The Martial Unity

It wasn't long before Rui exited the Ferendul Republic and began traveling east. He had already ruled out primordial seed. However, now he needed to choose between mental or assassination techniques.

He recalled the two Masters that were documented in the intelligence that Sian had documented for him. 

He was particularly interested in them above the other potential avenues of growth.

The issue was that not only were there not many alluring avenues to train mental and assassination techniques like there were for primary fields of combat, but in addition, Rui was unfit to train in them.

It was no different from an amateur who didn't know how to properly throw an attack trying to train in the Umiana Trench. One needed to have a foundation before one could even think about going to a place like the Umiana Trench.

That was why he was interested in building up a foundation before he considered going to these training avenues. The best way to do that was to develop some mental and assassination techniques and add them to his Martial Art.

Being trained by some of the greatest authorities in those fields that he could possibly have access to was definitely better than trying to purchase some random mental techniques without the corresponding training resources for that technique, trying to piece their core principles together to create a new technique.

Of course, it wasn't going to be easy at all.

The intelligence documents detailed that it was exceedingly difficult to be accepted as pupils by either Martial Masters, and that was to be expected. Considering how few they chose as pupils versus how many tried to get accepted as pupils, the success rate was a milli-percent at most.

Still, Rui had reason to be confident in himself. 

The only question was which field ought he try first. He was conflicted. He had a greater affinity for the field of mental techniques, but he had a more urgent need for assassination techniques.

He was going to assassinate Chairman Deacon, after all, not challenge his security measures to a duel. Still, he knew just how compatible with mental technique he was.

'Well, I do plan to do both. So I guess I'll start with the Silent Shadow since her reported location is closer to me than the Hypnomaster.' Rui mused. 

The Silent Shadow, Master Reina Cara, was a highly renowned Martial Master who had spent nearly two centuries as an assassin. It was said that the number of people she had assassinated was enough to populate an entire country. It was not an exaggeration to say that across her life, she had impacted the course of human civilization through her many assassinations of many powerful and influential figures.

She was currently residing in the Ghana Archipelago, also known as the Shadow Isles, a group of islands in the Sirana Gulf of the Vanema Ocean. Yet despite the public knowledge that the notorious and feared Martial Master resided in the Shadow Isles, nobody knew where she was. 

Many people and Martial Artists who were part of the covert and assassination world came to the Shadow Isles in hopes of being accepted as a pupil by the legendary assassin, yet an overwhelming majority of people failed.

People could not even find her, let alone try to persuade her to impart even a fraction of her mighty prowess to them. 

When Rui heard that, a single thought entered his mind.

"It's a test."

Assassins eliminated their targets. Those who could not even find their target were assassins unworthy of her tutelage. Given that she was a Martial Master assassin, hiding would be effortlessly easy for her. She could adjust the difficulty of finding her to whatever degree she wanted to set the standards as low or high as she wanted. 

And he was absolutely certain that her standards were extremely high.

The reason that he knew this was because not even the Beggar's Sect had been able to locate her in the Shadow Isles.

"Our modus operandi has proven to be largely ineffective in locating her. Thus, her general location is all we can offer, I'm afraid." Sian had shaken her head.

That was extremely high indirect praise from the Beggar's Sect, which had thus far seemed almost nigh-omniscient when it came to matters across the continent. The fact that Master Reina Cara had managed to successfully evade the omnipresent Beggar's Sect showed just how absurdly high her skills as a Martial Master were. 

Of course, in a sense, she was sort of cheating. The Beggar's Sect harnessed the power of human civilization itself to gather intelligence. Thus, simply cutting one's self off from human civilization was the best way to avoid the Beggar's Sect.

Still, he knew that this was only partially effective. The Floating Sect was almost entirely disconnected from the human civilization below. He knew that Senior Sarak had prohibited unauthorized contact from the human members of the staff to the continent, and the Floating Sect had still effortlessly pierced through those measures and learned about him before he even left the sect.

Thus the fact that the Silent Shadow had managed to completely befuddle the Beggar's Sect spoke highly of her prowess. She had most likely taken these measures specifically to evade the Beggar's Sect and the broader intelligence community in general. It was also an indirect advertisement of her skill to all those who came to the Shadow Isles looking for her. 

She was the real deal. 

If anybody could give Rui the foundation he needed to be able to kill Chairman Deacon despite the heavy security measures that the latter had undoubtedly taken to protect his life, it was her.

Once he gained what he needed from Master Reina Cara, he could be on his way to the Hypnomaster, who was much further east than her.

"I also need to complete a really big mission or multiple small missions in the Shadow Isles," Rui murmured. He had not forgotten about his commission payment for the Beggar's Sect's services.

It was going to be challenging to keep up both those tasks at the same time, but it was a challenge that he was willing to take.