For most of the non-participants, this is a big event before the New Year, and for most of the contestants, it is a triennial opportunity that must be grasped.

The venue of the Pillow Sword Festival was set up on an open plain outside the city of Salyushi, and a few miles along the south gate of Salyushi to the King's Provincial Avenue will be greeted by a conspicuous and imposing circular venue.

On the way from the avenue to the venue, a wide boardwalk has been paved, and on both sides of the road are covered with branch tents set up by shops of all sizes in the city, most of which are naturally restaurants and pubs, followed by some well-known equipment stores, material stores, and even some candy stores have opened branches here. There are also some merchants who travel from south to north, and they can't afford to set up such a big tent, so they directly spread all kinds of magic potions, or various raw materials produced in other places, and spread them on a wool blanket to sell, as for the quality, it is unknown. There are also many vendors with food trucks selling all kinds of snacks that are fried, grilled or boiled.

A few days before the competition, the area is already bustling with market-like activities, and there are already many young students who love to visit the market, holding a variety of soft drinks in their hands, drinking cups are made in the shape of a circular venue, and elbows are holding snacks with tempting aromas, shuttling between the stalls. Some of the younger students are still holding small flags in their hands, and the animation on the flag flashes the picture of a contestant winning the championship, which is to cheer for a certain senior in their college.

Walk through the bustling market area and you'll arrive at the foot of the roundabout. The entire venue is made of wooden structure, the key support nodes are supported by bronze poles, and the venue is divided into three layers from top to bottom, each of which is separated.

The floor closest to the main battle platform is naturally given to the high-ranking officials and nobles who spend a lot of money, and there is a raised square stand in the direction of sitting north and facing south, which is specially prepared for His Majesty the King and members of the royal family.

The members of the middle layer are mostly wealthy merchants, some declining aristocrats, or some ambitious middle class.

On the top floor, the price of seat tickets is the cheapest, which is naturally for ordinary people who can afford it. Of course, the audience on this floor also had a hard time, and they had to climb to the top of the circle from the "zigzag" ladder on the periphery, and then find their seats. In order not to delay the time to watch the battle and find a seat, there are more than a dozen such folding ladders.

The extravagant audience on the middle and lower floors are admitted through the wide entrance to the south. Members of the royal family enter from the royal entrance to the north, so they can go directly to the north stands.

The entrances on the east and west sides of the venue are the exclusive passages for the players, and several spacious tents are set up at the entrance, some are for the players to rest, some are tents for the competition committee to do physical examinations for the players before the competition, and the remaining rooms are used to store the players' personal equipment.

This is the new rule of the Pillow Sword Tournament - the weapons and accessories to be used by each contestant must be registered before the first game, and these equipment will be used until the end of all races, and the equipment cannot be updated in the middle. The equipment used in the competition must be returned to the competition committee for re-inspection immediately after each game, and the violator will be directly disqualified from the competition.

Since the Pillow Sword will be a competition that lasts for several days, many players will modify their equipment attributes according to their opponent's past performance, for example, if the opponent is good at using fire-based magic, they can put red brown stone on all their defensive equipment to enhance their fire resistance. Historically, those aristocratic players with deep pockets would not have been ranked too badly, because they could modify their equipment overnight based on the data collected. So Alwyn was quite apprehensive when he bought the staff last time.

And after the new rules came out this time, it was undoubtedly a blow to the aristocratic players, so it attracted a lot of complaints. But there are also many civilian players, such as those from the Shefdeed Academy, who still applaud.

Compared with the past, it can be said that this is a fairer pillow sword meeting.

The entire area where the players stay is guarded by the palace guards, and only players who have registered with the competition committee and have been checked by the competition committee will be allowed to enter the silver iris badge.

The Iris Medal is a medal customized for each contestant, with a four-petaled fleur-de-lis in full bloom engraved on the round silver base, and a thin sword glowing purple shining in the middle of the petals, with the name of the medal shining on the sword, and then the next second flashed a number - 128, which is the number of all the contestants. At the end of the day's competition, the contestants can update their rankings at the competition committee. The back of the sword badge is delicately engraved with a number - 29, which is the 29th Pillow Sword Festival.

Therefore, such a commemorative medal, many players who have participated in the pillow sword meeting will save the medal of the current session and take it out to inspire the younger generations in the future, which is the highest honor when they are young. After all, for the limitation of contestants, the Pillow Sword Club is stipulated in the famous text, and it must be a student recommended by a college of higher learning, and the age must not exceed 24 years old.

The high-ranking officials and nobles who came to watch the battle, if they had participated in the pillow sword meeting when they were young, would definitely wear the iris sword badge of the year. Even King Kelman came to watch the battle, and he would wear his own victory of the year, the sixteenth place of the 19th Pillow Sword Society. Over the years, it's been a tradition.

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There are still two or three days to go before the competition day, and the players have already begun to register in the player area at the east and west entrances of the stadium.

"Are you all registered?" Lai Wu glanced at Alvin who had just come out of the tent of the committee.

"Everything has to be carefully checked, and the trouble is dead. Alvin complained, thinking that every piece of his equipment had to be carefully inspected and identified in the tent, and then registered and sealed again, which really took a lot of time.

"Don't talk about it, there are new rules this morning," Lai Wu said with a smile, "In order to deal with the equipment registration, many people brought dozens of pieces of equipment, just waiting for the competition to change equipment... As a result, there is a new rule today, and a player can only register ten pieces of equipment, and now those people are dumbfounded... ”

"A bunch of mentally retarded. Alvin couldn't help but scold, "I said why was the queue so long for registration two days ago... ”

"Did you bring a lot of gear?" asked Laiwu.

"No, just the staff I bought last time, and a few jewels that Fetimo gave me. Alvin replied.

Lai Wu nodded, then looked up at a pear blossom plank with a lot of vintage in the player's tent and said, "Come and see, this is the matchup table that came out today." ”

Alvin also looked up and saw that the plank had magically marked the 128 players' brackets, including the estimated start time of each match and which entrance each player entered.

Alwin looked at the name of his opponent in the first round, Shi Jiu Feng Yan, and was very unfamiliar.

"Have you heard of your opponent?" asked Lai Wu with a smile.

"Haven't you heard, but what about your opponent? Do you know him?" said Alvin on the blackboard as he began to look for a match for Lywu.

"I haven't heard of mine, but you're that... I've heard it," Lai Wu had a look on his face.

"What do you mean, who is this clan?" Alvin looked at Lai Wu and laughed.

"I heard it's a pretty powerful one in the Parksley Academy. Lai Wu wanted to laugh out loud, but he was afraid that Alvin would beat him.

"Does that mean I'm going to be eliminated in the first round?"

"How is that possible, when it comes to instantaneous spells, who is your opponent?" Lai Wu teased.

", why did I run into this kind of goods in the first round... "Alvin doesn't want to deal with Laiwu, he doesn't have a good airway.

"You're all registered, aren't you?" Chenzhu and Kaiba are waiting for us outside. Lai Wu reminded that he actually wanted to take Alvin to see what the odds were outside, so as to take the opportunity to laugh at Elwin.

"Wait a minute, I haven't finished reading it yet. Alvin picked up the names of Arashi and Princess Onian on the blackboard. It's also strange to say, after carefully looking at the confrontation between Lan Marriage and Gaver and the princess, these three people are actually divided into three different groups.

"This list of matchups is a bit interesting, Gaver, Lan Marriage, Princess Oneon, the three favorites to win the championship, don't meet until the top four, heh, it's really interesting. Alvin sneered.

Lai Wu nodded and said, "Yes, I saw it just now." However, you're not out of luck, and you're in the fourth big group, and you also have to get the top four to meet them. After speaking, Lai Wu couldn't help but smile and patted Alvin on the shoulder.

Alvin didn't see the mockery on his face, "yes, I'll go back today and ask my dad to see if there is any smoke coming from the ancestral grave." ”

With that, Alvin and Laiwu walked outside and saw Chenzhu and Kaiba already waiting outside the contestant area.

"Why, why are you two laughing like this?" Alvin asked, looking at the strange expressions of Kaiba and Chenzhu.

"Alvin, I asked for you, your opponent is one of the top high-level magicians in the Portsley Academy, it shouldn't be a big problem, right?" said Keba with a calm expression, but he couldn't hold back the smile on his face anymore before he finished speaking.

"What do you say? For Alvin, this kind of opponent is simply ... Nothing. Chenzhu glared at Keba.

"Yes, yes, I was wrong," Keba nodded in apology.

"I just want to ask, what are the odds of betting on Alvin now?" Lai Wu said curiously.

"I just took a look at it in the flames.,The plate just opened seems to be 1 to 8.。。。 Keba smiled relentlessly.

"What about the opponent?" Alvin asked.

"0.6 to 1. Chen Zhu said lightly.

"Poof" Laiwu and Kaiba finally couldn't help but laugh.

"The water level is too high, there must be a cat. Chenzhu patted Alvin on the shoulder as a comfort. Then I finally laughed, I couldn't help it.

A few people laughed and walked towards the "Yanle" tavern.

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It turned out that eating and drinking with these brothers was the most enjoyable thing for him, but since he studied the "Law of Time and Space", Alvin has been stunned many times.

Sitting in the booth, watching Lai Wu and Chenzhu discuss which girls they had caught up with recently, Kaiba laughed and listened while drinking beer, life seemed to be the same as before, but since several fights with Lan Marriage, life has completely changed for Elwin. Originally, magic or martial arts were dispensable things for him, and all his peers were learning, and he just followed the trend.

At the end of the day, Alvin is a very egotistical man. He doesn't care that the hard-working students in the academy are better than him, because he thinks that he can rely on his cleverness to not fall behind, so why do he work so hard? Anyway, those students who practice to the death may not be able to win if they really fight with themselves, Alvin always thought so. This fueled his belief that he disdained hard work.

Since that battle with Lan Marriage outside the "Bauhinia Pavilion", he felt a huge gap in strength, as long as the other party came up with a killing move, he didn't even have the power to parry, that time completely touched his heart, it turned out that he was so far away from the real powerhouse?

Since the last time he almost lost his life, it hit him hard. It was only from that time that he realized that these so-called magic and martial arts were all killing techniques later. The courses in the academy can indeed be fooled by being clever, but when it comes to a real life-and-death situation, the sense of despair brought by the lack of strength makes his heart full of humiliation and resentment at the moment when he is on the verge of death. This kept him awake every night after that, and that unforgettable fear and unwillingness tormented him every night. Because in the end, he is both afraid of death and hates death.

So how to quickly make his magic stronger became a problem on Alwin's mind. "The Law of Time and Space" is like a life-saving straw, making him constantly delve into the problems inside, but the rush to achieve it makes him extremely anxious. The slightest breakthrough forced him to rush to use it in actual combat, and as a result, he almost squeezed himself out like he did in the last offensive and defensive class.

Since that battle in the Attack and Defense Division, Alvin really couldn't think of a better way to change the flow of time, which made him quite frustrated.

Alwin picked up the dark beer on the table with a dazed expression and took a sip, sighing that the dark malt brewed from this Ssenon was slightly sweet, and it really suited his appetite.

"What's wrong with you, what's the matter, you're depressed? Is it because your opponent in the first round is too strong?" Lai Wu stopped the fragrant topic and glanced at Alwin.

"No, I don't know why, I've been very tired lately. Alvin sighed with a wry smile.

"Have you been like this, have you been to the Xun Mansion again in the past few days?" said Keba.

"With that great beauty of Resa with me these days, how can I go to that kind of crappy place. Chen Zhu was jealous.

"I want to... I ate a total of breakfasts. Alvin said helplessly.

"Then what else do you want?" Lai Wu looked at Alwyn as if he was cheap and obedient, and he didn't have a good attitude.

Erwin ignored them, and when he reached for the dark beer on the table, he didn't think about it, and the whole beer glass turned over.

Kaiba on the side reacted very quickly, condensed in his palm, from the bottom up, the dark beer poured out flowed back along his palm, and then picked up the beer glass that was poured downward, the whole action was done in one go, and the whole glass of beer didn't spill much.

Alwin watched the whole process in amazement, the beer spilled down seemed to be still in front of him, and the next moment it was back in the cup, and the image of Fang Cai was playing back and forth in his head, the spilled liquid back and forth, slower and slower, so slow that Alvin could clearly see the bubbles on it.

Lai Wu and the others laughed at him, and when they heard that Lan Yu couldn't even hold the cup steadily. He didn't seem to hear it, and he was stunned.

Thinking of the original linear fall of the liquid, and then being condensed, squeezed, and accumulated by Kaiba's palm qi, watching the movement of these liquids make Alvin have something in his brain to erupt and sunrise, he frowned, feeling that some thoughts were about to jump out of his head, but he just couldn't hold it.

Lai Wu, Chen Zhu and the others looked at Alwyn, who seemed to have been stunned, in shock, and shook their heads thinking that this guy was not normal when he practiced magic recently.