The Martial Unity

Rui intended to meet all of the conditions for becoming a Martial Senior, and he had a plan for almost all of them.

He wasn't far too concerned with the condition of building up enough individuality to be able to bring out the true potential of the Martial Body; the Martial Heart. Individuality was something he rocked at as a Martial Artist for various reasons.

A lifetime of experience, a lifetime of knowledge from another world, and a particularly sharp mind meant that he could exercise his creativity and produce something that was not only original but quite unique as well. It meant that as long as he didn't grow overconfident or lazy, and continued applying and exerting himself to add more individuality to his Martial Art, he would certainly cross the threshold where his Martial Heart would have been unearthed, and needed to only be triggered.

As for the condition of the body, that was to ensure that the Martial Body was strong enough to withstand the flood of power that would released by the Martial Heart. Rui recalled the story that Senior Xanarn had told him about her grandmother. She performed incredible feats to save her life but died very soon after.

This was because her body was simply unable to withstand that power. In fact, that was the reason why the untapped well of power was hidden and locked away. It was because it would severely harm the body if used, and could even lead to death in the worst-case scenario.

That was why he needed to improve the internal constitution of his body. This would normally be impossible for the human, but the Martial Body was an evolved form of the body and could do almost everything the human body could do to a far greater degree.

This included a passive adaptation factor of healed tissue to old stimuli that damage tissue. It was like how bones could be strengthened under sustained pressure, damage, and force through repeated conditioning.

Over time, the Martial Body would simply grow stronger, and it's ability to improve under stress had also evolved.

Thus, as long as a Martial Squire never ceased to train and fight, they would probably eventually obtain a body that was capable of withstanding the Martial Heart.

('Is that why all Martial Seniors are quite old?') Rui wondered.

It made sense, they simply were unable to activate their Martial Hearts at all prior to reaching that level of internal constitution.

Rui had taken the initiative to remain on Ajanta Island to hasten that process, thus he wasn't worried about the Martial Body condition either.

He was driven enough in his pursuit of his Martial Path as well, he was not unmotivated, and he had a tremendous drive towards pursuing his Marital Path.

He was driven by both his desire to fulfill Project Water, and also his desire to protect his family.

Both of those were powerful force drivers.

The one that he couldn't control was being put in circumstances where that would challenge those strong desires. He couldn't do that, nor did he want to do that, it would require putting the objects of his desire at risk.

In order to challenge his desire to protect his family, circumstances where they were put at risk were necessary, and required. However, he did not want to willingly put his family at risk just to trigger the breakthrough to the Senior Realm.

('If I was willing to sacrifice them to get more power… Then protecting them wouldn't have been such a big deal at the moment.')

That was why he didn't even consider putting his family in danger on purpose and then challenging himself to protect them as some way to trigger the activation of the Martial Heart.

That was the biggest problem, he simply didn't know how he could be sure that he would run into some circumstance that would somehow challenge in him in exactly the right way for his Martial Heart to be triggered.

That seemed like it relied entirely on luck. And that was something he seriously disliked. He did not want the probability of his breakthrough to hinge on dumb luck, that was something he did not want to tolerate.

One of the things he had been pondering recently was whether he ought to find a way to trigger the Martial Heart actively and voluntarily.

The very thought of it made him grow excited. Yet he wasn't sure if it was achievable at all. After all, he was sure that many people had tried increasing the rate at which the breakthroughs occurred at all Realms, but for the most part, no one had succeeded.

The reason he could be sure of this was that only a small minority of the Martial Artists of each Realm broke into a higher one. Had anyone made any major breakthrough in that regard, it would have been quite different.

('Unless they chose to hide it, like I did,') He mused.

He had not forgotten the fact that he had discovered a way to increase the probability of breakthroughs in the Apprentice Realm through his Martial Art. He wondered if it was possible to do with higher Realms.

He sighed, putting the matter aside for now.

He had too much on his plate to think about such matters for the moment. Project Metabody was currently his greatest project, and it took a lot of his time and attention, such that there was little to no way he could possibly focus on an ambition of such a magnitude.

Just as he was about to return to working on Project Metabody, he heard the bell outside the chamber ringing, someone had arrived.

"Oh, Kane, what's going on?" Rui asked when he opened the door only to find Kane outside.

"Uh, something very strange happened to me just now," Kane replied with a confused expression.

"Hm?"

"Guardian Tokugawa Ieyasu challenged me to a duel," Kane revealed. "Honestly, I have no idea what to make of it at all."