The Martial Unity

She beamed at his praise. “Go on, praise me more.”

Rui smiled, patting her on her head. “You’re a good girl~”

“I’m not a child,” she complained, but did not resist his infantilizing praise, instead pushing her head into his hand as he patted her.

“But you get the point,” Rui continued as he patted her head. “Martial Paths do arise out of one’s species, but there are other variables that can overwhelm that variable. The people of the Hive follow a different kind of mutated Martial Path than the rest of human civilization due to the mind-connecting esoteric drug that they consume their entire lives. They follow a Martial Path that bears resemblance to the Nature Path with its collectivization. To them, individuality is not the foundational way to go down their path. Your mind has a large impact on your Path. And that is why I’m confident that my Path will retain its Martial nature.”

Rui was a Martial Artist through and through. In his first life, he had dedicated himself to martial arts and combat sports, even though he couldn’t practice them, giving everything he had to it.

In his current life, he had begun practicing martial arts from a very young age, from the very moment he saw what Martial Artists were capable of doing.

He suspected that even if he completely changed his species from homo antithesis to homo evosapien, he would still retain much of his Martial Path, but he didn’t want to sacrifice any of it, so he limited himself to turning half his body into evosapien physiology.

She heaved a breath. “This project is going to take many years, I would imagine.”

He nodded. “The Divine Doctor estimates more than a decade. I am largely in agreement. I could accelerate it if I took risks, but I don’t see the need while the downsides are too great.”

With the manifold, the time difference wasn’t that significant, and since he was immortal, he didn’t need to care about the time lost in the procedure.

“Better safe than sorry when it comes to making radical changes with the essence of my very being.”

She nodded. “Still… half your body is going to be evosapien. That too Supreme Commander’s flesh.”

She winced at that realization. She didn’t have pleasant experiences with the former Supreme Commander. The man was so powerful that he had managed to bully her easily despite her consumption of a Transcendent healing fruit. It was one of the most disempowering battles of her life, but such was the power of a top-ten powerhouse, even if he was well out of his prime.

“Wait…” she realized. “Doesn’t that mean you will become invisible? Or at least partially invisible? Anthea was almost undetectable despite his immense presence in some strange contradiction.”

Rui frowned as that realization just hit him like a truck. “You’re right… his evosapien physiology almost didn’t interact with light at all. But half of my body will be human so…”

That meant that he would be in between opaque and invisible; transparent.

He grew uncomfortable at the realization. “I don’t like that the thought of that, but… an unpleasant aesthetic is not enough to deter me from getting my hands on such extraordinary power.”

Rui truly couldn’t help but grow excited at just how unfathomably strong he would become when he completed this project. “Remember, the Evolutionary Army is an existential threat for just half of Anthea’s genes being present in the next generation, since the female evolutionaries bearing his offspring did not undergo extraordinary evolution like he did. I’m essentially getting my hands on that level of threat by turning half of my body into his species.”

Amare nodded with amber eyes filled with anticipation. She was deeply against him going away from her for that long, but when she realized how much power he was getting his hands on, there was no doubt that it was truly worth the loneliness that would come with it.

At the end of the day, she had learned the hard way, the hardest of ways even, that weakness was the root of suffering. If she had to bear a year or so without him so that he could reach an unprecedented level of power as a Martial Sage, then it was worth it. They were going to live long, long lives together, after all.

“Seeing you take such massive strides towards power makes me truly motivated to harness the power of the Beast Path,” she grew determined. “I won’t allow myself to allow you to leave me in the dust. Just watch, I will get stronger too!”

Rui nodded with an eager expression. He had to admit that Amare did a pretty decent job of keeping up with him. Her potential and talent rivaled his, and she was in the same tier of extraordinary as a Martial Artist as he was. On top of that, her affinity for training techniques centered around things like the Soul Retcon was also quite extraordinary. These together allowed her to keep up with his growth, ensuring that the gap between them was always within reason, no matter how much Rui grew.

The two of them enjoyed each other’s presence in silence and comfort, knowing that they were going to be separated for at least another year. Moments like these reminded him how fortunate he was to have a partner he could love and also be with no matter how much he grew and how far he went.

His past romances had failed because his partners simply couldn’t keep up with him, not just Martially but also with the intensities that came with being his partner. Amare was not only more than able to keep up, but she could even make it difficult for him to keep up if he slacked off.

“Ah, before you go,” she turned towards him with furrowed eyebrows. “Teach me that Worm Step technique of yours. I bet I can do it better than you now that I have learned space manipulation, too.”

Rui smiled at her challenging yet beautiful expression.

“I’d be happy too.”