"I would demonstrate sensory sabotage, but you have already experienced it multiple times recently, haven't you?" The Master asked.
Rui nodded. The Illusionary Dragon sabotaged almost all his senses, while Master Zeamer also sabotaged his sense of space and time multiple times.
"There are orders of difficulty when it comes to sensory sabotage," The man explained. "The five conventional senses are the easiest to sabotage. Most people are highly conscious of this and it is much easier to convey information about it. However, things like the sense of balance, the sense of space and time are far harder to sabotage, these senses are far more subconscious and detached from the consciousness."
Rui nodded, digesting everything that the Master conveyed. It was a lot to consider and think about, and he had yet to immediately come up with applications of these principles to develop a technique that truly resonated with his Martial Art and was truly attuned to adaptive evolution.
"You can have those considerations later, let us move on to principles that I have yet to demonstrate," The Master remarked, before turning to Ieyasu. He walked over to the man, yet that was not all he was doing. Rui could feel the shifts in his powerful mind as his body's non-verbal communication also shifted.
A lot of information, directives, and even instructions were being communicated to the subconscious centered around a single thing.
Apple.
SNAP
Master Zeamer dispelled the trance as he got rid of the misdirection, as Ieyasu's consciousness guarded his subconscious mind once he became aware of them.
"Tokugawa, what do I have in my right hand?" The man asked.
He held up an empty palm with nothing in it.
"An apple," The man replied with certainty.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive,"
"Good, oh what's that?" Master Zeamer pointed to the left, drawing his attention, before using a powerful misdirection technique to keep away his consciousness away while he put him in a trance.
"Incredible," Rui murmured. "He saw an apple where there wasn't any."
"That's right," Master Zeamer replied. "I embedded the existence of an apple in my hand into his subconsciousness, causing him to see one where there wasn't any."
"Wow..." Rui murmured.
Mental techniques were so radically different from anything he was accustomed to that he needed to spend some time forming a deeper understanding and familiarity with the field.
However, regardless of whether he was able to form perfectly attuned techniques to his Martial Art or not, the worst-case scenario was still extremely good. He would still be able to create menacing techniques that would allow him to wreak havoc against his opponents.
That was why he was quite optimistic about this phase of his training. The sheer things that were possible with illusions, sensory sabotage, and memory manipulation opened a whole new avenue of possibilities.
Plans, schemes, and strategies that were previously impossible would no longer be outside of the realm of possibility.
In fact, if he truly gained great proficiency within these fields, Chairman Deacon was almost no longer something to be wary of. If not for the fact that these techniques wouldn't extend to his family which remained a weakness, he would be able to stroll within the Shionel Confederation without any fear whatsoever.
Especially when he combined it with the techniques that he had learned from Master Reina.
"Now before we move on, let us look at some practical realities to temper your expectations," The Master remarked. "For one, the stronger your opponent, the harder it is to hypnotize them. The Martial Heart enhanced cognition, and that increases the difficulty. Your Martial Heart is the weakest that exists at the moment, so that will be a burden undoubtedly. Of course, your mind is disproportionately powerful, so it will not only compensate for that gap but do far more. Most Martial Seniors have much to fear against you if you fully realize your potential, but not all of them. Do not underestimate high-grade Martial Seniors."
Rui nodded thoughtfully. He didn't want to get too conceited because of the sheer potential he had to explore within the field of mind.
"There are limitations fundamental to hypnosis. For one, your mind is divided between constantly misdirecting the consciousness away from protecting the subconsciousness while you're hypnotizing it. if you stop misdirecting the consciousness midway, then it will return and shut your channel to the subconscious mind," Master Zeamer explained.
Rui nodded, this meant that he couldn't use the Greater Phantomind Void technique to misdirect the consciousness. The reason for that was because the Greater Phantomind Void technique used all his mental power, leaving no mental power for the actual hypnosis.
This was also another reason that the Hypnomaster chastised the technique.
'In that case, I might have to resort to a technique like the Lesser Phantomind Void.' Rui mused. 'I know that there isn't much that needs to be done for the misdirection part of hypnosis since I already have a technique that can be used for it. However, I will need to work hard to develop relevant imaginations for the actual manipulations of the target.'
"Moving on to the next tentative category of hypnosis," The Master remarked, drawing Rui out of his reverie. "Body sabotage. This is a form of hypnosis that affects the mind's control over the body. As I'm sure you're aware, the brain is the command center of the body. It sends signals of sorts across nerves to control muscles and that sort of thing. That is what we will be using hypnosis to disrupt. The foundation of the mechanics remains the same as the other principles. We communicate with the subconsciousness using imagination embodiment and embed that into the subconscious. Causing the mind to lose control over the body to a certain extent. Masters like myself can even induce all-out paralysis of the technique."
Rui's eyes widened with surprise. "That's extreme."
"It is also extremely difficult," He remarked. "It is also overkill and unnecessary usually. One can win battles with much less."
