Li Yu had just been through so much. He had fought the cultist, the demons, the beasts from another realm and he had seen gods. He had been hunted, ambushed and he had won. The entire agonizing journey on the Southern Continent had been bearable in part for one singular reason: the thought of returning to this place.

The comfort of his pagoda, the quiet wisdom of his master and the easy companionship of his friends... it was the anchor that had held him steady through the storm. A place to return to after all the trouble was a light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon of normal and peace within the storm.

And now the anchor was gone. The storm had come here and in his absence it had taken a massive reason for why he called this place his home.

Krell simply continued to watch. He could understand the boy's grief but was surprised by how he was showing it.

Having lived so long himself, Krell had seen cities fall. He had seen mountains crumble. He had seen races die out. Such things were the long, slow and brutal song of existence not only in the cultivation world but any world. But he had rarely, if ever, seen someone so strong, so full of the power of a Soul Formation expert, so completely reduced to such a raw and broken state.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with it though. Demons were free in such things. Embrace your emotions. That was a key tenet of demonic cultivation. To feel rage, to feel joy, to feel grief... that was to be alive. It provided one with power and drive. To suppress it was a weakness, a human fragility.

In that moment, Krell's respect for Li Yu grew. This was not a soft-skinned human hiding behind a mask. This was a being of true feeling. And then, it hit Krell with the force of a hammer: the boy was so young. To have such power and such youth and to still be so free with his soul... it was remarkable.

‘It also explained why this boy was behaving as such. He hadn’t seen all the things I have. Experience all of the things that someone who has lived for so long understood and knew. His pureness is refreshing to see on a human…’ Krell thought to himself.

The air then suddenly tore. A dozen new powerful auras arrived in flashes of blue light. It was a group of human cultivators, it was the Gate Keepers. They had detected the explosion, a cataclysmic event that would register on every long-range array on the continent.

Their leader was an old woman, her face a web of wrinkles, her back bent but her aura was as vast and deep as the sky. She took in the scene, the nine divine beasts and the injured Qilin, the crater and the sobbing boy at its edge. She had no expression of surprise at the sight of the beasts. It would seem as though she knew of them, which was a contrast to Rylan.

She flew not toward Li Yu but toward the Black Tortoise. A silent telepathic conversation seemed to pass between them and the woman's face growing paler and grimmer with every second. After a moment, she nodded, her expression of business and seriousness.

"Secure the area!" she commanded, her voice crackling with authority. "No one... no one... gets within ten miles of the crater's edge. Get more forces to come here and seal it off!"

Her team spread out and blue arrays were flaring to life. They were too late however. More and more cultivators, drawn by the world-shaking explosion and the impossible sight of majestic looking beasts in their sky, were beginning to gather on the horizon. A crowd of the curious and the terrified, all staring at the massive, incomprehensible wound in their world.

Li Yu was oblivious to all of it. He was still where he had been since arriving here. His body was enduring the lingering and agonizing pain of the remnant energy but it was nothing to him. It was a pinprick compared to the agony in his heart and soul. His mind was broken. The tears were still streaming but his eyes... his eyes were becoming lifeless. The vibrant deep pools of his gaze were now dull, empty and gray.

The Black Tortoise watched him with a deep ancient pity. It was an instinct. A guardian protects. It rumbled and a thick brown barrier of earthen energy shimmered into life in front of Li Yu, blocking the last of the searing energetic remnants from getting to him.

A new voice, weak and reedy spoke from the ground not far away.

"Lower it."

It was the Qilin, Viridius. Its eyes were hazy with pain and were now finally open and fixed on Li Yu. The Tortoise turned its massive head over to it.

"It is a kindness," the Tortoise rumbled. "He is in pain and I am sheltering him ever so slightly."

"He is in... balance," the Qilin whispered. "I can feel... his heart. He is using the pain of the flesh... to... to dull the pain of his soul. It is... a focus. To remove it... might make it worse. He... understands… his body understands him…"

The Tortoise was silent at the words, not fully understanding it himself but he knew the Qilin was more in tune with humans than it was. It held the barrier for a moment longer, then with a slow rumble it let the wall of energy dissipate. Li Yu didn't even flinch as the searing energy washed over him once more.

The beasts all stared at the small and kneeling figure. Some, like the Tiger, thought him pathetic, a weak creature unbecoming of such power and showing such a display. Others, like the Fox, found him quite fascinating. But for most... for the Qilin, the Tortoise, the Phoenix... there was a strange and small quiet admiration. To be so young, so powerful and yet so unashamedly free with his grief... it was a purity they had not seen in millennia.

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No one disturbed him. The Gate Keepers kept the world at bay and didn’t dare to approach the beasts. The beasts kept their watch for any additional dangers as their friend healed. And Li Yu... just knelt.

But after a bit a new figure appeared. He did not fly in. He did not teleport. He simply... emerged right next to Li Yu.

Khaos had stepped out from the Koi Sanctuary and he was emitting his usual aura. This time however, it felt like a comforting void in the chaotic energy of the area..

In the sky, the Golden-Bronze Crab, which had been floating in a momentary silence, froze. For a split second, its entire divine form went rigid, its energy pattern stuttering, before it just as quickly went back to normal. Like Khaos before, no one else noticed.

Khaos did not offer words. Words were useless. They were hollow and empty things in the face of such absolute loss. He simply walked up, his feet making no sound on the crackling hot earth and stood next to the broken boy.

Then he crouched down and placed a hand on Li Yu's shoulder.

That palm. It was not warm. It was not cold. It was... nothing. And it was everything. A wave of complex, absolute and silent relief washed over Li Yu. It was a comfort that no words could ever describe. It was the feeling of the anchor he had lost, returned. It was the void, his sanctuary, his friend that rarely showed emotions shielding him. It meant the world to Li Yu at this time.

The touch brought back his broken mind. His thoughts, which had been a screaming white-hot static, began to clear. His eyes, which had been lifeless, regained a spark of pained and present thought. He was no longer just an animal howling in a trap. He was Li Yu again and he understood what he had lost.

He cried even harder. The sob that tore from him was new. It was not of shock but of realization and a bit of acceptance. He was finally, truly, processing his grief.

Half a day passed in this manner.

The crowd on the horizon was now massive, a sea of people held back by a thin line of resolute Gate Keepers. The divine beasts had not moved as if they were expecting another attack. Li Yu had not moved. Krell had not moved.

Then, a new figure arrived. She flew past the Gate Keeper line after she had told them her reason for coming through. It was Cyra. She had been in the north when these events had happened. She was on business for the Golden Shell Guild and had felt the cataclysmic energy wave from across the continent.

She had flown here fearing for the worse and it was indeed nearly the worse case scenario. Everything was destroyed but it could have been worse. Li Yu could have already been back and joined the tragedy but he was lucky and avoided it.

In his broken state, Li Yu hadn't even thought to check on his followers in the Koi Sanctuary. He hadn't thought... of anything. He assumed that Cyra was among the dead since the sect was where she often stayed.

Her appearance, her life, her very presence was a second wave of comfort for him. She was alive. Not everyone at the sect was gone.

By this time the searing energy of the crater's edge had already dissipated. The physical pain was gone.

Cyra came to his side and did not speak immediately. She saw his state and she understood. It was a feeling she was familiar with when she had woken up after being captured. Of the devastating loss and the uncertainty of the future.

She sat down next to him and she too, just stared outward at the vast empty hole. She had spent the most time at the sect when compared to his other followers. She had students here and knew many of the faces. She had grown close to several of the elders and some of her students.

After a long, long time, she finally felt it was the appropriate time and spoke.

"There are bound to be survivors, Young Master," she said, her voice an anchor of pragmatism. "Those who were not in the sect. Disciples on missions. Workers in the guild. Some... must have survived."

She paused, taking a breath. "But... I must be honest. Before I left for the north... the majority of the sect's leadership... Elder Ning... the Sect Leader... the Grand Elders... they were all present at the sect."

Li Yu's hand, which had been unclenched, tightened back into a fist with his knuckles white at the confirmation of the worse. He had already assumed the worse but when it was confirmed it was another wave of pain.

"However," Cyra said, her voice a small measured sliver of hope. "I have one piece of... better... news. Lin Tao. He... he came to me two days ago, saying he was going to leave the sect on a personal visit. He was going to visit his friend, Hu Jian, who was stationed away as you know.."

Li Yu's head, which had been bowed for half a day, twitched. His gaze slowly and painfully moved from the crater's floor to her.

Lin Tao had a chance of being alive! He thought Hu Jian would be okay since he wasn’t in the sect anymore but he had no hopes for Lin Tao… until now. Li Yu was slowly coming back to a better state of mind.

Not just because of that one piece of news but because of everything that had happened since the event. Khaos’s comfort and then Cyra but the most important thing was time. Time for him to properly grieve and for his thoughts to process themselves.

He looked up at Khaos who was still couched there silently on his other side. His palm had never left his shoulder this entire time. "Thank you," Li Yu whispered, his voice a raw shredded sound.

Khaos nodded. And with his duty done, he disappeared and returned to the sanctuary. Nothing else needed to be said between them, they knew each other well.

Li Yu then looked at Cyra. "Thank you... for being here. For... being alive as well."

"No problem at all, Li Yu," she replied with a smile. ‘It's good to see him slightly coming back from his pain.’ She thought to herself.

Li Yu looked at the crater once again. He looked at Krell who was still standing in the distance. Krell too had been here this entire time. Li Yu looked at the divine beasts in the air and then at the ones still healing their wounded comrade.

He took a deep breath that seemed to draw in the air from the entire area. Finally, he placed his raw and burned hands on the ground. For the first time since he had arrived, he pushed off and got to his feet.

His legs were trembling from not using them for such a long time. He was caked in dust and his face stained with tears. His entire body but especially his hands were bloody and burned. He was truly broken and in a worse mental state than his entire time during the war on the southern continent.

But he was now standing. He turned his back on the crater and faced his new terrible reality. He had to compose himself. His mind shifted from grief to that of revenge. Revenge on those that robbed him of his place of peace and his happiness. He would make everyone suffer.