The Martial Unity

Rui grew excited about the prospect of communicating with the animals to gain the intelligence he sought. It was a really novel and non-standard way of learning what he wanted.

Yet they stared at him blankly.

Alright, have you guys seen the Divine Doctor? Rui asked.

"MMOOOOOEAAAU?"

"MOOEAU."

"MOOOOOOOOOEAAAUUU."

The catoblepas began a cacophony in response to Rui's enunciated non-verbal communication.

Yet, they only conveyed a single meaning. A single inquiry.

Food? They gazed at him eagerly. Food??

Rui heaved a sigh as his excitement dampened. Their conception of the world was extremely limited. 'Divine' and 'doctor' meant absolutely nothing to them. Thus even if their minds parsed what Rui conveyed through non-verbal communication, it did not register or trigger any associations in their mind.

"How's it going?" Kane asked, amused as he watched Rui interrogating monster cows.

"…I'll need to try a different approach," Rui murmured. "I need to work with concepts that they are aware of."

He was extremely certain that they knew what human beings were. Everybody knew what human beings were.

How could one fail to notice the strongest species on the Panama Continent that dominated most of the continent, conquering it bit by bit, pushing back all life with its own power single-handedly?

Human. Rui conveyed. Like me. Years ago.

Rui hoped that catoblepas had a solid conception of time and the passage of time. Otherwise, this was doomed.

They stared at him, confused. However, it was clear that they at least understood what he was conveying. They did understand the concepts of time and humans; it just was not enough to narrow it down.

The Valley of Prisms was too close to the human domain; multiple Martial Artists must have passed through this region when heading deeper into the Beast Domain.

"Damn, I'll have to be more specific…" Rui murmured before an idea popped into his head. "Wait a minute…"

"What's up?" Kane asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I know what the Divine Doctor looks like thanks to my grandmother's prophecy," Rui realized. "What if I use hypnosis to convey that?"

He had already inherited a foundation for hypnosis from his training under the Hypnomaster for two years. It was possible for him to convey an image using non-verbal communication by conjuring said image in his mind and fooling his own subconscious mind into believing it to be real.

This would, in turn, alter his body language and non-verbal communication since these were driven by the subconscious mind, conveying said image to those who understood his body language.

This was the same principle that his Phantomind Void technique operated on. Normally, others needed time to construct an image out of imagination. Rui's evolved mind and superhuman capacity for imagination quickly began reconstructing a high-definition version of the image from his memory of his grandmother's prophecy.

Within five minutes, he had completed what would take others weeks.

"Here we go," Rui narrowed his eyes, embedding the image in his mind such that it fooled his own subconscious mind that he was now the Divine Doctor himself. Instantly, his body language shifted, altering his being in the eyes of lesser beings as the image of the Divine Doctor overlapped his own.

He had become the Divine Doctor.

Fortunately, his non-verbal communication evoked a reaction.

A reaction much stronger than Rui had expected.

Their eyes grew bloodshot as their body shivered.

Raw terror was palpable in every inch of their body language.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEAAAAAUUUUUUUUUU!"

Their voices were saturated with fear and horror as they began thrashing and struggling to escape from Rui's domain in vain.

They conveyed a single meaning to Rui.

Monster.

Rui's eyes sharpened gravely.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEAAAAAUUUUUUUUUU!!"

MONSTER.

Tears began flowing from their eyes.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEAAAAAUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

MONSTER!!

Rui dispelled his domain, allowing them to escape. They were so emotionally distraught that he doubted he would be able to extract anything from them even if he tried. It was painfully clear that not only did they remember the Divine Doctor, but they had some agonizing trauma regarding the man.They want nothing to do with him.

Just the image of the Divine Doctor was enough to trigger a hysterical anxiety attack in each and every single one of them!

"What the hell…?" Rui frowned.

This kind of reaction to a non-Martial Artist human being was rather extreme. How could a normal human being evoke such an extreme reaction from so many creatures?

He recalled the meaning that they had conveyed to him through their non-verbal communication.

"Monster…" Rui narrowed his eyes.

There was no doubt about exactly who they were referring to.

Just what did the Divine Doctor do to these animals that made them regard him as a monster?

'Well, he did displace them, causing mass exodus, but would they really suffer from such intense trauma of the memory of him?' Rui wondered.

Rui had expected to be able to access their recollection . He didn't understand why there was so much emotional distress attached to their memory of the Divine Doctor. However, this, too, was evidence that Rui could use to refine his understanding of what had happened in this region when the Divine Doctor visited many years ago.

"He undoubtedly had an extremely personal role in displacing them," Rui narrowed his eyes. "He must have caused them a lot of suffering and distress when he came here. He might have personally driven them all away directly using some medical tech. But why?"

And more importantly, how could he use it to learn more about where the Divine Doctor went?

He turned back to the catoblepas. "We're not done yet."

He didn't care about the suffering that the Divine Doctor had inflicted on them, though he was concerned about what it spoke about the Divine Doctor, a man who had no qualms about spreading such suffering without any hesitation.

Was this a man he could reason with to heal his father from the Eternal Dream Disease?

It remained to be seen.

"Let's continue," Rui declared under his breath, bending heaven and earth to summon all the catoblepas before him.

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