In other words, as long as the drumbeat continued, the people walking in circles could not stop either, and had to keep walking.
The dense, rapid drumbeats continued sounding like this, and no one knew at which point they would stop.
The drummer was hidden backstage and could not see the scene in front. Unless someone secretly informed them, there was no way to cheat on the drumbeat for anyone.
The dense drumbeats continued for quite a while. Just as the large circle formed by over eighty people had turned eight or nine rounds at a moderate pace, the drumbeats suddenly stopped, and the lingering sound quickly dissipated.
The circling crowd, caught off guard, hurriedly stopped. The spacing between people was uneven, some gaps wide, some crowded.
Everyone’s gaze immediately turned toward the standing pole, wanting to see who was the person under the pole’s shadow.
Under the sunlight, the shadow of the standing pole fell upon a man. The crowd’s gazes gradually focused on him. He too wore an expression of belated realisation, his gaze following the pole’s shadow to himself, then looking around at everyone’s reactions, before confirming that he was the one standing in the shadow.
Immediately, two Kunling Mountain disciples went over to confirm his name, and checked the dart in his hand for verification.
Finally, under the indication of the Kunling Mountain disciples, that man stared at the wooden plaques arranged on the backdrop wall on the stage, hesitated for a moment, then threw out the dart in his hand with uncertainty.
Crack! A crisp sound. Whether or not it was to get a good omen, his dart nailed onto the first plaque in the first row.
After throwing the dart, he was invited out of the circle and asked to stand aside.
Then the next person stepped forward, walked to the position of the standing pole, and also threw the dart in his hand under instruction.
After the dart was thrown, he exited the line, not hindering the people behind from stepping forward.
The further it went, the less hesitation those throwing darts showed, because the options were fewer, and there was nothing much to choose from. Basically, they all threw by feel.
“Old Fifteen, rest assured, if a few of us are matched against each other, we will definitely let you pass.”
The three fellow disciples were mixed in among the crowd. Nan Zhu saw Yu Qing seemingly pondering something, and said a few comforting words.
Yu Qing immediately found it amusing. It was not the first time they had crossed hands. Was being beaten not enough or what? Did he still need them to let him win?
He had just wanted to say “bring it on,” but when he turned his head and saw Nan Zhu mixed in beside Baili Xin, he immediately understood what was going on. So it turned out that the damned fatty’s words were not meant for him to hear, but for Baili Xin to hear. He could not help but roll his eyes.
Seeing again Nan Zhu’s pitiful, humble gaze, begging to save face, Yu Qing speechlessly turned his head back, and the words that had reached his mouth were forcibly swallowed back down.
He did not know what Nan Zhu was thinking. Clearly knowing this woman had issues, yet still daring to pine after her. Was this not asking for trouble for himself?
In fact, were he and Mu Aotie not the same? Clearly knowing this woman had issues, clearly knowing Fatty Nan should not pursue this woman, but the two of them still turned a blind eye and let it be.
The four of them, huddled together, stepped forward to throw at the standing pole after more than twenty others had gone, one after another. They did not make any selections either. Even if they wanted to select, the people in front had disrupted their selection plans. They could only randomly find an empty plaque and throw out the darts in their hands.
After throwing, they left the field and waited to one side.
The speed was quite fast too. Over eighty people, one after another, almost without any hesitation. Before long, the whole circle of people finished up.
On stage, they immediately began calling names in sequence.
Starting from the name on the bottommost, last dart, “Su He.”
The man named Su He immediately leapt onto the stage. The host Wu Tian, in front of everyone, rolled up his sleeves, baring his forearms, indicating he would not secretly manipulate anything in his sleeves, and removed the rearmost plaque.
Once the plaque left the backdrop wall, a reversed number imprint immediately appeared in its position. Understood in reverse, it should be the number “twenty-seven.”
At this point, everyone roughly understood what was going on with the coating on the backdrop wall. It turned out that when the dart hit the wooden plaque, it could directly leave the number imprint from the plaque. Under the watchful eyes of all, this could prevent cheating.
Sure enough, when the plaque in Wu Tian’s hand was flipped over for all to see, it was precisely the number “twenty-seven.”
The dart was publicly removed and hung on the nail from which the plaque had hung, suspended exactly at the corresponding draw number.
Under the gaze of the supervisory personnel sent by the Kunling Mountain sect, and under the watchful eyes of everyone present, at least at this moment, no falsification was possible. The Kunling Mountain disciples also quickly made a record.
The cultivator named Su He then jumped off the stage holding that plaque.
Immediately after, the name on the dart on the second-to-last plaque was called out, “Chen Shaofei.”
A man responded and went on stage. The number on the wooden plaque he received was nineteen.
With the prelude, everyone’s routine of going on and off stage also quickened. Those who first grasped their own numbers stared intently at the subsequent numbers being revealed on stage, wanting to know who their first-round match opponent was.
According to the rules, among eighty-nine people, from one to forty-four, each number had two identical plaques. That is to say, the person who got “one” would duel with another person who got “one.” In the end, it was impossible for two “ones” to exist. There could only be one true “one.”
Yu Qing went on stage after the fiftieth-something person.
When his plaque was removed, Wu Tian, who was staring at the plaque imprint, subconsciously froze.
Yu Qing also froze for a moment, subconsciously glancing at the plaque imprints that had already been revealed behind him. He discovered that everyone else’s imprints had numbers. Only his imprint was a blank board, with no trace whatsoever inside.
What did this mean? He could not recover his senses for a moment, unable to understand the situation.
Everyone below the stage also quietened down, quietly watching the plaque in Wu Tian’s hand, waiting for the mystery to be solved.
Wu Tian held the dart, flipped the plaque over with it, and showed it to everyone in the arena. The front of the wooden plaque was smooth, with no number on it at all, matching the imprint on the wall.
“What does this mean?”
“Was a plaque that had been forgotten to be engraved taken out, causing a mishap?”
“What are you thinking? Could such a thing have a mishap? How could Kunling Mountain make such a low-level mistake? That fellow on stage must have had bloody good luck. He hit the remaining single number.”
“Damn, promoted directly?”
Below the stage, discussions arose, with constant sounds of surprise and doubt. Nan Zhu, Mu Aotie, and Baili Xin looked at each other.
Everyone knew there must be one lucky person among the contestants, but none had thought it would appear among their own group. They had still wanted to see who could be so lucky. They had not expected it to actually be Old Fifteen. For a moment, they could hardly believe it.
Not to mention them, Yu Qing himself could not believe he could be so lucky. He both felt he might be that lucky one, yet did not dare to be happy too early, afraid of making a fool of himself. He could only ask Wu Tian with a hesitant face, “This is?”
Wu Tian looked at the front of the plaque again. He too was somewhat hesitant, similarly somewhat uncertain, because the plaques had been made with a certain degree of secrecy at the sect. The details of the plaques had not been leaked to personnel from the various peaks beforehand. Added to that, this was his first time participating in such an event, and he had no relevant experience. He could only look toward Uncle-Master Sun at the other end for help, showing him the plaque face.
Sun Lianxing, with an expressionless face, immediately said in a clear voice, “Those without a number have no match session, meaning no opponent. No need to compete in the first round, promoted directly!”
The final word was spoken. All kinds of distracting noises instantly vanished like smoke, and a burst of uproar arose.
“This fellow’s luck is good enough.”
“Who is this person?”
“The name just called, seems to be something like Zhang Zhichen.”
“That’s right, that fellow is reportedly the great archer of Longguang Sect.”
“A great archer running to participate in the Chaoyang Assembly?”
In the crowd, Chan Shaoting, Zhao Qing, Xiao Changdao, and Wu Ronggui looked at each other. Especially the latter two, their envy was overflowing, and even obvious jealousy was revealed in their eyes.
Having received confirmation, Nan Zhu in the crowd was overjoyed, unable to help chuckling, “Old Fifteen’s luck, there’s really no one like it.”
Mu Aotie, whose expression was usually cold and stern, also revealed a knowing smile, and said lightly, “Occasionally hitting upon luck once is nothing much either.”
Even Baili Xin could not help clicking her tongue.
Yu Qing on stage first froze, then smiled. Looking at the reactions of the crowd below, knowing he had become the object of envy and jealousy, he was rather embarrassed. He raised his hand to scratch his small moustache, also secretly praising his own good luck.
Wu Tian pulled out the dart from the wooden plaque, hung the dart on the empty nail, and handed the plaque to Yu Qing.
Yu Qing took the plaque and leapt back. Once back among the envious crowd, Nan Zhu immediately grabbed the plaque from his hand to examine it, still chuckling from time to time.
After the next person went on stage, most people immediately refocused, continuing to pay attention to who their opponent would be.
Before long, Mu Aotie was also called up, and took back a wooden plaque with the number “thirteen.”
“Eh, this number thirteen seems to have been called before.” Nan Zhu muttered with a frown.
Mu Aotie immediately looked around with him, wanting to find that opponent. In matters of martial competition, naturally knowing oneself and knowing the other side was the way to greater chances of victory.
But Yu Qing casually took Old Ninth’s plaque to examine, comparing it with the smooth plaque in his own hand, his fingers tracing the recessed characters on the other wooden plaque. A thoughtful expression gradually appeared on his face.
Holding the actual objects and comparing the two, he seemed to have gained some inspiration.
Immediately, his gaze swept over the large incense burner with curling green smoke before the sacrificial altar of the three offerings, then quickly fixed on the backdrop wall on the stage, fixing on those plaques with darts stuck in them.
He still remembered the crackling sounds of the darts hitting the plaques earlier. The plaques were hung on the backdrop wall. The sounds included both the movement of the darts hitting, and the movement of the plaques striking the backdrop wall after being hit.
The crux of the problem lay here. When the plaque was pressed against the wall, even faint air currents could not pass through, so even someone like him who cultivated the Character Observation Technique had given up on inspecting. But the instant the plaque struck the wall after being hit might be a different situation. Would the dispersing impact airflow in that instant pass between the other plaques and the wall?
The different characters on the plaques were like mountains, rivers, and valleys with different terrain on the earth. When wind passed through, it would create various kinds of turbulent weather.
Like the two plaques in his hand, one side engraved with characters, one side smooth and neat.
Unfortunately, the inspiration came a bit too late. This round of dart throwing had already stopped. He could not temporarily verify some of his ideas. He could only wait for the second round of drawing to look carefully again. Anyway, he definitely had the chance to participate in the second round of drawing.