Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 416: The World Walker

The departure in the morning was a quiet one. There were no grand speeches, no gathered armies and no tearful farewells at the docks. Li Yu simply told Hu Jian and Lin Tao that he was going to see a bit more of this world. Li Yu contacted his followers as well to let them know he is going on his own to see the world. He wasn’t sure where he was going yet, only that it would be around the central continent and if their paths happened to cross he would treat them to food.

Some insisted on following him but he told them that he wanted to explore on his own. Something he had never done before. He wanted to experience this world in several different ways and being by himself made that easier.

He left Clearwater City not by flying on a sword or tearing through space but by walking out of the southern gate with a simple bamboo staff in hand and a coarse traveling cloak over his shoulders. To the casual observer, he was just another mortal traveler, perhaps a failed scholar or a wandering doctor.

Viridius was most likely right. His soul was a riverbed and it was currently shaped only by the recent trauma, war and fighting that he had been in. If he wanted to hold the ocean, he needed to widen the banks. He needed to remember what the world felt like when it wasn't burning and most importantly he needed to understand himself and his souls.

Li Yu arrived in the town of Red-Mist Basin. It was located in a humid valley known for its geothermal vents and agricultural soil that was far too rich in Fire Qi.

The town was famous for one thing: Spiritual Spice.

Li Yu sat at a wobbly wooden table in an open-air stall. The air was thick with a red haze that wasn't mist, it was vaporized chili oil. People around him were weeping openly as they ate, snot running down their noses, yet they kept eating with fanatical devotion.

"You sure about this, stranger?" the stall owner asked. He was a burly man wearing a mask over his nose and mouth, holding a pair of tongs. "The 'Dragon’s Regret' isn't for tourists. We usually reserve it for cultivators who lost a bet or want to train their fire resistance."

Li Yu smiled confidently, tapping the table. "I have a strong constitution. A vegetable cannot hurt me. Bring the largest bowl."

The owner shrugged and his eyes crinkled with pity. "Your funeral, scholar."

Five minutes later a bowl was placed in front of Li Yu. The broth was a violent glowing magma-red. It bubbled ominously. Floating in it were noodles and peppers that looked like shriveled angry demon fingers.

Li Yu picked up his chopsticks. ‘This must be an exaggeration to draw in people to try. I see all these people around me eating this and while they look like they are in slight pain, they are enjoying immensely,’ he thought smugly.

He took a large bite right away.

For three seconds, nothing happened. He tasted savory beef, some herbs he recognized and a pleasant warmth.

‘See?’ Li Yu thought. ‘It is merely—’

Then, the bomb went off.

It didn't start in his mouth. It started within his body. A wave of heat exploded in his chest, rushing up to his face with the force of a Lightning strike. His tongue didn't just go numb; it felt like it had packed its bags and left his body to escape the abuse.

Li Yu’s eyes widened. His skin flushed a deep and alarming crimson. Sweat instantly beaded on his forehead, soaking his hair.

"Water," Li Yu wheezed, his voice a bit higher than usual.

"Milk," the owner corrected, slamming a jug of Spirit-Goat milk onto the table. "Water just spreads the oil and makes you regret being born."

Li Yu drank the milk with a desperation he hadn't felt since fighting the Xylarri. Tears streamed down his face unbidden. The heat was much more intense than he had thought and with no cultivation and a body suppressed as much as he could to be like a mortal, the pain was all over.

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"Is it good?" the owner asked, grinning beneath his mask.

"It hurts," Li Yu gasped, taking another bite because the flavor beneath the agony was incredible. "It feels like I am eating a botched alchemy pill!"

Li Yu looked just like all the others around him as he finished the bowl. By the end he was soaked in sweat, his lips were swollen to twice their size and he felt a strange vibrating high. He paid the owner double and bowed respectfully to the owner and to the empty bowl. Afterwards he staggered off to find an inn to rest.

As he walked he realized something. He was laughing to himself. In that bowl of soup wasn’t the complicated world that he had slowly learned of or the agendas of divine beings. It was just a man versus some peppers, and any other wick spices that the owner had put in there.hat he had killed in the past. Since it was a sword technique he never learned it..

He tossed it to the leader.

"Stop robbing people. It’s inefficient and risky," Li Yu said. "Learn this. Hunt spirit beasts. Sell the parts. You'll make more money and you won't get killed by a passing eccentric. You’ll also be doing more good in this area."

The leader stared at the manual as if it were a heavenly scripture. "Thank you, Senior! We will change our ways! We will become the... uh... Flowing River Sect!"

Li Yu walked away, shaking his head. He heard them arguing over who got to read the book first before he was even out of earshot.

Li Yu had let them go because he sensed no traces evil of bloodlust or killing intent on them. Not even the kind one gets from simply killing to protect oneselves. They were different and felt very different. This was clearly a group of failed cultivators who banded together and were now trying to survive. They most likely did rob some people but never killed anyone.

‘It’s strange that I can somehow feel like they never killed anyone out of malice. It isn’t just through detecting their bloodlust or killing intent. I can somehow ‘feel’ it, in my very soul that they haven’t truly done great harm. But why? Where is this feeling and confidence coming from?’ he thought to himself.

What he didn’t know was that feeling was coming from the tiny thread of Karma Law that was floating around the fishing hook in his Ocean of Qi. Even though it was tiny and he had just barely touched upon it, it was enough to detect those that were so much weaker than he was.

Inside his Ocean of Qi, the Fisherman let out a soft and amused huff by Li Yu’s actions.