"Let us welcome the Dragon Nation's finest young Beast Tamers, who have overcome trial after trial to finally stand before the nation and even the world..."
Rows of figures passed through the brightly lit passageway.
It was like the green tunnel leading onto a football pitch, its gates wide open. Su Ping stood among the crowd, neither near the front nor the back.
Yet almost as soon as he emerged from the passageway into view of the stands, the cameras throughout the venue swung toward him.
His faintly smiling face appeared on the huge screen overhead, drawing cheers and chatter from across the venue that surged like mountains roaring and seas thundering.
"It's Su Ping! It really is him!"
"I told you, I really saw him at Origin Mall over there! He had this ridiculously pretty, ridiculously familiar-looking girl with him! I even said hello. Shame he turned down my request for a photo."
"So that means the incident last time got sorted out? That guy from Eagle Country didn't do anything to Su Ping?"
"What could he have done? There were so many advanced Beast Tamers there. How could anything have happened?"
"Su God! You're my idol! My Paper-Folding Man's price has gone up fivefold because of you..."
"..."
The frenzy made all the contestants slowly converging from every direction turn their heads involuntarily, looking instinctively toward that younger figure among the crowd.
Some were envious, some admiring, and some curious.
Meanwhile, the host standing on the raised platform seemed to cross space itself as she stepped off the suspended staircase, reaching the stage at the center of the largest square arena in a single stride.
The four arriving groups of contestants took their assigned positions, forming a square formation.
"Hehe, I can see how excited our audience is,