Rui’s eyebrows knitted at those words. Unlike his previous words, they didn’t make any intuitive sense to Rui. Driving forces of Martial Artists being too weak to survive beyond a certain level?

“I don’t understand,” Rui interjected. “What does that mean?”

The man remained silent for a few seconds, before finally replying. “Take, for example, one of the examples I just gave you; money. You would be surprised by the number of people that pursue Martial Art to gain greater wealth. After all, Martial Squires like yourself can earn an income in the top five percent to the top one percent of incomes in the entire nation.”

Rui nodded. Lashara had even refused the significant sums of money that Rui offered her, it was so much money that the Quarrier Orphanage didn’t know what to do with it! Lashara did not want to aggressively expand the Orphanage’s scale because there was no way that the current caretakers would be able to handle anything drastic. She was extremely reluctant to rely on hired aid, causing her to reject any such notions.

“However, if one becomes a Martial Artist in their pursuit of wealth. What do you think happens to their motivation once they obtain wealth? As I said, Martial Squires like yourself are quite wealthy. A person whose objective to obtain money is their driving force will lose motivation to grow stronger and pursue their Martial Path after they have accomplished that objective, naturally. After all, they have completed the objective of the pursuit which caused them to grow stronger. They will no longer have reason to grow stronger, and thus no longer have a driving force to grow stronger.” Senior Ceeran explained. “That’s what I mean by their driving force not even surviving past a certain stage.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Rui grew absorbed in thought. “Unless the person has extremely difficult ambitions with wealth, like becoming the richest person on the entire continent or something, they will lose their driving force long before they reach higher Realms.”

“Exactly,” The man sighed. “That is the true core reason why so few Martial Artists reach the highest of Realms. It takes a truly powerful and resilient driving force to push through the restrictive barriers within each Realm and the gigantic walls that stand between each Realm. Martial Masters are all truly powerful beings with driving forces that drove them all the way past three Martial Realms and into the Master Realm. These personages possess driving forces that are much stronger than any shallow objective such as wealth.”

“I haven’t met many Martial Masters, I’ve only spoken to one more than once, a retired one.” Rui sighed.

“You shouldn’t underestimate him just because he’s retired,” Senior Ceeran gave him a measured look. “The old man didn’t become a Martial Master by sitting at his table doing nothing. He isn’t a headmaster because he wants to kick back and relax. The old man has grand ambitions and designs for the Martial world that cannot possibly be achieved without the power that he possesses today.”

Rui grew extremely curious at those words. In all the time that Rui had known Master Aronian, he had never learned anything truly significant about the man, asides from the fact that he held Rui with high regard.

“And what exactly is he trying to achieve?” Rui asked.

Senior Ceeran shook his head after a few seconds “It’s not for me to say. The point is that while there are strong impediments that Martial Artists face within each Realm, the true reason that many of us don’t overcome them is because of ourselves.”

Rui processed his words. “Is that why you’re willing to go far to accomplish your goals?”

Senior Ceeran nodded. “It’s reaffirming my own conviction and ambition.”

Rui felt that he had come to understand the man much better in the span of this small conversation than he did before. The man drove himself far, perhaps too far sometimes, in order to ensure that he never got too comfortable with what he currently possessed. He did not want to let his driving force grow dull and soft. He primed himself to never let that happen.

He also felt better about his own situation. That was because his driving force was extraordinarily difficult to achieve.

(‘It’s not so simple though,’) Rui shook his head.

On a fundamental level, Rui simply wanted his pursue his Martial Path for as long and far as he could, preferably forever!

This desire was open-ended and could never be fulfilled no matter how strong he became, intrinsically.

On the other hand, he also did possess a more specific objective; fulfilling Project Water. The project that he set out to achieve a lifetime ago. Furthermore, he had upgraded the difficulty of the project astronomically more difficult by expanding it to include everything in this world too, which was exponentially harder than if he had just limited it to Earth standards.

These two desires served as his greatest driving forces in his pursuit of power, and he was very confident that they were powerful enough to drive him to much greater Realms of power and much deeper down his Martial Path. Up to this point, his rate of growth was truly spectacular and didn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down, if anything, it had only accelerated the stronger he got!

It was a good reaffirmation that he was on the right path. As long as he gave himself time, his driving forces would propel him to heights that even he couldn’t fully imagine!

“That’s good,” Senior Ceeran suddenly said with an approving nod as he watched Rui. “You possess what it takes to enter the Senior Realm, at least. I can’t say if you’ll go any further, but I’m certain that one day you will surpass me as I am today. Truly, I cannot wait to see that day.”

“Neither can I,” Rui replied.

The two of them silently sky-walked slowly towards their destination.