Chapter 206 – Martial Street Matches
(Mustang: Newbie mistake, I was reading the raws from a different source than the original one, and made a mistake. The name of the region here is Tong City’s region, like the Jiu Yu City’s region in the previous arc……)
More and more strong youngsters continued to pack inside the Ying Song hotel, all travelling to the Tong City’s region in search of the Tong Tian Sect’s secret storehouse.
This storehouse was also rumored to be the secret library of the Sect, but had a limitation that any newly entering member must be below the age of fifty.
The age of fifty wasn’t considered to be very high for a pract.i.tioner; in fact most talented martial artists under the age of fifty were able to enter into the ‘Emerging from the womb’ layer by then.
Of course, the likes of Xuan Yuan Po Jun and Yan Yu Si were considered peerless geniuses, but treasures such as the Tong Tian Sect’s library weren’t enough to entice their attention, and hence they were unlikely to compete for it.
The Tong Tian Sect’s library wasn’t a very big thing in its own, but it was the lure of its inheritance that had made it so popular.
Inheritance is only a mere illusion, and no one is ever truly guaranteed to inherit anything.
In contrast to this, the secret library inside the Tian Yuan ring was far more important, and was far better than the Tong Tian secret library.
However, Bi Fan hadn’t been able to use the Tian Yuan Ring, the Gourd, or the sword ‘Bloodshed’ properly, which is why he wasn’t considering them to be worth much at the moment.
No one bothered Bi Fan and his friends in the hotel, and hence they were able to set out early in the morning without any delays.
However, because they were afraid that the Wu Ji Sect disciples might try to cause mischief on the road ahead, they decided to tread very carefully.
They finally managed to reach the Tong City after a hectic and tiring journey.
They saw several powerful youngsters on the way, all of them seemingly travelling to the same destination, and with the same goal.
However, since Bi Fan, Mo Nan, Jing Feng, Blue Dragon, Ji Ying Lan, and w.a.n.g Zhong were all quite strong in their own merit, and moreover were walking together, no one dared to bother them.
At the end of it all, the road to the Tong City turned out to be less troublesome than they were expecting it to be.
The Tong City was quite spectacular, and was spread over a larger area than the Jiu Yu City.
The Tong City’s territory had two major factions inside it, the Hong Sect and the Bai Sheng palace.
The Hong Sect and the Bai Sheng palace were both considered to be far more powerful than any of the top five sects of the Jiu Yu City.
There were several other Sects in the region, and quite a few of them were comparable to the top Five sects from the Jiu Yu City.
It could be said that the Tong City was more powerful than the Jiu Yu City in general.
Since Bi Fan and his friends had agreed upon keeping a low profile in the city, they decided to seek refuge in small and isolated hotel.
“Many strong youngsters from several different Sects have already arrived in the Ting City already, but it seems that they haven’t yet opened the Tong Tian secret Library yet. We’ll all take turns in making enquiring separately, and then we’ll decide on a plan of action.” w.a.n.g Zhong suggested.
“Walking around separately won’t be an issue?” Bi Fan asked.
“Don’t worry, the Hong Sect watches over the Tong City, and they forbid all personal clashes in the city. So unless you’re trying to be an outlaw, you’ll be fine.” w.a.n.g Zhong smiled.
“Oh that’s good!” Jing Feng eased up a bit.
Most cities didn’t allow personal clashes within the scope of the city, but most cities had exceptions to their rules. Fortunately, the Tong City had none.
Since they were staying in a small and isolated hotel, it was hard for them to make their enquiries, and therefore, the six of them took turns touring the city, and made their enquiries simultaneously.
After a few days, they had managed to gather enough information to figure out the overall situation.
The Tong Tian Sect’s secret storehouse hadn’t been opened yet; moreover, no knew one when it would be opened. In fact, no one even knew its location.
Since several strong youngsters had gathered from all over the world, Bi Fan and his friends could obviously feel the pressure mounting on their shoulders. It was evident that the treasures in this storehouse would be very limited, and only one person would be allowed to inherit it, therefore it was awfully hard for any person to be successful in this venture.
However, since Bi Fan and his friends had no intention of returning without giving things a try, they decided to use this time to learn more about it, and sharpen their skills until it was time to move into action.
This was obviously a rare opportunity since they were all under the age of fifty, and might actually be capable of competing for the treasures.
However, it was also a very dangerous task; no adventure can ever be undertaken without undertaking its risks.
Moreover, an opportunity to cross swords with people from different corners of the world was an even rarer opportunity, and wasn’t one that Bi Fan would want to miss on.
As far as Bi Fan was concerned, the treasure and inheritance of the Tong Tian Sect was secondary to increasing his strength and expanding his experience.
One day Blue Dragon returned with a confirmed new, and seemed quite excited with his discovery.
“Brothers, I’ve found an amazing place to spend our time here at, what do you say?”
Bi Fan shook his head, and smiled: “Brother Dragon, what’s the name of this amazing place?”
“The Martial Street!” Blue Dragon announced loudly: “There are several rings in the Martial Street, and we can watch the matches there meanwhile we wait for more news about the Tong Tian secret storehouse.”
“Well, staying in this hotel is very boring anyway; let’s go check this place out.” Jing Feng agreed in a heartbeat.
Young hearts are often impatient. Bi Fan and his friends immediately set out.
The Martial Street was the name of a zone inside the Tong City which housed several rings, almost a hundred of them in close proximity.
Each ring had its own ‘Lord’, and one could win good rewards upon beating the Lord of the ring; in case a contestant lost to the Lord, then they would have to pay a certain amount of spars as a losing charge.
The more powerful the Lord of a ring was, the higher the ring’s collection amount. As long as one was able to defeat the Lord, the contestant would get to walk away with half of the ring’s collection. And in case one was able to defeat the lord, he’d be given two options; defeat the lord three times in a row and walk away with the entire collection of the ring, or step off the ring immediately with just half.
The Hong Sect would often pour some money into these rings in order to attract more people into fighting in these rings, and would then use these rings to train their disciples. They would also use these rings to recruit more talent into their sect.
The existence of these rings had made their sect quite powerful, and they weren’t much bothered about the money they were pouring into these rings on occasions.
Since this Street was quite popular, the Hong Sect had deployed a dedicated and strong faction of their people to manage it.
Bi Fan and his friends reached the Martial Street zone quite early in the morning, and decided to find a new hotel to settle down in.
Since a lot of strong youngsters had poured into the Tong City, this place was even livelier than usual.
Bi Fan and his friends found a decent hotel soon enough and then immediately went to the nearest ring to spectate the matches.
They had barely arrived at the ring when a contest started.
Two fairly strong people were engaged in a rather fierce battle on the stage above.
Both these men were ‘transformation’ layer martial artists, and were using some very sophisticated style of martial arts that Bi Fan had never seen before. Naturally, Bi Fan quickly found a place to sit, and started watching the contest keenly.
The battle between these two strong fighters lasted almost as hour before the Lord managed to emerge victorious.
“The Lord wins. The ring now has twelve thousand Spars in its collection. You can get Six Thousand Spars if you beat the Lord!” the referee being a man from the Hong Sect was obviously trying to create a hype in order to attract more people into partic.i.p.ating in the ring.
Blue Dragon started getting an itch in no time; and this was one kind of itch he simply needed to scratch: “I want to contest in this ring…. You won’t try to oppose me brothers, will you?”
“If you’re contesting in this ring, we naturally won’t oppose you brother. Anyway, there are too many other rings here for us to contest in.” Jing Feng said with a smile.
There weren’t too many restrictions for partic.i.p.ating in these rings; one only needed to younger than thirty years in age. The Hong Sect had built a separate ring for people above the age of thirty.
Since no one else was taking up the challenge, Blue Dragon was no longer able to stop himself: “I’ll play against the Lord!”
Blue Dragon slowly made his way to ring, his face red with excitement.
“What is the name of my compet.i.tor?” The Lord was a big man, but it was difficult to tell his age attributing to his dark complexion.
This might have been the man’s usual vocal tone, but it sounded like the rumbling of thunder to Bi Fan’s ears.
Even though the man was only a ‘transformation’ layer martial artist, his physical strength was quite high.
Therefore, it would obviously be difficult for an equal-layered challenger to defeat him unless the challenger also had a decent amount of physical strength.
This man had already beaten five martial artists from the same layer as him, and was obviously quite confident in his own ability.
Blue Dragon had already seen enough about this man’s fighting style during the previous contest.
“Jiu Yu City’s Blue Dragon; please to meet you!” Blue Dragon greeted his opponent.
“Tong City’s Iron Hands; pleased to meet you!” that dark colored man greeted in return.
“Start the contest!” the nervous looking referee waved the contest to a start.