One by one, hands rose into the air.

Master Ceeran.

Master Zentra.

Master Vericita.

Headmaster Aronian.

Master Krakule.

Master Master Iskan.

Master Revona.

Many of the friendly acquaintances that Rui had made were rather quick to make their decision, firmly voting in favor of him. Yet they weren't the only ones. The entirety of the Fire Sect had voted in favor of Rui, as did the Earth Sect.

The Lightning Sect was more divided. It appeared that not everybody in the sect was in favor of Rui becoming a member of the fiscal committee.

The Breathing Sect also firmly supported him, as promised.

As did the Balance Sect.

A few seconds later, no more hands flew up.

"Seventy-seven out of a hundred and one," The speaker quickly counted, announcing the total. "The votes in favor of the motion have crossed the threshold of approval. Therefore, as Committee Speaker, I induct Senior Rui Quarrier into the committee as a voting constituent of the fiscal committee, effective immediately."

Rui heaved a sigh of relief as he got past the most difficult phase.

He was now a constituent of the fiscal committee of the Martial Union. He was not blind to the sheer weight of this position. It was extremely heavy.

The Martial Union invested a large majority of its profits after mandatory expenses, profits, and credit interest into research and development.

It was easily many hundreds of trillions of Martial Credits in total that would all be invested into research and development. Considering that Rui had one vote out of a hundred and two voting constituents, he had the authority to decide where trillions of Martial Credits would be invested.

It was truly a heavy burden. This was enough wealth to purchase medium Master-level nations. That was what a majority of Martial Masters thought that Rui was important enough to give authority to. They were willing to dilute the share of the budget that their votes represented for the sake of reducing the difficulty of breaking through to the Master Realm in the future.

He turned to Rui. "Please take seat V5, Senior Quarrier." (C) content.

Rui nodded, quickly taking the seat as he fully became a constituent member of the fiscal committee.

"In accordance with protocols, you, as a new constituent of the fiscal committee, may make a proposal that will undergo voting right here and now," The speaker calmly informed Rui. Rui stood up, facing the speaker. "I would like to propose the motion to amend the roster of research and development interests to include technique sets titled 'adaptive evolution techniques', also known as 'voidlet techniques' in the Martial Union database as a research and development interest in subcategory five under the miscellaneous category."

"The Assembly finds your proposal to be valid," The speaker remarked as his assistants provided him with the prepared information that he required. "As per protocol, this proposal, now dubbed proposal AM363, will undergo voting. All in favor of proposal AM363?"

Once again, a solid majority of Martial Masters raised their hands, supporting Rui's endeavor to make his voidlet techniques an interest that could be voted on to receive budget.

"With a majority of seventy-eight of a hundred and two in this committee voting in favor of this proposal, this committee favors this motion. The roster of research and development interests will be amended to include technique sets titled 'voidlet techniques', effective immediately."

The screen behind him featured a diagram containing every research and development interest for which the committee would be voting to allocate budgets.

Rui wondered if it was the most optimal to allow Martial Masters to handle the allocations. It would probably be better if there was an objective statistical model that would allow them to measure the impact of budget allocations and their resulting outcomes, but he knew that that was never happening. After all, the Martial Union existed by, for, and of Martial Artists. There ought never come a time when it would find itself at odds with the intentions of the Martial Masters of the union.

"With that, we have concluded all preliminary proposals," the speaker announced. The next proposal is, of course, the Net Budget Allocation Proposal proposed by this committee for the fiscal year 534-535."

The speaker gestured with his arm as the screen behind him changed, featuring a pie chart. "Twenty-five percent of the Martial Union's income has been invested in research and development," the speaker explained. "Another nine percent of budget capital has been secured through debt in the form of martial bonds of volunteering martial artists."

Rui raised an eyebrow. The Martial Union, like all organizations and nations in the world, undertook debt to get forward in its agendas. It issued millions of Martial bonds worth a million gold coins at an interest rate of one percent per annum.

It appeared that many Martial Masters and perhaps even a Martial Sage had volunteered to bring in an immediate flush of funds.

"The total budget for Martial research and development this fiscal year is 787,657,847,298,429 Martial Credits," The speaker proposed.

Rui inhaled sharply at that figure, still reeling from the sheer amount of wealth that was. "Without any further ado, let us begin with the first round," The speaker calmly announced. "The first round of budget allocations are between offense, defense, maneuvering, supplementary, and miscellaneous. Let us begin with offense. All those in favor of allocation of budget to offensive Martial Art?"

Twenty hands out of a hundred and two flew into the air.

Rui glanced at all of the Martial Masters who had voted for offense. He spotted Master Ceeran, Master Iskan, and some others that he was vaguely familiar with. It was a no-brainer that these Martial Masters would vote in favor of offense.

"Twenty votes out of a hundred and two," The speaker noted. "Therefore, this committee allocates 154,442,715,156,555 Martial Credits for research and development of offensive Martial Art."

Rui watched as the rest of the first round unfolded, and five categories of research and development interests were voted upon.