The Martial Unity

"The ocean breeze is good," Rui sighed as he closed his eyes. "Quite soothing and relaxing."

Yet it wasn't enough to soothe his emotions. Abandoning his family was one of the most painful things he had ever gone through. He would gladly subject himself to the pain of the Squire evolution breakthrough another thousand times instead if he had the choice. But, he didn't.

He knew that he wasn't truly abandoning them in spirit. He had gone to great lengths in order to ensure that they wouldn't incur harm as a result of his failures. However, he knew that wasn't what they would feel. He knew that in the years to come, they would wonder why Rui hadn't come back home.

Just the thought of it made his soul ache.

He couldn't tell them the truth, that would be cruel. Informing them that the bigshot chairman of an international powerhouse of a company with Martial Seniors on retainer was doing everything in his power to harm them would shatter his family. He subsequently couldn't explain the reason he left either, in addition to being afraid of Chairman Deacon coming about that information and realizing that the entire chase of Rui and Kane he was on was an elaborate, and highly expensive sham.

In the end, he asked the Martial Union to discreetly convey a simple message.

'I'm sorry.'

Anything more, and the risks multiplied. His family would not understand the need for secrecy, nor could he trust their judgment in this matter, unfortunately, barring Julian. Given the number of immature kids in the Orphanage, it was not worth the risk.

He opened his eyes, inhaling deeply.

again?" Kane asked, trying to dispel

be traveling to the other

as he realized what Rui meant. "The western end of the continent. We're going to go to the

short amount of time, that's

to need housing and

knows?" Rui smiled wryly. "It'll be a fun adventure, although I do have

yeah?" Kane raised

sovereign territory said to belong to a powerful Martial Senior," Rui replied. "Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do any research. I could have asked Guildmaster Bradt, but I didn't want

"A place that helps lower Realm Martial Artists grow

heard of it. Martial Artists aren't stupid, and

it called?" Kane

"I don't know

place we could

also something I've considered visiting at some point," Rui told him. "Seems like a remarkable geological phenomenon, said to be mostly accessible only to Martial Artists due to its extreme elevation. The higher concentration of

element in the previous location as well," Kane raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you're going

"We may be traveling, but that doesn't mean we're here to relax and have fun. I want to get much stronger in the next ten years, and that means we need to make the best use of the next ten years to grow stronger. That generally involves going

would have been the