The Martial Unity

1822 Time

"On top of that…" Master Zentra continued. "He used a powerful forbidden technique that granted him more than twice as much power as he normally wielded by burning his body in internal metabolic combustion. If not for your Hungry Pain technique, it would not be a technique that could be used without dying."

Rui understood everything that the Master was conveying to him. "…The problems caused by the forbidden technique and the blunt force trauma I inflicted on his brain have been exacerbated by his extremely aged body that responds very poorly to healing potions and any and all treatments?"

"That is a good summary of the issues," Headmaster Aronian nodded regretfully. "You suffered far, far more damage than he did, having brought to the very cusp of death. But because your body is extremely young, energetic, and brimming with youthful vitality, you have been able to recover swiftly under the very best medical care and resources the Martial Union could muster."

Rui nodded.

Despite being thirty-two years old, his body had remained entirely unchanged since the age of twenty-three, when he broke through to the Senior Realm. This was because the discovery of the Martial Heart strengthened the mitochondria of the cells of the body, erasing accumulated oxidative stress and preventing further stress from ensuing.

After all, the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell. In some ways, the Martial Heart was, in a sense, contained in the mitochondria of the cells. The mitochondria was most affected by the discovery of the Martial Heart.

In other words, his capacity to heal and recover was orders of magnitude greater than that of the Gatekeeper.

It was no wonder that he woke up earlier despite having suffered far greater damage than his opponent.

"…He shouldn't have used a forbidden technique so easily," Rui murmured with a hint of frustration. "What kind of a Martial Artist does that rather than adjusting their tactical and strategic approach?"

Frankly, one of the reasons that Rui didn't feel superior to the Gatekeeper was because the man could have won the battle had he not been so inflexible and rigid in his approach. Had he adapted his strategy to Rui's immense evasion and focused on wide-scale attacks that could not be avoided, he would have been able to inflict even greater damage on Rui, which probably would have won him the fight.

Master Zentra shook his head. "The same kind of man that rejects the power of a higher Realm due to the sacrifice of thought at the altar of physicality. It takes a special kind of man to unerringly and unhesitatingly abandon everything to elevate the body to the highest degree. A man who would opt to alter tactics and strategy is a man that would never have singlemindedly dedicated himself to the body at the cost of the Master Realm."

In other words, the Gatekeeper was not entirely sane.

He turned towards Rui. "…And if not for the fact that he was not entirely sane, he would not have gone down his path and discovered many new fields that have gone to become the Martial Paths of many. He would not have provided us with many potent training techniques for the Martial Body that have become part of universal paradigms."

Rui considered that.

"In that regard, you and he are quite similar," Master Zentra remarked.

Rui furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm entirely sane, though."

Instantly, he drew dubious and skeptical looks from those around him.

Not a single person believed a word he was saying.

This was slander, as far as Rui was concerned, but he couldn't be bothered with such a trivial matter at the moment.

"How long will it take for me to return to my peak?" Rui glanced at his arms, clenching his fists.

"I suspect that it will take you at least a few weeks of training," Master Zentra remarked. "However, there's no need to be in a hurry since you have already accomplished everything you need."

Yet Rui gritted his teeth. "It will probably take longer."

He had plenty of experience in the research of the return of injured combat sports fighters post-recovery, and it was not something that was quick and convenient.

Of course, the Martial Body was very different from the human body in some ways. But he also had a lot of experience with the Martial Body.

While the Martial Masters and other visitors around him were quite relaxed about the situation, Rui was inwardly cursing at the delays. He already had spent half a year winning the Kandrian Throne War, and now almost two more months would be gone into simply dealing with the consequences of his battle with the Gatekeeper.

With each passing day, the probability that he would find the Divine Dictor reduced. Now he had less than four years to find the damned doctor inside the Beast Domain.

"This is going to be rough," Rui murmured as his eyes wandered around.

At the very least, he had some time to give more thought to exactly what he was going to do to find the Divine Doctor.

As the Sloth Sage had reminded him, he could not just run into the Beast Domain and then begin searching blindly. He needed to take a more sensible approach to finding the Divine Doctor.

'The only consolation is that I do need a little bit of time to solidify my plans to find him,' Rui realized.

While the nine months prior to the previous one had been spent largely on building up his faction, he had planted many potential seeds that could help him find the Divine Doctor. Having Guildmaster Bradt research the human sages through his deep connectivity throughout the continent was one of them.

Now, he needed to consolidate the fruits of these searches so that he could pick out the most optimal path to finding the Divine Doctor and immediately begin his voyage to the Beast Domain. The sooner he could find the man, the sooner things could go back to exactly how they were.