The Martial Unity

His attention returned to the Elder Tree.

“Well, I have concluded my business here,” Rui replied. “Use the temporary authority over the Beast Domain that I have bestowed upon you well and wisely. Do your best to ensure that the Panama Continent isn’t overrun by our enemies. In return, we will keep our promises to you.”

Very well. I will contact you in the true world if and when I have achieved a more thorough infiltration of their flora network.

Rui didn’t have much hope that he would be able to do that.

If the Elder Tree could do it, then the dark elves of the Genora Continent could do it as well.

This meant that the other races and continents must have likely developed an understanding of flora hacking and must have developed means and mechanisms to at least ameliorate the problem.

“Good luck and goodbye, Elder Tree,” Rui bade it farewell.

Likewise, may you succeed in what you seek to achieve in the true world.

And just like that, Rui departed from the Beast Domain.

He had achieved what he came for, which was to bestow the authority over the Beast Domain to the Elder Tree and to gain more insights into the dark elves, making him more equipped to deal with them when he went to visit the Genora Continent.

However, his business on this continent was not yet concluded.

“I need to work out a big deal with the guardian angel of our seas,” Rui muttered to himself. “Otherwise, no trade can possibly happen.”

They needed to come up with a mechanism that made the Great Nam Ocean only target hostile invading forces of the true world. They needed to ensure that merchant ships and trade vessels could flow between the six continents smoothly without impediment.

Otherwise, it would not have been possible to conduct high-volume trade between the two continents. Aircraft transport was too little for too high a cost compared to ships and other seaborne vessels.

WHOOSH!

Rui surged across the Panama Continent at high speeds as he activated his Realms of power to a high degree, moving as fast as he could. It wasn’t too long before he completely departed from the continent and entered the Great Nam Ocean.

The very moment he moved underwater, he was confronted with a whole new world of life that greatly diverged from anything that existed on the surface.

The tree of life was a large tree with many major branches.

The largest branches comprised the kingdoms.

The second largest branch split-off, however, was between land and marine life.

The two massive biospheres diverged from each other tremendously.

Creatures that were utterly alien could be found in great numbers within the depths of the ocean.

WHOOSH

Rui swam through the waters of the Great Nam Ocean, moving deeper and deeper as he used the Forge of Creation to create a technique to breath underwater, adaptively evolving to his environment.

The deeper he went, the darker the ocean grew.

The more it began impeding even his extraordinary senses.

The size and power of lifeforms also began increasing.

All manner of krakens, leviathans, scyllas, bloops, and other monsters of terrifying power existed within the unfathomable depths of the Great Nam Ocean.

Strangely enough, they didn’t attack him.

They simply avoided him.

He headed deeper and deeper as he felt a powerful gravitational pull.

One that deviated from that of Gaia’s.

It was none other than the gravitational pull of the Jormungandr himself.

STEP

Rui arrived at the ocean floor, under almost destructively intense pressure that bore down on him with such a magnitude that not even he could easily withstand it.

Before him was none other than the Great Jormungandr.

Or at least, its head.

Its head alone was as large as the average planet.

Its eyes were the size of moons.

It was by far the largest creature that Rui had ever beheld in his life.

Its head was before him.

Its tail was behind him.

The creature truly did encircle the entirety of the Panama Continent.

It was a creature that could bring about the destruction of Gaia if it truly desired. Each of its massive pitch-black scales was titanic in its magnitude, and essentially indestructible, composed of a truly mind-boggling amount of esoteric matter.

It was so unfathomably indestructible and powerful that Rui truly felt helpless before an entity of this caliber. There was virtually nothing that Rui could do against the great serpent if it chose to attack him at that moment.

Nothing that all of life could do.

He would much rather pick a fight with the eldritch chimera than this extraordinary lifeform that was truly worthy of its designation as a Transcendent force.

It beheld him with deep, eerie, serpentine eyes.

Its pupils were sharp slits that fixated him with an inhuman interest.

The weight of its gaze exceeded the weight of the Great Nam Ocean, pushing down on him.

It regarded him with a faint hint of interest.

“Jormungandr.” Rui began with a slightly unnerved tone. “We need to figure out a system that will allow ships to sail back and forth between the Panama Continent and the true world.”

The serpent didn’t move.

It could afford to move.

And yet, Rui could sense its emotions.

It could sense what it had to say.

It didn’t particularly care about the matter.

Rui frowned. “If we don’t have trade, we will have war. And it is a war that we will lose even with the help of your domain. The Great Nam Ocean is powerless in a race to space and from an orbital bombardment.”

The Jormungandr didn’t appear to find this possibility very pleasant.

“That’s why we need to figure something out,” Rui replied with a knowing tone. “Some kind of system will allow trade to occur while ensuring that warships and others of the like are bombarded. Here’s what I have in mind…”

Rui had come up with a plan that allowed even the dumb animals of the ocean to distinguish between civilian and warship.

It was based off of energy signature and oceanic radiation.

Warships above a certain caliber produced energy that would undoubtedly be above a certain degree of power. It would likely generate heat and radiation that greatly exceeded that of civilian ships and trade vessels.