"Let's meet up with the other judges first. I wonder if the meeting has started yet," Farrina muttered.
"Meeting?" Angor caught a word. What kind of meeting? "
"I think there's a meeting about how to determine the outcome of a match. It's a meeting where they weigh the odds of winning against different situations." Farrina paused and continued, "But it doesn't really matter to us whether we listen to the meeting or not.
"In any case, unless there are special circumstances, the special judges rarely get involved in the outcome of the battle." Farrina winked at Angor. "All we need to do is sit on the side, drink some tea, and think about alchemy skills, and the match will be over."
Angor didn't know what to say. So he wasn't the only one who wanted to earn points.
As soon as Farrina finished speaking, she contacted someone through her communicator. From the light projected on the communicator, one could see that the other party was a middle-aged woman with a mean face.
Farrina hung up the communicator and explained to Angor, "That's Witch Pattina, a close friend of mine. She's also a judge for the competition. But she's not a special judge. She's a permanent judge."
"I was wondering if I should go to the meeting about the standards. But I don't need to think about it anymore. Pattina told me that the meeting ended half an hour ago."
Angor gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry I'm late."
"It's fine. I don't want to go anyway. But I'm still hesitating." Farrina shrugged. "You're late, but you've made an ideal choice for me."
Since most of the audience had already gone to the Infinity Arena, there weren't many people outside the arena.
There were a few people who saw Angor, and they all looked surprised when they saw him. No one dared to approach him, but they could still hear whispers in the wind.
"Truth's Sky wasn't exaggerating this time. Angor really made it!"
"Shh, quiet down. Don't call him by his name. Wizard Padt might hear you. "
"Um … That's Water Witch next to Wizard Padt, right? I heard that the Water Witch is one of the judges for this competition. Does that mean Adept Padt is also one of the judges? "
"Sigh … When I first came here, I was thinking about how Jebra's arch-enemy would put up a good fight against Angor, but now … I'm not sure. Jebra is still a contestant, but he's already a judge. "
Although these whispers were soft, to an official Magus, as long as they wanted to hear it, it would be like a clap of thunder in their ears. No matter how soft they were, it was useless.
Farrina naturally heard those voices as well. She smiled and said, "With your current popularity, you'll probably steal the limelight of all the judges during the preliminaries."
"That's not what I want. Besides, do judges need the limelight? I thought that only the contestants cared about popularity. "
"There are always people who enjoy the sense of accomplishment of being the center of attention." "I heard that some of the judges are very concerned about this. But I don't think they will say anything since you stole their thunder. This is the trend of Floating Mech City."
At first, people were trying to kill Angor by flattering him. Angor, on the other hand, was already at the top of the list. He even went one step further and became a formal wizard. Not only did the flattery become a joke, but it also pushed his popularity even higher.
Even the "Rising Star Match" did not overshadow Angor's brilliance. Two days ago, when Ashilie stole Angor's class, almost everyone in the alchemy circle showed up.
This was the general trend that Farrina was talking about.
Following Farrina's guidance, they soon arrived at the backstage of Infinity Arena. This was a path for wizards only, so it was very quiet. There was no one else here apart from the two of them.
Not long after they walked down the corridor, they suddenly heard a series of bangs.
Angor frowned and looked at the source of the noise.
The voice came from a closed wooden door.
"I think that's —" Before Farrina could finish her sentence, a large hole was torn open in the middle of the door, and a figure flew out from it.
It was a man covered in blood. His eyes were showing the whites of his eyes. He had already passed out.
At this moment, a black cat leaped out of the hole in the wooden door.
"This is what you get for messing with me." The black cat jumped onto the man's head and mumbled something. It revealed its sharp claws as if it was going to break the man's head.
Suddenly, the black cat smelled the faint fragrance of flower tea in the air. It arched its body and turned around. Its eyes happened to meet Angor and Farrina's.
The cat's ghostly green eyes shone with a cold light. Its pupils also turned into vertical slits.
However, when the cat saw Angor and Farrina's faces, its arched back slowly relaxed. It seemed to have recognized them.
The black cat's tail drooped as it muttered, "Count yourself lucky." Then, it turned around and jumped into the door, disappearing from sight.
A gust of cold wind blew, leaving the man lying in a pool of blood.
"This door is connected to the backstage of the contestants," Farrina finally finished her sentence.
Angor pointed at the man on the ground. "So, this man and the cat are both contestants?"
Farrina stepped forward, and a stream of warm water vapor enveloped the man's body. After a while, Farrina said, "To be precise, only that cat is a contestant in the Rising Star Competition. This man is not dead yet, but he won't recover from his injuries for at least three to five months. "
Angor tried to recall the cat. It looked similar to Keely's Luna. However, Luna was a female cat, while this one sounded like a male cat. Luna was a monster, while the black cat was probably a bloodline avatar of some kind.
But to be able to transform so perfectly into a cat, it must have gone beyond being a half-beast.
Bloodline avatars could control themselves without being controlled by their animal instincts. This meant that the man had reached a very high level of understanding and compatibility with his bloodline.
In terms of bloodline avatars, this man was probably the most suitable one among all the apprentices Angor had ever seen.
Farrina also sighed. "That black cat is almost a full-beast. That's rare even among Bloodline Wizards. There are so many new geniuses in this competition."
"Newbies these days are more and more like monsters," Angor chimed in.
Farrina gave Angor a strange look. Newbies are like monsters? You're the newbie, the strongest monster.
She should be the one to say that, not Angor. Farrina complained in her mind.
"I saw Shallie's strength before. She's not bad. Did she pass the next round? "Angor asked.
"Yes, she did. But I think with her stubborn personality, she'll offend a lot of people in this competition." Farrina pointed at the unconscious man on the ground. "Let's hope she doesn't end up like him."
The man on the ground was taken away by the workers. Angor and Farrina went back to the judging room. Before leaving, Angor used his spirit feelers to check the backstage of the contestants.
It was very crowded inside.
Most of the contestants were not fighting today, nor were they fighting at the Infinity Arena. However, Angor could tell that there were dozens of them, including the black cat he saw earlier.
After the black cat entered the backstage of the contestants, it strode forward with graceful cat-like steps. No one dared to approach it. They all looked at it with fear. When the black cat walked to the front of a sofa with a backrest, its body slowly transformed into a handsome and cold young man. The only thing that did not change was its pair of cat eyes. When it used its cat eyes to scan the contestants present, the contestants all avoided its gaze.
However, there were a few people who did not mind the black cat's gaze.
For example, there was a woman who carried a pink handbag with a heart drawn on it. However, her aura was so gloomy that it seemed she was surrounded by dark energy.
There was also a young man who carried a faint aura of death around him, but his whole body was as bright as the morning sun.
There was a half-naked man with scars all over his body, who was quietly training beside the black cat.
There was a young girl who wore a strange hat and had a strange smile on her face.
Wait … These people all ignored the black cat's gaze. The black cat also showed great interest in these people. It could be seen that this group of people were probably at the same level as him, or perhaps even stronger.
Angor said he wanted to earn some points as a judge, but he did not plan to do that. He was also looking forward to the new star competition. Especially since his friends were participating in the Rising Star Competition.
Angor withdrew his spirit feelers. However, he did not notice that when his spirit feelers left, a young man who was reading a book in a corner looked at the direction of the spirit feelers in confusion.
…
Farrina sensed Angor's spirit feelers. "You're curious about the contestants."
"I have to watch at least ten matches, and I hope to see some interesting matches in them," Angor said.
"Speaking of interesting matches, I do think some apprentice matches are more interesting." Farrina paused. "For example, today's preliminaries."
"Why are the matches so exciting today?" Angor asked curiously.
"Many people came here to watch the preliminaries. They represent the face of the competition."
Angor finally understood after listening to Farrina's explanation.
The so-called "preliminary round" was actually not the first round of the competition as he understood it to be. Instead, it was a match that was deliberately selected.
However, according to Farrina, this "deliberate" was not something that was done behind the scenes.
When the competition ended yesterday, all the contestants who advanced to the next round had already drawn their numbers. In other words, they already knew the number of their opponents. They just did not arrange the time of their matches.
The contestants only knew the number of their opponents, but the officials must have already known the two contestants in all the matches.
The preliminaries were the face of the new star competition, and they would be the most popular match apart from the finals. It would be embarrassing if one of the contestants admitted defeat, or if it was a one-sided battle without any skills.
Therefore, among the nearly two hundred matches, the officials chose the most interesting one to watch as the preliminary round of the Rising Star Competition.
Since it was a battle that had been deliberately selected, it would definitely not be too bad.
With that in mind, Angor asked curiously, "Who's going to fight in the preliminaries?"
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