The Martial Unity

Had it not been for the micro-expression control that he had been trained in, as well as the Mind Mask that he had put on, Rui didn't think he would have been able to remain as composed as he appeared to be.

He remained silent as he tried his best to maintain his calm and exposure, simply staring at Guildmaster Bradt from behind his esoteric ore-stuffed suit.

"Not so much as a twitch, hm?" Guildmaster Bradt mused. "Remarkable, you're not like the other Martial Artists, but I suppose that's just preaching to the choir at this point, given the series of impossible feats you've pulled off."

Rui stared at him, refusing to utter a word. There had to be a point to bringing this up.

"More importantly, believe it or not, I didn't discover your identity by myself. I actually stole it from a good old friend of mine, a few hours ago,"

Rui's eyes narrowed.

"Someone you're familiar with, Chairman Deacon," Guildmaster Bradt informed him. "He has launched his entire intelligence department into a highly secretive investigation against you, and your little friend."

Rui struggled to maintain his composure as he reeled from the impact of what Guildmaster Bradt had just told him. Chairman Deacon had already discovered his identity?!

Rui furiously thought about the means by which his identity was revealed, realizing that being exposed at the Root floor had probably been the tipping point, allowing the investigation to reach him.

An immense amount of anxiety was born in his heart.

worst fears

of his identity, the game had entirely changed. He desperately needed protection,

He cursed as he realized how much trouble he was in. It wasn't that he couldn't think of any way to protect his family, he just was deeply unwilling

couldn't leave his family hanging. He loved them far too much to be able to not take great measures to protect them. But at the same time,

realized, returning his attention to Guildmaster

Rui hadn't said a word to

was almost impossible. On top of that, Rui knew that he had no reason to lie, and every reason to tell the truth. Chairman Deacon knew that Rui had a connection to the Kandrian Empire, the Martial Union specifically, it would be trivially easy for

to him when he was the only one who had received it from Rui. The more people got their hands on it, the less it was an advantage. He did not want to see

to kill Rui himself, but in the course of their interactions, Rui had proven to be far too careful to allow for any opening. He couldn't even manage to tag Rui with a highly detectable gas inside the

this point. He couldn't touch Rui even if he brought an army with him. Rui could do far too much damage,

when his most entrenched spies deep inside Deacon's staff had managed to come across the intelligence. He had immediately conducted furtive surveillance for him and had been

to do in this situation. Even for Rui, it wasn't easy being able to come to a decision immediately. He had been thrust into a crisis that was

Almost.

deeply as

Bradt abruptly broke the silence. "Good