The Martial Unity

The two traveled by foot for the most part, maintaining a medium pace over longer periods of time. While they could move far, far faster, it would not last long, and it would deplete their stamina very quickly. These speeds were limited to short bursts in combat. It was why Sage Sayfeel took nearly an hour to travel halfway across the continent with Rui, even if he could've moved quicker in combat by himself.

The world around them changed the closer they got to the Beast Domain.

Human civilization grew dimmer and dimmer the closer one got. Towns became villages, which became settlements. Once they arrived within a hundred kilometers of the Beast Domain, only individual buildings fashioned from wood and stones could be spotted.

It signified the edge of human civilization.

It signified that they were crossing the boundaries between man and beast.

"It's just devoid of...people," Kane muttered as they walked through barren plains.

There were plenty of deserted regions, even in the Human Domain. The issue was that even in these deserted plains, the taint of humanity could be felt. Abandoned huts and sheds, a broken road or path. Traces and pieces of evidence indicate that, once upon a time, human beings were here.

However, the closer they got to the Beast Domain, the more it felt like they had discovered a new land.

"So this why they are called adventurers," Kane's eyes widened with realization. "Any and everything pertaining to the Beast Domain is an adventure."

He grinned. "It feels pretty cool when you think about it that way, not gonna lie."

Rui smiled. "Yes, yes, it does."

He breathed in deeply.

The fresh air felt good.

He had almost forgotten what it was like to not be stalked by bodyguards. It had been more than a year since the revelation of his princehood, and since then, a slew of Martial Masters who had sworn loyalty to him or from the Marital Union accompanied him pretty much everywhere.

He hadn't realized how sick of it he had grown until today when their simple absence had already begun having a positive effect on him.

His nerves, senses, and instincts became more active and alert. No longer could a Martial Master bail him out if he was in trouble.

No.

Only he could protect himself.

Indeed, this was what a Martial Artist ought to be like.

The many shocks and revelations he had been battered with, as well as the objective he had set for himself, had caused him to neglect the negative impacts of being a royal prince of Kandria.

He had already seen exactly what happened when a Martial Artist was constrained by a princely status. His half-brother Raijun would not have broken through to the Squire Realm if not for Rui's aid.

The lack of experience crippled a Martial Artist, and Rui would be no different if he followed the man's path. However, it was also true that, as a prince, he was in danger. This was true regardless of whether he succeeded in his current voyage.

Even if he succeeded in finding the Divine Doctor and bringing him back home to heal his father, he was still a prince.

No matter what he did, he would always be a member of the Royal Family and of Royal descent.

This would always bring about danger to him. The Kandrian Empire, simply by virtue of its size and power meant that he would always have enemies inside and outside the Kandrian Empire.

There were always going to be people that wanted him dead. There were always going to be people that wanted to hurt him.

All because of his blood.

That was why he needed bodyguards of the Master Realm at all times. If he didn't, he might as well offer his life up.

To live, he needed bodyguards. To progress as a Martial Artist; bodyguards were actually harmful.

It was an infuriating dilemma. He had found a temporary solution by juking the world. With Master Reina pretending to be him and disguising himself, he could get away with being a Martial Artist and giving himself real experience without dying.

However, this was not a permanent solution.

Eventually, he would return to the Kandria, and the problem would persist.

There was only one solution, as far as Rui could tell.

His eyes narrowed as he clenched his fists.

"The Master Realm."

Once he broke through to the Master Realm, he will have gained the power to protect himself despite his princely status. One thing that he was not particularly pleased about was the fact that he didn't know where he stood. He had made fundamental upgrades to his system of thought by adding the Angel of Laplace to fundamentally upgrade his system of thought by getting rid of the greatest weakness of his Martial Art.

Of course, he hadn't cleanly mastered it as well as he would have liked, but he only got better and better at it.

Of course, the Martial Mind was supposed to be comprised of a system of thought that the conscious mind was unable to complete by itself. The Angel of Laplace, even the combat-

refined version, was still an enormous flood of information that essentially paralyzed him because his mind was too weak to process all this information.

That was why he needed to stall the Gatekeeper before their battle began. He would be frozen in one place even if he wanted to move if used in combat.

Regardless, he was on the right path, and he just didn't know whether he had arrived at the precipice of a higher Realm.

It was infuriating because Master Reina had informed him that his path to the Master Realm would be the hardest all because of his gifted mind. He had reached such a high level of thought inherently thanks to his mind undergoing a second round of explosive cognitive growth in a young brain.

"Rui?" Kane's voice broke him out of his reverie.

"Hm?"

"…I think we're here."

Rui turned forward as he beheld the Beast Domain for the first time.