County Magistrate Shen hurriedly fished a little wooden toy from his cloth pouch with a broad smile and handed it to Lord Gao.
After that, the county magistrates of Shannan, Xu Gu, and Guhe all arrived. Just as the Judicial Office official had said, apart from the close ties between neighboring Zheng Shou and Can County, the others were only barely acquainted. After exchanging greetings, they took their respective seats.
By now, the thirty-two contestants had long since assembled below the arenas. The Prefectural City officials had often come to watch over the previous two days and simply sat watching, but several county magistrates were on the platform for the first time. Everything was still novel to them. They neither recognized the contestants nor understood the situation, and kept discussing and asking all manner of questions.
"There will be two rounds today. The first narrows it down to sixteen, and the second determines the final eight. Tomorrow will just be the finals," Bai Sibing explained with a smile. "These thirty-two have already survived two rounds of elimination. Every one of them is a fine talent."
"Oh, I see my county's contestant."
"Mm, yours is tall. Easy to pick out."
The magistrates scanned the martial artists' faces below, searching for their own counties' contestants, smiling as they asked questions and pointed them out to one another.
Only one magistrate remained silent, seemingly uninterested.
Someone soon noticed him. "Ah, Lord Xu, which one is your county's promising young talent?"
County Magistrate Xu said flatly, "None left."
"..." The questioner held back for a moment, but still let out an unkind laugh. Beside them, Bai Sibing offered smiling consolation. "There's still a chance through the losers' bracket."
The other magistrates finished counting. All still had at least two contestants standing on the field,