The Martial Unity

The Martial Festival commenced in its full glory the very second dawn broke on the first day of the week-long festival. The energy of the town skyrocketed compared to the average day as the citizens went all out in participating and enjoying a festival that occurred only once every two years.

Rui, on the other hand, was actually quite jobless. 

He had finished his training, and there was absolutely no improvement to be made in the span of three days. He spent the day taking in the festival, enjoying a rare occasion as much as he could.

He even visited the colosseum that would host the preliminary contest. 

“Woah,” Rui did a double take when he realized how large it was. “That’s… generous in its size.”

It was big enough to comfortably accommodate all the participating Martial Squires of the town in a single match. Ordinarily, it would be too big for any human to possibly view in its entirety while also being able to follow the battles of all Martial Squires. It was basically impossible for ordinary humans to follow Squire-level combat in the first place, these conditions just made it even more impossible than it already was.

However, Rui knew that certain measures would be taken to ensure that the audience would be able to keep up with the combat. Rui had heard that each ticket also came with a potion that could allow the cognition of ordinary humans to reach a level that would allow them to follow what was happening.

Rui had been shocked when he learned of that. However, it wasn’t the existence of such potions that shocked him. He knew that potion users existed, and could keep up with Martial Artists in combat. Thus potions that could allow humans to process Martial Artist combat were hardly a shock, it was actually a step below.

What was shocking was that the Virodhabhasa Faith was willing to produce so many potions of such a kind all for the frivolous purpose of allowing an audience to be able to keep up with the spectacle.

What was just as astounding was the fact that there were god only knew how many people who were willing to pay an absurd amount of money for a single ticket that included the price of the potions, all so that they could have the experience of watching Martial Squires fight.

(‘Rich people…’) He snorted. 

He was among the richest for a brief period of time before he purchased a decade’s worth of services from squads of Martial Seniors ensuring that no Senior-level threat could hurt his family and the services from Guildmaster Bradt, but even then he wouldn’t spend money in such a vain manner.

(‘I bet this is how it will be for the Senior-level contest too,’) He snorted.

He couldn’t even imagine the price of a single ticket. The number of people who would pay for such tickets was also probably substantially lower. However the price one a Senior-level ticket was probably a hundred times higher than that of a Squire-level ticket, thus the profits were not low either.

Yet the potions weren’t the only things that drew his attention and interest.

It turned out that the execution of the contest was enough to keep him entertained until the fourth day of the Martial Festival when it was finally time for the preliminary contest.

By the time the fourth day arrived, the excitement of the town had reached what would probably be the very peak of the entire festival. After all, once the preliminary contest was completed, the contest would escalate far beyond the confines of the town, and head to the colosseum in the central headquarters of the Virodhabhasa Faith.

Thus it was only today that the three contests would make the town livelier than ever.

Rui still had quite some time before it was his turn, so he decided to purchase a ticket for the Apprentice-level preliminary contest.

This was in stark contrast to how he would handle such events in the past. In the past, he probably would have spent the whole day trying to enter his absolute best state through meditation. But he had reached a stage in his Martial Path where he no longer needed to go to such lengths to enter his peak mental state.

The more time he spent as an active Martial Artist, the easier it became to enter the zone where his mind entirely focused on the task at hand. He found that it was actually easier to let it arise naturally rather than trying to brute-force it.

Rather than stressing himself out, he decided to relax and watch the kids of the lower Realm duke it out in an identical fashion as the Squires and Seniors would. It was also the only ticket that he could afford at the moment. 

It helped him relax and not needlessly force him to consume extra mental and physical energy. It also helped that he had made sure that he was as close to his peak as possible by carefully measuring his diet and sleep. 

It wasn’t long before it was time.

The participating contestants were supposed to report to the contest committee three hours prior to the kick-off of the contest. Thus Rui had the pleasure of facing his fellow contestants before the match even began.

“Contestant #342; Squire Falken.”

STEP

He paused once he entered the giant hall hosting hundreds of Martial Squires, heaving a sigh.

(‘Give me a break guys…’) 

Each and every Martial Squire was staring at him. He could practically see the wariness, as well as the predatory hostility within their eyes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were not thinking nice things.

Rui couldn’t help but curse the organizers who forced all of them into one room. This was just an attempt to bait drama. Although there were two Martial Seniors to ensure that a conflict did not prematurely erupt in the hall, it was clear that anything else was fine.