The Martial Unity

2900  Training Time

Rui watched as his peers fought hard and strong against the nest of Inferno Serpents with everything they had. Each serpent unleashed a tremendous bout of fire that would burn down entire continents, reducing them to the ashy nest that they inhabited.

Yet, within the Central Highlands, not even the slightest ounce of their heat escaped to reach the Human Domain. Rui observed his peers and their performance against the monsters with an analytical eye.

He observed how they performed, forming predictive and SOUL models on all of them. This was just in case he needed them to protect themselves by foreseeing their future and preventing them from dying should the need arise in the future.

He had to admit he didn’t expect that they would perform so well against the beasts and monsters.

“They’re deploying the principles of my Hellbringer model against the inferno serpents.”

He could sense it.

The model was useful to Martial Sages as well, as they, too, would be utilizing it against the monsters and beasts of the Beast Domain. Rui had imparted to them as well as the Martial Masters in his travels.

“Good, so I don’t need to worry too much about their compatibility.”

Of course, he kept an eye out for Kane, especially Sage Sera, who unfortunately specialized against human opponents. However, aside from them, the others were much more in their element and able to show their full power against the inferno serpents.

He didn’t need to hold back anymore.

“Soul Retcon.”

RUMBLE!!!

18:42

In the blink of an eye, the blizzard that he generated to drain the heat of the entirety of the nest of Inferno Serpents grew greatly stronger, gaining a tremendous surge of power as they intensified.

The attacks of the serpents grew weaker and weaker as their heat drained away faster and faster. This, in turn, lessened the pressure that the Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire experienced as Rui antithetically adaptively evolved to the Inferno Serpents.

He knew, from the Tree of Life, that this was the best way to adaptively evolve to this particular species. The heat didn’t merely serve as an attack. It also served to stimulate their metabolism into generating more power. Thus, he was brutally antithetically adaptively evolving to them by denying them the ability to stoke their metabolism to slowly generate more energy, which in turn began affecting the temperatures that their flames were generating.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“SSS!!!”

Over a considerable amount of time, the Martial Sages increasingly began gaining an advantage over the serpents as Rui’s antithetical domain began chipping away at their strength and power. Unfortunately, the creatures were vastly more resilient than any of them had expected.

FSSS…!

They dug into the continent of ash that served as their nest.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

When they re-emerged from the lands, their wounds were healed.

“What the hell is going on?” Kane yelped as he evaded a barrage of serpent strikes. “I could have sworn I blinded that one!”

“Tsk, there’s no end to them!” the Breath of Destruction gritted her teeth.

Sage Zentra raised an eyebrow in understanding. “…They are using the ashes as material nourishment to heal their wounds. Their physiology must have evolved to be able to externally harness and consolidate ash into their tissue because of how much of it they constantly find themselves in it.”

Rui nodded with a grim expression. “This species is built for this region. They cannot be killed very easily in this place. We are fighting in their element, and culling them will take time and energy, more than it would in the Human Domain.”

The Martial Sages grew grim at those words.

They had all known they would be at an environmental disadvantage in the Beast Domain, facing quasi-Transcendent monsters and beasts in their element was going to make each battle gruelling and difficult.

On top of that, the Martial Sages had other concerns at hand.

STEP

The Flickering Elder stepped away from the battlefield with an exhausted expression, her breathing ragged and her little pre-pubescent body drenched in sweat. “My Realms of power have reached their limit. I will need to rest!”

Having existed at a different speed of time altogether, her metabolism burned extremely fast, causing her to have the lowest stamina among the Martial Sages of the Kandrian Empire.

The absence of a powerful Martial Sage stalled their progress as the Inferno Serpents abused their advantages to the maximum to push the human Sages back and reverse the tide of the battle.

Rui glanced at Sage Sayfeel before him, who protected him from any attacks that might have emerged. “Join the battle, Sayfeel. You don’t need to stand guard here.”

“But, Your Highness, if something happens to you—”

“I’m not that helpless child you saved half a century ago,” Rui’s tone was powerful. “I do not need your protection anymore. Go contribute to the battle more extensively. We cannot have a peak Sage lingering in the background beyond this point.”

Sage Sayfeel directed a deep gaze at Rui before nodding. “Understood, Your Highness.”

The tides began turning as Sage Sayfeel went all out with dispatching the Inferno Serpents with his extraordinary power. Rui, on the other hand, closed his eyes, focusing inward.

“Time to start training.”

Reinforcing the battle wasn’t the only reason that he had deployed Sage Sayfeel to the front lines.

No. The main reason he had deployed the Martial Sage to the front lines was so that he could experience a heavy sense of danger that could potentially help accelerate the subconscious predictive power to a prophetic level. The Beast Domain could potentially be the only place that could still stimulate him to the degree needed to train the Eye of Prophecy.

He slowly began self-hypnotizing himself as he put his conscious mind to sleep with the Martial Soul, allowing his subconscious mind to take over. Slowly, his consciousness dulled as his active judgment and predictions halted. He grew immersed in a trance-like state.

His subconscious mind took full control and agency as his conscious thought disappeared.

When he opened his eyes, his soul had taken over.

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