The Martial Unity

One moment, Rui's Martial Embodiment ravaged the minds of all those it beheld witnessed, erasing their consciousness.

The very next, however, it disappeared once Rui dispelled Niflheim, finally putting his Martial Art to rest. Although it had felt like an eternity since the inception of the battle, no more than three minutes had passed since.

Yet, the disappearance of his Martial Embodiment certainly didn't undo the damage it had already inflicted. It had been minutes since his battle with the chimera had begun, yet almost all life in the manifold had perished as a result.

Despite millions and even billions of lifeforms of all sizes across the entirety of the hundred-kilometer-wide manifold, not a single one of them could survive the battle between Rui and the chimera.

Such was the horrifying power of beings at their level.

"Huff…" For the first time in what felt like ages, Rui remembered to breathe. "…Huff."

The battle between him and the chimera had been so intense that even breathing was difficult, especially when the two of them ravaged the very atmosphere that nourished them with tornados, infernos, Muspelheims, and Niflheims.

STEP

He descended before the frozen corpse statue of the chimera, gazing at the horrifying monster with soft eyes.

"You were exactly what I needed."

He was grateful.

He was grateful that the Master-level beast of the dungeon core was a creature that was almost impossible to adaptively evolve against with the power of the Senior Realm alone. Its strengths and weaknesses were deeply mismatched. A singular solution could not encompass all of it, for it was three beings integrated into one. Rui had not been able to adaptively evolve to it pound for pound despite all the preparations that he had made for the battle.

It was a direct challenge to his Martial Drive with extraordinarily high stakes. Had it not been for that, it most likely would not have triggered his breakthrough. His desire for power was not as strong as his desire to complete Project Water and was, in turn, in service of Project Water. After all, one could not adaptively evolve to overcome powerful calamitous monsters such as the chimera if one did not have power.

Everything boiled down to the ambition that carried on from his previous life, and it was precisely what the chimera posed a powerful challenge to.

A wave of surreality swept over him as he gazed at the corpse of the chimera.

He had won.

Not only had he emerged victorious, he had also ascended to a higher Realm of power.

He had ascended to the Master Realm.

He had reached the Upper Realms.

He was no longer of the Senior Realm.

No.

He was, truly, a Martial Master.

Profound satisfaction spread through his mind. It gushed from within his mind, overflowing into the body, as his demeanor, vibe, and aura reflected the satisfaction he felt.

He glanced at the chimera deeply one last time before walking past it, never once looking back.

His extraordinary senses spread across the depths of the Mellow Manifold as he beheld the sum totality of the microcosm that had imprisoned him for two long years.

It was dead.

The dense and rich biosphere that existed prior to the inception of the final battle across the manifold had all but perished.

All life had died.

"…Almost all," Rui's eyes lit up as he sensed three living beings.

WHOOSH

With a single leap, he crossed the vast expanse of the manifold, arriving at the core of the dungeon. Instantly, he found himself in a dark, desolate region that consumed light itself. Yet, while living beings of the dungeon found it difficult to descry the world, the breakthrough to the Master Realm enabled Rui to perceive every micrometer of the dungeon in great detail.

Now that he had ascended to the Master Realm, his senses were far too powerful to be constrained by lesser means.

Countless observations flooded into his powerful mind as he beheld the epicenter of the core of the dungeon.

Firstly, Kane was unconscious but alive. Rui was unable to detect any internal bleeding or brain damage with his powerful senses, much to his relief. Even if he were gravely wounded, with the Divine Doctor present, he certainly wouldn't die.

He appeared to have either been knocked out by force or had passed out due to pushing himself too hard. This was hardly a problem and didn't even require a healing potion to solve. Rui would rather let him get the rest that he had earned, considering that the Divine Doctor was alive and mostly well, barring some burns to the flesh.

Secondly, the combination of his heightened awareness and senses, along with the Riemannian Echo, allowed him to instantly notice and recognize the spatial anomaly at the very epicenter of the dungeon core.

"Lorentz Contraction." His eyes lit up with faint interest.

"Just so," the Divine Doctor's frozen smile sparkled with fascination as he stared at Rui with deep interest.

Rui narrowed his eyes.

This was the third observation that made no sense.

"Why are you so focused on me when an alien flora lifeform exists right behind your back?" Rui's dark eyes sharpened.

Rui, like the Divine Doctor, had instantly noticed that the white sapling was clearly not a part of the Tree of Life of Gaia.

That was simply another way of saying it was from another world.

It was a staggering and shocking discovery that could alter the very foundations of the human worldview.

Perhaps the shock was less stunning because Rui knew for a fact that there were other worlds out there.

After all, he, too, was a denizen of another world before his soul somehow traveled from it to Gaia.

Yet, even then, he was still truly surprised to see a lifeform alien to Gaia right before his eyes. Even if he wasn't a biologist, he could still genuinely appreciate the shocking wonder that a truly alien lifeform was.

It was truly groundbreaking and world-shattering.

That was why he didn't understand.

"Why do you turn your back to it…" Rui's tone was soft. "…and gaze at me instead?"

The air grew tense as the two men stared at each other.

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