The Martial Unity

Chapter 3424: Biological Dependence

Rui’s attention grew engrossed in the Whisperer’s words as he pondered what she said. ”Radiation is his sustenance, is it? That makes sense... No wonder he seems so absurdly immune to it.”

The amount of radiation that the Dragon Emperor emitted was so intense that it posed problems even for Martial Sages. It was what led to Amare’s defeat, among other things. Not even a Martial Sage at or even above the Transcendent Candidate level was enough to negate the poisonous radiation.

Then it begged the question of how a dragon survived it from the inside out?

Even with all the radiation shielding, Rui couldn’t fathom how the dragon could be so unaffected by radiation, unless he needed it to survive. Unless his biology evolved around the radiation.

”But why radiation?” Rui murmured with an intrigued tone. ”Why would he even come to develop such a dependence on radiation? Does it actually make sense? Is that how all dragons are in the true world or just Shenlong?”

”Just the Dragon Emperor,” she remarked. ”He is also known as the Crimson Dragon because of his radioactive aura that consumes the entire world around him. Only he possesses these traits, and no other dragon in existence. As for why...”

She shrugged. ”That is personal to him; even an information broker like me has no way of knowing why he did this to himself. Just that he is always obsessed with evolution and Transcendence. Ah...”

Her rich brown eyes lit up as she recalled something.

”What?” Rui raised an eyebrow. ”What did you just think about?”

”Nothing too significant,” she murmured thoughtfully. ”Just that the Dragon Emperor recently... had a moment of great jubilation and triumph. As if he had gained something that he had been yearning for, for a very long time.”

Rui’s eyes lit up as a realization dawned on him. ”Was this... on the very same day that the giant invasion into East Genora ended?”

”Yes, actually.” She frowned at him. ”So you were aware of it anyway.”

”Lucky guess,” he lied. ”Tell me more about it.”

”Well... it is said that he roared the entire day across the entire continent with the Authority of Alpha.”

Rui frowned. ”That’s... much.”

”Yes, but he didn’t use his Authority of Alpha to control people. Instead, he used it to convey his feelings to them. I have a few of my animals on the continent, and based on what I got from them... he was conveying... the ecstasy of enlightenment.”

”...Enlightenment?”

”An epiphany,” she added. ”A discovery, maybe. Triumph, euphoric excitement. That sort of thing. Most unusual for the Dragon Emperor.”

Rui’s expression darkened as he understood what was happening.

Mother Maeria had warned him of this, of course.

She had told him that the other powerhouses in the world would have undoubtedly felt her momentary Transcendence.

The Dragon Emperor must have been jubilant and excited because he must have discovered the Transcendent Realm that day when Mother Maeria momentarily achieved Transcendence.

”Damn...” Rui clenched his fists. ”She really did unleash Pandora’s Box.”

The Race to Transcendence had already begun.

There were likely a few dozen participants in the race, perhaps a few more.

Rui was one of them, as was Amare.

The Reverend of Reckoning and the Boundless Light were also a part of the race.

Grudgingly, Rui accepted that Ieyasu was likely also a part of the race. Except he was no longer a part of the human faction. Other members of the race were Mother Maeria, Vyia, and, now, the Dragon Emperor.

There were many more that Rui didn’t even know of.

Whoever reached the Transcendent Realm first was bound to rule everything.

It was a race for the survival of their people.

It was a race that Rui couldn’t afford to lose.

’I need to kill that damn dragon before he becomes a Transcendent. If he does get there, then this world is doomed.’

The Dragon Emperor was belligerent enough even when he wasn’t the strongest. Words couldn’t describe how horrendous the world would become if he truly managed to become a Transcendent.

It only steeled Rui’s resolve to kill him off as soon as possible. In fact, he almost stopped caring about trying to get the Hlakaschken Trade Empire’s appreciation over the matter to earn their neutrality, and just ran over and killed the dragon no matter what the collateral damage was.

’I might have to adopt this attitude with the remaining top ten in the land.’ Rui didn’t care to exercise caution when the stakes were high. ’Though in the case of the Dragon Emperor, it will be more prudent to stick with the plan for now.’

He needed to isolate the Dragon Emperor from his clan so that he could fight him one-on-one and ambush him, much like the light elves had ambushed him. The only thing he wasn’t quite sure of was whether he could successfully pull off such a strategy.

He shook his head, heaving a deep breath.

”Anything else?” he gazed at the Whisperer with a hopeful expression.

”The only other significant piece of information I have left to offer is that the Dragon Emperor has limited stamina in battle,” she explained. ”Dragons are not known for their endurance. In turn, they have extraordinary power in the short term. This is particularly true for the Dragon Emperor.”

Under ordinary circumstances, Rui would have celebrated that shortcoming, but not this time. ”I need to kill him in a short amount of time, so the stamina disadvantage isn’t much of a disadvantage for him in our upcoming battle. I will need to fight him where he is strongest.”

Rui shook his head with an exasperated expression.

It was especially unfortunate since Rui was particularly strong when it came to stamina, thanks to the Blood of Solaris. He simply couldn’t leverage his battle with the Dragon Emperor because of the circumstances and situation.

”This is going to be a brutal battle to win under these circumstances.”

Yet, he looked forward to it nonetheless.

It wasn’t every day that he got to face an opponent as strong or perhaps even stronger than himself.