The Martial Unity

Chapter 3836: Visceral Pushback

”...And so I’m considering turning some of my memories into fuel for hypnotic mastery with Soul Retcon. I think that would be the best way for me to achieve higher combat power against the pathwakers of the true world.”

Amare enthusiastically recounted her training to Rui as she rested her head on his chest, lying in his arms in a comfortable luxury bed in the Kandrian Royal Palace.

”My latest battle was one of the most tiring and frustrating battles that I’ve ever had to deal with.” She heaved an exasperated sigh. ”The Suneater was so invincible that almost nothing I did could cause him meaningful damage. And then that bastard Tokugawa Ieyasu attacked me after a long battle with the Suneater. I would have crushed him if not for my exhaustion and wounds.”

”You held them off well,” Rui sincerely told her as he played with her brown hair. ”If you had succumbed to either battle, then we would have lost the entire Kandrian Empire, not just the east coast. You have saved many lives, including my own, since I was vulnerable at the time.”

”I know, it’s just that I don’t feel satisfied with my current level of power,” she insisted, before turning to him with furrowed eyebrows. ”Especially after you went and became so strong all of a sudden.”

”It wasn’t all of a sudden; it was sixteen years for me,” Rui reminded her. ”And an additional ninety-three years in my mind.”

”I know what that’s like. It must have been lonely.” She drew closer to him, directing a deep gaze into his ethereal eyes with her amber eyes.

His arm tightened around her, pulling her closer. ”It was.”

”But, the power is worth it.” She gazed into his translucent body with an interested expression. ”This kind of transformation is as extraordinary as the Body Evolution process. You probably have yet to fully manifest the full potential of what this means.”

”It has only been eight days since I got back, after all,” Rui remarked. ”I did gain mastery over it in the middle of the battle after I broke down all of Anthea’s muscle memory into its building blocks so that I could spontaneously create new techniques with it with the Forge of Creation. But I suspect this new body of mine has more to offer, something that will take time and experience to unlock.”

”What kind of training do you intend to do now?” She raised an eyebrow. ”I feel like training techniques no longer mean anything to you.”

”You’re right.” He nodded. ”Aside from the occasional truly extraordinary technique here and there. Training techniques mean nothing to me anymore. With the Forge of Creation and Soul Retcon, my arsenal is limitless and formless, like water. Ordinary training will not help me grow stronger or grow closer to the Transcendent Realm. But this is something that all Martial Sages eventually go through.”

”Then do you intend to just give up training?” Her expression grew disapproving.

”I’m going to keep fighting and honing my body. There’s going to be an explosion of Martial Sages in the future, and not all of them will respect my regime, so I’m going to have to hunt these bastards alive,” Rui remarked thoughtfully. ”I also have several projects on my to-do list that I haven’t gotten to yet. Chaos techniques are one thing. Though I have inherited some chaos techniques from Anthea. The one that he used to defeat Sage Jinryong. I can improve it with Martial Art. But I do intend to spend time mastering chaos techniques from Minn in the Water Sect. Ah, I do have Ieyasu’s brain to study and recreate the mirror neurology that helps him copy stuff. Though...”

He turned towards her. ”I think that would be more suited for you. You and Ieyasu are two sides of the same coin in some ways. Your Path has similar philosophical roots, and if you can assimilate his power, you will become a force unlike anything else.”

Her eyes lit up. ”I’ll consider it. He was very strong, as much as I hate to admit.

”As for me... His hand went to his abdomen. ”I also have my primordial core with exotic pluripotent matter. That also has a lot of potential, but it’s not as transformative. It will increase my power, however. I will slowly integrate different esoteric substances beyond just negatron matter to increase the diversity of what I can do. Especially some transcendent esoteric substances. Those that can allow me to intervene with the four fundamental forces and space and time more easily. But even that isn’t true progress. True progress would be...”

He gazed at his translucent hands. ”...gaining more enlightenment to reach the Transcendent Realm. That’s what I should be aiming for.”

”The Transcendent Realm...” Amare murmured with a thoughtful expression. ”It feels so far away. Especially after you shared your insights with me on what it actually is. This information dimension business is unfathomable.”

”Yeah, it’s unbelievable, but it would stand to reason that that is the source of Transcendence and beyond,”

Rui remarked with a serious tone. ”Reaching it will take many enlightenments, but recently, I’ve realized you can accelerate past enlightenments by forcing your Martial Path upon the world rather than organically discovering it. Most likely, that was what Asmodeous was trying to do. And it’s what I can do by making my regime a regime of adaptive evolution.”
Her eyes lit up. ”It’s also what I did as Esil, inadvertently. By spreading Martial Art across the entire continent.”

He nodded. ”Yep. You might be closer to Transcendence than me in that regard. You did reach candidacy before I did.”

”Still... even if your regime helps you reach Transcendence, it’s a little strange that being Emperor is what will ultimately help you reach Transcendence.” Amare mused. ”Who would have thought that returning to worldly affairs after distancing yourself from it was the way forward to a higher Realm of power?”

He nodded. ”Life is mysterious. Speaking of becoming Emperor, there is something that we need to talk about.”

His tone became complicated.

”Hm?” she glanced at him.

”It was something that Ru was lecturing me about,” Rui said with an amused smile emerging on his face. ”About one of the duties of the Emperor.”

She raised an eyebrow. ”...Go on.”

”One of the duties is to produce descendants,” he remarked with a composed tone. ”With, you know, a bunch of concubines—”

”No.”

She cut him off instantly.

Her amber eyes sharpened fiercely. ”Absolutely not.”

”Let me finish.”

”No!”