The Martial Unity

Rui’s insight into paths since the Unfolding had grown tremendously. He had made great progress in understanding not just the Martial Paths, but also the other paths.

“Paths at the very least are coalesced and defined potentials for both power and growth, across the being of a creature aligning in a certain direction,” Rui shared his perspective on the matter. “It’s not enough to have a species that is hyper-specialized in a certain direction, all species do that to some extent, they also need to have great potential for power and great potential for change.”

That was something that was unique to the human species. Human babies were like blank slates with very little pre-programming done. They were malleable and ductile, and predicting their future was virtually impossible and was a function of environment and surroundings, among other things.

The same was not true for an overwhelming number of other species. When other mammals gave birth to their offspring, these offspring were usually already highly pre-programmed with a certain set of behaviors. They usually already were able to walk shortly after birth; they had instincts, understandings, and perhaps even ’knowledge’ if it could be called that.

A human baby raised by wolves would grow acting like a wolf, but a wolf raised by humans would not grow up acting like a human. This feature of human infants was a product of an evolved early birth due to enlarging brains, making heads bigger, which in turn made later births lethal to the mother.

This change, along with an increase in the brain power and cognitive capacity, along with several other factors such as being subject to harsh environments that aligned evolution in a certain direction, were what led to the creation of the seven paths on seven continents.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the ’virus’ or whatever was not prepared for the power of paths,” Rui replied. “It truly is a miraculous phenomenon and gives one species extraordinary power.”

“Indeed, that gives me hope that you pathwalkers, along with everybody else, will allow us to exorcise the foreign contaminant from Gaia,” the Divine Doctor remarked. “We may just have a chance if it is with your power, among others.”

He turned towards Rui with an expression of regard. “You have my gratitude, Rui Quarrier. Without you, I would never have come to my first diagnosis of Gaia after centuries of searching. The information you have collected and relayed to me has been vital to reaching this understanding. I suppose that means you have fulfilled my commission of you.”

It had happened so long ago that Rui sometimes forgot about it. But the Divine Doctor had indeed commissioned Rui to help him diagnose Gaia, serving as a stethoscope due to the fact that he had the Enlightenment of the Tree of Life, just as the Divine Doctor did.

“If I remember correctly, that deal was made in exchange for you giving me information about my reincarnation,” Rui recollected memories from decades ago when he had just broken through to the Master Realm.

“Speaking of which, you never did quite figure out why you underwent the soul transfer ritual, did you?” The Divine Doctor raised an eyebrow.

“No.” Rui heaved a sigh. “After a Transcendent professed not knowing about it, I just put it to the side for a bit. I did get some insights when speaking with the Demon of Asmodeous, that we who are ’marked’ have the potential to change the world. But I don’t know if that has any correlation to my circumstances. I know Esil was originally also one of black hair and eyes, and she wasn’t originally reincarnated. Tokugawa Ieyasu is also of the same ilk, and I’m certain he isn’t reincarnated either.”

“…I see,” the Divine Doctor mused. “The nature of your soul transference makes it so that even a Martial Sage cannot possibly replicate it.”

Rui nodded. “That’s true. For now, I haven’t made any progress in that regard. One strange clue I have is that my name means ’reincarnated’ in the Silas Dialect. Which makes me think my mother might have known something.”

“…Curious,” the Divine Doctor remarked. “More importantly…”

The man got up from his seat, stretching his body as his lively eyes focused on Gaia.

“It is time to return.”

The Divine Doctor was brimming with motivation and excitement, having finally made a breakthrough in his diagnosis of Gaia after centuries. He finally had a working hypothesis that could be verified or falsified. And the hypothesis was too coherent and had such a good foundation to it that even if it was falsified at some point, he would most likely need to just make a few adjustments to it for it to fit the existing information.

“Before we get going,” Rui huffed. “I have something to consult with you about. I didn’t spend all that time searching for you and come all the way here to theorize about Gaia’s ’illness.’”

“You didn’t?” The doctor remarked with a hint of surprise. “What could possibly be more important than this?”

“Project Water,” Rui flatly answered. “I managed to resurrect a living skin cell from former Supreme Commander Anthea’s corpse. Then I used embryonic reprogramming to turn the skin cell into a stem cell. And now…”

His pitch-black eyes blazed with determination. “I want to integrate evosapien physiology into my body and become an evosapien-martialus hybrid.”

The Divine Doctor’s lit up with the same clinical interest as Rui was familiar with. “Fascinating. I suppose it makes sense you would want to harness evosapien physiology in such a manner. Making half your body evosapien is going to be extremely difficult. Replacing half your body with evosapien flesh will be extremely challenging and time-consuming. Especially if you don’t want your mind to undergo any changes.”

Rui’s expression darkened. “I… would rather avoid having my mind undergo changes. Yet at the same time… I would like it if I had altered half my brain to the same extent as well.”

“That’s madness,” the Divine Doctor directed a look of surprise at Rui. “The rest of the body alone would be almost impossible. But the brain? Without causing any changes to your personality? That’s just absurd.”