The Martial Unity

"Other Martial Masters take a lot of pride in it. It's a sign of the ascended. The hallmark of the Master Realm...But if you ask me, it ain't that big a deal," Master Zeamer snorted. "It's just a passive hypnotic effect on the minds of lesser beings. It works the same as an illusionary hypnotic technique that I showed you, but passively, and only on Martial Artists of the Lower Realms."

"A passive illusion?" Rui's eyes narrowed as his mind flashed into action processing the new and old information he had. "I see. I understand the truth."

"Sharp as always," Master Zeamer chuckled. 

"Illusionary techniques work by misdirecting the consciousness, and then using non-verbal communication to manipulate the subconscious mind which is extremely susceptible to external suggestions," Rui's eyes swum around, immersed in thought. "If Martial Masters are able to generate illusions in the minds of the beholder, then that means that they are going through the same process. A number of inferences can be made."

"You said it was passive and caused by the Martial Mind," Rui mused. "That means that the Martial Mind is impacting the body's non-verbal communication in the same way that image embodiment impacts non-verbal communication in a hypnotic technique. The Martial Mind impacts the subconsciousness in the same image embodiment does. That's why it generated the necessary non-verbal communication to manipulate the senses into seeing an illusion. But in order for that to happen..."

Rui's eyes narrowed. 

"Go on," Master Zeamer encouraged with an amused smile.

"For that to happen, it would mean that the Martial Art of Martial Masters is so captivating and eye-drawing that it distracts the conscious mind so much that it leaves the unconscious mind open to manipulation to the non-verbal communication caused by the Martial Mind. But that's just absurd."

"Is it?" Master Zeamer asked. "It's just the natural progression. The Martial Art of the Upper Realms is truly far beyond human limits, both mentally and physically. They are said to have ascended humanity. That is why such a thing is possible."

Rui raised an eyebrow of skepticism. "I see."

"You said you came here to use my Martial Embodiment as the image embodiment of your misdirection techniques, correct?" Master Zeamer thoughtfully considered it. "That's actually quite the genius idea. My Martial Embodiment is suited for such a purpose."

"Then..." 

Master Zeamer glanced at Rui for a moment, sipping his tea.

One moment, he was just an old man sipping some tea peacefully. 

The very next moment, his very existence seemed to shift. 

Rui gritted his teeth as an enormous wave of pressure crashed into his mind with an oppressive dominance. The weight of the Master Realm pushed down on him. He needed to struggle just to maintain his attention on the hypnotic spiral that had bloomed out of Master Zeamer's figure. So much so that he even activated his Martial Heart to help.

He could understand why Martial Masters avoided going all out against their peers in the public eye. If he was struggling so much to resist its mental effects, then the average person would definitely suffer brain damage or something.

While the Martial Heart enhanced his brain enough to help him focus, he quickly recorded every single detail of the illusion that he was experiencing.

The radius and diameter of the hypnotic circle, the number of spiraling lines, and even the exact colors of the illusion. He also made sure to accurately record the angular velocity and the spiral so that he could replicate its motion accurately.

It wasn't too long before he was done.

"Man..." Rui huffed as he sat down. "That was stressful."

"Hahaha!" Master Zeamer laughed at his expense. "You sure did well to resist my Martial Embodiment."

"It's no wonder you Martial Masters are not allowed to fight seriously in front of people," Rui voiced his thoughts. "In addition to having incredible destructive power."

"The latter is actually not a reason," Master Zeamer remarked. "Martial Master fights are actually no more destructive than the fights between normal humans. Though this isn't universal as some Martial Art inherently have wide-scale destruction."

Rui's eyes widened. "What?!"

"It's the truth..." Master Zeamer remarked as he sipped his tea. "The control that the cognition of the Martial Mind grants us is beyond what you can experience."

"But... I once saw a fight between Martial Masters escalate to large environmental damage. And I don't think either of them was particularly scale-oriented," Rui frowned. 

Master Zeamer narrowed his eyes, as a knowing glint flashed in his eyes. "Then one of them must have been actively trying to cause environmental destruction on purpose."

Rui frowned his eyes swum around, immersed in thought. "But which one... and why?"

The Master shrugged. "That's for you to figure out. Do you need anything else from me?"

"No."

"Then scatter, from here on out, I must seclude myself in my grand bedroom for some...domestic matters." The man couldn't hide a lewd smile arising on his face.

Rui heaved a sigh, facepalming. "I didn't need to know that."

He bade the Master goodbye as quickly as possible before returning to his meditation chamber.

'Alright, let's revisit the juicy data I collected.' Rui accessed his Mind Palace excitedly as he gathered the distributed pixel data, creating a video of the Martial Embodiment of Master Zeamer.

The sheer weight of a Martial Master as powerful as Master Zeamer allowed the image embodiment to pressure Rui's mind a lot more than Master Uma's blade of wind ever had. It confirmed to Rui the sheer superiority of Martial Masters like Master Zeamer.

'It's a shame that I never got to see Master Reina's Martial Embodiment,' Rui realized. 'It was just never relevant.'

Considering that the Martial Embodiment reflected the Martial Path, her Martial embodiment would probably not be flashy at all.

'In fact, it might draw attention further away from her, rather than to her, After all, a flashy Martial Embodiment is a liability to an assassin.' Rui mused.

She would be an incompetent assassin if she draw massive attention each time she used her full power.