The Martial Unity

The spar went on for quite some time.

Until it finally ended.

“Huff… huff… huff…”

The two Masters were flat on the ground, exhausted by the battle.

Rui, on the other hand, nonchalantly hummed to himself as he appreciated how beautiful the sky was that day.

“Indeed, we must appreciate nature, lest we give it reason to fight back.”

He found himself being strangely philosophical that day.

“You’re too strong, big brother!” Max complained.

“How did you become so strong so fast?” Mana asked with a stunned expression.

He smiled at them. “I have gifts. And I worked very hard and exposed myself to a lot of pressure. The two of you are brimming with potential. Once we Sages depart, you will experience a similar level of head and pressure that will forge you in the crucibles of war and make you stronger.”

The two of them grew serious at the mention of that. “I don’t know how well the Kandrian Empire will fair without its Martial Sages…”

Rui shook his head. “The Kandrian Empire has long achieved Sage-level independence, as you surely know. That means that Masters like yourselves are more than enough to keep the Beast Incursion in check. We Martial Sages will depart to the Beast Domain and like the most dangerous monster and and the one who started all of this.”

They nodded solemnly.

“Alright then, you two train,” Rui remarked. “I… have some other preparations to attend to. Make sure you don’t slack off.”

WHOOSH

And just like that, he disappeared.

He headed towards the Town of Hrava.

The town where his Water Sect was based.

It had been more than four years since he last visited the Water Sect shortly before departing on his journey across the Panama Continent. He had initially created the Sect with the hopes that it would one day help him overcome a bottleneck when he finally hit one.

However, he had expected that bottleneck to be in the Master Realm, not in the Sage Realm.

The path to the Transcendent Realm was unclear, making his path forward hazy. He knew he needed individuality based on his own inferences. And assuming that individuality was central to the path to the Transcendent Realm, he would need a lot of it. Additionally, based on the Transcendent testimonies, he knew that whatever the condition of the Transcendent Realm was, it was deeply connected to their Martial Path. It was deeply connected to the Martial Path.

This meant that he would almost certainly need more Water. More Adaptive Evolution than he had ever had before.

“This must be why the other Martial Sages are so involved in their Martial Sects.”

He had always wondered why Martial Sages cared so much about their Martial Sects when they had so much personal power. He hadn’t understood why they didn’t simply abandon these sects once they got to the Sage Realm, and having heard the Transcendent testimonies, he could understand why. “By spreading seeds of their Martial Path across the entire nation and beyond, they could benefit from the effort of others.”

Individuality was not limited to creating brand-new Martial Art techniques or systems from the ground up. It included alterations and modifications to existing techniques to make them suit one’s self, even if it wasn’t nearly as good. By spreading their Martial Sects as far as possible, they would gain a greater library of contributions which they could potentially adapt to their needs.

Of course, this was almost certainly not common.

The contributions of lesser Martial Artists were, more often than not, entirely useless to Martial Sages who had reached an extraordinary threshold of power.

“Still, it’s worth it…” he mused. “Not to mention, the Water Sect has spread across the entire continent, more or less.”

It was part of the deal for the breakthroughs and the Hellbringer Models. He has spread the Water Sect far and wide and would be getting huge feedback from across the entire continent.

That was a great development.

“I can no longer look inward as I have for the Sage Realm,” Rui murmured knowingly. “I must look outward and everywhere else for the next Realm of power.”

He knew instinctively and logically that he had squeezed every ounce of potential within his own being.

There was not a single ounce of potential for power left within his being.

He had already discovered the Martial Heart, the Martial Mind, and the Martial Soul. He had reached a level of efficiency of squeezing power from his body that he turned even matter into energy.

There was nothing left.

There was nothing left to squeeze.

“Whatever the Transcendent Realm is…” his eyes narrowed, “it’s not within me. That power lies outside, beyond even my fathoming.” His intuition on this matter was very strong.

He suspected that the other Martial Sages had also come to a similar conclusion, which explained a lot of their choices that he previously didn’t quite understand.

WHOOSH

He arrived at the sect after a few minutes, hovering in the sky well above the massive pavilion that covered a great area. It had grown livelier.

The sheer density of human presence had skyrocketed since his last visit shortly before departing from the Kandrian Empire to journey across the Panama Continent. He could see many of the decorations and festivities from his celebrations of the Day of Dawn. The Water Sect was still celebrating his breakthrough into the Sage Realm.

In the central office was the vice-leader of the sect, to whom he had entrusted the management of the sect. The same woman who had been the chief of staff of his political faction when he was competing, or pretending to compete, for the Throne during the Kandrian Throne War.

Her head was buried in her hands as dark bags seemed to have found their way beneath her eyes. Her expression was one of stress and exhaustion.

“Mikhaela.”

She jumped in her seat as Rui arrived before her in the blink of an eye she gazed at him with a stunned expression.

“Your Highness…!”

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