Chapter 111: Entering the Final Stage (II)
“Now that everyone is present, the ceremony of subdivision may begin. All competitors will keep the numbers they had during the preliminaries. Your teachers should have already told you how the final stage was going to take place, so this old man will directly get to the main point. Now, the drawing of lots may begin. Everyone will be in a group. After this drawing of lots, you will directly leave for the stadium where the first matches are going to take place. ”
As he spoke, an enormous crystal ball rose from the platform. This crystal ball was at least of a diameter of a meter. Transparent, it contained 60 yellow-colored little balls, each one containing some characters.
The crystal ball was surrounded by six crystal pillars in the air, with the characters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on top.
Without a single move that could be discerned from that elder, the saffron-colored little balls in the crystal ball started to twitch, and instantly following, one little ball after another started to move at a speed making them difficult to keep track of with the naked eyes, before precisely falling inside of these six crystal pillars.
Obviously, because they were rather far apart, the characters on the balls could basically not be discerned, but except from Cai’er, all the competitors in this official business hall had their eyes wide open, trying to find their own numbers in these crystal pillars.
Quickly, all the 60 little balls entered the crystal pillars, there were precisely ten balls inside of each of the six pillars.
The elder on stage started to speak in a dull voice, “I am the Hall Master of the Warrior Temple; you may call me Mad Warrior Ren Wokuang. The drawing of ballots will take place on the second floor of the building. If you don’t have any questions, let’s start right now.”
Second floor, Ruoshui said in a gentle voice, “Everything is as usual, please start whenever you want, hall master.”
Ren Wokuang wore a smile, as he slightly nodded, looking at the direction of the second floor and advancing towards the crystal pillar. Without any distinct movement from him, the ten orange little balls jumped up, surprisingly aligning and forming a row that floated in before him.
“Final stage, first group, your matches will take place in the Knight Stadium of the Alliance’s Great Stadium. The first group will be composed of the knight #1, the warrior #2, the warrior # 67….”
Hearing ‘Knight #1’, Long Hao Chen’s gaze was immediately aimed at Yang Wenzhao. The first group was clearly Yang Wenzhao’s. He wished that he could be in the same group as him, but unfortunately, it didn’t turn out this way. His name didn’t appear in the first group’s list.
“Now that the list of the first group of competitors has been revealed, stand up! The staff members will take you to the stadium to start the first matches of this round-robin tournament.”
Yang Wenzhao slowly got up, and left under the lead of staff members from the Alliance. Right before leaving, he intentionally gave a look to Long Hao Chen and Cai’er’s side. His eyes looked somewhat regretful. Just like Long Hao Chen wanted to challenge him once again, he wanted to challenge Cai’er, this time in an all-out fight.
“Final stage second group, your matches will take place in the Mage Stadium of the Alliance’s Great Stadium. List of the competitors of the second group: knight #98, assassin#1, priest #18, mage #1…”
Hearing the number 98, Li Xin felt nervous and excited. Looking all around, she said in a low voice to Long Hao Chen, “Lil’ bro, who is this assassin #1 in your opinion? An assassin of the fifth step! Do I have a chance? T.T” Simultaneously, she shot a glance to Lin Xin’. Was he not the mage #1, after all?
Long Hao Chen shook his head and said, “Big sis, you will definitely be okay, cheer up!”
Cai’er was still seated there, as cold as before. Except from the times she was all alone with Long Hao Chen, she was usually like that.
While Ren Wokuang followed the staff members to the Mage Stadium, Lin Xin hurriedly stood up, and Lin Xin who was at the other side of Long Hao Chen as well. Cai’er also stood up.
“I’ll leave first.” Cai’er told Long Hao Chen in a low voice.
“Eh? ” Long Hao Chen had clearly remembered that in the second group, there was only a single assassin and it was the Assassin #1.
Cai’er’s voice, as thin as a gossamer, sounded in Long Hao Chen’s ears, “Be careful during the competition. Don’t be wounded again. After the match, I will be waiting for you in that place.”
“Wow! Lil’ sis Cai’er, so you were actually the assassin #1. Come, I am pulling you along.” Li Xin was straightforward and passionate, and without the slightest inch of restraint, she pulled Cai’er’s bamboo cane and walked forward with her. Cai’er was startled for a moment, but as soon as she thought about the fact that she was Long Hao Chen’s big sister, she immediately followed her along.
Lin Xin rubbed his forehead, and with a bitter smile, he said, “What a headache! It looks like luck will not always be in my side.” This second group was a lot more powerful than the first one. Lin Xin was a lot more informed than the other competitors. The Assassin #1 was actually the previous little blind girl! This was something that he didn’t expect. Reportedly, this assassin of the fifth step had challenged eleven other competitors at the same time during the previous qualifiers, but in the end, no one dared act against her. What kind of strength was that? There was also this priest #18, who ended up as the first ranked of his qualifiers! As Lin Xin’s heart felt gloomy, Long Hao Chen also saw that shiny bald head before him standing up. This tall and robust stature made him look completely unlike a priest, as he took big strides, walking along with the staff members.
The absolute majority of the competitors were rejoicing about this sad news, because without a doubt, a slaughter was going to take place among the members of this second group. Assassin #1, mage #1, the first numbered of two of the Six Great Temples were in the same group, and the others weren’t weak either.
The most delighted people were those from the Assassin Temple. None of them was in the same group as Cai’er, so their current mood was pretty easy to guess.
Final stage, third group, your matches will take place in the Warrior Stadium of the Alliance’s Great Stadium. Composed of the competitors as follow: “Summoner #1, mage #2, knight #97, warrior #23, assassin #13, assassin #16, assassin #18, assassin #24…”
Among these 10 youths, there were unexpectedly 4 assassins. In addition, the others weren’t weak either. The first competitor belonging to this mysterious Spiritual Temple, and also the second competitor of the Mage Temple.
The four assassins stood up, immediately heading towards the staff members, but their faces that had been filled with joy a little while before instantly became an ugly sight to behold.
That’s right, they didn’t end up in Cai’er’s group, but who did they see? Wasn’t he exactly the youth that was seated together with big sister #1?
Although the Assassin Temple and the Knight Temple sealed off their informations, these assassins who managed to enter the top ten were all elites among the youths of the Assassin Temple and all of them naturally received the guidance of a powerful master. They had vaguely heard about the news that shook the two Temples during these last few days. It was precisely because this big sister #1 went to raid a certain competitor coming from the Knight Temple, and she did so for the sake of another competitor of the Knight Temple.
Without a doubt, it was precisely this knight #97 who was standing before their eyes.
Looking at Long Hao Chen and his handsome face that could go as far as to be described as a stunning sight, these assassin maintained their guess. Their hearts were howling in grief, because they knew that if they were to win against this knight #97, and to wound him in the process, wouldn’t…
Long Hao Chen naturally didn’t know what these assassins were thinking about. As he walked forward toward the staff members, he observed some female competitors.
The ones he paid the most attention to were two girls. The small and delicate one looked like she was even smaller than him, and had a very weak-looking appearance. When he occasionally sent curious glances to this older female competitor, he appeared somewhat bashful. What she wore was an exotic blue-colored mage gown.
The other girl was a lot taller, her height exceeded 1.7 meters and her black hair formed a neat and nimble twintail. With her picturesque appearance, she looked slender and agreeable. However, at her back was an enormous shield. Because this shield was even taller than her, she could only put it at her back, horizontally.
Besides the summit of this shield, its two sides were curved, almost shaped as blades. These two curves met each other, taking the shape of a sharp needle. From its looks, this shield was just like a sort of enormous sharp blade.
The thickest place of this shield was frighteningly roughly a foot wide, with nine spikes all around. The outwards space was completely empty, and its uses were mysterious.
How heavy could this shield be? A knight like Long Hao Chen felt afraid of this sight; this girl carried it as if it was nothing.
The Alliance’s office palace was not far from the Alliance’s Great Stadium, and quickly, they arrived to the Warrior Stadium.
The drawing of lots kept going, determining the remaining groups for the competition. The matches were going to take place for nine days in every group, with five matches every day. The ten competitors would fight against a different person on every day of competition. The ranking was going to depend on the number of wins. After the first and second were determined, the third of the ranking could also have the occasion to enter the round robin tournament opposing those belonging to the top 16.
Because it was a round-robin tournament, the drawing of ballots was not so important, and after completing it, the first battle of the final stage would immediately take place.
The Demon Hunt Selection matches were even colder during the final stage than the competition. There were already a lot less people sitting on the platform, only six people. However, the competitors didn’t know that these six people came from the Six Great Temples, and were in charge of supervising the course of the competition.
Before it officially started, Long Hao Chen’s group of ten received another list. Above it, there was no number, only names, and Long Hao Chen’s first opponent was a member of the Assassin Temple, named Xing Xuan. This name sounded very feminine, but in reality, it was a small youth with a wretched appearance.
“First match, Long Hao Chen vs Xing Xuan. The match may begin” All referees were powerhouses at the seventh step. Looking at their clothes, it looked like today, the referees were War Kings of the seventh step.
With a shield in his left hand and a sword in his right hand, Long Hao Chen walked into the stadium. In this group, there were a lot of people from the Assassin Temple, four of them. There were also two priests, but only a single person from all the other Temples. Compared to those from the second group, Long Hao Chen felt that his luck was not bad, and that he had great chances to end up in the top two.
