A beam of light descended from a vortex of thunder, fire and tiny meteors onto a piece of land floating in space. A golden protective bubble appeared before the beam of light, yet it just let the beam of light pass through, with only a few ripples of light appearing around the intersection. Dave and Xyankor walked out of the beam as it hit the ground with Fubei Li, Jianmen's second avatar behind them, and was greeted by the individuals on this piece of floating land.
"Daekan-Velliander, Xyankor, what brings you to the edgelands?" a centaur whose body was completely made of fire and magma walked up to Dave and Xyankor and asked: "And who is this? He's not a voidborn."
"Nice to meet you sir. I am just here to assist them in their mission." Fubei Li gently bowed and said.
"This is Mr. Fubei Li. He's a friend of ours with knowledge and experience we could really use and depend on." Dave said: "I can vouch for him. He could stay here and come with us if that's okay with you. He won't need access to the void."
"There's plenty of precedence on non-voidborns being in the edgelands. If you vouch for him, he could come with us." the magma centaur nodded and said.
"We're here because of the changes in the void." Xyankor answered: "Do you happen to know where Paulo Chang is? We want to talk to the leaders of Fog Dwellers."
"He's in the edgelands as well. I believe he's in the central bastion." the magma centaur answered: "Please, allow me to lead the way. There's been changes in the void, as there had been here."
The magma centaur started running, and Xyankor and Dave followed by flying at a low height behind him, leaving two trails of grey smoke behind. Fubeli Li was just running behind them, leaving a trail of deep footprints in the dirt.
Before long, a dark grey stone bastion built on the top of a hill appeared in their sight far away. There was a strange force field around the entire hill, which was there to serve as protection against unfriendly forces and all kinds of teleportation.
"The Bastion of Gwai-Mon. I thought I'd come here later, when I've had my fun." when they stopped right outside of the force field around the hill, Dave shook his head with a wry smile: "I haven't spent much time in this current cycle yet."
"There's plenty of ways to speed up your cycle." Xyankor said: "Okay, let's go in. Can you open the gate?"
The magma centaur extended his right hand forward, his palm glowed in a white light, and a tall gate made of bright white energy appeared before them. Then the gate opened, showing a long hallway on the other side.
"Please go in. I just notified them that you want to find Paulo Chang. Be cautious when talking to him. You've met him before - so you knew. But he's extra grumpy these days. So be careful." the magma centaur said.
"Thank you, Isidus." Xyankor nodded at the magma centaur.
"My pleasure, Xyankor. I'll be back to my duties." the magma centaur bowed and started running back the way they came.
Fubei Li went into the gate just behind Xyankor and Dave. He had memories from Jianmen, who had been in the bastion before, so he knew a lot of interesting information about this bastion. For example, its name, Gwai-Mon is an ancient word for "crossroads". And another example, was that the bastion was built with a kind of special stone material named "Muto" that only existed in places that were close to the void like the edgelands. Muto had an extremely unique property, its physical properties would change with the shape it takes: if it was in the shape of a cube or a cuboid, it would be hard, sturdy, pressure resistant and extremely light; if it was in the shape of a sphere, it would be bouncy and elastic like a ball; and when it was in the shape of long and sharp objects like swords, knives or pedals, it would be soft but extremely heavy like a piece of dense and long tofu, which also made it so that it would be a terrible material for sharp weapons crafting.
"What's your business here?" a very small human-shaped fairy with two bird wings and her whole body made of energy of air appeared in front of Dave, Xyankor and Fubei Li.
"We're here to see Paulo Chang. We would like to talk to the leaders of Fog Dwellers." Xyankor answered.
"Noted, please wait in one of the side rooms. " the air fairy flapped her wings and a piece of her feather shot through the air and disappeared somewhere deep into the bastion.
Dave, Xyankor and Fubei Li followed the fairy into a room with a pretty tall ceiling and tables and chairs made of rattan and stone. As they found their seat, the air fairy got her feather back: "Mr. Chang would be with you shortly."
"Thank you." Dave nodded at the air fairy as she flew out of the side room.
A few minutes past, the three in this room heard the sound of electric flares and thunder cracks coming from the hallway outside the room. Then next moment, a ball lightning flew into the room, and after a loud crack, a bald old man in blue clothes and blue eyebrows appeared from the ball lightning and sat on the back of a stone chair.
"What up, y'all?" Paulo Chang took a sip of his drink from his gourd: "Xyankor, you missed the last meeting of all the high brokers. That Summers chick shared some interesting intel. It probably wouldn't be useful to you though. So, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"The changes in the void. A new voidborn is about to be born." Xyankor answered.
"Yeah, that I heard." Paulo Chang chuckled: "Didn't think I'd live to see this day. And I guess this is why you wanna meet with the Fog Dwellers right?"
"Indeed."
"I don't have any objections to this request. But I won't be on your side either. So you'll need to make your plea to them instead. Remember, though we elementals are technically voidborn, we don't concern ourselves with business concerning the void anymore." Paulo Chang shook his head and said.
"We understand, which is why we bring our payment for this introduction." Xyankor reached into his pocket and took out a piece of shiny red crystal the size of his palm: "Consider this the pre-payment."
"Very well." Paulo Chang laughed and extended his hand at Xyankor, with his fingers curled like claws. The red crystal was brought into the air by a suction force and flew right into his palm: "I'll go tell them. It'll be a couple of Earth days, so if you don't mind you can just stay in the bastion."
"That would be fine. But please, do convey the urgency to them."