The Martial Unity

This was the plan that Rui had devised after realizing that the Divine Doctor had gone to the Garden of Salvation. The moment he realized that they needed to enter the Garden of Salvation, he knew that they could not find it through physical search.

After all, that was why the Divine Doctor had chosen such an intricate and elaborate plan to extract all the fear from the Forest of Fear.

It was all for the sake of entering the Garden of Salvation.

Rui didn't feel the need to reinvent the wheel.

The Divine Doctor's solution was ingenious, and Rui would most likely have arrived at the same solution himself.

The difference, of course, was the execution. While the Divine Doctor used his medical and pharmaceutical ingenuity to create extremely potent fear-hallucinogens containing the full power of the Forest of Fear, Rui decided to employ one of his own personal strengths and talents: hypnosis.

Creating a technique that induced fear was not easy; however, it was within his capabilities. If he wanted to generate a fear of death, he needed to hypnotize them to believe that they truly were dying. He needed to plant the very sensations of death in the subconscious mind of the target.

Thankfully, he knew what death felt like, thus, that was no issue.

He recalled the smell of death while he was stuck in an ICU room back on Earth at the age of fifty-nine.

That was the suggestion he planted in Kane's mind.

He didn't reveal this plan to Kane because awareness reduced the effectiveness of hypnosis. He didn't want to stack the odds against himself any more than they already were.

By his estimations, the acceptance rate of Martial Artists was barely one percent, even when closest to the region alleged to have the Garden of Salvation. Rui had run the number of Martial Artists in the regions closest to the alleged location of the Garden of Salvation, and when closest, entry was still extremely unlikely.

Thus, to keep Kane in the dark, he developed the technique secretly without ever letting him know the plan to ensure its maximum effectiveness. Because it was a hypnotic technique, Rui could develop it within his mind.

Of course, he was unable to test it rigorously, which was an important part of the technique development process.

On top of that, because he didn't have much time to develop it, it was not as refined as he would have liked. In addition, it was not a combat-oriented technique, unfortunately. At the very least, he would need to know his opponent as well as he knew Kane in order to inspire such enormous amounts of fear.

Thankfully, the technique appeared to be working exactly as he intended as Kane mindlessly sprinted through the region at top speed. Rui kept up despite being slower, if only because he could predict Kane thoroughly, choosing to take shortcuts to destinations that he foresaw Kane would reach.

With such a deep amount of insight into Kane, Rui could also protect him extremely well, making sure to heavily attack anything that dared to try approaching him.

He did this all while waiting.

The region they were in was so dangerous that Rui was certain that they were very much within the domain of influence of the Garden of Salvation.

Regardless of what mechanic the Garden of Salvation used to evaluate whether a living being needed a safe haven, Rui was sure that the two of them satisfied those conditions. He made sure to stick as closely to Kane as possible to ensure that he was associated with him while also having, naturally, relieved his own death in order to convey it to Kane through subconscious non-verbal communication.

Yet, while his own technique inspired immense fear within his subconscious mind, his conscious mind was able to detach from it, focusing only on his rationality and external awareness.

He was only able to do this because his conscious mind knew it was fake. On top of that, there were very real dangers and sources of fear that he truly could not ignore. The region they were in had a much higher density of Master-level creatures than any they had been in before.

The fact that the Divine Doctor had attempted something similar despite only being a human being physically was something that shocked Rui now that he was actually going through it.

This was an environment that would kill normal humans just based on how naturally harsh it was, and that was without considering its powerful ecosystem.

However, that worked in his favor for getting into the Garden of Salvation. After all, it meant that his need for a safe haven was much stronger than that of Martial Seniors like Rui and Kane.

If that was the case, it certainly increased his probability of getting in since he certainly wasn't faking his need for a safe haven; the madman was genuinely in grave danger.

Of course, he was immortal, so his soul wasn't in danger, only his brain and body. The Divine Doctor had been killed many times, yet he just appeared over and over as if his soul could actively transfer from vessel to vessel.

Unfortunately, Rui and Kane could not astrally detach from their bodies and latch on to another one; they faced actual death.

Thus, in hindsight, it could be said that they were even crazier than the Divine Doctor because they could actually die while the bottom line for him was soul-transferring to a new body and being forced to start over again.

Even as they sprinted through the enormous forest, Rui could not help but feel jealous that they had to actually face the risk of death while the Divine Doctor basically had a save point and could go all over again if he were to meet death.

Unfortunately, Rui was desperate.

Finding the Divine Doctor had easily become one of the most challenging non-martial undertakings of his life. Even Chairman Deacon had not been such an annoying thorn in his side.

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