197: Rising popularity

Long Yuan followed the representative team to their seats in the Fengyang No. 1 High School area. His Divine Sense spread out, leaving nothing within the school hidden from him. He saw many people still busy in the Arena Area, making final preparations. The entrance was already bustling with activity, as many people waited for ticket verification to enter. The most crowded area was naturally the "Good Luck Comes" windows, where nearly ten windows were lined up. People were queuing at every window to place their bets. The information boards around the windows were plastered with posters introducing the members of each representative team in detail. Long Yuan even saw a poster introducing himself, though it wasn't particularly prominent among so many others.

He smiled slightly, took out his phone, and logged into the Fengyang Martial Arts Home. Checking the odds, he found that Fengyang No. 1 High School's current odds ranked third. The school with the lowest odds was Fengming Middle School, followed by Qianlong Middle School in second. The other two government-run middle schools, Fengyang No. 2 High School and Fengyang No. 3 High School, were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

From the information available, this ranking seemed reasonable. Fengming Middle School had taken first place last year, with its main player, Valley Fei Yu, delivering a stunning performance to defeat Qianlong Middle School's Luo Sheng and help her school successfully reach the top. After a year of tempering, it was believed that Valley Fei Yu's strength would have reached an even higher level, making it even more difficult for Luo Sheng to defeat her.

Furthermore, since the official start of the Great Ming Cloud Challenge Competition not long ago, Fengming Middle School's record had been leading the way. Consequently, many people favored Fengming Middle School to win first place again this year.

As for Qianlong Middle School, it had won first place the year before last and second place last year. Its main player, Luo Sheng, was still in the lineup this year. As this year's host, maintaining the second-place position should not be a major problem for them.

Thus, it was quite normal for Fengyang No. 1 High School to fall to third place. After all, Fengyang No. 1 High School had not produced any super-strong experts in recent years. Even if the newly emerged Ye Xuan and Long Yuan were incredibly talented, they had only been Cultivating for three months, so they couldn't be that strong.

There was an information gap here: Long Yuan had unexpectedly won first place in the Great Ming Cloud Challenge Competition recently. However, since it was a test match rather than an official competition, this information had not spread widely and was known only to a very few. The information on the posters was based on official public records, so many people were completely unaware of this, leading them to miscalculate the strength of Fengyang No. 1 High School.

The "Good Luck Comes" company certainly knew this information, but they maintained strict control over such critical data. Whether or not they would release it, and when, was a matter of careful strategy, primarily depending on the state of the betting pool.

Long Yuan was in no hurry, as there was still an hour left before the betting deadline. During this time, many variables could still arise... Soon, teachers like Lu Shijie and Yun Feiyan gathered the representative team members together to discuss today's lineup. Long Yuan just listened quietly, not offering his opinion easily.

Since Yun Yi's absence was almost a certainty, the teachers and students of Fengyang No. 1 High School felt a hint of tension. After all, such a thing was a bit bizarre—for a Late-stage Martial Master level teacher to suddenly disappear, especially after the cult disturbance that morning. It was inevitable that their imaginations would run wild. Their biggest concern was Long Yuan, as Yun Yi was his mentor; his absence could very likely affect Long Yuan's training and state of mind. Thus, Lu Shijie first asked Long Yuan how he was doing. Long Yuan smiled and said, "Don't worry, Principal. I'm in better shape than ever before!"

Hearing this, Lu Shijie's heart immediately eased, and he smiled. "That's good! Teacher Yun Yi is likely delayed by some private matter, but we won't let his absence affect our morale. You are all the elites of our school; you must fight with your best state of mind today!"

"Yes!!!" Everyone formed a circle and let out a collective low roar.

Next, Lu Shijie and Yun Feiyan took out the information materials and battle plans they had prepared long ago and began to explain them in detail... As time passed, the representative teams from Fengming Middle School, Fengyang No. 2 High School, and No. 3 High School also arrived. More and more locals came to watch the match, and people from Fengyang Television and various media outlets also arrived on the scene. They put their professional skills to use, catching members of the representative teams for live interviews, driving the heat of the competition higher and higher... The queue of people placing bets at the "Good Luck Comes" windows grew even longer. As they waited, they discussed the strength of each team and the cult disturbance from that morning, creating an extremely lively atmosphere... In fact, those betting on-site were in the minority; more people were betting directly on the Martial Arts Home website because it was more convenient. However, the atmosphere wasn't as thick as it was on-site, and the information channels online and offline seemed to differ. Many people preferred to listen for secrets revealed by others on-site and then adjust their betting direction at any time.

Long Yuan multi-tasked, using his Heavenly Eye Technique to observe the surroundings while also watching his opponents. He found that the students from Qianlong and Fengming schools were not much different in quality from those of Fengyang No. 1 High School—they were basically on par. The seeded players participating in the competition were also formidable, filled with Battle Intent. Clearly, they weren't suppressed by the reputation of Fengyang No. 1 High School. On the contrary, they were even more eager to defeat Fengyang No. 1 High School again to prove that their previous victories were no accident. From this, it was evident that the strength of private middle schools was actually steadily improving. It was precisely because of this that the "Good Luck Comes" betting pool seemed more suspenseful and its appeal surged... In the outer areas of the representative teams, many onlookers gathered. Among them were the relatives and friends of the students, teachers and students from the respective schools, and some related social personnel such as reporters, volunteers, and labor union members. There were also some unrelated people who were purely there for the spectacle. After all, this was a rare annual event in Fengyang County and a great topic of conversation. However, since an attack had occurred at Fengyang No. 1 High School previously and a cult disturbance had just happened that morning, Qianlong Middle School had learned its lesson and conducted strict screenings of everyone entering to watch. Any suspicious individuals would be turned away!

"Eh? Geng Yun and Xu Guanghu are here too?" Long Yuan was slightly surprised. These two had just been at the county office celebrating their success and had now come straight here. It seemed the popularity of this Inter-school Competition was set to rise even further... His Heavenly Eye Technique could now cover the entire city of Fengyang, so as long as he wished, nothing these people did could escape his notice. Following Geng Yun and Xu Guanghu to Qianlong Middle School was a large group of people. In addition to Bai Pu, Bai Shan, He Hao, Qi Da, and Tong Jingshan, there were also people from the Five Great Families of Fengyang. Some rode Unicorns, while others traveled in small cars, forming a grand procession...