Kane yawned as he reclined back in his housing quarters. It had been half a year since he had been deployed to the G'ak'arkan Tribe. He had been deployed on many espionage and infiltration missions on the G'ak'arkan Tribe and the K'ulnen Tribe.
Against the G'ak'arkan Tribe, he mostly had to gather as much information on their movements as much as possible.
Prior to the success of the mission, every ounce of information mattered when it came to adjusting and optimizing their approach and plans surrounding this mission. After that, he spent most of his time gathering information on the K'ulnen Tribe before and during the war with them.
However, that too ended.
Once the diplomatic mission with the G'ak'arkan Tribe succeeded, his job was more or less completed for the time being. Rui quickly ensured that the negotiations with the G'ak'arkan Tribe were successful as both sides managed to come to agreements and trades that were satisfactory and fair to both sides.
Now, he didn't really need to be there. In fact, most of the intelligence team, both agents and Martial Artists had immediately taken the opportunity to return back home once the bulk of their mission had been completed.
Kane had adamantly chosen to remain on the island, he had no intention of going back home too early.
There were two reasons, firstly, he had reason to stay away from the Kandrian Empire. The further away from his family he was, the better it was for him. As Kane's Martial prowess grew, he only became more valuable to his family. Even if his Martial Path was different from that of many of the Martial Artists in his family, having him would increase the power of his family. The many more influential members of his family were not content letting him go.
One thing he found a little odd was the fact that his father never made an effort to bring him back directly.
The man was a Martial Sage, someone who had reached one of the highest Realms of the Martial Path. He had the power, both Martial and political, to drag Kane back without caring about the consequences. While the Wind and consequently the Lightning Sect were willing to protect him from the Fire Sect, it was a different matter if his father acted personally in the capacity of a father rather than as a Sect leader.
Kane knew that he was far from worth the political capital that would need to be spent to protect him from a Martial Sage that personally sought him out. Sage Viranaka, the leader of the Lightning Sect, would need to personally act for Kane to be protected.
And there was no way that was happening.
('Still, it's good to be far away from them.') Kane nodded to himself.
The second reason was that Rui was here. Although they didn't as much time hanging out together as they would have liked to. After all, Rui had become the manager of the settlement of the Martial Union and the highest in the chain of command. He had a lot of duties that had him busy.
Even when he wasn't working he was training. Once the deals succeeded, he shifted to full-time training. Spending his time isolated in one of the training facilities in the settlement.
('He's definitely found something new to pursue with his Martial Art,')Kane smiled.
He knew his friend well.
Suddenly, he got up from his bed and leaped to his feet. He wanted to visit him, perhaps it may not be the best time. But it was fine to try regardless.
"Have you seen Rui?" He asked one of Rui's assistants.
"Ah, he's in training facility fourteen sir," Stemple bowed with respect.
('Fourteen… That's that super long one for long-range techniques…') Kane noted.
Most of the training facilities in the settlement were centered around long-range techniques. After all, the settlement was loaded with long-range Martial Artists. They had to cater to the majority, and also they needed the training resources that were necessary for learning the Martial Union's techniques for training the G'ak'arkan Tribe in the promised techniques.
('He must be training some new long-range technique that he's cooked up,') Kane concluded.
He had no doubt that Rui was working on something significant. He recalled when he first saw Rui killing a Martial Squire with a single attack from a huge distance away. Martial Squires weren't supposed to be capable of such feats.
He grew startled when he reached the entrance of the facility, a huge gust of wind washed over him following a loud explosion.
('What in the world?') He sky-walked to get a good look into the open facility.
His eyes widened as he saw Rui making strange fish-like mouth movements rapidly before a huge boom followed.
('Was his long-range offense that strong?') Kane frowned.
No, that couldn't be the case. He had seen Rui's attacks from range and while they were decent for his grade, this attack was much stronger. At least twice as strong as before!
('Is this the technique that he learned from the G'ak'arkan Tribe?') Kane considered it for a moment before shaking his head. ('He wouldn't use techniques created by others without adding his own individuality to it…')
But that made what he was seeing even more impressive. Rui had managed to rapidly create a powerful technique that allowed him to grow this much stronger already.
Kane landed at the edge of the range far behind Rui.
He watched as Rui launched more attacks one after the other, celebrating or cursing alternatively.
It was a while before Rui finally heaved a sigh before turning around to leave.
"Woah!" Rui's head jerked back when he spotted Kane. "Since when were you there?"
"For a while now," Kane yawned. "I'm surprised you didn't even notice me."
"Ah sorry," Rui laughed. "I lose track of my surroundings when I train, tend to get sucked into it, especially if I'm enjoying it,"