He had slept like a coma patient, sleeping through the night and halfway through the next day.
Kane stared at him with a bewildered expression. "What the hell happened? Did you sleep through?! You?!"
"I don't want to hear it, 'Nake'" Rui sighed as he felt incredibly comfortable and relaxed after a good amount of rest. "Yesterday was crazy."
"Where did you go?" Kane asked. "I tried looking for you to spar with last night but you weren't there."
"Yeah, I was speaking with Senior Xanarn," Rui sighed.
"What did she want?"
"Apparently, my Martial Art is dangerous," Rui said. "And she also told me about the secret of the Senior Realm."
"What?" Kane's eyebrow rose.
Rui proceeded to explain the gist of what she had divulged to him. Although he considered keeping it a secret for his own sake, he ultimately decided against it. The fact that there was no consensus on when disclosure of the secret of the Senior Realm ought to occur meant that there were no truly correct or incorrect choices, otherwise, the world would probably be on one page like they were with the breakthrough to the Squire Realm.
"Martial Heart..." Kane murmured. "Incredible. Did she tell you what all the glowing red lines and streaks we saw on Senior Ceeran were?"
"No, but I long figured that out myself," Rui shook his head as he proceeded to explain it all to Kane.
He withheld the fact that he had spent hours with her in the bed, of course. It was too personal, furthermore, he didn't want to reveal it without the consent of Senior Xanarn. After all, she was way too old and mature to appreciate being the center of romantic gossip. It was just good practice to not divulge things that both partners hadn't agreed to.
Rui eventually returned to the considerations that had been plaguing him prior. He was determined to figure out the trigger.
He had already concluded that it wasn't the same as it was for normal humans. It was clear that the Martial Heart was its own beast compared to the more paltry power that humans gained when they tapped into their locked latent power.
However, even if the Martial Heart was far superior, and even if the conditions for triggering its activation were far greater, he couldn't help but feel that they were probably conceptually the same.
One of the conditions to reach the Senior Realm was accruing enough individuality, and Rui didn't need Senior Xanarn to explain why.
('Individuality deepens the Martial Path, which correlates to higher cognitive functions of the brain granted by the discovery of the Martial Path, and the physical functions of the Martial Body centered around the Martial Path,') Rui mused. ('However, unlike the Squire breakthrough process, these enhancements are not transformative. They do not change the brain on any fundamental level... It simply enhances our capabilities by allowing us to make use of what is there.')
The breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm did not cause mutations to the brain to enhance it. Rui knew from his talks with Julian that the brains of Martial Apprentices were indistinguishable from the brains of normal humans physiologically. It was impossible to distinguish the two brains empirically.
To Rui, that was strong evidence that the discovery of the Martial Path simply mobilized the cognitive capabilities of the brain better, allowing the Martial Apprentice to perform combat-related cognitive functions far superior to before.
The discovery of the Martial Path simply tapped into neurological power that existed in the brain, deepening of the Martial Path deepened the degree to which Martial Squires accessed the untapped capabilities of the brain. This allowed Martial Apprentices to make extremely efficient use of every ounce of energy their bodies produced, converting all of it hyper-efficiently into speed, power, and durability.
There should have been a limit to how much the Martial Path allowed one to tap into the potential of the brain and, indirectly, the body, after all, the brain was not infinite. Martial Apprentices too would eventually hit a ceiling in regards to how much of the cognitive functions of the conscious mind could be mobilized towards combat, and how much of a boost it could provide to the body.
('That changed with the Squire evolution breakthrough,') Rui realized. ('The Squire evolution breakthrough evolved the body in a process that could be survived by the fortitude granted by the Martial Path. It not only evolved the body but also evolved the untapped power that was within the body, the Martial Heart!')
This artificial manmade Realm inadvertently created more potential for the Martial Path to tap into just like it did with the breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm. Except, in this case, it tapped into the enormous well of power that existed in the Martial body.
('The Realms of Martial Art... are they stages of tapping into different kinds and levels of potential that exist in the human body?') Rui's widened. ('The Apprentice Realm tapped into the potential of the conscious brain, the Squire Realm required tapping into the potential for evolution of the body, the Senior Realm requires harnessing the potential of the latent well of power that existed within the newly evolved Martial body. The Martial Path... is a journey of uncovering all of the existential potentials within the Human Being through Martial Art!')
It made sense to Rui.
After all, what was Martial Art as a concept at its very core?
('A system of movements and training designed to be able to maximize the potential of the human body in combat,')
Martial Art, and martial arts, as concepts at their very cores, were simply the process of realizing the potential of the human body in physical conflict. Anything, anything at all, that did that, was Martial Art.
The Martial Path, in turn, was simply the journey of maximizing the Martial Art, which in turn was simply maximizing potential.
The different Realms along the Martial Path were simply checkpoints for maximizing new kinds of potential. Cognitive potential, evolutionary potential, and Heart potential.
Who knew what kind of potential would be explored in the higher Realms?
Rui couldn't even begin to fathom it, yet his desire to tread his Martial Path soared higher than ever!
A maelstrom of chaos engorged his mind as a flurry of epiphanies rang amuck!
