Of course, martial artists couldn’t fight against strong firearms . But the forces behind them, the combination of martial arts enthusiasts, their communities and their influence was still a force to be reckoned with .
The police cars clearing the way was primarily to separate the martial adepts from normal people . After all, some of them were monsters unaffected by small firearms .
Garen got to know more about the Secret Martial Arts scene from Raydon .
The Secret Martial Arts scene was divided into the Northern and Southern sects . The Celestial Circle Gate and the Crimson Sand Sword led the Southern sects while the Gramdon Sword Sect led the North .
It was unclear to them what the situation in Northern side was, but the Southern scene was very chaotic . Small sects came and went every decade . Even some middle-sized sects fell from power . Only the unshakable Celestial Circle Gate and the Crimson Sand Sword thrived on throughout the years .
The biennial exchange held by Celestial Circle Gate was less of a communication event for all sects and more of a show of power between it and the Crimson Sand Sword .
Inside the main hall, an opera show started after the clown performance, and after that was a diva battle which made all the men start howling .
Two divas with hot bodies walked on the stage and started fighting . Whoever lost would strip off a piece of clothing . The blood of male audience sitting below started boiling .
However, the Celestial Circle Gate had full control of the situation . The two ladies left the stage in their underwear .
A band immediately followed the fight, and a couple waiters started serving the guests with an appetizing soup .
People watched the show while waiting for their friends and sect members to gather . As time went by, there were more and more people inside the hall . From ten to twenty people in the beginning to around sixty later on .
After dinner, Garen and Raydon followed the Celestial Circle Gate’s disciples out of the hall, they crossed the corridor and a garden and arrived at their respective rooms to rest .
The next morning, they were led to a practice ground for some morning exercises and flexing their bodies . Garen then returned to the main hall with the Raydons, waiting for people from the White Cloud Gate to arrive .
Raydon’s Orthogon Sword Gate already had a female disciple there .
Garen was still by himself .
On stage, the performance from yesterday repeated . After breakfast, Garen waited until noon . Finally he saw his fellow disciples from the White Cloud Gate come in after a few Celestial Circle Gate disciples .
"Senior Brother!"
"Senior Brother, how are you here so early?"
"Good morning, Senior Brother . "
Four young people wearing white training uniforms came to Garen in a line and respectfully greeted him .
There were two guys and two girls, their ages ranging from fifteen to twenty .
"I’ve been waiting for the whole morning . You guys are so slow . " Garen stood up and smiled . "All right, sit down and get some food . Tomorrow is the main tournament event . You all have to reach your best forms and don’t lose face for us all . "
"Yes!" four disciples replied uniformly as they sat down around Garen .
Scenes like this had happened for countless sects over the course of a few days . People around them did not care for it .
The five disciples watched some opera . The main hall was filling up as more people from other sects came in .
The group was very patient, a disciple from the Celestial Circle Gate had come earlier to hand them the event schedule .
Garen had already watched the show yesterday, so it was boring watching it again . The other four were not paying attention either, showing great anticipation for tomorrow’s tournament .
"This is an opportunity for the disciples to show off their strength . They have also formed a tournament ranking among themselves . "
Raydon was sitting close to Garen, the two sects had pulled their tables together . As time went by, they were getting closer .
"There is a ranking for normal disciples and one for the Secret Martial Arts disciples . Of course the latter is the more important one, but a sect’s overall strength is estimated by the overall rankings . "
"Does the overall ranking include the masters?" Garen asked in a whisper .
"Of course, but what’s different from the disciples is that the strength of older Secret Martial Arts masters is relatively fixed . They can’t improve too much in a short period of time . Normally these masters only compete once in a few years, which is why the younger disciples are the deciding factors of the rankings . "
"If that’s the case, shouldn’t every sect send out their best disciples to compete?" Garen was puzzled
"Naturally, but this ranking is not fully representative of a sect’s strength . Some disciples have graduated from their masters, and thus, cannot come to this tournament .
Which is why the major purpose of this ranking tournament is to find out who is the strongest among the young generation of disciples . Even if it’s rather inaccurate in estimating a sect’s overall strength," Raydon explained .
Garen then understood . Fei Baiyun’s other three disciples had already graduated . Therefore, they did not meet the requirements of this tournament . Bringing Garen to this tournament was probably also intended to enrich his experience .
Afterall, this exchange was held once every two years, so he could try again if he didn’t make it this time .
The White Cloud Gate was already one of the bottom small sects . It wasn’t easy to drop even lower .
After thinking this through, Garen started chatting with Raydon . The middle-aged man introduced some famous sects and gates to him .
Usually at Raydon’s own gate, nobody could bear his nagging . Now that there was someone willing to listen to his chatter, it lifted his spirits . Words shot out from his mouth non-stop .
Garen sat there with him the whole day and learned many things about the Secret Martial Arts world .
The next morning, Garen led the four disciples from the White Cloud Gate and followed someone from the Celestial Circle Gate . They did not go back to the main hall, but rather headed toward a platform along the corridor .
The platform was circular, located in an open patio on the ninth floor . Four highrise buildings surrounded it, blocking the scenery .
The stage looked like a giant white concrete button in the middle of a dark well, strangely eye-catching .
The area around it was spacious, over twenty sects all had their own sections . They circled around the platform, surrounding it .
Garen sat to the left of the platform, near the entrance, with the other four disciples behind him .
He glanced around . All he could see on the four sides of the platform were people’s heads . Each sect had only five people, other than the servicing disciples from the Celestial Circle Gate . In total, there were over a hundred people . All of whom looked very young .
The oldest he could see were middle-aged men and women . They were around the age of Raydon, less than forty-years-old .
The Crimson Sand Sword and the Celestial Circle Gate stood on opposite sides of the platform . Beo was in all blue, standing across a one-eyed man on the other side . Unlike Beo, the man was smiling with a mild and polite temperament .
Garen carefully observed that man . He was the strongest man from the Celestial Circle Gate, Andrela . He didn’t look too exceptional, far from Beo’s dazzling and intrepid appearance, but Garen could tell that the man was extremely self-confident, as if he could calmly face anything in the world .
Not only Garen, any disciples who were ambitious had their eyes on these two .
The chaotic platform settled down thanks to the organization from the Celestial Circle Gate’s disciples .
A skinny elderly man with a long beard jumped onto the platform holding a big brass bell .
"The ranking tournament officially starts now . We will begin with the lowest ranks from last time . Which sect would like to challenge first?" His voice was not loud, but everyone could hear him clearly .
Garen took out a piece of paper which listed the rankings of the twenty-seven sects .
White Cloud Gate was ranked seventeenth .
"I’ll go first . " A man in black clothing jumped onto the platform . He ripped off his clothes and threw them off the stage . "Encore Fist Sect, Laffer Draco . I challenge the Knife Fist Sect!"
Just then, a flat chested woman rushed onto the stage . "Nola, Knife Fist Sect!"
Without any more words of greeting, they started fighting . Hitting back and forth, their forms and techniques looked rigorous, but their hits were shallow and soft . The impact sounded weak . Oobviously, they both lacked strength, and their martial arts were focused on technique rather than strength .
No more than ten seconds later, the man in black was pushed off the stage . The sect he came from sent another disciple up the stage, which also got pushed down quickly . There was clearly a huge skill gap .
Normally, a match would not last a long time . The slightest mistake could be the deciding factor between people of a similar level . If they were close in strength, the result would depend on their current state of mind .
Garen sat in the audience and watched casually . The starting matches were only show matches between disciples without Secret Martial Arts .
Match after match ended on the platform . Some disciples with conflicts also used this place to solve their problems .
Soon, the White Cloud Gate was challenged by the eighteenth ranked Fighting Association . The challenger was a hot blond girl with blue eyes . She had just defeated her challengers from the nineteenth ranked sect . She had beaten four opponents all by herself and was still able to challenge the seventeenth ranked White Cloud Gate .
"Let me!" Behind Garen, a sturdy young man stood up excited . "Senior brother, can I go?"
The young man was middle of the pack among the four disciples . His Explosive Fist Art was not rank one yet, but his skin was still stronger than that of normal people . He was also very strong for his age .
"Simon, you think you can handle her?" Without master Fei, everything was up to Garen to decide . This was also an opportunity for him to solve problems on his own .
Simon nodded . "I watched her matches . Although her legs are well trained, her overall strength is weak . I just have to find an opportunity and take control of her lower body . "
"Fine then, don’t disappoint our White Cloud Gate," Garen told him . The overall ranking didn’t depend on this match, but mostly on the Martial Adept disciples . Yet if they lost too many matches, it would still have a negative impact on the ranking .
"Got it senior brother, don’t worry . " Simon smiled, and saluted his three other friends .
"Get lost, we all know you only wanted to fight because she’s hot . " A girl waved her hand speechlessly .
Simon laughed as he earnestly climbed onto the platform and walked in front of the blond girl .
Bang! Bang!
The opponent straight up gave him two side kicks, hitting Simon’s arm, and made a loud thud .
Simon stood steadily, his face showed a complacent smile .
"You are too weak!"
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