"You already know the competition format?"
At his words, everyone at the table looked expectant, their eyes glimmering.
The group stage had a different host each year, and its format varied as well. All that mattered was that the Supernatural Affairs Bureau reviewed it and confirmed it was fair. Unless necessary, the format was generally not announced to the participating teams until the draw the day before the competition, to prevent unscrupulous teams from studying ways to cheat in advance.
But the host's team inevitably enjoyed some advantages every year. This year's Xinghai Team, for example, must have spent a long time training specifically for the format.
The Supernatural Affairs Bureau did not regulate this informational advantage for the host's team all that strictly.
After all, the host city contributed both money and labor. They had to let it enjoy some perks. It merely gave one team a better chance of advancing, which hardly mattered.
But leaking the format ahead of time was a more delicate matter.
Some formats might not be affected, such as straightforward arena combat. Even if you told the whole world about it, nobody would gain an advantage. With other formats, however, those who knew first and trained specifically for them would have a greater advantage than those who learned later. Revealing those ahead of time would certainly count as cheating.
Still, seeing how openly Xiao Zuo spoke, Yue Wen guessed the format itself probably was not worth much. Otherwise, he certainly would not reveal it so easily. He would at least charge something.
Sure enough, Xiao Zuo said, "Our Xiao Family has some connections in the Puppet Sect, so we've learned a little."
"This year's format has contestants fight puppets. Points are accumulated according to the strength of the puppets defeated, and those with the