As Fubei Li continued to read the documents and books provided to him by his temporary caretaker, a Fog Dweller taking the shape of an octopus, he gradually realized a couple of things that he had not known before.

First, the history after the rapture of the void turned out to be much more bloody and brutal than he previously thought - he did not get to know much about how well the different groups of voidborns coexist before the rupture, specifically the groups like Depth Dwellers, Fog Dwellers, Elementals and some other he did not have very good human concepts to describe, all with quite different physical appearances, different powers and even different lifespans. But after the rupture, their one shared realm became broken into several smaller realms, and their places of worship, their artifacts, their documents of knowledge, even their important buildings and monuments were either destroyed or drift other realms and spaces (which they later called the “Gaps”). Wars that spanned across millennia broke out, and there was endless bloodshed until they could come into an agreement, and they utilized what was left of the once vast Edgelands as a central point of negotiation and diplomacy. Even till today, the groups still had conflicts that involved use of forces from time to time.

Second, the “it” that Perketta mentioned to him when they were fighting Creatures of the Gaps, at first he thought it was something that the voidborns that were born pre-rupture had because the rupture made “it” disappeared. But as the lore and records showed, that voidborns without “it” actually existed before the rupture, and the number of them became more and more as the time came closer and closer to the time when it happened. Therefore, Jianmen had the theory that “it” was some kind of blessing, either given by the entirety of the void, or something that existed before the rupture, it was probably slowly losing its power and was entirely lost or destroyed during it. And given his understanding of blessings, if the later voidborns were not able to figure out what “it” was, it was probably something that was

too unusual and powerful on a probably cosmic level that it escaped the understanding of less powerful entities. And for more powerful beings, mainly those who had lived till through the pre-rupture periods, it was probably too heavy for them to share with anyone.

And third, and the least surprising, was that Fog Dwellers and Depth Dwellers indeed came from the same ancestor, but their paths diverged as time went on. Same thing happened to some of the Elementals, for example, the Elemental of Heat produced several different lineages, including Fire, Lava and Plasma elementals. This and the second point brought some suspicion in Jianmen’s mind, that whether Xyn, the first one to have ascended to Godhood from the void, was anything like the current day voidborns at all.

“Hey, sorry, I don’t think I’d caught your name?” Jianmen asked the Fog Dweller in the shape of an octopus.

“My name is Kyra-Lexorial.” the Fog Dweller answered: “You can just call me Kyra, or Kyle - this seems to be a popular way of forming human names when my peers go into the human realm.”

“Thanks, Kyra, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me.” Fubei Li said: “I think I asked for some records on your first god, but I haven’t seen anything specific from the records you brought me. Is there any more? Preferably more detailed?”

“For those records, actually I will need to wait for the approval of the elders.” Kyra answered: “Because those contain more sensitive information and are generally restricted to members of our council or officers with certain ranks. I will let you know when I receive an update.”

“Alright. Thank you.” Fubei Li laid back into the pool and was about to take another break.

“Mr. Li, are you awake?” just this moment, the voice of Dave came from the side.

“Yeah, yeah. Just finished reading.” Fubei Li sat up from the pool: “How are you doing? Haven’t seen you since the battle.”

“Good. We didn’t sustain any serious injuries. And Perketta was also recovering and would be able to go into action soon, almost all thanks to you. ” Dave knelt down by the pool: “How are you doing? I’m not sure how effective the healing pool of Fog Dwellers can be to you.”

“Pretty effective.” Jianmen nodded and took a look at Xyankor standing by Dave: “Xyankor, why so glum? No good news?”

“No.” Xyankor sighed: “Even though we detected that the new voidborn should be somewhere near, we still could not find any traces of it. We’ve tasked multiple teams to scout around more distant corners of the Fog Dwellers’ realm, but we’re not hopeful.”

“So we’ve decided to come back to you.” Dave smiled: “You are one of the most knowledgeable and insightful entities I know, so I was wondering if you have any ideas or theories.”

“Actually I do, and you’re not gonna like it.” Fubei Li sighed: “I am not sure if this information made it to your ears - but I’m afraid the place from which the Creatures of the Gaps came from is another realm you might have to check - it’s a pretty young realm.”

“Fuck. I know. We heard.” Xyankor let out a long sigh.

“But how do you suppose we go there? It is the realm of the creatures, by no means a friendly territory.” Dave asked.

“Well, do you have some of the creatures in captivity?” Jianmen asked: “I suppose we could wear their shells.”

“Are you even sure it will work?”

“No. But we could give it a try when we have another invasion. Or we could go beyond the edge of this realm and find out.”

“... unfortunately, that’s the best idea so far.” Xyankor sat down by the pool.