Published at 17th of January 2026 11:04 am

Chapter 3778: Unknown Intentions

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He got up, all but ready to teleport to the Esocline Federation.

"Ah wait, Your Highness, the original reason I came here was to inform you that Prince Raijun seeks a meeting with you, most likely to solicit your aid."

"Make up some annoying, infuriating excuse, something that will grate on his nerves." Rui huffed. "I regret ever having supported that loser."

WHOOSH

Just like that, he was gone.

WHOOSH

He arrived in the Esocline Federation, teleporting straight into the administrative center of the inner core of the nation, surrounded by a large sea of computer terminals and researchers, who each jolted with shock at his sudden arrival. A synthetic odor hung in the air while the hum of machinery was constant and omnipresent within the administrative center. His sudden arrival caused several alarms to ring and protocols to be activated.

"Gyah!" A woman in front of him freaked out, falling backwards as she recognized him instantly. "Y-Your Highness?! Please do not teleport into our territory like this!"

Rui turned towards her.

She wore a lab coat with a badge that prominently said ’Vice President.’

"This is a violation of our sovereignty and a diplomatic offense!" She stood up, glaring at him through her thick spectacles. "Does the Kandrian Empire have no respect—"

"You’re finally here."

Rui turned to his right at the familiar voice. He spotted a man wearing a bodysuit with glowing circuitry running from head to toe; his eyes were covered in a large augmented reality visor.

"Calm down, everybody." He gestured with his hands to his underlings before turning towards Rui with a glare of his own. "You sure took your time. Telling me to summon the Immortal Sages and then disappearing for half a day. Tsk, we’re not your servants here, you know?"

"Sorry for the inconvenience," Rui replied. "I was dealing with a crisis or two. I’m ready now."

The Esoterist simply snapped his finger, causing wormholes to spontaneously form and swallow them up.

WHOOSH

They arrived at a large conference room with a large round table and many seats distributed across its perimeter, along with numerous projectors.

"They all can’t be here in person, after all," the Esoterist remarked. "Not sure what you want to speak to the Immortal Sages with at this point in time, but not all of them will be here. I’ve told them to be on standby, and many of them have agreed but it will take five minutes or so before the meeting can start."

"What about the... Shepherd?" Rui asked with a casual tone.

The Estorist smirked as he pointed a knowing gaze at Rui. "I see, so you’re going to don the crown, are you? That’s a rather unexpected move from you. At most, I expected you might put in place a puppet that largely adheres to your will. What’s with the change of heart?"

"None of your business." Rui shook his head. "Is she coming?"

"Definitely not." The Esoterist took a seat upon one of the chairs, leaning forward. "She’s a permanent no-show. She’s not interested in the sage community and interacting with other experts in other fields. Though I’ve heard she’s good friends with the Scrier. Their work intersects a lot. She’s also reached out to the Connector."

Rui raised an eyebrow. "The Connector?"

"What, you don’t know?" The Esoterist smirked. "Chairman Bradt is one of the newest generation of immortal sages."

Rui’s eyebrow rose as he sat at the other side of the table. "...I see. That makes sense. He definitely deserves it after all of his contributions to the connectivity of humanity. Can he help me find the Shepherd? Where do you think I can find the Shepherd?"

The Esoterist shrugged. "Ask the Beggar Sage, he’s likelier to know. Although he’s been busy with expansion, maybe he doesn’t. More importantly, why did you tell me to call this meeting with the Immortal Sages? Since you called all of them, I can only imagine that this is a broader but more important issue."

The Esoterist narrowed his eyes. "Just what is your intention with the Immortal Sages?"

Rui shook his head. "I’ll reveal that in the meeting."

CLACK

The door to the conference room opened, revealing a handsome young man with blood-red eyes and hair and a serene smile. "I must say, I’m curious too. I feel like this will be interesting."

Rui’s eyes sharpened as he studied the Psycher. "You... have you achieved Enlightenment of Self?"

"Haha, to think that you could detect that so easily, I see that you’ve gone through profound changes yourself," the Psycher smiled nonchalantly as he studied Rui’s ethereal body. "Your Large Soul Model system was really helpful, you see. I was finally able to achieve Enlightenment of Self. I have finally taken one more step towards understanding the true nature of consciousness."

He had almost forgotten that he had given the Psycher his Enlightenment of Self method after Amare had woken up. That was the deal they had made: if Amare got up using his method, Rui would give him the method with which he had reached the Sage Realm.

"To think you actually did it..." Rui remarked with an impressed tone. "Just how? You’re a smart man with a big brain and superhuman intelligence. But you don’t have a Martial Mind."

Rui remembered just how heavy the information involving this technique was. It took him years and years of constant background processing along with Gigabrain to finally complete the process and achieve Enlightenment of Self on the verge of death by the gu poison from Sage Asmodeous.

"I used artificial intelligence, believe it or not," the Psycher replied simply. "I had my friend here dedicate an entire databank to myself and then had the neural networks apply your algorithm to map out my own mind. Simultaneously, I had a neural interface to transfer the Great Soul Model into my mind after the artificial intelligence compiled all of it, and lo and behold..."

He spread his arms.

"I achieved Enlightenment of Self and deepened my understanding of consciousness."

Rui’s eyes lit up with an intense curiosity at those words. He had developed his own understanding of the nature of consciousness itself from his own insights and intuitions, as well as logical reasoning.

He was curious to compare it to the understanding that the Immortal Sage of the mind had developed and see whether they were similar. If they both came to the same conclusion, then the probability that it was true was much greater.

Yet, just when he was about to inquire, the other projections in the room came to life.

VMMM!

All of a sudden, a wave of holograms of the many Immortal Sages of human civilization emerged seated on the various seats across the table. The brightest minds of Panama had gathered at the beckon of the Dawnbringer. Their gazes pierced into him with expectations.

Whatever he had in mind was undoubtedly going to be significant, and not many of them were willing to miss it.

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