The Martial Unity
chapter-1960

He basked in the otherworldly glory as he beheld innumerable worlds centered around each lifeform.

BADUMP!

His Martial Heart blazed into glory as it enhanced his brain and senses, allowing him to see further.

To see more.

It helped.

The invisible antithetical worlds that overlapped the real world, revolving around their targets, grew more real.

They grew more fleshed out.

Although he knew they were mere figments within the depths of his mind, it was difficult to truly believe that.

They were so real.

So real that he could almost believe it.

And he did.

It became so indistinguishable from actual reality that his subconscious mind was unable to distinguish it.

That triggered a sequence of events that Rui would have foreseen if not for being consumed by the Tree of Life.

Suddenly, his body language and demeanor changed.

His aura and vibe changed.

His non-verbal communication was fundamentally altered.

The light of his Heart had spread far and wide, drawing the attention of every single lifeform.

For a moment, every single creature in the Garden of Salvation glanced in his direction.

They fell prey to his non-verbal communication, distracted by the light of his Heart.

Unbeknownst to him, he had cast a hypnosis.

A hypnosis that showed them what he saw.

A hypnosis that convinced them of what he saw.

A hypnosis of Hell itself.

Aquatic creatures suddenly experienced all the water around them drying up. In their minds, all water ceased to exist as the Sun grew brighter and hotter, creating an inferno that consumed them alive. The air pressure decreased, causing the internal pressure they had evolved to have for the deep pressures deep underwater to work against them, causing their own blood and flesh to become their worst enemy, blasting out of their flesh violently.

Various animals experienced Hell, which was most antithetical to them.

Phoenixes experienced a frosty, cold world with an atmosphere that was chemically antithetical to combustion itself.

It was a world that was designed to snuff their very existence as birds of flames.

Dragons roared in despair and misery as they experienced a world that rendered their mighty scales useless. The very air they breathed corroded them from the inside out, perfectly bypassing their external durability. Additionally, the drag coefficient of this world was extraordinarily low, rendering them unable to fly. In addition, the humidity of the air had reached an extraordinarily high level, leaving them unable to use their flame breath.

It was as though the very world around them came to hate their very existence.

Each creature was hypnotized to experience a world antithetical to each of them. Each world was as unique as each creature was. It left them drowning in pain, suffering, and agony.

No matter their power.

No matter their size.

No matter what species they were.

Every Apprentice-level, Squire-level, Senior-level, and Master-level Master-level creature and every creature in between experienced the hell that Rui delivered unto them.

RUMBLE!

The world shook with countless roars, wails, and screeches of agony.

It was a horrifying sight.

No sane man would derive pleasure from it.

"Adaptive Evolution…" A soft smile emerged on Rui's face. "So much Adaptive Evolution."

In the face of all the horror that he had unleashed, Rui found himself experiencing but a single emotion.

Ecstasy.

A pure, innocent joy.

The joy of someone who truly loved his Martial Art with all his heart.

Yet, it lasted only the briefest of moments.

WHOOSH!

An unfathomable power washed over the entirety of the Garden of Salvation.

The Elder Tree mobilized its titanic power in time, effortlessly dispelling the hypnosis that Rui inadvertently had inflicted on the entirety of the Garden of Salvation.

It was not pleased.

I believe I told you not to infringe on the senses of the creatures of the Garden of Salvation. Why did you spread so much despair and misery?

"…Ah," Rui murmured softly.

He turned to the Elder Tree in the distance with detached eyes.

Eyes devoid of life.

"You have my apologies."

His tone was stoic.

Detached, even if it contained a spark of sincerity.

"It was not my intention." A whisper escaped him.

It was the truth.

That was what terrified the Elder Tree so much. It was the reason that it had reacted so late. It normally paid attention to the conscious intention of Martial Artists to stop them from hurting creatures of the Garden of Salvation.

Yet, this time, it had reacted late because Rui truly didn't intend to hurt them. He had inadvertently cast an unintentional hypnosis that tormented all life in the Garden of Salvation.

What had shaken the tree was supposed to be reserved exclusively for Martial Masters. The Elder Tree did not understand how a mere Martial Senior had managed to reach a high level of thought without the Martial Mind.

Rui stared at his hands. "Reality is…hazy."

He turned back to the world around him.

There was the real material world.

Yet overlapped over it were countless antithetical parallel worlds, each maximally adaptively evolved against one particular living being.

"Reality is…" A murmur escaped him. "…Adaptive Evolution?"

It was an absurd statement.

Yet, he felt like he had stumbled into a truly profound insight.

"Rui!" Kane finally reached him. "What were you doing?"

Rui's eyes slowly turned towards him.

When he looked at Kane, he saw the Speed Void domain. As expected, it was most optimally antithetical to Kane, one that he would find almost impossible to overcome. He glanced back at the Elder Tree, looking for what world was most antithetical to it according to the Tree of Life.

His eyes lit up with interest at the answer.

Outer space.

A place where there was neither heaven nor earth would be unable to create domains and would be deeply deprived of all the substances that it needed to sustain its massive existence.

"Interesting." His tone was empty.

"…Rui?" Kane tilted his head.

His dark eyes turned towards Kane slowly.

"…It's nothing," he remarked, closing his eyes. "I just made a mistake when I successfully completed the Tree of Life. Our business in the Garden of Salvation has concluded."