The Martial Unity

"You actually going remain here, Voidreaper?" The Thunder Viper asked as he noticed Rui remaining seated while the others had already taken their lead.

"…"

Rui didn't bother responding to him as he continued reading through the information package that they had each been provided.

"…You're an annoying bastard to the very end," The Thunder Viper narrowed his eyes before leaving.

Rui remained there.

Ten minutes passed.

Twenty.

Half an hour.

Eventually, an hour passed.

CLACK

Rui tossed the information package on the table, turning to the door.

'That should be enough.'

He left the building and entered the flea market, activating Greater Phantomind Void as he weaved through the various crowds entirely unnoticed.

He found a deserted set of buildings occupied by some homeless people and some junkies. Ignoring them, he sat down, focusing.

'Let's see what the Angel of Laplace can show me,' Rui closed his eyes as he activated the technique.

An almost unnoticeable domain expanded from Rui, covering the entire flea market and beyond.

It was not a powerful domain.

No.

Its energy output was actually not even Squire-level, let alone Senior-level.

Its value came from how it applied energy.

A minute amount of energy spread throughout heaven and earth as Rui measured every single vector by how it resisted the infinitesimal force he applied on each and every single one of them.

In this manner, he was able to measure each and every single one of them.

In his Mind Palace, the Angel of Laplace stood before him.

'No…'

He was looking at a reflection of himself in the ocean of information that began flooding his Mind Palace.

'I am the Angel of Laplace.'

RUMBLE!

The weight of the technique crashed against him abruptly.

"Rrrrrghh!" He gritted his teeth as he struggled to process every single vector that he had measured.

It threatened to crush his mind.

Yet he weathered it.

He endured.

An unfathomable amount of time passed.

Yet, eventually, the fog that separated the past from the future began fading.

This was hardly the first time he had gone through this.

Yet each time was a magical experience.

It was profound.

His eyes widened as the world around him began rewinding. The sun in the sky froze before rewinding its path.

People stopped before walking backward.

Gravity seemed to reverse as things fallen on the ground rose up, accelerating before returning from whence they came.

Yet he wasn't concerned about the mundane past.

He was looking for a very specific past.

Some distance away from the venue where the briefing had occurred. He saw several Martial Masters surrounding a small crowd of people walking backward from outside of the flea market in the center of the town they were in.

He recognized the masked M.

A grin appeared on his face.

"Found you."

Misdirection did not work through time. It was limited to the present.

He could bypass it in the future.

And bypass he did.

He had scried the past.

He knew what direction they had gone.

He quickly shifted, leaving the flea market as he followed the path that they had taken.

The hard part about this method was that he would need to execute the Angel of Laplace until he found them.

Yet that was a price worth paying.

"Rrrrgh," He gritted his teeth as he executed the technique once more.

An hour passed as he breathed heavily, pushing his mind to the absolute limit. He executed the technique a little quicker than last time, having optimized his thought process.

The Master-escorted group passed through the metropolitan town and richer districts in the center of the town.

Just before his vision ended, he spotted where they had entered.

[DiVilliers Enterprise]

His eyes widened as he shut off the technique.

"DiVilliers…?" He narrowed his eyes.

Charles DiVilliers was a powerhouse tycoon in the Martial manufacturing and services industry. His clientele was limited to Martial Artists and aspiring Martial Artists. His products were so powerful and impactful that the Ministry of Martial Art and the Kandrian Empire both signed him as exclusive partners.

The Royal Emperor had specifically passed a bill that made it impossible for him to sell his products and services to any market internationally, limiting his international reach.

That was what had pushed him to the Underworld.

Through the Atagliana Mafia, he was able to smuggle his products and services outside of the Kandrian Empire without being caught and sell them to international clients.

Through the Schambiei Mafia, he was able to receive illegal payments without ever being caught.

Ever since Rui learned that Rajak was the Underworld Prince, he knew that Charles DiVilier was part of the Underworld Faction.

It made sense.

'Is he targeting me, or is Rajak?' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'What is the extent of his involvement, and are there any other parties involved?'

He didn't know.

Yet he didn't dare to go anywhere near DiVilliers Enterprise.

The man undoubtedly had Martial Masters and other powerful esoteric isolation systems that would interfere with the Angel of Laplace.

Yet this information alone was enough.

He now knew who was targeting him in part, though he didn't know everything.

Unfortunately, this could not be used as evidence for Rui to tie their hands by threatening to reveal it to the Martial Union.

Even if he did convey his visions, there was no proof that they were an accurate representation of the past. He did not want to reveal Angel of Laplace to the world just yet, either.

Yet he had certainly unlocked a part of the mystery of those who wanted him dead.

It made sense that Rajak would want him dead if he had come to learn that Prince Raijun was approaching the Squire Realm at breakneck speed.

The other six would know that once Prince Raijun became a Squire and gained much greater support from the Martial Union, it was game over. That was incentive enough to get rid of Rui.

'That little bastard thinks he can get rid of me that easily, eh?' Rui smiled.

Cold amusement flashed across his face.

'Just you wait…'

His eyes narrowed.

"You will regret making me your enemy."