The new direction the Observer had resolved carried him away from the seven columns and into a stretch of the Middle Domain that thinned as he walked it, the formations growing sparser rather than denser, the self-luminous landscape opening into something closer to the emptiness near the Ninth Gate's entry point than the rich density of the chamber's coordinates.
He noted the change without alarm.
The Middle Domain did not appear to distribute its significant content evenly. Density and sparseness both carried meaning here, the same way a forest clearing carried meaning different from the trees around it. He had learned that lesson at the deep zone's clearings on Tianyuan Star. He applied it now without needing to relearn it.
"It's quieter here," Lei Bao observed.
"Yes."
"Quieter is not always better."
"No," Lin Yi agreed. "But it isn't always worse either."
He kept walking.
