I had to admit, the Ten Prodigies Hegemony Battle proposed by the Masked Dean was quite interesting.
The basic rules and framework had already taken shape. Ten arenas would be set up across different areas of the Dihua Ability Institute. Besides the "Arena Challenge," the twenty contestants could fight one another freely, obstruct their opponents' movements, or directly eliminate their competitors.
When the Masked Dean solicited the disciples' opinions at the banquet, Hao Long raised his hand.
"I think we need to add some mandatory measures for those villains who want to hide in the shadows and reap the benefits without lifting a finger... I suggest requiring the twenty contestants, except for those who become Arena Masters, to participate in at least one Arena Challenge every three hours. Otherwise, they'll lose their eligibility to compete for the Ten Prodigies."
The Masked Dean immediately nodded. "Mm-hmm! That's a good suggestion! Some people really would hide in the shadows the entire time, then wait until the competition was nearly over before attacking the diligent disciples who had fought desperately to seize the Arena Master positions. That would be taking advantage of loopholes... Fine, we'll add Hao Long's mandatory requirement to the rules. Does anyone else have any ideas?"
"Dean, may I ask whether we need to add some variety to the competition?" asked a Fourth Stage of Transcendence disciple from the Art School.
"Tell us your idea."
"The twenty of us will be moving around the vast Dihua Ability Institute. Other than being relatively concentrated at the institute entrance at the beginning, we'll be scattered for most of the remaining time. With ten arenas divided among us, at most two people will be challenging each other at any given arena... In other words, there won't be many clashes among the twenty of