The Martial Unity

Not a single person had missed the dark tint to the Dawnbringer’s body.

Or the deathly aura that emerged from his body.

“To harness death itself,” Sage Zentra continued with an impressed expression. “He has truly outdone himself. And yet, not even that is the most impressive feat he has achieved.”

No one had missed that he had broken through to the Sage Realm at what appeared to be at will.

That was the most shocking revelation, perhaps even more so than death itself.

“It is possible that it was just a coincidence but…” Sage Kole’s tone reflected her skepticism for such a possibility.

Breakthroughs to the Sage Realm were different from that of the Senior or Master Realm.

They were not all too likely to occur amid combat.

And while being on the verge of death did slightly increase its chances, it was still far from enough. There was a reason that the propagation of this method was banned by the Panamic Martial Federation.

Not a single person could bring themselves to believe that Rui had just gotten lucky on the verge of death, which helped him gain Enlightenment of Self exactly when he needed it. And yet, not a single person dared to utter the implication of this revelation.

Artificial Sage breakthroughs.

It was beyond revolutionary.

It would be world-shattering.

Apprentice, Senior, and Master breakthroughs were revolutionary enough. But Sage-level breakthroughs?

That would break the world on the spot.

Master-level breakthroughs were extremely significant, but they were still limited by the fact that Sages decided the outcomes of war.

Triggering Sage-level breakthroughs would make Rui the single most valued and desired treasure in the history of mankind. There would probably even be nations that would willingly trade him for Martial Transcendents if they could!

Words could not begin to describe the sheer gravity of this revelation.

In that moment, the gathered Martial Sages felt nervous.

They needed to protect Rui, no matter what, while he was in his weakened state.

They, who stood at the very pinnacle of Martial Art, became truly nervous as they realized that they were the ones who needed to protect Rui until he recovered and woke up.

It was the same feeling a normal human being might have if they were walking across a dangerous alley with a briefcase full of money and other valuables.

The fear of the consequences grew the greater the stakes were.

Rui was so infinitely valued by them at the moment that even they could not help but grow nervous about protecting him at all costs.

“For now, let’s return to the Kandrian Empire,” Sage Sayfeel remarked. “His Majesty will want to secure His Highness’ safety immediately at all costs. We can continue this conversation later.”

He carefully lifted Rui’s unconscious body as the other Martial Sages surrounded him.

“Take her as well.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi offered Amare to them.

“She needs him and… he needs her. He will be profoundly upset if he wakes up to find her missing.”

They simply accepted her suggestion with a nod, entirely aware of who the Omni-Martial was and what she meant to the Dawnbringer. Kane carefully accepted Amare’s body with a curious expression as he studied her with interested eyes.

“This place…” Bodhisattva Maitreyi’s words were sorrowful. “Will be dead for a long time.”

A deathly silence had swallowed up the entirety of the Gu.

The lands were pitch-black, as always.

They were dark.

Darker than night.

It was just the Gu.

It was also the Gu poison that Sage Asmodeous had released in his battle against Bodhisattva Maitreyi and Rui, which the latter had redirected into heaven and earth by breathing life into them with metabolism and sentience.

It had caused land across the entirety of North-West Panama to become pitch black. The place has already been devoid of life due to the Gu stealing entire populations of people.

But with pitch black land atop the eerie emptiness of the entire region gave it a deathly hellish luster.

So much so that even the beasts and monsters had begun avoiding the further ends of North-West Panama entirely. Avoided by both the Human and the Beast Domain, North-West Panama would go on to become an absolutely isolated and entirely abandoned region of the continent.

It would go on to be known as the void.

“The poison won’t spread or harm anybody outside this place, but this land itself will never ever harbor life ever again.”

Such was the sheer magnitude of the battle between the two of the most powerful Martial Sages in the entire world. Such was the power of the Demon of Asmodeous, the man once regarded as the most powerful Martial Sage in all of humanity.

And thus, the two parties departed from the battlefield.

“Heavenly Step of Boundless Light.”

Bodhisattva Maitreyi turned into a beam of pure light, reaching the Gen Temple in half a minute while the Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire had to travel the hard way, physically running across heaven and earth as they guarded Rui and Amare within their Sage-level convoy.

“Tsk, I didn’t get to fight that Demon bastard,” Sage Damian cursed.

And thus, the chronicle of the Gu came to an end.

Forever.

And yet, even as the Martial Sages returned from a world-shaking event, the consequences of the event had just begun.

The immense impact of the battle between Bodhisattva Maitreyi and the Demon of Asmodeous.

The immense impact of Rui’s Martial Embodiment washing over the entirety of the planet.

The immense impact of the death of the Demon and his poison of Death.

They were not gone unpunished.

Chaos has spread across human civilization at being drowned in an astronomically gargantuan flood of water.

The ensuing natural disasters had already spread to ever last corner of the globe.

The destruction of North-West Panama had caused the beasts and monsters of the world to redirect their efforts to other parts of human civilization as the consequences of the death of a Sage-level powerhouse had borne down on the entire world.

And yet, that wasn’t the worst part.

The conflict had drawn the attention of the most dangerous beasts and monsters within the mysterious depths of the Beast Domain.

The second quasi-Transcendent beast had emerged from the Beast Domain.

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