"Thank you, Master Deivon," Rui nodded. "However, you didn't need to disrupt your training just to thank me. You could have summoned me later."
"That's not entirely appropriate, given the fact that I am your patron," Master Deivon spoke. "Besides, training at the Master level is not always intensive like you might expect. As you can see, I am able to train in such a location as well."
He gestured around him.
Rui frowned, furrowing his eyebrows.
His words implied that this wasn't something that was strictly limited to him.
"Does this have something to do with the Master or Sage Realm?" Rui asked with burning curiosity.
It had been a long time since he came across someone who actually knew anything about these high-end Martial Art matters.
"The answer to that question is something you are far too young to know," Master Deivon replied with a smirk. "The Upper Realms are quite different from the Lower Realms. The means by which you gain more power are different."
Rui already expected that he would not receive the answer to his question. "I see. Honestly, I didn't expect to see you training. It seems as though you were too preoccupied with your position as bishop."
"I restrict myself to overlooking all the broad decision-making," Master Deivon replied. "I delegate all the smaller matters to reliable subordinates who have the necessary qualifications to execute them well. Outside of decisions that require the input of high-level authorities within the church like myself, it is ultimately unnecessary for me to be personally involved in the bureaucratic and management workload and protocols. I am a Martial Artist before I am a bishop. Martial Artists must fight, it's as simple as that. Regardless of why you fight, or what you pursue power for, we cannot grow stronger without dedicating ourselves to our Martial Art in training and combat."
Rui agreed with this sentiment. The paradigms that he was talking about were also not unheard of to Rui. Senior Ceeran had conveyed something similar to Rui as well. Within the Martial Union, he was actually quite important and powerful. But he did not waste the entirety of his day working and fulfilling his duties as a deputy director. His work was limited to handling oversight at most, aside from that he simply trained in a manner that contributed to the research and development of Martial Artists.
One of the things that Rui needed to keep in mind was the fact that the only reason these mighty Martial Artists were in places of power was to ensure that organizations and groups that were centered around Martial Art remained centered around Martial Art. It was to ensure that the power they had gathered as Martial Artists would never leave their hands just because they were too distant from it.
That was why even the Martial Sages of the Martial Union were involved in the organization. If all Martial Artists only trained solitarily and distantly while leaving all the legislative and executive power of the organization in the hands of humans, then it was only a matter of time before an organization that was created for Martial Artists would cease to fulfill that role.
The interests of ordinary people and Martial Artists not only diverged but often clashed, thus leaving Martial organizations in the hands of the former was not a good idea.
This was true of both the Martial Union and the Virodhabhasa Faith.
"Regardless, that's not particularly why I wished to speak to you," Master Deivon told Rui. "The format of the main Martial Contest is out."
Master Deivon gestured to a simple sheet of paper on a nearby table in the church.
Rui raised his eyebrows when he read through it. "Hm…"
"The format changes every contest simply to switch things up and ensure that extremely targeted preparation is not a factor in what decides the victor. We want this to be a contest of power and not a contest of preparation."
That was quite wise of the higher-ups. The Martial Contest was too prestigious and high-profile for there to not be a huge number of people who would spend a lot of time engaging in hyper-specific training meant solely to overcome the tribulation of the contest. If the format was revealed well ahead of time or constant and never-changing, then that would undoubtedly happen.
Thus, changing the format every year and revealing it only shortly after it actually happened was a prudent decision.
"What do you think?" Master Deivon asked him as he read through it.
"It's a more accurate measure of the strongest compared to the crude format of the preliminary contest that I have just won," Rui replied. "The preliminary contest was simply too chaotic and allowed for too many variables that could potentially ensure that someone who wasn't the strongest would win. Just the fact that the weak can group together and fight the strong makes it an unreliable manner of measuring the strongest. Not that the participants are actually weak, given that everybody was a high-grade Martial Artist."
"And yet, the strongest did prevail, didn't he?" Master Deivon smirked at Rui.
"Because he fought smartly, not strongly," Rui replied. "If I had gone out guns blazing from the very start, I would have attracted all the heat in the stead of the three top-tier Martial Squires. Every single Martial Squire would jump on me simultaneously and I would be forced to go all out to overcome them while my three opponents could simply wait for me to exhaust myself and conserve their own strength for when they would fight me. There's a very good chance I would have lost had I done so."
His Hypertrophic Surge timed out very shortly after he won, almost before he deactivated himself. It showed that although his victory appeared to be dominant and unshakeable, he was cutting it a bit close. Even he couldn't say what would have happened if he decided not to hide his strength at the start.
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