The R&D fiscal year was settled. All budgets had been allocated across all interests, and everything had received the share that the Martial Masters deemed worthy of it.

Rui had gained an enormous amount of power, one that ordinarily only Martial Masters were entitled to.

Considering that he did not spot any other Martial Senior in the Martial fiscal committee, he could be sure that he was the only Martial Senior who had been successfully inducted into the Martial fiscal committee.

It required overwhelming support from too many Martial Masters for any one sect to simply bring in members with their own votes; whoever was inducted was truly someone acknowledged by the entire Master class to have something worthy to offer to Martial Arts.

It was an honor.

It also increased his social standing and prestige. Not only was he an approved ambassador of the Martial Union, but he was also a constituent of the Martial fiscal committee.

He was sure that the princes and the princesses of the Martial Union were going to put even more effort into wooing him. Gaining his support would give them control over trillions of Martial Credits and their allocation. That was something that not even the princes and princesses could ignore.

He shook his head. He had more or less given each of them a chance, and they failed. Nothing they said or did could bring him over.

"…And with that, the final allocation had been passed," The speaker announced after concluding the final voting session. "Having fully allocated the fiscal year, this committee is hereby adjourned for the year. Thank you for your services."

He walked off as the Martial Masters got up from their seats, immediately intermingling with one another.

"Congratulations!" Master Ceeran wished him enthusiastically. "That was an enormous victory in your favor."

"It's actually surreal," Rui murmured, still half-dazed and lost in thought.

"Your speech appears to have been just impactful enough to get you the support that you needed," Headmaster Aronian approached him, smiling. "In addition to the straightforwardly effective presentation that highlighted the merit of your contribution, it was effective enough to convince many Martial Masters."

Rui nodded, heaving a sigh. "Still, thirty-one trillion Martial Credits."

"It is what you deserve," Master Vericita chimed in, reaching out to pat him. "You have already proven yourself to be able to explosively empower all of Martial Art with your Hungry Pain technique. That has given many Martial Masters confidence that you may be able to produce a similar result with thought. Especially as you so correctly pointed out that your Martial Art employs thought a lot more fundamentally than any of ours do. It is the hope of many Martial Artists that thought being your specialty will mean that your techniques will make a similar impact as the Hungry Pain technique."

Rui nodded. "That might be a bit too optimistic, but I have done the best I can."

"And that is good enough, Senior Quarrier," Master Zentra calmly remarked. "It is clear that you were cut from a different cloth as a Martial Artist. That is what gives many of us the confidence that your Martial Art is worth investing in."

Several more Martial Masters stopped by to congratulate Rui on securing a handsome investment for his Martial Art, before eventually taking their leave.

They didn't linger for too long, for every second of their time was invaluable. They were the second most powerful class of warriors of the Kandrian Empire and were an enormous part of the reason why the Kandrian Empire was dominant across East Panama.

They swiftly departed the Vargard, returning to their abodes.

"Huff…" Rui eventually found himself sky-walking back home.

Finally, he no longer had any timelines and dues left.

He had put in enough of an effort for the sake of the distant future of not just Martial Art but his own.

It was time to focus on his short-term endeavors.

First, he needed to finish his domain projects. That would elevate him to an even higher level of power within the Senior Realm.

He had a faint suspicion that the completion of the four domain projects would not yield an ordinary boost in power.

It was another dimension of adaptive evolution. Similar to how strong the Metabody System and the Hypnomatrix altered his combat fundamentally.

Body, Mind, thought, and now, heaven and earth. These were what he would be manipulating to adapt to his opponent.

It was almost like he was adapting reality itself to his opponent. He was altering the circumstances that his opponent found himself in, making everything antithetical to their Martial Art.

What kind of impact would that have on him as a Martial Art? How much further down his Martial Path would it propel him?

Of the four domain projects, the one that excited and scared him the most was Project Reverse Prophet. If completely and entirely successful, it had the potential to extend his dimension of thought beyond three dimensions of space and to the fourth dimension.

A four-dimensional awareness of reality.

His cognition would exist on a higher dimension compared to every other Martial Senior and Master that existed.

Just the thought of it was truly electrifying. He resolved himself to forget about everything to immerse himself in training. He needed to get to the bottom of this no matter what.

Over the next several months, Rui Quarrier almost completely isolated himself in the Great Jrava Mountain range, returning only for family and the occasional training session with Prince Raijun.

Yet while Rui coolly immersed himself in his training, the Kandrian Throne War only grew more heated. Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

With each season that passed, the sickly Emperor came closer to death, at the mercy of a terminal disease with no known cure. The seven princes and princesses could almost hear the bells ringing.

He had years at most, though he could collapse any minute.

The Kandrian Empire entered a truly brief yet historic period that would define its future for centuries to come.