The Martial Unity

He dashed forward towards the heart of the Serevian Plateau. His Seismic Mapping technique picked up unnaturally high and yet fluctuating seismic radiation incoming from the very direction he was headed at the very moment. He shed his squire-level mind mask before adopting his stealth mind mask and activating the Shadow Step technique, becoming incredibly stealthy and hard to register.

It took him some time but eventually, he reached the heart of the Serevian Plateau.

"What the..." Rui's eyes widened as he beheld the strange sight in front of him. "What in the world is this?"

It was so bizarre he couldn't even put it into words.

In front of him was an elevated landmass. The landmass extended beyond what the eye could see on both sides. It was as though a piece of the tectonic plate had been elevated by dozens of meters, randomly. It was as though the landmass had been transported over and dropped onto the center of the Serevian Plateau.

"What the fuck is this?" He wondered aloud. "How can such a ridiculous elevation even occur naturally?"

He was no geologist, but he racked his brains, both of them, searching for an answer.

"Earthquake?" He quickly wondered.

Earthquakes were caused due to shifts of tectonic plates bordering each other. The shift led to the release of a massive wave of seismic radiation. On the surface, this seemed to be a logical explanation for why the land was elevated and what the cause for the seismic radiation he was sensing was.

"No, that makes no fucking sense." He shook his head.

The seismic radiation released by earthquakes was non-uniform and constant over long periods of time. They were destructive, but acute and didn't last too long. They certainly didn't last four days without ever once reducing in intensity.

"Furthermore, if it was an earthquake, I refuse to believe that the Ministry of Environment and Ecology is incompetent enough to not recognize an earthquake when they see it." He shook his head. "That's not the only problem with that option either. This place is too clean to be the epicenter of an Earthquake."

Earthquakes were destructive. It was absolutely impossible for the structures atop and around the epicenter to be intact. Yet the surroundings were remarkably unkempt. Although a few trees at the very edge had been uprooted due to the split, the surrounding trees were untouched. Even the nests of birds atop the trees had not fallen off.

else could it be?" Rui wondered as he turned

began investigating it deeply with Seismic Mapping. The

as a realization hit him. "The roots... The roots of the trees atop that part of the land have

roots were enormously thick, thicker than those of the other trees around him, and had extended far deeper

these roots took up so much space underground, that landmass itself shifted up

displaced in such a manner, a lot of cracks, breaks, and collapses occurred within its structure. This resulted in the creation of many natural caves throughout the landmass. These caves

a vast amount of

those trees?" He wondered curiously. He leaped, launching himself to an extremely high height with the combination of Flame Breathing, and Outer

STEP

on the surface of the elevated landmass, and his eyes

rubbing his eyes before looking back

head. "No

more measures before he finally gave and

was a vast sea

Except they weren't.

a

ground that looked like they were separate, were actually all

was connected by a branch. The branches were covered in leaves. The sheer number of branches meant that the leaves covered the entirety of

sensed

WHOOSH

he evaded an

as a terrifying thought entered his mind. ('Is this entire tree a

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH