34: Chapter 34 Rematch Draw

The semifinal draw ceremony was held on the morning of the second day after the group stage concluded.

The location remained the City Gymnasium, but the venue layout was completely different from the preliminary round.

The central combat zone had been temporarily converted into a draw hall, with sixty chairs arranged by school zones, and a giant light screen in the front.

Association staff, teachers leading each school's team, media reporters, and admissions officers from the four top universities filled the surrounding stands to capacity.

Shen Ye sat in the Nanjiang No. 7 High School area, with Liu Yang sitting beside him, his leg shaking constantly.

The names of the sixty qualifiers scrolled across the light screen.

Sorted by group stage performance—the ten group winners were ranked at the very front, with Lu Chuan first, Shen Ye second, Gu Changming third, followed by the other group leaders in order.

The group runners-up were ranked behind them, and the names of Fang Yan, Su Wanqing, and Zheng Chuan were among them.

The draw rules were read aloud by the Association's referee panel before the ceremony began: the sixty participants were divided into a seeded zone and a non-seeded zone based on their group stage performance.

The ten group winners plus the six best-performing group runners-up, totaling sixteen, were seeded players; they would each be placed in one of the sixteen slots during the draw and would not meet in the first round.

The remaining forty-four people would draw for the remaining slots, and their first-round opponents would be randomly matched from the seeded players.

This meant that Shen Ye's first-round opponent would be drawn from the non-seeded players.

Zheng Chuan was a group runner-up and was not in the seeded zone.

Su Wanqing was a group runner-up and was also not in the seeded zone.

Fang Yan was a group runner-up and was not there either.

All three of them had the possibility of drawing Shen Ye.

The draw results on the light screen began to scroll.

Starting with the seeded zone, Lu Chuan's name jumped out first, taking the first slot in the upper bracket.

The City No. 1 High School contingent in the stands erupted in rhythmic applause.

Then came Gu Changming, who took the second slot in the upper bracket.

The third was Han Xu from City No. 1 High School, the A-rank Ice Elemental user who had defeated Su Wanqing, and he took a slot in the lower bracket.

Shen Ye was the fourth seeded player drawn.

When his name jumped out on the light screen, the Nanjiang No. 7 High School area in the stands erupted in cheers.

Liu Yang slapped his shoulder hard, with enough force to nearly shatter his bones.

Shen Ye watched his name move across the light screen, eventually landing in the lower bracket—in the same bracket as Han Xu, and in a different bracket from Lu Chuan and Gu Changming.

This meant that if everything went smoothly, he would not encounter Lu Chuan before the finals.

The seeded players were placed in order.

As one of the top-performing group runners-up, Su Wanqing was drawn into the seeded zone, taking a slot in the upper bracket, in the same bracket as Lu Chuan.

When her name lit up on the light screen, her expression didn't change; she simply lowered her head and made a note on her data pad.

Shen Ye knew what she was calculating—Lu Chuan was in the upper bracket, and if she wanted to reach the finals, she had to overcome this mountain during the knockout stage.

Fang Yan was also drawn into the seeded zone, taking a slot in the lower bracket, in the same bracket as Shen Ye and Han Xu.

Next was the draw for the non-seeded players.

The names of the forty-four people scrolled rapidly on the light screen; every pause meant someone had been drawn, matched, and placed.

When Liu Yang's name jumped out, his matched opponent was an A-rank Fire Elemental Awakened from City No. 2 High School.

Liu Yang's face turned pale for a moment, then he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tightly.

Shen Ye said nothing, just patted him on the shoulder.

The light screen continued to scroll.

A name jumped out.

Zheng Chuan.

On the light screen, the matching result followed Zheng Chuan's name—Opponent: Seeded Player: Shen Ye.

The gymnasium went silent for a moment, then erupted like a frying pan splashed with water.

The cameramen in the media section aimed their lenses at the light screen almost simultaneously, and reporters frantically tapped on their data pads.

In the stands, the dark red contingent of City No. 3 High School let out deafening cheers and whistles, while students from City No. 1 and City No. 2 High Schools whispered to each other.

In the Nanjiang No. 7 High School area, Liu Yang's mouth hung wide open, unable to close for a long time.

Everyone's eyes were focused on these two names—Zheng Chuan vs. Shen Ye.

From the day of the preliminary draw when Zheng Chuan publicly declared, "I hope to draw him," to his repeated provocations on social media during the group stage, to him calling out Shen Ye again when the semifinal list was announced yesterday.

All the foreshadowing, all the hype, and all the public opinion converged at this very moment.

Zheng Chuan sat in the City No. 3 High School area, his signature smile hanging on his lips.

He stood up, and his teammates from City No. 3 High School patted his back and shoulders, as if sending a hero off to the battlefield.

As he walked through the crowd, his gaze met Shen Ye's, the smile on his lips deepening slightly. He pulled a communicator from his pocket and tapped on the screen with his head lowered.

A few seconds later, Liu Yang handed the communicator to Shen Ye.

On the screen, Zheng Chuan's social media account had just posted a new update.

Only four words— "Good luck."

A flood of comments had already poured in beneath it; City No. 3 High School students were spamming "Brother Chuan will win" and "A-rank beats S-rank to create history," City No. 1 High School students were spamming "Waiting to see him get slapped in the face," and neutral spectators were spamming "Eating popcorn."

The post's repost count was rising at a visible rate.

Shen Ye glanced at it, returned the communicator to Liu Yang, and said nothing.

Liu Yang was anxious: "Aren't you going to reply? He's practically trash-talking right in your face!"

Shen Ye did not answer.

He watched his and Zheng Chuan's names listed side-by-side on the light screen.

Lower bracket, meeting in the first round.

The winner would likely face Fang Yan in the next round, then likely Han Xu in the round after that, and then the finals—if Lu Chuan could fight his way out of the upper bracket.

After the draw ceremony ended, Shen Ye was stopped by Qin Shu in the player tunnel.

Qin Shu was wearing dark gray casual clothes today, holding a data pad, his expression as impassive as usual.

He led Shen Ye to a quiet corner at the end of the tunnel and handed over the data pad.

On the screen was the complete data from all of Zheng Chuan's group stage matches—not an intelligence file like Su Wanqing's, but a deep-dive report generated by a military-grade tactical analysis system.

The S-shaped trajectory of his Wind Elemental was broken down into hundreds of direction-change nodes, with the speed, angle, and core lag duration of each node marked with precise numbers.

Zheng Chuan's state fluctuations at different times were plotted as a curve—he was in his best state during the morning sessions, with smooth direction changes and extremely short lag times; his state was average in the afternoon sessions; and his state was worst in the evening sessions, with a noticeably increased frequency of direction-change stutters.

His tactical errors during emotional fluctuations were listed as a separate chapter: in advantageous games, his direction-change trajectories became increasingly aggressive, with lag times passively shortened, but core exposure time actually lengthened; in disadvantageous games, his direction-change trajectories tended to be conservative, but the frequency of stutters increased, and core lag duration fluctuated violently.

The last page of the report had a line handwritten by Qin Shu— "Finish it as quickly as possible."

Shen Ye looked up.

Qin Shu looked at him.

"Zheng Chuan, this person, has a poor mentality. When he wins, he gets smoother the more he fights; when he loses, he easily collapses. But the knockout stage of the City-level Competition is not the group stage; it's a single-elimination match. You don't have a second chance. So, don't give him the chance to 'get smoother.' Press him from the very first second, and fight until he collapses."

Shen Ye returned the data pad to him.

"I know."

Qin Shu looked at him.

When Shen Ye said "I know," there were no ripples in his eyes, only the calmness of someone who had settled the score.

Qin Shu nodded and turned to leave.

Shen Ye walked out of the player tunnel, and Su Wanqing was waiting for him at the exit.

She handed over the data pad, and on the screen was the real-time data for Zheng Chuan's "Good luck" post—repost count, comment count, like count, and a rapidly rising hashtag: #Zheng Chuan vs. Shen Ye#.

On the official forum of the City Awakened Association, this topic had already surged to the number one spot in popularity.

"The Zheng family also has people in the Association's publicity department."

Su Wanqing said, "This topic was artificially pushed. There are many newly registered accounts in the reposts and comments, with highly uniform rhetoric—'The time for an A-rank to defeat an S-rank has arrived,' 'Speed crushes everything,' 'Zheng Chuan is ridding the people of a scourge.'"

Shen Ye glanced at the comments, feeling no anger or anxiety, and just calmly returned the data pad to her.

"Let him push it."

Su Wanqing looked at him.

"You don't plan to make any response regarding public opinion?"

"When we meet in the knockout stage, I will respond with my kin."

Su Wanqing was silent for a moment, then the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

She put the data pad away.

"The Thorn Queen's second evolution is complete. She should be able to make her debut in the first round of the semifinals. I'll likely lose against Han Xu, but if I can get past Lu Chuan—see you in the finals."

Shen Ye said okay.

Su Wanqing turned and left.

Shen Ye did not return to the athlete's village immediately.

He walked out of the gymnasium and stood for a while in front of the wall engraved with names.

The names of Fang Zhen, Gu Yan, and He Man were among the countless names, the engravings varying in depth.

Fang Zhen guarded the border for twelve years and died on the front line.

Gu Yan pioneered half of Nanjiang City's divine territory and disappeared in the gray zone.

He Man returned alive, but her Cultivation Divine Kingdom was shattered.

Three people, three endings.

Did they ever encounter opponents like Zheng Chuan on the stage of the City-level Competition back then—jumping high, shouting loudly, and stirring up public opinion into a frenzy?

Shen Ye didn't know.

But he knew that when Fang Zhen, Gu Yan, and He Man encountered such opponents, they certainly never wasted any energy on public opinion.

They put all their energy into their Cultivation Divine Kingdoms, into their kin, and into polishing every sword, every net, and every stream of water.

Shen Ye returned to his dormitory, closed the door, and sat cross-legged.

His consciousness sank into the Cultivation Divine Kingdom.

In the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, Jin Lin stopped teaching in front of the sword stele.

The hundred-man sword cultivator troop lined up behind him, their flying swords all unsheathed, tips pointing obliquely at the ground.

The small golden dragon on Jin Lin's shoulder slowly slithered, its whiskers swaying gently. He reached out his hand, and the small dragon swam from his shoulder to his palm, circled once, then transformed into a golden sword light that merged into his flying sword.

The dragon pattern on the flying sword lit up abruptly, extending from the hilt to the tip; the entire sword looked like an awakening young dragon.

Mu Sheng put away the vine net by the spirit field.

Twenty-one vines were retracted from all directions, winding around her arms into two emerald green vine rings.

The flower buds at the tips of the vines all bloomed, the small white flowers trembling slightly in the sunlight.

Her disciples—the hundred-man Wood Spirit Root Array Master troop—lined up behind her, each with a white flower blooming at the end of their vines, the hundred white flowers connecting into a small sea of flowers at the edge of the spirit field.

Elder Quan closed his palms by the spirit spring.

Three spiral spirit springs slowly rotated in his palms, then merged into one, turning into a spiral stream of water as thick as an arm.

The water stream coiled around him like a transparent dragon.

The hundred-man Water Spirit Root Mage troop sat in a circle by the spirit spring behind him, a hundred streams of water extending from their fingertips, interweaving in the air into a three-dimensional water net, the mesh fine and flowing ceaselessly.

In the Land of Gods and Demons, Chen and Ye stood on either side of the Twilight Spirit Spring.

Chen's six wings were fully unfurled, holy light flowing down from the wings and pouring into the spring water.

Ye's abyss patterns extended from her fingertips, likewise pouring into the spring water.

Twilight light surged from the depths of the spring, dyeing the entire sky of the Land of Gods and Demons in a color between gold and purple.

But Shen Ye did not summon them.

The stage of the City-level Competition did not yet require their appearance.

He opened his eyes.

Outside the window, the night was already deep.

Liu Yang turned over on the upper bunk, the bed board creaking, and muttered vaguely, "Zheng Chuan, you just wait," before falling back asleep.

Shen Ye curled the corners of his lips in the darkness.

There were still a few days until the first round of the semifinals.

A few days in the outside world was several years in the Cultivation Divine Kingdom.

Several years later, Zheng Chuan would see Shen Ye's kin on the battlefield.

Not the precise suppression of two or three kin in the group stage, not the combined formation of three hundred kin in the last two matches.

It would be Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, and Elder Quan—three kin who had Awakened their "self," bringing with them all the accumulation of their day-and-night cultivation in the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, standing before him.

Shen Ye closed his eyes.

Qin Shu said, finish it as quickly as possible.

He knew what to do.