The Martial Unity

'It's no wonder that the Martial tribes of Vilun Island don't have a single Martial Master.' Rui realized. 'They fight with emotion rather than thought. At this rate, they will never be able to break through."

He thought about K'Mala. She was particularly bright and had even managed to partially master the Pathfinder technique. Rui had put a huge amount of effort into making sure that she grasped the highly distilled mathematics, making sure she learned the bare minimum.

Perhaps she was the only one who had a chance of breaking through to the Master Realm if she understood the power of thought. 

Regardless, the cards had been laid out in front of him, and he had to say, that he was quite pleased with them. He had been dealt a good hand. Of course, that was largely a consequence of a lifetime of effort, but it paid off nonetheless.

"If I have a great affinity for the Master Realm, then that also means people can have great affinities for other Realms, right?" Rui asked. "I can imagine that some Martial Artists will gain more of a boost in power breaking through to the Squire and Senior Realm compared to breaking through to the Master Realm. In a broader sense, different Martial Art have different affinities for different Realms."

When Rui thought about people like Nel, it was clear that Nel would probably gain more power from the Squire and Senior Realms than the Master Realm. The man was so philosophically inclined towards making the best of his body that it was a wonder of whether he could break through to the Master Realm with that attitude.

"That's quite astute of you. This is a higher-level concept that Martial Artists only get in touch with in the Upper Realms, but you have managed to arrive at it nonetheless." She remarked. "Different Martial Art have different affinities for different Realms, they are rarely equally attuned to all Realms. The Martial Path is also not equal in the Realms that it passes through. Some Martial Paths are inherently more powerful within some Realms than others. It is believed that every Martial Artist has a unique configuration of affinities for the different Realms along the Martial Path."

"Hm, that makes sense since every Martial Path has a unique trajectory," Rui mused. "In my case, I definitely have the highest affinity for the Master Realm, I'd imagine. Though my affinity for the Squire and Senior Realms is not low either."

Originally, he would have had only an affinity for the Master realm, but the creation of the Metabody System gave his Martial Art an affinity for the Squire and Senior Realms as well. It was a technique that did not inherently make use of thought and made use of Body and Heart instead.

Furthermore, it was quite powerful, close to on par with the rest of the VOID algorithm itself. That was good because it meant that he could make use of the Senior Realm much better than if he only had the pattern recognition system and the other systems of the VOID algorithm.

"One more question. I need to accumulate the power of thought to reach the Master Realm, however, I have still not reached the limit of what I can squeeze out of my body, unlike the original Martial Seniors before the first Martial Master." Rui explained. "Doesn't that mean I can also grow stronger in the Senior realm by squeezing out the most of my body along with my mind?"

"Yes, but squeezing out the potential of the body does not bring you closer to a higher Realm," She pointed out. "Though it is also true that is easier to develop techniques that make the most out of the body than the mind, generally speaking. There is no right or wrong, objectively speaking. You have been provided with all the information, and you have been informed of the outcomes and consequences of all your available courses of action. You yourself must choose how you wish to progress from here on."

Rui nodded.

In the first place, he wasn't even sure if her statement of making the most of the body being easier than the mind was true for him. He had created several grade-ten techniques that harnessed the power of thought or cognition.

The ODA System, the Riemannian Echo, Death's Sympathy/Sympathetic Death Lance, Transverse Resonance, and his most recent creation; the Phantomind Void.

The VOID algorithm, of course, went without saying.

He had no problem harnessing thought. In fact, his greatest magnum opus was centered around harnessing thought. His affinity for Mind was definitely stronger than his affinity for Body.

Part of that was a relic from Earth. On Earth, there were much harder and concrete limits to everything. It was impossible to embody Bruce Lee's philosophy of Water through the body. The Metabody System was absolute fiction on Earth.

The only way to embody Bruce Lee's philosophy of water was through mind, through adapting strategies, tactics, and decision-making to perfectly counter his opponent with perfect moves at the perfect time and place.

That was why he had chosen to create a system of thought to embody Water. That was the only way to embody the philosophy of Water on Earth; through mind.

However, that was not strictly true in Gaia. He had already embodied the philosophy of water through the body with the first iteration of the Metabody System. 

Perhaps there were ways he could do this beyond just body and mind. After all, he still had two more Realms above even those that probably tapped into a different kind of potential from the body and the conscious mind.

'I should stop clinging to thought and mind as exclusively as I have.' Rui realized. 'To be more accurate, I should cling to everything else deeply as I do with the power of the mind.'

His Martial Path was adaptive evolution, not cognitive adaptation. His Martial Path encompassed more than just his mind. It would be a disservice to Project Water if he limited it to predominantly the mind.

'Still, while I am in the Senior realm specifically, it makes sense to focus on the mind.' Rui mused. 'I can maintain balance by working on my body if it's too lopsided afterward.'

He had many ideas on how to improve his Metabody System to ensure that the adaptive evolution capabilities of his body did not lag behind those of his mind. Things like Primordial Seed opened up paths of limitless potential.