Deathly silence.
Both the Martial Guild and the Eastern Ocean contingent fell into a momentary dead silence.
The Martial Guild's three senior masters stared blankly at the scene. They had imagined Master Huo arguing his case, even angrily rebuking Kitamura Masao—but never had they imagined him seizing the man by the throat and questioning him in return.
But when Master Huo had spoken to them earlier, hadn't he seemed quite calm...
The experts of the Eastern Ocean contingent were even more stunned. They had grown accustomed to their lofty stance in the Celestial Empire. Even when they lost martial contests in the past, they could still extort concessions elsewhere, and the Martial Guild had only dared to settle victory and defeat within the arena.
Now that they saw a Martial Person utterly unlike those from before, they genuinely could not react.
"Bastard! What are you trying to do?"
The Eastern Ocean contingent's experts rose to their feet one after another. The gunmen stationed outside swarmed in like a hive, surrounding half the venue.
The Martial Guild could not possibly have come without gunmen either. Seeing the foreign gunmen enter, the Foreign Rifle Squad surged in as well. Before long, the grounds were filled with guns and axes pointed at one another!
Yet neither side dared make a reckless move. Kitamura Masao was still in Huo Yuanhong's hands, while the Martial Guild did not dare fire first and turn this into a gun battle.
"Urgh... urgh..."
At that moment, Kitamura Masao was still struggling desperately in Huo Yuanhong's grasp, both hands clamped tightly around Huo Yuanhong's fingers.
It was not that he had not considered counterattacking with his legs. But all his strength was concentrated in his hands; if he dispersed it, his neck might be twisted off.
Though deep down,