After the end of the battle between Song Fu and Feilei Zhang, there were four more fights. At first, Lin Mu had thought that Feilei Zhang would fight again, but it was someone else that had a fight scheduled.
'Guess this might be their way of letting the contestants rest a bit.' Lin Mu reckoned.
The subsequent four fights were all different people, with no one repeating so far. The fights were nothing remarkable and all the participants were at the first tribulation stage of the immortal realm.
This was normal, as the majority of the cultivators were at this level.
But Lin Mu could hear some strong cheers coming from a couple of nearby rings. He couldn't look directly, but when he used his immortal sense to do so, he 'saw' two rings where strong immortals were fighting.
In one of the rings, a third tribulation stage immortal was battling a First Tribulation Stage immortal while in the second ring, a Fourth Tribulation stage immortal was going against a Second Tribulation Stage immortal.
It was clear that the odds were stacked against the weaker immortals, but they were still giving their all and hadn't surrendered at the start. It was clear that they were here to test their skills and didn't mind it even if their loss was already decided.
Their battle was briefly finishing in just a couple of minutes with the winners being those with the higher cultivation.
Lin Mu took note of the Third and Fourth Tribulation Stage immortals, as he was sure that they would be one of the contenders that would probably last till the end of the qualifier rounds.
But that wasn't all as he had recognized the Third Tribulation Stage immortal. He was one of the people of interest that were included in the booklet and was named Xiong Guo. He had an established reputation and there were already people betting on him.
Compared to him, the Fourth Tribulation Stage immortal was unknown. She was named Fu Xiaoling and this seemed to be her first battle as well as her very first Tournament of the Four Guardians.
But simply the fact that she was at the Fourth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm was enough to catch the attention of all the people as well as the bookies. There were already updates going around, with her odds for bets being decided.
At the same time, people were trying to figure out her background and details, as nothing seemed to be known so far. If not for the fact that she wasn't particularly beautiful, the attention she received would have only been greater.
Other than that, it was clear that she was now going to be one of the dark horses of the tournament.
Lin Mu took note of both contestants, knowing that there was a significant chance he might be meeting at least one of them.
"Chang Fa and Mu Lin approach the ring!" A new round started stirring Lin Mu out of his thoughts.
The identity token in his hand also rang, telling him that it was finally his turn.
"Looks like it is time." Lin Mu said as he stood up. "You can stay here for now, Little Shrubby." He said, placing the beast in his seat.
The beast gave a nod while Lin Mu went to the ring. Having sat in the front row, it was rather easy for him to reach the ring, as it was just a few meters away.
The same couldn't be said for his opponent though, as the man had still not appeared. This made Lin Mu realize that he didn't know who his opponent was, making him look up at the formation screen.
But when he did, a confused expression appeared on his face.
"Is that… A hat?" Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder.
The formation screen showed the portraits of the contestants. On one side, there was Lin Mu and on the other, there was Chang Fa.
Except the man seemed to have some strange tastes in fashion. On his head, there was a hat… A hat that was nearly a meter tall!
In fact, it was so tall that it actually didn't fit in the portrait properly, making them zoom out so that the full head of the man could be seen.
Lin Mu had seen a few hats that were big or tall, most of them being ceremonial in nature. But he had never seen a hat that was this tall.
"Did he register in some ceremonial getup or something?" Lin Mu wondered.
But his eyes soon spotted something long and black moving in the audience. He looked towards it only to see a black pillar moving in the audience's rows. It moved towards the steps before the rest of its body was shown.
"He really wore the hat," Lin Mu almost couldn't believe his eyes.
Chang Fa was about 160 centimeters tall, but the hat on his head added a whole 100 centimeter to it. When he was moving in the audience, his body couldn't be seen but the tall hat stood out like a ostrich among chickens.
And now that he had appeared in the open, Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder about the man.
He had an oval face with a sharp mustache that almost looked like it was shaped using some cream. He had no beard, but the strap of his hat hung from his chin, looking like a thin but long beard.
Lin Mu wasn't the only one who seemed to be confused by the man's appearance, as the audience was mumbling about him too. None of them could make out why the man would dress like this.
Chang Fa had a straight expression on his face and didn't seem to be the least bit bothered about the others. He simply approached the ring and came to stand in front of Lin Mu in a few seconds.
The referee though was professional and showed no change in expression after seeing the man. It was clear that the people of the temple were calm and composed.
