Li Yu’s peaceful travels were eventually interrupted. Li Yu was currently sitting on a mossy rock overlooking a waterfall with a fishing pole in hand. He wasn't actually fishing for food; he was trying to catch a rumored "Ghost-Fin Pike" to add to his tank. He could sense there were some below but wanted to enjoy fishing for it. His Fisherman Soul was sitting next to him and fishing as well.

  The sun was warm. The sound of the water was hypnotic. Tekton had uncurled from his wrist and was sunning himself on a nearby rock. He looked like a rusty sculpture.

  "This is the life," Li Yu sighed as he watched his line. "No politics. No murder. Just—"

  BZZZT.

  The vibration against his hip was aggressive. It was an urgent summons and the first one he had since taking on the job. It had been a few days since he left headquarters and things were going too smoothy.

  Li Yu dropped the fishing pole to his side. He grabbed the meteoric iron Command Token from his belt. It was warm to the touch and glowing with a pulsing red light.

  Numbers projected from the surface and formed coordinates in the air.

  Priority one. Class B rift detected. Sector 4 - Iron-Bark Woods. Nearest responder: Little Crab. Please go there immediately to secure the area and ensure safety.

  "Vacation paused," Li Yu said to himself but it was time to get to work.

  He stood up from his rock and his Fisherman Soul went back into his body. The relaxed tourist vanished. His posture straightened and his gaze sharpened into a blade.

  "Tekton. Let’s go, duty calls."

  The centipede shot from the rock and expanded mid-air. Metal plates shifted and locked. In a blink, the bracelet became an armored centipede that looked like a massive metal serpent. He was now hovering above the ground.

  Li Yu vaulted onto Tekton’s back. "Go there as fast as you can. Nothing has come out of it yet but it doesn’t mean there won’t be. Don’t hold back at all."

  Tekton hissed. His many legs glowed with stored energy.

  BOOM.

  They disappeared in an instant and shot off into the sky. The area they were at shook violently but no one knew what had happened. They were moving so fast that mortal eyes wouldn’t be able to even see them even though Tekton was massive.

  The Iron-Bark Woods were usually quiet and known for their metallic trees that were impossible to cut with normal axes. Today, they were going to be a war zone.

  A rift had opened in the center of a clearing. It looked like a jagged wound in the air that was bleeding purple light. Some creatures were now pouring out—Void-Touched Wolves. They were massive and ugly. Their fur was matted with dark energy and their eyes burned with a hunger that wasn't natural.

  A small squad of local Alliance guards that happened to be in the area was holding the line to make sure mortals were safe but they were losing. They were being pushed back and wouldn’t be able to hold on. They were mostly Foundation Establishment cultivators and were vastly overpowered.

  "Hold the formation!" the captain screamed. He slapped a talisman onto the ground, summoning an earth wall that shattered instantly under the claws of a wolf. "Fire the flare!"

  Another guard unleashed a blade of wind Qi but it shattered harmlessly against a wolf's skull. A wolf the size of a carriage lunged at the captain. Its jaws opened wide enough to swallow him whole.

  The captain flinched at the attack and braced for death. Their attacks had proven ineffective and could only barely slow down the beasts. They were doing their best just to hold on.

  CRASH.

  A blur of rust and silver slammed into the ground between the captain and the wolf. It formed a wall between the two.

  The wolf didn't just stop; it exploded from the impact.

  Dust and debris filled the air. When it cleared, a massive metallic centipede was coiled around the clearing with its mandibles clicking menacingly. Standing on its head was a young man in travel-stained robes.

  "Sorry I'm late," Li Yu said calmly. “Looks like we made it just in time.”

  Judging from the strength of the beasts that came out of the rift, this wasn’t going to be a fight. It was a cleanup operation.

  Li Yu blurred and remained unarmed. He didn't use flashy elemental attacks that would damage the forest further. He used precise and overwhelming physical force with his fists.

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  Punch. Step. Elbow.

  Every movement ended a life. The Void-Touched Wolves, which were terrifying to the local guards, were little more than ingredients to Li Yu. He killed them without blowing up their entire bodies. It was just a physical blow that would end their lives.

  "Tekton, blockade the left flank!" Li Yu ordered as he was fighting. He wanted to make sure that no lives were lost needlessly.

  The centipede swept his tail and knocked five wolves into the trees with the force of a wrecking ball. It was once again showing how extremely nimble it was given its size. It had shrunk down from its normal size but was still large. Its body became whip-like and was a blur to many.

  Within just a few minutes the forty beasts lay dead. The purple rift pulsed menacingly and seemed like it was trying to spew more but Li Yu stood directly in front of it and was analyzing it. This was a great opportunity for him to study it and perhaps learn a few things from it.

  "Oh no you don't," Li Yu growled.

  He made gestures with his hands and formed sealing runes. A purple and blue barrier erupted and sealed the mouth of the rift. It wasn't a permanent fix, the rift had to stabilize and go away naturally but it was a cork in the bottle.

  A single wolf managed to squeeze through the barrier before it was fully up. Li Yu didn't even look at it. He simply backhanded it.

  Smack.

  The wolf dropped dead from the impact. Silence fell over the clearing. The local guards stared with their mouths open. A mixture of awe washed over them from the display of power but they all felt more relieved that someone had shown up to save them.

  The guards here were brave people themselves, willing to sacrifice themselves to hold back beasts. Li Yu felt an immense amount of respect for these guards. Much more respect than he had for most of the people he had met at the headquarters of the alliance.

  ‘It’s when you don’t have much power but still make a stand… that’s true courage. It takes a person with incredible will and a kind heart to do such a thing. These guards are honorable. Maybe even to a fault. Their superiors probably wouldn’t care what happened to them.’ Li Yu thought to himself.

  ‘I need to remember this as well with the Golden Shell Guild. Make sure everyone is treated as well as possible because at times they will be losing their lives for me…’ He fell into deep thought. Deep within his Ocean of Qi the laws of karma were glowing brightly.

  The captain stepped forward after a long moment of silence since Li Yu’s thoughts were else where. He was still trembling from facing death but he survived. "Senior... who... who are you?"

  Li Yu wiped a speck of purple ichor from his sleeve. "Just the fire brigade. The Five Mountain Alliance sent me." He showed his token for proof of his identity.

  He looked at the rift that was still there and didn’t look like it was going anywhere.

  "Looks like I'm camping here tonight," Li Yu sighed. He was also glad since it would give him time to study it further. He looked at the captain. "You guys can go home. Or stay. Do you have any salt? There is a lot of wolf meat and I ran out of salt."

  So, Li Yu did what he could. He cooked.

  He set up a campfire right in front of the swirling vortex of doom. He skinned the Void-Touched Wolves. The meat was gamey and tough, infused with chaotic energy but Li Yu saw it as a challenge.

  "Void energy creates acidity," Li Yu muttered to himself as he chopped onions and other herbs from around the area that he gathered. "So I need to counter it with something alkaline."

  The local guards didn't leave. They felt the safest place right now was next to this powerful young man. They sat in a semi-circle and watched him work. They would go fetch things for him from time to time as well.

  "Senior," a young guard asked timidly. "Aren't you worried something else will come out?"

  "If it does, it becomes dinner," Li Yu said as he stirred a pot. "Soup's on. Grab a bowl."

  He served the guards a stew made from the wolf meat seasoned with herbs. He had neutralized the void energy with his own Qi during the cooking process to make sure it was safe for the guards.

  The captain took a bite. He paused. "This... gives me strength? My Qi is recovering."

  "The wolf meat is from a stronger beast than you are. It will of course give you Qi when eaten. That is if you eliminate the bad void Qi within it. Or else you would be hurting yourself instead." Li Yu explained. "Good for stamina. Eat up. It might be a long night."

  For the next several hours, Li Yu sat in front of the portal and probed it with his second mind. Trying to uncover how it's created. Trying to glean what he could from it for his own techniques.

  He read a book on local history that one of the guards lent to him when asked. He practiced his wood carving, whittling a piece of Iron-Bark into a crude statue of a duck. He even played a bit of fetch with Tekton.

  Every time the rift surged or tried to spit out a beast, Li Yu would casually slap it back with a wave of spiritual pressure. It was like a man swatting a fly while reading the morning paper.

  Finally, the rift light flickered and died. The tear stitched itself shut with a sound like tearing silk and left only normal air behind.

  Li Yu stood up and stretched, his back popping.

  "Show's over, folks," Li Yu announced.

  He packed his cooking gear. He checked on Tekton who was currently asleep, curled around a tree.

  "Tekton. Time to go."

  The centipede shrank down and snapped back onto Li Yu’s wrist as a bracelet.

  The captain approached him and saluted sharply. "Senior, the Alliance thanks you. We would have been overrun."

  "Just doing the job," Li Yu said. "If you write a report, mention that the Wolf Meat is terrible without these types of herbs. Command needs to know."

  "I... I will, Senior."

  Li Yu adjusted his pack and was feeling the comforting weight of the soy paste jar within. He looked at the map. He was three regions away from where he started, deep in the inland forests.

  "Well," Li Yu mused. "I hear the mountain tribes near here ferment a cheese made from Yak milk. Might as well check that out while I'm in the neighborhood."

  He waved to the guards and started walking down the path while whistling a tune. The terror of the Void Rift was gone, replaced once again by the wandering gourmet.

  "Hey Tekton," Li Yu whispered. "Do you think Yak cheese pairs well with Golden Carp?"

  Tekton vibrated on his wrist. ‘Doubtful.’

  "You have no vision," Li Yu laughed. "Let's go find out."