The Martial Unity

The human body was not absolutely opaque. This was something that an overwhelming majority of people were not aware of. In reality, the human body was translucent; It allowed light to partially pass through it. This was partly because of the fact that seventy percent of the body of the human body was comprised of water, which was perfectly transparent. This was what largely gave the human body its translucence.

The translucence of the human body could even be tested and measured at any give point in time.

One need only place a bright and intense source of light behind one's thumb, and one would notice the thumb glowing red due to all the light passing through and bouncing off the red blood and flesh, becoming red.

("If that is what is happening with the circulatory system of Martial Seniors, then that would explain the red flowing lines across the body,') Rui realized in excitement.

The exact same thing would be happening if the veins and the arteries of the body also glowed bright white, for Martial Seniors.

('But that's so bizarre!') Rui tried making sense of why such a thing would be happening.

Why would veins and arteries starting glowing bright white in the middle of combat? How would such a thing even help at all? Why even bother trying to do that with them?

After all, they certainly did not directly intervene in the battle he just witnessed, did they?

('Well, maybe such a flash function is useful, but I don't know how,') Rui considered. ('But if they aren't useful…')

Then why glow bright white?

('Things that tend to glow super bright white are usually…') His eyebrows rose as he had an interesting thought. ('…filled with energy.')

If that applied to the strange phenomenon of the glowing veins and arteries of the Senior Realm the…

('Maybe I've discovered an important secret of the breakthrough to the Senior Realm.') Rui tried his best to suppress his excitement with the non-verbal communication control training that he had received in his training for serving as a diplomat of the Martial Union. Thankfully it played out, and nobody noticed his inner turmoil and excitement.

They quickly wrapped up and headed back to the Martial Union settlement once they had secured the two bodies. They needed to bring them back to the settlement as quick as possible where the medical team would be able to ensure that their condition didn't deteriorate.

On the way back, Rui couldn't help but comprehend the recent insights that he had made regarding the power of Martial Seniors. He continued to remain enraptured by the matter.

('If the glowing veins and arteries are a sign of extremely dense energy and power in their blood, then wouldn't that mean that the cells of Martial Seniors are supplied with a tremendous amount of power?') Rui considered the thought before frowning. ('I'm not sure how much sense this makes though, considering that the human cells generate power with ATP molecules. Blood vessels carry nutrients and compounds, not raw energy in a manner that inadvertently generates light.')

Of course, Rui was aware that his argument would have made perfect sense if it applied to the baseline human. It could not be applied to human beings that had undergone accelerated Darwinian evolution.

('It makes sense that this is a trait exclusive to Martial Seniors if the evolution breakthrough process is what allows it to be possible anyway,') Rui speculated.

Still, even if that was a plausible explanation, it did not address many other questions that Rui had. One of the biggest ones that Rui was that if they were supplying energy in some kind of form, then where was that energy coming from? After all, he highly doubted that Martial Seniors could break the first law of thermodynamics; the law of conservation of energy.

While Martial Artists were spectacularly and inhumanly powerful, he had yet to see an instance of them warping reality itself.

He wasn't able to answer that question, though he did have a few guesses.

Rui took a good look at Senior Ceeran. He knew that the man would not divulge the secrets of the Senior Realm to him, even if did his best to persuade him.

Regardless, there was no way for him to verify what he had come up with. He would just need to get stronger until he qualified to know.

He recalled that a grade-five Martial Squire had once told him that upon reaching grade five, he would be told of the conditions that needed to be fulfilled to undergo the breakthrough to the Senior Realm. Without them, he would not be able to break through to the Senior Realm.

From what he had once been hinted at, the breakthrough to the Senior Realm was not like the breakthrough to the Squire Realm, which was entirely man-made instead of a natural phenomenon that naturally occurred. If anything, it was quite likely that the breakthrough to the Senior Realm was similar to that of the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm, a spontaneous event.

Eventually, Rui overcame his rapture once they reached the Martial Union settlement. The Settlement was in a great mood, having heard that Senior Ceeran won the battle that broke out between himself and two native Martial Seniors of the indigenous tribe that the Martial Union settlement had been at war with.

When the members of the settlement heard that Senior Ceeran had been engaged in a battle against two Martial Seniors, they had grown quite worried. Not just for him, but also for themselves. If he died, then there was a good chance that their little settlement was doomed. After all, the K'ulnen Tribe would have an overwhelming advantage against them in terms of net Martial power. A single one of their Martial Seniors would be powerful enough to annihilate all of the Martial Squires of the Martial Union settlement.

Thus when they received word that Senior Ceeran won a solid victory, they couldn't all help but heave a collective sigh of relief.

It was good to be alive.