The Martial Unity

Thus, while the world slowly began moving towards making the Solution of Harmony viable, Rui and Amare continued their journey into West Panama.

“I feel as though nations in the West are holding up better than the ones that we ran into in the East,” Amare muttered with an interested tone. “What’s especially strange is that it doesn’t feel as though they necessarily need our help as much as South Panamic nations did.”

Rui shook his head. “It only feels that way because we’re entering this region more than two and a half years after the Beast Incursion began. In other words, these nations have had more time to naturally adapt to the beast tides than the nations that we visited in South Panama, which in turn were more prepared than the nations I visited in East Panama.”

On top of that, the Esoterist’s solutions permeated across all parts of the continent equally.

In other words, humanity was naturally growing stronger against beasts and monsters as time passed.

In fact, Rui feared that certain nations in North Panama would value his Hellbringer model and breakthroughs to a lesser extent. This would make them more arrogant and obnoxious to deal with in the worst-case scenario.

Of course, most sane nations would still value such priceless assets in times of an apocalypse, but unfortunately, as Rui’s voyage through humanity had revealed; not all nations were rational.

In fact, it was not an exaggeration to say that most nations he ran into were rather irrational in their decision-making. Up until that point, the only truly amenable nations to work with were the Gen Temple, the Sekigahara Confederate, and the Britannian Empire.

All other nations had proven to be a pain in the ass to varying extents.

“Speaking of which,” Amare continued with a curious tone. “What is our next Sage-level powerhouse to visit?”

Rui narrowed his eyes.

“The Blood Cult.”

She stirred with a hint of discomfort. “That doesn’t sound like a fun place to be…”

Rui heaved a sigh. “It isn’t. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it is probably the strangest of most deviant Sage-level powerhouse, aside from maybe the Gu. But the Blood Cult is definitely the eeriest of the powerhouses. They are simply a cult of like-minded weirdos who are obsessed with blood, as the name suggests.”

Her eyebrows rose with even more curiosity, morbid as it was. “Obsessed with blood… but why?”

“…The story is actually interesting,” Rui remarked. “It starts with the founder of the Blood Cult, the Blood God himself.”

Amare’s eyes lit up. “The Transcendent?”

“He was from the very first generation of Martial Artists to kick off the Squire Revolution,” Rui continued. “It is said that he harbored the desire to reach godhood.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “Godhood? Back in the Squire Revolution? I wonder what he thought that even meant before all the successive Realms were even discovered.”

“Well, it is unusual. However, there is no doubt that the Squire Revolution impacted him into thinking that the path to godhood was through physicality,” Rui replied thoughtfully. “And, well, blood is one of the most important and universally omnipresent liquid across the entire body, supplying energy to the entire body that it became the root of the obsession of the Blood God. It is said that he grew obsessed with blood. He believed that if he could evolve his blood and elevate it to a divine level, then he too would become divine.”

Rui shook his head with a contemptuous expression.

“And?” Amare asked with a curious expression. “Did he succeed?”

“Well…” Rui stirred at the thought. “It’s hard to imagine that he succeeded. On the other hand, he is a Martial Transcendent. So, who knows? It’s possible that everything I have told you isn’t actually true and is just an embellished myth or legend. I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care.”

He intended to his job and then get the hell out of there when he was done. “…Sounds so scary, but also strangely exciting.” She wore an enthusiastic smile.

Rui raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think any reasonable person would be excited about going to a crazy cult. The Blood Cult is one of the most insular Sage-level powerhouses in the entire world. The world tries its best to avoid dealing with them because of how crazy they are. And also because of how strong they are.”

“Are they especially strong among Sage-level powerhouses?” Amare asked him. “…It’s hard to say,” Rui replied. “They are extremely strong as far as Martial Art is concerned, but they don’t have any siege technology whatsoever. In turn, they have a whopping eighteen Martial Sages. On top of that, they have the most powerful Martial Bodies in all of Panama.”

Rui was surprised when he learned about this.

He had thought the Kandrian Empire’s Body Evolution was surely the strongest with the upgrades from himself, the Divine Doctor, and the Gatekeeper.

However, Blood Cult invested an astronomical amount of capital into its body evolution over the past five hundred years. Over time, the gap between their Body Evolution and everybody else’s only grew wider and wider.

On top of that, it is rumored that they, too, had found the Divine Doctor and gained his insights into blood.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rui remarked thoughtfully. “There is probably no one better to consult in that regard. Their powerful Martial Bodies are one of the reasons that they have eventually gone on to become a Sage-level powerhouse. The Martial Body is the foundation of all Realms that come thereafter. When you strength the Body Evolution, you strengthen everything else. I’m sure that their Martial Hearts and Minds are also among the strongest.”

Of course, this approach also had its drawbacks.

“There is a reason that basically no powerhouse chooses to hyperfocus all their resources in one dimension.” Rui shook his head. “Diminishing returns reduces the return on investment compared to spreading out your focus. The Blood Cult is just fortunate that the Martial Body is so important that they truly benefited from all their efforts.”

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