Published at 7th of November 2026 6:33 am

Chapter 4659: Gentle Versus Strict

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

The sparring match ended quickly as Ria did her best to resist her father’s grappling holds. He expertly outmaneuvered her, getting her in a rear choke hold, while she tried pushing every single domino of causality she could find.

Except she couldn’t find any, and she certainly couldn’t push them. Every time she pushed a domino that she did find, she felt as though a flood of water spilled over, disrupting the chain of causality and preventing her from reaching her desired outcome.

Yet, she resisted valiantly nonetheless, before eventually resigning.

"Alright, I yield," she managed to squeeze out in a frustrated tone of voice, tapping her father’s burly arm that wrapped around her neck.

The rear chokehold didn’t have the kind of finality that it did for humans, for Martial Sages could control their circulatory system to allow blood to flow to the brain despite the pressure on their arteries. Still, it was a very difficult position to break out of, especially when one’s opponent was Rui.

"You’re way too strong, Dad," Ria muttered with envious admiration as she rubbed her neck. She had known his power, of course. He was the strongest. Still, with so much of his power sealed, she had hoped to be able to achieve a greater resistance. Her father had patiently waited for her to show all of her cards before fully crushing all of them.

Rui smiled at his daughter, patting her head. "You’ve grown stronger. Your mastery over non-kinetic offensive principles is genuinely shocking considering how young you are. There are people who have dedicated centuries to reach the level of proficiency that you have achieved in a matter of months."

He was not exaggerating in his praise. Nerve tapping, blood-vessel manipulation, internal system sabotage- these were deep fields of Martial Art with countless principles. Mastering them to the extent that she had was something that one could dedicate many lifetimes to. On top of that, her execution of them was so sublime that not even he could replicate that nominally without the Forge of Creation, Soul Retcon, and general adaptive evolution. And she could do it without needing to sacrifice anything.

It made sense in hindsight; his daughter was suited for such techniques. There were an infinite number of ways to harm a person. It was just that nobody had the appetite to master countless paths of harm infliction when punching and kicking worked just fine. The more principles of harm infliction one learned, the more thinly one was stretched. Poison, paralysis, hypnosis- these alternate forms of harm infliction were deep fields that demanded commitment.

His daughter, however, was the princess of causality. She attained deep proficiency in these fields simply by applying her affinity for causality to harm infliction. And she did this without active training, while completing operations in the field in highly dangerous distant infected worlds.

Her potential was limitless, which was why he didn’t mind domineeringly crushing her without trying to soften the blow too much. The sparring match ended even sooner than their previous matches. Helping her understand her limits would prevent her judgment from being clouded with arrogance.

She turned towards him with amber eyes glistening with an intense curiosity. "What was that thing you did where you disappeared? You called it hyperdimensional reality, right? What is that? Can you teach it to me?"

Rui smiled at his daughter’s eagerness. But he simply shook his head. "It’s too advanced for you. Your rate of growth has partially compensated for your lacking foundation. But you still have a lot of more basic stuff to master before you get anywhere near the very cutting edge of Martial Art at the frontier."

His words only made her more curious, but she simply nodded.

"Your father is right, but too generous." Her mother’s words drew her attention, and she gazed at her with a more critical expression. "You are relying on your extraordinary sense for causality to compensate for mastery. The gap between proficiency and mastery is vast. Do not assume that your extraordinary talent can entirely make up for honing your Martial Art in your body. There are things that can only be obtained by practicing so hard that you engrave them in every cell of your body. Come, I shall correct your mindset."

Ria groaned as her mother dragged her into another sparring match after feeding her a potion. Rui simply stood to the side, wincing as her mother ruthlessly beat the living daylights out of her daughter with an aggressive onslaught of attacks.

Rui had been firm, but gentle. His goal had been to evaluate his daughter’s progress and to temper her mindset, and open her eyes to the possibilities that existed beyond her field of vision. He chose to grapple her because he didn’t like hitting his daughter. Grappling was grueling, but a person could emerge unscathed even if they were firmly dominated in a grappling match. Grappling was also like a hugging match, and he got to hug his precious baby girl, so that was a plus. This was the kind of mindset the soft father had.

Amare, on the other hand, was merciless. The subtle arrogance that Ria had developed after breaking through to becoming a truly extraordinary Martial Sage was thoroughly washed out of her bones with each palm strike that Amare battered her with. It didn’t matter if she bruised or even started bleeding; the spartan mother didn’t hold back.

Ria found her mother’s Martial Art to be as mind-boggling as that of her father. An efficiency so profoundly deep that it was relativistic. It warped the fabric of space and time, causing her attacks to tunnel through reality. With her mother, it felt like even if she pushed dominoes that could bring about her victory, her mother would simply stop the dominoes from falling, and then rearrange them back to how they were.

Her mother was purposely negating her sense of causality so that the only thing Ria could rely upon was the mastery and proficiency of her techniques, her principles, and her movements.

They were found to be extremely lacking. Amare scowled when she saw how raw her daughter’s movements were without her extraordinary gifts.

"You have been fooling around in the frontier for too long. Your mother won’t let you return until this travesty has been fixed!"

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