Hearing these words, the crowd burst into laughter. Clearly everyone felt this mockery was amusing, and all believed that relying on drawing lots to win the tournament champion was impossible.
Yu Qing and his two senior brothers were also among those laughing, equally feeling it was absurd and ridiculous.
With coloured ribbons and incense burning, and offerings of three sacrificial animals, the ceremony was full of ritualistic atmosphere. Yet because of the unruly nature of these martial arts people, that sense of solemnity was lost.
Regardless of whether people laughed or not, and no matter how noisy the scene became, and regardless of whether everyone accepted it or not, the drawing of lots was a necessary process. It was only because drawing lots was relatively fair, and could reduce controversy to the greatest extent.
Wu Tian used a spell to shout loudly, “Everyone please be quiet. When your name is called, please come up to collect your item.”
He pointed to the tray brought up by the person beside him. The tray held a pile of brand new darts, clearly newly forged items. Each dart was engraved with a name. All the participants’ names from the Dingyin District were there, meaning there were eighty nine darts in the tray in total.
Wu Tian casually picked up a dart from the tray. After reading the name on it, he shouted toward the stage below, “Gao Deshan.”
“Here.” A man below raised his hand in response, then leaped out and landed on the stage in mid air.
Wu Tian smiled and gave him the dart.
Gao Deshan took the dart in hand and curiously examined it. The dart was not sharpened, only somewhat pointed.
Wu Tian gestured for him to step down first. Afterwards he took out another dart from the tray, and again read the name engraved on it loudly, “Lu Qi.”
Immediately someone else from the crowd below flew onto the stage, took the dart in hand to examine it as before, and was also invited down afterwards.
Wu Tian called names one by one, and below the stage people came up one by one to collect the darts with their names on them.
There was no deliberate arrangement of who went first or last. It was purely Wu Tian casually taking darts from the tray. Whose dart he took, he called that name. In this regard, who went first or last had no influence on the competition, thus no one cared.
Eighty something people. Very quickly, in no time at all, everyone had received their dart with their name on it.
Standing to the side on the stage were several Kunling Mountain disciples with expressionless faces. They were all supervisory personnel sent by the Kunling Mountain sect, overseeing the entire drawing process.
The one with the highest seniority was named Sun Lianxing. He was overall responsible for the Dingyin District side. He wore a stern face, looking serious and unsmiling.
After confirming the darts had all been distributed, Wu Tian walked over to them, cupped his hands toward the leader Sun Lianxing and said, “Martial Uncle Sun, all darts have been distributed. We can officially begin the drawing.”
Sun Lianxing looked at the noisy attendees. The words that reached his mouth were ultimately not spoken. However, his gaze toward Wu Tian appeared somewhat cold, as if there was some dissatisfaction. But he still gave a faint hmm, turned his head and said to the accompanying personnel beside him, “Set up the lots.”
The other supervisory personnel all slightly bowed, followed him, and walked to the back of the backdrop wall standing upright on the stage.
The group of attendees below the stage felt somewhat curious, not knowing what those people were doing behind the backdrop wall.
Wu Tian, as the main host, also observed from behind the backdrop wall. He saw the supervisory personnel open the briefcase brought from the sect.
The process was very particular. Because there was a sealed enchantment, before opening they repeatedly confirmed the seal had not been broken before daring to open it.
Once the case lid opened, it revealed a neatly arranged pile of exquisitely crafted wooden plaques.
One side of the wooden plaques was carved with numbers, the other side carved with the Chaoyang Assembly’s emblem. Actually it was not carved out. From the blackened indented traces, it was clearly deep marks burned out with a red hot branding iron.
The craftsmanship for making these plaques was not complicated, very simple. The reason they were not made here but specially brought from the sect after being made was to prevent people from cheating. Once someone memorised the texture and numbers on the plaques, cheating could indeed occur.
Moreover, the Kunling Mountain disciples here had relatively more contact with the attendees. No one dared guarantee that problems would definitely not arise. Prevention before the fact was necessary.
“Do not reveal the numbers.”
Sun Lianxing suddenly shouted at the Kunling Mountain disciple who was taking out number plaques from the box.
The disciple who had accidentally made a hand error quickly corrected his mistake, and when taking them out did not dare to reveal the numbers on the plaques again.
The observing Wu Tian could only lament this martial uncle’s strictness. The plaques would be arranged in scrambled order shortly, so it was not that serious. But he could not say anything.
As he thought, after the plaques in the briefcase were taken out, one person immediately shuffled them at flying speed, repeatedly scrambling, repeatedly stacking.
After shuffling until no one knew the original order of the plaques, that person retreated from before the pile of plaques.
Only then did Sun Lianxing lift his chin. “Hang them up as required.”
Immediately two people carried the board with the plaques on it and walked to the backdrop wall. Another person quickly took the plaques and hung them on the backdrop wall one by one.
Quite a few nails had been driven into the back of the backdrop wall. The plaques were hung on them, placed face down against the wall.
A thick layer of something was clearly painted on this back wall surface.
The technique for hanging the plaques was also particular. Neither could others see, nor could the person hanging the plaques see the numbers on them. Clearly this had all been rehearsed before the official drawing.
Only eighty nine plaques. Although only one person hung them, it was still completed very quickly.
To prevent cheating, they would not have too many people handle this matter. The fewer people the better.
After hanging the plaques, all those who participated in the hanging walked to the edge of the backstage, all turned their backs to the plaques, closed their eyes and did not speak, and could not make any movements.
Only then did Sun Lianxing say, “Turn it over.”
Immediately someone stepped forward, pulled out the bolts on the pillars at both sides of the backdrop wall, and pushed the backdrop wall to turn around. It turned out that such a large backdrop wall was actually a movable panel that could flip.
After the backdrop wall flipped, the bolts were inserted again to fix it.
Below the stage at the front, the group of attendees began pointing at the pile of plaques hanging on the backdrop wall. They had all received the competition rules earlier and knew that the numbers behind these plaques would determine their opponents in the assembly, and would also determine their competition fate.
There was much discussion. None knew how their luck would be.
The principle was simple, and all could understand. Encountering a weak opponent in the competition would naturally be an advantage.
If one could draw that single remaining number, it would be even better. It would be just like the joke made earlier, advancing without needing to compete.
As long as they came to participate in the competition, few would likely not want to take that cheap advantage.
Pairs of eyes were all staring at the plaques trying to see something, yet none could see anything at all. All they saw were the uniform Chaoyang Assembly emblems.
Let alone them, even Yu Qing who had cultivated the Character Observation Technique looked again and again, and also could not see anything. He could only secretly smile bitterly, fiddling with the dart bearing his name in his hand, waiting to see how his luck would be.
Facing the outstanding talents of the world who came to participate, he had no absolute confidence. He could only secretly curse Long Xingyun’s mother in his heart.
Yet to a certain extent, he also faintly felt some anticipation. Although he was forced to participate, he also wanted to take the opportunity to meet the outstanding talents of the world.
After his cultivation broke through to the Xuan level, he had actually always felt an urge to actively find someone to pick a fight with, wanting to test the strength of the Dust Sealing Sword Technique he cultivated under his current cultivation level.
Unfortunately since his debut he had gone down the wrong path. Either the people he encountered were too high level and he dared not provoke them, or he awkwardly had to hide and conceal himself. Basically he had never found a suitable place to use his skills.
This time it was both out of helplessness and also somewhat going with the flow.
Of course, everyone also understood why this special drawing method was used.
Those present were not ordinary people. They were all cultivators, each with their own cultivation methods. That method of putting a bunch of lots in a black box for everyone to draw was not safe for cultivators. The possibility of secretly using spells to probe the contents of the lots was quite high.
In short, they had to keep a considerable distance between the group of cultivators and the lots they were to draw. They could not be allowed any chance to contact the lots. Otherwise it would be easy to exploit loopholes. Having these people draw lots from a distance was the most secure method.
Everything was ready. Sun Lianxing in the backstage again said to Wu Tian, “Begin.”
Wu Tian bowed slightly, walked out from the backstage, came to the front of the stage, and faced the crowd saying loudly, “Everyone please be quiet. Everyone please hear me out.”
He waited until the scene finally quieted down, then again said loudly, “Everyone has received the rules for this competition. Presumably everyone understands the drawing rules. Is there anyone who does not understand? If there is someone who does not understand, please speak up and inform me. I will answer your questions.”
The attendees below the stage all looked around. Temporarily no one spoke.
After waiting a moment, seeing no one respond, Wu Tian again said, “No one has questions, then I will assume everyone understands the drawing rules.”
He turned and pointed to the plaques hanging all over the backdrop wall behind him. “Use the darts in your hands to shoot at the plaques. Only one dart per plaque. After a plaque is hit by a dart, those drawing afterwards may not shoot at it again. Even if you hit it, it is invalid. Please everyone use moderate shooting force. Do not deliberately cause trouble and destroy the plaques.
Additionally, I must ask, it is only about five zhang distance. Among everyone present, surely no one cannot even hit an empty plaque, right?”
Once these words came out, someone immediately shouted, “There is no need to worry about that. If even this cannot be hit, I think there is no need to participate in the competition anymore, right?”
“Hehe…”
Another wave of laughter arose. All treated it as a joke. How could a cultivator who came to participate in the Chaoyang Assembly not be able to hit such a large plaque from five zhang away?
Wu Tian looked at everyone’s reaction. Seeing no objections, he no longer dwelled on this issue, and immediately said loudly, “Then let us officially begin. Please everyone follow the rules and form a large circle with him at the centre.”
He pointed behind the crowd, pointing to a Kunling Mountain disciple standing in an open space.
Everyone immediately walked over in a scattered manner. After spending some time, they formed a large circle that was not quite round.
Seeing they had formed the circle, the Kunling Mountain disciple standing in the middle among them waved and directed, “Please everyone walk from west to north. Please everyone take me as the centre, walk in a circle from west to north. Yes, walk like this. Please walk slightly faster.”
“Dong dong dong dong dong…”
Suddenly drum sounds came from the backstage. The drumbeats gradually became dense.
A Kunling Mountain disciple carried a long pole and stuck it in the ground outside the rotating circle.
Wu Tian also spoke again, pointing at that pole and saying, “Please everyone follow the drawing rules. When the drum stops, everyone also stops. The one who stands directly before the pole goes first.”