The Martial Unity

2867 Curse of Inheritance

Ruiʼs gaze shifted to where the words came from. What he saw stunned him. A frail man with arms as thin as twigs.

Legs that were unable to even support his body weight.

An automated mechanical wheelchair carrying him drew closer to Rui across the fancy high-tech laboratory that the two of them had secluded themselves in. What was even more surprising was the white iris in the manʼs eyes that were vacant.

Hollow.

He was crippled and blind.

And yet, his gaze appeared to be fixed on Rui.

An unfathomable smile emerged on his face. ”I have been waiting to meet you for a long, long time.”

Rui sharpened his gaze as he studied the man.

He was inscrutable.

He wasnʼt able to read him.

Like the Divine Doctor, Rui couldnʼt detect his mind with his mind sense. He hadnʼt expected that the Psycher would be a blind cripple.

And yet, with a single glance, he understood why.

”Megamind.”

It was stunning that a human could actually pull it off, but there was no doubt about it. The man before him was redirecting much of his blood to his brain, enhancing brain function as much as he could while leaving the rest of his body chronically malnourished.

The Psycherʼs smile was mysterious. ”You are astute and intelligent. And your mind is beyond anything that I have ever seen in my entire life. I am aware that you have sought to meet me for a while. However…”

The Psycherʼs smile betrayed the intensity of obsession.

The light in his eyes grew more intense.

”I have sought to meet you ever since you broke through to the Sage Realm.”

His tone grew heavier.

”I have yearned to find you ever since I learned the truth.”

His body language grew more intense with each passing second.

He was just a frail man.

And yet, he felt chills from the manʼs unfathomable presence.

He exuded a different kind of pressure from the Divine Doctorsʼ inhuman clinical attitude. It was a different kind of weight.

”How did you do it?”

The Psycherʼs whisper was eerie.

”How did you discover the Martial Soul?”

The intensity in his voice grew.

”How did you achieve Enlightenment of Self?”

His blind white eyes bore deep into the pitch-black darkness within Ruiʼs.

”How…” his voice broke. ”How did you break out of the curse?”

Rui frowned as his expression grew severe.

This was bad.

He had no idea what the Immortal Sage was talking about. His words and body language displayed signs of madness and insanity.

Did he truly trust this man to try and fix Amare?

”...Curse?” Rui sharpened his gaze. ”What curse?”

An unstable bout of laughter escaped from the blind cripple. It suddenly froze as all the mirth in him disappeared.

His eyes fixated heavily on the voids in Ruiʼs eyes.

”The curse that afflicts all inheritors, of course.”

The air grew heavy.

”The curse that prevents any of us from ever gaining Enlightenment of Self.”

Ruiʼs eyes widened with shock at those words. ”…What?”

”The Divine Doctor didnʼt tell you, did he?” the Psycher chuckled bitterly. ”Of course he didnʼt, he never cared for it in the first place. Him and the Beggar Sage. But me…?”

His expression contorted with a hint of agony.

”It tears me apart each moment I exist.”

Rui stared at him with a shocked expression. ”…I donʼt understand.”

The Psycher gazed at him with his blind eyes.

”…So it seems.”

His head lowered.

”Then listen. And learn. Learn the deviance of your existence.”

The Psycher breathed in shakily as his frail body relaxed, unable to handle the strain or the stress. The air cooled down as the Psycher regained his composure from his momentary hint of erratic madness.

He settled down in his comfortable ergonomic automated wheelchair.

”It wasnʼt the three of us who learned of this curse,” he began. ”The one who discovered the curse was none other than Esil herself. The original Martial Artist. The Martial herself…”

The air grew immersive as he took on the role of a storyteller. Rui grew engrossed in the tale that he narrated.

Even the Esoterist grew curious enough to temporarily pause his ongoing activities.

”Esil had achieved the Apprentice Realm,” the Psycher remarked. ”She had achieved what was the pinnacle of Martial Art at the time by herself and her godly transcendent talent for Martial Art. However…”

His tone grew ominous.

”…she wasnʼt satisfied.”

His tone brewed the tension in the air.

”She wasnʼt satisfied with the power she possessed at the time,” he continued. ”She wasnʼt satisfied with the Apprentice Realm. She sensed that there were realms of power she had yet to tap into. She sensed that there were singularities of potential that she had yet to tap into. She sought to reach for what she thought was the next Martial Realm above the Apprentice Realm, but…”

The atmosphere grew heavier.

”…it wasnʼt the Squire Realm which embodied the potential for evolution, no,” the Psycherʼs voice had been reduced to a whisper. ”She sought the Sage Realm. The Realm of power that came from the Enlightenment of Self. That was what she sought.”

Ruiʼs eyes widened with shock.

”…What?” Even the Esoterist seemed stunned by the revelation.

”…Itʼs true,” the Psycherʼs tone grew more lively. ”She didnʼt know the Squire Realm, and the two subsequent Realms born from the Squire Realm even existed. The Divine Doctor had yet to conduct research on human evolution that would eventually be adopted to create the Squire Realm. She has no way of knowing that the Squire Ream, the Senior Realm, and the Master Ream even existed. Instead, she aimed for Enlightenment of Self but…”

The Psycherʼs expression darkened. ”…she knew she wouldnʼt have been able to achieve within the rest of her remaining lifespan. Thus, we approached her with the offer of the Soul Transference Ritual to prolong her soul in exchange for her undertaking the mission to spread Martial Art across the entire continent. And then…”

Deep within Amareʼs mind, Esil smiled melancholically in the endless ocean of darkness that was Amareʼs prison.

”And then, I destroyed all hopes of reaching Enlightenment of Self by accepting their offer.”

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