The Martial Unity

The Blood Goddess’ eyes widened with shock at Rui’s nonchalant yet unyielding tone.

He wasn’t making a request.

Or a suggestion.

No, he made a declaration.

An announcement.

Despite staring a peak Sage in the eyes, he didn’t exhibit any fear whatsoever.

RUMBLE!!!

The Blood Goddess felt chills crawl up her spine as the tremendous power of the Blood Lord enveloped the entire facility.

No, it enveloped the entirety of the Blood Valley.

“What…” his voice was chilling and menacing. “What did you say?”

Rui simply gazed at him with a calm and composed expression.

“I said,” his voice grew louder. “She’s coming with us. If that’s what she chooses, of course.”

Although Amare hadn’t given him a heads up, he could largely understand why she had done what she had chosen to. He, too, sensed the profound suffering and despair within the Blood Goddess, masked with superficial warped pleasure developed as a coping mechanism so that her mind didn’t break.

He sensed her desire to die.

He knew then that Amare would not let that slide.

It was a pain in the ass.

Especially since he was the one withstanding the pressure from the Blood Lord.

“You think…” he gritted his teeth. “You dare to claim her?”

His expression crumpled with wrath. “HOW DARE YOU?!”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The Blood Goddess and Amare grew horrified at tremendous murderous power overflowing from the Blood Lord, converging upon Rui.

And yet, Rui was unmoved.

“Do you want my Hellbringer and breakthroughs, or not?”

The BLood Lord’s eyes flared with power. “This and that are too different matters entirely!”

Rui shook his head. “No, they are not. Let her go, and you will get everything I came for and more. Fail to comply and…”

Rui’s pitch black eyes grew perilous. “You will face the wrath of two Sage-level powerhouses. One of them being the Kandrian Empire, of course.”

The Blood Lord froze where he stood.

“I can command the power of the Kandrian Empire,” Rui replied. “I can also command the power of the Virodhabhasa Theocracy absolutely. In other words…”

His eyes narrowed. “I can destroy this entire cult to its very foundations.”

It was a bluff, of course.

The fact of the matter was that his father would not tolerate an unprovoked attack on another Sage-level powerhouse defending its own ‘property.’ His solution was one of Harmony, not coercion.

The Virodhabhasa Theocracy indeed adhered to him absolutely, but it was constrained by the Beast Incursion. Of course, he could still harness their power greatly and he could summon some Sages from the Martial Union which was outside of his father’s control, but it wasn’t as easy and simple as it sounded.

The Blood Lord gritted his teeth. “You… can’t do this! She is ours! She belongs to us! Her body is the property of the Blood Cult!”

Those words snapped something inside of the Blood Goddess.

Up until that moment, she was paralyzed in shock at the sheer gravity of what Amare and Rui were trying to do.

His cruel, apathetic words broke her out of her spell.

She narrowed her eyes.

“I am not your property.”

An endless surge of wrath, hatred, and resentment bubbled up from within her as she found the strength to stand up despite all the blood loss she had suffered.

“You do not own m—”

“SHUT UP!” the Blood Lord roared at her with a contemptuous and enraged tone. “YOU ARE MINE. MINE ALONE! YOUR BLOOD! YOUR WOMB! YOUR CHILDREN! THEY BELONG TO ME!”

Her words shook her.

It was the first time he had ever raised his voice at the Blood Goddess.

A goddess he professed to revere.

“I think I actually prefer the devotees of the Virodhabhasa Theocracy,” Rui muttered with disdainful expression. “At least they mean every word they say.”

“I don’t care.” The Blood Lord glared at him. “I won’t give her up no matter what. Even if it means war!”

The air boiled with tension.

The atmosphere crackled with peril.

Rui maintained his composure as he fell into thought.

He had hoped that the threat would be enough.

But, alas, that didn’t appear to be the case.

He was clearly afraid of two Sage-level powerhouses, but his desire to retain the Blood Goddess was overwhelmingly greater than his fear. Unlike a lot of his peers, this peak Sage didn’t possess as much of an ego and was more rational in his evaluation of threats.

It was just unfortunate that simply taking away the greatest treasure was not good enough.

On top of that, Rui couldn’t afford to act on his threats even if his father approved. It would shatter his reputation, and the remaining Sage-level powerhouses, especially the Gu and the Heaven Sect, would reconsider the wisdom of cooperating with a tyrant of a partner that used force to steal the ‘property’ of other nations.

It could potentially end up being a diplomatic disaster that could compromise the entire plan.

He understood that he needed to achieve an outcome that avoided a conflict, achieved an amicable conclusion, allowed him to retain access to the bloodwhirler plant, ensured that the Blood Cult was still a part of the Solution of Harmony, and also satisfied Amare’s annoying whimsy of saving the Blood Goddess.

“Tsk, the things I do for this world.” He heaved a tired sigh, turning to the charged Blood Lord. “I have a deal to offer.”

The Blood Lord remained silent, unmoved.

“What you are essentially seeking is not the Blood Goddess, but her eggs,” Rui remarked with a nonchalant expression. “Her reproductive system. So I will leave the latter to you and take the person, the Blood Goddess, with me.”

The Blood Lord scoffed with a dubious expression. “What nonsense! You cannot separate a person’s reproductive capability from them.”

“You and I can’t,” Rui began. “But the Divine Doctor should be able to effortlessly accomplish such a thing. He should be able to extract all her ovules and even clone her reproductive system or even her entire body to create a functional incubator that can incubate her evolved offspring. This way, once you have safely removed her eggs and gotten samples of her stem cells, you don’t need her anymore, do you?”

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