The Martial Unity

Rui found it particularly stupid that the lava golem even bothered trying to eat him in the first place.

'The power of the Martial Heart is not something he could harness even if he ate me.' Rui tutted. 'It is vast reserves of biochemical potential energy that can only be harnessed with human metabolism and the Martial Path. You're not going to be able to harness it just by eating Martial Artists.'

It was what separated Martial Artists from monsters and beasts. The source of the power of the former did not come from their mass or volume. The source of their power was the various untapped potentials that every living being possessed, a potential that only humans had the sophistication of mind to unlock.

It was why Martial Artists could fight beasts and monsters that were astronomically larger than them and still come away victorious as Rui had. Martial Artists had too many advantages over too many unwieldy beasts. Most of the continent was part of the human domain, and only the core and the central sections of the continent were part of the Beast Domain along with many secondary patches and streaks here and there.

Rui heaved a sigh before forging on forward through the ashy lava territory. One thing he realized he was wrong about was the assumption that a single lava golem was responsible for all of this.

Apparently, he was wrong. The entire region was filled with lava golems.

'Tsk, I can't afford to get into a battle with every single one of them.' Rui tutted. 'For now, I'll avoid using the Martial Heart and use the lesser Phantomind Void technique to avoid garnering attention.'

One thing that surprised him was that the vegetation grew

form again in the lava-laden land. Rui's face flashed with surprise as he studied the trees that not only seemed to survive despite the lava but also actively seemed

and small streams of lava flowing up the

trees are consuming the

lava as a part of the nutrients it needed to sustain its existence. But at this point, he was used to being surprised by the fantasies

required lava to survive, then Rui could understand how these trees could flourish in an environment like the lava domain of the

annoying part of these otherwise incredible species of flora was that they still consumed mental energy. Rui groaned as he felt the tug on his mind, weakening him minutely with every passing second and minute. As expected, although the Hypnomaster seemed to prefer the diversity of life, the theme of the forest had not

of mental energy drained throughout the journey

phenomenon sustained by biochemical metabolism. They too would be drained

longer he traveled the more he came across a rich and biodiverse ecosystem that was centered around the abundant lava and magma that the lava golems regularly generated and spewed out. Rui couldn't make much progress in understanding the biophysics and biochemistry

see. Every flora lifeform was lava-stridden across their trunks, stems, branches, and leaves. It appeared that these lifeforms no longer relied

gathered lava within each of them, being used to heat up a variety of different substances and chemical reactions with their heat. It suggested that the principle was to employ lava as a source of heat rather than directly

reaction that required a lot of heat to produce a chemical product similar to the human ATP, the molecule responsible for all human energy,