The Martial Unity

“…And then, we departed from North-West Panama with the Dawnbringer and the Omni-Martial and came home immediately.”

The air in the Martial Union was tense.

Within the mighty Martial Hall of the Martial Union’s headquarters, a large number of Martial Masters and Martial Sages were gathered, seated in accordance with their Martial power and Realm.

Their Martial attire was crisp and fresh, reflecting the importance of the meeting that they were having.

The atmosphere tingled.

The silence was loud.

Not a single Martial Master or Sage could move.

They simply stared at the Flashing Flier with a stunned expression.

“…What?” a stunned whisper escaped Sage Ourlen. “He… what?”

He wasn’t the only one who was utterly bewildered. Every single last one of them was thoroughly frozen with astonishment.

They were thoroughly paralyzed with bewilderment.

“Resurrection…?” not even the Sloth Sage could maintain his composure as his eyes widened. “Such a thing is possible?”

A wave of murmurs swept across the Masters and Sages of the Union.

“I did expect that His Highness would accomplish miracles when he broke through to the Sage Realm, but this…” A shocked murmur escaped the Tempestuous Fortress. “This is beyond my wildest imagination.”

“The Water Sect will gain a massive surge in popularity,” the Flickering Elder heaved a sigh. “It might even surpass our sects and become the single greatest Martial sect in the Martial World.”

That earned a wave of murmurs among the gathered Martial Masters.

“This union… might as well belong to him.”

Master Ceeran’s voice seemed to cut through the voices of the others as it drew everybody’s attention.

And everybody’s ire.

They didn’t like how he framed his words. But at the same time, they were unable to refute his remark.

Rui had been the third most powerful man in all of Kandria even before, behind only the Devil and the Emperor of Harmony.

With this, it was genuinely possible that he had gained the weight of a Sage-level powerhouse by himself.

When he negotiated, when he spoke.

They needed to treat him as a nation all by himself.

It was an unfathomable level of political power that perhaps not even the Emperor of Harmony could fully oppose.

Within the Martial Union, none of the Martial Sages barring the Devil himself would be able to put him in check. That meant that he could essentially order the Martial Union as though it was subservient to him.

And what could anybody do?

He had breakthroughs, he had given them the Hellbringer model, he owned a third of the manifold, and he had apparently even gained the ability to resurrect the dead. On top of that, from what they were able to gather, his Martial Power was beyond anything that any Martial Sage had ever accomplished right upon breakthrough.

Negating the Gu poison was a feat that very few, no more than three Martial Sages, could possibly achieve. And then, there was his Martial Embodiment.

“What kind of Martial Embodiment consumes the entire planet?” A weak laugh escaped Master Zeamer.

He had been beyond shocked by the revelations that the Martial Sages had imparted upon them regarding things that had unfolded with the Dawnbringer.

“Huhuhu…” Master Reina smirked proudly. “As expected of my student. I have indeed trained him well~”

“Bah! He is my student as well!”

“Hmph! If it was because of your teachings, then your other student would have broken through as well!”

The entire meeting ignored the two quarreling Martial Masters be. They had learned the hard way that it was not possible to stop them from fighting.

“The Martial Union does not belong to any one person.”

The Flashing Flier remarked with an unyielding tone. “Yes, certain people have greater influence than others. We are a Martialocracy where power is the only thing that matters. In that regard…”

His expression grew uncomfortable.

He didn’t say the unspoken.

In that regard, Rui was almost unrivaled besides the Devil, who never cared about such matters.

Of course, the Dawnbringer had also never cared for such political power in the first place. This was a man who went as far as to hunt for the Divine Doctor in the Beast Domain and bring him back to heal his father just to avoid the Throne. Thus, in that regard, they knew that Rui would most likely not abuse his extraordinary power to make things go his way against the will of everybody else.

Still, no one could be particularly too fond of the fact that Rui had so much hard and soft power that he could essentially warp the Martial Union to his desires with the sheer weight he pulled. Even though they were all personally very fond of him, it was a different matter when it came to power dynamics.

“He has truly come a long way,” a proud and gentle smile appeared on Headmaster Aronian’s face.

He thought back to memories of old decades ago.

When Rui was just a thirteen-year-old boy who had entered the Martial Academy.

He had taken a special interest in Rui, having noticed that Rui was the only student who used thought-based techniques and systems of thought even before he discovered his Martial Path.

However, not even in his wildest dreams had he imagined back then that Rui would go on to become one of the most powerful people in all of human civilization, reaching the Sage Realm at an extraordinary pace.

It made him feel old.

And yet, he couldn’t help but feel proud of the former student at his Martial Academy. He couldn’t help but feel proud of the extraordinary journey that he had watched from a young age.

He also felt a little happy knowing that he was one of the very few, if not only, people who had known what Rui was like when he was but a boy from an orphanage in the countryside looking to pursue the path of Martial Art.

“What a world.”

His tone was one of euphoric admiration and surreal incredulity. –