The Martial Unity

Rui raised an eyebrow. “…And what state of mind would that be?”

She gazed at him with a knowing expression. “Fear.”

His eyes sharpened at her answer.

“A person is most able to change when in a state of fear,” she explained. “It is the way of the soul that allows one to change more than they ever would otherwise.”

Rui nodded with a knowing expression. “Fear is the evolutionary mechanism evolved to avert danger. The frequent evoking of fear would mean that an individual is constantly exposed to danger, which increases the probability of death. Thus, in order to prevent frequent exposure, a state of fear also allows for greater change in a person such that they will be less inclined to act in a manner to evoke fear.”

There was research that indicated that a vast proportion of the animal kingdom displayed profound change in their behaviors, movements, and travel patterns relevant to experiences of great fear. Grazing herbivores avoided areas where they had been attacked by predators. Fish learned to avoid the most common forms of bait. Even insects displayed a more primitive version of such a mechanism.

Rui stirred at her words. “So, in order to master the Eye of Prophecy, I must firstly mute my conscious mind and allow my subconscious mind primacy with the power of the Martial Soul and a powerful self-hypnosis and then I must subject myself to intense fear while training my subconscious precognition?”

She nodded. “Subjecting one’s self to fear, especially at our Realm of power is not easy. At the very least, there is nothing in the Human Domain that can continuously make you afraid. You have grown far too strong far too quickly. No human mortal force is your equal anymore. You have as much political power as an entire Sage-level powerhouse. It would require all of humanity to wage a war against the Kandrian Empire for you to experience even the slightest ounce of fear.”

Rui shrugged.

She wasn’t wrong.

Human civilization had become his playground.

“That means you will have to train in an environment that isn’t your playground,” she remarked. “You will have to train in an environment that does not fear you. You will have to train in an environment that is hostile to even Martial Sages with enemies that are in their home element and have the environmental advantage and our even more powerful than you.”

Rui’s expression grew solemn.

There were only two places in the entire world that fit her description.

The depths of the Great Nam Ocean.

And the depths of the Beast Domain.

He gazed at Matriarch Nephi with a hint of understanding. “I see, so no wonder you said I will have to train this in the Beast Domain. That makes sense, since we will be spending a lot of time over them very soon.”

The Solution of Harmony was merely ten days away.

Matriarch Nephi nodded. “You will have to work very hard, much harder than most Martial Artists have in order to master the Eye of Prophecy.”

Rui heaved a knowing sigh. “I suppose because I don’t have any compatibility with it.”

“Your propensity for conscious thought is far, far higher than that of normal people,” she mused. “You most likely have a system of thought for how to even create techniques instead of going through an instinctual and intuitive process that most Martial Artists go through.”

Rui smiled with amusement.

She said it as a joke, but she was right. At least as far as Martial Art went, he had a system of thought, formal or otherwise, for virtually everything.

This also meant that he was less prone to relying on subconscious cognition for anything. Things would be much worse if not for the fact that he had Primordial Instinct and had spent several years as a Martial Master improving his intuition by discounting his Martial Mind. It had allowed him to at least partially shore up his shortcomings.

But now that he had entered the Sage Realm, he was once again worse off in this category compared to his much older fellow Sages.

It was a constant theme in his Martial journey.

“With the training for the Eye of Prophecy, I can completely get rid of this shortcoming forever in the Beast Domain.”

Rui was not looking forward to subjecting himself to a state of fear, but more importantly, he wasn’t even sure he could anymore. He routinely pushed himself into crazy battles and situations such that he had almost become immune to fear. “You will need to push yourself even harder,” Bodhisattva Maitreyi remarked. “However, you needn’t worry about that. I can assure you that the Central Highlands of the Beast Domain will end up being a greater source of pressure than any other you have endured. The reason for that is because of the length of the mission and how continuous the pressure will be. I foresee extraordinary tribulations and many a death. For once, not even being a Martial Sage will have any guarantees to your life.”

Rui narrowed his eyes with grim severity. “In that case, I might very well get the seriousness I’m looking for. Hopefully, I will experience the sheer fear and pressure that I need to develop my subconscious precognition.”

Thankfully, he was not invincible in the Sage Realm as far as combat power went. He had yet to fully test out his power against another Martial Sage, but all of his accomplishments against the Demon of Asmodeous were with the Gigabrain. Without it, he was substantially less extraordinary.

“And I can’t abuse it in the Beast Domain either,” he muttered. “Since it isn’t a single battle but a long protracted war.”

He would be accomplishing less by simply fighting one battle and then going to sleep for months on end than if he participated as frequently as he could. Thus, he would be training more often and would be pushed to the limit more easily than when he was in the Master Realm, devoid of opponents.