The Martial Unity

Rui had much to think about the previous fight. It had been the first fight in quite a long time where he had been pushed to such a limit, and it helped him understand the current state of his power and progress.

Naturally, it also helped him realize his flaws and shortcomings.

'I need to be quicker with the Hypnomatrix,' Rui tutted. He had just gotten up after a good long sleep, refreshing himself a bit back at his personal quarters. 'Had I made my choice quicker, it wouldn't have gotten to this. This was despite having foreknowledge on her.'

Although the Beggar's Sect had offered him a good amount of knowledge into Senior Marna's abilities, it didn't offer insight into the nuances that he needed to figure out which Hypnomatrix technique to use.

By the time he figured it out, he was too busy trying not to die, being bombarded by the very land he stood on. Things would have been even worse had he not had any insight into her. He would have been completely blindsided by her niche abilities and there was a real possibility that he would have died.

That was why despite winning, and despite the satisfaction that came with adaptively evolving to and overcoming someone of her caliber, he didn't let it get to his head. He was not so superior that he had earned the right to look down on her.

'Still, a domain Martial Art…'Rui grew curious about this field of Martial Art. "I guess even to this day, there are fields of Martial Art out there that I don't know about."

The world was wide and scarcely interconnected, there would always be places, people, Martial Art, and other phenomena that he would never be able to learn about unless he came across them himself. Not even the powerful Martial Union could every single and all niche and exotic techniques across the continent.

Only the Beggar's Sect could do something like that, but they were not a Martial organization.

However, despite being aware of this, he truly had been surprised when he learned about domain techniques. These techniques consisted of any and all principles that manipulated the environment in battle.

It was different from techniques that made use of air or sound since he produced the gust of wind or projectile of sound from within his body. In the case of domain techniques, the environment never directly interacted with the user. "Interesting…" Rui narrowed his eyes. He wondered if he had any aptitude for domain techniques. He probably did since, from what he could tell, domain techniques were hybrids of a variety of different principles that manipulated the environment. There was no reason he was particularly bad at it.

An exciting thought came to his mind as he wondered if he could potentially integrate an element of domain manipulation into his Martial Art. Perhaps he could manipulate his environment in a way that aided with adaptive evolution as a concept.

Perhaps he could have his environment to adapt to become antithetical to his opponent.

Or perhaps he could have his environment aid his physical and mental adaptive evolution.

Perhaps he could manipulate his environment to be unfavorable to everybody, but allow him to gain an advantage after adapting to it. There was much greater power to be gained if one was willing to risk one's self.

There were many potential ideas, however, there was no use speculating any further. He knew far too little about them. He didn't know what was possible and what wasn't.

"Hmmm…" Rui narrowed his eyes as he considered the matter. 'I'll put it on the list.'

He wasn't short of ideas or avenues worth pursuing, he even had a list of things he should consider doing or pursuing. However, domain techniques were not an immediate concern for him at the moment, it was something to consider after he had fulfilled his vendetta.

This was especially so since he was feeling the pressure on his decade-long time limit. It had been more than seven years since he left the Shionel Confederation, approaching eight years. He wanted to quickly get his hands on the information to form a foolproof way to get rid of Chairman Deacon. That was now his top priority. Everything came after that.

'Besides… I also have other avenues of pursuit that rank higher on the list such as Primordial Seed.' Rui sighed. Of course, integrating Primordial Seed into his Martial Art was much harder than mastering an existing field of Martial Art. BEEP

"Hm?" Rui raised an eyebrow, reaching for his communication device and reading the message that he had received. "Oh…? Interesting."

According to the Beggar's Sect, of the two remaining Martial Seniors, one of them had refused to take any assignment that required him to leave the safety of the highly fortified base HQ. Apparently, the Martial Senior had no intentions of subjecting himself to any danger, such as the assailant who had been scratching off the Martial Seniors of the Gereign Base. He did not want to risk his life.

"Hah…" Rui scoffed. "How sensible. This one isn't going to make it to the Master Realm and has no intentions of going there."

He didn't begrudge sensible caution to preserve one's life. Not everyone could risk their life for personal ambition, and not everyone needed to. It was OK to not want to die. However, an unwillingness to bear the risk of death for Martial Artists usually signified their limits.

He glanced at the name on an open file before him.

[Senior Francis]

The vice-leader of the security and exploration team under Senior Zenshin. Despite his unwillingness to face Rui, he was undoubtedly strong. Having been a Martial Senior for nearly a hundred and fifty years, he had managed to survive and overcome a lot of tribulations, even going as far as to awaken his Martial Heart in a desperate attempt to survive sixty years ago.

He was Rui's next target, and he refused to accept Rui's implicit challenge to face him in the forest, unlike Senior Marna. "Still, now that she's dead, I can finally execute that plan."