The Martial Unity

Rui heaved a sigh as he skimmed through a report that the Beggar's Sect had prepared for him. The report featured the result of his successful sabotage of the harvesting operation.

Apparently, he had pissed off the Carnil Mafia. That wasn't the objective, but it was an inevitable outcome. The Beggar's Sect reported that the Gereign base of operations had ceased all large-scale operations.

'Makes sense,' Rui mused.

There was no point in continuing large-scale operations when there were enemies who had demonstrated the proven ability to bypass all surveillance measures. It wasn't possible to build passive defenses against a Martial Senior, either.

Not for a moving squad in the middle of a forest. There were plenty of ways that solid stationary structures could be granted passive defenses at extremely high levels. There was a power that came with the sheer size and scale of infrastructure.

It was one reason Rui wanted to ensure that they didn't successfully build a base in the Great Forest of Hypnonarak. They would be able to completely secure such a building even from Senior-level attacks.

The reason for this was that defensive civil engineering in this world was leaps and bounds beyond that of Earth. Despite being constructed out of Squire-level substances, a building could be engineered with special esoteric substances that could allow it to survive by spreading and diluting the power of a Senior-level attack across every square inch of the structure.

Once diluted enough, even Senior-level attacks could be reduced to the Squire Realm, which could then be withstood by the Squire-level materials.

This was why it was possible to construct large complexes and buildings that could withstand attacks from Martial Seniors, yet it was much harder to construct weapons and armors that could do the same. The much smaller space meant that the extensive engineering that allowed for structures to withstand attacks could not easily be applied to armor and weapons.

That was why the large scale operations had been scrapped by the Carnil Mafia. It was also why Rui couldn't just run around annihilating the infrastructure developed by the Carnil Mafia.

'Still, only forces from the Kandrian Empire can afford to spend so much on defensive measures for their infrastructure.' Rui snorted. 'Most nations can't dream about building anything that can withstand the onslaught of a Martial Senior.'

Perhaps it was because he was accustomed to dealing with forces where Martial Seniors were at their peak, but he had to remind himself that this was not the case when it came to the Kandrian Empire.

The Kandrian Empire was a continental powerhouse that had more than a thousand Martial Seniors. It only made sense that such a powerful nation possessed measures to defend against even the immense power of the Senior Realm.

'Forget about attacking their base.' Rui shook his head. 'That's suicide. I won't make it back alive if I dare try something like that.'

He knew his limits. There were still nine Martial Seniors left in the Gereign base of the Carnil Mafia, three of whom were high-grade. If the remaining two were as strong as Senior Zenshin, then attacking the base was something that would undoubtedly cause to his death.

As proud as he was of the Greater Phantomind Void, he knew that it was far from a universal get-out-of-trouble card. For one, it didn't improve his speed or his defenses, thus if a Martial Senior launched a powerful omnidirectional attack, then it would hurt him nonetheless.

In fact, it would hurt him even more since he was likely to react slower due to the Greater Phantomind Void technique, causing him to mess up Flux Earther, a technique that was highly dependent on accurate timing.

'I'll have to attack them while they're engaging in these individual harvesting operations.' Rui narrowed his eyes as he scoured the reports.

The Carnil Mafia was apparently in the process of sending reinforcements to the Gereign base. Rui was impressed that they managed to get their hands on such intelligence so quickly, but it was a shame that they hadn't yet been able to gather who was going to be sent to reinforce the Gereign base's operations.

Regardless, until then, the Martial Seniors were personally going to be heading into the forest to harvest and gather esoteric narcotic drugs. That was the perfect time for Rui to attack them.

Rui glanced at a profile page about Senior Zenshin on the table of his personal quarters. He recalled the man's unstable rage over Rui's attack. Rui was certain that the man was undoubtedly looking for revenge.

'You'll get your turn…' Rui narrowed his eyes.

He was saying the high-grade Martial Seniors for last. It was better to pick off the weaklings one by one so and warm his way up so that he didn't bite off more than he could chew.

'One issue is that I can't form complete predictive models on them beforehand like I did in the Shadow Isles.' Rui sighed.

Usually, when he had a target to take down and he was able to prepare in advance, he would build predictive models well ahead of time. This allowed him to operate at his peak power right from the very get-go. He had done this many times during his time as a Martial Artist.

However, the Martial Seniors of the Gereign base of the Carnil Mafia did not leave their base unless they needed to. Furthermore, the only time they used their Martial Art was when they were in the forest for an operation, which also happened to be the only window where he could attack them due to them being separated and not protected by their base.

He couldn't afford to waste such valuable time on building predictive models, this window was solely for assault since it was a scarce opportunity that he wouldn't be able to get again.

If the reinforcements arrived and they resumed their large-scale operations, he would not be able to pick them off one by one since they would be operating as a large group again.