The Martial Unity

Rui hadn’t expected that Kane would reach the Sage Realm before he did in the three months that he was unconscious. He had already assumed that he would have to break Kane through like he did when he was a Squire. Though he had only partially contributed to his ascent to the Master Realm. This time, however, not only did Kane reach it by himself, he only reached it ‘before’ Rui did.

He did have the manifold, so Rui wasn’t actually sure if it would end up being sooner or later.

“I can’t wait to meet him when all this is over.”

This was even more motivation to finish this voyage across human civilization.

If he was being completely honest, he was starting to get tired of it. These powerhouses were just too goddamn annoying. Not to mention, he had been doing this for more than three years now, and he genuinely would have liked to have seen this through to the end sooner than later.

That desire had grown stronger with each month he spent on this journey.

And it had culminated in a burning desire to be done with this commitment. He had done more than what he would be obligated to for the sake of human civilization. When he was done, he would go home to Quarrier Village and get a good, long sleep.

And that brought him back to the matter at hand.

“…So you don’t think I should go to the Gu because it’s dangerous?” Rui raised an eyebrow. “And you think the Kandrian Empire can compensate for the Gu’s absence despite the fact that the Gu has the most powerful Martial Artists and is the most dangerous Sage-level powerhouse?”

A faint hint of tension hung in the air at his pointed question.

“Yes,” the peak Sage simply replied. “While the Kandrian Empire cannot fully compensate for the absence of the Gu, it is still better than nothing.” “…And what of those nations and people who will fall because the Kandrian Empire could not completely compensate?” Rui’s eyes sharpened.

Elder Diana simply gazed at him impassively.

“They will die.”

Her tone was apathetic.

Callous.

“You…” Rui stared at her, “never recovered from the tilt towards psychopathy, did you?”

She simply gazed at him with a stoic gaze.

“Even before, when you apologized, it wasn’t even because you were sorry for the suffering of the people. It was because you were apologizing for a sub-optimal outcome for humanity’s strategic outlook, weren’t you?”

She didn’t deny his words.

She didn’t give a damn about the actual horrors that the people of East Panama had to go through.

“I…” Rui’s tone was solemn. “I don’t consider myself a saint. But… I’m also not a monster who is unmoved by the suffering of hundreds of millions of innocent people.”

His eyes flared with determination. “The Gu maybe dangerous, but I will undertake this mission if it means protecting the people of West Panama who need the Gu to participate in the Solution of Harmony.”

Without the Gu deploying its Sages to the Beast Domain, at some point, some quasi-Transcendent would emerge in West Panama and lay waste to billions of people. Rui simply could not ignore that. Not just because of the horrors of this calamity but also because it would undermine all his other efforts in West Panama. He helped so many nations and people on that side of the continent, and all that effort would go to waste if the Gu didn’t participate in the Solution of Harmony.

“So, you choose to undertake the foolhardy mission of entering the gu to convince that Demon to partake in the Solution of Harmony?” she raised an eyebrow. “A foolish decision, but it yours to make nonetheless.”

“He didn’t seem unruly in the Human Summit,” Rui frowned. “Do not put weight on that,” she warned him. “He didn’t because it was a virtual meeting. As potent as his poisons are, they cannot infect through information technology. If he can harm you, though, that’s an entirely different question. Your protection will not protect you in the Gu.”

Her gaze sharpened.

“He will gladly invite a war with the Kandrian Empire willingly.”

Rui’s expression grew severe, and even the Heaven Sect, which was quite extreme, warned him of how extreme the Gu was. He realized from her grave tone alone that he was facing a hurdle of the greatest difficulty, far surpassing literally any other nation that he had faced. Not even the Solaris Kingdom or the Nest of Terra could compare to the kind of monstrosity the Gu was. “No time to waste,” Rui narrowed his eyes as he cracked his knuckles. “Get Ieyasu here immediately, the very moment I let him copy my technique, we shall depart for our respective destinations.”

From the moment that Rui had heard of a quasi-Transcendent monster emerging from the Beast Domain, his demeanor had changed.

Gone was the lax attitude of knowing that they had more than a year until the deadline from his grandmother was up. His eyes flared with a fierce determination.

His body language hardened with severity as his expression grew steely.

“I wish I could rush right to the Gu without any pit stops, but unfortunately, the Beast Incursion won’t allow for that,” he remarked with a serious tone. “On top of that… I can’t help but want to help the people we come along the way.”

Amare nodded, strongly agreeing with that sentiment. “Sage-level powerhouses are important, but so is the rest of humanity. We can’t abandon the common people who don’t have Sages or Masters to protect them.”

Rui nodded with a solemn intensity. “But from now on, we can’t afford to waste time. No more frolicking across humanity. No more unnecessary time spent away in each location. We reach, we rest, we get our respective roles done, and then we move the hell on, got it?”

She nodded with eyes of determination. As someone who had heard of the quasi-Transcendent attack in real time, she was deeply moved to do her best to help people come out of their pits of despair.

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