The Martial Unity

Chapter 1931  Difficulty

Not only did they journey to the northern side of the Beast Domain, but they were also moving radially closer to the center of the Beast Domain. They could clearly notice the growing difficulty of traveling through the Beast Domain.

 The environment grew increasingly hostile to life. Their travel speed slowed down while they also began taking an increasingly larger number of breaks. Furthermore, the very act of taking a break became challenging because of the number of regions and places within a region where the two of them could take a break reduced substantially.

Everything became harder and harder.

Even food became significantly more difficult as even the crazy amount of food pills that Rui had prepared were being depleted.

They began hunting more as a result, relying on their environment for food while going back to the food pills only when the environment had nothing edible to offer. They increasingly began facing adversities that Martial Artists were generally not accustomed to facing.

The art of surviving became more important than the art of martial affairs: Martial Art. Their inexperience became increasingly painful as the two of them traveled slower and slower than they had hoped, often time regressing back because of poor navigational choices.

It wasnʼt just enough to have a mental map of the Beast Domain, although that certainly did help. The two never got lost in the Beast Domain and were never stranded without having any idea where they were.

This was estimated to be the fundamental cause of fifty percent of missing adventurers in the Beast Domain. The Beast Domain robbed one of a sense of direction. The extended remain without prepared resources caused being lost or stranded and eventually led to death due to other causes, such as environmental or ecological factors.

Rui managed to avoid this entirely due to a form of directional-vector tracking on the map of the Beast Domain that he stored mentally. Thanks to this, they always remained largely on track, even if Ruiʼs lack of experience with the Beast Domain led him to make the wrong choices every once in a while.

Yet, that wasnʼt the only reason that the two young men managed to avoid death.

”Stop!” Rui pulled at Kaneʼs shoulder, preventing him from taking another step.

Ahead of them was an open ocean filled with mist. Its waters were pitch black, entirely opaque to anything that wanted to sense it. It was eerie. Yet that alone was hardly anything special.

Rui and Kane had passed through regions of fiery fires so hellish that one would think it was straight out of Danteʼs Inferno. Yet, this one was special.

Rui knew they ought not to set foot in the water.

”Whatʼs the matter?” Kane frowned. ”I thought you said the Adventurerʼs Guildʼs data said this region was largely barren?”

Rui didnʼt respond with words. Instead, he activated his Martial Heart, launching three Mighty Roar Flash Blasts one after another.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Three hills of water momentarily erupted into the air under the immense destructive power of a Martial Senior.

Nothing out of the ordinary to Kane.

Yet, it was what followed that shook him.

RUMBLE!

The entire region began shaking violently. The sea quivered before it began violently spiraling and converging at a distant point.

Kaneʼs eyes widened as an enormous whirlpool large enough to swallow a mountain appeared on the horizon. At the bottom, a hole as wide as a town appeared.

At its edges and inside it were countless razor-sharp teeth of all sizes.

Any and every sea creature that entered the hole ran into them, being shredded on the way in.

”What the hell is that?!” Kane shrieked with horror.

”Thatʼs a charybdis,” Rui spoke gravely. ”The Sea of darkness is filled with them.”

”Oh, hell no!” Kane exclaimed, backing away from the sea. ”How the hell could the Adventurerʼs Guild say that it was a safe zone?”

”Because charybdises are almost impossible to detect. They are extremely good at hiding. They only begin feeding when they sense a magnitude of disturbance within their weight class,” Rui said, heaving a deep sigh. ”The adventurerʼs Guild relied on adventurer reports for its intel, and any adventurer that ever learned of the charybdis is probably dead. Hence, it was never reported, and the Adventurerʼs Guild basically marked it off as a safe zone based on those that never saw it when passing through the region.”

”Thatʼs crazy…” Kane perked. ”Wait a minute, how did you know it was there?”

He glanced at Rui inquisitively.

”Prophecy.”

Rui didnʼt need to elaborate.

This wasnʼt the first time that it had happened, either.

”Man…” Kane turned back to the enormous charybdis in the distance swallowing up an entire section of the sea. ”What would we do without your grandmother? Weʼd be dead without her. Turned into food for a sea monster.”

Rui couldnʼt deny those words. Charybdises manipulated water to increase its friction with other substances, making it almost impossible to escape when one was submerged within it, being dragged and absorbed toward the creatureʼs mouth.

While Rui was an extremely powerful Martial Artist, most of his power was born from the timing and placement of movements that perfectly adaptively evolved to counter his opponent. However, timing and placement werenʼt really relevant. Sometimes, in such extreme situations, physical power was the only path forward.

In such a circumstance, the Gatekeeper was probably the only one who could be unafraid.

”No wonder adventurers die left and right,” Kane snorted. ”Itʼs actually crazy that they go in despite such unreliable intel. When I went to the Beast Domain, I only went to the fringes of the Beast Domain. Going any deeper is insane.”

”…I had initially been a little irked that my grandmother showed me futures where I die instead of stuff about the Divine Doctor, but…” Ruiʼs tone was relieved. ”Now, Iʼm grateful that she did.”

He would have died before he even reached the Valley of Prisms if not for his grandmother knowing what was best for him.