The Martial Unity

The Valley of Prisms got its name because the atmosphere had variable optical density such that light was bent and scattered while traveling through it.

Anybody who relied on vision alone would be doomed; unable to navigate properly and prone to suffering psychological damage and madness over time. Meanwhile, the lifeforms of the Valley of Prisms had evolved different senses, and their vision had dimmed.

It spoke volumes that, despite this, the Divine Doctor had somehow been the one to drive the catoblepas insane instead!

The prism effect of the valley was known to come from its esoteric vegetation interacting with the atmosphere in such a way that the gaseous exchanges caused the optical density of the atmosphere to be entirely non-uniform.

If Rui could study this, then he ought to be able to replicate the alteration in the optical density of the air, allowing him to bend and potentially even halt light in its path. Normally, he would need the guidance of a teacher like Master Gurren to aid him with that, but he had the very next best option at his disposal.

The Valley of Prisms would be his teacher.

At that moment, Rui felt an enormous amount of gratitude to the universe for guiding him to this destination with this particular purpose. For some reason, he had developed a blindspot to the possibilities that he had currently set out to explore.

Just thinking about how long it would have taken him to come up with this idea, if at all, in the first place, made his head spin.

Of course, there was another person he needed to thank.

"Thanks for the advice, Kane," Rui turned towards him. "Wouldn't have figured it out without you."

"Can I skip being a test subject then?"

"Heh, you wish."

"Damn."

Rui smirked as he returned to the issue at hand.

He had already plotted out a systematic study of the Valley of Prisms while he replicated its optical density shenanigans over time.

Even before he embarked on this project, he knew it was going to take time. He was creating a highly sophisticated and complex technique that would allow him to read minds indirectly.

On top of that, it was multi-faceted, and each facet was essentially its own technique.

Additionally, Rui had to spend some time engaging in empirical research on his environment. After said research, he would need to spend even more time in developing and mastering the heaven-bending needed to alter optical density.

"This is definitely gonna take a while," Rui heaved a sigh.

He had far too much experience in undertaking major technique projects to possibly believe that this could possibly be finished within a year.

Had he been in any other situation, he would not have batted an eye at such timeframes, but he was under a tight schedule. He only had three years and eight months left until his father succumbed to the Eternal Dream Disease.

That was not immediate, but it was not too much time considering how difficult it would be to actually traverse the Beast Domain once they went deeper and deeper.

Yet he had already made his decision.

"I'll manage." His eyes sharpened.

This project would drastically reduce the difficulty of finding the Divine Doctor. It was clear that the Divine Doctor had a penchant for making an impression that stuck.

Using Project Telepath, he could constantly dig up intelligence on the Divine Doctor from the animals of the regions that he visited. This would drastically cut down the investigation process than if he had to rely on hoping forenvironmental clues that would lead him to his target.

Rui found the latter to be very dubious.

The Valley of Prisms had already proven that the Divine Doctor could cause mass havoc and demographic-altering disruptions without leaving so much as a hint of a physical clue. The utility and necessity for Project Telepath in the pursuit of the Divine Doctor became increasingly clear the more Rui critically analyzed the prospects of finding him.

"It's hopeless unless I can tap into memory."

The only issue was if the Divine Doctor had passed through areas devoid of life. In such a case, there would be no animals whose memories he could tap into to learn more about the Divine Doctor's travels through the Beast Domain.

This was deeply unlikely to happen, however.

Humanity's constant encroachment and annexation of the Beast Domain had made it so that the population density of the Beast Domain had risen by nearly an order of magnitude since the dawn of the Age of Martial Art.

There was not enough space for all fauna; massively empty regions were thus increasingly rarer with each passing year.

"On top of that, memories of beasts and monsters are not subject to being eroded by changes in the Beast Domain," Rui keenly realized.

Physical clues were subject to being eroded by the volatile environment of the Beast Domain. The same could not be said for memories that were relatively untouched by physical erosion. Thus, it could be argued that clues in memory were the first and primary avenue of investigation that Rui ought to undertake rather than focusing on the environment at all.

However, while all of these reasons were logical and sound, Rui knew that they were rationalizations.

The true reason he wanted to proceed with Project Telepath was rather simple.

A wide grin emerged on his face. "It brings me one step closer to fulfilling Project Water. It brings me one step closer to reaching the Master Realm."

Rui was glad that Project Telepath could help find the Divine Doctor, but he would be lying if he said that he would drop the project if it didn't help with that objective. The same drive motivating him to find the Divine Doctor in the first place was also the drive that caused him to prioritize his Martial Path over finding the Divine Doctor.

Thankfully, in this case, he didn't need to choose between the two of them.