The other disciples who usually participate in the secret realm are at the peak of the second mortal coil. They came to the secret realm to acquire the resources to reach the third mortal coil.
This situation means that after five years, most of them will be fine, and their places will be taken by newbies like them who don't know about extorting other disciples in front of their gate.
They will also be able to grow stronger in the next five years because they are not yet at the peak of the second mortal coil. When their stronger strength and the ignorance of others are combined, it gives them hope to be able to monopolize the best spot for extortion.
The two of them passed by the other gates nearby to see the situation there. They discovered that every gate was being blocked by disciples from the Blood Skull sect.
They also saw Goldwyn and Jason among the disciples blocking the road. The two shining men were blocking the road to the gate of the Sword Way sect. Because of Roar's shining fur, they drew attention immediately they appeared, so Goldwyn saw them too.
When Goldwyn saw them, he grinned and said, "Prepare to lose."
Arthur's face darkened when he heard that. He said to Thor, "Let's go."
The two of them quickly returned to their gate. When they reached it, they found that there was no one blocking the road. The only ones there were the disciples from the Blood Skull sect milling about doing nothing.
There were a lot of the disciples of the Blood Skull sect at the gate. This made Arthur suspect that most of the disciples from the Blood Skull sect survived, and most of them didn't know about the act of blocking the gate for extortion.
Thor also thought of the latter. So he looked at Arthur meaningfully. Arthur also looked at him. Then the two of them chuckled.
They didn't use the voice transmission spell to tell each other not to expose the secret this close to people because the spell is not secure. They were that determined not to let others know about the extortion program.
The two of them picked a corner to sit in. There was nothing else to do, so they just sat there waiting to leave the secret realm.
One hour later, the gate of the secret realm became open. It would remain open for one hour, but most people don't want to wait that long.
Arthur and Thor didn't want to wait either. They left the secret realm as soon as they could. This marked the end of their expedition to the secret realm.
But this wasn't the end of the inter-sect competition. There is still the banquet and socializing party at the end of the foray into the secret realm.
Actually, very few people want to attend the banquet to socialize. It is very difficult to be in the mood to party after nearly dying.
It is also nearly impossible to party with someone who nearly killed you or killed your friends and family members. This is the most important reason why no one wants the banquet.
Even the disciples from the Blood Skull who didn't suffer don't want to attend the banquet to socialize. There are just too many more important things to do than to party.
One such thing that is more important than partying is counting all of their recently acquired spoils and sorting out their loot.
This situation makes it so that very few people attend the banquet, and those who do mostly come for the eating and drinking competition, which they can use to get free food and alcohol.
This situation makes the banquet far from entertaining. Fortunately, the banquet is not for the disciples to chat. It is for the elders of the sects and families to exchange information before returning to their sects.
The meeting for the elders is held just above the banquet hall for the disciples. While the disciples are down below eating and drinking, the elders are in the air above the hall floating and chatting with each other.
Most of the information that is shared is about the well-being of the Five Veins region. The elders sometimes share a drink, but as beings who have shed their mortal coils twice, they have no interest in dancing or partying.
The atmosphere in the elders' meeting is usually solemn and straight to the business. Sometimes they share jokes or argue with each other, but it is always a serious meeting.
This time is no different. In fact, the situation might be more serious than previous times because of some unconfirmed news that elders have gotten from secret channels.
The elders took turns mentioning some things that they had heard and discussing them among themselves before another person mentioned another important piece of news.
But even though they had this serious news about the Purple Flower Sect, no one stood out to mention it. They all avoided the topic and decided to watch the show.
One of the elders from the Blood Skull sect said to the other 42 elders, "One of the patriarchs of the sect has confirmed that the man tide is coming. It is still unknown exactly when the peak of the mana tide will arrive, but it has been determined through exhaustive testing that the concentration of mana in the world and in secret realms has begun to increase."
An elder from a family said, "A mana tide?" That can't be good news."
An elder from the Beast Training sect snorted and said, "Speak about yourself. We in my sect are hoping that the mana tinder will arrive as soon as possible and have as much impact as possible. That way we will be able to earn as many benefits as possible."
An elder from the Blood Skull sect spoke in agreement. "That's true. Only those who don't have enough strength will be afraid of a little chaos. For us with enough strength, any chaos is an opportunity to take advantage of the situation."