Out of the many Martial Artists who chose to traverse the Great Forest of Hypnonrarak, a solid proportion of them died. What was surprising was that the rate of death of Martial Apprentices, Squires, and Seniors was not nearly as large as one would expect.
Rui felt like he understood why this was the case. Given that the Hypnomaster had created the forest, he assumed that this was an intended outcome.
'Is he trying to equalize the difficulty for all Martial Artists that come to seek him?' Rui wondered. 'Maybe he wanted to make it fairer for Martial Artists of all Realms so he didn't weed out worthy Martial Artists of the Lower Realms.'
He wasn't sure, but that didn't change the challenges that he had to overcome. The journey to the Great Forest of Hypnonarak was long and tedious. Rui had to cross many nations, mountains, forests, seas, and even an ocean as he made his way to the forest.
The forest was in a region of the continent known as the Gereign Region. The Gereign Region used to be a rather lowly populated and rural part of the continent before the Hypnomaster came along and created the forest that served as his abode.
The event completely changed the fate of the Gereign Region, turning it from a place within nothing in the middle of nowhere to one of the biggest supplies of narcotics drugs.
According to the intelligence supplied by the Beggar's Sect, most of the black markets across many nations directly got the supplies they needed from the Gereign Region, which was there were a lot of vested interests.
If not for the fact that the Hypnomaster was said to be a particularly powerful Martial Master who had claimed the entire forest and surrounding region as his domain, Martial Masters would have also been deployed by many forces to enter the forest.
However, the reason that this did not happen was exactly due to the fact that they would be infringing on his domain. While the Martial Master apparently tolerated Martial Artists of the Lower Realms trying to gain his favor, he had killed Martial Masters over that offense.
'Interesting...' Rui mused in thought as he revisited the intelligence. 'Finding him may be a challenge, I should probably gather more intelligence from the Beggar's Sect. Speaking of which, I hope they have a good branch in the Gereign Region.'
He still had the badge that Sian had given him in the Derimont Bazaar. It was the only way he had to actually contact the Beggar's Sect without any hassle. He also had to undertake operations from the Beggar's Sect to repay the remaining part of his commission payment.
However, given that the Gereign Region was infested with matters surrounding the Great Forest of Hypnonarak, he was sure that whatever missions and operations he was assigned would also be related to the forest.
Still, he wasn't entirely averse to it.
'If I'm not wrong, I should have an advantage in the Great Forest of Hypnonarak.' Rui mused.
He wasn't entirely sure because the mechanics of the more dangerous effects of the forest were unknown to him, but he ought to have a better time against those than his peers.
In a broader sense, there was a reason that the Hypnomaster created a forest like the Great Forest of Hypnonarak. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was most likely to filter out people who didn't have powerful minds or an affinity for mental techniques since his specialty was hypnosis.
If that was the case, then surely Rui stood a better chance of clearing the entire forest and reaching his objective. Once he did, he could freely learn mental techniques from the Hypnomaster.
However, he wondered how appropriate that was now that he had learned the truth about the breakthrough to the Master Realm.
Mental techniques did not correlate with the Martial Mind. He wasn't sure how much he ought to invest into it now that he learned that they do not further his path to the Master Realm.
'I possess far too much of an affinity for them for me to reject though.' Rui mused. 'Besides, while mental techniques don't inherently correlate with the Martial Mind, that doesn't mean I can't create a system of thought that is centered around the application of a given mental technique.'
He wasn't sure how that would end up looking, but he was confident that he could do it.
'In a sense, one needs to expand their Martial Art in order to develop their Martial Mind. The larger your Martial Art, the more ways it can be applied, and thus the greater the ease with which the Martial Mind can be developed.'
With that out of the way, it would probably be greatly beneficial to him if he added an extra layer to his Martial Art, it would increase his flexibility and versatility. With that extra element at hand, the permutations and combinations of the various applications of his Martial Art would rise greatly.
Furthermore, it would probably give him the final set of tools he needed to be truly confident in taking down Chairman Deacon. The assassination training he got from Master Reina certainly helped as well, but whatever training he would get from the Hypnomaster would be sure to improve his power on a qualitative level.
Much time passed until Rui finally reached the Gereign Region, overlooking it from atop a mountain.
The murky forest at the center of the region was absolutely gigantic, and also extremely dense and thick.
A strange mist occupied the inscrutable forest, giving it an eerie edge. Yet the regions surrounding the forest felt much more lively and energetic to Rui's instincts. While the dangers were certainly difficult, there were all too many people who were willing to risk it to strike it big.
'Alright, time to see what the hype is all about.'
Rui was curious about what all the hype about the forest truly was like in person. There was a difference between reading and experiencing for one's self.
