The county magistrate knew the limits of his own knowledge and did not forget to turn to Director of Merit Xu behind him for advice, asking with due composure, "Lord Xu, what is the background of this Pei Ye?"
"Fenghuai County's selection."
"Oh!"
The Guhe County magistrate pressed his lips together, turned, and cupped his hands. The old man in the corner returned a modest bow.
The Cauldron Chime rang again. The hour of the Goat had arrived.
The red silk fluttered down, and the round of thirty-two officially began.
In the first bout in Arena A, Li Piaoqing effortlessly flicked aside the longsword before her on her seventh move and laid her blade against her opponent's neck.
Shang Huaitong still used only a single blow of his scabbard, without drawing his sword.
Though the impressions those two left were dazzling enough, what truly tugged at the magistrates' nerves were the closer, fiercer matches that followed. They still smiled and chatted calmly, but their hands had long since tightened around their teacups.
Yet when the matches in Arena A ended, with Zhang Junxue and Gu Guang both victorious, the Shannan County magistrate's expression froze completely. None of the other magistrates looked pleased either.
Of the eight bouts in Arena A, only Zheng Shou and Xu Gu Counties had secured places among the sixteen winners. Can County had occupied two bouts in this arena, yet its entire force had been wiped out. County Magistrate Meng's face clearly could not grow any paler.
And when the matches moved to Arena B, the other magistrates' faces darkened one after another.
Clearly, those supposed six places had been nothing but wishful thinking.
They had assumed that so many had broken their halberds in Arena A because the competitors there were too strong, and