While Rui merrily grew engrossed in his new project, the Floating Sect began growing more and more tense in the span of the following days. Surveillance was tightened, and patrols were carried out by squads of guardians for extra safety.
The Floating Sect had inducted the Martial Squires initiates that had arrived on the island prior to the declaration of war into the sect. After all, there wasn't much else that could be done at the moment. At the moment, the Floating Sect was going to need Martial Artists more than it ever did for the war, furthermore, the Martial Artists that had arrived on the island could not leave either.
Thus the Floating Sect inducted them into the sect and allowed them to acquire the chambers of guardians as long as they beat them in a challenge.
They did, however, prohibit killing and eliminated the death victory condition from the conditions to win.
They could not afford members of the Floating Sect to kill each other at every opportunity that they got, that was not conducive to the Floating Sect's current circumstances. Instead, they incentivized the initiates to fight for the Floating Sect even if they didn't have a chamber with promises of one once the threat was overcome.
The Floating Sect engaged in a lot of wartime preparations, important resources were relocated and secured, and infrastructure was quickly reinforced to whatever degree was possible. The humans of the Floating Sect were the most at risk. They were the most vulnerable group, and extra measures had been put into place to ensure that they were likely to survive the incoming conflict.
Simple and effective evacuation plans were put into place. Alarms would be rung well in advance of the arrival of the Kaddar Squire army, and there were underground complexes within the island that served as shelters for the humans during this time.
Many of the workers who were in suits were actually Martial Apprentices who were able to handle the environment better, they would be most equipped to handle things if an emergency occurred and the guardians were busy. They could speed up the evacuation of the humans in the event of an attack.
The Floating Sect released more guidelines that required Martial Squires of all ranges to be on standby, there were also groups of Martial Squires whose entire job was simply to maintain a hawk's eye on the Kaddar Region and report the instance anything resembling an invasion spotted.
The tension on the island built up day by day.
It wasn't long before the first clash began.
"Nearly a hundred Martial Squires spotted sky-walking at a high speed towards!"
"Alert the Seniors!"
Alarms rang on the Floating Sect when the patrolling Martial Squires just outside the island spotted an army of Martial Squires surging up!
The Martial Squires on standby were immediately deployed while the human personnel of the island quickly evacuated to the shelters underground.
Rui and Kane prepared themselves for the clash, as they were abruptly deployed. It wasn't the case that all Martial Squires were immediately deployed. Nor was only one class of Martial Squires deployed. Martial Artists across all classes were deployed.
There was a bit of excitement amongst the Martial Squires.
Rui and Kane were not exempt either. A war was not a light matter, nor was it as orderly as a challenge or a duel. Anything could happen in a war, even the slightest mistake or instance of carlessness could cause one to lose their life in an instant. That was why Rui knew that he needed to be careful and on his toes. Growing arrogant or overconfident about his Martial Art and his Martial Path would simply lead to death.
What he truly regretted was that Project Metabody had just begun, meaning it was nowhere near completion. A war would have also been a perfect place to test his new system. A large number of Martial Squires would have been unwitting test subjects for testing the veracity of the new system of the VOID algorithm.
Still, a part of him hoped that the war would last long enough for him to gain some degree of success on Project Metabody to get in some initial data on how effective the system was in a war.
Just as he was pondering such thoughts something caught his attention.
Suddenly, the air changed.
A heavy presence swept over them all. For a moment, Rui thought it was a Martial Senior.
('No…') Rui frowned.
Yet it wasn't in the Squire Realm either.
The crowd parted, pulling Rui and Kane along with it as a single man walked through.
"It's him…"
"I cannot believe we get to fight side-by-side with the number one!"
"I heard he forced Senior Xanarn to go all out."
"Heh, those Kaddar Martial Squires are so screwed."
Rui's eyes widened as his eyes fell on the man walking through the parting crowd. He saw something for the first time in his entire life.
The man's black hair was lightly groomed, and his black eyes seemed to possess a depth that reminded Rui of what he saw when he looked into the mirror.
He put immense pressure on all those around him, indifferent to their unease. Every step he took seemed to echo against the world itself.
('He's stronger than me,') Rui instantly recognized that. There was no question about it. Even if Rui had the opportunity to build a solid predictive model on the man, he would lose. It had been a while since Rui had felt so outclassed. Just from the pressure alone, Rui could tell that this man was a greater hurdle than the Root and even Senior Xanarn when she wasn't using her Martial Heart!
Frankly, it was astounding. The only ones he had ever seen surpass the conventional limits of a Realm thus far to such a degree was… himself back when he was at the peak of the Martial Apprentice. He created new standards of Martial Art throughout the Kandrian Empire as a Martial Apprentice.
It appeared that Tokugawa Ieyasu was cut from the same cloth as him.
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