The Martial Unity

"Huff…" Rui's cold eyes narrowed, staring at the Mellow Dungeon in the distance. "It's a shame I wasn't able to come here before I inherited the Elder Tree's knowledge."

Rui wasn't lacking self-awareness. He knew that he was different from before. He felt as though someone had dialed down his emotions. He recalled the fascination, awe, and wonder he had experienced when he beheld the magic of the Garden of Salvation.

He was unable to experience a fraction of that emotion when looking at an equally exotic phenomenon.

The revelation that very few things could trigger the same kind of experience was not pleasant.

While, before, a series of things could have triggered positive emotions, it was as though someone had drastically increased the threshold for those same experiences to bring him the same amount of happiness. Only the ecstasy born from his Flowing Void Style and Adaptive Evolution had been able to cross that threshold consistently.

"I mean, we could have."

Kane's voice interjected, cutting through his own thoughts.

"No," Rui replied stoically. "We couldn't have."

"Was it worth it?" Kane's voice was sharp. "Was breaking your own mind worth it?"

Rui turned to Kane with a detached gaze.

A single remark escaped him.

"Yes."

Kane shook his head, heaving a sigh. "I figured. It's your best and worst trait, man. It might get you killed. Thankfully, you have me. Now, are we ready?"

"Soon."

a good understanding of the Mellow Manifold, all the low-hanging fruit were gone. Now, it was time to subject

objectives of the operation into the Mellow

that barricaded the way to the center of the dungeon and get rid of as many

them all, then he could instantly gain a deep understanding of

a specific plan, but he was absolutely certain that knowing the environments that were most antithetical to each of them would help

hurry," Rui sharply remarked, turning

thought it

Rui darkly replied. "We need to get there before he does, and the travel time alone

not intend to spend

defeat him. In order to grow, he

it required him to train and grow stronger by adaptively evolving to

case for a lot of

trying to overcome certain challenges with his Martial Art. This had been the case when he adaptively evolved to the challenges of the

techniques that he had created during his exodus away from Kandria, hiding from Chairman Deacon. He created

were a result of adaptively evolving to the challenges and forces aligned against

find much of that in a prison as small

it was a worthy place to train his foundations. It was a shame that he valued the diversity of

"Done."

to carry all the instruments, artifacts, and tools that he had brought along with him to the Beast Domain. They would just get in the

two men got up, facing the

"Any time," Kane remarked.

"Let's go."