Legend of the Heavenly Fruit
Eps. 139 — Tournament Starts
Zhou Yuan looked around the academy grounds which had now been converted into a tournament area.
There was an audience structure that was now half occupied by people, where the audience seats looked large, could accommodate hundreds of people inside.
The spectator seats are divided into four sections as it surrounds the match arena, the spectator seats in the south were occupied by the academy disciples and then the spectator seats in the west were occupied by sects and clans.
The seats of spectators in the north will be occupied by those from the nobility and the last seats in the east will be free spectators, ordinary people, who want to watch the tournament.
The Academy does open its doors to the public while the tournament is in progress, those in Lily City or elsewhere can watch the tournament for free.
In addition there were several different spectator seats and seemed to be devoted to a few people, those seats were near the tournament arena.
The special seat was indeed reserved for the four Emperors present.
"For tournament participants, you can pass this road while for Master, you can go directly to the seats that have been provided." One of the tournament organizers in charge of saluting Zhou Yuan's entourage was especially Jiang Long.
Jiang Long nodded, he uttered words of encouragement to Yifei as well as Zhou Yuan before the two split directions.
"You're still nervous Fei'er?" Zhou Yuan asked Yifei who first saw the girl nervous like this.
Yifei nodded, he felt tense from seeing the many spectators present.
"No need to think about it, when you're on the arena later, your attention will be focused on the opponent...." Zhou Yuan smiled gently then stroked Yifei's head.
Yifei nodded and now he felt a little calm after Zhou Yuan stroked him.
For the participants of the tournament they will get a seat near the arena of the match, this is to make it easier when the names of participants are called, they can go directly to the arena stage.
Zhou Yuan chose a comfortable seat and could see all the matches clearly while Yifei sat down beside him.
Zhou Yuan looked around the seats of the participants, beyond his estimation it turned out that there were many people who had registered in this tournament.
Zhou Yuan also looked at familiar participants such as Zuo Lang, Yun Ruo and Long Sha.
"It looks like it will take three to four days to reduce participants this much..." Zhou Yuan sighed.
Zhou Yuan heard information from Jiang Long that the tournament was in for three innings, the first being the preliminary round, the second the main round and the final round.
The preliminary round is a round where the participant must be able to defeat three opponents, if he succeeds then the participant passes to the next round which is the main round. This preliminary round aims to reduce the many tournament participants quickly.
As time goes by, both the spectator seats and the participants' seats begin to be full and filled. Zhou Yuan also saw the arrival of the Four Emperors who were seated on special seats including Jiang Long among them.
The spectators immediately became boisterous when they came, it was not easy for them to see four Emperors appearing somewhere similar.
Zhou Yuan also looked at those four emperors, other than Jiang Long, the remaining three were indeed the three emperors who led the current 3 Empires.
"Ah, so it's the father of Liu Yuwen, I can feel him exuding an aura of tremendous power in his body."
"True, I can't measure the strength of the levels at all, they are the number 1 heroes in the martial world right now."
Zhou Yuan had also only first met directly with three other emperors besides Jiang Qisha.
Their strength was indeed very strong, being at the high level of the Light Realm warriors.
Zhou Yuan in his previous life had not been able to reach the level of strength they had achieved, The four emperors actually had balanced strength with few of them being stronger or weaker.
The Sun Emperor was led by a high-ranking swordsman named Liu Zhangyang, Zhou Yuan was unaware of the Emperor's strength but his famous swordplay was definitely something that could not be underestimated.
The Earth Emperor was led by a fat old man named Guan Ning, no one was ignorant of the defense of his strong and extremely sturdy body.
Meanwhile, the Star Emperor himself was named Qiusui Bao, a warrior who had a unique element, the element of darkness.
Jiang Long and the three emperors started to sit in their seats respectively, after the four emperors came to the tournament area, A man as old as white-bearded and long rode the arena stage.
The old man was not very well known by others but not to the students of the academy.
The old man was the current Head of the Academy named Xiong Bian, although it looked old Xiao Bian's strength was very strong, almost equal to the strength of four emperors.
Xiong Bian stood up from the arena spot while looking at the surroundings, after seeing the spectators as well as the participants start to fill the tournament arena he finally started to speak.
"Brothers and sisters, thank you for visiting the Academy to see the big tournament that has been going on for ten years as usual. I, as someone who serves as the Head of the Academy of this generation, am honored to meet you..."
Xiong Bian began opening the event with an opening speech as well as a welcome for the guests who attended especially the arrival of the four emperors.
"I understand you can't wait to see the match start but before that, I have to explain a few things..."
Xiong Bian began to explain the rules in the tournament, the rules announced were quite simple and easy to understand.
One participant can defeat his opponent through three ways, first getting his opponent out of the arena, second making his opponent give up while the third way is to make them unconscious.
A participant is also prohibited from using poison when the match starts be it paralyzing poison or mild poison that makes a person sleepy.
Participants are also not allowed to use a technique that endangers the safety of the opponent's life or makes serious injuries permanent. Those who commit these offences in addition to being directly disqualified from their tournament will also be given a penalty by the government.
"As a gift to those who will be champions, participants will be given special items that are very valuable. Sorry for the problem we will keep the prize a secret so you are more curious but we will make sure those who are champions, will be satisfied to receive the prize..."
Xiao Bian sighed "No need to linger anymore, we immediately started the first match. In order not to have any misunderstandings then in this tournament match I will be the referee..." Xiao Bian then ended his speech for a moment.
"Our first match starts with the name of the participant Jiang Yifei against the participant Rong Xian, the name called please go up the arena..."
Hearing his name called Yifei the more nervous he was the first participant but Zhou Yuan recalled that the girl would not have to worry.
Yifei started to step up to the corner of the arena while the other participants also went up to the other side of the corner.
Yifei took a deep breath, this was his first time fighting someone outside the palace other than Zhou Yuan. Yifei intended to compete earnestly.