“So that’s what he said?” inside his office, Professor Atkinson scratched his head while looking at a hand-drawn map laid out on his and Dolores’s desk - in order to fully lay the map down, he and Dolores pushed their desks together: “If this is the full view of the edgelands, then he’s right and Xyn’s information is incorrect or outdated.”

“Which is the reason I put ‘Peek into the History of the Void’ on my list.” Dolores flipped through several pages on her book while utilizing an enchanted pen to write down her notes: “There must have been some sort of changes that led to this difference. And if the ‘edgelands’ Xyn wanted us to find is not the edgelands that existed today, what is the place he wanted us to find? And what happened to it?”

“Well, it says here that there was a legend about there once being a great rupture that tore the edgelands apart. But it was just a legend about ancient history. It also says here that even a lot of elementals don’t remember much about it.” Dolores nodded with excitement and said: “So I guess the bad news here is that the advantages Xyn told us about starting with the edgelands would probably not apply.”

“I don’t think the information could apply at all.” Professor Atkinson pointed at the center of the map: “Look at the building here: the Bastion of Gwai-Mon, an ancient construct built by some of the most powerful ancient elemental lords as the central pathway for different elementals to travel to the edgelands and even different realms in which they inhibit should the need arises. Xyn told me that all the voidborns live together in the void - this means that the rupture - whatever it actually was, not only tore the edgelands apart, it also tore the void apart and into different realms. And somehow, all the elementals are living in different realms? Looks like we’re still in the blind here even if we have all the information from him.”

“Hey.” just this moment, the door to the office opened, and Jianmen’s avatar Mr. Lun Wang walked in, using a bamboo walking stick and greeted Professor Atkinson and Dolores with a weak and wheezing voice: “Hope you don’t mind my dropping off. I just got a message and wanted to come here and help.”

“My god, Mr. Yu. You should be at rest!” Dolores rushed to Jianmen’s side: “What are you even doing here!?”

“Well, can’t let the research stop just because. A pesky little wound.” Jianmen walked into the room and sat on a spare chair by the door: “Especially after that message I got… from the main body. And I’m afraid we needed to speed up a little bit, so I’m here to help. Help you, and help myself.”

“But you are in no shape to help anyone, please, just get back to rest. We can wait.” Dolores said.

“Yeah, my recovery could take a long while, and I’d be wasting both your time and my time.” Jianmen coughed and said: “So tell me, what’d you find out? Anything about the edgelands?”

“Nothing useful yet.” Dolores sighed: “We just found some restricted records, and we just found out that there could have been a great rupture of sorts in both the void and the edgelands, which tore the realms up, and somehow the voidborns, elementals just scattered across different realms.”

“Hmm, interesting.” Jianmen thought for a while, then asked: “The rupture - did Xyn tell you anything about it?”

“No.” Dolores and Professor Atkinson answered at the same time.

“Hmmm.” Jianmen went silent for another short while: “So here’s my other question - in the knowledge he shared with you, did any of it mention beings called defilers, or desecrators? Even if translated, the name should match in this case.”

“I… I don’t think so?” Dolores exchanged looks with Professor Atkinson: “What are they?”

“So you haven’t heard of them. At least not from Xyn.” Jianmen looked at Dolores and then Professor Atkinson.

“Aren’t… aren’t defilers just a myth?” Professor Atkinson hesitated and asked.

“Not anymore.” Jianmen sighed: “My main body encountered two. I suspect they are the reason I am in this state - I asked him, myself, what happened. But all I got was the name.”

-----------------------------------------------

“How long are they gonna keep us waiting here?” sitting inside of a spacious room with floating platforms and drifting crystals in the air, Xyankor complained: “Fog Dwellers, I won’t be surprised, but Paulo Chang?”

“I guess, even Paulo Chang can’t rush them.” Dave shrugged: “And I actually don’t remember much about them, so Xyankor we’d probably need you to take the lead - Mr. Li, what about you? Do you know anything?”

Fubei Li, another one of Jianmen’s avatars, was sitting on the side with his body laid back onto the chair made from a kind of special clay that was rare in other realms but quite common in the edgelands. He had a few cracks and wounds on his body but they were all bandaged up and patched. He seemed quite a bit weaker than he was when he came to the edgelands, but was otherwise acting normal.

“I don’t know much about them either.” Fubeli Li shook his head: “All I could gather for now is that either they’re quite slow or they are disrespectful of other people’s time.”

“No, it’s not that. They wanted to keep us waiting.” Xyankor slammed his hand on the stone table: “It’s quite typical of them - petty and short sighted.”

“Hey, hey, what are prestigious guests from the depths of the void?” just this moment, a giant slug with fog shrouding its body slithered into the room, and when it “saw” that the three individuals in the room were taking human form, it morphed in the air and became a fat, hairy and naked man with ten gold chains on his layered neck: “Oops, sorry, I mistook you for something else, let me meet you in your preferred form to show you with proper respect.”

A ball of lightning appeared in midair, and landed on one of the chairs on the opposite side of Xyankor, Dave and Fubei Li, it was Paulo Chang with a gourd in his hand.

“Tamura was dealing with some issues with the magma elementals. He’s the only one who responded to your request.” Paulo Chang appeared somewhat angry as well.

“Ouch, ouch, my belly.” the hairy, naked fat man had his hands on his back and moved slowly towards the table: “You know, this human form is just a pain. Why’d you choose this form anyway?”

“That’s your back.” Dave scratched his nose and said: “Your belly’s in front of you.”

“Oh, you mean this?” the fat man grabbed onto his junk and asked.