80 Exchange 2 (1/2)
Chapter 80: Exchange 2
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.