The Martial Unity

Rui whiled away his time in various ways. He appreciated how smooth the carriage moved despite moving at incredibly high speeds, even faster than what he could accomplish by himself on foot. His senses told him that the carriage had actually begun levitating off the ground in order to maintain its high velocity.

Not only could they not feel the motion, but even the acceleration to top speed had been incredibly smooth and painless as though there were inertial stabilizers that allowed them to not experience the adverse effects of such extreme acceleration. While he and Master Deivon would have been just fine due to their Martial Bodies, the human staff would certainly die due to the sheer amount of stress this would ordinarily cause.

"This carriage sure is incredible," Rui admitted at one point. "The Virodhabhasa Faith is quite adept at esoteric technology if it is able to develop such fantastic solutions."

"These were not developed by us," Master Deivos shook his head. "The only forms of technology that the church has invested in is technology that is relevant to Martial Art. We generally are not bothered with other forms of technology."

"Then…?"

"This class of carriage technology that we are in right now is actually acquired through our partnership with our various partners. Veline Motor Co., the Esocline Institute of Technology, Bradt Distribution Services, and other international powerhouses with specialization in this sector."

Rui exercised perfect control over his non-verbal expression at the mention of Bradt Distribution Services.

It turned out that the man truly was an extremely well-connected business magnate. It certainly made sense that his company possessed a great foundation in regards to carriage technology. Since the sole point of his company was to distribute information, commodities, products, and services to incredibly distant destinations, it was no surprise whatsoever that the man had invested immensely in developing powerful and viable auto-carriages that could reliably transport things over large distances.

Suddenly, a thought entered Rui's mind.

('Wait, he just mentioned that the Bradt Distribution Services was a partner of the religion,) Rui narrowed his eyes. ('Earlier he said that the banquet that would be held would include not only the contestants and their various patrons, but also the partners, benefactors, and sponsors of the Martial Festival. Doesn't that mean…?')

There was a non-zero chance that Rui might run into an old acquaintance there at the banquet. That was something he hadn't considered before.

('Actually, no, it's too frivolous of a reason for Guildmaster Bradt to personally come over to the Virodha Theocracy.') Rui shook his head.

Guildmaster Bradt was the head of state and the head of government of the Shionel Confederation. It was an incredibly powerful and important position, it also meant that he could not lightly attend these kinds of functions, away from his duties, unless there were strong reasons to. Considering how many business partners the man had, he would be drowning in such events if he chose to attend each of them personally.

This was especially the case when the business deal was with the Bradt Distribution Services and not the Shionel Confederation as a whole.

Thus it was most likely that he would send an envoy, or a high-level executive or director to the banquet instead.

That was more relieving. Not that it was bad if he got recognized by Guildmaster Bradt, since the two of them currently had a working understanding with each other. He just did not like the idea of getting recognized when he had gone to such great lengths to hide himself.

However, he knew he was just being a little paranoid about this. Even if Guildmaster Bradt was personally arriving, and was not someone that was aligned with Rui, he did not possess the qualifications to identify Rui based on his Martial Art.

He was not a Martial Artist. He did not possess the ability to gain deep insight into a Martial Art just by looking at it, he was not a Martial Master or anything like that.

That was why Rui put aside these concerns.

Half a day passed, and Rui was mesmerized by the view that came with such incredibly rapid travel that he didn't even realize that they had arrived at their destination.

"This is your first time here, correct?" Master Deivon asked when the two of them got out of their carriage.

Rui nodded as he took his first look at the Virodha Theocracy.

He immediately felt the need to adjust his standards. He had previously thought that the Seonmun Church town was a particularly religious place in so far as its architecture and people. But it appeared that it was only a pale imitation of the Virodha Theocracy.

The town practically radiated religious fervor.

At a short distance, he could see the transit port of entry that they were supposed to pass through. The officers wore uniforms with a heavy slant toward religiosity. Furthermore, Rui definitely recognized the religiosity in their eyes. It was more of the same as what he saw in Seonmum Town.

The line to enter the transit port of entry was quite long. However, Master Deivon casually walked past the line before pulling out a shiny insignia with certain symbols and showing it to the guards.

Their eyes widened as they bowed more than ninety degrees at him. "Welcome back, Bishop Master!"

"He's with me," Master Deivon gestured towards Rui even as he entered the port, not even deigning to respond to their gesture.

With every step that Master Deivon, people within the port, regardless of whether they were officers or staff members, or travelers and citizens, all bowed down, paying their respects to a Martial Artist of the Upper Realms. 

Rui had to admit, he did expect to see such devotion from the regular populace to a Martial Master, still, it was a bit freaky how feverous their devotion was. Master Deivon on the other hand could not be bothered acknowledging each and every single person, he simply walked past all of them briskly, going about his business.