News in the Immortal Realm traveled not on the wind, but on the currents of law itself. The tale of the "Void Hermit" who had humiliated a Blazing Heaven disciple in the Shattered Valleys spread with surprising speed. It was a juicy piece of gossip—a nameless ascendant from a backwater mortal sect effortlessly neutralizing the proud Zhu Yan. To some, it was amusing. To the Blazing Heaven Sect, it was an insult that demanded a response.
Li Yao felt the shift in the world's attention. The chaotic borderlands no longer felt isolated. He sensed distant, powerful perceptions brushing against the edges of the Shattered Valleys, searching for the anomalous "dead zone" he could create. It was time to move.
His goal was not confrontation, but comprehension. The Immortal Realm was a system, and to maintain balance within a system, one first had to understand its rules and its key players. He needed information, and he needed a vantage point.
He left the Shattered Valleys, allowing his form to become insubstantial, a whisper on the spiritual currents. He was learning to move like the void itself—present, yet undetectable by conventional means. He flowed towards a place mentioned in hushed tones even by the Nexus Sect disciples: the Echoing Bazaar.
It was not a city of a single sect, but a neutral, chaotic marketplace built within the hollowed-out shell of a dead leviathan—a colossal, ancient spirit beast whose skeleton now floated in the ether between domains. Here, immortals of all sects, independent cultivators, information brokers, and artifact hunters mingled, trading under a fragile, enforced truce.
As Li Yao materialized at one of the bone-white entrances, the vibrant, multi-sensory assault of the Bazaar hit him. The air smelled of rare incense, spiritual ozone, and sizzling celestial beast meat. Stalls glowed with captured starlight, displayed jars of swirling law fragments, and offered scrolls of forgotten techniques. The auras here were a dizzying tapestry, a microcosm of the entire Immortal Realm.
He drew no attention at first. He was just another robed figure. He moved through the crowded, winding passages, his senses drinking in the information.
He learned of the simmering tension between the Blazing Heaven Sect and the Eternal River Sect over a newly discovered "Vitality Spring." He heard whispers of the Sky Piercer Sect's attempts to map the "Void Corridors" for faster travel. He listened to debates on the best methods for Law Fusion, overhearing snippets about "resonance harmonics" and "conceptual alignment."
This was the language of power here. It was all about addition, fusion, amplification.
He found a quiet alcove, a former rib of the leviathan, overlooking the bustling market. He sat, simply observing, practicing a new skill: selective resonance. He learned to let the "noise" of the Bazaar—the specific laws and energies—pass through his void unaffected, while still perceiving the information they carried. He was becoming a perfect filter.
His solitude was interrupted by a presence. It was not aggressive, but curious, like a scholar spotting a rare text.
"You are the one they speak of," a smooth, melodic voice stated.
Li Yao turned. A man stood there, dressed in simple but exquisitely woven grey robes. He had no overwhelming aura, but his presence had a weight to it, a density of comprehension. His eyes held a kaleidoscopic depth, shifting subtly between colors—a sign of a highly advanced multi-law cultivator, likely from the Primordial Nexus Sect, but of a much higher caliber than Elder Kang.
"I am called many things, it seems," Li Yao replied. "Do you have a preference?"
The man smiled, a genuine expression of amusement. "I am Wei Feng. And I prefer accuracy. You are not a 'Void Hermit.' You are a practitioner of a theoretical supreme law: the Law of Annulment, or perhaps something even more fundamental. You do not erase; you create a condition of non-application."
Li Yao was impressed. This was the first immortal who had come close to understanding. "An elegant description. You are from the Primordial Nexus Sect."
"Wei Feng gave a slight nod. "I am a Law-Seeker. My purpose is not to control, but to comprehend. The sect leadership sees you as a specimen to be contained and dissected. I see you as a colleague. A fellow philosopher of the absolute."
He gestured to the bustling Bazaar below. "They are all trying to add more brushes to their palette, more colors to their painting. You... you are studying the canvas itself. It is a purer, though far more dangerous, path."
"And what does a Law-Seeker want with the canvas?" Li Yao asked.
"To understand it," Wei Feng said, his eyes gleaming. "To know its composition. To see if it can be torn, or painted upon with principles instead of laws. The Blazing Heaven Sect is sending a team, led by Zhu Yan's master, to 'retrieve' you. They will be here within the day. They are not coming for philosophical debate."
This was the consequence. The ripple from his actions in the Shattered Valleys was now a wave.
"What is your proposal?" Li Yao asked, his voice still calm.
"Come with me," Wei Feng said. "Not as a prisoner, but as a guest. I have a private sanctum, a pocket dimension I use for my research. It is warded against all conventional scrying. You will be safe there. In return, you allow me to observe. To learn from your unique interaction with reality."
It was a different kind of cage. A gilded one, built of intellectual curiosity rather than force. But a cage nonetheless.
Li Yao looked at Wei Feng, then at the teeming, vibrant, noisy Bazaar—a perfect example of the "something" he was meant to balance.
"Thank you for the warning," Li Yao said, standing. "And for the offer. But my place is not in a sanctum, observing the world through a lens. My place is in the world, as the lens itself."
He began to walk away, back towards the main thoroughfare.
Wei Feng did not try to stop him. He simply called out, "They will not be gentle, Philosopher of Nothing. The Blazing Heaven Sect's methods are... elemental."
Li Yao paused and looked back. "So is the void."
He merged back into the crowd. He would not run. He would not hide. The Blazing Heaven Sect was coming to enforce the law of consequence, the law that might made right. They were a force of chaotic, destructive addition.
He was the balance. It was time to show the Immortal Realm what happened when unbridled "something" met absolute "nothing." He would make his stand not in a hidden sanctum, but here, in the neutral ground of the Echoing Bazaar, where all could see. The lesson needed to be public.