19 Chapter 19: Contest 4 (1/2)

When Ying Yue enterd the competition arena in the palace, she looked around surveying the area.

The place reminded her of her of coliseums she had seen that were constructed by civilizations long gone in her previous world. There, they would host mighty battles between man and beast, which would be attended and watched by the upper members and nobility of society as entertainment,

It was shaped like a large oval, with seats surrounding the perimeter. To save space, and to allow everyone a good view, the seats got higher and higher the farther away from the action you were, so that everyone could see. At what Ying Yue assumed was the 'front' of the oval was a box with much more lavish seats and refreshments. In this box sat the Emperor and Empress, along with Crown Prince Fu Longwei and Yao Xiuying. In the seats directly below the box sat General Won Jiang and Jiu Niu.

As Ying Yue continues to look around, a palace maid comes over to her and leads her over to were the contestants will sit, with Zhu Xinya following behind her.

When Ying Yue was finally seated, she started looking at those around her.

As no surprise to her, she was sat with the poorest and least likely to to well in the competition. Those from families who just barely qualified to send their daughters to compete. Everyone around her were looking at her with either sympathy of haughtiness, as all those from the lesser families either felt bad for her luck, or felt good to finally be able to look down on someone insteadof be looked down on. Of course, Ying Yue did not care about their gazes, as instead she was looking at those that were seated closest to Yao Xiuying.

There were many girls that were currently fawning over Yao Xiuying, all of them dressed up like a bunch of pompous peacocks, trying to show off their best 'assets.' Many of the girls were wearing ridiculous amounts of hair accessories and fun silks, in hopes of drawing the attention of the prince. Of course, not a single one of them would dare to look better than Yao Xiuying, as everyone pretty much already assumed that she would be selected as the main wife, and thus none of the girls competing wanted to anger her.

While Ying Yue was watching them, and wondering how in the world the expected to fight wearing all that nonsense, she noticed one girl who seemed to be out of place amongst all the girls by Yao Xiuying. This girl seemed to be slightly poorer than the rest, as the fabrics and gems she was wearing were less and of lower quality. However, from looking at the way she carried herself, Ying Yue could tell that this girl carried a good amount of strength. Ying Yue wouldn't be surprised if she was already a martial king. Seeing the glances that she would occasionally exchange with Yao Xiuying, Ying Yue determined that this was probably the girl that they paid to kill her.

Ying Yue smiled when she thought of how she would blow these people's minds.

Zhu Xinya, when seeing Ying Yue smile, got a little worried. She knew that her mistress and herself would more than likely not survive today, so she had expect Ying Yue to be distressed, or a least a little sad. And yet, here she was smiling. Just what was going on in that head of hers?

Just as Zhu Xinya was about to ask Ying Yue what she was thinking about, the booming voice of the Emperor was heard.

”Hello and welcome everyone to today's event. We are very pleased to see you all here today, and that you could make it out to today's competition. As We are sure you are all aware, today's competition will be to chose consorts and concubines for Prince Fu Longwei's harem.