The Martial Unity

It was just barely at the edge of his Riemannian Echo, but he was able to sense the edge of what looked like it should have been the Derimont Bazaar. It was obscured from plain view behind the heaps of abandoned buildings and garbage, yet it was as clear as day to him.

'I probably shouldn't run. That might alarm people.' He had sensed plenty of Martial Artists in the time that he had scanned the place with his senses. That was the reason he was rather cautious about doing anything that could be interpreted as an attack or a raid.

He calmly began walking in the direction of the Derimont Bazaar, despite the amount of time it would take given the distance into the Saiful Abyss it was in. The were plenty of plants, moles, and scouts across the entire Saiful Abyss. He was sure that together, they could provide the Derimont Bazaar with the information needed to have a real-time view of everything happening in the Derimont Bazaar.

It was quite a remarkable place, he understood why the Beggar's Sect used this place as an open avenue for outsiders to contact; it was a place over which they had complete control.

And yet, it was only an hour later when he grew closer to the Derimont Bazaar that he came to truly understand why this place was chosen. He froze on the spot as his senses managed to come across something stunning.

If not for Riemannian Echo, he would have never come across this most likely.

'There is more.' Rui noted with an incredulous tone. 'There is more...beneath the surface.'

His senses managed to detect multiple wide underground cavities beneath the Derimont Bazaar!

His shock only grew the more he explored this new discovery with his Riemannian Echo. Massive spaces that weren't that much smaller than the bazaar atop the surface, were stacked on top of each other like layers of an onion, each hosting millions of people in a bazaar that was connected to the bazaar atop the surface through tunnels.

They were completely hidden away beneath the surface. One could spend their entire life there and never know!

He quickly understood what the existence of these hidden underground bazaars. 'The bazaar on the surface is most likely nothing more than a superficial cover to hide the true bazaars and markets in underground towns below the surface of the Saiful Abyss.'

The deeper his senses went, the more layers of the Derimont Bazaar, each with its own underground markets saturating the wide cavities beneath the ground.

Rui was completely staggered. The fact that the Beggar's Sect went to these extents to obscure their presence in the Derimont Sect was truly astounding to Rui. It showed a dedication to remaining hidden, the likes of which he probably had never seen before, even from himself.

'To think they dug those up just so finding them is basically impossible.' Rui heaved a deep sigh, shaking his head. His task had just been significantly complicated. He actually didn't even know if he would find the Beggar's Sect at this rate.

The words that that woman had told him rang in his mind.

You don't find them, they find you.

It appeared she wasn't exaggerating. Finding a covert intelligence network embedded in the Derimont Bazaar in its multi-layered entirety was probably much harder than finding a needle in a haystack. It was just absurd.

At this rate, he might literally never meet them. He was concealing his identity as a Martial Artist, and most certainly his identity as a Martial Senior. Even if they figured out the former, they surely couldn't be certain of which Realm he was of. That meant that his importance in their eyes was probably minimized.

'Tsk.' Rui tutted inwardly. 'My earlier plan of maintaining a low profile will backfire if the difficulty of finding them is going to be so high.'

He had initially expected that he would be able to gain a meeting with them even if he did not bear his status as a Martial Senior, but that was starting to become increasingly suspect.

Then again, he couldn't just activate his Martial Heart then and there on the spot. That would be interpreted as a sign of hostility, and entering into a dialogue with the Beggar's Sect would be that much harder.

'...For now, let's just explore this place and give it my best shot.' Rui sighed as he forged forward.

Eventually, he finally arrived at the massive bazaar at the center of the Saiful Abyss. It was as large as the town of Hajin in the Kandrian Empire and comprised a dense market of all kinds of things.

It gave off a single impression.

Chaos.

He quickly entered the bazaar, instantly transitioning from heaps of garbage and abandoned buildings to a dense market in a single step, getting his first up-close look at it. A strange mist had come about in the air, obstructing vision slightly. The deeper he walked into the bazaar, the denser it grew.

It couldn't hamper his Riemannian Echo, but it did give the entire place an eerie edge.

His eyes swum around, taking the entire place. The bazaar appeared to be divided into multiple sections, rings, and segments that each focused on a particular kind of product or commodity. A surprisingly thoughtful arrangement by the Beggar's Sect.

The outer-most ring featured all kinds of products but there was a clear theme; written or printed articles. He saw various storekeepers walking around, lugging all kinds of printed articles from street to street and store to store. Books of all kinds, newspapers, scrolls, parchments, and various other things were on display as storekeepers chaotically and spuriously hawked to the people around them.

Yet nobody cared. They merely ignored them and walked on deeper into the Derimont Sect. Nobody went out of their way to go to a place as dangerous as the Derimont Sect to buy some measly books.

Rui was actually surprised they even bothered to sell books in this kind of place. It made no sense to him at all.