The Martial Unity

The very thought of the Beggar’s Sect fragmenting gave Rui a headache. The Beggar’s Sect played an important role in human civilization. It collectivized the power of the people and utilized it to push the interests of the common people. It was one of the reasons that the Era of Expansion had worked out as well as it had for common people despite the fact that the Gaian Alliance gave states and colonialists almost absolute freedom. They could instate whatever laws they wanted, even if those laws were extremely harsh to the common people.

But they didn’t, partly because of the pressure exerted from the Beggar Sage as well as the wealth of options that existed for anybody who wanted to immigrate to the stars. The Beggar’s Sect served as a glue among people as well, ensuring that there wasn’t as much civil division as there would have been.

For instance, the eight races got along surprisingly well despite the fact that they were different. Human civilization had managed to avoid civil conflict along the lines of race, and while nothing was perfect, it was as good as one could realistically hope it to be. Part of that was undoubtedly because the Beggar’s Sect had managed to successfully spread across the races, serving as a web beyond the boundaries of race.

Rui had never underestimated the importance of the organization in human civilization, and now that it threatened to fragment, he knew it was a matter of civilizational security.

”How many Beggar Sages have gone rogue?” Rui demanded to know. ”Tell me everything you know about them.”

The beggar in front of him raised an eyebrow. ”And what do you intend to do? Hunt them alive?”

”If I have to.”

”I would tell you, but unfortunately, I don’t know,” the beggar admitted. ”The reality is that they are aware that this meeting has happened and they have undoubtedly already gone deeper into hiding where they will operate their sub-sect from the shadows. They fear you more than anybody else, because you are the only one who can truly kill the Beggar Sage.”

Irritation emerged on Rui’s expression as he fell into thought.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t find and erase them. He certainly could. He could acquire the information that the Beggar Sage in front of him possessed about those who had gone rogue; then he could manually investigate himself at whatever locations the man provided.

From there, he could use the Angel of Laplace to rewind time and gather lost information. He could use the information dimension to gather forensic information that not even the best investigative technologies could hope to gather. He could use hypnosis and the SOUL System to gather all the information that he needed to.

There were numerous ways he could go about it, and all of them ended with him eventually reaching his target.

He was a Martial Transcendent. Nothing was truly impossible for him in the context of human civilization.

The real question was whether this was worth his time and energy. He wasn’t exactly free. He was not only the Emperor of the Kandrian Empire and the Chancellor of the Gaian Alliance, but he was also the Supreme Commander of the Central Human Command. He was preparing for a war. He also had his deal with Divine Mother ooo—o- of the Pluralist Faction and he needed to start to prepare for hunting Divine Mothers alive in their home courts.

These were all much more important matters than the Beggar’s Sect, important as it was. He could assign somebody else who was highly capable of handling it, like Kane perhaps. But that would take away from the valuable firepower of human civilization in the impending war.

”…Tell me this,” Rui turned towards the Beggar Sage with narrowed eyes. ”Do the rogue Beggar Sages know that Ria is responsible for EsoQuest Solutions?”

”Of course they do,” the beggar scoffed.

”Then, are they going to sell her out if someone commissions the information?” Rui asked with a more serious tone.

”…As much as I would like to say they would to get you to hunt them, the truth is they won’t.” The beggar shook his head. ”As I said, they fear you. And you are known to be unforgiving when it comes to those who mess with your family. They gain nothing by selling your daughter out, and it’s the quickest way to get a target on their back.”

Rui heaved a deep breath. He was still concerned that the Beggar Sages knew about his daughter, but as long as he could deter them from selling her out, then it wasn’t an immediate high-priority matter for him.

”And what about human civilization?” He asked. ”Do they have humanity’s best interests in mind?”

”Humanity is the source of their power, so they do not seek its destruction, but they are undoubtedly willing to potentially jeopardize it in their pursuit of more power.”

Rui fell into thought at those words, before eventually heaving a sigh. ”For now, this matter is not urgent enough for me to immediately take action on. I will help you keep them in check, but I can’t afford to take the time to erase them right now. I have a war to prepare for.”

He got up, directing one last deep gaze at the Beggar Sage. ”Do not forget what you have promised me. If I find that the Beggar’s Sect has sold my daughter out to people who want to harm her or nab her, then I exterminate every last one of you. That isn’t a threat, it’s a promise.”

WHOOSH

Rui disappeared, leaving the old beggar alone, returning to work. He had needed to immediately send a memo to the Security Council that the Pluralist Faction and the ——o-o- Cell, among others, weren’t a threat to human civilization and needed to be excluded from the list of enemies of human civilization, for only then could he go about establishing a trade pact with them and have the Divine Mother ooo—o- feed him information on other Divine Mothers.