Chapter 40 - 38: Ma Dong, Vice President of Linjiang City’s Martial Artist Alliance, and the Brutal Rules of the Martial Artist Survival Assessment

"Alright, I’ll head out right away." Su Chen promptly packed his luggage and walked out of the tent with Li Kang, Liu Yang, Bai Jing, and the others. After Instructor Ling Yue chatted briefly with a staff member in charge of the martial arts tournament, she led Su Chen and his five-person team to an off-road vehicle. The off-road vehicle traversed mountains and ridges along the way, passing by many other participants, and after an hour and a half, Su Chen’s team was the first to arrive at the entrance of Wilderness Gorge. After Instructor Ling Yue and Su Chen’s five-person team arrived, other participants’ vehicles began arriving one after another. After a few hours of rest, all the participants from Jiang University Martial Arts Academy and Linjiang Institute of Technology Martial Arts Academy had gathered in front of the valley entrance at Wilderness Gorge. Su Chen estimated that there were about 300 participants from the two universities combined, with the rest being instructors and staff for the martial arts tournament. Such a number was nothing for the spacious valley, and just as Su Chen was about to observe whether Fang Hao was among the crowd, a voice broke the silence of the valley—it was an elderly voice. "Greetings, brave trainees. I am Ma Dong, the Vice President of the Linjiang City Martial Artist Alliance. For your classes and academies, standing here is a tremendous honor. Regardless of your true capabilities, you should all feel proud at this moment because you possess the core spirit of a martial artist: bravery, fearlessness, and a willingness to fight—something the other trainees not participating could hardly compare to..." At this moment, a gray-haired elder stepped onto the stone platform before the crowd. He did not use any microphone or amplifier, yet his dignified voice resonated throughout the canyon. Though the elder’s hair was grey at his temples, not a single wrinkle marred his face, giving an impression of regal authority and dominance. "Heh... It’s worthy of the position of Vice President of the Linjiang City Martial Artist Alliance. Indeed, someone in this role is no ordinary person." Su Chen sighed inwardly, continuing to listen to the elder’s speech. "Martial artists possess physiques and power stronger than ordinary people and can train in cultivation techniques valued like gemstones, even prolonging life. These privileges are not to bully the common folks but to protect the civilians, defend the nation... This is a principle every martial arts trainee must keep firmly in mind..." Once an elder starts speaking, he doesn’t stop easily. After Su Chen listened for an hour, the Vice President of Linjiang City Martial Artist Alliance finally began announcing the rules for the first round of the martial arts tournament—the martial artist survival exercise. "Now, I formally announce the rules for the first round of the martial arts tournament—the field training exercise. There is one hour left before noon. In one hour, all teams will queue and enter Wilderness Gorge. The gorge will have various fierce and wild animals, but no beasts above first-tier, so rest assured... Are these fierce and wild beasts what you have to hunt? Not exactly. Our tournament staff has already implanted silver feather tags into selected fierce beasts. Once these tagged beasts die, the silver feather tags will fall off, and the standard for advancing in the martial artist survival assessment is based on the quantity of silver feathers each team acquires ranked from top to bottom. Only the top 16 teams in collecting silver feather tags will advance to the next round, the finals..." Before Ma Dong finished speaking, discussions and questions echoed from the crowd below the stage. "What? Ranking based on silver feather tag count... Isn’t this first-round essentially about hunting fierce beasts?" "Yeah, what’s the point of that? I’m here to spar with people, not hunt beasts..." ... Hearing the questioning from the crowd, Ma Dong calmly explained. "Of course, it’s not as simple as you imagine. The martial artist survival assessment isn’t merely about your ability to battle beasts. Let me tell you, relative to the 80-plus teams below, the quantity of silver feather tags is far from enough, thus... after entering Wilderness Gorge, you may choose to hunt beasts with silver feather tags to acquire them or directly seize silver feathers obtained by other teams. Regardless of the method, the final ranking is based on the number of silver feathers a team obtains... with that, competition and clashes between teams are inevitable. Injuries or even deaths among trainees are possible during such battles, but I must clarify, within Wilderness Gorge, we have arranged some instructors and staff in advance. Should malicious injury leading to death or continued attacks after a team members clearly relinquishes silver feather tags be discovered, the offending team will face immediate disqualification, and if criminal conduct arises, they will be directly handed over to the Blue Shield Bureau... Do you understand?"