The Martial Unity

They had finally reached the northern region of the Beast Domain after months of travel through the region. Marked by Galahar Mountain Range, an enormous mountain range that extended in the northwest direction and offered them an enormous view of the north of the Beast Domain.

A vast and diverse world stretched beyond them, filled with all kinds of wonders and miracles that beggared the imagination.

“Crazy world,” Kane remarked, turning towards Rui. “Where to, now?”

Rui glanced to his right. “…Deeper into the Beast Domain, of course.”

He gazed in the direction of the center of the Beast Domain, towards which the entirety of the Beast Domain animal kingdom migrated.

“We are still some distance away from the brink of the Master-level regions of the Beast Domain,” Rui continued.

“You said we aren’t searching for the Garden of Salvation,” Kane raised an eyebrow. “I thought that meant you had some other plan of sorts.”

“I do,” Rui replied calmly. “I’ll execute it soon. We’ll have to get as close as possible to maximize our chances of getting into the Garden of Salvation.”

“If it exists.” Kane heaved a sigh.

Rui smiled wryly. “Yes, if it exists.”

Rui would have loved to believe that the Divine Doctor was a sane man who would never pursue something that had no physical evidence pointing to its existence. However, he could not say for sure. Everything he learned about the Divine Doctor from the Beggar Sage and the memories of the animals that he scanned suggested he was a maniac.

A madman.

Rui, in and of himself, would never try searching for the Garden of Salvation. But now, he had been forced to make plans that assumed its existence and to try fulfilling the conditions needed to get in.

“Huff…” He shook his head. “Let’s go.”

The two of them dove deeper into the Beast Domain, keeping an extremely alert and vigilant eye on their surroundings. Both of them had suppressed their auras to the very limit, refusing to draw any attention.

In the outskirts of the Beast Domain, they had let their auras shine loud and bright to scare off the weaker Apprentice and Squire-level creatures of weaker regions.

But doing that here would get them killed.

“What an absurdly large forest,” Kane muttered as he studied the environment around them.

It was a jungle with lush greenery. From a distance, it was an entirely ordinary sight.

Up close, however, one would realize that each of the countless blades of grass in the forest was taller than a human being.

Each tree was an enormous sky-scraper, while every single animal was gargantuan.

Rui and Kane had been reduced to insects in this region. While Kane marveled at the possibilities of the Beast Domain, Rui experienced a wave of deja vu, recalling that the Great Forest of Hypnonarak had a region similar to it.

“Master Zeamer must have gotten that part of his forest from this region.” Rui smiled wryly. “He’s certainly powerful enough to survive even in this region without any problems.”

Yet, this forest was even larger than the Great Forest of Hypnonarak. The two Martial Seniors truly felt insignificant in such an enormous region. On top of that, there were especially large creatures even within this already enormous region.

RUMBLE!

The very lands beneath their feet shuddered under the seismic radiation that came from every single step these titanic creatures took.

Many of them were considered Master-level in that only a Martial Master possessed the power to take them down. Rui and Kane were definitely eager to avoid such massive creatures, but, thankfully, it was extremely unlikely that they would be able to catch the attention of such powerful creatures.

After all, how often does a fly manage to draw the attention of a tiger?

The biggest issue was that even if they didn’t draw the attention of powerful Master-level creatures, they could still die as a result of their actions. If Rui and Kane were unlucky enough to run into the rampage of the devastatingly powerful creatures, then they would die. At the very least, Kane had absolutely no chance of survival.

Rui’s senses spiked to peak alertness as he immediately applied the Angel of Laplace to the most dangerous threats in the region.

An elephant. Ordinarily, a creature considered to be on the lower end of the Apprentice Realm was a bone-chillingly terrifying Master-level creature now that Rui had been reduced to an insect before it.

Rui’s eyes widened as his predictive model shot him a warning of what was to come.

“MOVE!” He bellowed in warning as his Martial Heart flashed into existence.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The very world quaked as a rampage of enormous buffaloes shook the world around them violently, sending out calamitic seismic radiation with each gallop.

“Let’s go!” The two of them activated their Martial Hearts, shooting away from the region at top speeds. From the perspective of the animals in the region, the region was actually quite small. But from the perspective of the two Martial Artists, it was far too large!

“This place is crazy!” Kane exclaimed. “We could die at any minute!”

“That’s good.” Rui’s gaze sharpened.

“What?!”

“If you feel that way, that means we’re increasingly closer to the brink of Master-level regions that only Martial Master can survive in,” Rui remarked. “Which means we’re closer to the boundary along which the Garden of Salvation exists.”

“Yes, but how the hell are we going to actually enter?!” Kane yelled in frustration.

“Like this,” Rui turned to him, staring him in the eye as he activated a new hypnotic technique.

“Fog of Fear.”

Suddenly, Kane felt boundless primal fear erupt from within the depth of his heart.

It was the most primordial fear that any living creature could experience.

The fear of death.

His body stiffened while his muscles clenched and his pupils dilated as endless amounts of adrenaline and endorphins were poured into his bloodstream.

“AAAAAAAAAARGHHH!” Kane broke out into an all-out panic as he shot off. He mindlessly activated Fulminata Godspeed, running away at top speed.

Rui, on the other hand, maintained his calm and composure, activating Neo Godspeed, his predictive and SOUL models on Kane, trying his best to keep up with the speedster.

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