With Lin Mu immersing himself in practice, the two days passed quickly.
Soon it was the day of his and Ming Aolian's fight, but the time for the fights had still not been given. The only thing they knew was that the fights were going to happen in their respective rings.
"Hopefully they don't inform too close to the other fights…" Lin Mu muttered to himself as he watched his 'handiwork'.
Another battle had ended and Lin Mu's interference had changed the result at the very last moment. He had used an intense version of the Severing Heart Sutra at the very end, causing a winning contestant to be distracted enough that his opponent pushed him out of the ring.
It was frankly a win that seemed absurd, as the nearly losing person was injured quite a lot. But he had turned the odds due to Lin Mu's 'test'.
Of course, the audience and the referee didn't know this and they only thought of this as the nearly winning contestant being too conceited. He had lowered his guard and had been pushed out.
It was still a valid win and no matter how much the person protested the results were written in stone.
Two more matches passed before Lin Mu finally felt the token hum. He checked it and found that his third match would be in an hour or so.
'Six more matches before mine is scheduled… Hmm, wonder if Ming Aolian has gotten intimation about hers.' Lin Mu thought and took out the communication jade slip.
He quickly sent her a message and told her when his match would be too.
Ming Aolian quickly responded that her match hadn't been scheduled yet, but that she would inform him as soon as it was done.
'Seems like we'll have to leave it to luck…' Lin Mu thought and did a few calculations.
The first thing he checked was how long it would take him to get to Ming Aolian's ring. It was somewhat near the Spring Valley Restaurant and needed five minutes to get to it from there.
"Fifteen minutes to get to the Spring Valley Restaurant and Five from there… Twenty minutes to spare." Lin Mu now knew the baseline time he would need.
He continued watching the rest of the fights but didn't use the Nine Divine Heart Sutra's this time. Instead, he focused on optimizing his condition and resting his mind and body. Even if he wasn't tired, it was good to let it reach a stable state.
After all, he didn't know how his opponent would be.
Thirty minutes passed, as three matches went by. There were three more matches left before Lin Mu's would start.
~humm~
Suddenly, the communication jade slip hummed, prompting Lin Mu to check it. A few seconds later, his expression stiffened.
"And they really scheduled it at the last moment…" Lin Mu muttered.
Ming Aolian's fight was scheduled in just four more rounds and the expected waiting time was less than forty five minutes. On the other hand, Lin Mu's fight would be there in thirty minutes.
'Seems like I'll have to speed up the process.' Lin Mu thought. "So much for resting…" he said before starting to chant.
Lin Mu reckoned he may as well use the Nine Divine Heart Sutras to speed up the process of the fights.
And that is exactly what he did. He used them at high intensity right from the start, causing the fights to end rather abruptly.
"What's happening?" The first and second fights were fine, but seeing that the third fight had a strange result too, the audience was getting confused.
"Are the contestant really this careless?"
"I don't know… maybe they are tired?"
"That can't be it. One of them literally had his first fight."
The people couldn't help but discuss.
Even the referee had his brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of the fights. He didn't suspect foul play though as there were no signs detected by the array and neither by him. Being a referee, he had the qualifications to check everything and was quite strong too.
Nothing could escape his senses, and trying to hide something from him was a futile effort.
This was why it felt so strange too him.
'Are the contestants dumb this time around?' The referee couldn't help but think.
That was the only conclusion that made sense to him, as the previous fights had ended because of stupid reasons.
One person had lost because they retreated and didn't see when they had walked out of the ring while the second person had lost because they simply kept on defending and didn't attack.
As for the third fight, it was even more strange as both the contestants were battling without focus. Most of their attacks were missing so much so that they may as well just be failing around on the ground.
Even Lin Mu was a bit surprised by the effect of the sutras, but then again the people he was targeting this time were rather weak. Both of them were at the First Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm and looked to have reached it not long ago.
They were considered young in terms of an immortal and thus people found them even dumber.
~THUD~
In the end, one of the contestants was knocked out by a swift blow that hit hard, causing him to collapse.
The referee wasted no time in waiting and quickly declared the end of the fight.
"Lin Mu and Huang Bao, head to the ring!" The Referee announced.
The formation screen also changed to show the faces of the two contestants.
"WHOA! It's Huang Bao!"
"HUANG BAO! It really is him!"
The audience seemed very excited now.
"Did you know he was participating this time?"
"No, I thought he was still in seclusion."
The people were discussing animatedly.
Lin Mu briefly checked his opponent and realized why they were so excited.
"A top fifty contender from the past Tournament?" Lin Mu discovered.
