The purification of the Manifestation of the Un-Knot was a victory that resonated through the Immortal Realm like a cleansing bell. It was not a tale of glorious destruction, but of profound resolution. The "Warden's Garden" was no longer just a safe haven; it was a proven strategic stronghold, a place where the primordial sickness of the universe could be treated.
The Law-Seeking Council convened in an emergency session, not in their chamber, but via projection within the Bastion itself. Their shimmering forms stood on the serene, quartz-strewn plain where the battle had been won. The contrast between their composed, powerful auras and the absolute, healed silence of the land was stark.
Elder Mei spoke first, her voice filled with a new, grim respect. "Warden. You have shown us the face of the enemy, and you have shown us it can be defeated. The council is unanimous. The campaign against the Void Corridors is now the primary strategic objective of the Primordial Nexus Sect. All other inter-sect conflicts are to be suspended."
This was a monumental declaration. It meant the Nexus Sect was effectively declaring itself the guardian of all reality, demanding that the other major sets put aside their squabbles.
Elder Ko, who had once lost his throne to Li Yao, now spoke with grudging admiration. "The Blazing Heaven Sect will chafe at this. As will the others. They will see it as a power grab."
"It is not a grab for power," Li Yao corrected gently. "It is a recognition of responsibility. The Corridors are a threat to Fire as much as to Earth, to Water as much as to Wind. If the Weave unravels entirely, all laws cease. There will be no flame to command, no river to flow."
"We understand that here," Wei Feng interjected. "But convincing the Blazing Heaven Sect, who are still licking their wounds from their last encounter with the Warden, will be... difficult."
"Then we will show them," Li Yao said. He had anticipated this. "We will invite them here. All of them. Not to the Nexus Cloud Peak, but to the Bastion. Let them feel the healed Weave. Let them stand where the Manifestation fell. Let them see that this is not about sect dominance, but about cosmic survival."
It was a bold plan. To bring the proud, competitive, and often hostile leaders of the immortal sects to his doorstep.
The invitations were sent not as commands, but as urgent summons, accompanied by a recorded echo of the battle—the feeling of the Weave-Wraiths disintegrating, the purification of the Manifestation, and the profound, stable peace of the Bastion afterward.
They came. Reluctantly, suspiciously, but they came.
The Patriarch of the Blazing Heaven Sect, a man whose body seemed to be made of living, compacted flame, arrived on a ship of burning brass. The Matriarch of the Eternal River Sect, whose form was a constantly flowing cascade of clear water, came on a barge of ice that never melted. The Grand Wind Master of the Sky Piercer Sect descended on a silent zephyr, and the Earth-Shaker of the Iron Mountain Sect strode from a portal of solid granite.
They assembled in the heart of the Bastion, a council of the most powerful beings in the realm, their collective aura a storm of conflicting laws that made the very air tremble—until the Bastion's inherent balance smoothed the tremors into a gentle, harmonious hum.
The Blazing Heaven Patriarch, Ignis, was the first to speak, his voice a crackle of embers. "This... tranquility is unnerving. It feels like a cage."
"It is the absence of sickness, Patriarch Ignis," Li Yao replied. "What you feel as a cage is your spirit recognizing health for the first time."
He did not give them a speech. He showed them. He led them to the border, to the very edge where perfect order met the chaotic storm of the Corridors.
"Look," he said, pointing into the madness. "That is the alternative. Not a different order. Not a rival's domain. That is the end of all domains. That is the fever that will burn away your flames, evaporate your rivers, and scatter your mountains to dust."
To emphasize his point, he reached out with his will towards the Corridor. He didn't mend a tear this time. He pulled.
A tendril of the chaotic, entropic energy, a wisp of the Un-Knotting force, slithered across the border into the Bastion.
The moment it entered, the assembled leaders felt it. It was a coldness that had nothing to do with temperature, a silence that was the opposite of peace. It was the feeling of meaning itself dissolving.
The tendril moved towards a beautiful, singing flower that grew from the quartz-laced earth. Before it could touch the flower, Li Yao gently unwove the tendril, dispersing it back into harmless potential.
"The infection is real," the Eternal River Matriarch, Niamh, said, her watery form rippling with unease. "I feel it... it hates the flow of my very being."
"The Nexus Sect cannot fight this alone," the Earth-Shaker, Borrum, grumbled, his voice like grinding stones. "The scale is too vast."
"That is why you are all here," Elder Mei said, stepping forward. "The Primordial Nexus Sect does not ask for your submission. We propose an alliance. A Convocation of Reality. We will pool our knowledge, our resources, our unique understandings of law. Under the guidance of the Warden, we will not just defend, we will heal. We will push back the Corridors and seal them forever."
There was a long, heavy silence. The ambition of the plan was staggering. It would require a level of cooperation the Immortal Realm had never known.
Ignis, the Blazing Heaven Patriarch, looked from the serene Bastion to the chaotic Corridor, then at Li Yao. "You. The Void Immortal. You would be the general of this army?"
"I am the physician," Li Yao corrected. "The generals will be you. You are the masters of the world's substance. I am merely the one who understands the sickness. I will show you where to apply your strength, and I will ensure your efforts do not inadvertently cause more harm."
He was offering them a role, not demanding their obedience. He was making them partners in salvation.
Ignis stared at him for a long moment, then gave a short, sharp nod. "The Blazing Heaven Sect will join this... Convocation." One by one, the other leaders added their agreement.
The Immortal Realm, for the first time in its history, was united.
As the leaders departed to muster their forces, Li Yao stood once more at the border. The Bastion was no longer just his sanctuary. It was the command center for the war to save existence. The quiet disciple who sought only to understand emptiness was now the architect of the greatest alliance the world had ever known.
The war against the echoes of the Chaos War was about to begin in earnest. And the weapon was not a sharper blade, but a shared purpose, guided by the principle of balance. The void had become the glue that would bind all things together.