The Martial Unity

Chapter 3191: Project Evolutionary

”Though there are some benefits to my method that Anthea’s method does not have,” Rui realized with some thought. ”Because a large number of cells are constantly dying with very few remaining, there is a constant survival of the fittest happening inside my body.”

The cells in his body underwent evolution by natural selection; only the fittest survived the raging Gu, and only the fittest reproduced, making the next generation of cells ever so slightly stronger.

”It also makes my Gu stronger,” he mused knowingly. ”The more cells the Gu kills, the more Gu I gain.”

There was a mutual symbiosis between his cancer and his Gu.

His Gu made his cells stronger.

His cells made his Gu stronger.

Even if he didn’t train, he grew stronger.

Just by surviving.

With that in mind, he preferred his solution to Anthea’s solution overall, even if Anthea’s solution was more elegant and sophisticated.

His Gu was still far weaker than Asmodeous’ Gu.

The thought brought an interesting question to his mind.

”I wonder who would win in a fight between Asmodeous and Anthea,” Rui pondered.

On the one hand, Anthea was just stronger in every sense of the world.

He humiliated Transcendent Candidate-caliber Martial Artists who were also empowered by the Transcendent Healing fruits. Even if Asmodeous was also stronger than Bodhisattva Maitreyi, he wasn’t able to dominate her in his fight the way that Amare and Sage Jinryong Namgung had been overwhelmed. He was likely inferior to Anthea in raw physical output.

”But Anthea was weak to the Gu.”

Because evolutionaries had a very limited lifespan, it automatically made them vulnerable to the Gu.

The Gu was their kryptonite.

It was extremely dangerous and an existential threat.

That was the whole reason that Anthea decided to sacrifice his own life to adaptively evolve to it, not for his own survival, but to pass on his seed to the next generation, containing his legacy to adaptively evolve to it.

Asmodeous’ Gu was far, far stronger than Rui’s.

Although Rui’s Gu had grown stronger in the eleven years since he had gotten it, it still did not hold a candle to the original ocean of Gu inside Asmodeous.

A good chunk of the continent was unlivable because of the latter.

”I have predictive and SOUL models on both of them, so...” he shrugged.

He could simulate the battle in his mind.

That, along with some help from the Eye of Prophecy, he could estimate the outcome of the battle.

Anthea’s overwhelming genetic adaptive evolution would be put through a test unlike anything he had ever experienced.

His only hope of victory was to kill Asmodeous before the Gu consumed him.

With his astronomical superiority in physicality, he could inflict grave damage on Asmodeous. The invintium armor would prove to help with protecting him from the Gu as well and would make each attack on Asmodeous extremely damaging and painful.

It was a ruthless, all-out death battle.

However, it ever so slightly favored one side over the other.

”...It would be an interesting battle, but I think Asmodeous is likely to win because of a massive compatibility advantage,” Rui mused with interest. ”It goes to show that being antithetical to your opponent is more important than just raw power.”

It was a validation of his Martial Path.

His attention returned to the evolutionary cell that seemed to have settled inside Rui’s body.

But it did not respond to chemical signals entirely.

Rui needed to manually maintain this cell and keep it alive; otherwise, it would die. Simultaneously, he would need to rely on a lot of trial and error before he figured out what chemical signals it would respond to.

It was a process that would take years, if not for his simulative ability and the Eye of Prophecy, which allowed him to foresee the outcome of his experiments.

”I should also get started on deciphering its DNA so that I can understand how to change it to create cells that are chemically compatible with my metabolism.”

Then there was figuring out how to control the mechanism of genetic adaptive evolution.

There were countless challenges he would need to overcome before he gained the power of Anthea.

Even if he figured out how to control it, he would need to figure out how to ensure that he did not die or survive viably with half of his body being replaced with evolutionary cells.

It was possible that he would lose some of his Martial efficiency if he replaced his cells with evolutionary cells haphazardly. That was why he needed to ensure that the integration was smooth and maintained the best of both worlds.

”I’m also not sure if I want to maintain this cold fusion nonsense,” Rui muttered. ”I have grown used to materia prima. Learning how to harness cold fusion might prove to require relearning how to fight as a whole.

The basis of Martial efficiency was cognition and control.

The cognitive boosts from each of the Realms and the increment in control over his body that he gained were what allowed Martial Artists to be as efficient as they were, and it was what allowed Martial Sages to tap into materia prima.

That control needed to exist even with the evolutionary flesh integrated into his body, otherwise he would lose his efficiency and materia prima.

This made the challenge even greater than simply integrating the flesh into his body.

He heaved a sigh. ”Hopefully, the Divine Doctor won’t be as hard to find as the last time.”

Project Evolutionary would have to remain on hold until then.

STEP

He got up, nodding at the stunned scientists around them.

”I’m done, I’ll send you a sample as soon as I get this one cell to divide, as promised.”

Rui’s work in the Esocline Federation was complete; now he could focus on dealing with the rest of his remaining obligations.

”After that...” Rui’s eyes lit up with excitement. ”It’s time to explore the true world and all the mysteries and power it has to offer.”