The Martial Unity

The Ecologer remained silent as she gazed in the direction of the Emperor of Harmony with a hint of respect. She had heard that he was originally a sage candidate but had been disqualified due to his excessive alliance with a nation. Giving him the power of a sage could potentially lead to the detriment of human civilization.

One of the conditions that the three original sages had set for being accepted for sagehood was becoming a net good for humanity. And the worry had been that an emperor with too much power was most certainly a net negative if history was any indication.

Yet, gazing at him, she felt that he was different.

The Kandrian Empire had gained priceless treasures and had yet to deploy them in any way that was a net negative for humanity. And now, he appeared to have a solution that could potentially solve the clash of interests that had derailed her presentation.

She didn’t mind the latter.

Her presentation had dropped enormous bombs that needed to be resolved before they could move on to other matters. Thus, it wasn’t a surprise that the Sage-level powerhouses had immediately broken into a verbal conflict about the matter.

She simply waited for things to be resolved so that she could continue with her presentation.

“I propose we deploy all our Martial Sages to the Beast Domain in a united joint task-force to take down all the quasi-Transcendents in their habitats in the Central Highlands,” Emperor Rael straightforwardly stated his suggestion. “These creatures routinely exercise their power in the Central Highlands without us ever detecting it. This is undoubtedly because of the heavy flux-inhibitive property of the Beast Domain that also makes it so hard to detect exactly what is happening there. Thus…”

He smiled confidently. “We can deploy our Martial Sages to battle the quasi-Transcendent beings in the Central Highlands where this property of the Beast Domain will protect us from the destruction that will ensue.”

Many of the leaders who were deeply concerned by the destruction of the quasi-Transcendent beasts lit up with approval for this simple but perfect solution to defeating the quasi-Transcendents.

It fixed the biggest concern in an extremely clean and perfect manner without requiring a highly convoluted and extremely complex plan.

However, none of them had missed the glaring price of his plan.

“Naturally, this will leave our homes weakened and under-defended,” Emperor Rael calmly continued. “Under ordinary circumstances, Martial Masters cannot defeat Sage-level beasts and monsters.”

His smile deepened. “Under ordinary circumstances, that is.”

He turned to the Ecologer with a knowing gaze. “However, we have the most brilliant minds of human civilization conjuring up powerful solutions that could make up for this gap. I know for a fact that the solutions that my son will soon provide will be extremely useful and extremely effective. I have no doubt that the Esoterist will also be able to provide supreme solutions as well. With both these solutions at hand, I’m confident that we will be able to drastically improve our effectiveness against beasts and monsters to the point where Martial Sages will no longer be needed to protect our borders from Sage-level beasts and monsters.”

Naturally, everybody had very quickly realized that this plan could only work if the solutions that the Dawnbringer and the Esoterist would soon provide were as good as the Emperor of Harmony’s plan required them to be. “It is indeed dependent on the potency of the solutions that the two solution providers are able to give us,” Emperor Rael calmly acknowledged. “However, this plan solves not just the problem of the destruction of the quasi-Transcendent but also the desires of the Gujincan, the Blood Cult Lord, and the Elder of the Heaven Sect. After all…”

His gaze swept over the three leaders. “Humanity will face many, many tribulations without having Martial Sages at their protection. The pressure that we will sustain at home will be astronomical, leading to a less extreme version of the evolution of Martial Art. I am aware that the three of you have… extreme opinions on accelerating our evolution, but you are also intelligent and experienced enough to understand that most of the fourteen powerhouses of the world will not tolerate your deplorable solutions.”

The three leaders stirred at his words.

They wanted to refute his words, but they knew he was right. They would never be able to convince the others of their radical plans.

Emperor Rael’s plan ameliorated the compunctions of the other leaders with what was perhaps the one and only solution for dealing with the quasi-Transcendent beasts without the destruction of civilization while simultaneously offering a compromise to the pro-evolution leaders.

They knew that they wouldn’t be able to get a better deal than this. Furthermore, the compromise was actually quite attractive. Without the protection of the Martial Sages, Martial Artists would have to evolve or die. They would have to find new and more effective ways to deal with the beasts and monsters. They would have to adaptively evolve if they didn’t want to be wiped out.

Of course, everybody knew that the death toll and the death rate would rise significantly even then.

Unfortunately, that was how natural selection functioned.

As the highest leaders of all human civilization, the scope of their perspectives expanded to hundreds of billions of human beings.

The death of a few billion people would not move them very much. Many leaders regarded Emperor Rael with grudging respect.

He truly lived up to his title.

The Emperor of Harmony had once again managed to provide a path forward that required them to hold their hands together and work together to secure the best outcome. Even his greatest detractors, the three Sage-level powerhouses of East Panama, were inclined to accept his proposal, as much as they hated him.

President Raymond gritted his teeth with frustration, while the fourteen clan leaders of the Sekigahara Confederate glared at him silently. Not even Prime Minister Edward could bring himself to refuse this initiative as much as it burned his soul to do so.

And thus, a silent yet unanimous agreement came to be even as their gazes returned to the Ecologer pointedly.

After all, whether this plan was viable or not depended entirely on what the Ecologer and her colleagues had to offer.

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