The Martial Unity

Each action had an impact.

Every action had an impact on everything around it.

The stronger one was, the greater the impact.

And when the one making the action was a Sage, the impact was beyond anything that any Master could handle.

Under normal circumstances.

BOOOOOM BO0000000M BO0000000000OOM!!!!!

The shockwaves of pure destruction that her attacks launched one after another only grew stronger and stronger.

They were more powerful than any Yin-Yang Spear that Rui had ever thrown in his entire life.

They washed over his Body at an astronomical frequency, threatening to destroy him. And yet, they didn’t.

Sonic Transparence was a technique that Rui had spontaneously created on the spot to adaptively evolve to the menacingly destructive shockwave that swept past him millions of times each second.

By relying on the principles of electromagnetism and material science, as well as the fact that his Body was mostly comprised of water, he was able to alter the sonic conductance of his Body to astronomical degrees.

It allowed sound waves, shockwaves included, to pass through him with as minimal harm inflicted on him as possible.

It was an even more extreme version of the Phantom Sound Walk that he had created against Ieyasu in their little testing spar.

Unlike that technique, Sonic Transparence sacrificed durability in order to increase sonic conductance. After all, the more durable an object, the more rigid it was. The more rigid it was, the less it would allow sound to flow through the object and instead collide with sound in a harmful collision.

And thus, Rui voluntarily sacrificed all his durability in order to allow the shockwaves to flow through him thanks to extraordinarily high sonic conductance. With how much he had weakened his Body, even a Squire-level punch would have been able to hurt him.

Thankfully, he didn’t need durability all that much for this particular fight.

The result?

He was able to not only evade countless blows that were exponentially faster than he was, he was able to negate the sheer amount of energy onslaught that erupted from Sage Himari with each passing attack, growing stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

Even the most powerful Martial Masters would have died millions of times by now had they been in his place.

And yet-

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

WHOOSH!!!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

Heaven and earth shook violently as the sheer ferocity of her offensive onslaught had him staring death in the eyes.

And yet, he evaded each and every single attack.

Not a single one of them had so much as touched him.

Minutes had passed since the inception of what was now a full-fledged fight and yet, a young Martial Master, the youngest of them all, was still holding his own against a proper Martial Sage.

The sheer era-defining power that Rui demonstrated had truly shocked not only Sage Himari who exerted herself more and more with each passing moment, but also all the spectating Sages who witnessed the battle through their own isolated barrier via the fluctuations in the gravitational field that emerged from their colleague.

It was beyond shocking.

Words could not describe the impossible miracle that unfolded within the isolated domain.

No matter what happened that day, this was a feat that would go down in history as the single most revolutionary display of power against an opponent in a higher Realm.

And yet, unbeknownst to all of them, this had been a long time coming.

Rui had been pushing the limits of each Realm he was in from as long as he could even remember.

From the day he set out to become a Martial Artist, he had been redefining what was possible.

As a mere human, he forced Kane to use an Apprentice-level technique.

As a mere Apprentice, he killed a newborn unaccustomed Squire with some teamwork.

As a mere Squire, he emerged from a Senior-level attack unscathed.

As a mere Senior, he fought a powerful Master-level beast to stalemate for several minutes.

And now, as a Master, he fought a true Martial Sage head-on.

With each passing Realm, his accumulation had only grown greater and greater.

With each passing Realm, his ability to accomplish the impossible had only grow stronger.

The sum totality of every ounce of power that he cultivated in the past thirty-seven years as a Martial Artist has culminated in a profoundly ephemeral battle that would redefine everything that was thought to once be impossible.

The continuous flood of success unleashed a flood of euphoria that served as a powerful

placebo for him.

His confidence soared.

His certainty rose.

His mental state continued growing more and more powerful even as Sage Himari’s mental state grew increasingly unconducive to pulling herself back together and becoming aware of the hypnosis of the Soul Blinding that shackled her.

And yet, even then, a single truth had become excruciatingly clear to her as she gazed into the blood-red suns that shined with blinding brightness in his eyes.

She could not defeat Rui in close-quarters combat.

She could not vanquish him with her fists.

It was a humiliating realization.

So much so that her ego almost refused to allow her to acknowledge this truth.

And yet, the only thing more humiliating would be to let this battle go on for much longer.

She would need to use her Martial Art.

She would need to stop holding back her true power and use her Martial Art.

She would need to use the full might she possessed as true Martial Sage.

“Behold the might of a Martial Sage.” Her eyes grew frosty. “Behold my Winter.”

WHOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!

An endless blizzard emerged from the depths of her as she fueled it with the power of the

gods.

Materia prima.

The very Origin of all materia in the universe.

She channeled this celestial power into her blizzard, fueling to become a true Sage-level

attack.

WHHH0000000000000000SSSHHHHH!!!!!!!

The atmosphere ceased to exist, condensing into ice.

Motion ceased to exist.

The very flow of time seemed to freeze over as she fueled her expanding Winter to consume

the entire world.

Absolute Zero.

An attack that no Master could possibly resist.

And yet, the faintest of whispers escaped Rui as Winter consumed him.

“Sun.”