The Martial Unity

“We are deeply grateful for your generosity.” She bowed once more as a wave of nods swept the crowd. “You have done much for our people, and we will never forget your dedication to the citizens of the Kandrian Empire.”

Rui felt like a fraud with all the approving nods and expressions of deep gratitude, admiration, and piety. He knew that he didn’t deserve any of it, but he simply remained silent, accepting them nonetheless. The support of the people and Martial Artists was necessary if he wanted to avoid becoming a tyrant for what he sought to do.

“I’m not done,” Rui replied as he glanced about at all of the rubble from destroyed buildings, ravaged remains of roads, and other public and private infrastructure that characterized the entire city. “Has this city been cleared for rubble removal?”

The Martial Master nodded eagerly. “It should now be, Your Highness. Once we remove all the living and extract all the injured and move them to the medical camps, while storing all the dead, we are to commence the rubble removal process and have our cranes and trucks, along with our beasts and Martial Artists, begin rubble removal.”

“Well, I removed the living and the dead, so I suppose I can finish this process immediately,” Rui remarked. “The faster it is finished, the sooner we will be able to recover from the destruction that has ensued.”

The Martial Master winced. “Not to question your tremendous intelligence and great wisdom, Your Highness, but deploying the power of a Martial Sage, that to the most powerful Martial Sage, inside the country on such a scale may not be recommendable.”

Rui turned as he studied the Martial Master.

She was relatively young, looking to be about in her late twenties, which meant that she had broken through to the Master Realm extremely early and had likely gotten her hands on a longevity potion equally early. The supply of longevity potions had shot up to the point where even Martial Masters could acquire them with some contributions, thanks to all the esoteric resources gained in the Era of Darkness.

Despite being young, though, she didn’t appear to have any reverence for Rui.

He actually preferred it that way.

“What’s your name?” Rui asked with a casual tone.

“…Raika, Your Highness,” she replied with a wary tone.

“Master Raika, your concerns are understandable, but I’m going to need all of you to evacuate from this city and return to the medical camps immediately.”

She did not have a high opinion of Rui’s idea, but she did not dare question him any further. She simply bowed deeply once more.

“Understood, Your Highness.”

She turned around, evacuating what would have been a slow process that Rui simply didn’t have patience for.

“On second thoughts, I’ll just do it myself,” Rui muttered as he raised his hands. “The civilians are too slow. I don’t have all day.”

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

One by one, he teleported all of the civilians away among the staff, medical or logistical, while the Martial Apprentices got the hint and quickly sprinted in the direction of the medical camps.

“Man, I kinda wanted to get teleported,” Jaryu muttered as he ran alongside.

Sarin nodded with an expression of deep yearning. “It would have been an honor to experience his power once more, but his orders are absolute.”

“What do you think His Highness is gonna do?” Jaryu’s tone grew skeptical. “I know His Highness is super strong and all, but you can’t clear rubble with explosions. He’ll destroy the country and reduce it to rubble trying to clear rubble!”

Sarin turned towards him with a glare in her eyes.

Her reverence for the Dawnbringer had just shot up a few notches with a single encounter with him. “Do not question His Divinity’s holy wisdom! He’s not a wretched fool!”

“Still, it’s crazy to clear rubble with a Martial Sage’s power!”

Sarin was about to clap back with a retort before a stern voice sent chills down their spine.

“Enough gossiping.” Master Raika glared at them. “Less talking. More moving.”

Even as she said that, she couldn’t help but harbor doubts of her own.

As a Martial Master, she understood the nature of the power of a Martial Sage more than measly Apprentices, which is why she understood that exerting the fine control within a margin of error while exerting oneself to such an extent was almost impossible even for Martial Sages. Martial Artists did indeed have great control over their power, more so than any other pathwalker, but that was also not limitless.

She stood within the medical camp, gazing at a city of rubble with skeptical eyes.

While the others couldn’t see Rui anymore from such a great distance, her powerful senses allowed her to sense exactly what he was doing.

He simply raised a single foot.

Then, he tapped the ground with it.

A gesture that should have produced no outcome of note.

And yet, the rubble disappeared.

It disappeared in the blink of an eye.

WHOOSH

Her eyes widened to such an extent that it almost tore her skin as her jaw dropped, hanging loosely at the hinge. Her body visibly shook as she stumbled, falling back.

THUD

“What…” A shivering whisper escaped. “What just happened?”

She wasn’t the only one who had been utterly shocked by what she had just witnessed with her own two eyes.

“WHAT?!”

“IMPOSSIBLE!”

“THE RUBBLE! THE RUBBLE IS GONE!”

In the blink of an eye, Rui had removed all of the rubble from the city.

“Rubble Remover.” A mutter escaped Rui’s mouth. “Lame name, but I don’t care to give it a better name.”

A technique he had spontaneously created with the Forge of Creation that deployed the Flux Earther, heaven manipulation, the Enlightenment of Water, and most importantly, the Scriptures of Terra.

Together, he could deploy his formidable power into an engine of a technique that could use it to cleanly remove all the rubble and dump it into the ocean far away. He used his Enlightenment of Water to disperse the energy to prevent any floods.

It was actually a very painstaking process for Rui, but because he existed in a different flow of time as a Martial Sage and Transcendent Candidate, it appeared instantaneous to everybody watching.

WHOOSH

He appeared before all of them at the medical camp, heaving a soft sigh. “Alright, good work, everybody. We’re all done here. I’ll be moving on to the next city.”

WHOOSH

Just like that, he was gone, leaving all of them utterly dumbfounded in silence.