The Martial Unity

The bitterness and frustration of not being able to go back to Martial Art being the most dominant force in the world was undoubtedly one of the things that drove them to wanting to get rid of the new path that they saw within Arastia.

The biggest impediment was, of course, Rui.

Despite making it clear he understood and sympathized with their sentiment, he also made it clear that he was absolutely committed to his protection of all blood children around the world. He would not allow for the genocide of one million children of the hemosapien race.

“So, does that mean that you intend to just watch Martial Art become extinct?” Matriarch Nephi asked her grandson with a sharp gaze. “Will you allow your family’s prophetic legacy to simply disappear. Will you allow Martiality to cease to exist?”

The Martial Sages gazed at Rui with deep, piercing eyes as they directed all their attention to him.

His response would determine the future of their relationship with him.

Most Martial Sages regarded Rui as a leader of Martial Art.

He led them in their battle against the eldritch chimera, was the strongest Martial Artist alive, and was the most picturesque in his Martial power.

However, what leader of Martial Art would allow Martial Art to cease to exist?

What leader of Martial Art would allow a new path to destroy their sacred Martial Path?

What leader of Martial Art would allow Martial Artists to be rendered extinct, replaced by a new breed of strange blood warriors who bore only a tiny semblance to Martial Artists and were fundamentally different?

In their minds, nobody who did these things was worthy of being considered the leader of Martial Art.

Rui shook his head.

“Despite being Martial Sages, despite being able to peer into greater dimensions and depths of reality itself, all of you have a very narrow mind on what is possible and what the options at your disposal are.” His tone contained a hint of disappointment. “For one, your doomer scenario, as you yourself mentioned, grandmother, is only a coin flip. It is possible that the sheer number of human beings who have nascent, undiscovered Martial Paths will overpower the Blood Path. I know you don’t want to take that risk, but you don’t have to take that risk.”

He directed a sweeping gaze across the Martial Sages gathered. “There are more options at our disposal than just allowing sparing or exterminating blood children. We are Martial Sages. What is impossible for others is possible for us. And what is impossible for all of you…”

His tone grew more confident. “…is possible for me.”

The other Martial Sages frowned at his words.

Even though they didn’t dispute that claim after everything that Rui had accomplished, they had no idea what he planned to do when it came to this issue.

“What do you have in mind?” Kane asked with hope and confidence.

There was nothing that Rui couldn’t fix if he put his mind to it, as far as Kane was concerned.

Rui smiled. “There is more than what affects Paths than just genetics. The causality of people and their paths is infinitely more complex than just the chromosomes that contain our DNA. People are not merely products of their genes, nor are their paths. That doesn’t mean genes are irrelevant, of course. Genes are probably still going to be the biggest predictor of a lot of things, including paths, but that doesn’t mean they are absolute, and that doesn’t mean that other factors cannot fight against genes.”

Many Martial Sages stirred at his words as they understood what his solution was hinging on.

Indeed, they had been talking about Paths in a bit too reductionist a fashion.

Paths were not just equal to DNA.

Enlightenment of Self, in particular, was a powerful argument for all of them personally in this regard.

It allowed them to understand exactly how their life experience and environment had influenced their Martial Paths to an extremely high degree.

Rui had inherited the life of a man who had come to almost revere Bruce Lee and his philosophy because of the power he perceived within them. John Falken’s asthma had been so severe that he was essentially been a cripple.

His powerlessness in life. His powerlessness when he was bullied in school. His powerlessness to do what others did, to even breathe without effort, was one of the reasons that he found Bruce Lee’s philosophy of Water to uniquely resonate with him.

He had been dealt with circumstances and he could adaptively evolve to them.

This epiphany had such a great impact on John and, subsequently, Rui, that it defined the latter’s Martial Path even though there was no genetics in his body that made him move to Adaptive Evolution.

Kane was another example. Despite having the blood of the Devil himself running through his veins, he turned out to be the complete opposite of his father due to his circumstances and upbringing.

Each of them had a similar understanding, thanks to the Enlightenment of Self, making the argument for them.

However, that didn’t mean they magically agreed with everything he said.

“Nobody disputes that environment, upbringing, and experiences are extremely powerful factors,” his grandmother replied with a skeptical tone. “However, they only influence the direction of a path. Not the path itself. It is not possible for a human to develop one of the six paths of the true world just by environment, upbringing, and experience, after all.”

That was also true.

If a human baby were dropped in the Genora Continent among the elves, it would not grow up with a nature path. At most, maybe a Martial Path that was somehow connected to nature somehow.

“Correct, however, a full transition between paths is unnecessary,” Rui replied. “I don’t want the Martial Path to remain as it is. I don’t want the Martial Path to be unchanged. I don’t want the Martial Path to simply triumph over the Blood Path. What I seek is…”

His eyes lit up.

“…the best of both worlds.”