigns of this city back then. He spent all these years building a coalition of powerful warriors who held their own grudges against The Onyx Market. They waited for a moment of weakness to strike and Seline gave them exactly what they needed. I would bet my last spirit stone that they had a big part in what had happened."

The tragic tale gave Li Yu some context as the seven leaders leaped from their warship and descended toward where the Sovereigns were. Lord Vance and Commander Seryn rose from the rubble to meet them though. The two city rulers were covered in blood and their auras fluctuated wildly but they still carried the pride of the Sovereign realm.

The battle erupted in the sky above the central plaza in an instant, both sides seemed to already know what the other was after. Darius swung his broadsword and unleashed a tidal wave of sword Qi that clashed against the golden disks summoned by Lord Vance. The merchant ruler coughed up blood as the impact rattled his injured chest, something that would have never happened before.

Commander Seryn tried to intercept the attack with her serrated spear but Zeria and Liora flanked her from both sides. The water elemental summoned a swirling vortex of heavy pressure while the fox kin cast disorienting illusions to throw off the aim of the mercenary leader. Even greatly injured and outnumbered, the fight was prolonged and gritty. The Sovereigns possessed a deeper understanding of laws but their physical bodies were failing them and their Qi reserves were nearly empty from fighting Seline, negating that advantage completely.

Kaelia flew high into the air and rained down hundreds of razor sharp feathers that pierced through the remaining armor on Commander Seryn. Kael used his dense stone body to block a desperate spear thrust and Varis followed up with a dual saber strike that severed the arm of the mercenary leader. Rhyker moved through the shadows and delivered crippling blows to Lord Vance whenever the golden disks faltered.

Despite their overwhelming strength in a fair fight, the injuries inflicted by the crystal lotus proved to be too much for the city rulers to overcome. Darius found an opening in the golden defenses and channeled all his Tribulation tier Qi into a single devastating downward slash. The broadsword shattered the remaining disks and cleaved Lord Vance in half. A moment later, Commander Seryn succumbed to her wounds as the other six leaders overwhelmed her defenses and struck her down.

Even though they had won, all seven of them were still slightly injured from the battle, with Kael being heavily wounded. It went to show that without the damage that Seline had infected upon them with that treasure of hers, this battle would not have ended in their victory. Of course it was hard to say if that was true or not, they could possess other treasures of their own since they knew what they were up against.

The ruling faction of The Onyx Market was dead and their legacy was over. The remaining mercenaries and city guards dropped their weapons and surrendered to the coalition forces just as Darius had demanded once their leaders were dead. Those that continued to fight were put down, just as they had done to the invading forces of Seline just an hour ago. The fleet touched down in the various plazas and the rest of the invading troops quickly secured the perimeters.

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Darius landed in the center of the slave plaza and struck the ground with his heavy sword. He looked at the thousands of people bound in chains and his expression softened slightly.

"The slave trade ends tonight," Darius proclaimed to the cheering crowds of captives. "Release the chains and open the cages. Slavery will no longer be a thing in this city under our rule. You are all free to leave or stay as free citizens."

Li Yu watched the scene unfold from his window and activated his karmic senses to inspect the new rulers of the city. He focused his vision on Darius and expected to see a bright aura of righteous justice. Instead he saw a putrid and vile energy clinging to the man. The karmic aura radiating from Darius was incredibly dark and far worse than the murky gray karma of the two Sovereigns who were just killed.

Li Yu furrowed his brows and crossed his arms over his chest. Faen noticed his shift in demeanor and stepped up beside him to look out the window to see what could have shifted his mood.

'Why is his karma so much worse than the people who ran a slave market?' Li Yu thought while studying the dark energy swirling around the coalition leader. 'Perhaps it is because those two Sovereigns did not actually commit that many personal atrocities themselves? Yes, they allowed the trading of slaves and profited from the misery of others but they did not personally torture the victims in the dark or ordered such a thing to happen.'

He considered the nature of the transactions he had witnessed over the past few days. The rulers did not maliciously choose to sell captives to nasty people just to cause pain. The slaves were brought in via auctions or private sales and whoever paid the asking price acquired the goods. The transaction was purely financial in their eyes and they treated it like selling a sword or a beast core.

'It would seem that fate does not deem them especially vile because they lacked direct malicious intent to cause suffering,' Li Yu pondered as he turned away from the window and poured himself a cup of tea from a wooden table. 'You do not just inherit the karma from others doing bad things after your actions end. It operates on a strict chain of direct responsibility then?'

He thought of an example to test his working theory. 'If I saved someone from a wild beast and left that person in the nearest town to recover, my involvement ends there. If that person happens to be murdered or attacked by bandits afterwards, I would not inherit that bad karma of their death simply because I chose to place them in that specific town. The fault lies with the bandits who committed the crime, not myself.'

Li Yu took a sip of the warm tea and let the flavors wash over his tongue as his mind raced. 'However, if someone was a slaver, they would inherit the karma from the act of enslaving and selling a person. But they would not inherit the karma for what happens to that slave years later unless they specifically knew and planned for that exact torture to happen. Lord Vance and Commander Seryn earned bad karma for their business but the truly vile acts were committed by the buyers who took the slaves home and not them.'

Darius on the other hand had likely slaughtered his way through countless disciples and guards to exact his revenge on the rogue cultivator who bought his lover. He then orchestrated a sprawling war that led to the deaths of thousands of beast kin tonight just to weaken his enemies and clear his path. Whether or not he inherited that karma, Li Yu had no idea.

Those two things were just the things that Li Yu knew about but surely there would be many others on his path to revenge as well. His direct actions caused widespread slaughter which stained his soul with a much darker hue than the merchants who simply facilitated a trade but did that make him worse than those two? It was impossible to say for sure.

'Of course these are only my own speculations,' Li Yu reminded himself while looking at his reflection in the tea. 'I do not know for sure if the Dao, Karma or anything else actually operates on such strict rules and loopholes. Perhaps that is not true at all and I am just missing a piece of the grand puzzle. Perhaps those two rulers did a lot of good things for the common crafters in the city and their karma was balanced out because of that protection. Karma is an elusive concept and it is hard to truly understand without being all knowing.'

He however noted to himself that just because someone did not have a really bad karmic aura did not mean they were a good or decent person. The lack of a vile aura did not excuse the fact that Vance and Seryn sold people like cattle and ran a cruel empire. It simply meant the laws of the universe judged their actions differently or there was something else all together.

Furthermore there were likely ways to trick the heavenly laws or hide one's true nature. He remembered the strange flower he encountered in the Solaris Kingdom that had blocked his karmic probing altogether. If a plant could hide the truth from his senses then powerful cultivators definitely had methods to mask their sins as well.

'I should not use this vision as some absolute measuring device,' Li Yu concluded while putting his cup down on the table. 'It should serve as a guide to be used alongside what I see with my own two eyes and what my instincts tell me. It is not a single catch all solution to judging a person.'

The realization brought a sense of clarity to his understanding of Karmic Laws. He felt his understanding of the world deepen as he accepted the flaws and limitations of his own abilities on this path. A cultivator who blindly trusted a single technique would eventually fall into a trap they could not escape.

With the battle concluded and his philosophical musings settled, Li Yu decided it was time to move on. The coalition forces were busy securing the central plazas and issuing new decrees to the terrified merchants. The whole city was undergoing a rapid restructuring and management change. Darius and his allies would likely spend the next few months purging the old guard and establishing their own rules.

Li Yu gathered his companions and packed their few belongings into his spatial ring. Faen checked her daggers while Borum and Garren stood ready by the wooden door.

"Are we leaving the city now?" Garren asked with a gravelly voice.

"Yes," Li Yu answered with a calm smile. "The Onyx Market is going to be very busy with politics and power struggles for a long time. We have seen enough and it is time to continue our journey west. I just hope we are allowed to leave after answering some simple questions."

They left the inn and navigated through the chaotic streets without drawing any attention to themselves. The atmosphere in the market district was a strange mix of joy and terror. They passed by cheering groups of freed slaves who were celebrating their new lease on life while nervous shop owners huddled in their doorways unsure of what tomorrow would bring. The guard patrols were replaced by coalition warriors who marched through the avenues to maintain order during these chaotic times.

Li Yu led his group out of the western gates and sure enough there were guards to stop them. However, after some simple questions and scanning them with some sort of token, they were allowed to go without much issue.

The group stepped back onto the dirt road and the cool night air felt refreshing after spending days inside the walls of the trade hub. He did not look back at the towering stone walls as they walked away. His journey through this realm was continually challenging his perspectives and he looked forward to whatever lessons the road ahead would teach him.