The Martial Unity

Chapter 2400: Teetering On The Edge

It didnʼt matter if she would rather have chosen to go through the doors of death than the gates of the Sage Realm.

It didnʼt matter if she did not want to break through to the Sage Realm.

It didnʼt matter if she didnʼt want to become a Martial Sage.

Unlike the breakthroughs to the Senior and Master Realms, the breakthrough to the Sage Realm was not driven by desire.

It was driven by understanding.

It was driven by cognizance.

By enlightenment.

Her desire to remain a Martial Master was strong, but once she understood exactly how much it defined her, the final piece of the puzzle of who she was fell into place. The moment she understood that her fear of obsoletion was the network of emotions, memories, desire, and a myriad of other forces that came together to make her who she was, she gained the Enlightenment of Self.

In that moment, she gained endless clarity.

And with it, endless peace and harmony with who she was.

She was a sadist.

She was cruel.

She loved breaking people.

She loved breaking them with words.

Yet now, she understood why she was the way she was. A childhood in the Underworld, a gifted intuition when it came to understanding people, and high verbal intelligence were the primary elements of causality that had given rise to her Martial Path.

If even one of those elements had been missing, she would have had a different Martial Path.

She was able to see herself as an outcome of the universe itself.

An outcome and a cause.

An agent and a spectator.

In her mind, she was still afraid.

At the depths of her soul, however, she was at peace, enlightened by truth.

She was who she was.

RUMBLE...

Mind and soul converged upon each other as the ephemeral barrier between them withered away upon the Enlightenment of Self. Her consciousness was elevated to a higher realm of awareness as her Martial Soul bloomed in all its glory.

All heaven and earth prostrated before the birth of a new Martial Sage.

An unwilling, fearful, yet peaceful and dying Martial Sage.

But a Martial Sage nonetheless.

Suddenly, what appeared to be the brink of death to her as a Martial Master was actually some decent ways away from death as a Martial Sage.

If given a choice between breaking through to the Sage Realm and dying, she knew that she would have rather died.

But now that she had already broken through, there was no point in dying.

Her fears mattered, yet they didnʼt matter.

They were everything, yet nothing.

Every Martial Sage was a living contradiction, yet their soul and mind were in a harmonious union.

Time slowed down as seconds prolonged to what felt like years.

Having harnessed her Martial Soul, she gained unprecedented control of her being. As a physical entity in the material world, the conscious mind had only a fraction of control over the body.

It was the soul, however, that made the heart beat.

It was the soul that made the lungs breathe even when one was asleep.

It was the soul that sustained the combustion of the engine of life across her entire material being.

And now, her soul and mind were one.

Subconsciously, she redirected what little healing capital she had to the wound in her torso while simultaneously accelerating the clotting of her wounds by adjusting her endocrinological system.

It was no different from flexing a muscle.

At the same time, her conscious mind recalled the principles of Ruiʼs Hungry Pain.

Lesser Martial Artists were incapable of benefiting from the technique after their Martial Bodies were set, but a Martial Sage was not nearly as limited. Mind and soul worked together to apply the principle of autophagy to prolong her flickering life.

Her bleeding stopped as she managed to clot the wound.

She redirected as much healing and regenerative capital to the most vital organs that had been harmed, ensuring that the loss of vital functions to her Body was minimal and did not escalate any further.

Simultaneously, she caused an inflammation around her blood vessels, forcing them to constrict and increase her blood pressure that was dangerously low due to all the blood loss. The restoration of the blood pressure restored the functionality of the circulatory system as the diffusion of oxygen and infusion of carbon dioxide finally resumed, giving her Body, and especially the brain, much-needed oxygen, the lack of which was on the very verge of causing brain death.

Then and only then did her condition stabilize, and she slowly moved away from teetering on the brink of death.

Unfortunately, she wasnʼt able to do much more.

Unfortunately, she wasnʼt Master Zentra.

She was unable to do more with her newfound control because her understanding of the high principles of biology, human physiology, and anatomy was too low.

She was like someone who had just found herself in the cockpit of a plane but had no understanding of how any of it worked. Meanwhile, people like Master Zentra were experts in piloting the plane even without gaining precious access to the cockpit.

But it was fine.

She might not be able to heal herself entirely with the knowledge she had, but she didnʼt need

to.

All she needed to do was survive.

She was not alone.

”We found her!” A Kandrian Master arrived beside her with a grave and severe expression.

”Sheʼs alive but in critical condition!”

”This aura...!” Another gasped with shock and awe. ”It was true, after all. She broke through

to the Sage Realm! We have gained a new Martial Sage!”

”That must have been why those bastards retreated so suddenly!”

”YOU IDIOTS!” another Master bellowed. ”STOP GAPING AND FEED HER A DAMN HEALING

AND REJUVENATION POTION!”

The Masters scrambled as they quickly put a potion breather to her nose, releasing the

precious healing stimulant into her Body.

She took a deep breath.

Very soon, the healing stimulant diffused into her blood, which she first redirected to the

most critical wounds and her vital organs, leaving flesh and skin for the last. Soon after, they fed her a dense healing supplement that contained much of the nutrients and compounds needed to sustain tissue regeneration.

A few tense minutes later, she finally opened her eyes.

”...Alive.” A faint whisper escaped her.

The Masters broke into jubilation and relief as they finally confirmed her survival.

The Kandrian Empire had received a new Martial Sage.