The Martial Unity

Chapter 1394 Misdirection

”I believe that you have the aptitude for wielding the power of misdirection effectively.” She said. ”Although you have also displayed an extremely unusual talent for tapping into the principles of reality with your technique.”

She threw him a look of interest. 

Rui knew that she was referring to Deathʼs Sympathy. Considering it was a technique that relied on the knowledge he gained from his bachelorʼs and masterʼs, it was a technique that would almost certainly never be born naturally given the sorely lacking theoretical framework into reality.

Even for a Martial Master like the Silent Shadow, a technique based on sympathetic resonance and constructive superposition was probably something well beyond what she could understand and replicate. He would probably need to hold her hand for more than a year the way he did when Senior Ceeran tried to learn Pathfinder.

”Regardless, let us go with misdirection.” Ruiʼs eyes lit up with interest.

This was not the first time that he would be learning a technique based on the principles of misdirection. He had mastered a lesser version of Kaneʼs Void Step back when he was an Apprentice; the Shadow Step technique.

It was a good example of what happened when techniques were not attuned to the user. The Shadow Step technique was a technique that also relied on maneuvering to amplify basic misdirection.

Because the techniqueʼs principle focused more on the maneuvering part rather than the misdirection part, Rui wasnʼt able to reach Kaneʼs level. Kane had an affinity for maneuvering techniques while Rui did not.

Rui had an affinity for techniques that rigorously made use of the mind. Thus had he developed his own technique that relied more on the mind than a technique that relied more on maneuvering, it would have been more attuned to his strengths, allowing him to reach a much higher level of stealth than he had reached back then.

Unfortunately, he hadnʼt been informed of the importance and need for individuality back then. But he was aware of its importance now, and he didnʼt intend to make the same mistake. Rui fully believed that he could reach Kaneʼs level when it came to stealth purely based on his affinity for misdirection.

”Misdirection is a principle that relies on the shortcomings of the fundamental nature of human consciousness.” Master Reina began. ”The human consciousness receives an influx of information from a variety of senses. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible for the human mind to process all of the influx of information that comes in. It decides to choose and pick what information to focus on and what to throw away...”

She paused, looking at Rui. ”In other words, consciousness is simply the brain processing the information it has decided to keep and process.”

Rui nodded. In reality, the truth was more nuanced. Although Rui was far from an expert on neurology, the field of science had made far more progress in mapping out the brain and its relationship with consciousness. Consciousness was not discrete, nor was the processing of information so simplistic.

Regardless, the overall point was on track, so Rui didnʼt bother trying to interject with unnecessary details.

”Our brains have evolved a prioritizing system that decides what information to focus on and what not to.” She continued. ”Misdirection exploits the vulnerabilities in that subconscious system. By engaging in physical, verbal, and non-verbal cues, we can trick the prioritizing system into prioritizing something else and shifting its attention away from us, allowing us to escape the cognition of the user to varying degrees.”

Rui nodded. ”The same subconscious information sorting system that evolved to protect us from threats by prioritizing elements that seemed threatening and thus attention-drawing is now a weakness that can be exploited.”

The brain focused on significance because only significant events could impact the human negatively, thus insignificant events naturally fell back to the background and were ignored.

”That is why part of misdirection involves minimizing your perceived significance.” She said. ”Concealing your power completely is vital, and the good part is that you have already achieved that with your Mind Mask technique. However, there is still the other half.”

”The actual misdirection itself. Reducing your presence is only a prerequisite for misdirection techniques.” Rui guessed. 

She nodded. ”The question is how do we misdirect other peopleʼs minds and attention? How would we know exactly what physical movements, cues, and micro-actions to execute to precisely misdirect the human mind when we do not understand the complexity of the human mind entirely?”

Rui had already arrived at the answer. ”The goal isnʼt to understand the human mind, but merely to know how to trick it. One we can do that is by tricking our own minds.”

”And why would that work?” She raised an eyebrow. 

”There are common evolutionary elements across our entire species. That includes the danger and priority evaluation systems of the mind at its core. These are fossils that wonʼt change, and even if they do, they will change over enormous periods of time that dwarf the Age of Martial Art.” Rui continued. ”In other words, by tricking ourselves, we will react in a way that tricks others as well. This way, we donʼt need to understand the complexities of the human mind.”

Rui wondered if he could create a predictive model for the subconscious human mind, and the commonalities of the human mind across the entire species. If he did that, then he would be able to peer into the mind of evolution. He would gain an understanding of humans that was unprecedented.

Who knew what kind of power he would obtain if he succeeded in such an ambition? It would be akin to a new field of Martial Art, one that only he could tap into.

ʼItʼs a super difficult project though.ʼ Rui mused. 

It couldnʼt be helped, yet he wasnʼt able to shake off such a thought whenever he thought about it. It could evolve his Martial Art to heights that may very well have never been touched.