The return to the Azure Serpent Lake was a return to a sanctuary of his own making. Li Yu spent the first two days in quiet consolidation, his mind replaying the battle in the forest, the terrifying power of the Foundation Establishment expert, and the even more terrifying, absolute power of Khaos. The experience had not left him with the thrill of victory, but with a cold, hard clarity. He was a frog at the bottom of a well, and he had just been shown a glimpse of the vast, star-filled sky.
On the third day, he gathered his three friends in the main hall of the pagoda. The air was heavy with an unspoken tension. They had seen the state he had returned in, and they knew the story of a "mysterious expert" was a thin veil for a truth they could not yet comprehend.
"The world outside the sect is more dangerous than we imagined," Li Yu began, his voice calm and steady, but with a new, hard edge. "I was lucky to survive. The gap between the Qi Condensation Realm and the Foundation Establishment Realm… it is not a gap, it is a chasm. My strength, even with Crimson, was nothing before that expert. We were ants."
His friends listened, their faces grim. From their perspective, he was a Fourth Stage Qi Condensation genius with a powerful Rank 4 beast. For him to describe his strength as "nothing" painted a truly terrifying picture of the power they had faced.
He looked at them, his gaze serious. "I cannot rely on luck or mysterious experts to save me next time. I need to become stronger. Truly stronger. For the next few months, I will be entering a new, intensive training regimen. I will be pushing my limits in a way I never have before."
"Junior Steward, whatever you need, we are here," Brother Kai said, his voice a low, steady rumble of support.
"I know," Li Yu said with a small, grateful smile. "And I will need your help. While I am in seclusion, I need the three of you to manage the lake and maintain our defenses. Do not allow anyone to enter the valley, for any reason. Unless it is from our master herself, no one gets in."
"Understood," Hu Jian and Lin Tao said in unison, their expressions grim and determined.
"There is one more thing," Li Yu said. He focused his will, and a small, shimmering portal opened beside him. A wave of pure, potent, and noble energy washed over the room. From the portal, a slender, ten-foot-long serpent emerged, its midnight-blue scales shimmering with a starlight luster. Lirael, the Deep-Sea Naga, floated in the air, her molten gold eyes regarding the three men with a calm, ancient curiosity.
The three of them froze, their eyes wide with a mixture of shock and utter disbelief. The aura of the creature before them was a deep, vast sea of power, a Rank 5 Tyrant Beast. It was a creature whose power was on par with the senior core disciples of the sect.
"This… this is Lirael," Li Yu said simply. "She is a new companion."
He did not explain how or where he had acquired her. He did not need to. The sight of the magnificent, powerful creature was an explanation in itself. It was another layer to the profound, unfathomable mystery that was their Junior Steward. It solidified their belief that he was not just a genius, but a true, heaven-sent prodigy, a man destined for greatness.
"She will assist you in guarding the valley while I am in seclusion," Li Yu continued. "Her senses are far sharper than any formation."
Lirael gave a silent, psychic acknowledgment and coiled gracefully in the air beside Li Yu, her presence a silent, powerful promise of protection.
With his outer world secured, Li Yu finally turned his attention to his inner one. That night, he sat in his sealed cultivation chamber, the silence absolute. He took a deep breath and sank his consciousness into the Koi's Sanctuary.
The private, lake-sized dimension was a haven of life. Crimson rested in the misty depths, its Rank 4 aura a powerful, dormant presence. Lirael had already made a home for herself, her slender form a graceful shadow in the crimson-gold mist. The schools of lesser fish swam peacefully, their life force a constant, nourishing hum.
But Li Yu's attention was on the small, obsidian ledge where a fist-sized, black crab rested.
Khaos, he projected, his will a pillar of absolute, unshakeable resolve. I am ready.
The ancient, arrogant consciousness stirred. A wave of deep, profound amusement washed over Li Yu. Ready? Little host, you do not know the meaning of the word. You have tasted a single drop of the ocean and now you think you can command the tides. Very well. Let your lesson in true despair begin.
Li Yu's spiritual avatar, his conscious form within the sanctuary, stood in the center of the misty courtyard. He drew his own power, the vast, deep sea of his Ninth Stage Qi Condensation foundation, and circulated it, his body thrumming with a strength that could shatter mountains.
He watched as Khaos, in its miniature form, slowly raised one of its tiny, crystalline pincers. It did not release a beam of void energy. It simply… exerted its will.
A pressure descended.
It was not the spiritual pressure of a cultivator. It was the pressure of reality itself being bent, of the very laws of space and energy being rewritten. It was the feeling of a mountain, not made of rock and earth, but of pure, absolute existence, being placed upon his soul.
Li Yu's Ninth Stage aura, which had felt so powerful moments before, was instantly, completely, and utterly crushed. His spiritual avatar was forced to its knees, the crimson-gold mist of the sanctuary swirling around him in a chaotic vortex. The pressure was not on his body, but on his Qi Core, on his very soul. He felt as if he were being ground into dust on a cosmic level.
This, Khaos's voice echoed, devoid of its earlier amusement, now a cold, dispassionate lecture, is the difference between realms. You manipulate the Qi of the world. A Foundation Establishment expert begins to command the laws behind the Qi. This is the pressure of a First Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. It is the weakest I can manifest. And it is enough to annihilate you.
Mind you not everyone's first stage foundation powers are the same. Khaos has an ancient bloodline and is much stronger than those on the same level.
Li Yu grit his teeth, his spiritual form trembling on the verge of collapse. He roared in his mind, and poured every ounce of his will into resisting. He activated the principles of the «Tidal Aegis Art», not on his physical body, but on his very soul, trying to create a spiritual vortex to disperse the crushing pressure.
It was like trying to stop a tsunami with a paper fan.
Your techniques are crude, Khaos stated. "You have great power, but you wield it like a club. You do not understand its essence." Most of everything came to Khaos naturally, it was all inherited in his bloodline and as he grew stronger, more and more knowledge would be unlocked to him. Though he was young, he knew much. "You think your Qi is heavy? Let me show you what true weight is."
The pressure intensified. Li Yu felt his consciousness begin to fracture, his vision dissolving into a sea of white noise. He was about to be extinguished.
But then, a new feeling was introduced. It was a single, fine thread of Khaos's own energy, a wisp of its void-aspected power, that seeped into Li Yu's own Qi. It was not an attack. It was a lesson.
He felt it instantly. His own True Qi, which he had thought was so pure and dense, was a cloudy, chaotic mess compared to this. Khaos's energy was a state of perfect, absolute order in the midst of chaos. It was heavy, not because of its volume, but because of its perfect, flawless density.
In that moment of clarity, Li Yu understood. The path to the Foundation Establishment Realm was not just about accumulating more Qi. It was about refining it, about purifying it, about condensing it to a state of near-perfect order.
He focused his will, not on resisting the pressure, but on emulating that single thread of perfect energy. He took his own vast sea of Qi and began to compress it further, to purify it, to force it to mimic that state of absolute density.
The pain was excruciating, but it was a pain with a purpose. He was not just enduring; he was learning.
The pressure from Khaos did not relent. It was a merciless, unforgiving teacher. For what felt like an eternity, Li Yu was trapped in that state of absolute suppression, his entire being focused on that single, desperate task of refinement.
Finally, after what could have been hours or days, Khaos withdrew its pressure.
Li Yu's spiritual avatar collapsed, a translucent, flickering image on the verge of dissipating completely. He was more exhausted than he had ever been in his life. But he was alive. And he had learned.
He could feel a change in his own Qi. It was still at the Ninth Stage, but it was different. It was denser, heavier, and a fraction purer than it had been before. He had taken the first, infinitesimal step on the path to a higher realm.
That is enough for your first lesson, Khaos's voice echoed, a note of something that might have been grudging respect in its ancient, arrogant tone. When you are ready for your next lesson in despair, I will be waiting.
Li Yu withdrew his consciousness from the sanctuary, his physical body slumping against the wall of his cultivation chamber, his robes soaked with a cold sweat. He was trembling, exhausted, and his soul ached with a weariness that went beyond the physical.
But as he looked out at the dark, quiet valley that was his home, a slow, determined smile touched his lips. The path forward was one of pain and despair, but it was a path he would walk. He would be forged in the crucible of his own spirit, tempered by the power of a calamity. And he would emerge not as a fish, not as a serpent, but as a true, unshakeable leviathan.