The Martial Unity

Rui spent another day within the manifold simply considering how he was going to achieve Project Autocorpus. His determination and enthusiasm matched the sheer scale of the impediments to the project. However, it was not insurmountable, as he was certain of.

The first and largest impediment was considering how to access the information dimension, but he had already thought of a solution to that.

“Both my consciousness and Martial Path exist in the information dimension.”

His consciousness was always present, except for when he was asleep, but it wasn’t really something he could separately access. It was just there, it was him.

However, his Martial Path was distinctly separate.

He meditated, closing his eyes as he immersed himself within his mind, within his Martial Mind and Martial Soul. His consciousness sank deeper and deeper into his existence as he grew immersed in his Martial Art.

When he opened his mind, he found himself on a path.

One that he already traversed an enormous distance along for close to a century now. A path that defined his life, and a path that traversed lifetimes, worlds, and identities.

It was a path of Martial Art.

One that he was determined to traverse to the end.

And yet, it was not a path without peril. Behind him were monsters and beasts of extraordinary power and scale, along with natural calamities of unprecedented power.

“Wait… behind me?” Rui’s eyes widened as he turned around, catching a glimpse of all the beasts and monsters he had walked past. “They were usually in front of me every time I walked down here.”

Perhaps it was because he was a Martial Sage, but he retained his wits and full awareness when before it felt like a hazy dream.

His eyes lit up with realization. “Wait… were those beasts and monsters a reference to the Beast Incursion? Did my Martial Path somehow know ahead of time that the Beast Incursion would occur and I would face all these beasts and monsters?”

He even distinctly recognized some of the more perilous ones.

The eldritch chimera.

And even the Dragon Emperor.

They both impeded his Martial Path behind him, meaning he had already overcome them.

His eyes widened with shock as a stunning realization overtook him. “Was the Martial Path precognitive? If that’s the case, then…”

He turned forward, eager to see what was waiting for him in the future.

And yet, all he saw was darkness.

“Oh come on,” he complained. “That’s just not fair. I come here as a Martial Sage and the future is barred from me?”

The Martial Path remained mysteriously silent and dark, not deigning to respond to his complaints.

He simply heaved a resigned sigh before putting the matter aside. “This time, I’m not here to inspect my Martial Path.”

His thought process was quite simple.

’He’ was his brain-consciousness, an integrated information phenomenon.

The Martial Path was an information phenomenon as well.

Both of these things were information, but when he came down to this strange, incorporeal plane, his consciousness and his body were ’physical’ to his senses.

“That must mean that this…” His gaze shifted away from his Martial Path as he looked around the darkness of the incorporeal plane he was in. “…is within the information dimension. The fact that I’m standing on my Martial Path, an information phenomenon, is proof that every time I’ve come down here, I’ve actually been entering the information dimension.”

However, he suspected that this was completely and entirely different from what Martial Transcendents did, since he had been doing this ever since he was a Martial Apprentice.

“I’m guessing this whole place is the section of the information dimension inside my existence or the portion that defines and controls my material existence,” he hypothesized as he gazed around the place that he was in, ignoring the Martial Path he was standing on for the moment. “Most likely, I can’t go beyond this place.”

His eyes sharpened as he gazed into the distance all around him.

At first, all he saw was darkness.

But then, he began seeing more.

It was just the tiniest and briefest of sounds.

But he could hear something.

Something distinctly familiar.

BADUMP

BADUMP

BADUMP

BADUMP

BADUMP…

His eyes sharpened. “This is my heartbeat.”

He tried activating his Martial Heart, and while nothing happened to his ’body’ in the incorporeal plane he was in, the sound that he was hearing grew louder.

BADUMP!!!

BADUMP!!!

BADUMP!!!

…

“…I highly doubt that this is something I’m directly hearing from the real world,” he muttered. “In this state, I’m completely cut off from my physical senses. So this sound…”

His ethereal eyes lit up. “…must be from the information dimension. Is this my interpretation of the information about my heartbeat?”

After all, the Martial Path was information, but he was perceiving it as a real, hard path underneath his bare feet in this incorporeal plane. Thus, it stood to reason that all things that he perceived in this plane were actually his consciousness’s interpretation of information.

“That means I’ve begun sensing the information defining my body!” Rui realized. “This never happened in the past. Even when I was a Martial Master, this plane has always been a hazy experience. But now it feels more real, and I feel more aware of what is happening.”

He attributed that to the Martial Soul as well. It was a state of mind of harmony between mind and soul, with no barriers between the two aspects of his brain-consciousness. Most likely, Martial Artists who weren’t in the Sage Realm couldn’t even begin to try to enter this place.

He turned down the path below him. “I wonder if I can leave this path temporarily and explore the rest of this space…”

He did something he had never done before.

He jumped.

WHOOSH

He floated into the vast, empty darkness beyond his Martial Path.

At first, he could only hear his loud heartbeat in what felt like an eternity. Time lost meaning in this incorporeal plan, and he felt like he was drowning in darkness for years and years.

It was deeply taxing psychologically.

“Is this similar to what Amare went through?” He murmured. “I would have lost my sanity if I weren’t a Martial Sage.”