The Martial Unity

('Last time, against the Root, I was able to compensate for lacking reaction time against the Root with the VOID algorithm instead of trying to create a technique that improved my effective reaction and reflex time,') Rui mused. ('Maybe I should attempt the latter this time.')

The issue was that this too was an extremely ambitious project as well. Improving reaction time was one of the holy grails of Lightning Sect. Even for him, this was not something that could be done immediately.

('If push comes to shove, I'll create techniques that allow me to sense on a quantum level and techniques that improve my reaction time somehow,') He sighed. ('But is that really the only two paths forward? Is there no other simpler and easier solution that would allow me to overcome this obstacle easily?')

He reviewed everything he knew about lightning. An immense amount of charge is built up in a cloud with the excess electrons accumulating at the bottom of the cloud while positive charges migrate away to the upper portion of the cloud.

This causes a positive charge to build up on the surface of the valley. Streams of electrons jump from the cloud reaching downwards, this negative streak was known as the step ladder. Simultaneously, streams of positive charges would emerge from the land moving upwards towards the sky, known as streamers.

Because streamers and step ladders were of opposite charges, they would be attracted to each other and meet midair, completing the circuit between the clouds and the land. An immense flow of current generating a lot of light and sound would occur from the cloud to the ground, that was the lightning bolt.

It was a phenomenon for which a lot of unseen precurring events preceded the lightning bolt.

('Maybe…') Rui's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. ('Maybe I don't need to predict the trajectory of the lightning bolt after it has begun. What if I rely on observing the conditions before the lightning bolt has even formed?')

He realized that he was being too close-minded in regard to the manner in which he could predict the lightning. He didn't need to predict its future trajectory based on the existing trajectory, that was exceedingly difficult.

Not only could he not perceive the variables responsible for determining its exact trajectory, but the timeframe he had to predict before it was too late to avoid the lightning bolt was also small. He didn't know how he was supposed to be able to do anything when the lightning bolt reached the ground within a millisecond.

('However… if I am able to infer information about lightning before it even begins based on the preceding events that occur prior to it, then…') He realized that this was a viable strategy. It was entirely possible for what he had in mind to be realized.

('If I can somehow use the streamer and the step ladder that occur before a lightning strike, then I will be able to gain crucial information on the lightning bolt,') Rui replied.

The streamer that emerged from the land, constituted of positive charges, could allow Rui to detect the destination of the lightning bolt ahead of time.

('I need to be able to sense the streamer,') Rui's twinkled with realization. If he could properly read the preceding conditions of lightning well enough, then he would be able to know the destination of the lightning bolt ahead of time!

This meant the viability with which he could evade lightning was extremely high!

('This is much more practical than developing a technique that greatly enhances my combat cognition speed, or gives me quantum senses.

The latter was downright impossible when compared to the grounded solution of analyzing the preceding phenomena of a lightning bolt to dodge it. That was why he was rather optimistic about his chances of creating some means to be able to gain information.

He realized that he had been too fixated prior on specifically trying to predict the lightning bolt in a particular way.

('Subconsciously, I was getting too fixated on my prior successes, and assumed that that was the only way to do things. I couldn't be further wrong.') He shook his head.

The method that he had previously been trying to apply was similar to the ODA System, where he concretely predicted the future by analyzing the past. The ODA System was so successful, that it was easy for Rui to fall into a self-made trap where he limited himself to an extremely narrow path of how he ought to go about things.

('But that's not right. Information is information. Knowledge is knowledge. No matter where it comes from, no matter how I got it,') Rui mused.

It was good that he found the opportunity to correct the fallacious line of thought that he had had prior.

Now that he had figured out the broad solution by which he would accomplish his goal, he had come to figure out exactly how he would apply the solution in real life. Sensing the stream of positive charges that emerged from the land was not going to be easy, after all, he couldn't do it now, that meant he would need to come up with new mechanics by which he would be able to sense the positive upward stream from the ground.

('Think…') He closed his eyes as he pressed his hands into his temples.

The positively charged upward stream of particles was made up of charged molecules and atoms, and from what he understood, they likely weren't super thin like electrons were. Perhaps if he developed a way to sense charge, then he would be able to sense them.

However, not even Martial Squires possessed an active sense

He glanced at the ground as another idea popped into his head. ('If I simply am unable to even begin to sense a particular kind of phenomenon, then… Maybe I can do what I did the last time I ran into that problem.')

He recalled how he overcome his inability to sense curvature in space to create the Riemannian Echo.