The morning sun over the Cloud-Mist Peaks was harsh, burning away the gentle fog of the previous night’s revelry. The lanterns that had floated like fireflies were now just paper trash waiting to be swept up and the smell of roasted meat had been replaced by the crisp, sobering scent of pine.

  The Great Departure had begun.

  The massive obsidian ships of the Five Mountain Alliance lifted off first, their anti-gravity arrays humming a deep bass note that vibrated in everyone’s chest. Shen Tu stood on the deck and was waving a final goodbye to Li Yu. His traumatized children looked relieved to be leaving the vicinity of the twenty-year-old monster.

  Next were the sleek ships of the Divine Wind Sect.

  "Do not get lazy, Commander," Meilin teased while standing at the ramp of the Storm-Bringer. "I expect the Cloud-Mist Peaks to be a rival of our sect by the time we meet again."

  "I'll try not to disappoint," Li Yu smiled.

  Si Luo and Bai Ruo stood beside her.

  "We will process the data from the banquet," Bai Ruo said as she was adjusting her glasses. "I have compiled a list of efficiency improvements for your city layout. I will transmit it via the comms array."

  "Thanks, Bai Ruo."

  Si Luo stepped forward and hugged Li Yu quickly. "Don't die in the North, Li Yu. The people still need their Princess to return one day and I need you to watch my back when I do."

  "I'll be there," Li Yu promised. He didn’t want to see them leave but knew that they their own path like he did.

  With a final wave, the ships ascended, turning into specks of light against the blue sky.

  Li Yu stood at the gates until they were gone. Then, he let out a long sigh. The fun was over. Now came the work.

  For the next three days, Li Yu learned the true horror of sect leadership all over again. It wasn't demons and it wasn't rival sects.

  It was paperwork.

  He spent seventy-two agonizing hours locked in the Hall of the Summit with Sect Master Zhou and the other elders. They discussed everything from merchant tax codes to waste disposal arrays. They argued over how to integrate the disparate sect cultures into a single cohesive identity.

  Li Yu mediated disputes, stamped scrolls and listened to endless reports on logistics. He worked through the policies one by one, setting the foundation for how the Alliance would govern its people, how new clans could join and how the mortal population would be protected.

  It was necessary, boring and absolutely exhausting work. It was something that he had often thrown over to Kui to handle. Now he missed that old turtle more than anyone else. However, he didn’t just go get Kui to come and help him.

  He wanted to learn. He wanted to play a more active role here because Li Yu was starting to see that doing things alone wasn’t going to change much. He could change a bit, but for him to really make a difference, he would need to play a leading role. By the afternoon of the third day, Li Yu was contemplating faking his own death just to get a nap though.

  Then, his communication token buzzed.

  It wasn't the gentle hum of a local message. It was a jagged, frantic vibration that meant the sender was urgently trying to push the signal through interference.

  Li Yu grabbed the token. It was the one connected to Krell.

  "Krell?" Li Yu projected. "You finally decided to call me back?"

  The voice on the other end was breathless and surrounded by the sound of grinding stone.

  "Li Yu! Can you hear me? The array interference is... damn it!"

  "I hear you. Where are you? Are you with Jian Xuan?"

  "We are at the Shattered Spine Mountains. Coordinates... We found the inheritance site for Jian Xuan’s sect. But it’s a trap."

  Li Yu stood up and Zhou stopped mid-sentence about sewage pipes.

  "A trap?"

  "A testing array. It malfunctioned. Or maybe it’s just too strong for us. We are trapped in a subspace pocket. The pressure is increasing. I managed to break out by combining all of our strength together to open a small hole for me. The array is crushing them. They have hours, maybe less before their Qi is depleted."

  "I'm coming," Li Yu said.

  He cut the connection.

  "Commander?" Zhou asked as he was alarmed by the sudden shift in Li Yu's aura.

  "Meeting adjourned for me. You guys continue on. We got through the most important bits. Handle the rest." Li Yu said with cold eyes. "My friends are in trouble."

  His figure blurred as he said the last words. He could travel faster than Tekton so he was going to take them there.

  The Shattered Spine Mountains were a desolate, ugly range of peaks that looked like the broken teeth of a giant. The Qi here was thin and chaotic. It was filled with turbulent wind shears that made flying difficult for cultivators.

  Li Yu arrived in less than an hour. He spotted the signal that Krell had left. A flare of demonic fire that was rising from a deep canyon.

  In the canyon below, a massive, swirling vortex of white fog blocked the entrance to a hidden cave. Standing in front of it were two figures.

  One was Krell, the demon blacksmith. He looked exhausted, his skin grey and cracked, smoke rising from his shoulders.

  The other was an old man Li Yu hadn't met.

  He looked to be in his fifties, though his eyes held the weariness of someone much older. He wore tattered grey robes that had once been fine silk. His hair was white and tied up in a messy bun. He held a broken sword in his hand and was staring helplessly at the fog.

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  His cultivation was at the Peak of Core Formation. Respectable for a sect leader with two disciples but pitiful against the forces of nature swirling in front of him.

  "Boy! Good. You came quickly." Krell shouted and waved to him. "Li Yu! Over here!"

  "Krell," Li Yu nodded. He was happy to see the demon again after all this time. He turned to the old man and bowed deeply. "You must be Jian Xuan’s Master."

  The old man looked at Li Yu, then at Krell. He was a bit bewildered because he had heard a lot of stories about Li Yu from Jian Xuan but the latter never mentioned how young he was. The old man just assumed someone so strong would naturally be much older. "This... this young master is the reinforcement?"

  "I am Li Yu. Nice to meet you." he said with a smile. "Jian Xuan is like a brother to me. Where is he?"

  "Inside," the Master spoke. His voice trembled with grief. "This is the Ancestral Trial of our sect. I was told by my master that if there was ever someone worthy enough within our sect. They could try to enter. From what I know, no one was ever successful but I thought with Jian Xuan and Lin Xia’s strength. We thought... we thought we were ready. But the Guardian Array... it rejected us. It sealed the space. The pressure inside is immense. My disciples... they pushed Krell out to get help."

  "Don't worry, Master," Li Yu said while stepping toward the fog. "They aren't buried yet."

  "But the arrays inside!" the Master cried. "It requires a specific key or something else! Or the blood of the ancestor! We don't have—"

  "I have a key," Li Yu interrupted.

  He tapped his wrist.

  ‘Tekton. Open the door.’

  ‘With pleasure.’

  Tekton opened his mandibles and slammed them into the swirling fog.

  CRACK.

  The sound was like the sky breaking. The array was not designed to resist such forced and cracked on impact. Tekton bit the array. He tore a massive chunk out of it and swallowed it whole.

  ‘Spicy,’ Tekton commented. ‘Tastes like old lightning.’

  The fog collapsed and the subspace pocket shattered like a broken mirror.

  Li Yu flashed inside before the dust even settled. He was worried about Jian Xuan and Lin Xia’s safety. Inside the collapsed pocket, the scene was grim.

  Jian Xuan, Lin Xia and Kael were huddled together under a shimmering barrier of sword light.

  Kael was on one knee, blood dripping from his nose as he was channeling Qi into Jian Xuan. Lin Xia was pale and was doing the same thing.

  Jian Xuan was standing tall and holding back everything with his sword barrier.

  "Hold... hold on!" Jian Xuan roared as his legs were shaking. "The shell... must not... crack!"

  "Jian Xuan!" Lin Xia screamed as tears were streaming down her face. "Save yourself! Leave us."

  "Never!" Jian Xuan grunted. "A crab... never... drops... his... burden! Praise his mighty claw!"

  Then, a hand appeared.

  It wasn't a large hand. It was a normal human hand. It reached out and shattered the array they were stuck in. Jian Xuan blinked, sweat stinging his eyes. He looked up at the newcomer.

  Li Yu was standing there with a smile and relief on his face.

  "You know," Li Yu said conversationally, "you really take this crab thing too seriously."

  "Brother... Li?" Jian Xuan wheezed.

  Li Yu hurried towards the trio and created his own barrier to protect them from anything else that might come. "Sorry I'm late," Li Yu smiled. "You won’t believe me even if I told you."

  Kael collapsed and was gasping for air. Lin Xia rushed to Jian Xuan and caught him as his legs finally gave out. The three had used up nearly all of their Qi.

  "You're alive," she sobbed as she buried her face in his bloody chest. "You idiot. One of us should live next time. There’s no reason for us both to die."

  "I told you," Jian Xuan coughed and was patting her hair weakly. "My shell... is hard. Unbreakable when I am defending you."

  Li Yu quickly fed them high-grade healing pills. They could barely move their hands so he did it for them. Within minutes the color returned to their faces. They hadn’t completely recovered but they were in much better shape now. Their only real injuries were from over exertion.

  Krell and the Master rushed in from the entrance.

  "Jian Xuan! Lin Xia!" The Master wept while hugging his disciples. "I thought... I thought I lost you forever."

  "Master," Jian Xuan smiled weakly. "We are fine. Brother Li is strong. Just like I told you. Little Crab always saves the day."

  They rested for an hour in the ruins of the antechamber.

  Li Yu looked at the path ahead. The destruction of the array had revealed a long dark tunnel leading deep into the mountain.

  "We should leave," Li Yu suggested. "This place is unstable. We can come back when you're stronger."

  "No," Jian Xuan said as he stood up. He looked battered but his eyes were burning with a new intensity. "We came for the inheritance. If we leave now, the ancestors will laugh at us. Besides... I felt something calling me."

  He looked at Lin Xia. "And we need this. It will let us get stronger and let us see what our ancestors left for us here."

  Lin Xia nodded at his words. She then took his hand. "We go together."

  Li Yu sighed at their stubbornness but he completely understood. They were determined to get this legacy and improve their future. "Fine. But I'm leading. You are still not at 100% yet. I will take the vanguard."

  They moved deeper.

  Surprisingly, there were no more traps. Nothing at all. The array seemed to be the final gatekeeper. The tunnel was smooth and was lined with glowing moss that pulsed with a gentle rhythm.

  After walking for a mile the tunnel opened up. They stepped into a massive cavern. It wasn't a natural cave. It was a temple.

  The ceiling looked to be miles high somehow and painted to look like the night sky with actual gemstones for stars. In the center of the cavern stood a colossal altar made of some sort of jade or similar mineral.

  But what drew their attention wasn't the altar. It was what stood on it. Five spectral figures were waiting. They were ghosts, remnants of souls preserved by powerful techniques and treasures.

  Three of them were warriors in ancient heavy armor. They had thick, segmented plates covering every inch of their bodies. They held massive shields and hammers.

  To their left floated a spectral Dragon. It was majestic and had its eyes closed in slumber. To their right floated a spectral Phoenix, its wings spread wide and burning with cold blue fire.

  The pressure in the room was immense. It was the aura of the Ancients.

  Jian Xuan gasped. "The Ancestors?!"

  The Master fell to his knees and was bowing his head to the floor. "Unworthy descendant greets the Ancestors!"

  Jian Xuan and Lin Xia bowed down as well. The rest of the group remained standing as they had no affiliation to those spectral forms.

  The central warrior, the largest of the three, opened his eyes. They glowed with blue light. He looked down at the group.

  He looked at the Master paying respects on the floor. He looked at Jian Xuan who was excited to see the sect’s inheritance.

  The Dragon opened its eyes. The Phoenix turned its head.

  All five of the ancient spirits stared at the group.

  Li Yu shifted uncomfortably. "Uh... hi?"

  The central warrior stepped forward. He didn't look angry. He looked... relieved. Ecstatic, even. The three warriors, the Dragon and the Phoenix all turned toward the group.

  And they bowed.

  It was a deep, respectful bow. A bow a servant gives to a lord. A bow a disciple gives to a master.

  "We greet the chosen one," the central warrior’s voice boomed. His voice echoing through the cavern like thunder. "We have waited for far too long."

  The master lifted his head. "Ancestors?"

  The warrior didn't look at him. He kept his eyes fixed where it was.

  "Master will be happy," the warrior said. His spectral voice now trembling with emotion. "He finally has an heir."

  The Dragon let out a low rumble that sounded like a laugh.