The Martial Unity

Their conversation continued for a bit more as Rui spoke extensively to his grandmother and got every single detail of exactly what he needed to for the training, getting thorough demonstrations. The Eye of Prophecy was a DIY project that required only one’s self and circumstance that inspired fear. It didn’t need training regimes or training resources that they would otherwise need.

It made sense, as the Silas Clan had been nomadic for many, many years. In order for them to pass on their techniques to their offspring and descendants, they needed a training methodology that would work even with their circumstances.

Soon enough, he had gotten everything he needed from his grandmother as she passed on the Eye of Prophecy to her grandson.

“I recall that I was supposed to give you the VOID algorithm,” Rui recalled with a complicated tone. “We have joined the Water Sect and have already begun training on some of the simplified versions of that expansive and absurdly difficult system of thought. To think that even a diluted version of your ‘VOID algorithm’ is so astronomically difficult to master.”

Rui smiled. The VOID algorithm was indeed extraordinarily difficult to master. So much so that even he needed to use the Mind Palace technique to overcome the hurdles to using it, at least in the Apprentice Realm.

“The complete version is still only known to me and to Ieyasu,” Rui replied. “I will pass on the complete version to the clan. It will take all of you a long time to master it thought. Perhaps when you’re done with that, I can pass on the SOUL System to all of you as well.”

She nodded. “It will most likely take us many years just to master this VOID algorithm of yours, so do not be in a hurry. There is no point in overburdening us with more than we are able to handle.”

Rui nodded with a knowing expression. “Well, I’m glad that matter is settled. I will prepare for using the technique in the Beast Domain when the time comes. But for now…”

His eyes sharpened.

“I want to know about the Transcendent Realm.”

Suddenly, the air grew heavy.

He had touched up on a matter of extraordinary significance to all Martial Sages.

The enticing, addicting power of the Transcendent Realm. If not for the urgent emergency of Amare’s very life and sanity that was at stake, it would have been the very first thing he did.

Matriarch Nephi gazed at him knowingly.

“It is among the very first things that all Martial Sages seek to know after breaking through to the Sage Realm, but unfortunately…” she shook her head. “Very little is known about the Transcendent Realm. For one, no Martial Sage has even the faintest of fathoming of what it even is. The very few seldom times that Martial Transcendents have deployed their power, they bent the very roots of reality to their will in a way that no lesser Martial Artist can. We Martial Sages, as powerful as we are, are still ultimately limited by reality. But the Martial Transcendents…”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Their Martial Art is not bound by the laws of reality.”

Rui grew more impatient and excited by the second. “Surely you know something, right? The Martial Transcendents have not possibly kept quite about the path to the Transcendent Realm.”

“Many Martial Sages who sought to break through to the Transcendent Realm began trying to decrypt his cryptic words,” she continued. “Trying to interpret and execute his advice. Unfortunately, none of them succeeded in using this method. Then, the Astral Sovereign broke through, and when questioned about the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm, he said…”

He recalled the conversation he had had with Transcendent Raizel. The man told him that he was not ready at the time and had even done his spooky little magic, promising to tell Rui when the time was right.

Rui had assumed he meant that he was not ready for the truth of the Transcendent Realm because he was still only a Martial Master, but since becoming a Martial Sage, he had yet to hear the Martial Transcendent speak to him. “They have shared insights about their journey to the Transcendent Realm but…” she shook her head. “Extracting the truth from their recountings has been difficult.”

Rui frowned. “What?”

She gazed at him with a thoughtful expression. “The first hint to the conditions of the Transcendent Realm came from the Martial Primordial himself when he broke through to the Transcendent Realm almost two hundred years ago. The Sages at the time asked him about what the conditions for the breakthrough were and he said…”

Her tone grew heavier.

“…Ye who seek to achieve Transcendence must first discover that there is naught but life in all that there is.”

Rui frowned. “…What?”

“Many Martial Sages who sought to break through to the Transcendent Realm began trying to decrypt his cryptic words,” she continued. “Trying to interpret and execute his advice. Unfortunately, none of them succeeded in using this method. Then, the Astral Sovereign broke through, and when questioned about the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm, he said…”

She closed her eyes with a hint of reverence. “‘No one who doesn’t understand the astrality of everything beyond one’s self will ever achieve Transcendence.”

Rui frowned even deeper.

“A similar song and dance followed as Martial Sages struggled to decrypt his words to achieve Transcendence, and once again, all those who relied on his words failed to break through,” she remarked. “The third Transcendent was the Shield of Gaia. His answer was, ‘One must first uncover the ever-permeating haven that all is before one can harness the Transcendent power that it offers to everything else.’”

The story continued as she conveyed the various conditions for the breakthroughs to the Transcendent Realm that each Transcendent had given.

One after another, she listed all the answers that Martial Transcendents offered.

“You must harness the blade that underlies this plane.”

“You must find the chaos therein and thereout.”

“You must discover the darkness that flows amid all.”

“You must subsume the divergence of heaven and earth and everything above and below it.”

“You must find the breath that purveys that very origin of one and all.”

“You must discover the end of the path.”

“You must discover the weight of everything beyond.”

“You must harness the blood of this universe.”

She heaved a sigh, concluding her summary of all the answers that Transcendents had given as Rui’s eyebrows twitched with frustration and irritation. “What the hell does any of that even mean?!”

–