Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 1014: Wagers and Embers

The valleys and hidden grottos of the trial ground grew quiet as the days passed. The wandering cultivators and the orthodox disciples had scoured the outer perimeter for every accessible resource. The fate barrier established by the legacy creator held strong over a few remaining patches of herbs but most people recognized when a field was tapped dry. They knew they lacked the required destiny to force the issue so they abandoned their searching.Attention naturally shifted toward the towering volcano in the center of the realm. A large crowd of elders, guardians and loose cultivators gathered near the base of the black stone stairs to watch people attempt the grueling ascent. The air was thick with falling ash and the tension of anticipation.

Li Yu stood near the edge of the gathering alongside Zhan Tian. Feeling that he had already taken more than his fair share of the realm's fortune, he decided against trying the final trial. He preferred to stay back and consolidate his new strength while observing the rival factions. Another reason was he was also a bit scared of what that spirit might try to do to him if it saw him trying to go for the main legacy as well.

"You are not going up there?" Zhan Tian asked while leaning heavily on his dark glaive. "The old ghost might have left a decent weapon at the summit."

"I am content with what I have right now," Li Yu replied with a relaxed smile. "My foundation needs time to settle and I do not want to test the patience of the trial spirit any further. We already drained his prized tempering pool. Let the others fight over the core teachings."

Zhan Tian let out a booming laugh that drew a few nervous glances from the nearby elders. "That is a wise choice. Greed often leads a warrior straight into an early grave. We can just sit back and watch the entertainment."

They moved through the crowd and mingled with the various leaders waiting for their disciples to return. Since the older generation was barred from entering the volcano, they had very little to do besides watch the blazing peak and talk. The conversation quickly turned competitive as the elders sought to elevate the prestige of their respective lineages.

An elder from the Holy Virtue Alliance stood on a raised rock to ensure his voice carried over the ambient noise of the bubbling magma. He wore pristine white robes that stood out sharply against the dark ash.

"Our prodigy Gao Lin is currently leading the ascent," the Holy Virtue elder boasted with a proud stroke of his silver beard. "He possesses a mutant sun flare martial spirit and his understanding of the fire elements is unparalleled among his peers. He is a genius who comprehends complex arrays with a single glance. Gao Lin will undoubtedly claim the true prize of the Sunfire Sovereign."

A general from the Blazing Edge Empire scoffed loudly and crossed his heavy arms. He wore dark red armor that radiated an intense heat.

"Your boy Gao Lin plays with mere sparks," the Blazing Edge general countered while glaring at the Holy Virtue delegation. "Crown Princess Yan Fei was born in the heart of a volcanic crater. She breathes smoke and drinks liquid heat for her morning tea. She has been training her entire life for a legacy like this. The sovereign inheritance belongs to our empire by right of elemental superiority."

An elder from the Frostmoon Empire chimed in with a cold and dismissive tone. "Fire is just energy waiting to be smothered. Our top disciple might not wield flames but his ice arts are refined enough to freeze the traps and walk straight up the mountain without breaking a sweat. Power means nothing without control."

The boasting escalated rapidly as the elders fiercely defended the honor of their factions. Words quickly turned into challenges and those challenges naturally transformed into a high stakes gambling ring. They had hours to kill, plenty of pride and deep pockets.

"If you are so confident in your princess," the Holy Virtue elder sneered. "Put something behind your bold claims. I wager high grade spirit stones and a manual detailing advanced light arrays that Gao Lin reaches the summit first."

"I accept that wager," the Blazing Edge general growled as he pulled a heavy sack from his spatial ring and tossed it onto a flat boulder. "I will match your stones and raise you a Sunforged iron ingot. Yan Fei will return with the sovereign crown."

The Frostmoon elder added a rare lunar gem to the pile while the Violet Gale Clan wagered a set of wind-aspected movement boots on their own dark horse candidate. The waiting grounds became a chaotic betting parlor as rival factions eagerly bet against each other to secure face and humiliate their enemies.

Li Yu watched the escalating wagers with quiet amusement. He walked away from the noisy betting circle and approached the Li Clan encampment on the eastern side of the stairs. An elder was resting near a stone pillar while keeping a watchful eye on everything happening.

The elder opened his eyes and looked at Li Yu with a polite but highly guarded expression. He recognized Li Canghai's son immediately.

"Elder," Li Yu said respectfully as he offered a small bow to the older man. He retrieved a spatial ring from his robes and held it forward. "I gathered some rare fire herbs and tempering ores during my walk through the outer zones. I have already taken what I need for my own foundation and my grandfather has his share. I wish to offer these remaining resources to the clan."

The elder raised an eyebrow in surprise before accepting the silver ring. He scanned the contents with his divine sense and nodded in deep appreciation. The herbs were of excellent quality and would greatly benefit the younger swordsmen back at the estate.

"This is a generous offering, Li Yu," the elder said with a softening tone. "Your father has always been a pillar of our lineage and it is very good to see you honoring those familial ties. The clan will put these resources to good use in the alchemy pavilions."

"I am glad they will be useful," Li Yu smiled and offered another respectful bow before stepping away.

While Li Yu exchanged with the elder, Li Mei watched the interaction. She had returned from her own successful harvest a few hours prior and was waiting for her siblings to rest. The regal facade she always wore for the public cracked significantly as a bitter scowl twisted her delicate features.

Her heart demon whispered venomous thoughts into her mind. She saw the polite exchange and interpreted it through a lens of paranoia.

"He is doing it out in the open now," Li Mei muttered under her breath as her nails dug painfully into the palms of her hands. "He is actively bribing the inner circle right in front of me. He hands out rare herbs to buy the loyalty of the elders while pretending he does not care for the heir position. It is a calculated political maneuver."

Li Jian walked up beside his sister and followed her gaze. He let out another tired sigh. "Sister, he is just giving away his excess loot. It is a common courtesy to offer a portion of a harvest to the elders of your bloodline. You are seeing shadows where there is only light."

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"You are a fool, Jian," Li Mei snapped harshly without taking her eyes off Li Yu. "He knows the elders are watching his every move. By playing the generous and humble son, he paints me as the greedy aristocrat."

Unaware of his cousin's spiraling thoughts, Li Yu walked over to the Zhan Clan staging area. He found an older warrior repairing a dented shield and offered a similar storage ring filled with heavy ores and vitalizing roots.

He gave the resources out of simple respect for his mother's family and a desire to help the warriors there. The Zhan elder clapped him on the shoulder and praised his martial progress with a booming voice.

Just then, a loud crack of displaced air echoed across the valley and drew everyone's attention back to the central volcano.

A figure was violently expelled from the invisible barrier surrounding the black stairs. The cultivator tumbled through the air and crashed heavily into the ash covered ground. It was the dark horse candidate from the Violet Gale Clan. His pale green robes were scorched black and his hair was singed down to the scalp. He coughed up a lungful of dark smoke and struggled to push himself up from the dirt. A loud groan of despair erupted from the Violet Gale elders. They rushed forward to tend to their injured disciple while mourning the premium wind boots they had just lost in the betting pool.

"What happened up there?" A Violet Gale elder demanded while feeding the coughing youth a healing pill.

"The heat is unbearable," the disciple rasped while clutching his chest. "There are magma golems patrolling the halfway point. They do not feel pain and they reform the moment you cut them down. I ran out of Qi trying to evade them and the realm expelled me before I was burned alive."

Despite his failure, the disciple weakly raised his right hand. He held a small glowing scroll tightly in his fist. "But I managed to grab this from a side chamber before I was kicked out. It is a movement technique so my trip up was not a total waste."

The surrounding cultivators murmured in validation. The grand prize remained out of reach but securing a technique was still a highly lucrative outcome for a single expedition.

The first failure broke the dam and the volcano began to regularly eject challengers over the next few hours. One by one the talented youths of the Myriad Realms were thrown back down to the base of the mountain. They all bore the marks of extreme heat and brutal combat.

A swordsman from the Frostmoon Empire was expelled next. His ice arts had failed to overcome a labyrinth of blue fire near the upper ridges. He was unconscious but his hands were wrapped around a heavy shield he had pulled from a weapon rack. The Frostmoon elders sighed in relief that he survived but cursed the loss of their wagered lunar gem.

The tension in the gambling ring skyrocketed as the pool of remaining candidates dwindled. The Holy Virtue elder paced back and forth while muttering prayers to the heavens. The Blazing Edge general gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white.

A brilliant flash of crimson light erupted from the mountain face as Crown Princess Yan Fei was violently thrown from the stairs. She landed on her feet but skidded across the ash for several yards before coming to a halt. Her dark red armor was melted in several places and she was breathing heavily.

The Blazing Edge general rushed forward with wide eyes. "Princess! Did you reach the summit?"

Yan Fei shook her head in deep frustration. "No. There is a wall of flame near the very top. It tests the purity of your fire intent. My dragon fire was strong but it lacked the ancient resonance required to part the flames. The barrier rejected me."

She opened her palm to reveal a small translucent bottle containing a single golden pill. "I claimed a marrow pill from an alcove just below the barrier though. It will elevate my bloodline but the core legacy is still up there."

The general groaned loudly and rubbed his temples. He had just lost a small fortune in spirit stones and rare iron but he was relieved the princess was safe. She had also obtained a rare pill that could not be easily brought, making up for his losses even though he wasn’t going to get the pill himself.

"That means Gao Lin is the only one left," the Holy Virtue elder declared with a triumphant shout. He pointed a finger at the Blazing Edge delegation. "I told you his mutant martial spirit would prevail! The legacy belongs to the Holy Virtue Alliance!"

His celebration lasted exactly three seconds.

A massive eruption of fire shot out from the peak of the volcano and a figure plummeted from the sky like a thrown stone. Gao Lin crashed into a cluster of rocks near the base of the stairs and sent debris flying in every direction. The pristine genius of the Holy Virtue Alliance was covered in soot and bleeding from multiple lacerations. He looked nothing like the proud prodigy who had marched through the gates days ago.

The Holy Virtue elder rushed to his side with a panicked expression. "Gao Lin! Speak to me! What happened?"

Gao Lin coughed violently and spat a wad of blood onto the rocks. "The final guardian... it is a beast forged from intent. It does not test your fire, it tests my karma and heart. My Dao Heart wavered under the pressure and the beast swatted me off the mountain."

He weakly held up a jagged piece of red crystal. "I managed to break off a piece of the guardian's core before I fell. It radiates fire laws and it will aid my cultivation but the inheritance is lost."

A heavy silence fell over the gathered crowds. Every single candidate had failed. The ultimate prize of the Sunfire Sovereign remained unclaimed at the summit of the burning peak.

Since there was no true winner, the chaotic betting ring quickly fell apart. The elders argued fiercely over the technicalities of the wagers but they eventually agreed to nullify the bets. No one won and no one lost the main bets but several others had done okay on the smaller ones. The rival factions grumbled in annoyance as they collected their original stakes from the flat boulder and returned to their respective camps.

Li Yu watched the bruised and battered geniuses recover from their ordeal. He realized just how incredibly fortunate he was to have secured the Ember Pool with his grandfather's help and a bit of luck. The mountain seemed like it was a meat grinder designed to break the pride of the younger generation rather than test for a successor. The minor weapons, pills and techniques they retrieved were excellent rewards but the true legacy remained an elusive dream for what will at least be at least 25,000 years, when it opens again.

The sickly orange sky suddenly flickered and the dark smoke gathered into a swirling vortex above the volcano. The projection of the trial spirit materialized over the peak and his fiery robes illuminated the dimming landscape.

"The trial has concluded," the trial spirit announced and his booming voice echoed across every corner of the realm. "The core teachings of the Sovereign remain hidden, awaiting a successor with the proper destiny and an unyielding heart. However, you have all faced the flames and survived. You have claimed the outer treasures and tested your limits."

The spirit swept his gaze over the thousands of cultivators standing in the ash.

"Your time here is done," the spirit declared firmly. "Take your spoils and return to your homes. The gates will now close."

The obsidian gates at the edge of the realm began to hum with spatial energy. The burning barrier sealing the exit dissolved and revealed the red dunes of the southern expanse waiting on the other side.

The factions did not argue or attempt to force their way back up the mountain. They were exhausted and battered from the grueling exploration . The elders organized their disciples into orderly columns and began the long march toward the exit. They carried their wounded and clutched their newly acquired treasures tightly.

Zhan Tian stretched his broad shoulders and offered his grandson a cheerful smile. "Well it is unfortunate that no one got to claim the ultimate prize. The orthodox geniuses got their teeth kicked in and we got to walk away with a natal flame. I call that a very successful trip."

"It was definitely an experience," Li Yu agreed while adjusting the grip on his glaive.

"Let us head home," Zhan Tian said as he turned toward the glowing gates.

Li Yu laughed and followed his grandfather through the falling ash as they joined the massive tide of cultivators leaving the harsh volcanic landscape behind. The Sunfire Sovereign legacy faded into the background as they stepped through the spatial rift and returned to the familiar skies of the Myriad Realms.