The Martial Unity

The differences were noticeable almost immediately.

The world noticed almost immediately.

The hallucination that was once illusory now started becoming more and more real with each passing moment, almost as if it had crossed the boundary between illusion and reality. The Water began truly becoming water, and yet was not quite the real deal.

Not yet.

The increase in the quality of his Martial Embodiment spread across the entire world as a surge in panicking citizens across all seven continents in the true world caused an even greater maelstrom of chaos to seep deeper into civilization.

Little did they know that the damage could have been much worse, for without the Great Void Ocean greatly reducing the intensity of the Martial Embodiment, the world would have been rendered brain-dead.

The biggest difference, however, was felt by none other than the Dragon Emperor.

His body was battered and broken.

Withstanding the weight of the ocean, the Weight of Water, as many times had taken its toll on him, leaving him greatly harmed. His scales had all broken, and he had already been in a poor condition due to Overdrive Mode, causing his cells to burn inside out, slowly robbing him of life.

His bones had broken while his flesh had crumpled.

Blood began oozing out of his body, pouring into the ocean, while his healing lagged behind sluggishly, struggling to keep up with all the damage his body had taken.

The Gu still continued consuming him, inside-out, eating away at his very life, even if hindered by the sheer density of organic life within his body. Despite all the punishment that he had taken, the dragon still stood proud and strong.

His darkening reptilian eyes bore deep into Rui’s with a profound gaze, having broken out of his frenzy at the sight of Rui becoming a Martial Transcendent.

Rui opened his eyes.

The blood-red suns shining within the depths of his eyes bore deep into Shenlong’s. Even as they remained silent, taking in the sheer weight of what had just happened, the world around them shook with a maelstrom of chaos.

The damage to the environment had already been done and could likely never be undone.

The ocean floor was covered in deep fissures from within which emerged lava, causing the water of the ocean to boil while it hardened into magma upon contact with the water. The damage was so extensive that it was impossible to undo it.

The world would have to deal with the consequences that this one battle brought upon all of them. Rui’s demeanor and body language grew calmer than they were before; they grew more relaxed.

A profound sense of power, unlike anything that the Dragon Emperor had sensed, took root within him. Shenlong’s familiarity with the Martial Path was not high enough for him to understand what Rui had gone through and what progress he had made.

However, with his sharp instincts, he could sense that Rui had taken a stride towards the elusive higher rank of power that he had come to learn of recently. What stunned the Dragon Emperor was the fact that Rui had made progress in the direction of this greater rank despite the fact that the powerhouses of the world had only recently learned of it when Mother Maeria briefly touched upon it.

How was that possible?

How could someone make great progress with a higher rank of power that they just learned about several months prior? The Dragon Emperor and many other leaders around the world had been scratching their heads, trying to figure out exactly how they were going to reach this extraordinary realm of power while confined to the limits of their current stage.

Their progress was almost non-existent because they had very few clues as to what this power was. They had no idea how they could actually get there. Any attempts they made had ended up with great failures, and in comparison, Rui felt like he was already on the verge of reaching this higher rank of power.

Shenlong’s eyes widened as he remembered that Rui had supposedly been in the light elf territory when Mother Maeria had achieved a greater realm of power.

“It was you…” Realization dawned on the Dragon Emperor. “You were the one who helped the Primordial Mother reach a higher rank of power

.”Rui remained silent.

Yet, his silence was loud.

“But how…” The tone of his rumbling voice was one of longing. “How do you know so much about this higher rank? That’s impossible unless…”

He finally understood the truth, “…unless your people have already achieved reaching this rank, paving the path for your people and for you.”

A chuckle of regret emerged from within him. “What an extraordinary civilization…”

His eyes glinted with greed.

“It is truly worth consuming. I will relish consuming you and your continent with glee.”

Rui heaved a deep breath. “I think we both know that that is not happening.”

“The battle is not over.” The Dragon Emperor’s eyes grew feral once more.

And yet, within them was the glint of realization and acceptance.

He understood.

He understood the fate that awaited him.

And yet, it was not of the dragon’s way to accept one’s fate without a fight.

“I can take you down with me.”

RUMBLE!

The Dragon Emperor charged towards Rui as his body began glowing with a tremendous energy, shining even brighter than the blood-red suns in Rui’s eyes.

He knew that he couldn’t defeat Rui in the condition that he was in.

He had been using Overdrive Mode for close to a minute by then, meaning he was close to death.

In which case, he had nothing to lose.

He had nothing to lose, even if he pulled out his final trump card to take Rui down with him.

“Self-destruction.”

The moment he arrived at Rui, he activated all of his mitochondria cold fusion reactors to explode with an astronomical amount of power.

And yet, even that was within Rui’s prediction.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!