Void Market
Following the map, Jiang Yu wandered through the endless corridor and finally stopped in front of an extremely strange "door".
This door has no fixed form; it's like a constantly spinning, transparent bubble refracting kaleidoscope-like colors, or a giant mouth constantly opening and closing, covered in sharp teeth. Sometimes it stabilizes into a magnificent oriental archway, and sometimes it twists into a technologically advanced interstellar portal. The signboard is also ever-changing, sometimes displaying "Exchange of All Things," sometimes becoming "Pawnshop of Fate," and finally settling on "Void Market."
A chaotic, noisy heatwave, mingled with the auras of countless dimensions, surged out from within the door. There was the fragrance of elven herbs, the smell of engine oil from interstellar engines, the pungent stench of demonic sulfur, and the spiritual energy of celestial artifacts.
Jiang Yun could sense that the spatial rules here were extremely fragile and unpredictable, filled with various makeshift passages and hidden traps. He adjusted his aura to make himself less conspicuous (although the image of carrying a machete was already quite conspicuous), and then stepped inside.
The scene behind the door was bizarre and surreal. He felt as if he were in an endless, dimensional street made up of countless makeshift stalls and shops. The stall owners were all different: there were orcs selling enchanted weapons, astrologers hawking prophetic crystal balls, time travelers displaying cybernetic bodies, and even a weasel spirit telling fortunes. The customers were equally diverse, coming from different worlds and different times.
This place seems to be the intersection of all rules, and also the blind spot of all order. Information, resources, and even souls and destinies can be traded here.
Jiang Yu's appearance drew some attention, mainly because he carried an aura of "officialdom" or "order" that seemed out of place in the market, and because of the seemingly ordinary yet instinctively dangerous machete he carried. But the first rule of the market: don't ask about origins, and don't meddle in other people's business. Most eyes simply swept over him and then looked away.
Jiang Yu had a clear goal and, following the blue arrow on the map, headed deeper into the market. He could sense that the "man of a thousand faces" and the so-called "competitor" were both in that direction.
The deeper they went, the fewer stalls there were, but the things being traded became increasingly bizarre: the power of a certain world, a love that had been stripped away, the last genetic sequence of an endangered race... In fact, at a stall in one corner, Jiang Yu saw several dungeon bosses locked in cages with vacant stares! Although they were just low-level elite monsters, the sight made Jiang Yu's eyes turn completely cold.
This "Void Market" was even more lawless than he had imagined.
Finally, he stopped in front of what looked like the most inconspicuous stall. The stall consisted of a small cart covered with a tattered cloth, behind which sat a humanoid creature wearing a wide robe, its face shrouded in the shadow of a hood. On the stall were only a few things that looked like junk: a rusty compass, half a blank book, and a shriveled fruit.
But Jiang Yu's list was vibrating. The golden dot on the map representing the resonance of the "key fragments" and the blue "fellow traveler" arrow were both pointing precisely to this stall and this stall owner.
The multifaceted merchant... has arrived.
Almost at the same moment Jiang Yu stopped, he felt another gaze fall upon him from another direction in the market. That gaze carried scrutiny, curiosity, and a hint of… an inexplicable sense of familiarity?
Jiang Yu slowly turned his head to look in the direction the gaze was coming from. He saw a man dressed in casual modern clothes, with a lollipop in his mouth, looking like an ordinary young man next door, leaning against a stall selling interstellar snacks across the street, smiling at him.
Their eyes met.
The young man spat out the lollipop stick, gave Jiang Yu a bright but enigmatic smile, then raised his hand, waved it lightly, and mouthed a gesture.
Jiang Yu understood the lip movements:
"Oh, a newbie?"
The cacophony of the market seemed to vanish in that instant. Jiang Yu stood before the dilapidated stall, with the bizarre and fantastical torrent of myriad worlds behind her, the unfathomable "Thousand-Faced Merchant" before her, and the mysterious, uninvited "fellow traveler" to her side. Three invisible auras collided and probed within this confined space.
The shadow beneath the hood of the "Thousand-Faced Merchant" shifted, and a neutral, slightly hoarse voice rang out, as if composed of countless superimposed voices: "A new guest graces my humble abode. May I ask which treasure of mine has caught your eye?" His tone was flat, revealing neither joy nor anger, but Jiang Yu could feel an extremely subtle perception sweeping over her like tentacles, especially the machete in his hand and the list in his pocket.
Meanwhile, the young man in the same industry, who was sucking on a lollipop, looked on with amusement. He even pulled out another lollipop from somewhere, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling, "Old swindler, your rubbish is only good for fooling newbies. This guy is obviously not an ordinary customer, so save your charade."
The young man's words seemed casual, but they were actually pointing out the businessman's usual tricks and testing Jiang Yu's reaction.
Jiang Yu ignored the young man's banter, fixed his gaze on the merchant, and went straight to the point: "I'm looking for fragments of the 'key'." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable penetrating power, directly overpowering the noise of the market.
"A key?" The shadow beneath the merchant's hood seemed to deepen, and he let out a low, enigmatic laugh. "The key the guest speaks of... could it be the key to open the 'final door'? Or... the key to unlock some shackle? There are too many keys in this world." He was playing word games while simultaneously observing Jiang Yu's reaction to gauge how much he actually knew.
“You know what I’m talking about.” Jiang Yu’s tone remained unchanged, but he had secretly infused a trace of “messenger authority” into the cleaver. The blade trembled almost imperceptibly, emitting a low-frequency ringing that only certain beings could perceive. This was the “identity authentication” and “authority display” within the main god system.
Sensing this unique and pure fluctuation of authority, the merchant's body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment, and even the smiling young man next to him instantly sharpened his eyes and put away some of his cynicism.
"So it's... a messenger sent by the 'landlord'." The merchant's tone finally took on a hint of caution, but remained smooth. "My apologies. However, I don't have any 'key' fragments on hand, which are as precious as these. Perhaps... the messenger needs to issue a request? I'm well-informed enough to inquire for you."
He was distancing himself from the matter, implying that he didn't have any fragments, but was willing to act as a middleman while waiting for a better price.
“No need,” Jiang Yu interrupted him, pointing to the most inconspicuous-looking, rusty compass on the stall. “I want it.”
Just now, he clearly felt that when he mentioned "keys," the list in his pocket resonated most strongly with the rusty compass. This merchant was indeed cunning, disguising a real treasure as junk.
The merchant's breath hitched. The young man also raised an eyebrow, revealing an "I knew it" expression.
“Your Excellency has a discerning eye.” The merchant’s voice turned cold. “But this ‘pathfinding compass’ is my prized possession and is not for sale.”
“It’s not a commodity,” Jiang Yu stepped forward, slightly releasing the pressure emanating from his machete. “It’s ‘stolen goods.’ The ‘stolen goods’ you secretly kept from the polluted remnants flowing out of the ‘Abyss Sacrifice Ground.’ I have the right to take them back.”
These words instantly created a tense atmosphere. The merchant exuded a dangerous aura; his wide robes billowed without wind, revealing beneath them not flesh and blood, but a constantly shifting, kaleidoscope-like substance. His ability to access the sacrificial site's remains, cleared by Jiang Yu, suggested his methods and background were far from simple.
The young man also put away his lollipop, his body slightly tense, as if he was ready to make a move at any moment, but his target was unclear. Perhaps he was helping Jiang Yu, or perhaps... taking advantage of the situation?
Just as conflict was about to erupt, a piercing alarm, like the scraping of metal, suddenly rang out above the market. At the same time, a powerful, chaotic, and destructive wave of energy burst forth from a certain area of the market.
"Damn it! It's 'The Cleaners'! Why are they here at this time?!" The merchant's expression changed, and his tone was clearly apprehensive.
The young man spat, "Tsk, they really know how to pick their timing! Are they here for us, or has something that shouldn't have been in the market slipped in?"
Chaos swept through the entire market in an instant, with countless stalls hastily packing up and all sorts of creatures fleeing in panic.
Jiang Yu frowned. "The Cleaners"? It sounded like someone maintaining some kind of extreme rule in the market. His target was the Compass; he couldn't let it be lost at this moment.
He made a sudden, lightning-fast move, grabbing at the rusty compass on the stall.
Almost simultaneously, the merchant also tried to stop him, but the mysterious young man's eyes flashed with a sharp light as he made his choice—with a flick of his wrist, an invisible force field suddenly appeared, neither attacking Jiang Yu nor helping the merchant, but precisely severing the merchant's control over most of the items on the stall and briefly disrupting his movements. "Hey buddy, grab your stuff, I'll hold off this old swindler for a second!" the young man chuckled.
Chance!
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