The Martial Unity

Chapter 3876: An Explosion

He simply froze as his eyes rested on his newborn daughter.

Time slowed down to a freeze.

As if nothing was allowed to move while he beheld his own daughter for the very first time.

The mental explosion that had erupted within his own mind expanded like a supernova, consuming his systems of thought and his Martial Mind, washing over his Mind Palace.

It was an explosion of emotion.

More emotion than he had ever experienced in his entire life.

In all of his lives.

It was an explosion of love.

The sheer force of the explosion shook everything within his mindscape, affecting even his Martial Path as the most profound of realizations dawned on him.

All his life, nothing had ever truly challenged Project Waterʼs centrality to his life and his Martial Path. Not even his family, not even his mother, not even his father, not even Amare, who had resigned to being subsumed by it.

Nothing had ever challenged the most important thing in his life.

And nothing could.

How could anything be more important than the thing he dedicated two lifetimes to achieving?

The most grand of ambitions that could reshape the entire world if achieved.

Even when he was at his most vulnerable after learning about the truth of his reincarnation, his Martial drive for Project Water had only returned even stronger.

Not even an invalidation of his identity could threaten Project Water.

He had expected that he would live a long, long life without anything ever being able to dethrone Project Water.

And then, he beheld his daughter for the first time.

And it shook him to the very core of who he was.

For the first time in his life, he had come across something, someone, who could truly dethrone Project Water and become the most important thing to him.

He could feel it.

He could feel it in the titanic conflagration of emotion that just the sight of his daughter could bring about in him. It was the single greatest emotion that he had ever felt in his entire life.

Time unfroze as she woke up from her very brief nap.

Her amber eyes were those of her mother, containing all the vitality and vigor for life that her mother had and more. She gazed at her motherʼs face, who couldnʼt help but coo at the little girl, pulling her closer to kiss her on the forehead.

The sensation of her motherʼs kiss on her forehead caused the newborn infant to smile as her hands began wagging, as if expressing her happiness. Amare couldnʼt even take her eyes off her precious daughter as she simply held Ria close to her heart.

Two parents could sense their daughterʼs emotions.

Curiosity, wonder, and even love.

As if finally having quenched her thirst for her daughterʼs presence, she turned towards Rui with a blissful expression, gesturing for him to hold her.

Ruiʼs nerves tingled at the very thought of it.

She was small and delicate.

She was also more important than he could even hope to measure.

Nervousness gripped his heart in a vice, causing it to tingle uncomfortably. He almost didnʼt trust himself to hold her. He felt like his motor skills had degenerated to those of a Parkinsonʼs patient.

As Amare handed their daughter over to him, he nervously held her and accepted her in his arms, standing immediately over Amareʼs body.

He didnʼt trust himself to hold his daughter with the floor beneath her.

She was so light that he could barely feel her weight with how much power he had in his body. She gazed at him with curious eyes, as if confused by his translucent existence.

As if she couldnʼt tell if he was there or not.

Sensing the budding curiosity in her mind, he couldnʼt help but feel an overwhelming gushing surge of love erupt within him. His eyes watered as he held her close, feeling her nascent warmth.

”Congratulations on becoming a father,” the Divine Doctor remarked with a calm tone. ”She has emerged from a tribulation just fine. Rest assured your daughter is strong.”

”Have you come up with a name, Your Majesty? Your Sagehood?” the other doctor asked with a soft smile. Rui and Amare exchanged a knowing glance before nodding at the man.

”Ria. Her name will be Ria Kandria.”

As if having remained awake just to hear her name, Ria fell asleep in Ruiʼs arms, dozing off peacefully.

”Very well, sir, madam. Please feed her the moment she wakes up, Your Sagehood. It is ideal to start immediately.”

Amare nodded.

”We will keep her here in the medical wing for another twenty-four hours just to check up on her,” the doctor explained. ”After that, you may take her home.”

From that point, both Rui and Amare were almost inseparable from Ria, who spent most of her time in either of their hands. Rui was more than happy to hold her after Amare breastfed her, allowing her to take a bath and eat to ameliorate her exhaustion. Rui enjoyed every moment of holding her in his arms as he grew more comfortable with his daughter in his arms, trying to understand her and understand everything she was to him. She spent most of the day asleep, waking periodically, only to go back to sleep. The moments where she was awake were priceless to him as he poked her plump cheeks, watching them jiggle with just the lightest of touch. He would occasionally muster up the courage to lightly kiss her on the forehead.

He couldnʼt help but smile as her fingers would reflexively grip anything they touched, gripping his finger like it was a thick log. Every once in a while, a flash of pain would emerge on his face.

Both his brain-consciousness and body-consciousness were flushed with heart-wrenching love and affection each moment he got to spend with her. The emotions she evoked within him were so intense that they actually physically hurt.

”You look like a different person.”

Amareʼs refreshed voice reached him. While most mothers would have to suffice with wiping themselves down, she had immediately healed the incision for childbirth immediately after the drugs were out of her system. And having eaten and bathed, she looked much better than she had at the worst part of the process.

Yet, it was her words that drew his attention the most.

She smiled at him. ”I didnʼt know you made expressions like that.”