Chapter 3270: New Technique
Rui shook his head at the Mother’s words. "No, I have no intention of becoming a Mother of Nature, or would it be Father? Regardless..."
His tone was unyielding.
"...it would not mesh well with my Martial Art. You guys are too static, too stationary, not dynamic existences," Rui continued. "I do not intend to move off my Martial Path. Not now, not ever. The reason I seek the power of the six paths is to enhance my adaptive evolution. Becoming an existence like yourself will hamper that goal."
Rui had no intention of becoming a tree. While he appreciated nature and now understood it to a greater degree than he had ever done so in the past, it was still hardly central to him or his Martial Art.
’...Could you share the system of thought you created with our data?’ Mother Alicia requested him with an interested tone. ’It could potentially be quite revolutionary to us dark elves.’
"Sure," Rui shrugged lightly. "As long as I’m appropriately compensated, of course. This stuff wasn’t easy to create."
The Tapestry of Nature had settled, taking its place in his Martial Mind. The system of thought wasn’t as directly combat-oriented as the other systems of thought were; it only allowed him to interpret nature and understand it. It didn’t directly improve his adaptive evolution in any way.
"The real training starts from this point on." Rui’s eyes lit up with an eager determination. "I will need to harmonize with nature, I suppose."
He turned towards the Mother of Nature.
"Is it possible to master nature manipulation without the harmonization process?" Rui raised an eyebrow. "Based on your earlier explanation. The Hymn of Mind and Soul involves changing your conscious and subconscious mind to become more compatible with nature in order to increase the bandwidth of communication between nature and elf, right?"
’Correct, but in your case, it is difficult to say. I’ve never heard of a non-elf successfully being able to interface with nature. What you have achieved is frankly historic and unprecedented, which also means that there is nothing for me to base my analysis on. However... if I had to say, then I suppose in your case, it is not strictly needed. After all, one also needed a brain and mind that were evolved to communicate with nature, and you managed to overcome that with your so-called system of thought.’
Rui nodded. "That’s true. As a Martial Sage, there’s a lot that I can do to harness abilities outside of my genetic make-up by relying on my Martial Art. It might be possible for me to skip the conventional harmonization process."
’It might also be that you can’t actually harmonize with nature at all,’ Mother Alicia speculated thoughtfully. ’Having been exposed to your full power up close, I have realized that your mind and soul are already saturated for a different purpose. You use thought and subconscious cognition to enhance your Martial Art. This likely means that your mind and soul are simply not available for harmonizing with nature. I don’t think you will be able to change your mind and soul to become compatible with nature. I suspect that, as impressive as it is for you to be able to sense and understand the will of nature, you likely will not be able to follow the conventional progression of the Nature Path.’