There was only silence that followed after Bi Qing drew the ball with the bye on it.
But of course, there was already silence that came before that since there was only a single ball left in the first place. It wasn't hard for them to guess which ball she was going to draw since no one else had drawn the one with the bye.
After that moment of silence, there were loud sounds of discussion that came from the crowd.
As for what they were discussing…they were all wondering if this drawing was rigged.
After all, what had just happened had seemed too unlikely for them to believe.
The chances of no one drawing the ball with the bye on it until the very last person was so slim that it could be considered astronomical. No one believed that this was possible unless the drawing had been rigged.
After the crowd stirred, the contestants on stage also stirred.
Even though they were supposed to be proud young masters that everyone looked up to, they also couldn't help complaining that this drawing was rigged since it just seemed too unlikely.
In part, that was also because of their youth that they acted this rashly.
After all, even if they didn't say a thing, the pressure from the crowd alone would have been enough to make the organizers move. If they hadn't done a thing, they would have seemed even more respectable than they were now.
But there was no regret for any actions that one took.
With the pressure that came down on the organizers, of course they had no choice but to redo the draw again.
In fact, they actually hadn't rigged this drawing at all and were just as shocked by the results as the crowd was. They even suspected that Bi Qing had cheated in this drawing, so they had wanted to redo the drawing as well.
They just had to find a way to do it so that it wouldn't offend Bi Qing or the power behind her.
The complaints that came from the crowd gave them the perfect excuse.
So the organizers sent someone to talk to Bi Qing about this matter.
To their surprise, they found that she agreed without any hesitation.
They had thought that she would at least try to get something out of it, like getting a spot to draw sooner, but she didn't say a single thing as they agreed to their request. It almost seemed shady how quickly she had agreed to this, but they weren't able to find anything wrong with what she said.
So they took all the balls back and swapped them for something else.
This time, they were using a box that was completely see-through.
One might think that using a see-through box would defeat the purpose of doing this draw, but that wasn't the case here. That was because the balls inside of the box were completely empty.
Everyone couldn't help feeling confused when they saw this, but the explanation that followed explained everything.
Each one of these balls had an array laid on them that prevented people from seeing what was on them. Only when the scanner that was made from the corresponding array was used on it, would these balls reveal what was under the array.
Then before they did anything with the scanner, they also let the contestants and anyone that had doubts check it.
The crowd was filled with normal people and people who were guarding secretly, so they didn't come check this thing. However, the seeded contestants all took turns checking this thing to make sure that it was real.
After checking it and making sure that it was indeed what the organizers said it was, they decided to trust it.
So they started drawing one by one, going with the same order as before.
However…in the end, it was still Bi Qing who had received the bye.
This time, even if the seeded contestants wanted to complain, they couldn't.
After all, they were the ones that had checked the array and made sure that there was nothing wrong with it.
If they were to complain about it now, that would be equal to slapping themselves in the face.
As for the organizers, they also couldn't say anything since they were the ones that had prepared all of this. If they were to complain again, it would without a doubt offend the power behind Bi Qing.
So they had no choice but to give this bye to Bi Qing.
The seeded contestants were unhappy about this, but they didn't get hung up over this matter for long.
They were in a public area and they had to worry about their fight that was coming up, so they didn't have time to care about this.
So after Bi Qing received the bye, they all turned their attention to their upcoming matches.
The one thing that did distract them was…that Bi Qing left the arena as soon as she received the bye.
Last time, she stayed and watched their fights, but this time, she left without even turning back once. It was as if she didn't even put them in her eyes…
All of the seeded contestants couldn't help getting angry when they saw this, but there was nothing that they could do. It wasn't as if they could force her to stay and watch them.
All they could do was swallow their anger and channel it into their next fight.
If they made it to the next round, they would be able to take their revenge on her.
So they were all focused on beating their opponents.
With this, there were several fierce matches that followed.
The only one that disappointed the crowd was the match of the normal contestant against the seeded contestant.
It was the very first fight and it didn't last more than a few seconds as that normal contestant was knocked out with a single blow. It was a blow filled with the full power of the seeded contestant, so it was not something that this person in the Qi Gathering Realm could block.
If it wasn't for the referee making a move to save their life in the end, perhaps they might have died then and there.
Normally, the referee wouldn't make a move to save a contestant since fists were blind in this arena, but it would be too much to let this normal contestant die under the rage of the seeded contestant.
Especially since it wasn't even directed at them in the first place.
The crowd was disappointed to see this match end without a spectacular display, but they held back their disappointment since there were still other matches for them to spectate.
The following matches didn't disappoint as each of the seeded contestants went all out to make it to the next round.
They didn't do things like use their final trump cards, but they did use flashy attacks that didn't disappoint the crowd. With each flashy attack that came out, the crowd cheered in response.
In the end, there were many battles that were engraved in the minds of the audience and it was hard to pick just one battle that was their favourite.
But in the end, there was only one person that was able to win for each match.
After one disappointing match and six heart pounding matches, the top eight were decided.
Different from the last round, they planned on doing the drawing today after the end of these matches.
This would have been a problem since Bi Qing wasn't here, but the organizers quickly changed it so that Bi Qing was placed in one of the spots as she went forward with a bye. Since she went forward with a bye, it wasn't as if she could complain about what match she was in.
This was just a bit of revenge the organizers took on whoever rigged this drawing.
This time, the target that everyone set their eyes on was the match with Bi Qing.
Not a single one of these seeded contestants had been able to forget the disdain that Bi Qing had shown them. So every single one of them wanted to fight Bi Qing to wash away the shame that they felt.
All of them wanted to be the one that drew that match with Bi Qing.
At the same time, the crowd also wondered who would get matched with Bi Qing.
She was the only one that they hadn't seen fight seriously yet, so they were curious just how strong she was.
Everyone was waiting to see who would get that match with Bi Qing, but no one expected that the first person to draw would get that honour.
As soon as the drawing started, the person who would fight Bi Qing was already decided.
Even the person who had drawn this slot didn't believe it since they technically had the worst chance of getting this.
The others all revealed bitter looks when they saw that it wouldn't be them who would fight Bi Qing, but at the same time, they also looked a bit relieved.
After all, the person who had been chosen was one of the strongest among them.
As long as this person fought Bi Qing, there was no way that she would be able to win.
So they felt relieved that this person would take their revenge on Bi Qing for them.
They even felt that it was a bit of a shame that this person would get such an easy match to reach the next round.
There wasn't a single one of them who thought that this person would lose to Bi Qing.
It was just too bad that they would be shocked tomorrow.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢