The Martial Unity

While Rui unleashed his power to construct the system of thought to interpret nature, the dark elves and the Mothers of Nature sensed his true power for the first time. The sheer intensity of the power of a Martial Sage, especially one as powerful as Rui, boggled their mind as they struggled to comprehend his power.

’Where is all this power coming from…?’ one Mother of Nature asked with a stunned tone. ’How is he outputting that much power without any technology in his body and without any external source of energy? It doesn’t make sense!’

’If this is how strong the top echelons of Martial Artists are, then it is no wonder that they managed to hold out against an invasion from all continents for a whole month. With such power, they are too strong to overcome,’ another Mother of Nature realized. ’His power feels like I’m looking at a singularity itself. The very fabric of space and time is warping under the weight of his existence.’

’If not for me holding back the power of the information flood that he is releasing, I think he would have destroyed the entirety of the Forest of War,’ Mother Alicia murmured to her sisters in the depths of the flora network. ’Words cannot begin to describe just how much power he is unleashing at the moment. This is the kind of power that we are only able to output because of our scale and our ability to siphon power from nature itself.’

’Based on a preliminary analysis of the radiation he is releasing, I conjecture that he is relying on mass-energy equivalence to generate the power that he is displaying. He appears to be able to smoothly convert mass into energy and is likely able to use it in his Martial Art techniques. This would explain why he is far stronger than he was before.’

’Converting mass into energy spontaneously? Do you think that this is a genetic trait? Perhaps something like the cold fusion mitochondrial DNA that the evolutionaries use?’ another Mother of Nature inquired with a stunned expression. ’I did not sense any signs of biotechnology in their bodies. Perhaps this is a trait of their genomes. Perhaps all members of their species can harness this energy, but these so-called Martial Artists can do so much better than others.’

’That doesn’t make sense. They have informed us that their species itself does not possess great strength. This is undoubtedly a product of the Martial Path.’

’In hindsight… it is good that we formed an alliance with a civilization with such powerful warriors. Frankly… I don’t think any of us can defeat him in an individual battle.’

This was a stunning realization to the Mothers of Nature, who possessed an unfathomable power within the depths of their giant trees. In individual combat, especially within the Genora Continent, they were considered to be invincible.

’It does not matter that we cannot defeat him individually. We do not fight individually. Nature is collective. And our collective power is virtually infinite,” an authoritative Mother of Nature remarked. ’However, it appears that even then, suppressing this so-called Martial Sage’s power would be immense. What has spurred him on to make such a grand display of his power in the first place?’

’Ah… I believe that he is trying to create an interface between himself and nature,’ Mother Alicia replied. ’From what I understand, this is part of his solution to be able to mimic our nature manipulation. He has expressed the desire to harness the Nature Path to evolve his own Martial Path, and for that, he is creating the means to replicate our ability to communicate with nature.’

’That is a fool’s errand,’ one Mother of Nature snorted. ’Our ability to communicate with nature has evolved not only into our physiology but also into our minds. Our minds are wired to be able to detect and decipher the silence of nature and understand its will. It is not something that can be replicated easily, not even by that human woman who has studied nature for centuries.’

One of the first things that the Ecologer had done when she arrived at the Genora Continent was try to communicate with nature the way that the dark elves did.

She had failed.

It didn’t matter if she had dedicated her life to nature.

It didn’t matter if she had dedicated multiple lives to nature, she simply didn’t have the bond with nature that the dark elves.

This failure had been a source of mixed emotions for the dark elves.

On the one hand, it had reinforced just how special they were. So much so that even someone who had given everything to studying and understanding nature wasn’t able to replicate even the tiniest inch of what the dark elves could do.

On the other hand, it was also unfortunate because it restricted how far they could spread their way of life, and being limited in how far they spread their way of life was something that limited their power on the continent. In the ideal circumstance, they would have liked all land in the entire world to be covered in forests by spreading the Nature Path everywhere.

’This lad seeks to unlock our secrets, does he?’ one Mother of Nature grumbled. ’Who does he think he is, trying to replicate our power when he hasn’t even lived for a century? Tsk, little snot-nosed brat!’

’I think…’ Mother Alicia’s tone was stunned. ’I think that he might be succeeding…’

The other Mothers of Nature grew stunned at that. ’What?!’

Mother Alicia gulped. ’From what I can tell from the information that he is releasing, I sense that he is extracting the essence of all the raw research data that we have gathered on nature manipulation across centuries of study. His mind… it feels like its own world of cognition and information. His eyes glow red while his gaze peers through everything it beholds… he might actually figure out!’