The Martial Unity

The Emperor of Harmony heaved a deep breath as he skimmed through the reports that had begun flooding in about Rui’s return to the Great Void Ocean.

“He did it again.”

The Panamic Alliance’s first few days into the depths of the Great Void Ocean hadn’t been pleasant. They had sustained far more pressure than they normally did, and while the Emperor of Harmony had deployed reinforcements, the pressure began growing quicker than the Panamic Continent could send reinforcements.

The Emperor of Harmony had needed to balance between sending reinforcements and ensuring that they didn’t send Martial Artists who were not accustomed to aquatic combat.

If he sent Bodhisattva Maitreyi or Sage Jinryong Namgung, they were so strong that they would be powerful assets even underwater, but the probability of them dying significantly increased in an environment where they simply weren’t anywhere near their best.

Losing either of them would be an enormous blow to Panamic Civilization, far more than losing negatron matter could ever be. Panamic Civilization had the least to gain, out of all civilizations, from the negatron mines at the very bottom of the ocean, due to the fact that they already had lots of it and could make more of it if they really needed it, thanks to pluripotent exotic matter.

Emperor Rael had thus erred on the side of caution in protecting his Martial Sages from environments where they could easily die rather than try his best to protect the negatron mines.

What he hadn’t expected was the targeted attacks from the tekvores and the almost quasi-alliance between them and the giants and dwarves. All of those races had their own parts of the ocean floor annex, where they began mining the negatron matter from the floor and from the rising lava.

However, there was a reason that he had waited for four days rather than trying some other solution.

It was because the solution had woken up.

WHOOSH

Rui appeared in his office with a graceful step.

DRIP DRIP DRIP…

Saltwater spread across the floor of the Royal Office as Rui walked over, taking a seat on the luxurious leather chairs opposite his father across the table.

SPLAT

The Emperor of Harmony heaved a sigh as he watched the chair be ruined by ocean water. “Someone has to pay for that, you know?”

Rui smirked. “Yeah, well, I just did a lot of Martial labor, got NOVA off your back. I think the losses I prevented and the gains you would make should be slightly greater than the value of this chair.”

Emperor Rael huffed. “You also have some seaweed in your hair.”

Rui pulled it out of his hair, tossing it aside. “Thanks.”

He turned to his father with a serious expression. “When you told me that I needed to teleport back to the Great Nam Ocean to protect our forces, I was confused as to what was happening, but I’m glad that you didn’t waste time trying to explain everything and instead just deployed me right away. Any later and Waterweaver would have died then and there.”

A minute after Rui had woken up in the manifold, his father entered his chamber, urging him to head to the coordinates that he had specified to protect the Panamic Alliance without any explanations.

Rui had obliged, curious to see what was happening in the Great Nam Ocean after all the destruction Lord Shenlong had spread.

He had expected the people of the true world to be desperately trying to control a natural disaster, but instead, he found the very embodiment and manifestation of human greed as everybody ignored the environmental catastrophe and focused on mining resources, which only exacerbated the problem.

Classic human civilization.

One look at the negatron matter in the igneous rock, and he instantly understood what was happening.

“I’m starting to regret choosing that location to pick a fight with the Dragon Emperor.” Rui heaved a sigh. “But defeating Lord Shenlong would have been impossible without that.”

He had needed Gigabrain to win, and even then, he had experienced great difficulty.

In an environment antithetical to the Dragon Emperor.

It spoke to just how absurdly powerful Lord Shenlong actually was.

A smile of excitement emerged on his face as he recalled all the gains he had made.

“I’m a Transcendent Candidate.”

Emperor Rael nodded with a proud expression. “You are truly an extraordinary man, Rui. I couldn’t be prouder of you. Your mother… she would be delighted to see you now if she could.”

Those words reminded Rui of the name that she had given him and its meaning. He seldom thought of it, but the stronger he grew, the more odd it struck him. He had never known the woman, yet she somehow knew him extremely well, even back then, it seemed.

His father shook his head, heaving a deep breath. “Your elevation to the status of Transcendent Candidate has been a source of great joy for human civilization. The more Transcendent Candidates we have, the greater the prospects of reaching the Transcendent Realm. The moment we gain our first new Martial Transcendents, we will finally achieve safety.”

It was difficult to describe just how much relief and ecstasy the leaders of human civilization experienced when they learned of Rui’s breakthrough. They had long become psychologically dependent on him for a sense of safety and security, and his absence had left them in a state of distress.

Rui nodded. “…I don’t know when I’ll be breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, unfortunately. I don’t think it will be extremely soon, however. This whole mess with the negatron mining rush, I suspect we will have to weather that power without the power of Transcendence. We’ve never had Transcendent breakthroughs very close to each other, and given that Damian broke through just over a year ago, we can be certain we won’t have another breakthrough any time soon.”

Emperor Rael nodded. “I’m aware, I don’t mean to pressure you on that. We just need to make sure that you remain safe and alive until then so that you don’t breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm any time soon.”

Rui chuckled, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Nothing is going to happen to me.”