The Martial Unity

The Beggar Sage narrowed his eyes at the action.

He wasn’t worried.

Any attempt at hypnotizing him would trigger an automatic system that would melt his brain. The brilliant trigger system was created by the Psycher, allowing him to ensure that not even the finest of hypnosis would go unnoticed.

The brain-melting system was a genius of the Divine Doctor.

Ordinarily, creating such an apparatus within the brain without it being detected by others was impossible. Whether it was biological or esoteric, any significant oddity would be noticed by doctors and even Martial Artists, drawing attention to him. And yet, the Divine Doctor had succeeded in creating an unnoticeable brain-melting system that was entirely indistinguishable from normal physiology.

This vessel was the product of the two greatest geniuses in their fields, who had centuries of experience and mastery.

As impressive as the Dawnbringer was, he was not capable of cracking the priceless information hidden in the brain of the Beggar Sage. Not even Martial Sages were.

Only Martial Transcendents could crack this information protection, but thankfully, they did not act.

“Don’t worry.” Rui’s tone was composed. “I have no intention of harming you. I’m just going to show you the truth.”

The Beggar Sage’s eyes widened with shock as the world around him changed.

Gaia changed.

She was gone.

In her place, was Earth.

Rui smirked as he showed the man Times Square in New York.

One of the most overrated places in the world for tourism as far as Rui was concerned. But if there was one place to dazzle an alien with the wonders of modern human civilization, New York was the best place.

At least, the best place in John’s memories.

“What…” A shocked whisper escaped him. “What is this?”

He beheld the world around him with a shocked expression. Enormously tall buildings that seemed to scrape the sky infested the city as far as the eye could see. He could see what appeared to be countless esoteric projections that stretched as far as the eye could see across most buildings.

An endless hoard of sleek automatic carriages with alien designs stretched on and on endlessly.

Each person walked around with a glowing comms device with strange instruments attached to it, connecting it to their ears.

VMMM!

BEEP BEEP!

“Ay, I’m walkin’ o’er here!”

Alien attires.

Alien cultures.

Alien languages.

Alien technology.

An alien world beyond anything the Beggar’s Sage could even begin to fathom.

WHOOSH

The scene changed as Rui showed him the conversation with the Divine Doctor that had set ablaze an existential identity crisis that he had yet to resolve.

“Who are you?” the Divine Doctor’s cruel, cold words pierced his heart before the hypnosis disappeared.

“Huff…” Rui heaved a sigh. After all these years, it no longer shook him, but it was still as unpleasant as ever.

The Beggar’s Sage, on the other hand, was shocked and frozen.

As someone whose greatest job was separating fact from fiction, he knew that what he had just seen was not something that Rui had conjured up from pure imagination.

This was not fiction.

He gazed at Rui like he was an alien from another world. And in some ways, he still was.

“What… what was that?” the Beggar barely managed to squeeze out. “What was all of that? What are you?”

“I’m still trying to understand that last question.” A bitter smile emerged on his face. “As for what that was, that was Earth. An alien world. Where my memories are from. Memories of an entire world. Memories of a different technology. Memories of different philosophies and science. Memories of different knowledge. Memories of a world with such astronomically developed information technology that even the Beggar’s Sect is entirely obsolete before its might.”

Rui’s words shook the beggar where he sat.

A maddening hint of greed erupted as he peered deep into Rui’s eyes with fierce judgment.

He was capable of seeing through all deceit and deception.

And yet, he sensed none in Rui’s words and eyes.

Every word he uttered was sincere.

As impressive as the Beggar’s Sect’s secretive information communication was, it couldn’t even hold even the slightest candle to the Internet of the modern Earth. As impressive as its omni-surveillance was, it could compare to satellite technology that literally could scan every square meter on Earth.

“You don’t even know what is possible with information technology,” Rui grinned. “And you dare call yourself the Sage of Information? What a joke.”

His words were merely meant to provoke the Beggar Sage.

They both knew that.

And yet, it drove the beggar mad.

The air boiled with tension.

The atmosphere quaked tumultuously.

“Give me that knowledge! Give it to me now!!” his raspy voice grew ferocious. “Quick!!! Hand it over to me!”

The greed in his voice was palpable.

When it came to knowledge and information, he was an absolute madman. That was what it took for someone to reach his caliber of knowledge and information, having spent centuries acquiring an endless ocean of information. He wanted to learn new things.

He wanted to know more.

He wanted to acquire more knowledge. To input more information into a Mind Palace that spanned the entirety of the Panama Continent.

And now, this man, who had come close to reaching a certain level of quasi-omniscience of matters pertaining to human civilization, had been told that there was an entire world out there that he didn’t know of.

That alone was enough to rouse his curiosity and greed for knowledge to unprecedented heights.

And then, having been told that this world had reached a realm of information technology that astronomically surpassed anything that the Beggar Sage could even begin to imagine shook him so much that it almost drove him to insanity.

He wanted it.

And yet, he knew he would not get his hands on it so easily.

“Tsk tsk,” Rui tutted. “I’m afraid not.”

A mischievous smirk emerged on his face. “Hehehe… let’s settle down and talk about my price, shall we?”

The Beggar Sage knew it was over.

From this day forth, he would never be able to refuse Rui.

And yet, he didn’t give a damn.

He just wanted to fulfill his insatiable desire for more knowledge.

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