The Martial Unity

"It'll take quite some time for us to resume our operations," Executive Ferm remarked. "An enormous proportion of our staff is dead or crippled. It won't be easy returning to our normal functioning. Therefore, you can choose to wait for a few weeks if you want, or you can go to the Shionel Confederation and procure the commission that you made."

"You want me to go to the Shionel Confederation to procure the commission?"

"It is in the Shionel Confederation. If our operations were functioning smoothly, we could have procured it via a remote transmission, but unfortunately it will take some to get back our remote transmission communication systems back to speed," He replied blandly. "Therefore, you can shorten that time by directly going to the Shionel Confederation to procure the information that you need. An assassin of your caliber should be able to infiltrate it with ease."

Rui heaved a sigh, considering the proposal. He had regarded the Shionel Confederation as a lion's den. However, he had reached a level of power capability that he no longer had any reason to look at it with such fear and regard.

'Besides, I'll probably have to go there if I want to kill Chairman Deacon," Rui heaved a sigh. 'No point in dilly-dallying, I need that intelligence ASAP.'

"Alright, I'll do that. I believe that concludes our business here," Rui remarked, taking the paper. "I appreciate your services."

Rui got up, heading towards the door, before pausing and heaving a sigh. "One last thing."

He turned towards Executive Ferm. "This isn't going to change anything, but for what it's worth… I am sorry about the damages that the Beggar's Sect has incurred. I know I did not directly and intentionally cause such an outcome, nor did my negligence or shortcomings cause such an outcome. But I am sorry nonetheless."

Executive Ferm smiled bitterly. "It's fine. I have long gotten used to this. In the Age of Martial Art, Martial Artists are the most dominant force among humans. We normal humans are subject to the whims and fancies of Martial Artists like yourself. The death toll of unintentional and negligent collateral damage deaths caused by Martial Artists is estimated in the hundreds of millions annually across the continent, on average. This is simply the reality that we live in."

He hid it perfectly well, but Rui could sense deep resentment and hatred within the man's eyes. Yet he put his duties and professionalism first, never once letting it affect his interactions with Rui.

Rui couldn't think of anything to say. What was their to say? He had long lost count of how many people he had killed. Even if he limited his targets to those who caused human suffering, he knew that it was practically impossible to not hurt innocent people even if he did his very best to be careful about those he hurt.

All the people that he hurt in the Gereign base and the Derschek Region, most of them were drug traffickers that ruined people's lives, or assassin contractors that spread death. However, was each and every single one of those humans scumbags who deserved to die?

Realistically, no. There were probably some mostly innocent people mixed among them.

Just as Ferm said, Rui viewed them as collateral damage. If he ever ran into an innocent man he crippled, he would apologize and perhaps even reimburse them. But he would not change. He could not afford to hamper himself by caring for every possible individual person..

He didn't feel good about it. But he certainly did not want to spout some hypocritical moral platitudes to the man. "…Goodbye," Rui turned around, leaving the office with the statement of acknowledgment in hand. His next destination was the Shionel Confederation. It was a few weeks away at sustainable jogging speeds. Martial Senior-without-Martial-Heart jogging speeds, that was.

Once he got there, he would finally acquire the information he had purchased, after that, it was forming an appropriate strategy and then killing Chairman Deacon. 'Wait, I recall that he was establishing a base in the Kandrian Empire, which probably means that there is a good chance that he is in the Kandrian Empire rather than the Shionel Confederation,' Rui narrowed his eyes. In which case, the danger of being in the Shionel Confederation was even less. Rui had his disguise technique that he had learned from Master Reina, so he wasn't particularly worried either way.

Even if Deacon had set-up a facial recognition kind of protocol to apprehend suspects with the features that matched Rui, he could look completely different from his original appearance. As long as he restricted his aura with Mind Mask, he would be fine.

'Hell, I could just waltz past the transit port with Phantomind Void.'

He immediately left the Gereign Region without further ado, heading in the direction of the Shionel Confederation which was towards the east of the continent. It had been a long time since he had been to the east of the continent, thus he did look forward to returning.

"It's been nearly eight years…" Rui heaved a sigh as he jogged at blindingly fast speeds. Eight years ago, he had fled the Shionel Confederation as a measly mid-to-high grade Martial Squire, and now he was returning as a high-grade Martial Senior. The Shionel Confederation didn't have as many Martial Seniors as the Kandrian Empire, less than a tenth, in fact. That naturally meant that there were at most ten high-grade Martial Seniors, realistically less than ten.

Of course, there were also several Martial Masters and a single Martial Sage, but he was not going to need to face them unless Chairman Deacon had taken some insane measures to protect his life.

But that was not a viable strategy. As far Chairman Deacon knew, Rui was simply running away. A measly Martial Squire could not even dare to think about assassinating Chairman Deacon.

There was no way Rui could be a Martial Senior from his perspective either, after all, Rui would be shattering the second-to-last record for the Senior Realm by eight years even if he broke through yesterday.

Chairman Deacon's lack of understanding of Rui's current power was key to his downfall, as far as Rui was concerned.