CHAPTER 2021 THE PRICE OF THE MARTIAL MIND
"Woah," Rui murmured, pleasantly surprised. He was pleased with his newfound destructive power.
It was overkill, but there was a concrete reason that he had gone this far.
Not even twelve beasts had been able to push him to his limits. They had indeed forced him to use all aspects of his Martial Art, but the moment he used the Metabody System, it was game over.
He wanted to know how powerful he was.
He needed to know.
And now, he had a better idea.
RUMBLE!!!!!
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, and countless other natural disasters radiated from the epicenter of the horrific destruction that Rui was able to unleash.
Once, where the Mellow used to be, was a hemispherical crater that was many dozens of kilometers in diameter. It was almost surreal, but such was the power of the efficiency brought about by the Martial Mind's cognition.
"Hmmm…all that power, and I wasn't even able to kill my targets," Rui impassively murmured as he glanced at the spot they had been right before the attack struck them.
The spot that they had been before they disappeared.
It happened within a microsecond, yet Rui's enhanced cognition was able to perceive it in slow motion.
Right before the attack struck them, the twelve creatures had disappeared.
They were teleported away.
"Elder Tree…" Rui stoically glanced in the direction of the north of the Beast Domain.
Of course, the Beast Domain being larger than many planets meant that he most certainly couldn't see the north, but he knew that the Elder Tree was responsible for teleporting all those creatures from death, just as it had done for him and Kane five years three years ago.
He heaved a soft sigh before turning in the direction that Kane and the Divine Doctor had escaped in, leaping towards them Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
WHOOSH
…STEP
Within seconds, he had already caught up to them, deactivating his Martial Mind and Martial Heart.
"Rui…!" Kane gazed at him with shock. "That was rather quick," the Divine Doctor commented with faint interest. "I believe achieving this level of power immediately upon discovery of the Martial Mind is statistically unprecedented in the Martial World. You might have been upset, but you should be grateful to whoever implanted the memories of another person into you for achieving such power this quickly would be otherwise impossible."
Rui could not deny that.
"Let's go," Rui replied. "We'll exit the Beast Domain in the south as soon as possible. I'll carry the two of you at top speed so we won't experience delays."
Rui had no intention of traveling for weeks and months on end as they did when he was still a Senior.
He yearned to return to the Kandrian Empire after having spent five years away from it.
"We should take some rest once we exit the Master-level belt." the Divine Doctor recommended.
Rui frowned. "And why is that?"
"The drawbacks of the Martial Mind, of course," The Divine Doctor lightly remarked. "Rest immediately after application of the Martial Mind will minimize the amount of rest your brain will need to recover from the usage of the Martial Mind, but delaying it can increase the amount of required rest exponentia—"
"—Wait." Rui's eyes widened with surprise. "Rest? Are you telling me I need to sleep specifically for the Martial Mind?"
"Of course," the doctor smiled. "Did you think the power of the Martial Mind comes for free? Without a cost? Such a thing does not exist. The Martial Mind is extremely taxing on your brain. I would recommend you sleep for a short amount of time as soon as we leave the Master-level belt rather than spend hours sleeping in addition to normal sleep. The more you delay it, the more sleep you require. Delay it for too long, and you may very well incur seizures and other neurological disorders."
"What?!" Rui stared at him, shocked.
"So it's kinda like a loan?" Kane remarked with furrowed eyebrows. "The more you delay, the more you end up repaying in return? But if you repay it immediately, then you only need to repay what you took."
"That is an apt analogy," the Divine Doctor impassively replied. "Oh well, I'll leave the decision to you. It's your choice. But this is something that every Martial Master needs to be careful about. A mind requires sleep; two minds require more sleep. In many ways, Martial Artists operate in Realms of power far beyond their normal power, which is that of the Squire Realm. The Martial Heart and Mind come with their own prices."
Rui heaved a sigh. "Fine. Once we leave the Master-level belt of the Beast Domain, I'll get some rest. Hopefully, it won't be for too long, considering that I didn't use my Martial Mind for too long. Now that I know about the price of the Master Realm, I can't afford to waste time; let's go."
BADUMP!
His Martial Heart and Mind blazed into action as Rui swept up the two of them with heave-bending before rapidly shooting through the Master-level belt of the Beast Domain at extraordinary speeds.
The revelation of the price of the Martial Mind was new to him.
Then again, so had the price of the Martial Heart been when he broke through to the Senior Realm. It would probably have been told to him had he been in the Kandrian Empire at the moment, but thankfully, he had the Divine Doctor.
He didn't even want to think about what would have happened without the man informing him about the truth.
At the sheer speeds that he traveled, it wasn't too long before they arrived at a safe Apprentice-level zone well outside of the Master-level belt.
Rui sat against a wall, letting his head rest back.
Never before had he fallen asleep that quickly. "…Doesn't this mean Martial Masters can be quite vulnerable?" Kane frowned as he gazed at the dozing Rui.
The doctor huffed. "That has always been the case. Nobody is invulnerable."
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