The Martial Unity

The announcement of the Kandrian Empire’s delegation sparked even greater uproar on the world political stage. It was not entirely unexpected, but it showed that the Kandrian Empire was truly unwilling to allow any harm to befall the Dawnbringer.

The rest of the world had not remained quiet either.

[The Sekigahara Confederate condemns the Heaven Sect for its uncooperative stance with the Solution of Harmony.]

[The Republic of Gorteau supports the Heaven Sect’s sovereignty and agency in regard to its decision about the Solution of Harmony.]

[The Solaris Kingdom wishes for no harm to befall the Dawnbringer.]

[The Virodhabhasa Theocracy strongly condemns the heretic decision of the Heaven Sect!]

Even though the Dawnbringer had a track record of fighting Martial Sages, the fact that he had proposed a duel and a wager against one was especially shocking. Never before had a Martial Master proposed an unconditional duel against a Martial Sage. It was without the most ground-breaking and revolutionary battle that would happen in recent times.

The esoterification of the human domain had caused the impedance of communication, making it very difficult to transmit particularly large amounts of data without extravagant resources. And yet, each nation deployed its limited communicative capital toward finding out what was happening with The attention of the leaders of the world converged upon the Heaven Sect as the duel began getting more and more focused.

An entire segment of the continent had yet to receive his gifts, making them especially angst about his well-being. Nations like the Marinaera Kingdom and the Esocline Federation criticized the Heaven Sect most vehemently.

And yet, the Heaven Sect didn’t so much as budge on its position.

The nation has a long history of earning heat from many of its peers. And yet, it simply ignored all those who criticized it. It didn’t have anything to fear as it was its own Sage-level powerhouse, after all.

This time, however, there would be consequences for messing up. If Dawnbringer died, it would experience retaliation from not just the Kandrian Empire but also the Virodhabhasa Theocracy. They couldn’t afford to have him killed, yet at the same time, they possessed far too much arrogance to simply let him get away with disrespect.

And then, he had further provoked their pride by challenging a Martial Sage who should have obviously been far too strong for the Dawnbringer by being a whole Realm above him in terms of power.

Rui, on the other hand, had peacefully gotten a well-earned rest from his long travels are causing a ruckus on the global political stage. He slept for nearly half a day, recuperating his strained body and mind as they slowly recovered, returning to his peak.

By the time he got up, he had almost forgotten where he was and why he was there.

“Oh, right…” A faint murmur escaped him. “Duel. Wager.”

An excited smile emerged on his face. He hurriedly freshened up, bathing and eating some food while pondering about the duel. He had already resolved to use his most feared weapon that he had abstained from using in recent times.

“Preparation.”

It allowed him to operate at functionally much higher levels of power than if he fought someone with no preparation whatsoever. One of the most memorable moments he had of him using it was in the Shionel Dungeon against the quasi-Senior-level root, allowing him to operate at a much greater tier of effective combat prowess than he normally would have had.

He had kept this option out of avail for himself upon breaking through to the Master Realm. It was the first time that he was relying on this tool and only a Martial Sage was powerful enough to warrant him using it at all at his current juncture of power.

“Where are you going?” Amare asked as she spotted him leaving their assigned quarters. “To meet my new friend and dueling and opponent,” Rui smirked.

“Are you going to provoke him?” the Blood Goddess asked with a frown. “I wish you wouldn’t stress me out so much.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just going for a sincere and earnest exchange of words,” Rui grinned.

“…”

The two women simply stared at him with a dubious gaze, clearly skeptical of his words.

He headed over to the central citadel once more. Arriving at the same gate with the same guards who instantly glared at him with hostility.

And yet, this time, they didn’t mess around, letting him pass like they were ordered to the last time.

He walked past the extensive citadel, winding about corridors and staircases across the extensive structure until he happened upon the very top.

He found who he was looking for.

“Hey there,” Rui smirked. “Pleasure to meet you again.”

Sage Sekiei’s expression crumbled with murderous rage as he glared at Rui with a menacing expression, hoping to paralyze him with fear.

And yet, Rui was entirely unmoved by the mental pressure of his bloodlust.

“Calm down,” Rui smirked, raising his hands. “I’m not here to fight. We have a duel for that. I just wanted to get to know you better, you see?”

“You’re just here to try and learn more about me!” Sage Sekiei snarled.

“Correct,” Rui straightforwardly admitted. “But, in turn, you also get to learn more about me. So, there should be no problem unless of course…”

His smile grew provocative. “…are you scared that I will learn more about you than the other way around?”

“Huh?!” the Martial Sage scowled. “You’re a hundred years too early!”

“Of course, of course,” Rui grinned. “So there is no reason to fear my presence; after all, there is no way a Martial Sage can possibly be afraid of a Martial Master, right?”

“Of course not! You can stay here all you want!” the man growled. “I will still crush you for your arrogance when the time comes!”

“Scary, scary,” Rui smirked. Any rational person who knew anything about the Dawnbringer would know not to give him any data due to his propensity for data-intensive systems of thought. But Rui had successfully blinded him with his pride, making him pride-bound to let Rui stay there in order to avoid being seen as afraid of a Master.