"...Got it..." the girl said sullenly.
Pei Ye relaxed, then turned to Zhang Junxue. The woman was silently wiping her heavy saber nearby.
"...Junxue."
She raised her head.
Pei Ye opened his mouth. "...Be careful."
"Mm."
But however shaken and uneasy the contestants were, however they exchanged reminders and encouragement with those they knew, the next round would begin as usual, and those powerful opponents would not change.
After half an hour's rest, a Cauldron Chime rang, and the sixteen victors lined up beneath their respective platforms again.
By now, not a single weak contestant remained.
And from among them, eight stronger contestants would emerge, representing the highest level of this year's Golden Autumn Martial Contest.
At this point, every further step meant an entirely different tier, and the draw was increasingly becoming a decisive factor in victory or defeat.
For the ordinary martial artists ranked in the middle and lower reaches in particular, there were already far too many people they could not afford to face.
The platforms had been cleaned, and the curtains replaced. The draw dividing the sixteen between two platforms was soon completed, and the names were being called again.
"Arena A, first match: Li Piaoqing, Zhang Huan."
"Second match: Shang Huaitong, Zhao Yanshang."
"Third match: Yu Yingcai, Guan Yuan."
"Fourth match: Gu Guang, Zhang Junxue."
"Arena B, first match: Pei Ye, Fu Jianyu."
"Second match: Yang Yan, Lin Guihe."
"Third match: Shen Yao, Yang Shibin."
"Fourth match: Zhang Zongyuan, Zhu Shaoqiu."
To many spectators who had been watching from the beginning, these results had, in fact, already determined who the Top Eight would be.
On the high dais, Director of Merit Xu also shook his head with a smile at the other officials. "We really didn't tamper with anything."
Sure enough, there was no suspense