The Martial Unity

Rui’s expression hardened as his ethereal eyes sharpened. “Bring it on.”

His hands balled into fists as they charged towards him with blinding agility and tremendous momentum.

WHOOSH!

He ducked, evading a thundering tail-swipe from an inferno serpent. His expression glinted with recollection, recalling that this was the very first beast that the Martial Sages had run into when they invaded the Central Highlands of the Beast Domain many years ago.

Defeating them as he was now was effortless.

“Touch of Frost.”

He mobilized the exotic pluripotent matter within his body to turn into a cryo-stasis ether, a form of exotic non-hadronic matter that was, by nature, at zero kelvin temperature. He had mastered it in the past five years, using it to strengthen his ability to deploy cold techniques.

WHOOSH

The serpent’s body began freezing over as the scales that produced fire began smoldering before snuffing, killing the serpent on the spot. SPLAT!

The serpent returned to being a blob of primordial seed. His ethereal eyes shifted as he spotted an incoming swing from a four-armed giant ape barreling down on him.

“Outer Divergence.”

WHOOSH

With a gentle touch to the incoming hammer blow from above, he used the quantum gap between all matter to smoothly redirect the incoming blow, using the ape’s own energy to send it flying back with high speed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The giant ape crashed into an adamantiger as the two creatures exploded into primordial seed upon impact.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!”

“KRRRIIIEEEK!!!”

“RAAAWWWRRR!!!”

An abyssal dragon, a celestial phoenix, and a divine gryphon charged at him all at once, threatening to crush him where he stood.

WHOOSH

He leaped forth, smoothly evading the barreling blow from the dragon, landing a thundering kick to the dragon’s head with a devastating impact.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The singular blow was enough to crack its skull, killing the creature, causing it to explode into primordial seed, while the phoenix turned towards him, unleashing a wave of white-hot flames at him.

Yet, he simply clad himself in invintium, wading through the powerful flames, before blasting the phoenix into several bits with a sharp palm jab.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

His eyes shifted towards the gryphon before it could even hope to attack.

“Death.”

It was a technique that leveraged his experience of death as John to create a powerful illusion in the subconscious mind of the target that it was dead, triggering a shutdown of subconscious body functions such as heartbeat. A powerful hypnosis that simply triggered death in his opponent.

BADUMP

BADUMP

…

THUD

The gryphon collapsed after its heart simply failed.

Rui’s ethereal eyes shifted as he spotted ten beasts and monsters jumping on him all at once, threatening to rip him to shreds. 13:31

Rui’s ethereal eyes shifted as he spotted ten beasts and monsters jumping on him all at once, threatening to rip him to shreds. And yet, they underestimated their target.

He wasn’t any ordinary intruder.

Nor was he any ordinary threat.

His fingertips turned black and white as he mobilized the Poison of Yin and Yang, injecting them into each and every single one of the beasts and monsters that swept him within the titanic collision chamber.

TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP!

The slightest of touches was all it took.

The Poison of Yin and Yang, comprised of gu poison and Anthean white blood cells, entered the bodies of the beasts and monsters, systematically snuffing all life within them at an astonishing pace.

One moment, they were all lively and real.

The very next moment, their bodies had been reduced to black and white illustrations.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The primordial seed ocean shook as it began creating even more lifeforms to take him on. A vast array of species began emerging from the seemingly boundless ocean of primordial seed, threatening to consume him where he stood.

It would have been an overwhelming sight to almost anybody. But Rui’s eyes merely sharpened.

“You don’t get it, do you?”

He inhaled deeply before unleashing a bellowing roar.

“Ṟ̸͆̑̓̀̒̒̆̈́̄̓̈́͘͘̚͜͝O̴̡̻͈͚͕͇̦̫̹̱̠͙̹̔̕͠O̶̗̬̙̖͉̱͛͌͌̉́̌͑̋̊̓̾͘O̵̘͚͂̊̀̽̔̂̂͌̽͆̌͗Ą̴̨̡̨̨̛̟̙̬͈̤̖͚̞͖͔̀͛̄̀͆͒̔͐̂̍̍͊͝A̷͇̒̃́̎̄̂͗̽̾̊̌̕͝Á̶͈͎̖̯̥̱̘̭̺̺̫͉́͛̆̽͑͒̿̊̒̽̽̀͝͝Ȧ̵͍͈͈R̴̪͉̣̉̈̄͗̀͌̋͗̚͝Ṟ̵̨̡͉̼͇̞̞͙͛͑̓͛͊̑͗̈́̏́̏̉̚͘͠Ȓ̸̡̡̩̟̟̯͈͈͙̦̣͋́̔̒̃́̋̋̆Ŗ̶̛͓̗̘̯̲̗͓͓͍̲̙̫̞̈̉̽̋͂́̐̇ͅ!!!”

RUMBLE!!!!!

He exerted his authority.

The Authority of Alpha.

He was the King of Beasts.

The Emperor of the Beast Domain.

His thundering roar made the charging beasts and monsters freeze where they were as his authority bore down on their mind, causing them to heed his command.

A single remark escaped him as his ethereal eyes blazed with power.

“Hellverse.”

It was the technique he had long created to serve as the antithesis of beasts and monsters during the Era of Darkness. It deployed the Forge of Creation along with the Tree of Life enlightenment to create antithetical domains around each and every single creature.

“ROOOAAARRR!!!”

“KRRRIIIEEEKKK!!!”

“RAAAWWWRRR!!!”

They perished, never once moving from their spot, frozen in his authority of alpha.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!

They exploded, returning to blobs of primordial seed that fell back into the lake. For a moment, nothing happened.

It was not a moment that Rui was willing to waste.

He needed to destroy this place as soon as possible.

He conjured all the materia prima that he could muster, pouring it through his fist as he charged forth towards the walls of the collision chamber, threatening to destroy them in one fell swoop.

Much to his shock, however, the lake of primordial seed exploded forth, blasting into him before his fist could connect.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The collision was tremendous, even if it didn’t harm him thanks to Aqua Existentia. But it sent him flying back with a hardened expression and fierce, ethereal eyes.

“Now what?”

As if trying to answer his question, the primordial seed lake began taking on more shapes.

Shapes that were even more familiar to him.

“No…” His eyes widened with horror. “Impossible!”

His voice was guttural.

He recognized those shapes.

Human shapes.

His eyes widened with shock as it began spontaneously creating Martial Artists out of thin air.

Not just any Martial Artists.

Martial Sages.

Martial Sages that he was familiar with.

Martial Sages of the past.

“To think I would have the opportunity to meet you here again like this…”

The grim, stoic voice of the Demon of Asmodeous hung in the air. He gazed at Rui with his chilling pitch-black eyes that bore deep into Rui’s eyes with a deathly tint.

“…Rui Quarrier.”