The Martial Unity

Rui realized that he didn't know a thing about Ieyasu, about who he was and where he came from.

That was normal, of course. They were merely part of the same impersonal organization. They had been included in the same operation against the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Region.

But they had never actually even interacted prior to this moment.

('Whatever,') Rui shook his head. ('It doesn't matter for now. I just need to focus on what I'm setting out for.')

Soon enough, he stepped off the island, sky-walking away.

Instantly, the weight on his body plummeted, as the air thinned.

He heaved a sigh of relief as he treaded through the air comfortably.

All this time in the Floating Sect had truly increased his physical prowess, everything felt incomparably lighter than before. The passive training that came with simply living in the Floating Sect was something that could not be dismissed, and he could definitely feel the effects of it on his body.

The constitution of his body was fundamentally stronger. He was probably already very close to achieving the threshold needed to be able to survive the activation of the Martial Heart. This was much quicker than the rest of his peers, and the reason for that was because having turned into a Martial Squire at an extremely young age had meant that his Martial Body was still undergoing growth to reach the prime of its physical life, and had undergone a lot of growth during puberty.

Having obtained it earlier, it underwent growth quicker than those who became Martial Seniors.

The average age for breaking into the Squire Realm was around the age of twenty-five, and Rui had done so at the age of seventeen. Five years of growth in the Squire Realm meant that his body progressed towards meeting the threshold of the Martial Heart earlier than those that became Martial Squires after their bodies had fully matured into adulthood.

Still, that did not mean that he was on the very cusp of becoming a Martial Senior even if his body was close to reaching the necessary threshold.

After all, many guardians of the Floating Sect had spent many years in the Floating Sect having strengthened their bodies to meet the threshold.

Yet almost none of them were considered to be genuine a candidate for the Senior Realm. The reason for that was simply because the body was the most basic necessity, yet also the least challenging part of the sheer difficulty of breaking into the Senior Realm.

The sub-par individuality, the lack of a powerful enough drive, and the lack of circumstances that could serve as the trigger for the Martial Heart were the biggest reasons that the one thousand guardians of the Floating Sect were still Squires and not Seniors.

He recalled what Senior Xanarn had told him about the sect.

The sect could help them fulfill the body condition with ease, but could not otherwise improve their ability to break through.

The more time he spent in the sect, the more true her words rang. The sect, as an environment, was too detached from the drives of the Martial Artists who traveled far and wide to train in the sect.

That was one of the reasons that he had made the decision to leave. He did not want to become psychologically entrenched in the Floating Sect.

There was a vast world out there that he could indulge in while he searched for a solution for both Project Metabody and Senior Xanarn's condition.

He made sure to avoid the Kaddar Region like the plague, sky-walking far above sea level and the clouds, using Mind Mask to minimize his presence to make sure that he did not even earn their attention.

Just because the war was over, it did not mean that the Kaddar Region's hatred for the Floating Sect was gone, if anything, it was far worse than it had ever been.

The Kingdom of Graheria in particular would do everything in their power to take him down if they learned how much they had suffered because of Rui.

Not only had Rui infiltrated one of their military bases and gotten valuable intelligence on their superweapon, but he had also killed one of their Martial Seniors.

That's why he went well out of his way to ensure that he was well above even the clouds until he had put some distance between them and the Kaddar Region.

Ajanta Island could still be seen in the distance due to how big it was, and even it was a small dot in the sky.

STEP

Rui returned to land for the first time in nearly a year.

"Huff…" He sighed. ('Time to get going.')

He actually had multiple possible destinations in mind.

Back when he was looking for destinations that could allow Kane and him to be able to gain the resources needed to master their lightning techniques, he had narrowed down on three locations that could give them access to the resources they needed in exchange for Martial services without any long-term commitments.

They had only visited one out of the three of them; Crexeet Town.

Rui had seriously considered going to Crexeet Town to look for what he needed. He had already built up a positive reputation there, and he would probably be welcomed back with open arms.

However…

He shook his head. ('They don't have what I'm looking for.')

Crexeet Town was highly competent when it came to Squire-level Martial Art research and development, however, it was increasingly limited when it came to matters that exceeded the Squire Realm.

He was not confident that they would have what he was looking for when it came to his Metabody technique due to how powerful the technique was.

He knew for a fact that they would not have the means to deal with a Senior-level poison, especially when the Floating Sect's medical department had already pronounced her condition to likely be permanent.

In that case, he had no choice but to turn to the other two possibilities.