The Martial Unity

“I mean that in the context of the preservation of Martial Art,” Rui replied with a calm tone as he watched Arastia build a rapid mastery in blood manipulation. “If human blood remains more prevalent in our DNA than hemosapiens, then we will somewhat preserve Martial Art, even if it gains a heavy blood flavor. That might very well be the best-case scenario.”

“Hemosapiens?”

“It’s the technical term for the offspring of the Blood Goddess.”

“Then what would worse scenarios look like?” Max asked Rui with a hint of apprehension.

Rui fell into thought for a few minutes before shrugging.

“The complete destruction of Martial Art and the Martial Path.”

Max and Mana widened their eyes in shock. “What?!”

This time, even Rui’s expression grew a little reluctant. “It is possible that the blood of the Blood Goddess is, shall we say, more sticky than human blood. Scientifically speaking, it means that her genes might be more genotypically dominant. Meaning that even if human and hemosapien genes are passed down equally, the latter might end up manifesting in one’s genotype at a much disproportionately greater degree. In this case…”

Rui stirred with a hint of displeasure.

“The blood aspect of the hypothetical Blood Path would overwhelm the Martial Path, making all future generations more similar to Arastia than a baseline human in the modern world,” Rui remarked. “Thus, the Martial Path and Martial Art as a field would perish and cease to exist in this hypothetical. There are also other forces in play that could contribute to the destruction of the Martial Path relative to, say, the hypothetical Blood Path, and one of those would be natural selection.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Natural selection favors blood over Martial?”

“Yes, but not because the Path is innately superior, but because the genes are. Hemosapien genes are more predictive of survival because hemosapiens are objectively superior to human beings by a large margin. Thus, they will survive more, breed more, and generally ensure that their genes pass more to the future, leading to the demise of the Martial Path in this hypothetical,” Rui remarked as he grew engrossed in thought. “It certainly is a force in that direction. One variable among countless. However, there are compromising scenarios as well. It does not have to be one way or another. I think probably the most realistic scenario is a fusion between the Martial Path and this hypothetical Blood Path.”

Mana raised an eyebrow. “Paths can fuse?”

“I don’t know,” Rui shook his head. “We don’t have enough intelligence on the hybrids of the true world, and nobody understands what ’Paths’ even are and what laws of nature govern them, if any. So I cannot make predictions on how different paths will interact. But I think, if it is this connected to DNA, it should theoretically be possible for paths to fuse.”

Max shook his head, heaving a deep sigh. “I’m so lost as to what any of this even means. What does the fusion of paths look like?”

“Well… in the case of the Martial Path and the Blood Path, I think it’s possible that we will see some alteration to Realms of power and potential,” Rui remarked. “I think it’s possible that the Senior Realm and the Martial Heart might be replaced by a Blood Realm or something like that. Because ultimately these are ranks centered around a pool of potential, and in the case of Arastia…”

He watched her playing with her blood. “…Her blood and her hemokinesis likely have enough potential to be their own Realm. It’s possible that she will have seven Realms of power to access instead of the six Martial Realms that we have to access.”

The sheer groundbreaking and revolutionary implications of his speculation were too much for both Max and Mana. They had clearly underestimated just how complex and convoluted this entire matter was and how many possibilities all the uncertainty allowed for.

“Of course, this is all conjecture,” Rui reminded them. “I don’t have any proof of any of this, I’m just piecing together what we do know and extrapolating the most likely scenarios in my estimation. It all depends on whether Arastia will even have a Blood Path.”

“Waaah~ look at me~”

The three of them froze as they watched they saw her jump to great heights in the air, almost a hundred meters above the ground, with a simple jump.

“Careful, Arastia!” Mana immediately went to her rescue while Rui and Max watched with an amazed expression.

“She figured out that she can use her blood to enhance her physical movement in an active manner by having her blood exert force from within,” Rui smiled wryly. “She is a smart cookie, alright.”

It hadn’t even been fifteen minutes, and she was already developing applications for her hemokinesis. Watching her incredible progress only bolstered some of Rui’s conjectures, making him even more certain of these possibilities.

“Man…” Max murmured. “I so hope that the Paths don’t compete. Because if they do, it’s hard to believe that the Martial Path will win.”

Rui shook his head at those words.

“You underestimate the Martial Path. You also underestimate the advantage that six hundred years of a headstart gives us. Not to mention…” Rui remarked with a mixed tone. “If Martial Path cannot overcome this challenge, then it does not deserve to thrive and survive. It’s as simple as that. Evolution by natural selection is a harsh but fair judge of power, and it is time for Martial Path to finally face competition from other paths.”

In a way, it had cheated up until now with no real competition that could keep up with it, such as technology, beasts, or monsters.

But with the true world and the six paths of power as well as the hemosapiens, it had now been confronted with a true source of competition for the first time in the six centuries since its inception.

It had no choice but to overcome these challenges fair and square.