Amare could sense the trouble Rui was having with his own path to candidacy. "Youāre only seventy-nine years old. So donāt worry, youāre still very much maintaining your absurd growth trajectory."
"...Maybe, but in truth itās already been twelve years since I broke through to the Sage Realm," Rui muttered. "In comparison, youāve only been a Martial Sage for... less than one year."
She had woken up to the Sage Realm after the Unfolding.
Not even one year had passed since the Unfolding, even if it didnāt feel that way.
When one put it that way, her rate of progress was unfathomable, even by the standards of Rui and Ieyasu; he had never seen anybody progress at such an absurd rate.
"So this is what others feel like when they think of my progress," Rui smiled wryly.
"Hush now, I donāt think Iām going to remain ahead of you. In fact, in terms of combat power, Iām still weaker than you because I have not fully mastered the principles you have given me in combat," she remarked knowingly. "So let us continue with the remaining principles.
"Give me a break, I spent five hours at max power. I havenāt even eaten anything today, so Iām starving."
"Ah... sorry." She smiled apologetically. "Want to go to the capital and eat some skewered fish again?"
Rui stirred, considering the offer, before shrugging.
"Sure."
As they traveled to the capital, he couldnāt help but wonder what he was missing for his candidacy to Transcendence.
It couldnāt be power.
Rui had defeated people who had crushed the Transcendent Candidates. He was much, much stronger than Bodhisattva Maitreyi and Reverend of Reckoning, despite them having reached candidacy.
He wasnāt sure if it was plain old individuality either. He had developed tremendous individuality since becoming a Martial Sage, and he had yet to feel like his Embodiment was becoming more āreal.ā
It only grew more intense and stronger, but it did not feel like Amareās at all.
He suspected that there was some other condition that he was likely not satisfying, though he wasnāt sure what it was. It was likely very different from simply a power condition and was also likely beyond individuality.
ā
It probably has something to do with the unique conditions of the Transcendent Realm
.ā Rui sharpened his eyes as thought back to the all the cryptic answers that the Martial Transcendents. ā
...I donāt know what Iām missing
.ā
He had made great progress with his Martial Path and Adaptive Evolution.
He had learned that Death was Adaptive Evolution in his battle with Anthea.
Then, he discovered that Love was Adaptive Evolution, thanks to Kane and Amare.
After that, he discovered that Nature was Adaptive Evolution.
All of these little enlightenments brought him down his Martial Path, brought him closer and closer to Transcendence as far as his intuition told him. From this, he could deduce that the path to Transcendence involved a degree of universalization of oneās Martial Path to some extent.
He was doing that, certainly, but his Martial Embodiment hadnāt grown more ārealā with each step he took, which made him worry that there was something other than a condition that he was missing.
Of course, it was possible that the growth of oneās Martial Embodiment wasnāt linear but needed to cross a threshold for a rapid qualitative change, as it had happened with Amare, but Amare was a very unique case.
She broke through Transcendent Candidate-level power from the very get-go, so he wasnāt sure give he could apply her experiences to himself. Regardless, Amareās stunning jump to Candidacy got him thinking about his own journey.
āThe goal isnāt Candidacy, but rather Transcendence. The ultimate goal is going beyond Transcendence and to the true high Realm of power above the Sage Realm.ā
But Candidacy was a necessary or inevitable checkpoint on the way that was a marker of his progress.
"Perhaps I should shift all my focus to my projects rather than making progress with all these political crises," he heaved a tired sigh as he sped towards the capital with Amare.
"Donāt say that," she chided him. "If human civilization is destroyed, your rate of growth will slow down because you will lose all the resources that help you grow fast. You will lose the Water Sect, too."
"Right..." Rui recalled the vice leader of the Water Sect, a Martial Master with chaotic Adaptive Evolution.
Not to mention, if human civilization were destroyed, then he would also become much more vulnerable against the Evolutionary Army.
He could fight one Anthea, but he couldnāt fight an entire army of evosapiens simultaneously.
And the next leader was going to be far, far stronger than Anthea, as was the rest of the army. He couldnāt possibly survive against such a destructive force aiming to kill him; he needed to do everything possible to ensure human civilization survived and flourished, growing stronger and stronger.
"Youāre too impatient, Rui." She shook her head. "I spent ten thousand years reaching the Sage Realm. Youāre not even eighty years old. The youngest Martial Sage before you was seventy years old, and nobody was as strong as you are at your current age. When I was eighty years old, I was still only a Martial Master."
He knew that, of course. But he still felt impatient to reach higher levels. He didnāt like that even his astronomic progress was starting to slow down because of how strong he had become and how much effort it took to take even a single step forward.
Most Martial Artists hit this point much earlier in their life, of course. Rui had hit small speedbumps in the past, but none that felt as long as this had. The growth that he had made in the past twelve years, since breaking through to the Sage Realm, was high, but he had never taken this long to reach the peak of a Realm in the past.
Nonetheless, it didnāt change what he had to do.
"One step at a time..." he sharpened his eyes.