During the seven days since their arrival, the elevated platforms specially provided for these sorcerers, monks, and Daoists had also been completed. Whether they were called viewing platforms or spell-dueling platforms did not matter; in any case, enormous raised stages towered like pavilions.
They had been built long ago, specifically in the center of the busiest square. A three-zhang-high platform rose from the ground, with several spell-dueling arenas at its center. Besides those arenas, there were places for refining pills and talismans, as well as areas dedicated to presenting auspicious omens...
Some people looked as calm as ever, while others sighed.
Many called the reigning Emperor a wise ruler.
Yet in the eyes of the many visiting practitioners, such a judgment was rather one-sided. He was a ruler, certainly, but whether he was wise was another matter entirely.
At best, he could be called middling. At least, the practitioners who held no reverence for imperial authority were not particularly afraid of the Emperor. What they cared about was only the position of Celestial Master offered by this dynasty.
That was why, despite their pride and their faint disdain for ordinary worldly folk, the number of practitioners drawn here had far exceeded the expectations of those who had proposed the plan.
Fortunately, the academy itself had drawn away some attention. People everywhere were hurrying toward the new academy in Guangyuan Prefecture, so for now, the timing of the two events had not clashed in the capital.
But that did not mean that once the academy in Guangyuan Prefecture opened, Great Qi Academy in the capital would become useless.
Naturally not. This year's autumn examinations had already been extended. Whether they would collide with the spell-dueling event was still unclear, since the Emperor had yet to speak.
In truth, over the past