The Martial Unity

Chapter 4087: An Ideological Impediment to Uniformity

PAT PAT PAT

Rui tucked a sleeping Ria in bed, ensuring that her blanket comfortably enveloped her. ”She had a busy day,” Amare remarked as she gently pushed a strand of her hair behind her ears. ”She also trained a lot today. It appears that her desire to be a Martial Artist isnʼt a temporary fixation.”

”She already is a Martial Artist,” Rui replied softly as he watched her sleep. ”The question is whether she will pursue the Martial Path forward.”

Amare smiled at him. ”She doesnʼt want to be left behind by her parents.”

”I would never,” Rui promised. ”I can be wherever she wants me to be.”

Amare turned towards a dozing Ria with an affectionate smile. ”She would probably prefer that you remain as close as possible.”

”I can gladly arrange for that.” Rui smiled, turning to his daughter. ”But once she grows up, sheʼll probably want to be as far away from us as possible.”

He heaved a sigh, dreading the day his daughter hit puberty and entered adolescence. He wasnʼt sure if his heart could handle being rejected by his adorably precious daughter. He would have to mentally condition himself with simulation training for when the day would inevitably come.

Amare rolled her eyes at his dramatic reaction. ”Martial Transcendent, Emperor of Kandria, Supreme Commander of Panama, Chancellor of Gaia, but cannot handle being rejected by his daughter.”

”Harsh.”

”I wonder what the world would think if they saw this side of you.”

”Heh, I donʼt, because they wonʼt ever see it.”

She huffed lightly, turning away from her silly husband towards their drowsing daughter. ”She talked a lot about aliens, space, and the stars today. Looks like the schools are really pushing the message regarding humanityʼs expansion to the stars in a child-friendly manner to their students.”

”Probably Ruʼs doing,” Rui remarked knowingly. ”Sheʼs very conscious about public perception regarding what is admittedly a much more aggressive colonial venture across the cosmos than was originally planned.”

Amare raised an eyebrow. ”How aggressive?”

He turned towards her. ”Well…”

He explained to her everything that had been decided in the previous intelligence briefing he had undergone earlier in the day.

Her amber eyes widened with shock. ”…Ten thousand stars in ten years? Is that… is that even possible?”

”A committee of experts, being led by the Shepherd, is working on fleshing out several concrete proposals, but yes, it is possible,” Rui remarked with a serious tone of voice. ”It will require me to surrender a lot of control and a lot of political power. But it will allow human civilization to explode in scale and power.”

Amareʼs expression grew a little ambivalent on his words. ”I do not believe that it is wise to pursue such an aggressive, inorganic expansion of human civilization. In Genism, we have a saying.”

She recited words in the Genese language native to the Gen Temple. ”It means ʼOverfeeding a child does not make them grow faster, only die faster.ʼ”

”Thatʼs a brutal saying.” A wry smile emerged on his face. ”I feel like there are better metaphors that are less jarring.”

”It is chosen precisely because it is jarring,” she insisted. ”It is meant to say that you cannot force growth beyond what is natural without consequences, potentially fatal consequences. There is a natural order to everything in the universe, and anything that diverges from it cannot do so without repercussions.”

”Everything is Water,” Rui replied. ”Everything adaptively evolves as it flows through time and through causality. It is possible for our civilization to adaptively evolve to the consequences of rapid expansion. Still…”

He turned towards her with a pointed gaze. ”Itʼs not a good sign that you still lean into Genism. If you want to become a Martial Transcendent, you will need to replace it.”

She looked offended at his words. ”But why? Why would Genism get in the way of my breakthrough to Transcendence?”

”Because an ideology that prescribes a worldview is an impediment to thematic phenomenological uniformity,” Rui replied with a calm and composed voice. ”You have diverged from genism from the very moment you woke up from your coma. But there are still elements of the philosophy that capture your worldview. As long as your worldview isnʼt uniform, you will not be able to become a Martial Transcendent. And right now, genism is an impediment to that.”

Amareʼs expression grew uncomfortable as Rui cleanly dissected her problem for her.

She was clearly aware of this, of course. Since she had Enlightenment of Self, she understood just how much Genism still had a hold on her, even if she wasnʼt a practicing monk anymore.

However, until Rui clearly laid out the problem, she hadnʼt realized just how much of an impediment it was.

She had become a Transcendent Candidate before him.

And yet, somehow, he became a Martial Transcendent before her.

”Itʼs because I never had another competing ideology that contradicted my Enlightenment of Transcendence or my phenomenological uniformity with Water,” Rui said with certainty. ”This is true for my first life and my second life. And from a very early age, I walked towards Project Water. And I still walk towards Project Water.”

However, Amareʼs life had not been that smooth. For much of her life, she was a devout embodiment of Genism; within her were sealed the memories of someone who was very much not a Genist. Once she assimilated the identity of the Martial, Esil, she had diverged away from Genism. Now, she clung to parts of that ideology while still exploring her own phenomenological uniformity. ”Does that mean anybody who believes in an ideology or a spiritual worldview is doomed to never become a Martial Transcendent?” she asked with a stunned tone of voice.

Rui shook his head. ”Thatʼs not the case. But people who wholeheartedly believe in an ideology will probably be able to integrate that ideology into their phenomenological uniformity. Or have that ideology become their phenomenological uniformity. In your case, you are doing neither. You are clearly no longer a Genist. You donʼt believe in its tenets, but it still has its lingering roots in how you view the world. This partial half-heartedness is what is holding you back.”

He turned towards her with a pointed expression. ”Either integrate the remnants of this ideology still present in your mind into your phenomenological uniformity, or get rid of it entirely. Or you can become a properly devout Genist again and try to go that route. But as long as you have this wishy-washy non-commitment, then you will remain a Martial Sage for the next one thousand years.”