The Martial Unity

The journey was a lot less solemn than Rui was expecting.

He was leaving his family for the foreseeable future. Both his families.

He was leaving his friends, his faction, his supporters, and his patrons behind.

He was leaving his father behind.

He was heading to the Beast Domain, an extremely dangerous place, and would be searching for the Divine Doctor.

Yet, the banter between Kane and Master Reina kept the atmosphere light. The Sloth Sage snoring away in another compartment made it difficult to feel particularly heavy.

Yet, inwardly, he could feel his nerves tingling.

"Wait, so you were the one who helped master Phantomind Void? That's crazy, you gotta help me with my Void Step technique…"

"You have a greater affinity for stealth than he does; you should focus on physical stealth in addition to misdirection," Master Reina gave him tips and instructions.

"I'll definitely have to train under you when we get back," Kane nodded. "Also…"

While the two of them conversed, Rui closed his eyes, entering his Mind Palace as he revised the information that he knew about the Adventurer's Guild. While those two could afford to relax, he had an important meeting.

The Adventurer's Guild was not only the largest Martial broker for services relating to the Beast Domain between the consumer market and Martial Artists, but it also had powerful cultural impacts on human civilization. The Shionel Adventurer's Guild, for example, that set up during the Shionel Dungeon raid was a copy-paste of the Panamic Adventurer's Guild on a smaller scale.

One of the greatest tenets of the guild was its pledge to never bear arms against humanity or in inter-human conflicts. It would exclusively make use of its services and capital in relation to the Beast Domain.

This was one of the reasons it had received widespread support from across human civilization.

Naturally, it was uncomfortable when it was bashed for its impact on the ecology of the continent and its continuous damage to the Beast Domain.

That was one of the incentives that Rui intended to dangle in front of the current guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild.

This was a boon that he would not be able to ignore and would be more inclined to aid Rui.

Naturally, it wasn't going to be easy.

Guildmaster Vaughn Shelbous Rauebeinon

This was a man who was appointed as the guildmaster by one of the most powerful Martial Sages of human civilization, the Veritable Venator. He was an extremely competent administrator and manager, as well as someone with a master's degree in Beast Domain ecology and an expert in business affairs and had a background in diplomacy as well.

In other words, he was an extraordinary individual.

He was not someone to be trifled with.

It tangentially reminded him of the Beggar Sage and his mission to grant immortality to geniuses of humanity so that they could continue their work.

Did the Beggar Sage give Guildmaster Vaughn immortality?

Probably not.

The fact that Rui hadn't gotten it proved that merely intelligence was not enough.

Most likely, there had to be some degree of impact on human civilization that proved that they were worth immortality.

Regardless of whether he was or wasn't, it did not change the fact that Rui needed to carefully dangle political support in return for thorough aid in searching for exactly what he was hoping to find: a very concrete and grounded path to investigate and find the Divine Doctor.

He could commission the Adventurer's Guild, but money left traces, traces that could be found and potentially used to sniff out what he was trying to do and what his true intentions were.

Rui would rather avoid getting money involved for this reason.

He had largely fleshed out his diplomatic approach to the Adventurer's Guild as they traveled to the headquarters of the Adventurer's Guild in North Panama, in the Panamic Adventurer Town. The largest market for adventurer missions and commissions. An enormous town dedicated to facilitating an open market.

Even at the tremendous speeds that far outstripped sound by orders of magnitude, it still took them nearly an hour to reach their destination.

Soon enough, Rui could spot the enormous town in the distance outside of the window.

"The Panamic Adventurer Town…" Rui whispered.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Master Reina asked with an interested tone. "It's been a long time since I came here."

"You used to be an adventurer?"

"Yes, but it was a cover," she remarked. "I would often undertake adventurer missions as a cover to conduct my assassinations."

"You used to assassinate beasts?" Kane frowned. "That's just normal hunting."

"Not beasts, no, other adventurers," her smile grew sinister as her tone grew dark. "You see, the best place to kill someone is in the Beast Domain. The death is never suspicious since the Beast Domain has much higher mortality rates than anywhere else. It will be treated as a consequence of the hostile environment and life. The best is if you can ensure that their body is never found, which is easy."

Rui stared at her, speechless.

Planning assassinations in the Beast Domain was probably extremely difficult and extremely dangerous.

Only Master Reina could treat them as an opportunity rather than a tribulation.

He shook his head lightly as he observed the Beast Domain far away on the horizon.

Just looking at it made one feel ominous and dark.

It was opaque.

Dark.

Nothing could be gauged from it aside from a strange darkness that didn't befit the time of day.

He would be plunging into the darkness and mysteries within it and exploring its depths, searching for the man that he needed most.

He didn't have as much as he wished he did.

At the moment, he had less than four years.

Less than four years to find and convince the Divine Doctor to fix his father. The many visions of death his grandmother showed him had ground his resolve and conviction. But they were unable to break it.

He forged forward, reaching the Panamic Adventurer Town.