Hu Tianba

Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.

Master Huang put down the phone.

Perhaps he was too overwhelmed with excitement.

He gazed at the photograph and simply sat there in silence.

"Even the Zhang Family's prodigy from Vault Mountain could only be a stepping stone for you. You little rascal, take the Grandmaster's legacy and charge ahead!"

Hope stirred in Huang Sihai's heart.

A Wen had a real chance of making the Thirty-Two Paths!

A prodigy of the Zhang Family—that was the benchmark!

What a feat it was to beat one of them!

He even began to imagine it.

Perhaps A Wen could surpass himself and reach the Sixteen Paths.

If the Grandmaster worked another miracle, perhaps even the Eight Paths...

He dared not dream any bigger.

Even Mr. Ming did not dare dream that big.

Old Huang had been contacting old friends in the Prosperous State. Through them, he had learned that this year's Dragon Rising would be fiercely contested. There was Zuo Tianqing of the Mount Tai Way and Little Monk of Thousand-Buddha Mountain.

Those two came from Great Orthodox Traditions. That spoke for itself.

Even at its height, the Sea Sand Style had not matched their foundations—setting aside the Grandmaster's peerless personal might.

The reason was simple.

In the Grandmaster's era, the Sea Sand Style had been a rising tradition, much like the Learning Society today. Like Mr. Ming, the Grandmaster had been renowned throughout the martial world, but that was because he himself was exceptional.

For a tradition to grow strong, though, it needed decades of accumulation: finding talents, training its backbone, and cultivating high-level fighters. The Grandmaster had scarcely had time for any of that.

He had vanished after that peerless battle.

Not long after his disappearance, the Sea Sand Style had fallen into decline.

The Whale-Slaying