The Martial Unity



That was why he didn't even mind signing up for a crash course on the Virodhabhasa faith. After all, he had no idea what the framework of the religion was. He intended to make sure he knew all of it inside out and backwards front.

This was all to ensure that he did not say or do anything that could remotely become the basis for being blacklisted by the Virodhabhasa Faith. 

The Martial church was a large town that drew in martial Squires from all over the continent that were interested in gaining more power, being blacklisted.

Rui spent the next two weeks traveling. The distance to the Seonchun Region was quite large, and for one, Rui wasn't too much in a hurry to cross it at full speed.

He had come to appreciate the moments when he enjoyed the diversity and beauty of the world. There was just something that hit differently about a world with very little pollution.

The breeze and the wind hit differently, entirely.

Rui found himself indulging in these moments from time to time when he truly felt that he had come across something that was truly worth appreciating.

It made his journey that much more pleasant.

Yet felt as though the last two years had all been gone in a blur under all the stress that he was experiencing.

Growing stronger for the sake of his family, while important, was actually a drive that made him a lot stronger in exchange for poor mental health due to all the stress that came with it.

It put an immense amount of pressure on Rui to make sure that they wouldn't get hurt due to him being incompetent.

Yet when he traveled in such a manner, he was a lot more relaxed and able to take in positive experiences better than when he was confined to a single location.

Sometimes he had to remind himself that the smaller things across his journey could be important to him, perhaps even the most important to me for him barring his Martial Art, and family.

Even as he traveled, he made a realization. ('I have been traveling regularly for quite some time now… I've grown comfortable with this manner of living.')

That was a strange feeling.

He had spent most of his life rooted in the Kandrian Empire, and he had been comfortable with that for most of his life.

However, in hindsight, that was because he hadn't realized that the world was filled with so many wonders. 

Of course, in hindsight, he should have. When things like Martial Art and esoteric resources should have tipped him off that the world was probably filled with supernatural phenomena and was worth traveling to experience.

Furthermore, now that he had spent quite some time actually living in such a fashion. It had become what was normal to him.

And it had.

Frankly, he could not imagine being crammed into a single place for an extensive period of time anymore.

He had begun to truly enjoy the very process of traveling.

Yet, all journeys needed to come to an end.

After two weeks of traveling, he had finally arrived at his destination.

The Seonmun Region as a region was quite bare and empty by itself. It appeared that the region was largely empty barring one solitary town in the middle of what appeared to be otherwise barren and uninhabited.

The town itself was decently large relative to the intelligence that he had gotten from guildmaster Bradt. Furthermore, what surprised Rui was that the town was remarkably well constructed and engineered, in contrast to what he had been made to expect.

('Did the old man lie to me?') Rui narrowed eyes.

Then again, nearly two years had passed since he got the intelligence from guildmaster Bradt, it was unreasonable to expect such outdated intelligence to remain to still be accurate after all this time.

"Still…" Rui frowned. "This…"

It was quite incredible to watch as he bore witness to the fine and splendid town that was entirely dedicated to one religion. 

Now, it was time to actually get there. 

The Seonmun Region was a valley with very narrow cliffs. In a way, they acted as a way to filter out all the Martial Apprentices or even normal humans who tried getting in somehow. Only Martial Squires and above were qualified to gain what they wanted from this particular Martial Church.

And he could imagine why Martial Churches did not cater to Martial Artists of too many Realms, it became progressively harder, and it just was an unwise application of resources.

After all, there were regions that were too barren or poor enough that it did not make sense to house a Senior-level Martial Church, for example. In these cases, the Virodhabhasa Church was a place that had Martial Artists that corresponded to the state of Martial Art in various places.

Eventually, Rui reached the church town on foot.

At the official entrance to the town, Rui ran into two strong Martial Squires guarding the entrance into the town.

"Purpose of entry?" One of them asked him, growing wary.

"…Trade," Rui replied simply.

"…Come this way… You will be processed." The man replied, ushering Rui into a building adjacent to the gate into the town.

Thankfully, the process was not too rigorous or demanding. It did not demand any paperwork or identity verification. It truly acted as an open church to any and all that sought to enter it.

Once he did enter it, it was something else entirely.

It was as though he had stepped into a whole new world entirely.

The first that he noticed was that the sheer quality of infrastructure was quite impressive for a religious organization.

This only made him more nervous though.

Any religion with that much wealth and power was something that he was not inclined to let his guard down around, especially now that he had entered it willingly and was subjecting himself to it willingly.

Regardless, the first order of things was to familiarize himself with his new circumstances.