The Martial Unity

Chapter 3356: Something Greater

His eyes sharpened knowingly.

”If I can break the Unity Faction away from the coalition by showing them a better alternative, then I can weaken the pro-war coalition enough to prevent them from declaring war. Slowly, we can make progress to form bonds of peace with them. If we form an alliance with the Harmonists, then it would compel the Unitists from breaking apart, since a protracted civil war would be against their political objective.”

”That is a sound plan.” She nodded appreciatively. ”But it is easier said than done. It is unlikely that your Authority of Alpha is greater than that of Lord Shenlong’s. And even if it were, it is unlikely that you will be able to defeat him. He will not challenge you to one-on-one combat, as the Supreme Commander Anthea did; he will wage war against you with his armies of dragons, and the Harmonist Faction will not be enough to support you. So tell me...”

Mother Vyia sharpened her gaze.

”How do you plan to overcome this?”

Rui remained silent, absorbed in thought. ”...”

It was not an easy question to answer.

”I could mobilize the forces of human civilization, but...” his expression grew complicated. ”That would mean war between human civilization and the therianthropes. That is exactly what I’m trying to avoid in the first place.”

He hadn’t lost sight of the goal.

He needed to fix this without escalating it too much.

’I could try to choke them economically by requesting Jormungandr to encircle the continent with his monsters and prevent any trade with Kiriket, but...’ He winced.

Jomungandr was not the type to simply give him freebies.

The alliance that Rui had proposed only worked because the world was at stake; the same could be said for the trade-allowance system that they had come up with. But World Serpent was not kind enough to Rui to simply help him with his political battles.

He had even kicked Rui out of the ocean and told him not to return until Rui mastered water.

The environment of water, that was.

This was something that Rui hadn’t gotten to yet, and was actually quite low on his list of most important things to train after the six paths, Project PluriBody, Project Evolutionary, and other things he kept working on.

Rui heaved a deep breath, shaking his head.

”I don’t know. I will have to speak to my father. I’m sure he has something in mind, and we can brainstorm some concept of a solution.”

”...Can you not leverage the Authority of Alpha to command an army of exotic beasts from the Panama Continent?” Mother Vyia raised an eyebrow.

”Transporting them from Panama to Kiriket is too difficult,” Rui shook his head absentmindedly. ”We also need them to stay home. They’re the deterrent that prevents the True World from invading us, along with the Great Nam Ocean. I would be weakening human civilization too much.”

Rui gulped the rest of his tea in one fell swoop with a satisfied expression.

”Thanks for the tea, but I should get back to Amare. I also need to speak with my father and update myself on the happenings of the past three months while I was knocked out. I’m sure there have been many developments that I will need to cover before forming my approach to Kiriket.”

He also planned to use prophecy to try to figure out how to best approach Kiriket and the therianthropes. There was no way he would put aside such a precious tool when the fate of human civilization hung in the balance.

He also needed to replenish all of his lost pluripotent matter in his primordial core.

He had a lot to do.

”Don’t go so quick,” Mother Vyia beckoned him just as he was about to get up. ”I have something to offer you that can help you with your job in Kiriket.”

Rui raised an eyebrow with a hint of suspicion. ”You made all those suggestions and you’re bringing something like this only now?”

His eyes sharpened.

”I’m guessing you want something in return.”

She smiled with a hint of mischief in her elder eyes. ”Nothing that is excessive, of course. I just wish to share and learn more about this.”

The living wood of the table before him shifted as a statue of a plant of a specific species emerged from it, resembling the actual specimen quite accurately. It had an alien glow to it, with a white shine to it, and countless layers across the depths of its body.

Rui’s eyes widened with shock.

He recognized the specimen and even the species.

How could he not?

Suddenly, his behavior changed.

His eyes grew perilous as the endless ocean of darkness within them bore deep into Mother Vyia’s elderly eyes.

”Where did you learn of that?”

The air tingled with tension.

The atmosphere grew electric.

”How scary,” she remarked, gazing at her forearms.

She could feel chills running across her skin as her hair stood on end.

”The Emperor of Harmony showed it to us,” she clarified quickly. ”He even transferred us a lot of the data in exchange for old-gen flora network technology.”

”...I really should have spoken to my father before speaking to you.” His severity disappeared as his palm struck his face. ”I’m sorry, you just brought up a... touchy subject out of the blue. I couldn’t have even fathomed that my father would be so transparent about it with you elves, but it makes sense. Flora experts should be introduced to alien flora to learn more about it.”

”And learn more about it we did,” Mother Vyia remarked. ”I have personally pored over every iota of research that your father has shared with us and even sent a vessel of mine to the Panama Continent to take a close look at the alien flora specimen myself. I specialize in deep evolutionary botany. My understanding of flora goes beyond just the Tree of Life. In my mind, I can trace the evolutionary trajectory of every flora lifeform. Why they developed the way they did, why they are the way they are, what the causality of their evolutionary development is...”

She gazed at him knowingly.

”I can see the ’truth’ of flora.”

Rui’s eyes widened with shock.

It appeared that her understanding of the Plant Kingdom exceeded the resolution of even his Tree of Life Enlightenment. If she could fathom the entirety of the causality of the evolutionary trajectory of every flora species with just a single glance, then her depth of knowledge when it came to flora greatly surpassed even the Ecologer!

Her attention shifted back to the replica of the alien flora specimen on the table as her eyes grew heavy.

”And when I beheld the alien specimen for the first time in real life, I was met with an epiphany.”

Her voice grew more intense.

”This specimen... this species... came to this world with a purpose.”

Her elderly eyes sharpened.

”Its purpose... was to hide something from the rest of us.”

The air grew heavy.

”To protect something from us.”

The atmosphere grew perilous.

”Something greater than all of us.”