Chapter 195
The competition formally started after three days of primary fights.
There were twelve rings with a diameter of 300 feet set up in the square outside the Imperial Palace.
Muscular soldiers in heavy armor stood there in a row, keeping spectators outside.
As bells tolled to signal the start of the competition, the crowd started to gather in the square. Flying ships also flew over slowly, about 100 yards above, away from the palace wall.
Most of those on the flying ships were from big groups, including the top ten sects and schools of the Fire Field and important families.
On the ground, beyond the soldier line temporary stands for the spectators held people from the local forces.
Most people could only stand on the ground. Fortunately, the square was spacious enough to hold them, but there was one place beyond compare, nobler than both the flying ships and the spectator stands. That was the grandstand of the Palace. The royal members sat there with imperial yellow canopies overhead, overlooking the square.
It was more or less the same for the first twelve participants. It didn’t take them long to encounter a powerful rival, except one man, the eye-catching Jiang Chen, who was still hiding behind a mask.
He had defeated three rivals and would advance to the next round if he could defeat one more, so everyone was paying attention to his ring, wondering who his next rival would be.
“Chu Luo, the man you’re in love with doesn’t look so great.”
Outside the ring, Meng Feifei, whose turn hadn’t come yet, was chatting with Chu Luo.
Chu Luo smiled, not agreeing or denying. She wasn’t surprised, since Jiang Chen was holding his knife in his right hand.
The three rivals he had fought with were quite average. One of them had been in the Gathering Yuan State and the other two were in the preliminary stage of the Mental Wander State.
That was why Meng Feifei had commented. She thought the man Chu Luo was in love with should be better than that.
“Chu Luo, tell me. Who is he?” Meng Feifei said softly.
“Doesn’t the Intelligence Pavilion know everything?” Chu Luo smiled.
“This guy came out of nowhere, and I only learned of him yesterday,” Meng Feifei argued. She had investigated the day before, but found nothing.
On the other side, Huangfu Hua was looking at Jiang Chen in the ring, casting his mind back to the day before, when Jiang Chen had walked into Chu Luo’s room. He frowned at his wooden token, hoping it would light up.
He intended to educate this loathsome guy in person, to pull his mask off and see who on earth he was.
Unfortunately, his wooden token hadn’t lit up yet, but a person whose token was also remembered Jiang Chen and his mask.
It was Yun Xiao, the fraud who had swindled the princess of her spiritual sword on the sailing ship and claimed he would teach Jiang Chen a lesson with his swordsmanship in the competition of the Sacred Institute!
The sailing ship was in the air. Princess Fragrance and Liu Peng were surprised by them being assigned to each other, since there were so many people that it was against the odds for them to be paired up.
“Princess, the show is about to start. Apprentice Brother Yun Xiao won’t go easy on a guy who doesn’t even dare take his mask off!” Liu Peng said confidently.
He said this because he had watched Jiang Chen’s fights and didn’t find him tough at all.