The Martial Unity

The Heaven Sect was a generally difficult powerhouse to deal with. For one, they were unapologetically arrogant.

They thought they were the best and the strongest and that there was nobody above them. They thought they knew right, and nobody knew better than them. That was why even if they agreed with his father’s plan on paper, they were not inclined to accept it since it had come from someone else.

It was frustrating that there were nations with such an aggressive level of arrogance. It went far above and beyond the normal level of arrogance that he expected from the average Sage-level powerhouse.

“I just hope we get through them without any annoying nonsense.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t see that happening. The Heaven Sect rarely accepted anything straightforwardly. Rejecting proposals and looking down on people was almost baked in their genes from having lived up in the clouds for this long.

“Living up in the clouds…?” Amare tilted her head.

“You don’t know?” the Blood Goddess raised an eyebrow. “The Heaven Sect landmass—or should I say cloud mass?—is in the sky.”

“What?! Really?” Amare’s eyes lit up with fascination.

“Yes,” Rui nodded. “I haven’t been there personally, but I’ve been to similar places in the past on a small scale.

He thought about Master Zeamer’s Cloudia.

“But to do it on the scale of a country…” Rui muttered. “That’s quite crazy.”

“…It’s like the opposite of the Nest of Terra then.” Amare realized. “They specialized in heaven bending, so they decided to live in it.”

Rui shook his head. “More like they specialized in it after they already began living on it. Regardless, I don’t know where their arrogance comes from or if it’s from constantly looking down upon the rest of the world, but I do know that I’m genuinely not eager to meet these fellows; it is almost guaranteed that they will reject my offer.”

“What do you intend to do then?” Amare asked with an uncertain tone. “Play their pride against them,” Rui replied with a certain tone. “Challenge them into a wager that I’m confident that I can win. Their pride will not allow them to refuse. Then, I just challenge them and beat the living daylights out of them.”

It was a simple strategy on paper, but the execution is what mattered most. He needed to choose his words carefully. And made sure that he timed his traps at precisely the right moment to make sure that their pride simply wouldn’t allow them to reject his challenge.

“But… in order to challenge their pride, you need to make a really provocative challenge,” the Blood Goddess remarked with a knowing expression. “…That’s dangerous as you can’t make any safe challenges that you would obviously win. But something so outrageous that it genuinely insults them.”

Rui nodded. “I know, but unfortunately for them, they have so much pride that they can’t even imagine that I am so far above their Masters.”

The Blood Goddess simply listened to his plan.

Amare had told her about the time that Rui fought two Sages, which she still found hard to believe. On top of that, he had apparently defeated Amare in a head-on battle, which she knew was very difficult firsthand.

“Well…” the Blood Goddess heaved a sigh. “If you’re that confident, I suppose.”

“My confidence comes from a consistent track record and substantiated reasoning based on reality,” Rui replied. “I don’t deny that there is a possibility that I end up losing, but it’s unlikely, to say the least. Besides, I don’t think challenging a Master will work in the first place.”

“…Don’t tell me,” Amare’s eyes widened with surprise. “You plan to—”

“I have no choice,” Rui replied with an exasperated sigh. “In order to completely play into their arrogance as much as possible, the challenge needs to be insulting.”

“…You’ll die!” Amare’s tone was frantic.

Rui smirked. “Managed to survive twice.”

She glared at him. “That was because I intervened just in time the second time.”

“I know, I have some plans to make it more viable,” Rui replied. “Don’t worry, I’m not suicidal. I will be able to emerge alive. And will have achieved their obedience with it as well.”

Amare was clearly unsatisfied with that explanation, but she knew that there was no way that she was going to change his mind. “That’s not all, is it?”

Rui smirked. “You know me well. You’re right. I have another objective.”

He gazed at his hands. “I also want to test how much my limit has been raised ever since I did the blood evolution treatment.”

“I knew it,” Amare huffed an exasperated sigh. “That obsession with your Martial Art will get you killed one day, you know?”

“Probably.” Rui closed his eyes. “But if so, that is a fate that I have embraced from the very start.”

He knew what he was getting into from a long time ago, ever since he had resolved himself to be strong after almost being kidnapped at the age of eight. Having narrowly been saved by a disguised Sage Sayfeel, he had resolved to become a Martial Artist despite the perils of the path.

Admittedly, he had only gotten increasingly obsessed with his Martial Path and Project Water since then, doing crazier and crazier things in pursuit of this grand personal ambition.

The peak point arrived when he reached the Master Realm and realized that he couldn’t even veer away from the path, even if he wanted to. It was almost as if he was forced to pursue this path by something.

Regardless, he didn’t intend to stop consciously or subconsciously.

There was a time when he feared what his death would do to the people he loved, especially his mother. But after she passed away, he didn’t really care about the consequences of his death.

“Still, like I said,” he remarked. “I don’t intend to die, and I’ve gotten stronger and stronger in this journey, more than I could have ever imagined. The Kandrian Empire was indeed holding me back more than I ever imagined.”

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