The Martial Unity

Chapter 3651: Forgotten Trump Card

Their discussion lasted hours as they began getting into the weeds and the nitty-gritty details of exactly how they were going to diagnose Gaia and identify the virus or the mechanisms by which exotic matter could be responsible for the enlargening of Gaia.

This was hardly an easy matter. For one, even if they limited their search to the Panama Continent, that was still a tremendously enormous amount of land to search. The surface of the continent was larger than that of the surface of Jupiter, meaning that they would truly have to spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to scour its depths and identify a potential source.

Of course, the solution to that came in the form of Daughters of Nature from Mother Maeria who could plant seeds in the continent containing a fraction of her consciousness instilled within them that could grow up to be mini-Mothers.

That along with the Elder Tree would give them a huge coverage across the entire continent in terms of their root coverage. Rui knew that the Elder Tree could cover a vast expanse of land with his roots so the Mother of Nature was undoubtedly no different.

When he looked at Genora and how deep the surveillance state was, he was cautiously optimistic that relying on flora was a good tool to try and find the source of the Gaia’s growth. After all, Genora was a nigh-impenetrable fortress not just militarily but even stealthily. The trees, plants, shrubs, and grass were constantly gathering information from the surroundings and feeding back into the network that could be accessed by varying levels of authority, with Mothers of Nature at the highest.

Thus, if they wanted to find something hidden in the Panama Continent, then flora was one of the best ways to go about it.

“Of course, there is something even better than flora,” Rui remarked knowingly. “Fauna. Animals and beasts have really good senses, especially those of the Continent of Kiriket.”

Rui recalled how much difficult Amare and him had with infiltrating and how they had ended up being detected anyway. They had only managed to get away by disguising their presence, not hiding it.

Mother Maeria nodded. “That’s true. And, as I recall, you have your own army of beasts within the Panama Continent. You can deploy them to start trying to scour the continent for anything that might be of use to us.”

That was also a good idea. However, he couldn’t help but wonder that if he could fool the entropic flies that detected them in the Continent of Kiriket by disguising himself rather than hiding himself, couldn’t the virus also do something similar?

Perhaps its true nature had always been right in front of them, beyond merely the esoteric matter, and they had simply failed to recognize it. If that was the case, then they were definitely dealing with an entity that was even more sophisticated than they might have thought.

Regardless, just coming up with ways of identifying the problem was not easy. Each of the solutions they had were flawed in one particular way.

“They don’t go too deep into the ground.” Rui heaved a sigh. “Even trees that have roots underground do not go that deep. If our suspicions are correct, then what we are looking for is closer to the very epicenter of the planet than the surface, and by a large margin too. It is not something that can be probed from the surface alone or from with tree roots either.”

This was an inescapable shortcoming that all of their ideas, whether they flora, fauna, or even compelling all states to put down their anti-surveillance measure to allow the satellite surveillance systems to survey the entire planet.

They could not get to the depth of the matter, both literally and figuratively.

“It is not insurmountable,” the Divine Doctor remarked knowingly. “We have the Nest of Terra and their subterranean technology. They are among the most technologically advanced nations in the Panama Continent after Esocline Federation and the Kandrian Empire. And when it comes to subterranean sensor technology, they are unparalleled.”

Rui’s eyes lit up as he experienced a wave of ’damn, I forgot about that.’ It had truly been a long time since he thought about the Nest of Terra. But of course, he could never truly forget his experiences in the Nest. It was arguably the best visit of his life out of all the Sage-level powerhouses he had been to in Panama.

Not only was it among the most enriching, but he had managed to experience a lot that nourished him as a Martial Artist. He had managed to fight a Martial Sage for the second time, making for an extreme accomplishment that validated his Martial Path.

He also enjoyed flirting with Amare back when their relationship was still in its budding stage.

Of course, the most fruitful gain he had made from the Nest of Terra was the Scriptures of Terra, which allowed him to reach a whole new realm of earth-bending mastery.

“Wait a minute…” Rui’s eyes widened with shock. “That’s it…! If there’s anything that can allow us to figure out what’s going on within the depths of Gaia, then earth-bending is the key!”

Rui wanted to smack himself for not instantly recognizing this reality. How could he call himself a master of adaptive evolution if he didn’t instantly figure out such an elementary application of his Martial Art?

Of course, in his defense, his adaptive evolution was Martial in nature, meaning that he grew progressively worse off at it outside of combat. Finding a virus within an ill Gaia was not exactly the most Martial action in the world.

“…Earth-bending?” Mother Maeria tilted her head with a puzzled expression.

Naturally, she did not recognize the Martial terminology, even if she could hazard a guess as to what it meant with the self-evident name.

“It has to do with the manipulation of land and earth through vibrations, pressure, heat, and force,” Rui replied informatively. “You guys have a version of this too with your nature manipulation. I’ve seen applications of it when fighting against your sisters in East Genora.”