The Martial Unity

Rui meditated in an isolated and silent training facility. Around him were a multitude of candles spread across the entirety of the

His environment was serene.

Yet his mind most certainly wasn't.

"RRRRRRGHHH!!" Rui gritted his teeth inside his mindscape inside his Mind Palace.

A tsunami of information bombarded him, and he struggled to process each vector as well as he would have liked to.

Yet the tsunami was much smaller than it had previously been.

It was no longer an ocean that entirely overwhelmed him.

"Rgh!" He pieced together the final piece of the puzzle.

Suddenly, his vision of the world shifted.

Time turned back, tracing its path.

Yet, this time, it did not do so for all of the candles around him, only for the dozen or so before him.

His eyes opened, lighting up with triumph. "It's possible!"

The sole Martial Art project that he had been working on at the moment was making the Angel of Laplace combat viable by reducing the target scope of the technique to solely his opponent.

Rewinding time across the entire world around him was cool, but it did not serve any purpose in combat. He needed to shave off the fluff so that he didn't get anything he didn't need in the middle of combat.

Unfortunately, this was proving to be quite challenging. The Angel of Laplace domain technique worked by measuring every single vector within an enormous range of Rui.

It was sort of like taking a molecular-high-definition three-dimensional picture of the entire world within that range. After that, he simply applied some complex mathematical functions to the system of vectors that drew them back in time, allowing him to then simulate the past.

It was an astronomically complicated version of predicting the past of waves atop the surface of a lake.

Even a child could glance at a wave of water and intuitively predict not just its past but also its origin. After all, the origin of a circular wave atop the surface of a lake will always be the epicenter of the circle that the wave formed. One also knows that these waves of water move at a constant speed and move radially outward. Thus, one can predict the future and past of the wave of water infinitely.

Rui was essentially doing a similar but exponentially more complicated version to the entire world with the Angel of Laplace, operating with heat, sound, displacement, and even entropy to be able rewind the past.

The only issue he was facing was that because he had taken such a mathematical approach to scrying the past, it was difficult to figure out how to selectively process the bare minimum amount of information needed to figure out the past of a single target.

He had no choice but to go down the trial-and-error route.

By adjusting the mathematical models of the Angel of Laplace and measuring their consequent impact on the output the functions spat out to the various inputs, he could slowly but steadily make progress towards eventually perfecting the Angel of Laplace such that it became entirely combat viable.

He didn't know how long it would take.

He didn't even know if he could accomplish it with the power of the Senior Realm solely.

'If I cannot complete the Angel of Laplace with solely the power of the Senior Realm, then…' Rui's eyes narrowed.

CLACK

Rui glanced at the door opening.

"Your Highness," an assistant bowed deeply. "As ordered, I am here to inform you that it has been three days since the arrest was completed. His Mastery, Master Zentra, has informed me that he had ensured that he has followed your instructions perfectly since then."

"Good," Rui remarked. "You may go."

"Yes, Your Highness," She left his presence.

"Huff…" Rui heaved a resigned sigh, shaking his head.

He would have loved to have continued refining the Angel of Laplace technique in peace, but reality kept reminding him that he had a campaign to lead. It wasn't long before he eventually ran into Master Zentra, who had been waiting for him.

"Your Highness, I apologize for disturbing your training," Master Zentra greeted him.

Rui shook his head. "You needn't be apologetic or that humble to me. This is especially true for a Martial Master of your stature that exceeds even the status of a royal prince."

"It would be inappropriate nonetheless, Your Highness," Master Zentra refused to relent.

Rui heaved a sigh as the two of them walked through the branch of the Martial Union they were in. "When is the Martial Union going to officially dispatch a representative or panel of representatives to address the elephant in the room."

The elephant of a hundred billion gold coins was donated flat, along with a declaration of support for Rui's campaign.

"I am unfortunately not privy to such a high-level matter," Master Zentra calmly replied.

"What?!" Rui raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Not even you?"

"Not even me," He reaffirmed. "The Martial Union's decisions and stance are extraordinarily impactful and will have ramifications across all of Kandria and beyond. It has the potential to impact the future of human civilization. Not even I am qualified to solely take charge of this matter. Thus, the Martial Union may dispatch a collective of Martial Masters from different sects and factions to deliberate with you to come to a mutual understanding or…"

His voice trailed off.

But his message was clear.

Rui grew nervous and excited at the possibility, yet he schooled his demeanor. He still had business to take care of.

"Where are those four idiots?" Rui asked. "I want to see how they've been doing in the past three days."

"We've arrived, Your Highness," The Master remarked as they descended into a dungeon-like space underneath the Martial Union branch. A spiral of corridors led them further and further down the space. Rui could see countless prison bars down the corridors, imprisoning many people within.

The depths of the dungeon were deep, such that the light of the torches along the corridors did not even illuminate the abyss down the center of the spiraling corridors.

"I've never been to this part of the Hajin branch…" Rui murmured as he glanced at the enormous prison space underneath. "Incredible."

"This is where we house those sentenced to prison time by the Martial Union," Master Zentra remarked. "We've arrived."

CLACK

The guards open the doors, revealing four despairing figures.