Chapter 636: Different Priority.

‎Dozens of martial arts from different clans or individuals who didn’t affiliate with any clans fought with everything they got on stage. Some of them were overwhelming and some were underwhelming that it was one-sided. Aris was the one who observed every move, finding the art in those moves, but her expression was telling otherwise.

‎"What’s wrong?" Rasmus asked with his brows raised, seeing the furrow of Aris’ brows.

‎"Most of their moves are exaggerated, and there are a few moves that don’t seem to be necessary," Aris pointed out as she kept watching.

‎"Is that what you think, young lady?" A voice of an old man could be heard behind Rasmus, Aris, and Serena. "It’s such a refreshing perspective, coming from someone from a different continent," he added as he laughed softly.

‎‎They turned around and found the same elder that checked their dantian from earlier. He looked so pleased when he heard Aris’ observation.

‎"Elder," Rasmus smiled gently as he did the hands gesture at the elder. Aris and Seren did the same.

‎"I apologize if my words offend you since you’re also a martial artist," Aris said, and Serena looked at her with her brows raised because to her, Aris sounded just like Rasmus.

‎"Ahahah, don’t be! Don’t be!" The elder waved his hand in front of his face with a huge grin on his face. "Seeing that you can see that the moves are exaggerated without knowing martial arts. To notice that much with a single glance... your eye for combat is exceptional," he pointed out.

‎The elder looked at Aris’ fingers and then at Rasmus’ fingers, but he didn’t see any callouses, no roughness on their palms. He knew what happened to the Ganyi Clan from Gang’s letter, but to think that the one who could withstand the strongest formation of the Ganyi Clan and performed by the elders and the patriarch had no sign of hardship in his hand, it was a bit suspicious.

‎"(I know about the Magic Tower and the one who controlled it, is he also a mage? A powerful one at that?)" The Elder thought as he stared at Rasmus.

‎"But I understand from your stand point, young lady. They are exaggerated as you have mentioned, but there are reasons behind it," the elder said to Aris. "There are so many variations of attacks in a single martial art. To do so, they tend to have many different stances before they do the variations. A basic attack can lead to many variations to follow and so forth, and that’s when the stances are required to channel the Mana and the cores to do the moves properly. However, they’re exaggerated when you observe these martial artists because they’re not masters. Once they have become a master, the exaggeration turns into a deadly trap for those who believe it’s an opening for an attack," he explained.

‎‎Aris realized her standard and the humans were different, and she also noticed that these martial art fights were different from her training that required her strength and speed as the main things. She fought to protect the world, humans fought to protect themselves, the motivation and the purpose were different.

‎"It seems you see the difference between your skill and ours, young lady," the elder smiled gently at Aris.

‎"Yes, thank you for your insight, elder," Aris nodded and then looked at the stage again.

‎"Next participants, Ruen and Lai!" The stage announcer shouted as he looked at the list in his hands.

‎Rasmus, Aris, and Serena raised their brows in unison when they heard Ruen. Since Rullein couldn’t use her real name and she was disguising herself to be like the people of Khan Empire, she used Ruen as her stage name. She stood on the stage still with her sword wrapped in bandages, making it look mysterious.

"Oh, that young man over there is quite famous in our region. He’s known as the Bandit Slayer, and he doesn’t belong to any clans and works in an escort agency. He’s feared by bandits from this region, and because of his existence, the amount of problems with bandits have been reduced greatly," the elder pointed out as he put his hands behind his back.

Rasmus and Aris weren’t interested in the backstory of Lai because they were currently pitying him for facing Rullein.

"The rules are simple, do not kill and if you hit your opponent after they forfeit, you will be disqualified," the stage announcer looked at both of them. "Now, let’s begin the duel!" He shouted.

Lai unsheathed his sword and readied his stance, his stance was for counterattacks. However, when he saw Rullein standing still and didn’t move a muscle, he furrowed his brows. He immediately changed his stance and charged toward her, finding her lack of interest insulting.

When Lai thrust his sword toward Rullein’s head, she tilted her head to the side at the last moment, making him miss. Lai knew he hesitated when he thrust his sword toward her because he didn’t want to hurt her, but after he found out she could dodge his attack so effortlessly, he knew there was no need to hold back.

Lai pulled his sword halfway and then swung horizontally with the intent to cut Rullein’s throat, but she took a step back that made the tip of his blade miss by an inch. He was stunned that someone could predict his movements, and that only pissed him off, oozing a killing intent.

Everyone watched from the side with their mouths gaping because Rullein only moved her head and feet for a whole minute while Lai was screaming his lungs out with each swung of his sword. The elder was stunned by the skill that Rullein showed, and he knew the duel was over the moment she read Lai’s movements. Until finally Lai stopped attacking, his sword trembled and made a rattling sound because of how tight he gripped on the handle as he gritted his teeth together from frustration.

"It’s my loss..." Lai admitted as he did the hands gesture at Rullein.

Rullein didn’t say a word and did the same hands gesture toward him before she walked away. The spectators found her mysterious, and they noticed that her sword was as mysterious as the owner. They loved to make-up stories of warriors they deemed worth the tale, and at this moment, she had become their favorite martial artist and gave her a title as the Soundless Beauty.

"What do you think of that woman, elder?" Rasmus asked as he glanced at the elder beside him.

The elder snapped back to reality because he was still stunned by the duel. He cleared his throat and took his moment to think.

"Lai isn’t an expert, not even close, but he’s not some third-rate or even second-rate martial artist. There are thousands of people who can do what Ruen did earlier, or at least based on what she had shown. However, I can confidently say that she’s at a first-rate martial artist that maybe close to becoming an expert," the elder answered with a serious expression.

"I see," Rasmus nodded with understanding. "Do you think she’s qualified to enter the Heavenly Alliance tournament, elder?" He asked.

"Most definitely," the elder answered without hesitation. "But as I said earlier, someone like her is uncommon, but not rare," he added.