The Martial Unity

And thus, an additional goal had been added to Rui’s long voyage.

To find the Psycher and shake the truth out of him.

Rui didn’t care if he was hiding in a Sage-level powerhouse. There was no place in the entire continent that would protect him from Rui now that he knew that that man was responsible for doing what he did to Amare.

“Very well then.” Rui narrowed his eyes. “I look forward to paying him a visit.”

“Hehehe, and now, for my payment!” The Beggar Sage’s eyes brimmed with curiosity and enthusiasm.

“Not quite yet,” Rui corrected him. “Back to my main need for you and the whole reason I sought you.”

“Tsk, the Scriptures of Terra, was it?” The Beggar Sage tutted. “You probably came to me hoping that I knew what it was. Unfortunately for you, I don’t. There is only one man who knows what it is, and that’s the Shield of Gaia himself. Since then, not even the eldest and most powerful Sages have been able to find the Scriptures of Gaia. That being said…”

The beggar grinned. “I can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t physically discrete, it isn’t natural, and it isn’t—”

“Isn’t esoteric,” Rui interjected. “I know. I deduced that much myself. What else can you tell me?”

“Hah! Smartass, are we?” A challenging glint flared in his eyes. “Then I can tell that it is abstract and spread across—”

“Across the Nest of Terra,” Rui’s firm voice cut through his again. “It most likely is abstract and information that can be gathered only throughout the Nest of Terra. I have figured that out by myself.”

“…Hmph, I suppose you are indeed on a different level compared to the task force that has failed to even get this far in the past hundred years.”

“What else, old man?” Rui asked once more. “Is this all the mighty Beggar Sage has?”

“Hah, do you think I’m susceptible to such paltry manipulation?”

Rui smirked. “You were before.”

“Tsk, smartass. If you aren’t satisfied, then let me give you the final bit of information I know that you don’t.” He grinned. “Why do you think the Shield of Gaia set out on his voyage across the entirety of the Nest of Terra? After all, nobody knew anything about the Scriptures of Terra back when he was still a Sage, not even him. So what do you think he was originally looking for?”

Rui narrowed his eyes as he fell into thought.

For all the substantial volume of inferences, deductions, and conclusions that he squeezed out of all available intel, he has somehow missed this very elementary and simple point.

What was the Shield of Gaia looking for before he discovered the Scriptures of Terra?

“You see,” the Beggar grinned. “Before he set out on his journey, one of the members of my sect heard him whispering something.”

Rui’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “Whispering something?”

The Beggar Sage nodded excitedly.

“‘The Dance of Terra… is incomplete.’ That is what he uttered in no more than a whisper before he departed on a voyage throughout the Nest of Terra, before finding the Scriptures of Terra at the end of his journey and becoming a Transcendent.”

Rui fell into deep thought as he grew engrossed in what he had just heard from the Beggar Sage. “…The Dance of Terra is incomplete?”

The Dance of Terra was the refined earth-bending codified into a dance, an art form as the Martial Artists of the Nest of Terra believed that the Martial Art was a form of art.

“The Dance of Terra is incomplete….” Rui murmured. “Doesn’t that mean that the fundamental field of earth-bending is incomplete?”

The earth-bending of the Nest of Terra was the best, by far, in the entire world. And if even their earth-bending was incomplete, then it meant that all earth-bending everywhere was incomplete.

That was hard to swallow.

“Incomplete, how?” He muttered. “What is it missing?”

The Beggar Sage shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not a Martial Artist. All I know is that that insight most likely is connected to the Scriptures of Terra.”

Rui frowned as he fell into thought. “The Dance of Terra is incomplete. Maybe it’s a flaw exclusive to the dance but not other earth-bending. No, that makes no sense.”

Rui grew immersed in the many possibilities that existed.

“…I will need to learn the Dance of Terra?” He muttered. “Do I even have the time? No, but there are ways to shorten it, although not ideal. I could potentially try using S—”

“Oi! Now’s not the time to get lost in daydreaming!” The Beggar Sage’s raspy voice snarled. “You can’t just get what you want and leave. Where’s my payment?!”

“Ah…” Rui emerged from his reverie, turning to him with disinterested eyes. “Fine. Here’s the payment as promised.”

BADUMP!

His Martial Heart and Martial Mind blazed into power as he directed a powerful hypnosis at the man.

Within a minute, he shut it down.

“You bastard!” the Beggar Sage cursed. “Just when you were getting the good part, you cut it off!”

Rui smirked, turning away.

“It’s called a cliffhanger. It leaves you coming back for more and more, paying more and more in exchange for more and more.”

“You’re evil!” the Beggar Sage cried. “How could you stop at just that part, just before the main reveal!”

Rui planned on squeezing him forever with cliffhangers. Every time he gave him some information, he would make sure to stop just before giving him some more important information. This way, the man would grow mad waiting for the next dose and would be willing to pay higher in return for more.

He could keep getting more and more information from the Beggar Sage endlessly.

He took one last glance at the raving Beggar Sage, who started acting like a lunatic, smashing his head against a rock.

“Poor is the soul that is left on a cliffhanger, indeed,” Rui’s attention returned back to the task at hand. “Now, time to find the Scriptures of Terra.”

And thus, he set out on his new adventure!

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