The Martial Unity

This was not what Rui had expected from the secret of the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm. He was not in the mood for riddles, especially not from Martial Transcendents, who seemed to have a penchant for riddles.

He also noticed that the knowledge about the condition for breakthroughs grew increasingly less clear and became less known with each Realm that he reached. The Squire Realm was understood to be a science and was literally artificially created. The Senior and Master Realms had less clarity but were still relatively well known.

The Sage Realm was indescribable and beyond words for Martial Sages, with them only passing on the condition of Enlightenment of Self to Masters. With the Transcendent Realm, however, it appeared that the only thing that Martial Sages inherited from the next Realm were vague and uncogent flowery metaphorical descriptions of the breakthrough condition. Worst of all, they were contradictory to each other.

Rui’s eyes sharpened as he fell into thought. “Well, let’s assume that they’re sincere and not playing a collective prank on all of us.”

From his conversation with the Astral Sovereign, he knew that the man was trying to cultivate as many Martial Transcendents as possible to face the fear that only Martial Transcendents experienced.

Thus, it was unlikely that the man would try to sabotage people from entering the Transcendent Realm with a lie.

“If they’re all being sincere and the conditions of the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm are contradictory, then…” Rui’s eyes lit up, “it must mean that the breakthrough condition is different for each Martial Sage. Or alternatively, there is a deeper underlying condition that manifests differently for each Martial Sage breaking through to the Transcendent Realm.”

It was hard to say which interpretation was likely. “You have arrived at the conclusion in seconds that took us many years to arrive at,” Matriarch Nephi remarked with an impressed expression, “it took us a long time to realize that simply blindly following a Martial Trancscendent’s preachings will not get us to the Transcendent Realm.”

“Well, it’s just the logical conclusion,” Rui shrugged lightly, still immersed in thought. “I am assuming that the Martial Transcendents know that simply blindly following their words will not allow any Martial Sages to achieve Transcendence. So why didn’t they tell the Martial Sages as much?”

Assuming that they sought more Martial Transcendents, then wouldn’t averting Martial Sages from spending much of their time wasted on following their advice be a good thing?

Rui’s mind lit up with activity as he computed many possibilities. “It may be that it truly is the truth from their perspective,” Rui mused. “Or perhaps even the condition to the Transcendent Realm is something that each Martial Sages necessarily needs to discover for themselves.”

Rui recalled how the Shield of Gaia left the barest minimum of the cryptic clues regarding the Scriptures of Terra for the Nest of Terra to discover. Rui didn’t understand at the time, but it made sense in hindsight after he got his hands on the Scriptures and comprehended their nature.

Their was merit in allowing Martial Artists to discover it for themselves.

The individuality that came from discovery and interpretation was not only invaluable but also necessary for Martial Artists to benefit from gaining their hands on the Scriptures of Terra. The Scriptures were already far too extraordinarily difficult to master inherently; if the perspective of those discovering and interpreting it was colored with that of someone else’s, they would not interpret it in an individualistic manner, which would, in turn, reduce their compatibility with it. With their compatibility reduced, the difficulty of mastering it would rise astronomically higher. Someone like Amare would probably never be able to master his version of the Scriptures of Terra, which was a system of thought, but she would be able to master the Scriptures of Terra in her own way, relying on her extraordinary kinesthetic learning.

“If something similar is the case for the Transcendent Realm…” Rui muttered with a hint of realization, “then I can understand why they have chosen not to say more and guide Martial Sages more. Perhaps the very condition to the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm is so individualistic that one needs to discover the condition to the Transcendent Realm for themselves in their own interpretation.” Of course, this was just a hypothesis.

He had no idea whether or not this was true, and it was just conjecture that was consistent with the evidence that he had at his disposal. He wondered when he would hear the words of the Astral Sovereign.

“Hopefully, not too much longer for that,” Rui murmured uncertainly. “Many Martial Sage have drawn their own conclusions and truths from this mysterious riddle,” Matriarch Nephi remarked. “However, the one thing that all of them agree upon is that individuality is the most important element of the conditions of the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm.”

Rui nodded. “Even though the stated answers from the various Martial Transcendents are vague and contradictory with each other, it is clear that each of their answers is colored in their Martial Paths.”

He wasn’t too familiar with all the Martial Transcendents, but he did know some more than the others and it was clear that it was deeply connected with their Martial Paths.

That was why he knew that regardless of which interpretation or hypothesis was true, individuality, in some way, was fundamentally important to the breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm. “Well, I suppose that’s better than nothing,” Rui remarked, “I suppose that I will have to forge my own path to the Transcendent Realm from this point on.”

He looked forward to it. Nothing thrilled him more than individuality because it meant more Adaptive Evolution for him to develop. However, it was also true that in the past, he had a more definitive direction in which to go down. Even in the Sage Realm, he had a clear objective and direction in mind.

Now, however, the path to the Transcendent Realm was a path that not even he could choose.

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