The Martial Unity

Rui opened his eyes.

A deep sense of comfort saturated every cell of his body. So much so that he felt reluctant to even move.

To even think.

“What…?” He frowned hazily.

His confusion was palpable.

He didn’t know where he was.

He didn’t know what was happening.

He was unable to connect his current circumstances to his memories.

He didn’t even understand what he didn’t understand.

On the ceiling above was a picture of Bruce Lee. John had plastered it on his ceiling when he moved in, all so that the last thing he would see before the world went dark was Bruce Lee taking his iconic and classic stance.

A surge of nostalgia erupted within Rui.

Yet, it also felt wrong.

He turned to the side groggily inspecting.

[8:59 AM]

His eyes widened with shock.

A digital clock listed the time in Arabic numerals and English letters stared him in the eye. It had been thirty-three years, yet he could never forget the numbers and language from his previous life. After all, John used to work with them all the time.

Rui’s eyes turned to the rest of the room, utterly shaken by what they saw.

There were posters of Bruce Lee across the entire room, featuring different iconic moments as well as his most famous and profound quotes.

Including the one that would go on to become his life’s greatest ambition and his Martial Path.

[Be water, my friend.]

A thundering realization finally struck him as his groggy mind finally woke up fully.

“This…” he whispered, thoroughly bewildered to the depths of his heart. “This was my apartment back in my previous life.”

Having purchased it in Manhattan, New York, long before real estate prices rose, he had lived even longer in this place than he did in the Quarrier Orphanage. It was identical to how he remembered it, identical to how it was in his Mind Palace.

However, he was certain that he was not in his Mind Palace.

No.

There was no doubt that this was the real physical world.

And yet, he was standing in a place that was supposed to be in an entirely different world from the one Rui had been reborn in.

He walked over to the window, his mind boggled, as he peered through it.

He was not ready for what he saw.

His eyes widened with unadulterated raw shock as a world, unlike anything he had ever seen, stretched far beyond what the eye could see. A world with countless living beings of countless species.

From deadly apex predatory species like dragons, phoenixes, liches, basilisks, kirins, krakens, and hydras to docile herbivorous species like catoblepas, blackhinds, unicorns, pegasi, kitsunes, and jackalopes. From ordinary garden-variety vegetation to the most esoteric and powerful flora.

This world had all of them.

They lived in harmony, side by side, in a vast bountiful world that had altered itself to cater to its residents.

It was inconceivable.

So much so that one would have dismissed it as fiction.

Yet, a thundering realization dawned on him as his sharp vision discerned the obscured enormous structure in the deep distance. A tree.

It was so unfathomably gigantic that one would mistake it to be part of the topography if one didn’t pay attention. It radiated a profoundly tranquil sense of power unlike anything Rui had ever felt in his entire life.

It was at that moment that everything clicked.

A flood of memories rushed back to Rui.

While following Kane in his artificially induced state of panic, they had stumbled into a Master-level creature by accident. Rui had tried deterring the creature with the Master-level Mind Mask, but it had backfired horrifically as several more Master-level creatures appeared.

Rui recalled the horror he had felt during the final moments of that encounter as each creature pounced on them with an unfathomable amount of devastating power.

And that was when the very world around him had shifted.

“It worked…” Rui whispered, stunned.

They had succeeded in getting into the Garden of Salvation.

The weight of this realization was heavy. It was difficult to fully comprehend even as Rui wrapped his mind around it. Before, he didn’t even know if the Garden of Salvation was real.

Now, however, he had entered it.

A magical world said to be of paradise.

An amazed smile emerged on his face as he realized that the Garden of Salvation had protected them at the very final moment.

The combined effects of Kane’s artificially induced horror and his own very real horror from having faced Master-level beasts in the flesh seemed to have been enough to trigger their acceptance into the Garden of Salvation.

He glanced at the various creatures in their various habitats with awe.

The rumors didn’t lie.

The world did adapt to their needs.

He glanced around his environment as realization dawned on him.

“Memories…” he whispered. “That must be it. It taps into the memories of a creature to recreate the perfect environment for it.”

That would explain why he found himself in a room that didn’t belong in this world. It would explain why the room was identical to the one that he had baked into his Mind Palace. The world must have tapped into his memories to recreate the environment that the creature had spent the most time. In his case, his apartment in New York.

He glanced back at the window, staring out into the massive expansive scenery out in the distance as his bewilderment only grew.

What truly was the Garden of Salvation?

How could such a place come to exist?

Why did such a place come to exist?

How did it bring him here from the cusp of certain death?

Questions that were previously asked in skepticism and intrigue were now reiterated with unadulterated astonishment and raw bewilderment.

“Awake, huh?”

Rui jolted as Kane’s voice broke out of his reverie, turning to see his best friend.

“Kane…” Rui murmured.

The man walked over to Rui, staring at him for a moment.

BAM!

“Ouch!” Rui grimaced. “What was that for?!”

Kane stared at him wordlessly.

“Oh…right, my bad,” Rui apologized, a smile twitching at the edge of mouth.

BAM!

“You already hit me once.”

“You’re not sorry.”

BAM BAM BAM!

“Ok ok!” Rui suppressed his smile. “I’m sorry, see?”

Kane sharpened his eyes, peering at him suspiciously, only for the smile to return.

BAM BAM BAM!

Rui laughed even as Kane threw a flurry of jabs at him, beating him up until he was satisfied.

“With that out of the way…” Kane huffed cathartically.

His expression grew serious as his eyes sharpened.

His tone darkened.

“You wanna explain what this room around me is?”

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