The Martial Unity

Many leaders grew curious about what he had to say. If someone like the Esoterist regarded it as revolutionary, then it was surely something truly special. “Let me begin with some other lower-hanging fruits,” the Esoterist remarked. “You see, all the refits and upgrades I mentioned earlier are going to require resources. Resources that would otherwise need to be procured from the Beast Domain. However, we have the Beast Incursion.”

He smiled. “Thus, we don’t need to go into the Beast Domain. We can mine and process the corpses of beasts and monsters.”

Many leaders stirred at his words. This was not lost on them as a possibility. The issue was that it was extremely difficult to mine resources from corpses of animals when they were on a battlefield that was constantly ravaged with beast tides one after another. “I am aware of the logistical nightmare that my suggestion entails,” the Esoterist mused knowingly. “And that is why I have developed solutions. This, too, is something that is proprietary to the Esocline Federation, but I’m willing to share it with all of you.”

He waved his hand, causing the three-dimensional image projected by his suit to shift and feature what looked like a cannon.

Except, according to the little animation that lit up, the cannon extracted and absorbed all esoteric matter from the corpses from afar and remotely without needing to be present on the battlefield.

A wave of murmurs spread through the leaders of human civilization as they realized the sheer utility of such a powerful artifact.

“I call this the Esotractor,” he stated. “It allows you to extract esoteric resources with absolutely none of the risk and detriment that occurs with trying to retrieve the carcasses of the killed monsters and beasts. By relying on certain material properties that esoteric substances have and their interactions with the four fundamental forces of the universe, it is possible to create an attracting force that acts only on them and no other matter.”

This invention could drastically alter much of the resource shortage that human civilization was experiencing at the moment. It was extremely and desperately needed in the current circumstance for most leaders.

Rui stirred in his seat as he watched the remote presentation in the Kandrian Empire. “This…”

With just two solutions alone, he felt the Esoterist was able to already match his contributions with the Hellbringer and related training materials. It showed that the Esoterist might have more to offer to human civilization.

Of course, Rui was certainly holding back on offering something like his breakthroughs. However, he was certain that the Esoterist was also holding back on the very best technological solutions.

On top of that, technology was simply inherently better at empowering a civilization than any single Martial Artist could.

Martial Artists were unmatched on the battlefield compared to beasts or technology. However, they could not empower an entire civilization the way that a single technological innovation, a single blueprint, a single discovery could. Almost no Martial Artist had impacted human civilization the way that the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel did.

That was why, if their contributions were to be compared, the Esoterist possessed an inherent advantage in that regard. He could do more for civilization at large.

Thus, unless Rui sought to dig up knowledge from his old life and accelerate the non-esoteric scientific knowledge and technological development, he would be resigned to the fact that the Esoterist would be more impactful than he would. However, that indeed begged the question.

‘Should I accelerate the scientific knowledge of this world?’ Rui wondered.

This was not the first time that this thought had crossed his mind.

He had wondered about this from the day that he was born. After he became a Martial Artist, he had been less inclined because it would not do his field any favors. It could potentially allow technology to overcome Martial Artists, and overcome him, making it harder for him to fulfill Project Water.

However, he had grown immensely as a Martial Artist, especially after he had broken through to the Master Realm and learned the truth about his reincarnation, or what he had thought was reincarnation.

‘If I am too afraid to overcome science, then I’m not fit to fulfill Project Water.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘I don’t care about other Martial Artists. What matters to me is my own Martial Art and ambition.’

Surely, other Martial Artists would suffer if science did accelerate.

But why would that be Rui’s concern?

As long as he could fulfill Project Water, he would gladly doom all other Martial Artists, including his best friend.

Nobody was entitled to power; it needed to be earned. And if other forces became stronger, then that was that. Martial Artists could very well be dethroned, but human civilization would be much stronger as a whole.

‘On top of that, my old considerations were shackled by my lack of understanding of the true depths of Martial Art,’ Rui recalled his old fears. ‘But Martial Art and science are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they could be mutually inclusive, depending on the nature of the Martial Path.’

He knew that scientific principles were vital to the Upper Realms. Thus, how could science be damaging to Martial Art? When Martial Artists made the most use of it?

His gaze returned to that of the Esoterist.

Rui knew that one of the goals of this man was to slowly erode the dominance of Martial Art, and, from what Rui had seen, the man possessed the power to do so. However, he couldn’t help but feel that he was missing something in the puzzle of what the Esoterist was trying to ultimately achieve.

Rui paid closer attention to the Esoterist as the man went on about the various technological innovations that he would be sharing with human civilization to combat the apocalyptic Beast Incursion and strengthen human civilization to the point of being able to survive without Martial Sages.

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