Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 1094: Forging Forward

The first week following Li Yu’s return was dedicated entirely to establishing a strict foundation for his new forces. Commander Shan wasted no time in asserting his authority over the diverse group of aquatic warriors and he immediately put them to work inside the Koi Sanctuary. The environment was rich with life essence and dense Qi making it an ideal training ground for the newly formed legion.Shan stood at the edge of the largest pristine ocean and released a fraction of his Heavenly Zenith cultivation base. The overwhelming pressure pushed down on the water and forced every beast in the surrounding area to pay close attention. The commander was not cruel but he was exacting in his demands. He spent the days drilling the Obsidian Swordfish kin to move in synchronization and he taught the Wall Crabs how to overlap their defensive techniques to create an impenetrable barrier.

Li Yu spent most of that week observing from a distance while sitting in meditation near his pagoda. He watched Kaldor, the Tyrant Mosasaur, learn to restrain his devouring aura so he would not accidentally harm his allies during a charge. He saw Tiff, the Prismatic Mantis Shrimp, practicing her spatial shattering punches against the currents to create controlled shockwaves instead of wild destruction everywhere. The group was rapidly transforming from a collection of individual fighters into a unified military force.

Once the initial week of intensive drilling concluded, Shan gathered the elite lieutenants and brought them out of the sanctuary. It was time to establish a physical presence in the outside world as they would be doing many things there. Li Yu led Shan toward the administrative halls of the Zhan Clan to make everything official and secure the necessary territory for their operations.

The administrative hall was a grand stone building filled with busy clerks and floating jade slips. Li Yu approached the main desk where a seasoned elder sat reviewing a stack of ledgers. The elder looked up and recognized Li Yu immediately before offering a polite nod.

"Young, Li Yu," the elder greeted him warmly. "How can we assist you today?"

"I need to register many new retainers under my name," Li Yu said and he gestured to the towering armored man standing quietly beside him. "This is Commander Shan and he will be leading my personal forces moving forward."

The elder picked up a glowing jade token to record the information and he extended his divine sense to gauge the cultivation level of the new retainer. The moment his senses brushed against the man, he flinched and nearly dropped the token. The elder stared at Shan with wide eyes as sweat formed on his brow. The power radiating from the quiet warrior was beyond his own.

"Heavenly Zenith," the elder whispered in shock. He looked back and forth between the young lord and the towering general. "You are in the Karma Severing realm but you keep bringing in stronger and stronger people as followers. The clan will certainly be surprised by this addition."

"Shan is a loyal person and a capable leader," Li Yu replied with a calm smile and went on to tell him about the others that had to be registered as well. "I also need to request an expansion of my current territory. I wish to claim the unused land adjacent to the Five Star Lakes to establish a proper training camp for my group."

The elder frowned slightly and pulled out a vast map of the territories. He traced his finger along the borders of Li Yu's current estate and looked at the requested expansion zone.

"That is a significant amount of land to add on top of your already vast lakes," the elder questioned while tapping the map. "Do you truly need such a sprawling expanse of territory?"

"My forces will grow and they require proper space to train without disturbing the rest of the clan," Li Yu explained smoothly as he expected such a question. "The land is currently unoccupied and sits wild. I plan to build a fortified place there to house my troops."

"I do not have the authority to grant such a large tract of land on my own," the elder said with an apologetic sigh. "Please wait here for a moment while I speak with the higher administration to get proper approval."

The elder hurried away through a side door and left them waiting in the grand hall. He returned a short time later holding a freshly stamped document. The administration had quickly approved the request without any major pushback. Li Yu was the grandson of the Worldkeeper and nobody was currently using that wild territory anyway so there was no reason to deny him.

"The land is yours," the elder confirmed while handing over the deed and the registration tokens for Shan and the others. "May your new forces serve the Zhan Clan well."

Li Yu thanked the elder and the two men returned to the Five Star Lakes to begin construction. They spent the next seven days establishing a mini base right next to Li Yu’s personal estate. The team cleared the wild forest and flattened the earth while others set up protective arrays around the perimeter. Shan seemed to know quite a lot about arrays and made his own plans on how things should be set up, something that Li Yu was grateful for.

Li Yu was extremely happy to have someone like Shan. He pretty much left the duties of raising, training, setting up and just about everything regarding his legion to Shan. Not only was Shan more capable than him in those things, Li Yu was learning from Shan about how to go about these things. Li Yu hoped he never had to do it on his own and thankfully had the backing to not have to do it on his own.

They erected stone pavilions and carved out deep pools to accommodate the aquatic nature of the troops as some of the beasts prepared to be in the water even if they didn’t need to be. The process of building their own home brought the soldiers somewhat closer together and they spent the evenings sharing stories from their past lives while everyone, including Li Yu got to know each other better. Shan cultivated a strong sense of brotherhood among the ranks and ensured that every member felt valued within The Eternal Koi and it was incredible to see such leadership.

It was during this construction period that Jin Yubo arrived to fulfill the Golden Horizon guild's promise. The wealthy merchant flew down to the newly formed camp carrying a heavy wooden crate reinforced with sealing runes. Li Yu walked out to greet him and Shan stood faithfully by his side.

"I see the camp is coming along nicely," Jin Yubo said with a bright smile as he set the heavy crate on the ground personally. "Our guild leader sends his regards and the first batch of your monthly supplies."

Jin Yubo opened the crate to reveal rows of glowing storage rings packed inside the crate. The rings were packed with high tier spirit stones, rare aquatic herbs, pills and specialized forging materials.

"This is very generous," Li Yu said while looking over the valuable resources. "Please send my thanks to Jin Bao for keeping his word so quickly."

"Golden Horizon always honors a partnership and looks forward to your growth," Jin Yubo replied smoothly and was finally feeling at ease with Li Yu. Since they had taken on this partnership and under his father’s instructions, he no longer had to fight against the urges he felt while around Li Yu.

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Jin Yubo then turned his attention to the towering commander. "I brought these directly to you per our understanding."

Shan stepped forward and accepted the crate with a respectful nod. "These resources will be put to excellent use. We will all grow strong under your guild's support."

With the base established and their first batch of supplies secured, The Eternal Koi officially began taking on tasks for the Zhan Clan to secure more and to train. The mission boards within the clan halls were always overflowing with requests because the tasks did not just come from the Zhan Clan. They came from all the allied sects and subordinate powers spread across the territories. There was never a shortage of work for a willing force.

Shan proved his worth as a brilliant tactician and logistic officer over the next few weeks. He sped the legion through a ton of tasks and rarely gave them time to rest. Shan treated every mission as a live training exercise to hone their teamwork, picking and choosing the tasks that seemed appropriate at the time.

Sometimes he split the army into smaller specialized groups to handle minor threats and sometimes he marched the entire legion together to crush major targets. They quickly began to make a name for themselves at the mission hall and slowly began to be known by certain mission givers that they had done several tasks for. The Eternal Koi was becoming known for their brutal efficiency and their incredibly quick completion rates.

During one notable mission, a rogue sect practicing forbidden dark blood arts had fortified themselves within a mountain range. The local allied families had failed to breach the sect's defensive arrays for quite some time now. Shan deployed Kaldor to the front lines and the Tyrant Mosasaur simply walked up to the glowing barrier and unleashed his Dao of the Devouring while literally bit a gaping hole through the defensive formation. The Obsidian Swordfish flooded through the breach behind him and slaughtered the dark cultivators before they could even cast their foul techniques.

Another task involved hunting down a notorious group of bandit cultivators who had stolen a large shipment of tribute meant for the Zhan Clan. The bandits were fast and used a specialized flying ship to evade capture. Shan anticipated their escape route and positioned the Storm Shell Nautilus accordingly once they began their operation. The Nautilus fired a concentrated beam of Qi that crippled the bandit ship and forced it to crash. Tiff then led the Origin Awakening fighters into the wreckage and her spatial shattering punches turned the bandit leaders into mist before they could mount a defense.

The missions continued one after another. Sometimes it would be missions where they were greatly more powerful than their targets and those missions would be more for training something else besides martial might. Some missions would be stronger than they were and tested their very limits while Shan watched them. He was ready to step in as needed but so far he had been presently surprised by the group.

They wiped out hidden nests of demonic beasts, tracked down corrupt merchants dealing in forbidden soul tools and secured dangerous resource veins for the clan allies. Every success brought more wealth and prestige to the new legion but just as quickly as the wealth was pouring in, it was also being devoured to fuel their steady advancement and other needs.

While his army was out fighting and growing stronger, Li Yu remained secluded within his estate to focus on his own progression. He was currently at the Karma Severing realm in both his body and Qi and he spent his days absorbing the rich energy of cultivation pills and analyzing the natural laws swirling through the air. He wanted to push himself to reach the Tribulation realm so he could stand taller among his peers.

When the army was around, he could siphon a bit of their Qi to him, an amount so small they wouldn’t even notice to empower his cultivation further. However, with the ample supply of cultivation resources from his own wealth and from the Golden Horizon, he didn’t even need to siphon that Qi from his own army. Before when he didn’t have enough resources, that was a great method to help him make the difference but with his background revealed and the wealth he had on hand, he was already absorbing as much as he needed without doing that.

Li Yu sat cross legged on a flat stone near the water and guided his Qi through his meridians and draining the large amount of Qi around him. He could feel the severed threads of karma floating around his soul and he understood the fundamental rules of his own existence. He pushed his energy to the absolute limit and tried to grasp the insight required to summon his heavenly tribulation.

The energy flared around him and the water of the lake rippled wildly from the force of his aura as he held the peak state for several hours; however the final barrier remained stubbornly locked. He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes as the glowing energy faded back into his core. ‘Another failed attempt.’ Li Yu thought but did not despair.

An entire month had passed since he returned to the clan and he still wasn’t there yet.

'I am so close,' Li Yu thought while looking down at his hands. 'My foundation is solid and my Qi is pure but there is a missing piece to the puzzle somewhere. I need to find the right spark to ignite the tribulation clouds but rushing it will only damage me so I must remain patient.'

He stood up from the stone and stretched his limbs. He could feel a subtle shift in the air and he turned his head toward the southern sky. A large shadow was moving rapidly over the forest canopy and heading directly toward the mini base. The Eternal Koi was returning from their latest territory mission.

Li Yu walked over to the camp and arrived just as the troops were landing in the central courtyard. The soldiers looked tired but victorious and their armor was stained with the evidence of a hard fought battle. Shan stood at the front of the formation and his dark golden armor gleamed in the afternoon sun.

"Welcome back," Li Yu called out as he walked into the courtyard. "I trust the mission was a success?"

"It was a complete victory, we did not fail our tasks." Shan replied with a bow. "We cleared out the hidden aquatic ruin requested by the allied sect and secured the lost artifacts. But we also found something else dwelling within the trenches of that ruin."

Shan gestured to the back of the courtyard where several Wall Crabs were guarding two enormous figures bound in heavy glowing chains.

"We subjugated two new additions for the legion," Shan explained while pointing to the captured beasts. "They fought hard but they eventually submitted to our combined strength."

Li Yu inspected the new arrivals with keen interest. The first beast was a terrifying Creation Lord stage creature that resembled a giant deep sea angler fish. It had rows of jagged translucent teeth and a glowing lure that pulsed with hypnotic Qi. The second creature was a Sovereign stage armored turtle with a shell covered in sharp metallic spikes and glowing blue runes.

"They possess strong aquatic bloodlines and they will serve well once they are properly trained," Shan noted. "You can bind them to you immediately so they can begin their integration."

"Excellent work," Li Yu praised his commander as he sent forth two soul seals for the new recruits. "Our forces are growing faster than I anticipated. Get them settled in and ensure that everyone rests well tonight."

Li Yu turned and walked back toward his estate to prepare for his evening meditation. The troops were mainly staying outside of the Koi Sanctuary for now as they were taking on tasks and undergoing training. Li Yu was very pleased with the progress of his army but knew they were still much too weak in the grand scheme of things but everything great thing had to start somewhere.

What Li Yu didn’t know was that the capture of these two specific beasts was not going to be the last time such a thing happened. Shan stood in the courtyard and watched his lord walk away as a faint smile touched his lips. The commander, under orders of the leader of the Golden Shell Phalanx was planning to recruit more and more members.

The giant angler fish and the spiked turtle were indeed wild beasts living in a random ruin this time but there will be more ‘random encounters’ coming in the future. Shan was going to secretly contact his old faction and arranged for warriors to be waiting at the mission location from time to time so they could be "subjugated" and brought into the camp without raising any suspicion. Since this did not harm Li Yu in any way and only helped his goal, he was not going against any soul seal on him.

Most of the members within the Golden Shell Phalanx were aquatic beasts by nature and design from their Ancestor’s orders. They were all eager to serve the one chosen by their Ancestor, to serve the person that the entire existence of the group was created for. Shan was actively planning to eventually sneak in many more of his comrades over the coming months. He would help to build Li Yu the most powerful legion the Myriad Realms had ever seen.

'The foundation is set for now,' Shan thought to himself while ordering the chains removed from the two. 'Soon this camp will be filled with the true might of the Phalanx and our lord will have the invincible shield he deserves.'