The Martial Unity

"Not the best strategy?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"

Rui was sure that the strategy, although infuriating, would definitely appeal to their pride. He wasn't able to think of a singular better way to do so than to give their techniques greater esteem.

"Although it does leverage their pride well, it does so at the cost of the perceived value of our techniques," Carl explained. "If they perceive our techniques to be much less valuable than their own, then their trade will inevitably become far too skewed in their favor. What we desire from the G'ak'arkan Tribe is an equal and fair trade, not a scam."

"That definitely makes sense," Rui nodded.

"Besides, Senior Ceeran will never tolerate the downplaying of the long-range techniques of the Martial Union and, by extension, all of the techniques of the Longranger Sect. As one of the upper echelons of the Longranger Sect, he would rather declare war against the G'ak'arkan Tribe than tolerate the techniques of his sect being diminished. If he hears you go in that direction during the negotiations, he may even pick a fight then and there."

"You make it sound like he will be part of the diplomatic team that will be deployed to the G'ak'arkan Tribe," Rui raised an eyebrow.

"You need an expert on long-range techniques with you. You are far from sufficient; you have only mastered three long-range techniques in your career as a Martial Artist. If the negotiations proceed favorably, then we need someone who can demonstrate the techniques that we will be trading." Carl explained patiently.

previous diplomat who failed spectacularly?"

Martial Artist chosen for this role is up in the air. However, Martial commissioner Derun was the one who made the decision. I was told that you and Senior Ceeran have a good relationship, which probably factored into her decision. The diplomatic mission is

it couldn't be a coincidence that Senior Ceeran was the one appointed as the long-range expert and consultant. Martial commissioner Derun was probably aware of the submission of the Pathfinder technique that Rui had given to the

when

of it, to his credit." Carl

chuckled, saying what Carl was reluctant to say out loud. "Well, putting that aside. I guess we should place just enough weight on their techniques to tickle their pride but

incentivize their cooperation with us," Carl said, before continuing. "For example, and this is risky if misapplied, if you make it so that their pride compels them to master our techniques, you could

won't be

you'll undergo some training on how to address their pride

noted. "They have a lot of remarkable techniques that allow them to accomplish impressive feats given the Realm of the Martial Artist performing them, but at the same time, what we would consider being fundamentals, they're actually quite lacking from our perspective. I think rather than bombarding them with our

"Your tactic sounds quite useful. You should flesh it out more when you go through my training program. Which should be significantly shortened by the fact that

nodded as he gathered