His expression was calm, but Bing Yekong could feel what lay suppressed beneath that calm from more than half the arena away. It was like a pot of water about to boil dry—bubbling on the surface, filled with steam underneath.
Dai Mubai walked half a step behind him. The hideous green academy uniform looked somewhat out of place on him. He was a full size more muscular than he had been during the preliminaries, his shoulders broad as door panels, while his blood-red pupils glimmered with a dark, cold light beneath the entrance lights.
His stride was steady, but Bing Yekong noticed the fingers of his left hand slowly curling and spreading, as though he were suppressing some impulse.
Zhu Zhuqing stood at his side. Her figure remained agile, but her face was paler than Bing Yekong remembered.
There was worry in the way she looked at Dai Mubai, though it was buried deeply enough that one would miss it without looking closely.
On Star Luo Royal Academy's side, seven people wore deep-purple academy uniforms, with a golden six-pointed star embroidered over their chests.
The young man walking at the front resembled Dai Mubai by seventy or eighty percent. The same golden hair, the same tiger eyes, the same tall and upright build. Yet Dai Weisi's golden hair was neater, tied up impeccably, and his features held the arrogant air of someone raised in luxury.
The Zhu Zhuyun beside him looked remarkably like Zhu Zhuqing, but she was older, with the sharpness unique to a mature woman at the corners of her eyes and brows.
When her gaze fell on Zhu Zhuqing, her catlike pupils narrowed slightly.
"Seven against seven. Elimination round. Begin."
As the referee's voice fell, the atmosphere on the arena instantly tightened.
Dai Mubai did not wait.