The Martial Unity

Of the two of them, a branch of the Virodhabhasa Faith was the one that Rui had set out to approach, mostly because it was the closest of the two destinations, or rather the least further away. However, it meant going even further west of the Floating Sect, he would have to travel a considerable amount of distance even at the speeds at which Martial Squires traveled.

However, he was confident that there was a good chance that he would find the things that he was looking for there. He recalled what he had learned about the Virodhabhasa Faith from the bare basic information that he had purchased from Chairman Deacon.

All he knew was that it was a faith centered around a Martial Artist known as the Virodhabhasa. As far as Rui knew, there were no Martial Artists who went by that name or that moniker. He had searched for Martial Sages and Martial Transcendents with that name, and he couldn’t find any.

Chairman Deacon had assured him that no Martial Artist in existence was recognized as the Virodhabhasa by the Virodhabhasa Faith.

Regardless, the fact that it was a faith centered around Martial Art meant that it was a great avenue for Martial Artists to gain access to resources that they would not be able to obtain otherwise.

Furthermore, the religion was wide and powerful, one of the four major religions that had spread across the entire continent. So he was sure that the religious organization would have what he needed, even if was visiting one Martial church that was closest to him. That combined with the fact that the religion worshipped Martial Art in general, he was sure that he would simply be able to negotiate a deal that allowed him to get what he needed.

This was especially the case when he had been entrusted with the official backing of the Floating Sect. It made it much easier for him to be taken seriously by the church branch of the faith that he was going to.

It was located in the Seonmun region, a rather remote and small purpose. 

Nothing special, but enough for his intents and purposes.

From the research that Rui had done, it was a place that gathered Martial Artists, especially Martial Squires, which was Chairman Deacon had shared with him in the first place. It was a Martial church that was meant for Martial Artists to receive the grace of the church, different from ordinary churches that catered to the average person.

Based on the information that Rui had gotten from Chairman Deacon, the church mobilized the power of Martial Artists across the entirety of the continent and employed that power for the betterment of the church.

It made most of its earnings through donations from diehard religious zealots from all classes of society that believed in the so-called Virodhabhasa, it also engaged in a modest amount of Martial Art brokership services similar to the Martial Union, connecting Martial Artists to consumers of Martial Art services.

All in all, it didn’t strike Rui as anything particularly special aside from how widespread it appeared to be.

Rui didn’t really see religion in the Kandrian Empire, which was a little unusual in hindsight. Monarchies usually enforced their power with religion, with concepts like the Divine right of kings, which stated that monarchs received their right to rule through God and could not be held accountable to humans.

Yet the Kandrian Empire was surprisingly secular.

Not that he was complaining, he disliked religion, but he did find it strange.

Regardless, the outside world did not follow suit.

And so Rui would be interacting with religion for the very first time in his second life.

He was not excited.

He was actually wary.

Not just because he disliked religion as a concept, but also because he knew how dangerous religion could be. 

Especially powerful religions.

They were not to be messed with. Rui was not conceited enough to believe that his power as a Martial Squire was relevant against enormously far-reaching and powerful organizations. This was no different from thinking his power as a Martial Squire was enough to take on the merchants of the Shionel Confederation. 

There was a reason that he had hidden his identity while he acted as the Voider in the Shionel Confederation.

Because he was far too weak to be able to stand up to them on the merit of his own power.

It was why he had run away from the Shionel Confederation in the first place.

He was extremely determined to not let such a thing happen here. He intended to come to know everything that he needed to know in order to make sure that he never did anything that resembled making an enemy of the powerful religion.

In fact, the first thing that he needed to was get to the bottom of the religion and make sure he understood what the religion was all about. Most religions had a holy book that contained the scriptures and doctrines of the religion, as well as the stories surrounding it.

He intended to memorize all of it.

He intended to memorize so well, that not even the most esteemed religious leaders of the religion would be his match.

The worst thing that he wanted was to do something that was completely fin and innocuous in a general context but was an incredibly rude and offensive gesture to the Virodhabhasa religion and gets persecuted for that!

This made them more annoying than dealing with merchants. Merchants like Chairman Deacon and Guildmaster Bradt were far easier for Rui to predict because their interests and their ability to fulfill those interests were both something that Rui could deeply predict.

However, the same was not true for religious folks. He had absolutely no idea how they would act in any given situation, it was much harder to predict what the more delusional and irrational members of a religion would do in any given situation.