The Martial Unity

His briefing continued for a while longer as the elderly Martial Master reached to what was the most important part of the Master briefing.

"The path to the Sage Realm is long and difficult," the elder Master continued with a melancholic tone. "It is one that I have given up on myself, resigned to guiding others to a treasure I cannot possess."

He shook his head. "It is not easy to know who one is."

"I am aware of the difficulties," Rui replied with certainty. "However, I intend to overcome them. I do not intend to let myself be halted by this challenge, as long as I gain enough power, I'm sure that I will be able to overcome the barrier to the Sage Realm."

Rui had already put the matter aside and focused on gaining more power to understand himself. If power was the answer, then he could just put aside thinking about the traumatizing revelations that the Divine Doctor had divulged to him.

"It is true that power is the best path to Master Realm. However, it is not an excuse to simply pursue it mindlessly without deeply dedicating yourself to understanding yourself. At the end of the day, it is you who must understand yourself. Power can simply help you along the way. However if you do not dedicate thought to it, then it will be meaningless. It seems you have been informed about the path that Martial Masters must follow to reach the Sage Realm already, so tell me, how much time have you genuinely given to answering the simple question 'Who am I?'"

Rui closed his eyes as he thought about his time past four years since he broke through to the Master Realm.

Most of that time had gone into training the Yin-Yang Spear technique.

After that, he had spent most of his time sparring for experience in the manifold for a year, which translated to less than a month in real-time.

"…None at all." Rui's voice was faint.

"Mmm," Master Gern gazed at him knowingly. "I did the same thing. For a century, I mindlessly pursued power without thinking about who I was. Yet, at the end, I realized I had come no closer to understanding who I am. My power showed me, yes, but I did not pay it any heed and simply pursued more power mindlessly as I had. By the time I realized my folly, I had already burned out and lost my Martial Drive. To this day, it is my single greatest regret. Do not follow in my path, young Master."

His tone was severe and intense, rich with regret.

To others, it was a deeply introspective and immersing question.

To Rui, however, it was deeply traumatic at worst and highly disturbing at best.

Rui grew serious as he contemplated his words. It was true that he too seldom paid any thought to who he actually was in the past four years.

It couldn't be helped.

To others, it was a deeply introspective and immersing question.

To Rui, however, it was deeply traumatic at worst and highly disturbing at best.

Perhaps it wouldn't have been had the Divine Doctor not shared with Rui the revelations that he did. However, he couldn't go back in time and undo the past. He had asked for the truth and he had gotten his answer.

"I will…be sure to pay more mind to this from here on out," Rui promised.

"Good. I am not blaming you, of course," he reassured. "The truth is that knowing one's self is not the natural state of order. Normally, people are never meant to know who they are. This is because it helps us cope with the truth that we are not who we wish we were. People are walking bags of irrationality, self-contradiction, and hypocrisy. Yet, these are inevitable outcomes of a mind that evolved to survive. Many believe that the separation between mind and soul exists to protect the mind from the horrors of the soul."

Normally, Rui could not care less about such philosophical and psychological considerations. However, given that this was relevant to his path to the Sage Realm, he couldn't help but indulge in it, falling into an introspective mood.

"Thus, if given an excuse, one will gladly avoid confronting who they are," Master Gern remarked with an erudite tone. "Pursuing power to reach the Sage Realm, is one such excuse that ruined my path to a higher Realm of power and may ruin yours, should you not change your ways. You cannot run away from who you are. Warning new Martial Masters of this very folly is one of the reasons that I joined the Panamic Martial Federation as a briefer after I retired from active combat."

"I appreciate your warning." Rui's tone grew grateful. "I shall bear them in mind from here on out."

"Mmm, good." He nodded. "If you find it difficult to confront yourself continuously, then I would recommend a simple technique that the Panamic Martial Federation has recently developed: the Dream Technique."

Rui raised an eyebrow. "There's a Martial Art technique to help with reaching the Sage Realm?"

"Not a Martial Art technique, no." He shook his head. "An ordinary technique, one that just about anybody can use. Always fall asleep to the question of 'who am I?' Doing this will increase the probability that you will experience a dream triggered by associations to that question."

Rui considered the advice, stirring. "Dreams…"

"Dreams are believed to be created by the soul," he nodded. "There has been more than one Martial Master who has broken to the Sage Ream in their dreams and many who have made immense progress to knowing who they are through insights obtained in dreams."

Rui's eyes lit up with interest at this revelation.

It was fascinating to know that the dreams could increase the probability of reaching the Sage Realm.

However, considering how difficult his path was and how disturbing the memories associated with the question 'Who am I?' were, there was a good chance that he would experience nightmares instead of dreams.

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