The Martial Unity

The various paintings, sculptures, and other artwork that he saw decorating the town made more sense.

There was a central faceless Martial Artist within all of these works, a Martial Artist that was often pictured in a divine light.

That was the so-called Virodhabhasa, the deity central to the Virodhabhasa Faith. For some reason, the claim that the religion was founded by a Martial Transcendent no longer sounded too absurd for some reason.

He couldn't help but feel weird about all of this. He had traits that the Virodhbhasa Faith would be very interested in hearing about.

What would happen if they learned that he was a being from another world?

What would happen if they truly understood the depths of his Martial Art, and his ambitions for his Martial Art?

He shuddered.

That would not end well.

They would either lock him up for a religious inquisition, or they would begin worshipping him.

Or, they would declare him an enemy of the faith for trying to usurp the position of the Virodhabhasa faith.

There were a multitude of possibilities, but Rui wasn't sure which one would occur. He found it hard to predict religious fervor, after all.

Regardless of which of those outcomes happened, he would be in a world of trouble as they were all terrible outcomes that he would rather not occur.

That was the reason he was wary of this religion now.

Frankly, this was worse than what would happen if he revealed that his Martial Art could exponentially increase the rate of breakthroughs. The Virodhabhasa Faith was far more radical and irrational than the Martial Union.

It was also undoubtedly more powerful. He truly was a mere speck before such a powerful religious organization, and that was the reason that he began feeling increasingly wary of the circumstances that he was in at the moment.

He began increasingly regarding his surroundings with greater caution and wariness. Of course, this was a bit paranoid, as it was impossible for the Virodhabhasa Faith to ever find out that he was a reincarnated being from another world unless he himself divulged it.

There was no way that he was ever going to do anything that stupid.

As long as he acted as any other Martial Squire did, he would be fine, there was no reason for any problems to occur.

For now, he needed a place to stay. He quickly booked a simple room in an inn that he would be residing in for the time being.

"Huff…" He sighed, tired, glancing at the Virodhaveda that he had just purchased.

The holy book wasn't too thick, but it was still far too large for it to be a single prophecy.

('That prophesy must have taken a long time if it was truly conveyed all of this,') He picked up the book, opening the first page.

The first page contained a statement that was allegedly from the Astral Sovereign himself.

I write this with a solemn heart. The revelations I received that day on the day of Reckoning were profoundly moving. Nothing has ever been the same ever since. The Virodhaveda contains all of the insights and knowledge that I gained that day from the very world around us. Open your heart to the wisdom of the world, and pray for the Virodhabhasa, for they are the only beings that can bring us salvation. As children of the world, we must find the Virodhabhasa. That is the Divine mission of the Virodhabhasa Faith.

Rui raised an eyebrow.

If this was actually from a Martial Transcendent and not something the religious leaders of the religion cooked up, then it certainly was quite shocking.

Rui wondered whether a Martial Transcendent would allow their name to be improperly used by a religion that was spread around across the entire world to spread all kinds of religious dogma.

('Probably not,')

If he was a martial Transcendent and he heard about a religion trying to use his name to endorse their nonsense, he would instantly put an end to that bullshit.

The fact that two hundred and fifty years had gone by and Astral Sovereign hadn't taken a single step to deal with this probably meant that they weren't simply making stuff up about his involvement with the religion.

In that case, it would mean that the Martial Transcendent was involved, the question would be to what degree.

Had he truly experienced a divine revelation?

Or was this something that he had fabricated to create a religion that he could lead to gain more power and influence around the world than he already had?

Religions were tremendously powerful in more than one way. They could radicalize people and create a population of brainwashed extremists who would essentially be willing to die for the sake of the religion that they believed in.

This served as a powerful force. Perhaps even a Martial Transcendent found it useful to employ the power of religion to bring even more power to himself.

However, that begged the question of why he didn't create a religion centered around himself. The Virodhabhasa Faith was a religion whose central deity was not the Astral Sovereign. The latter was merely a prophet in this religion that had received divine revelation from the very world itself.

Had he turned himself into the central deity, he would be able to wield power far more directly and in an unrestricted manner.

That led Rui to believe that he probably did not fabricate the religion to gain more power unless he was as stupid as he was creative.

However, even if he didn't do it for power, it did not mean that the religion was not fake. Rui was an atheist scientist. He held extremely high standards of evidence and proof for the extraordinary claims made by religions, and he was not so inclined to take anything for their word.

Yet there were several things that he simply couldn't deny due to the fact that he knew to be true, and strived to make them true himself.