The Martial Unity

Since the proposal of the information dimension, many people have tried to discover it. Countless empirical experiments had been conducted to capture the existence of the information dimension.

All of them had failed, without question. Despite this, the Royal Office continued to devise royal budgets that endowed information dimension research with a lot of funding each year. Royal Treasury gave all sorts of grants to both royal and private organizations that researched the information dimension in one capacity or the other.

This often meant relatively less, albeit still plenty, funding for other branches that had to compete with divisions that focused on the information dimension without producing a single result, breeding a lot of resentment among scientists in less metaphysical fields that actually produced useful results.

The only ’evidence’ of this so-called information dimension was the nigh-omnipotent power of the Emperor of Water.

It was not a secret that fantasies became reality when he fought. It was a well-known fact that he could violate the laws of physics as if they were gentle recommendations as opposed to the absolute rules of reality. But this was not scientific evidence, so it didn’t resonate with most of the scientific community the way it did with Martial Artists who gobbled up the information-dimension nonsense uncritically.

Of course, nobody dared to be too open with their disdain for this field of research. It was being done at the behest of the Emperor of Water, who was a God to at least half the citizens of the Kandrian Empire and a revered leader or supreme Martial Artist to another quarter.

Professor Lusskind was among the people who disliked the information dimension spooks, but he wisely kept that sentiment buried. He revered the Emperor of Water in virtually all other aspects, and he also needed the Transcendent’s blood to transcend his approaching natural death.

”The information dimension’s existence has not been proven scientifically, so I cannot make predictions about it,” he made the mildest indirect critique. ”If it does exist as the community of scientists researching it describes it, then I would imagine that the information dimension encompasses higher dimensions as well. The way it has been described is that information is the essence of all reality. And the information dimension is the fundamental dimension of the universe upon which all other dimensions rest.”

That was all he was willing to say on the topic. He ended the Q&A there, having exceeded the time of his lecture, cutting into the next lecture. He returned to his office after bidding the students goodbye.

He frowned as he found the same black-haired, black-eyed man sitting at his desk in his office.

’How did he get here before me?’ The professor pondered. ”Oh, looks like I have an eager student.”

That was not unusual. He had a high profile in scientific theory. Every student wanted to be his research assistant and he got thousands of applications for the role of teaching assistant as well.

He took a seat at his table, leaning forward. ”What can I help you with, Mr…?”

”Ah,” the man smiled. ”My name is Rui. Rui Quarrier Silas Kandria.”

The professor’s eyes widened with shock as the man opposite him dared to utter the name of the Emperor of Water without protocol or honorifics. He glanced around the corridors outside his office with a hint of alarm, relieved that none of the students or staff passing by seemed to have heard it, before turning back to the man opposite him.

”Do you have a death wish?!” the old professor hissed at him. ”What would you do if somebody of the Virodhabhasa Faith or the Faith of Dawn or the Water Sect heard you? Are you trying to drag me down with you?!”

Although the Kandrian Empire was remarkably lenient in terms of punishment for disrespecting royalty, the current Emperor was the most popular sovereign ever. Even if the royal government didn’t mete out punishments, his fanbase would not tolerate blatant disrespect.

Of course, the Kandrian Empire was a peaceful empire with strong law and order, so there would be no such things as lynchings or riots, but it was still extremely scary to provoke fanatics.

”Relax,” the man chuckled. ”I don’t think anybody would get angry at me for using my own name.”

Before the professor could even respond, the man waved his hand as if partitioning a curtain.

His appearance in the professor’s mind shifted with the gesture, as if he was turning a dial. The ordinary clothes he wore became a multi-layered Martial attire, with a Martial coat atop a tighter Martial vest, bound by a black belt.

The crest of the Kandrian Royal Family, the Water Sect, and the Gaian Alliance were embroidered on the chest of the coat. The man’s body itself shifted from opaque to translucent quickly, taking on an ethereal luster.

The most shocking part was that the man’s face did not change. His appearance was the same. Yet, for the first time, the professor actually remembered this man’s identity.

”Your Majesty!” the professor immediately shot up to his feet, bowing deeply. The jolting movements caused spiking pains in his older body, but he didn’t dare relax. He felt horrified as he realized that he didn’t recognize the Emperor all this time for some reason. It was an insult of the highest order.

”Relax,” Rui reassured, waving him down. ”I meddled with your mind using hypnosis. No need to get riled up.”

The professor suddenly found himself sitting back in his chair, relaxing on the backrest. As if he had been teleported to that position. He stared at the Emperor of Water with pure, unadulterated shock. A large part of him still thought this was some kind of trick. Changing appearance was not that difficult with modern technology. Electromagnetic manipulation technology was long invented, and there were derivatives of this technology that specifically allowed for illusions of this sort.

Yet, what couldn’t be faked was the unfathomable presence of the Emperor of Water.

”Professor Lusskind,” Rui addressed him with an expression of distinct interest. ”Would you be interested in taking me in as a student?”