After entering the circular battle arena, a noisy clamor filled their ears.

That boy servant led them to the seating area and bowed respectfully to Zhou Danjin. “Mentor Zhou, your party can sit here. Additionally, the first lot will be drawn in one hour. You can send one student up to the stage to draw the lot.”

“Since you are clear on the competition rules, this humble one will not repeat them.”

“Oh, oh, okay.”

“This humble one will dismiss himself. If you need anything such as fruit and dessert, you can head to the purchase area over there for something quick.” The boy servant pointed at the edge of the circular seating area.

Everybody couldn’t help, but be exasperated at what they saw.

It turned out that the bigshots wanted to do business during the battle arena this year.

The seating area was set up with a purchase area. Upon a glance, there were melons, snacks, and fruits. The food there was rather abundant.

It was just that the price, uhm…

Because you had to use materials for this exchange, not many people were going to buy…

Everybody sat down.

Mentor Zhou skimmed through that sheet of paper listing the rules and told everybody after a bit, “These rules are about the same as last year’s. The second round is a match between academies. In short, you have to send a student to the stage every day to draw lots. Academies with the same lot number will compete in a match.”

“Afterwards, once there are less than 300 academy teams remaining, the competition will enter its final stage. There will be new rules again once students enter the final stage.”

“With so many academies, I reckon that we will need ten or so days for the second round to finish.

“It was also taken care of in seven days in past years.” Zhou Danjin finished his sentence and turned to look at Qiao Mu. “Classmate Qiao, you go up and draw a lot.”

Qiao Mu eyed Mentor Zhou with an indescribable expresion.

“Reason.”

“The reason is very simple!” Mentor Zhou’s face creased up from smiling like a flower. He laughed, “Everybody knows it. It’s just three characters.”

“You’re lucky!”

Everyone: “…”

/Wouldn’t Mentor Wei Xu make up four characters?/

Mentor Zhou looked at Qiao Mu with a smile. “Classmate Qiao, what do you think?”

“Nothing much.” Qiao Mu spoke nonchalantly, “Truthfully speaking, my luck has always been erratic. I might possibly draw the strongest team as our opponent.”

“Which academy has the strongest team?”

“That would be the top three of last year’s competition, of course.”

“Godsend Academy, Jiaqing Academy, and Sunlight Academy.”

“Aren’t they very strong?” Qi Xuanxuan was surprised.

They weren’t too clear on Godsend Academy’s strength, but Qiaoqiao had practically eliminated Jiaqing Academy when they were in the underground base.

“Jiaqing Academy doesn’t only have Guan Yiying’s team.” Mentor Zhou wagged his finger. “Jiaqing Academy was the runner-up of last time’s ranking competition. Their captain, Li Nanshen, possesses great individual strength. Last time I saw him, he had already broken through the level-10 grand spiritual cultivator barrier.”

“Li Nanshen ranks third on the individual ranking, which shows how strong he is. If you small fry run into Li Nanshen’s team on the stage, listen to me and quickly surrender,” Zhou Danjin said while pursing his lips.

“Mentor, what kind of unlucky things are you saying!” Ma Ta shouted unexpectedly, which nearly made Zhou Danjin jump.

/F*ck, this brat had shouted straight at his ear./

“Mentor, we will definitely do our best to win honor for our academy!”