The Martial Unity

In general, Rui was sure that he was probably one of the few Martial Artists who could make progress in the Senior Realm with much less difficulty than his peers.

'Or at least, progress towards the Master Realm,' Rui mused. 'I can imagine other Martial Seniors rely on techniques bringing the best out of their Martial Body and, by extension, Heart because that is a much easier solution than developing the Martial Mind.'

Developing a system of thought that was so sophisticated and complex, yet pertinently accurate in its directives that it filled up an entire section of their brain that there was untapped potential?

An overwhelming Martial Seniors did not know where to start. The Martial Mind was an intellectual feat that was no different from long-term research and development projects conducted by scholars and researchers. Most Martial Seniors felt intimidated by the challenges that beset them in their journey to a higher Realm.

But not Rui. Of course, that did not mean he found it easy. He was very sober of the reality that his journey was much more difficult than the others. The only silver lining was the fact that he had made substantial progress with things like the VOID algorithm and the ODA System. Another boon was the greater ease with which he made progress.

These two facts allowed him to be more confident in the face of the particularly overwhelming challenges that only he was subject to.

'Alright, back to the topic,' Rui sighed. 'Ordinary hypnosis is more nuanced and delicate than the more monolithic misdirection that Master Reina taught me.'

With Master Reina's philosophy and application of mind, he simply needed to pour all his mind and effort into misdirecting attention away from him. However, Master Zeamer detested such a simplistic application of it.

Of course, he did not think one was right or wrong. Master Reina was an assassin, and every technique she developed was designed to be most efficient for assassinations. Mental techniques were extremely diverse, but she only cared about its applications in assassination and nothing else.

While Rui respected her capacity to kill, he was not an assassin. He preferred Master Zeamer's diverse but more full-fledged application of the mind.

'However, because Master Zeamer's hypnosis is multi-fold, I need to be careful about the structure of the technique.'

Master Reina simply had him misdirect, but Master Zeamer's techniques required him to misdirect and impress on the subconscious mind of the target. Both of those required mind and both of those were done simultaneously, which means that Rui needed to ration his mental power and make sure he split it in the best manner possible.

'In general, the more extensive my manipulation of the mind is, the greater the misdirection needs to be.'

In order to reach deeper, he needed to move the guard as far away as possible. Thus any extensive manipulation required even more powerful misdirection.

'If I have to divide my mental power between misdirection and manipulation of the mind, then my hypnotic techniques will have misdirection weaker than the Greater Phantomind Void.' Rui realized.

The Greater Phantomind Void dedicated all of Rui's mental power to misdirection. Hypnotic techniques split mental power between misdirection and manipulation thus his hypnotic techniques would need to have weaker misdirection compared to the Phantomind Void.

'A fifty-fifty split should work fine. Now then, it's time to get started.' Rui found himself at the entrance of the meditation center where Ieyasu himself was training. It was a place that placed Martial Artists in chambers that isolated Martial Artists from any distractions, allowing them to fully be immersed in their own minds.

It wasn't long before the staff at the meditation center had arranged for a meditation chamber for Rui as well where he secluded himself in peace.

'Now then, each of the three hypnotic techniques requires misdirection. In this case, should I stick to Master Uma? Hmm...' Rui wondered as an interesting thought popped into his head. 'Wait, if I am to use a Martial Master, then wouldn't Master Zeamer be better?'

He wasn't certain, but both Master Reina and Master Zeamer struck him to be at a much higher level than Master Uma or Master Carian. It was quite amazing because the latter was supposed to be quite impressive and powerful in their own right, above more ordinary Martial Masters like Master Deivon.

Furthermore, Master Zeamer was perhaps the most suited to be used as the distraction in his technique because of his special form. The form that all Martial Masters seemed to have was related to their Martial Path or Martial Art.

Rui recalled the profound hypnotic spiral of black and white that Master Zeamer's form shifted to. It was as though Rui could immerse himself in it, submerging his mind in it forever.

'It's way more distracting and drawing than Master Uma's blade of winds.' Rui realized. 'It would be much more suited as the image of my misdirection technique.'

It was a shame to leave so quickly after he had arrived, but this was something that he needed to get done as soon as possible. He quickly, got up, scampering across Cloudia as he searched for Master Zeamer.

"My what?" Master Zeamer sipped a cup of tea.

"Your hypnotic spiral form," Rui repeated.

"As, you mean my Martial Embodiment," Master Zeamer mused.

"It has a name?" Rui's eyes lit up with interest.

"Well, of course, it's a phenomenon that occurs with the activation of the Martial Mind," Master Zeamer replied. "It's one of the reasons that the Master Council of the Panamic Martial Federation discourages Martial Masters from fighting before mortals, among other reasons."

"Wait, it does?" Rui frowned. "That seems... limiting."

Rui wondered if that was the reason Master Uma attacked their carriage when they were in the middle of nowhere, among other reasons, so that she could deal with Master Deivon without having to hold back.

"It's not a prohibition," Master Zeamer explained. "More of an agreement and consensus between Martial Masters of the Master Council of the Panamic Martial Federation. The Martial Embodiment has an adverse effect on the minds of mortals. Crippling effects, PTSD, comas, that sort of thing. It has even caused death. Long ago, two Martial Masters actually caused the destruction of an entire nation because of mass mental damage across the entire nation. Killing some, permanently crippling many, and causing damage to all. That is the power of the Martial Embodiment."

"What is the Martial Embodiment?" Rui wondered with awe.