Chương 1133: Chapter 1131: The Return

The burning sensation inside Li Yu worsened with every passing breath. He clutched his chest while the invisible blades carved deeper into his spiritual foundation and drove him to his knees once more. The digital space around him hummed with a chaotic frequency as the floating screens flickered wildly. Jirno hovered just a few feet away with a look of panic etched across his ethereal features.

The overseer tapped frantically on his main console to find a solution but the system only offered red error messages in return.

"Hopefully it sends me back to where I came from," Li Yu answered while cycling his Qi to combat the pressure. Jirno absorbed the explanations and a deep sorrow filled his glowing yellow eyes. He had spent over a thousand years sitting alone in this dark room and the past month with Li Yu had been a genuine blessing to his spirit. The thought of returning to his eternal isolation felt like a punishment worse than death. The dragon kin made a sudden decision and floated directly in front of the struggling human.

"Take me with you," Jirno pleaded while pressing his hands against his own chest.

"I offer up my soul to be bound by you, Li Yu. Make me your servant and carry my spirit away from this cage." Li Yu looked at the desperate overseer and shook his head gently despite the searing pain in his chest.

"I will not bind your soul, Jirno. We are equals and we are friends."

"But I will be alone again," Jirno argued with tears forming in his eyes.

"You will not be alone forever," Li Yu promised while forcing a reassuring smile.

"I will find a way to return here after I get back to my home. I will search for a method to break the artifact and free you from this room. Until then, I have a favor to ask you." Jirno wiped his eyes and nodded eagerly.

"Ask me anything Brother Li."

"I have a friend named Krag living on the swamp continent," Li Yu said while gesturing toward the floating map on the side monitor.

"If you can watch over him from your monitors, I would appreciate it. He is plenty strong enough to cover himself in a fight but having an extra set of eyes on him will put my mind at ease."

"I will watch over him.," Jirno swore while pulling up a tracking program on his console.

"I will make sure that the place is not bothered by anything I do in here." The space around Li Yu cracked louder and a violent tremor shook the administrative room. The pressure increased exponentially and Li Yu knew his departure was only moments away. The system console chimed rapidly and a new golden text box appeared in front of Heiyuan. Jirno read the prompt and looked at the dark serpent.

"The system says it has generated a third trial for the Hero type unit. It offers another chance to further strengthen your bloodline and gain incredible power if you stay." Heiyuan narrowed his crimson eyes and hissed dismissively at the glowing screen.

'I reject the trial,' the dark serpent sent his thoughts through the mental link.

'I do not care about the false worlds generated by that artifact. I am going with you, Li Yu. There is far more potential in following you than running through digital mazes.' Li Yu felt a warm sense of pride swell in his heart as he heard the declaration. He reached out and rested his hand on the thick dark scales of his companion.

"I am happy to accept you, Heiyuan. We will face the unknown future together." A blinding flash of white light erupted in the center of the dark void. A jagged rift tore open through the fabric of the digital space and exposed a swirling vortex of temporal energy. The system alarms blared loudly as the localized anomaly bypassed all internal security measures of the system. The suction force from the rift grabbed Li Yu and pulled him forward with unstoppable momentum.

Li Yu wrapped his arms tightly around the neck of the dark serpent and held on with all his strength.

"Goodbye, Jirno!" Li Yu shouted over the roaring wind.

"Keep pushing forward and keep going to become stronger. Do not let the isolation defeat you." Jirno waved his hands and shouted a tearful farewell as his only friend was dragged toward the glowing portal. Li Yu and Heiyuan crossed the threshold of the rift together but a catastrophic backlash occurred the moment they touched the temporal current. The timeline recognized Li Yu as a returning anomaly but it viewed Heiyuan as an entity that could not come with him. The laws of time refused to let him through.

A violent shockwave erupted from the vortex and struck Heiyuan square in the chest. The rejection force ripped the dark serpent from Li Yu's grasp and sent him flying backward across the administrative space as Heiyuan crashed heavily onto the invisible floor and let out a roar of confusion and pain.

"Heiyuan!" Li Yu yelled in panic. He fought against the overwhelming suction force and tried to reach his hand out to grab his companion. He poured every ounce of his energy into resisting the rift but the temporal current was far too strong. The violent energy of the vortex began to shred Li Yu's physical body as he fought against the current. Sensing the lethal danger, the majestic Koi soul manifested from his core and wrapped its translucent form around him.

The shield protected Li Yu from the temporal crossfire but it also sealed his momentum and dragged him deep into the swirling vortex.

"I will return for you!" Li Yu yelled at the top of his lungs while watching the dark void of the administrative space shrink away. Li Yu did not realize the true nature of his words though. He did not know that eras would pass before they could ever look upon each other again. The rift snapped shut with a deafening crack and left the digital room in heavy silence. Heiyuan pushed himself off the floor and stared at the empty space where his first real companion had just vanished.

The serpent felt an aching emptiness in his chest that had nothing to do with physical hunger for the first time. He had lost the only person who he had come to like. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Jirno floated over and placed a glowing hand on the dark scales of the beast. The ethereal dragon kin shared the exact same sorrow. They were two lost souls left behind in a sealed cage with each other now.

"He is gone," Jirno whispered softly.

"But he promised to return. In honor of our friendship with Li Yu, we cannot afford to sit here and waste away. The system offers a path to power, Heiyuan. I offer you the chance to keep going with the artifact so we can both grow stronger together. We must be ready for the day he comes back." Heiyuan looked at the glowing screens and then back at the spot where the rift had closed.

'I accept your offer,' Heiyuan communicated mentally but Jirno could not understand him. However, he also nodded his head with a determined glare and that told Jirno all he needed to know.

'I will devour every trial this artifact creates. I will get as strong as possible and wait for his return.' In just a matter of moments, the temporal vortex spat Li Yu out into the cool evening air of the Gale Blossom Realm. He crashed heavily into a patch of soft dirt and rolled several times before coming to a complete stop. He groaned and pushed himself up while checking his body for injuries and thankfully there were no serious injuries. Only minor wounds that would heal on their own in a few minutes.

His Koi soul faded back into his core and left him physically drained but largely unharmed. He stood up and dusted off his robes while recognizing the familiar landscape of where he was. Relief overwhelmed his emotions as he was truly grateful that the rift had taken him back to the realm he was at instead of taking him to another completely different realm. Li Yu then made his way to the defensive base of the Zhan Clan. He walked toward the main compound and approached the stationed guards near the entrance.

The shock of losing Heiyuan weighed heavily on his mind and he needed to orient himself to his current situation.

"Hello there," Li Yu called out to a nearby soldier to recalibrate himself. Last time he went to a random realm, not much time had passed but his time before that time had passed by normally.

"How much time has passed since I went missing? Was it days, weeks or months?" The guard turned around and offered a highly confused expression.

"Missing, sir? You just left the compound a few moments ago. You have not been gone for long at all. I literally saw you just left and now you came back." Li Yu blinked and processed the information. He had traveled to that realm and spent over two months but he had returned to almost the exact time he was sucked into the rift. While it was great that he spent almost no time at all away during this trip, this worried Li Yu greatly.

If time moved that much faster in that realm compared to normal, how much time would have passed for Heiyuan, Krag and Jirno by the time he was able to figure out a way back there. Li Yu thanked the guard and requested a direct transport back to the Zhan home realm to gather his thoughts. The journey was swift and quiet as he reflected on the wild events of his adventure.

Upon arriving at the central hub of the Zhan clan, he bypassed the busy administrative buildings and headed straight for his private estate to rest. He walked down the paved path leading into the valley and admired the serene layout of his home which he missed greatly. Li Yu offered a tired smile to Alden and requested a quiet evening without any interruptions. He walked into his dark wood pagoda and sat on his meditation mat while hoping his friends were safe wherever they were.

He would have to ask the elders of the clan if anyone knew of such a realm. His hopes of finding them drastically decreased when he found out about the temporal anomaly. Usually realms that moved faster in time compared to the others rarely allowed cultivators to enter. His entering the realm was done so purely by chance through the rift and he was only able to stay for roughly two months before being kicked out.

It was very unlikely that anyone would know of that realm or how to enter there or else many masters would be there to study the laws of time or using the extra time to cultivate. Li Yu was still under the impression that it was simply a different realm that he traveled to while it was both a different realm and a different time altogether. It would be much later that he would figure it all out to both his great sadness and surprise.

Off in another distant location hidden from the eyes of the cosmos, a pair of enormous crimson eyes snapped open in the dark as Li Yu returned to his original timeline. Heiyuan let out a loud roar that shook the very foundations of his hidden sanctuary as he felt the soul connection between the two of them now. Eras had passed since the day he watched his friend get sucked into the temporal rift. The dark serpent had grown into a true cosmic terror and his power was now incredible.

Through the long passage of time Heiyuan and Jirno had made some clever deductions. After a long time, they realized that Li Yu had traveled from the future and that was the only reason they were unable to find him after the two of them became strong enough to search the cosmos themselves. Their theory was confirmed once they discovered the founding of the Zhan and Li clans and noted that Li Yu was not a part of them yet after a thorough investigation.

Knowing this truth, the two companions had secretly helped the two clans from time to time. This was to honor their friend but they made sure not to help too much as to not change the timeline too much with those clans. Heiyuan lowered his grand head and mourned his ethereal friend as memories of them together came back to his mind. He wished Jirno was still here to see the present day unfold.

The timid overseer had grown brave over the eras and eventually got caught up in defending the cosmos against a grand threat that threatened to end all life. Jirno had fought valiantly with other heroes of that time but had fallen when the very first Temporal Dao Stone was used in combat. The resulting cataclysm killed countless heroes and Jirno was a proud part of that sacrifice that ultimately secured the future. Heiyuan looked up at the stars and let out a soft hiss of anticipation.

He wished to one day see Li Yu again and show him how amazing he had become over the eras. He regretted that Jirno would not get the opportunity to see Li Yu again. Jirno had missed his friend throughout the eras and in the end never got to see him once more. He made new ones of course but he was always in search of clues that could tell him ahead of time when Li Yu would come into existence.

The two of them together formed a legion together, The Leviathan Smashing Vanguard, one of the legion forces that had come to Li Yu's father's aid back then. Of course Heiyuan was not personally leading that force at the time but one of his generals was. Heiyuan could not reveal himself to Li Yu back then, not until Li Yu had finally returned from the past with the soul connection to limit Heiyuan's impact on the timeline as much as possible.

He still could not reveal himself to Li Yu as he had encountered another being named Khaos much earlier. Through discussions with Khaos, the two made some arrangements in the best interest of Li Yu but that is a story for another time. Far away in a different swampy region, Krag opened his large eyes as well.

'He has finally returned and now there is only one of me across the Myriad Realms. I can finally begin to move after all this time!' Krag thought to himself. Krag also figured out what had happened over time as well and understood that he had to hide himself. Due to the temporal anomaly caused by Li Yu, he wasn't sure if he would be struck down by the heavens since there would exist two of himself at a certain point in the timeline.

In order to avoid that, he made sure his presence was as hidden as possible and he went through great lengths to hide himself from everything once it got closer to the time that he was born. Krag wanted to show off his own strength and new form to Li Yu but he knew it would need to wait for the proper moment. Rushing would only cause issues now and patience would be key. He had waited all this time, waiting a bit longer was no big deal at all.