The Martial Unity

The Gatekeeper opened his eyes slowly.

He saw an indistinct ceiling and heard indistinct murmuring.

His attention was hazy, yet he could instinctively tell that a long time had passed since he had last been awake.

His eyes turned to his side, only to find himself gazing at the man he had seen before collapsing.

His consciousness was jolted as he felt the young man’s aura.

It was that of a Martial Master.

“I see…” he whispered. “…I have slumbered for long.”

What he last recalled was a young man who was surely a Martial Senior. The fact that Rui stood before him as a Martial Master undoubtedly meant that decades had passed since he had last fallen asleep.

“It’s been three years since we last met, Sir Armstrong.”

The old man’s eyes widened with shock.

“Calm down.” Rui could directly feel the immense emotion that this revelation had inspired within him. “You’ve just recovered; it would be wise not to stress yourself.”

“That is correct.”

Another voice drew his attention.

“I would be deeply displeased if the patient that the little inheritor had me step away from my research for my patient to die anyway,” the Divine Doctor complained.

The Gatekeeper did not know who the man was despite recognizing him as his savior.

“…Thank you.” He tried getting up slowly. “Thank you for sa—”

“An ordinary medical team should be able to handle the rest.” The Divine Doctor huffed at Rui, leaving the room.

Rui smiled wryly at the Divine Doctor as his gaze returned to Sir Armstrong. “Don’t mind him; he doesn’t do bedside manners all that well. I have already arranged for another medical team to take over your recovery.”

“…Impropriety is hardly a price for the gift of life.” He gazed at his hands. “I feel remarkably good.”

Rui smiled. “I hired the best of the best.”

“…You have my gratitude, Void Prince,” the Gatekeeper remarked. “I verily offer my congratulations on your breakthrough to the Master Realm despite ascending the throne. It seems that you have not let the latter impede your progress as a Martial Artist. That is quite remarkable.”

Rui’s smile grew wryer. “I didn’t ascend the throne.”

The Gatekeeper furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“Emperor Rael Di Kandria has recovered from the Eternal Dream Disease and has now returned to the throne.”

Realization dawned on the Gatekeeper at those words. “You have been busy the past three years.”

Rui shrugged nonchalantly. “I suppose that is true.”

The Gatekeeper’s attention returned to his hands. “I do not consider myself worthy of such a service.”

Rui shook his head at those words.

“You have made many contributions to the Kandrian Empire.”

That was undeniably a fact. Aside from Rui himself, there probably had not been any Martial Senior that had made as much of an impact on the Kandrian Empire as the Gatekeeper.

“And there are still contributions that you can make even now.”

The Gatekeeper raised an eyebrow.

“The training technique that you used to integrate the Hungry Pain technique into your body,” Rui reminded him. “That is a technique that the Kandrian Empire could really use.”

He recalled how the Gatekeeper had told him about how he had managed to integrate Rui’s Hungry Pain into his body despite the fact that it had been created long after his Martial Body.

“I have always shared all my techniques with the Kandrian Empire, but…” The Gatekeeper shook his head. “That technique is something that will take a lot of time. Most will not be willing to waste all that time to fall behind their peers. I did it because I had already explored all other paths to their conventional limits. But in this case, it was entirely uncharted territory, allowing me to make a lot of gains.”

Rui smirked. “You don’t have to worry about time. We will get lots of it soon.”

The Gatekeeper frowned at his words, unsure of what they meant.

“That’s for later, of course,” Rui explained. “You’ve been healed from the damage you took from your forbidden technique, but you will still need time to recover to your peak from years of being in a coma. Also, ideally, never use that technique again.”

Rui still wasn’t sure why the Gatekeeper felt the need to deploy such an absurdly dangerous technique in a duel, but he understood that this was a hardcore man whose decisions were not necessarily guided by the cost-benefit analysis.

However, he did look forward to getting the training technique that the man used to retroactively integrate the Hungry Pain into his Martial Body.

When combined with the time-accelerated dungeon, that technique could be used to upgrade all techniques in Kandria.

In addition, it was possible that they could deploy the Divine Doctor to reduce the time needed to integrate the Hungry Pain into the Martial Bodies of the Kandrian Empire. This would ultimately benefit Kandria greatly in the war, and his father’s ambitions would inevitably trigger this.

Rui also considered informing the Martial Union that he had cracked the secrets of the Yin-Yang Shield.

For now, however, he was inclined to keep it to himself until he was able to provide concrete results. Just as with the Hungry Pain technique, he didn’t just hand it in immediately and only did so after he got everything that he needed.

He also had some ideas in regard to how he could utilize some of its principles to solve some of his problems; thus, he intended to spend a lot of time experimenting with the principles of the technique so that he could make it his own.

He had previously been uninspired for exactly what projects to embark on to solve some of his greatest problems. However, ever since his battle with Master Vertol where he faced the Yin-Yang Shield technique, he had some exciting ideas.

“I look forward to pursuing physical evolution once I have recovered.”

The Gatekeeper’s voice broke Rui out of his reverie.

“You’ll have the chance to do just that,” Rui assured him.

–