CHAPTER 2413  CONVERGENCE

The Martial convoy departed almost immediately after picking up Rui. Intercepting the alliance Martial force required setting off at once to ensure that they didn't allow the latter to get anywhere near the Shionel Confederation.

Of course, every single Martial Artist knew that the Shionel Confederation was irrelevant in this operation.

Both sides had the exact same two objectives.

The first objective was to prevent the other side from interfering with the battle. The alliance was especially anxious to ensure there was no interference. The Kandrians wished there was interference, but, unfortunately, the Void Prince had leveraged his power to get the fight that he sought.

They could not stop it.

The second objective that both sides universally shared was to protect their black-haired and black-eyed Martial Artist if he won; if he lost, they would kill the enemy Martial Artist.

Thus, depending on the outcome of the battle, they were there to play defense or offense.

The air grew sharper and sharper as the Kandrian Martial Artists traveled to the designated interception region where they hoped to clash with the alliance force.

Rui did not so much as utter a word to anybody and nobody bothered disturbing him with inane pleasantries. They didn't like the battle, but they approved that he was taking it very seriously and was at his absolute peak.

In addition, it was almost impossible to approach him at present.

It was like trying to shake hands with a razor-sharp blade.

One was simply asking to get cut.

Time passed as the two forces slowly converged upon each other.

The fated moment drew closer and closer.

"Commencing Sage interception," the Mountain of Fortitude announced before turning back to the Masters. "The Master-level force has already broken off. They will shoot right for you when we splinter. You know the drill by now. Be prepared."

The Masters nodded as they watched the Sages disappear, surging forward at extremely high speeds.

An even deeper sense of peril tingled in the air once the Sages dispersed.

The absence of the Sages caused the Masters to grow more alert and sensitive.

It also caused their nerves to grow more frayed.

Each of them knew what would happen if Rui was defeated.

It was game over.

From the collapse of the Master-level dominance to the loss of the breakthrough ability to the potential eventual loss of the Divine Doctor. The consequences would be devastating.

It was a battle with everything at stake.

They felt deeply nervous because they had absolutely no say in the outcome.

They could only pray that today was not the beginning of the end for the Kandrian Empire.

RUMBLE…

Their expressions hardened as they felt a collective power surge towards them.

Their nerves tingled as though even their Bodies could feel the sheer weight of the impending battle weighing down on the air. Owned by .

It made it hard to breathe.

The tension that lingered in the air was choking.

Yet, they gritted their teeth and moved forward.

"There they are. They have splintered off from him," Master Zentra's composed voice softly announced as the Masters arrived in the periphery of their senses. "Commencing Master interception."

The Masters veered off, accelerating as they left Rui behind.

He continued forward on his path without so much as batting an eye.

For a moment, he was alone.

For a moment, he might as well have been the only one in the entire world. And then, there he was.

Despite the enormous distance between them, Rui could almost see his own reflection in his black eyes.

Despite the enormous distance between them, Rui might as well have been staring him in the face.

He looked almost identical to how he had looked when they had last met on Cloudia.

Neither of them had aged much since their last meeting. Their early breakthroughs in the Lower Realms had slowed down their aging significantly at much earlier ages, allowing them to retain their youth for extended periods of time. Yet, despite looking similar to how they had, both of them had grown astronomically in the past seventeen years.

They had gone from being merely the youngest Seniors in history to not just being among the two very youngest Masters in history but also the most powerful Masters in all of East Panama.

And now, they converged upon each other.

A battle that would decide the future of not just the eastern hemisphere of the Panama Continent but perhaps of all of human civilization.

STEP

They stopped just ten meters away from each other.

Their dark eyes pierced into each other as they sized each other up. The first thing Rui noticed was the weight of his opponent's Martial Mind.

After all, the possession of a Martial Mind, a new Realm of power, was the biggest difference between then and now.

It was heavy.

Deeply refined.

So much so that it felt like it was made up of the tempered steel equivalent of thought. He could sense the intense effort that had gone into shaping it. It was more powerful than any other Martial Mind that Rui had ever sensed.

Despite that, it was dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of Rui's vast and expansive Martial Mind.

A microcosm of cognition.

A fact that they were both instantly made aware was that one of them was able to sense the other's emotions while the other couldn't.

When Rui peered into his opponent's mind, he sensed a single emotion boiling at the brim of his mind.

Greed.

A deep greed for everything in the world. The sheer intensity of his greed was visceral.

It was deeper than anything Rui had ever sensed in his entire life.

All that greed pointed in one direction.

One person

Rui.

In the depths of Ieyasu's mind, he harbored an intense greed for Rui's power.

He wanted it.

He wanted it more than anything else.

Rui wasn't surprised, of course.

Extraordinary Martial Paths required extraordinary persons.

What truly shocked him was the fire of fear he detected underneath the boiling greed. It was a more intense fear than any other Rui had ever sensed in his entire life. -