The Martial Unity

Victory.

She panted heavily as she beheld his corpse.

She didn’t know who he was. She didn’t know where he came from. All she knew was that she had fought what was the most significant and important battle of her life. That was saying something.

While she wasn’t the oldest of Martial Artists, she certainly was quite old despite retaining her youthful beauty. She had fought countless battles across centuries.

From her childhood days of being raised in the Underworld, where she had gained her foul tongue, to the many, many battles she had fought as a Martial Artist.

Yet, she instinctively felt that none of those battles were as important as the one from which she had just emerged victorious. My fear drove me forward. Your fear holds you back. You will obtain unfathomable power should you ever unshackle yourself.

Ironically enough, despite the fact that he had been fueled by her own Martial Art, it was these words that struck her the most out of all the other words that he had uttered to her across the battle.

Those words caused her to reconsider her entire perspective on her predicament.

She was indeed terrified of being reduced to a joke of a Sage who couldn’t even kill another Sage. She cared about how she was perceived by others more than she would ever admit.

Yet, she also fought for power.

And there was absolutely no way around the fact that she would be exponentially stronger as a Martial Sage than she could ever hope to be as a Master.

You will obtain unfathomable power should you ever unshackle yourself.

She felt a deep desire to unlock the power hidden within her, waiting to be unleashed.

“…But what if?” A whisper escaped her. What if all her life’s work went to waste in the Sage Realm?

It wasn’t just a matter of becoming the laughingstock of the Sage Realm—that was bad enough by itself—but she loved the Martial Art that she had cultivated so far.

She loved breaking people. It was the same kind of joy that a child might have from toppling over a tower of blocks.

She knew that deriving as much enjoyment from other people’s suffering did not make her a good person, yet she loved it nonetheless.

She loved insulting and roasting people.

She loved instigating people’s emotions.

She especially loved using it to win a losing battle.

It gave her a rush of excitement and euphoria that nothing else could even begin to compare to. It was not an exaggeration to say that the yearning to experience the thrill and the high that she had experienced from this battle was half the reason that she had even fought at all.

If her Martial Art happened to be irrelevant to the Sage Realm, then she would never be able to experience the joy and ecstasy that she gained from wrecking Martial Artists again.

What was the point of entering the Sage Realm if she lost one of her few joys?

She could apply it to Masters even as a Sage, of course.

But… that was just boring.

She wasn’t interested in bullying ants with a magnifying glass.

If she truly strove to rise to the Sage Realm, then her only playmates had to be Sages and no one else. Those she would be able to apply her Martial Art to would be too weak for her to enjoy herself. Those strong enough for her to be able to have fun could very well be immune to her Martial Art.

Her heart sank as her thoughts seemed to lead her back to her decision not to pursue the Sage Realm in fear of the consequences.

She gazed at his corpse one last time, heaving a sigh before turning away and heading back. That was a mistake.

SPLAT!

Her eyes widened as a horrifying wave of pain flashed through her body, from her back to her torso.

DRIP DRIP DRIP…

An expression of horror appeared on her face as she saw a hand sticking out from the new wound in her torso.

The hand of a dead man.

“You shouldn’t have let your guard down.”

The composure and calm in his voice gave her chills as she slowly turned to catch a glimpse of him.

The colors of his face were returning while his eyes had regained their light.

“Impossible…!” A faint whisper escaped her as she felt her own strength fading. Not only did her strength fade, but she also felt a powerful paralysis overcoming her entire Body, refusing to allow her to move.

“Nothing is impossible.” His tone was certain. “You shouldn’t trust your senses nearly as much as you do. I once copied a hypnosis technique that allows me to fake death in my Body along with a Body technique that reduces my metabolism to the point of appearing death-like.”

She felt sharp flashes of pain across her entire Body even as her paralysis grew stronger.

It was then that it occurred to her that he was doing more than just impaling her Body.

“What… are you doing?” She barely managed to squeeze out that question amidst all the extraordinary pain and paralysis that flooded through her own Body.

“I am assimilating your Body.”

Shivers crawled down her spine. “What…?!”

Yet, his hand dug into her Body deeper and deeper.

“My wounds are severe.” His voice was as stoic as ever. “I judged that even if I escaped here, I would not survive the wound even with a healing potion because it hit too many vital organ systems.”

His tone grew more energetic. “My solution is simple. I will absorb your tissue, break it down, and have it serve as the basis for my healing and regeneration.”

She shook as a wave of shock rocked her entire Body. “You… what?”

“I call it…” A whisper escaped him. “…the Assimilative Metabody.”

It was a technique that was born from the combination of the principles of Weaving Blood that he had copied in his duel against Rui twenty years ago and several other Martial Art that he had assimilated to upgrade the technique. –