After the draw ended, the Military Department expert spoke again. "According to the draw, Southern Martial University will face Western Mountain Martial University tomorrow morning, and Magic Martial University will face Donglin Martial University in the afternoon.
"The remaining matches will follow the order drawn, with two matches a day. After the five matches in the first knockout round, the losers' bracket will compete for a place in the second round. That will take five days in total. The winner of the losers' bracket will advance to the second round. Next comes the second knockout round, followed by the contest between the top three. Whoever wins two matches among the top three will be the champion."
After announcing the matchups and schedule, the two Golden Body experts walked through the air back to the second floor.
On the second floor, many of the grandmasters' expressions changed. The grandmasters from Donglin and Western Mountain looked especially grim. They had never expected to face championship contenders in the first round. Winning was out of the question; all they could do was arrange things to minimize their losses, then compete for first place in the losers' bracket.
The opening ceremony was very simple. Once the draw ended, the Ministry of Education staff were still busy delivering the closing remarks.
The students onstage were free to leave. They had only come today for the draw and to let everyone get acquainted with them.
Huang Jing, up on the second floor, said he still wanted to catch up with some old friends, so Lu Hao could only head back alone. As for catching up, he was probably just going over to show off. Lu Hao could not have been more right. Over the past two days, Huang Jing had been pestering all the grandmasters at