The Martial Unity

He activated the SOUL System and the Eye of Prophecy. Even if the VOID algorithm was rendered useless, these mechanisms should still be able to provide him with enough insight into Kane’s movements to avoid getting bullied. He purposefully avoided looking into the information dimension; that would skew the training session and take away from its purpose.

WHOOSH

Rui smoothly evaded a jab, launching a swift hook kick to Kane’s jaw.

WHOOSH

The kick crashed into an empty image.

A feint.

”You dare use my own techniques against me, Kane?” Rui grinned before feeling a sudden surge of danger from his side.

POW!

Rui barely managed to block a lateral elbow charge, absorbing the impact with the meat of his arms. His prophecy and his read of Kane’s subconscious intent predicted an attack from above.

He immediately raised both arms, looking to guard.

Instead, he felt the impact on the bottom of his jaw.

An uppercut rocked his head.

If not for the fact that Kane had low power, Rui’s brain might have switched off the lights then and there.

Rui gazed at Kane with a stunned expression. ”How are you defying my prophecy and SOUL reading that easily?”

Kane shrugged nonchalantly.

”I’m not defying, I’m just evading.”

Uttering those words, he shot forth at Rui with a classic that Rui hadn’t seen him use in a long time.

Godspeed.

BOOOOOOM!!!

A tremendous concentrated impact struck Rui before he could fully react, causing Kane’s fist to burrow deep in Rui’s gut. Rui was more shocked than hurt. Pain was meaningless to him at the level of control that he possessed in his body. It was no different to him than a notification on his phone in terms of the experience.

But the shock was not easy to dispel.

His systems of thought had always been the cornerstone of his power. Even after he had cultivated many other forms of power, they revolved around his systems of thought most often. To see Kane effortlessly defy them was a significant development that took his focus away from the battle.

This was not a result of his mastery of hyperdimensional matter.

This came from his recent breakthrough to candidacy.

Now that he was a Transcendent Candidate, his Martial Art was pushing at the very limits of what was possible within the laws of reality. Rui’s systems of thought were extremely advanced and had grown a lot over the years, but much of that growth was not fundamental, but rather integrative with other Realms.

For instance, he had expanded the input parameters of his systems of thought to accept information from the information dimension.

When stripped to the very essence of what they were, it was not absurd for a Transcendent Candidate to be able to overcome them. What impressed Rui was that Kane was already tapping into the more abstract applications of evasion.

To evade not just the physical, but also things like his predictions. To be able to apply his Martial Art to matters beyond the material. That was what separated Candidates from Sages, among other things.

Rui’s eyes flashed with seriousness as he adjusted his mindset.

The sparring session grew more intense as they began harnessing hyperdimensional motion better and better. Kane not only caught up to six months of training that Rui had gone through, but he even made further progress with harnessing hyperdimensional reality.

He learned how to only become partially incorporeal.

WHOOSH

His abdomen grew intangible, causing Rui’s fist to pass through. Kane’s jab, however, connected with Rui’s throat cleanly.

POW

Rui’s eyes widened at the innovation that Kane spontaneously came up with, while Kane’s smile grew smug.

”I’m going to enjoy beating you up.”

And he did. Although his weak offensive power meant that his attacks did little damage, he still enjoyed the thrill of treating his invincible best friend like a walking punching bag. One that was made out of water.

Rui, on the other hand, felt a headache just trying to even parse Kane’s existence. Not even fish swam through water as freely as Kane glided between dimensions. His transition timeframe, the time needed to move between dimensions, was almost zero, while even Rui needed a moment to shift around the components of his body.

However, Rui managed to keep up, even if defensively. His consciousness was made up of light signals rather than electrical impulses. This gave him a foundational advantage over Kane that he could not turn off like the other Realms. In fact, the fact that Kane could keep up and even press him despite this advantage spoke to the sheer difference that affinities made.

By the end of the session, they had both made massive strides in proficiency with hyperdimensional reality.

Rui himself felt like this one session gave him greater growth than simply playing around for the past six months. Similar to how he made massive progress with the Transcendent Realm through actual battle compared to thirteen years of idle inspection and utilization. He should have done this from the start, though Kane would have bullied him so hard without that six-month foundation, so perhaps he had made the right decision.

”Huff... huff... huff...” Kane lay exhausted, flat on the ground, yet his expression was euphoric. ”This hyperdimensional stuff is so much more exciting than plain three-dimensional evasion. If I had known about this from the start, I might have come to love Martial Art as much as you do.”

Rui smiled bittersweetly at those words. Between the two of them, Rui had always been the most enthusiastic about Martial Art.

He shook his head. ”Hyperdimensional stuff is probably at the very pinnacle of naturalistic principles. Only Martial Sages have any chance of using it, but I don’t intend to teach it to them. It’s a distraction. Transcendence should be the focus for Martial Sages.”

”But you taught it to me.” Kane raised an eyebrow.

”Because you didn’t care about Transcendence and because you’re super compatible with hyperdimensional reality, it would have been a waste not to teach it to you.”

Kane’s expression grew mixed when Rui mentioned Transcendence.

Before, he was certain about his decision to avoid it.

But now...