"Naturally, many of them were not resigned to these limits. Yet it was a clear fact that there was nothing left within the body." She explained. "No matter what they did, they were unable to squeeze out any more wells of power hidden deeper within the body beyond the Martial Heart. Such things do not exist."
Rui listened in absolute rapt attention.
"It was an unprecedented period in Martial history. After all, the path forward had always been to strengthen the body through training techniques or master new techniques that squeezed the potential of what the body had to offer," She explained. "However, when they reached what was the peak of the Senior Realm back then, none of these options were of any avail. The reason for this was simple. Martial Art techniques at that time period centuries ago were shit. Their Martial Bodies were also weaker and had less to offer. The development of techniques was far, far harder to do than it is today."
Rui could understand why. In his generation, there was an ocean of principles and techniques that served as the building blocks of new techniques. The number of principles and concepts discovered and explored were enormous, and the sheer number of combinations and permutations of those principles combined in single techniques was dizzying.
It was just much, much easier to develop at least partially original and unique techniques because of the massive depth of the foundation that they could build off.
This was especially true when the quality of training and growth resources were higher than they had ever been, eliminating many of the barriers and hurdles that would otherwise impede this process.
"Centuries ago, when none of this existed to this extent, the Martial Seniors of the time, having come to the realization that there were hard limits to power, had begun making better use of the power they already had. Thus, their combat styles grew more complex and mindful. They pushed their minds to the limit thinking about how they could better apply their power. Strategy. Tactics. Analytics. Judgement. Cognition. These became increasingly more common and deeper than they had ever been."
She paused for a moment "That's not to say that they were particularly stupid or lacking in strategy or tactics, it just was not the focus prior due to the options of simply becoming stronger, furthermore, Martial culture was much different back then. They each raced to make more thoughtful applications of their power. Instead of just outputting power, they made more effective use of power. Thoughtful applications. Strategic decisions. Tactical choices. Analytical outlooks into their opponents."
"They did grow stronger, naturally." She explained. "Of course, their actual body and techniques were largely the same or only grew stronger in a natural sense over long periods of time, but they also grew visibly stronger when their combat became more mindful and thoughtful than it ever had been before. They had come to realize the power of mind and thought. Previously, it was something that had only been applied to creating individualistic techniques attuned to their Body and Art. Now, it was something that was actively applied in actual combat much more than it had ever been."
"Unbeknownst to them, however..." She tapped the side of her head. "They had already begun traveling down the path to the Master Realm. Particularly, the best of them had taken a step further. Not only did they apply their power more mindfully and thoughtfully, they had even attuned their mindfulness and thoughtfulness to their Martial Art, Body, and Heart. They created systems of thought that could specifically elevate their styles of combat to much higher levels than they could accomplish before. Over time, their thoughts and minds had become so elaborate that they actually exceeded the depths of their consciousness."
She paused for a moment. "A critical threshold had been reached. One fine day, the strongest and oldest of Martial Seniors fought a battle that threatened his life. It threatened to kill him and all the power that he had cultivated. The battle pushed not just his Martial Body and Heart to their limits, but also his mind. On the verge of death, that Martial Senior changed the world forever as his mind broke past its limit, activating what we now know as the Martial Mind. He became the first Martial Master."
Rui's eyes widened. "...The Martial Mind?"
"The Martial Mind is not a well of physical power like the Martial Heart. Unlike the Martial Heart, the Martial Mind does not exist."
"What?" Rui's eyes sharpened.
"It is as I said." She calmly declared. "The Martial Mind does not exist. Not naturally. Not until one actually creates it from nothing."
Rui simply stared at her with sharp eyes as his mind furiously tried piecing together the information she had revealed. "You're not being fully transparent."
She smirked at his words mischievously. "I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out nonetheless. The mind has a lot of untapped potential you know? Although we haven't mapped it, it is suspected that we use only ten percent of our brains."
Rui stared at her with a blank expression. Many laymen back on Earth also believed that humans only used ten percent of their brains.
There were even movies that operated on that premise.
Unfortunately, it was an urban myth.
Almost entirely misinformation.
The truth was a lot more nuanced. The fact of the matter was that different parts of the brain were used for different processes during different time periods. Most of the brain was used all of the time.
The reason that it was only almost entirely misinformation, and not entirely, was because it was true that the consciousness occupied a small part of the brain, and it was also true that there was latent, untapped potential across the organ.
"However, there is no doubt that the Apprentice Realm taps into most of that potential," Rui argued. "The increase in combat-oriented cognitive parameters of the Apprentice Realm matches the very limit of the most generous evaluations of the untapped latent potential in the brain. In other words, Martial Apprentices have fully realized the potential of the brain."
"Correct, however, that was true only before the brain underwent the evolution process." She smiled. "And it was true only before the brain grew empowered by the Martial Heart. The untapped well of power within the body grew only larger after evolution. Why would you think that wouldn't be the same for the mind?"
Rui widened his eyes. "Are you saying...?"
"Yes. Rejoice, as powerful as your mind is, it still has the potential to grow far more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Now sit, while I explain the rest of it."
