Weeks passed on and the world continued to move on. Li Yu’s solitude, however, was absolute as he dived deeper and deeper into the laws. He wasn’t making amazing progress but what progress he made was a revolutionary change. Despite the solitude, he felt more connected to the world than ever.

He had touched upon all kinds of different types of laws to explore but he still stuck with the laws that resonated with him the most. Void, Life, Destruction, Water and Karma.

But there was one more law that he had been wanting to explore but had been putting it off. It was the law that was difficult and abstract. A law that seemed above all the others or at the very least standing shoulder to shoulder with the top laws. A law he had wanted to explore because of one incident that had happened with his soul long ago. The Law of Time.

Today, he decided it was the day that he would try to reach the River of Time. He sat by the river again and he watched the water flow over a smooth round stone.

"Water shapes the stone," Li Yu said. "But it is not the water that smoothes it. It is the persistence. It is the duration. Time."

Li Yu looked at the stone and he tried to see not just the stone but the history of the stone. Visualizing its long history and the decades or eons it must have experienced. ‘Where was it before? Underground? Perhaps on a mountain overlooking a dynasty from long ago. Something made it fall here and it is now being eroded by water and time.’

He focused as before. This was the hardest transition that he had felt yet. It felt like his soul was being stretched and pulled thin like some sort of noodle. ‘Time seemed to stop or was it moving quickly?’ It felt like an eternity yet it also felt like an instant at the same time.

He opened his eyes and everything was grey. The River of Time was not like the others he had seen. It was made of flowing grey sand, maybe ash or perhaps dust? It moved in one direction and was relentless, unstoppable. It gave the feeling that nothing could stop this movement, the strongest divine beings or emperors would be mere ants against it.

There was also no Spirit of Time that he could see. Or perhaps the entire River was the Spirit itself, he didn’t know. It felt ancient. It felt indifferent and without any kind of emotion.

Li Yu looked down at his spectral hands. They were constantly flickering. Aging rapidly, skin withering, then cycling back to youth, then withering again. He was there for a few seconds but it felt like he had lived through two lifetimes. It was incredibly damaging to the mind and Li Yu was getting confused.

The pressure here was also terrifying. Stronger and more absolute than all the other rivers combined it felt like. It was the pressure of inevitability.

The Fisherman stood still next to him this time. His spectral form frayed at the edges but he remained. His aged face didn’t seem to be affected by the time here, it remained aged and its eyes looked beyond the horizon with a sadness that Li Yu couldn’t explain.

Li Yu tried to take a step. He couldn't.

His spectral foot was stuck in the grey sand and he couldn’t even lift it up. He began to feel his lifespan draining away, as if years of his life was siphoned off in seconds.

"It... it's too strong," Li Yu gasped as he was watching his spectral hand turn skeletal. "I'm decaying!"

He was about to pull back and to flee before he lost too much. But then a light exploded from behind him.

ROAR.

It wasn’t truly a sound but it was a vibration that shook the grey silence. The Koi martial spirit seemed to have been agitated. Here in the River of Time, the Koi looked different. It wasn't just gold. Its scales shimmered with a platinum sheen. Its eyes were swirling vortices of clockwork light.

The Koi did not struggle against the relentless current of sand. It slammed its tail against the grey sand.

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BOOM.

A shockwave of platinum light expanded outward. Where the light touched, the grey sand stopped. The flowing ash froze in mid-air. The relentless flow of the river that seemed like nothing could affect it, stopped. The decay on Li Yu’s hand reversed instantly. The Fisherman’s hat knit itself back together.

In that moment the Koi soul also swam in a circle around Li Yu and was creating a bubble of stillness. Outside of the bubble the River of Time came back to life. In fact, it seemed the Koi Soul made it angry, it was now even more violent and was accelerating. It seemed to be aging everything at an increased rate, perhaps double what it was before. Inside the bubble, however, time was absolute still.

Li Yu stared at his Martial Spirit. He remembered that the Koi had frozen time in battle that one time back at the Golden Tide Clan. It had frozen time when it had come out of his body and had not done it ever since.

"You..." Li Yu whispered. "You aren't afraid of this place are you? You… belong here?"

The Koi looked at Li Yu and let out a soft trill. It wasn't just protecting him; it was somehow dominating this area in this law river.

“How is this possible? Just what are you?” Li Yu tried to talk to it but got no response at all.

Li Yu then took a step forward. With the Koi’s protection and within the bubble it had created there was no pressure, no resistance, nothing. He walked on the frozen grey sand and he looked closely at the suspended grains of time.

He saw that time was not a solid block. It was granular. It had gaps.

"It can be stopped," Li Yu realized. "It can be reversed. It can be skipped?"

He walked ten steps. Twenty steps. The bubble that the Koi created around him followed him along with Li Yu as its center. Li Yu saw the flow of the future branching out and the flow of the past cementing behind him.

The Koi continued to swim ahead and was parting the grey river like a king moving through his court. The grains of sand seemed to move out of its way, splitting apart and welcoming it forward.

After a long time Li Yu felt his mental energy waning. Not from the pressure of the river, the Koi handled that completely, but from the sheer comprehension of what he was seeing and feeling.

‘It seems that this bubble is protecting me here but also lowering or limiting the amount of comprehension I can have for the Laws of Time as well. Even though I have taken hundred steps, the most I have in any of these rivers, I haven’t learned as much. Or perhaps I need to take more steps here because it is more profound? I don’t know, but having the Koi gives me a tremendous advantage here. But what in the Dao is it? I have more questions about my Koi Soul than I do about the Law right now.’ Li Yu thought to himself

"That's enough," Li Yu said. He pulled back.

SNAP.

He was back in his courtyard. He didn't fall over or gasp for air like he had done with some of the harder laws such as Destruction. He sat perfectly still.

He looked at the steam rising from his tea and he reached out. Using what he did understand and comprehended from the Law of Time, the steam stopped.

It didn't disperse. It just simply hung there, frozen in the air, a perfect sculpture of white mist. Li Yu held the moment for three seconds. Then, he let go. The steam continued to rise as if nothing had happened. The drain on his Qi was massive and he was now sweating from it.

"Interesting," Khaos’s voice came as he materialized next to Li Yu in his human form. His voice was sounding genuinely surprised for the first time in a long while. "I knew the fish was special ever since I formed a contract with it. I knew it had Life properties and more. But to dominate the River of Time like that? To roar at the inevitable and make it sit?"

Khaos then looked at Li Yu with new interest and a hint of respect. It was unclear if that respect was for Li Yu or his Koi martial spirit.

"That is not normal, boy. That fish is incredibly special. Perhaps it has a lineage that predates everything yet nothing at all. This might be the first time I have seen a being that is even more special than me."

Li Yu looked at Khaos in surprise. He didn’t ask anymore, he knew Khaos well, he wouldn’t get additional answers from him by asking. He petted his chest and was feeling the warmth of the Koi inside him. "It is indeed special."

He stood up and looked out at the jungle valley. "I have studied the rivers. I have seen the threads. Staying here has grown boring for me. I will stay here just a few more days and then prepare to continue on my journey."

He looked West, deeper into the Southern Continent.

“Rivers are meant to be traveled, not just stared at from the shore." Li Yu said.

He walked back to his hut and poured a cup of tea. He drank it slowly and was savoring the flavor of the herbs he had grown.

In a week, he would leave this valley. But tonight, he would sit in his courtyard, listen to the insects and watch the stars drift across the sky. It would be marking the passage of the time he now commanded more than ever.