The Martial Unity

“Hyah!” Ria jumped a foot in the air, throwing a flying punch at her father, who lightly blocked it with his palm. “Hyah!”

She continued throwing punches at her father as the two of them lightly ‘trained’ in the front yard of their quarters. Her little amber eyes scrunched as she jumped, throwing punch after punch at her father, expecting him to be felled by her blows.

Rui simply smiled at her effort and her determination to defeat him, indulging her in some light sparring. Over the past month, he had squeezed time out of his busy schedule to make time for his daughter, no matter how many things required his attention.

One of the things that he had been trying to figure out was what her Martial Path was. What was surprising was that, despite breaking through to the Apprentice Realm, when asked about what her Martial Path was, she was unable to articulate a clear Path the way that Martial Apprentices normally could. After all, the key to the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm was self-awareness. It wasn’t possible to break through to the Apprentice Realm. Yet, even with his mind sense, he wasn’t able to make heads or tails of what exactly her Martial Path was.

The most likely option was that she was simply too articulate, either due to a lack of conceptual understanding or a lack of vocabulary. He suspected that as she grew older, she would be able to explain what her Martial Path was.

What was surprising, however, was that not even Rui was able to deduce what her Martial Path was based on her combat. She was remarkably good at everything she touched, much like prodigies of extraordinary caliber were known to be, every often. CLASP

She grabbed his leg, trying to topple him over with her body weight. “Hnggg!”

She was entirely serious, of course. She had scrunched her little face with effort, leveraging all her power to flip him over. Rui had to control a smile from emerging on his face at her adorable but vain efforts. He also had to stop himself from simply toppling over to feed her confidence, or overconfidence, rather.

Overconfidence was extremely dangerous for Martial Artists. And she was a Martial Artist, as hard as it could have been to believe. He needed to slowly start helping her develop the caution that Martial Artists ought to have if they wanted to live longer lives.

THUD

She fell to her knees with exhaustion, failing to budge her father even a single millimeter. “Papa is heavy…”

Rui chuckled, kneeling down, patting her head gently. “Ria is so strong for her age. She will surely grow even stronger when she grows up.”

“Good job, Ria,” Amare called out to her. “Come here and drink some water. After you change and have a bath, you can go play with Runark and the others.”

Ria’s little amber eyes lit up at those words. “Ok!”

She immediately rushed off with her mother to take a bath while Rui heaved a deep breath, shaking his head lightly. Normally, one would be in the Martial Academy when they broke through to the Apprentice Realm, although there were other cases of people breaking through before they entered.

In Ria’s case, she was way too far from the age that others would be in the Martial Union when they broke through. Ultimately, keeping her social development in mind, Rui had abstained from putting her in the Martial Academy at her young age. For now, she would still go to school with her friends and would train for a few hours later. Eventually, however, she would have to take her Martial Art training more seriously if she truly intended to become a Martial Artist.

Thankfully, her drive for Martial Art was surprisingly strong. She had firmly got it in her head that, in order to go with her parents, she would have to be strong enough. BZZZT BZZZT

He turned to his commpad, receiving a message from Secretary Claris.

[Sir, the laminar integuments have completed their assessment.]

His ethereal eyes sharpened lightly.

Over the past month, the laminar integuments had set up a little research lab in the epicenter of the Panama Continent. A little soap bubble-like structure that was half-buried underground, within which there was zero gravity. They had begun conducting extensive scans and research of the planet of Gaia from it, collecting samples and deep scanning the crust and mantle beneath the continent.

After a month had passed, they had finally completed their assessment.

[They have assessed Gaia poses no threat to the cosmos.]

Rui heaved a breath of relief.

He had seen this coming, of course, with his Eye of Prophecy, but prophecy could still be wrong in some cases. Thankfully, in this case, it had worked exactly as he had foretold. Using the Eye of Prophecy, he beefed up his protective measures and solutions, ensuring that the alien virus mind could never return.

With this, they had achieved peace with the Laminar Civilization. He had no doubt that the Tendril of Light would require another set of talks to further deepen their relationship, which Rui was very welcome to. A good relationship with the Laminar Civilization was the way to go. In order to do that, of course, they need to unify as a civilization and collectivize their bargaining power; they would barely be able to get peanuts. In the span of just one month, much had already begun to change in that regard. Gaian Civilization slowly proceeded towards an arrangement when it came to the matter of the Gaian Alliance. It wasn’t easy, but systems, rules, and structures were painstakingly fleshed out by every participating polity. Of course, a mere month wasn’t enough for anything, but it at least got everybody off the ground.

His little sister Ru had done an extremely good job coordinating all the polities and civilizations around the world to work together to come to some sort of collective agreement on what shape the alliance ought to take. He stayed out of the matter, knowing that his voice was too heavy in this matter.

Anything he said would become law.

He was more interested in another matter that Secretary Claris went on to report to him.

[The Panamic Space Organization’s Intestellar Missions to the nearest star systems are on schedule for their series of launches starting tomorrow.]

His eyes lit up. “Finally, the day has come.”