The Rewards, Part I
The arena was packed. Wu Jian thought it was even more crowded now than it had been during the team battles. The amount of noise coming from the crowd was almost deafening. He could only imagine how Youmei, sitting in the middle of all that alongside Hua Xue and Yu Chenguang, was dealing with this.
He stood amongst the rest of the competitors, of which there were far less than last time. Only five teams of the twelve who competed had gone on to compete in the individual tournament, which meant their numbers had been cut in half. Each team stood along on this large arena floor. He and Mei Xilan were the odd men out since every other team consisted of five people and they were but two.
The crowd became quiet as Huǒ Huangdi stood from his seat and walked over to the edge. He gazed upon those who would be competing, then cast his gaze to the crowd. Wu Jian noticed almost immediately that Huǒ Yulie, who had been staying by his side since the tournament’s beginning, was not present.