Victor listened quietly to their argument because he couldn't understand anything. Why did I get injured? What were they talking about?
He asked in amazement, Mom, Dad, what are you talking about? What clan? Who was thrown out, and my life was in danger? What is all this? I don't understand anything.
Hearing this, his mom said, Nothing, son, you go and rest. You're not well yet.
Saying this, Victor's mom took his dad to their room and started talking. It was around 11 in the morning. Victor still couldn't make sense of things. His mind was on that martial artist whom he had put a tracker on.
Victor went straight to his lab to check, but he couldn't see any location from his tracker. After tracking for a long time, he found the last location was near the same hill where the weapon dealing was happening, but after that, there was no trace.
Victor wanted to go back to that cave near the hill, but he couldn't. Just then, his mom and dad entered his lab. Victor knew they would come eventually.
Victor laughed and said, Dad, what are you going to tell me? Please tell me quickly; I can't wait any longer.
His mom and dad looked at each other and said, It's time you learned about your dad's family.
Robert began to explain:
Our family belongs to Rutherford city, known for martial arts. There are three clans there: Trident, Ax, and Serpent. The leader of the Trident clan is Leonard, who is your grandfather. The three clans believe in not maintaining relations with outsiders unless there's a major threat to the Earth. The leader of the Ax clan is Maximus, and his successor is Samson, while the leader of the Serpent clan is Bartholomew, and his successor is Kenneth.
The relationship between the Trident clan and the Serpent clan has not been good for about 100 years. To end this enmity, a marriage was arranged between the two clans, me and the only daughter of the Serpent clan, Sylvia. But the marriage was not as it seemed; in fact, the Serpent clan had sinister intentions behind the wedding. They were planning to kill Leonard, the chief of the Trident clan. But I found out about their plan and decided not to marry and ran away!
After I fled, things eventually calmed down. But I became the enemy of all three clans because, according to their laws, anyone who leaves Rutherford without permission is excommunicated and cannot be a part of any clan again.
But even after staying outside for five years, I kept gathering information about the three clans, and during that time, I met your mom in college. Gradually, we fell in love.
The biggest problem arose when Clara quarreled with her dad and ran away from home, but Raymond Vance didn't want this because, like you, Clara was also eligible to become the president of the Vance Group, but she didn't want that. Raymond sent all his men to find Clara, and wherever we ran, his men would eventually find us.
Robert and Clara were secretly staying in the Trident tribe with the help of their friends, without anyone knowing. For a few days, they remained hidden, but during this time, Clara became pregnant. To take care of Clara and seek treatment, Robert reluctantly sought help from Physician Sun, who was a close friend of his father, Master Leonard. Through Physician Sun, Master Leonard found out about the situation.
Afterward, a meeting of the leaders of all three tribes was called, where the Serpent tribe demanded that the restrictions on Robert be lifted in exchange for accepting him, and also insisted that from now on, the Trident tribe (led by Master Leonard) would not interfere in the affairs of other tribes.
Master Leonard was not in agreement but had no other choice and was trapped in the Serpent tribe's plan, so he had to accept the conditions. The reason was not Robert, but the child growing in Clara's womb. After a mutual agreement among the three tribes, the two tribes were freed from the influence of the Trident tribe, and Robert and Clara were accepted into the tribe.
At the time of Victor's birth, the Serpent tribe's daughter Sylvia and the Ax tribe's son Samson were married, strengthening the bond between the two tribes.
For three years, there was a peaceful and joyful atmosphere between the three tribes. Clara and Robert were living happily with Robert's mother Evelyn, father Leonard, and sister Rose. Victor had been training under his grandfather since he was three years old. Everything was going well, and then the day came that everyone had been eagerly waiting for.
THE GRAND FESTIVAL
As always, after every three years, a grand festival is organized among the three tribes, held on the Night of the Moon. At this festival, the martial artists of the three tribes would showcase their skills through a martial arts competition. The winner of the competition would be awarded a golden pill and the Grand Level Martial Arts Book and would be appointed as the commander of the Trident Force, whose sole duty was to protect the Earth from external attacks.
The next day, the grand festival was organized at Nemesis Ground. The Nemesis Ground had three large doors: the main door bore the sign of the Trident, while the other two doors had the symbols of the Ax and Serpent, representing the three tribes. The leaders and elders of all three tribes went together.
In the second round, one-on-one fights began: Aaron faced Liam, Robert faced Aiden, Kenneth and Samson fought against two others, Seth and Ronan. Before the martial arts fight even began, both Kenneth and Samson qualified for the third round as their opponents conceded defeat. This was the first time in the competition that a warrior had conceded without a fight, which was considered a disgrace to martial arts.
In the remaining four matches, after about ten minutes of fighting, Robert and Liam both qualified for the third round. Victor was very excited to see his father fighting. In the next round, Robert faced Samson, while Kenneth fought Ronan.
Samson knew that although his level was advanced at the final stage, Robert was only at the middle stage of the advanced level. Despite this, Samson found it very challenging, so he used all his strength to make the first attack. The attack was so fast that Robert had no choice but to block it. He quickly adopted the defense X technique and moved forward rapidly toward Samson, intending to take the attack at a close distance to minimize injury. Samson continued punching, and it seemed to the audience that Robert was about to lose, as he had taken many hits while blocking the attack. However, just then, Robert used the ghost footstep technique, sidestepping Samson's punch, and kicked him, causing Samson to fall to the ground.
Robert won the match with ease, and the crowd cheered loudly, congratulating Ax tribe leader Master Leonard, saying, You have to admit, Master Leonard, Robert is very clever and powerful. He won with ease without exhausting his energy.
On the other hand, Ronan could not withstand Kenneth's powerful attack, as Ronan was at the beginner level of the advanced stage, while Kenneth was at the middle stage. Thus, Kenneth qualified for the final round.
The final round was between the Serpent and Trident tribes, which created a tense atmosphere among the people, as everyone knew the current state of relations between the two tribes.
The match began. On one side, Kenneth took his position, and on the other, Robert was ready. Both rushed toward each other, exchanging powerful punches and taking a few steps back. This continued for about five minutes, with both neutralizing each other's attacks as their levels were the same, but Robert was about five years younger than Kenneth. Who was going to win the match?
Robert did not attack him till he got up and Kenneth took advantage of this and, surprisingly, did a Palm Attack and the attack was so fast that Robert could not defend it, and he got hurt. Taking advantage of this, Kenneth started attacking with continuous punches.
Robert was able to save himself with great difficulty. Then he used the Art of Reversal with Ghost Footsteps and did a Storm strike attack faster than the wind, due to which Kenneth fell far away.