Chapter 201 Grilled Buttered Corn (i)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

Enjoy the bonus chapter~

Gumihou shall go nap now…

 

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Whether it’s through fortune or providence, the first day of the tournament happened to fall on the 1st day of the Sixth Month.

On this very day, the eyes of every single person in the city were trained upon the very central axis of the Imperial Capital.

The Central Square.

Although it was called a Central Square, it was actually a 200,000 seat stadium built in the ancient Roman Colosseum style. [1] When Shiyu first saw the building she was gobsmacked. From the outside, it looked huge with its towering, intricately carved walls and pillars. It was even more amazing on the inside!

[1] The overall structure of the building was oval, built with off-white marble, in the amphitheatre style with sloped seating tiers surrounding very wide open space. There was no roof over their heads, allowing natural lights to fall into the open space. The seats were actually the bleacher-style seats more reminiscent of a modern football stadium than a theatre.

[1] The entire structure was created from a combination of three different architectural styles: the oval Roman amphitheatre building, the modern bleacher-style seating, the open space area with a large, square platform 100ft feet wide that reminisce a Chinese style tournament or performance ground.

There were 16 exit passages from the building, allowing the audience to leave quickly to prevent trampling accidents. It was actually a very well designed piece of architecture.

When the audience finally came trickling into the stadium, the first thing they saw was seven people seated in a lotus position in the middle of the platform. All seven were seated in a circle facing out. They were dressed in the black Imperial Academy robes, which made the golden emblem stitched onto their chests even more conspicuous.

“Are they the College Champions?” someone whispered.

“Surely not? Maybe they’re part of an opening performance?”

“What opening performance are you talking about? Didn’t you read the pamphlet before coming in? Seven of Imperial College’s students have sent out an open challenge to the world. Look! There are seven College students there!”

“Still, don’t you think they are a bit young…?”

There were a lot of little throwaway remarks like this. There was no way the seven people with their high Cultivation could have avoided hearing some of it. Nevertheless, they remained in their seated positions, their faces stoic, their backs very straight, waiting for the tournament to begin.

Lin Fan kept his eyes on the sun as it travelled across the sky and said, “Not long now. The Dean informed me that we should do our best to win in the most dazzling fashion. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise, we’ll be the ones to pay if tickets for the next event is not sold out, right?” If the organisers weren’t the emperor or the Dean, Dong-Fang Zhen would really like to show his middle finger to them.

How could the elders be so stingy? That bunch of old foxes basically colluded together to take advantage of the young, ah!

“It costs quite a lot of money and resources to organise a huge event like this. We should compensate a little by performing well.”

“If the tickets are sold out, they fetch at least 20 million taels a day! Not counting the black market ticket sales or betting operations. Too heartbreaking, ah! To think that I’m part of such a large scheme yet unable to even take a bite of that fatty meat,” Dong-Fang Zhen’s sniffed with a pained expression.

The group of people broke their stiff formation to stare at this crown prince. This… this desire for wealth and money is apparently a hereditary sickness…?

By now the stadium was nearly full. Civilians, nobles and Cultivators all sat together on the bleachers. All of these different classes of people sat as equals to witness the first-ever major tournament hosted by the Imperial College.

Finally, a bell tolled.

Lin Fan stood up, “It’s time.”

His team stood together, still in the circular position. Each facing out, their backs towards each other.

[2] There were no speeches from the emperor, no ‘good luck’ remarks from the Dean, not even a ‘The tournament has begin!’ from some overly enthusiastic master of ceremonies. The College students just stood up and… did nothing.

[2] “What, why aren’t they moving?”

[2] “Come on,” yelled someone. “At least do a sword dance or something.”

[2] “Hey, don’t tell me I just paid 100 silver taels to see a bunch of people stand around?”

[2] “Give me back my money!”

[2] “Ah, I should have spent that hundred taels on a girl at the Red Light district. I’d at least get a lap dance out of it!”

Not all the remarks were in the negative, however…

“You wretch! Are your eyes for decorations? Can’t you see the Imperial College uniforms?”

“Yeah! 100 taels is cheap to watch the performances of the College students!”

“How do you know those robes aren’t fake? Besides, aren’t Cultivators supposed to be above money? They should perform for free! We’ve been cheated!”

“Did anyone force you to buy those tickets? If you don’t want to be here, scram!”

Tension began to brew and the audience began to quarrel with each other. Some felt as though they had been cheated. After all, 100 taels was quite a lot of money, ah. It certainly isn’t worth sitting and staring at a bunch of teenagers in costumes.

As discontentment spread across the stadium, a few people gathered at the VIP seats smirked to themselves.

So, the Imperial College wanted to promote itself? Get permission from us first!

The emperor wanted to use this opportunity to make money and temper the young crown prince? Hohoho, things may not go as smoothly as his majesty wishes.

“How wonderful it would be to see His Royal Highness perish on this grand stage?” laughed one of them.

“Right? I cannot wait to feast my eyes on that scene,”

“Power is something that blinds a person most,”

[2] While chatting among themselves, a sudden shiver went up their spines. All of them looked in the direction of the raised platform and… one of the little brats were looking right at them! However, just as quickly, they glared back, a little annoyed at being frightened by a snotty brat.

After all, how could noble parsonages like them be intimidated by a little nobody?

“Who is that?”

“I heard he’s called Lin Fan, the top genius of the Imperial College.”

“Let’s cripple him along with the other one.”

In this world, there would always be people who believed that the world should revolve around them. Anything that goes against their wishes should just die.

That Girl in Green was one such person and so were these so-called nobles.

Lin Fan removed his gaze from them. He faintly understood why the Dean and the emperor wanted to keep their involvement under wraps. [3] Though this Tournament was obviously a collaboration between the College and the Imperial palace, the fact that the Dean and the emperor were personally involved was not public knowledge.

Though the Eastern Empire looked iron-clad from the outside with the Imperial Family at its head, it was no secret that Dong-Fang Zhen was the only heir to the Royal Family. If he dies…

Lin Fan pursed his lips as his mind raced through the possibilities of what this could mean to their team. Once today’s tournament is over, he must inform everyone about this.

[4] The commotions on the stands continued. Possibly due to deliberate instigations. It was not long before the entire stadium was as noisy as the marketplace as people began to shout their discontent at the platform.

 

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~ ฅ=͟͟͞͞((꒪∆꒪;)ฅ

 

Xiao Qi and her young teammates glared at the hollering audience. Their faces flushed red as the ugly remarks reached their ears.

“If you’re here to watch just watch quietly, if not, scram!” Ling Xiaoxiao bristled with anger. She’d start screaming, but she was not sure who to direct her anger at first.

Liu Eleven was a little calmer, “But, isn’t it strange that no one’s stepping onto the stage to challenge them? I thought the order of fighters had all been arranged?”

Lao Er suddenly looked up. “Hey, Xiao Qi, didn’t you say something about asking Elder Liu to let us fight first?”

“Ah, oops?” Xiao Qi stuck out her little tongue, tapping her head with one fist. “Ehehehe?”

“Well, hurry up! If we aren’t on the platform within 5 minutes it’s considered a forfeit!” Gan Ping got out of his seat in a hurry and leapt for the platform. After having broken through to Core Transformation stage, Gan Ping couldn’t wait to test out his new strength!

“Wait for me!” Lin Xiao Xiao and Liu Eleven were hot on Gan Ping’s heels.

Xiao Qi looked at Lao Er, “Second Brother, can you jumped onto the stage?”

Lao Er flushed, “Aren’t you looking down on me too much? You go on first, I’ll get there.”

Xiao Shu and Xiao Qi looked at each other, then at Lao Er who was now… walking away from them? Oh, he’s taking up the steps up to the platform.

“… …”

 

[Gumihou: Lol, Lao Er!]

 

 

Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~

 

凝氣	Condensation Stage	Stage 1
化丹	Core Transformation	Stage 2
凝丹(46)	Core Condensation	Stage 3
化神(52)	Divine Transformation	Stage 4
成嬰	Nascent Formation	Stage 5
合體	Unification	Stage 6
返墟	Revert Decay	Stage 7
歸真	Original Purity	Stage 8
成仙	Become immortal	Stage 9

 

[1] Some Architectural Uncertainties: ‘Central Square’ vs ‘stadium’ vs ‘Roman Colosseum’ vs ‘Central Plaza’

Roman architecture is different from Chinese designs. However, it’s not impossible for this world to build a tall stone structure since it has precedence with tall stone walls and 999 steps.

Therefore, a Colosseum style building is NOT inconceivable, but a circular building with a depression in the middle would be unusual, to say the least.

Yes, yes, Gumi might be over thinking this, but really.

A 200,000 seat stadium?

Guess what’s the capacity of the Michigan Stadium, also known as The Big House is?

This place seat 107,601 only.

The capacity of the actual Roman colosseum is… wait for it… 50,000 people.

So, yeah, the central square has to be 4 times the above or twice as large as The Big House.

By the way, the platform is 100 feet wide. Big?

Well, a standard American football field is 360ft x 160ft wide.

Colosseum is 615ft x 510ft

https://www.intrepidtravel.com/adventures/china-world-heritage-sites/

Michigan Stadium 756ft x 586ft

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Michigan_Stadium_2011.jpg

So,

Let’s say the field is 350ft x 200ft.

Less long and more wide than a football field because the raised platform is 100ft x 100ft square.

The seats are bleacher styles (except for some VIP seating for the emperor etc at the one end of the narrow area)

Colosseum is 3 to 4 storeys tall. That’s pretty much the limit for free standing stone buildings without reinforced steel structure. However, since Ancient Fantasy China has Magical Bullshit to reinforce its fantasy buildings, let’s add another couple of storeys to it.

The entire building could probably stretch all the way to 700ft x 630ft wide and still be able to witness whatever is happening on the field.

Gumi probably gave it more thought than the author did…

[2] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: How could Gumi not want to embellish the first Tournament of this novel? Changed some passive sentences to dialogues, add more details etc.

[3] Added Details for Logistic Reason: Add details to make something implausible more plausible. Like, it’s kind of impossible to say that the emperor and Dean are not involved in a Tournament by College students right in the middle of the Public Square? Also, his highness is also one of the students?

[4] Lin Fan’s Thoughts: Since the previous paragraph contains Lin Fan’s thoughts, just continue with the trend.

 

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