Chapter 2009: Confrontation and Offer |
A Martial Master was hardly novel in the grand scheme of human civilization. While Rui was truly unprecedented as a Martial Master, did the Divine Doctor truly care that much about Martial Art?
Rui would have expected him to be too immersed in studying the alien flora lifeform to even notice his existence.
He would have expected that the Divine Doctor would have ignored every call he made to the man in favor of studying the lifeform.
But no.
The Divine Doctor was quite firm in his fascination and interest in Rui.
The inhuman curiosity within the depths of his eyes bore deeply into the endless void within Rui's.
A single remark escaped him.
"You."
"…" Rui tilted his head, perplexed.
Rui frowned. "…No, I didn't."
"You did," he insisted as his voice grew more intense. "You said you were merely a candidate for the soul transference. But the truth became as clear as day when I beheld your Martial Embodiment."
The maniacal intensity of his eyes only rose.
"You have undergone the soul transference ritual." The man grinned wildly. "You already are an immortal."
Rui scoffed. "I told you, the Beggar Sage made me a candida—"
"—DON'T LIE TO ME," he bellowed, stunning Rui into silence.
He had never once heard the man raise his voice.
"Your Martial Mind is too powerful for you to have not undergone the soul transference ritual," the man insisted. "From it, I have detected the mildest signs of remnant muscle from your old vessel. Roughly thirty-seven years ago, if I had to judge."
Rui's eyes widened with shock.
He was thirty-seven years old.
Thirty-seven years ago, he had been reborn.
In addition, the power of his Martial Mind was indeed something that had been born as a result of a second round of extraordinary cognitive growth spike over the span of thirty years.
The fact that the Divine Doctor recognized his reincarnation as the very soul transference ritual that he had developed along with the Beggar Sage and the Psycher was telling. If they were different, he would not have found the tell-tale clues that pointed him to the conclusion that Rui had undergone the same There was only one conclusion to be inferred from this.
Rui's eyes sharpened his expression grew severe. "…So my reincarnation was indeed done through the soul transference ritual?"
The Divine Doctor furrowed his eyebrows as his curiosity only grew. At that moment, he was able to judge that Rui's expression and words were sincere by analyzing his physiological and anatomical microexpressions.
"…You," his eyes widened with a hint of surprise. "You didn't know? You didn't plan this?"
Rui shook his head slowly as his eyes wandered around, deep in thought, growing more severe. "…After I died, I found myself reborn in a newborn baby that was being delivered."
Rui had spent his entire life wondering how his reincarnation was possible. How did his soul travel from one world to another?
In fact, if Gaia was truly in a different universe with slightly different laws of reality, then how in the world did his soul travel from the universe that it was into an entirely different universe?
What were the mechanics of such a magical phenomenon?
He would be lying if he said he hadn't asked this question himself a million times before.
When the Beggar Sage had divulged the truth of the soul transference ritual, he had instantly considered the possibility of the soul transference ritual being connected to his reincarnation.
After all, the way that the Divine Doctor's soul seemed to be able to transfer from vessel to vessel seemed to be reminiscent of his own reincarnation from what little information he had. Thus, it truly was plausible that he had been reincarnated into this world by having his soul transferred from vessel to vessel.
However, he also knew that the Divine Doctor's soul transfers were of his design. He had chosen it to be this way of his own accord by actively participating in the soul transference ritual.
That was not the case for Rui.
He had never planned for this and certainly had never made any preparations for any kind of transference from the body of John Falken to the body of Rui Quarrier. And since the soul transference was a ritual, someone must have done this to him.
Someone must have conducted the soul ritual for Rui without his knowledge or consent back when he was in his old body.
Of course, he wasn't going to complain about getting a second chance at life.
Although this life had had its downs, for the most part, it had been a beautiful dream where he could become a Martial Artist, something he was cruelly denied in his previous life. He could live Project Water while he was limited to giving Project Water to everybody else except himself in his previous life.
He had enough gratitude to whatever extraordinary force had given him a second life. Yet, he would be lying if he didn't seek answers.
And today, he had gotten a fraction of the answers he sought.
The 'how' of his reincarnation was close to being answered. All he needed to know was how the soul transference functioned mechanically in terms of how it transferred something as astral and metaphysical as the 'soul.'
His eyes met up with the Divine Doctor.
In an instant, both of them had already deduced each other's intentions and thoughts.
"What do you want in return for the secret of the soul transference?"
Yet, his eyes widened with surprise as a disturbingly maniacal smile appeared on the Divine Doctor's face. It spread across the man's face, warping it as inhuman amusement lit up within the depths of the man's eyes.
"The commission," he whispered, quivering. "Accept my commission, and I will give you what you seek. I will give you what I seek."
His voice shook unstably as Rui grew more uncomfortable. The man had always been insane and mad, Rui knew, but it was at moments like these that Rui questioned the wisdom of cooperating with someone so psychotic.
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