Chapter 2244: Barricading Power

The Gatekeeper's words jolted Rui out of a shocked stupor.

"A system of thought dedicated to training outside combat?" Rui's eyes widened. "That's incredible!"

He had never known that such a thing was even possible. However, it appeared that the Martial Mind did not discriminate between different purposes of thought as long as it was directly in the service of the Martial Path.

It was remarkably impressive to Rui that the Gatekeeper had managed to come up with a system of thought that empowered his Physical Evolution itself.

"But...it makes sense," he realized. "I didn't sense him using any system of thought thus far in the battle. Furthermore, even his sudden spike in the growth of his Martial Body makes sense. It all adds up—"

"Focus," the Gatekeeper's deep voice was calm. "Do not get distracted by your endless fascination of Martial Art. The slightest bit of carelessness will get you killed."

Rui nodded with a severe expression as he turned his full concentration towards trying to break the Martial Seniors through. He needed just one other Martial Master to break through; if what the Gatekeeper had told him was true, then he was, for the time being, the weakest Martial Master in existence, one who wasn't even in the Realm as far as combat power went.

Rui was sure that given time and the manifold, the Gatekeeper would become a force to reckon with very soon. However, for the time being, he was resigned to taking over Rui's role in combat.

"Fuuu..." The Gatekeeper exhaled heavily as he narrowed his eyes, activating his Martial Mind.

He knew that it wouldn't do for him what it did for other Martial Minds by its very nature. The efficiency boost that Martial Masters made was combat-oriented because their systems of thought themselves were combat-oriented. His wasn't. Thus, the only utility that the Martial Mind offered to him was his senses.

"Kill them!"

"Kill the Dawnbringer!"

"Stop this nasty hypnosis!"

A barrage of attacks had already converged upon Rui in an attempt to get him to stop his Tree of Life illusion.

"I'm afraid not." The Gatekeeper's tone was unyielding.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!

He pushed himself to the limit as he pushed himself to the limit, intercepting their Martial Art with his full power.

BOOOOOOM!!!

An enormous shockwave spread throughout the battlefield as he pushed himself to the very limit.

"Tsk, kill that stubborn oaf!"

Meanwhile, the efforts of the Sekigaharans heightened, as did their confusion.

They truly were confused.

They were in the middle of the process of killing the Kandrian Martial Seniors when the Dawnbringer fell from the sky out of nowhere and cast a powerful hypnosis on all of them.

And then, the Gatekeeper, notorious for having stubbornly clung to physical pursuit, suddenly broke through to the Master Realm.

And then, the Gatekeeper, notorious for having stubbornly clung to physical pursuit, suddenly broke through to the Master Realm.

It was an inconceivable sequence of events.

Yet, it had happened nonetheless.

"Wait..." One of them realized. "This is too much of a coincidence. This illusion..."

His eyes widened. "Could it be that the reason that the Gatekeeper broke through, the reason that the Dawnbringer even came to the battlefield, was to trigger the breakthroughs?"

They froze when that thought was voiced.

Didn't that mean that the Void Prince was responsible for breakthroughs all along?

The interim leader of the Sekigaharan Master let out a gruesome, malevolent grin.

"KILL THE DAWNBRINGER AT ALL COSTS!"

They had already noticed that despite breaking through to the Master Realm, the Gatekeeper hadn't grown too much stronger; he was still very much within their capabilities to handle despite the fact that all their Martial Minds had run out of stamina.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Yet, despite the onslaught, the Gatekeeper did yield to his enemies. His Martial Mind massively empowered his perception and senses, yet unlike how it was for most Martial Masters, the Gatekeeper did not experience a massive boost in his perception of the outer world.

No.

Instead, his perception of self was massively empowered. His ability to sense his own body had skyrocketed immensely. He could see each and every individual that constituted his microcosm of Martial Body. He could peer into the depths of each of every single one of them and observe the molecular processes that sustained life itself.

He could see the flow of blood and the flow of energy in his nervous system.

He could see everything there was to see about his Martial Body.

In an instant, he could see everything he needed to do when he got back home to elevate his Martial Body to a higher dimension of power.

BOOOM!!!

The Sekigaharan Masters grimaced as a powerful shockwave swept them away.

"Nothing will impede us today." The Gatekeeper's powerful voice was fierce. "Not even your lives."

Unfortunately for the Sekigaharan, although it wasn't overwhelmingly significant, the Gatekeeper had undoubtedly grown stronger. He had become even more of a quasi-Master level monster who could not be touched by anything short of a full-fledged Martial Master.

There was no such thing amongst the Sekigaharans at that point.

"If you retreat now, there's a good chance we will not pursue." Sir Armstrong declared. "However, should you choose to continue and fight, you may very well overcome me, but only at the cost of many of your Martial Masters."

RUMBLE...!

The Sekigaharans stiffened as the Gatekeeper flared his immense power.

Unfortunately, the deterrence was not strong enough; it certainly would have been if he had been as strong as a Martial Master. But, his current power level was not devastating in the face of many dozens of rejuvenated Martial Masters.

Especially when he was already very injured before breaking through.

Furthermore, the prize was too great. The moment they became convinced that Rui was responsible for the mass breakthroughs, they just had to kill him.

After all, one of the main reasons that the Sekigahara Confederate waged a war against the Kandrian Empire was the breakthroughs that massively increased the populations of Martial Artists at each Realm, a power that threatened to elevate Kandria far above them.