The Martial Unity

Chapter 2742: The Ethos of a Civilization

Rui generally considered himself brave.

He had looked Sages in the eye as he fought them. He had even adopted the highly risky and fearful strategy of dying to the Sage Realm.

He had pushed his limit time and time again, uncertain of whether he would come out alive.

And yet, despite that, he felt his soul shuddering at the thought of a source of fear so astronomically unfathomable that one needed to enter the Transcendent Realm just to feel it. It was one of the most horrifying and chilling realizations of his entire life. The fact that there was something out there that could inspire fear in Martial Transcendents broke Ruiʼs mind, leaving him unable to even parse the possibilities.

”Different Martial Transcendents have chosen different approaches at finding and eliminating this fear, this Transcendent Fear, differently,” Transcendent Raizel heaved a sigh, shaking his head lightly. ”Most of them have chosen a cautious approach. My solution, however, was a prophecy.”

Rui stared at him with a stunned expression.

”I chose a prophecy,” he explained with a calm and composed tone. ”Not a divine prophecy, no. Nor a precognitive prophecy like what my son Silas created and passed on to the Silas Clan, the Eye of Prophecy. No, I chose the most powerful kind of prophecy.”

He smiled confidently. ”I chose a self-fulfilling prophecy. A civilizational self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Rui stared at him as his eyes widened with shock. ”That means… the legend of the Antithesis…”

”Itʼs all fiction that I created.” He smiled pleasantly. ”However, as long as enough people believed in it, it would steer civilization to eventually produce the outcome I sought.”

His pious gaze remained fixed on Rui.

”It would produce someone worthy of being the Antithesis.”

His smile grew warm and appreciative. ”It would produce someone worthy of becoming Lord Virodhabhasa.”

Rui stared at him with a paralyzed expression.

His brain was short-circuiting.

He had been bombarded with too many revelations all at once. One after another, they rattled his composure and calm, leaving his mind in a mess of maelstrom of emotions.

”A civilizational self-fulfilling prophecy…” a quivering whisper escaped Rui as he struggled to accept this truth. ”Just for that, you created a brand new religion and Sage-level powerhouse…?”

Transcendent Raizel shook his head lightly.

”The ethos of a civilization dictates its Martial Art.”

His powerful eyes returned to Rui. ”You have traveled half of the continent in the past few years. You should know just how absolute the influence of ethos over Martial Art is.”

Rui regained a measure of his composure as he thought about all the nations he had recently visited.

The Nest of Terra.

The Solaris Kingdom.

The Gen Temple.

The ethos of these nations literally shaped and molded its Martial Art.

”The Martial Path is a product of who you are,” the Martial Transcendent explained patiently. ”Who you are is affected by the ethos of the society and civilization you grow in. Thus, if an ethos reflects a powerful belief and prophecy, it can be self-fulfilling across an entire civilization, which would ultimately increase the probability that the prophecy will actually be fulfilled. Of course…”

He shrugged lightly. ”This is hardly absolute. At most, it is an impact that will drive civilization to be likelier to fulfill that prophecy. It was a low-effort and high-yield solution that I chose to implement more than a century ago, and it appears to have finally yielded the desired outcome.”

Rui stared at him in stunned silence.

”Of course, just because it was fiction doesnʼt mean that I did not put a lot of thought into it,” he remarked with a casual tone. ”The fiction had to be awe-inspiring and easy to worship. Which meant it had to be discrete and easy to understand. I could not make it too complex. A single person. A single savior.”

He continued nonchalantly, detailing his thought process. ”I also didnʼt know the nature of what caused my fear. Thus, in order to maximize the probability of my prophecy leading to this unknown source of fear being eliminated, I decided that this hero figure needed to be able to defeat any and everything. It needed to be the weakness of any and everything. It needed to be able to destroy any and everything. It needed to be antithetical to any and everything.”

He directed a pointed gaze at Rui. ”Hence, the Antithesis. Someone who was antithetical to everything. That was the core of the concept. Everything else around the concept was embellished to ensure that there was no chance that the Antithesis would not be worshipped. I truly didnʼt expect that even the fictional parts of raising and razing Martial Paths would also come to be self-fulfilled by human civilization. It was a pleasant surprise.”

”…”

”When I gaze into you, your mind, and your soul…” the Martial Transcendent remarked thoughtfully. ”I can sense that the civilizational self-fulfilling prophecy that I created has indeed contributed to your existence as someone who is the Antithesis. After all, without the Virodhabhasa Faith, my son Silas would have never created the Eye of Prophecy or the Silas Clan. Without the Silas Clan…”

He smiled. ”You would have never been born.”

Rui just stared at him. That was all he was capable of doing.

His mind was reeling to process the shocking information that the Astral Sovereign dumped onto him without a care in the world. ”And thus, I believe that my civilizational self-fulfilling prophecy has had a powerful and positive impact on human civilization,” the Martial Transcendent remarked with a calm tone. ”Even if you do not end up growing powerful enough to find and destroy the unknown source of fear that plagues all eleven of my colleagues, your impact on civilization is overwhelmingly positive and will strengthen human civilization tremendously, increasing the number of Martial Transcendents that will emerge from it.”

”…”

”This, in turn, will increase the probability that we will be able to collectively overcome the extraordinary source of fear that I experience even as I speak to you at this very moment.”

And thus, he had completed his long-winded explanation with a matter-of-factly tone while Rui simply sat there frozen in shock. -