Fighting grounds had already been established on all four sides of Moon City, divided into the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise sectors, with ten grounds in each. There were ordinary flat grounds, fields awaiting spring plowing, rocky grounds, wooded grounds, and grounds enclosed by bamboo beside flowing water.
The main arena stood in the eastern Azure Dragon sector. Workers gathered from various quarters had raced against time to build a bluestone platform, with five wooden posts erected at its four corners and center.
The first day of the fourth month was arguably the most important day Moon City had seen in decades, perhaps even a century.
By the hour of the dragon, the area around the Azure Dragon Main Arena outside Moon Province's eastern city gate was already a sea of people. The nearest buildings in the city stood barely a hundred zhang away.
Countless Rivers and Lakes martial artists and scholars packed the area so tightly that not even water could slip through.
The main arena was not needed yet, so a raised wooden platform had been built atop the bluestone stage. Several officials and leading figures of the martial world now stood upon it.
From the platform, people formed a dark, solid mass in every direction. Even the rooftops of buildings slightly farther away in the city were crowded with martial artists, their numbers impossible to count.
Zhang Liangxi, the senior eunuch who had come from Heaven-Bearing Prefecture, sat in the central chair, representing the majesty of the emperor.
The dozen or so martial luminaries were not the strongest fighters, but the heads of the ten Great Martial Arts Schools. They too were stirred with excitement, their gazes repeatedly sweeping over the countless martial artists beyond the platform and the scroll resting on its