"Twenty-one votes out of a hundred and two in favor of defense. This committee allocates 162,164,850,914,382 Martial Credits to the research and development of defensive Martial Art."

"Twenty-two votes out of a hundred and two in favor of maneuvering Martial Art. This committee allocates 169,886,986,672,210 Martial Credits to the research and development of maneuvering Martial Art."

"Twenty votes out of a hundred and two in favor of supplementary Martial Art. Therefore, this committee allocates 154,442,715,156,555 Martial Credits for research and development of supplementary Martial Art."

"And finally, all in favor of miscellaneous Martial Art?" The speaker commenced voting for the final option of the first round.

Rui's arm shot up, as did several others. He saw some Martial Artists carrying weapons raise their arms. As did a symbiotic Martial Master and several other Martial Masters he didn't recognize.

"…Nineteen votes out of a hundred and two in favor for miscellaneous Martial Art." The speaker announced. "Thus, this committee allocates 146,720,579,398,727 Martial Credits to miscellaneous Martial Art."

The screen displayed the five allocations behind them.

Maneuvering had received the highest of them all with twenty-two votes, followed by defense, followed by offense. Yet they were all nigh equal. Supplementary Martial Art received the least, yet that was still an insane amount of money at about one hundred and forty-six Martial Credits.

"We shall now commence voting on the various subcategories, starting with the various five levels sub-categories within each category, starting with the maneuvering…"

The members of the Lightning Sect glanced at each other warily.

The Lightning Sect was united in wringing away as many resources from the others as they could, but after that, they were now at odds with each other for the resources that they had collectively wrung away. The Lightning Sect no longer mattered. It had broken down into smaller constituent sects, like the Wind Sect, which Kane belonged to, the Speed Sect, the Step Sect, and several others.

Rui didn't really have a stake in the various following voting sessions within maneuvering. He did, however, vote in favor of the Wind Sect for Kane. But it didn't really matter all that much.

The same could be said for the voting rounds that came after. He voted for whatever Headmaster Aronian voted for within defense spending, and whatever Master Ceeran voted for within offense spending.

When the supplementary voting stage came, he firmly voted for breathing techniques, as promised to Master Vercita. Firmly voting for whatever the Breathing Sect voted for and eventually what Master Vericita herself voted for.

Eventually came the miscellaneous category. Rui sharpened up as it was finally his turn.

"The following are the broader sub-categorical research interests of the miscellaneous," The speaker explained as the screen behind featured a list.

It features weapon Martial Art, symbiotic Art, balance-oriented fields, stamina-oriented fields, and, among many others, thought techniques.

Rui narrowed his eyes. That was his category of choice. The voting proceeded as the speaker went about each sub-category that earned a small number of votes until he came about the sub-category that Rui cared about the most.

"All in favor of budget allocation to thought techniques?" The speaker calmly asked. Rui's hand shot up the quickest, followed by many others. Master Ceeran, Master Iskan, Master Zentra, Headmaster Aronian, and Master Krakule also followed suit, voting in favor of allocating budgets to thought techniques.

Master Vericita and the Breathing Sect kept their word, voting in favor of thought techniques.

"Twenty-nine votes out of a hundred and two in favor of budget allocation to thought techniques," The speaker calmly announced. "This committee allocates 41,714,674,534,932 Martial Credits to the research, dissemination, and development of thought techniques."

Rui's eyebrows rose in amazement. Forty-one trillion Martial Credits would be allocated to thought techniques!

That was an amount that far surpassed anything that he could possibly do on his own. It meant that the Martial Union was about to go absolutely all out on thought-related techniques. Most likely the research division responsible for it was going to get a shocking upgrade to their annual budget.

The speaker proceeded to the next round, going one level deeper into each category; this was where things became extremely niche and specific. Specific weapons, specific forms of stamina and their various nuances, different sub-categories of symbiotes. The committee rigorously allocated budgets to each of the sub-sub-categories.

Until it eventually reached the sub-categories of thought techniques.

"Behind me are the various sub-categories of thought," The speaker calmly announced. owns this.

On the list on the screen were 'adaptive evolution techniques.' Rui scanned his competition, which, frankly, was not all that much.

Strategic maneuvering patterns.

Tactical distant management.

Combat liability evaluation.

He scoffed inwardly. He was definitely biased, but most of these didn't sound like they were comparable to the potency of his thought techniques.

The speaker went down each of them, as they received a modest number of votes from Martial Masters with some affinity to them. Soon enough, the most important moment of the committee had arrived.

"Sub-category 'adaptive evolution techniques.'" The speaker announced calmly. "All in favor of budget allocation to the research, dissemination, and development of adaptive evolution techniques?"

A whopping majority of Martial Masters raised their hands. Expressing full support for the budget allocation to Rui's Martial Path.

"… Seventy-eight votes of a hundred and two," The speaker calmly announced. "This committee allocates 31,899,456,997,301 Martial Credits to adaptive evolution."

Rui's arm fell as the outcome left him in a daze. He had always known he was going to be securing some budget for the dissemination of his Martial Art.

Thirty-one trillion Martial Credits of research and development was going to be invested into his Martial Path. They would most likely not only use it to aggressively spread the techniques he developed but also invest heavily in developing training methodologies and resources that would increase the ease of mastery of the techniques that he had provided them.

With just this single year's budget alone, Rui couldn't imagine just how much adaptive evolution would be spread through the Kandrian Empire, potentially even further beyond!