Everyone rested for a night at the officially designated hotel, and early the next morning, they rushed to the venue of the Martial Arts Tournament to prepare for the preliminary rounds.
This time, the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament was held, with a total of 182 participants in the preliminaries, which was more than last time; however, the rules for the preliminaries were no different from before.
Goku changed back into his Turtle School martial arts uniform and happily said, "This martial arts uniform feels so comfortable!"
Meanwhile, the four disciples of the Turtle School instantly attracted everyone's attention at the tournament venue.
The last tournament made the Turtle School famous, with three of its disciples among the final four.
This time, with four Turtle School disciples participating, could they dominate the top four again? Would this tournament turn into an internal martial arts exchange for the Turtle School?
The comments from surrounding participants immediately drew dissatisfaction from dozens of martial arts experts, especially Tien Shinhan from the Crane School, who loudly declared to those around him: "How can the Turtle School compare to our Crane School? The reason they did so well last time was simply because we didn't participate. This time, I will definitely take them down."
At the same time, the organizers of the tournament noticed the situation in the venue. To increase viewership, after consulting with John and others, they decided to distribute the four Turtle School disciples across four different preliminary match stages.
If Turtle School's disciples were taken down by other martial artists, it would create a news hotspot: "The Turtle School's disciples failed to reach the top eight."
Conversely, if all Turtle School's disciples made it to the top eight again, that would also be a news highlight.
Since the preliminaries were not open to spectators and were not broadcast live, in order to create a more sensational effect and prevent conflicts among Turtle School's disciples during preliminaries, the organizers decided to use their authority to separate them.
John and others were naturally very pleased with this arrangement as it also prevented internal strife during preliminaries.
Seeing this, Tien Shinhan was quite displeased but said nothing; he just instructed Chaoz to avoid matching up against Turtle School members during the draw.
He wanted to defeat Turtle School in front of an audience on live television worldwide to maximize Crane School's fame and overshadow Turtle School.
With Chaoz's arrangement, Crane School and Turtle School did not face each other in preliminaries.
"Bang!" A loud gong sounded; the preliminaries were about to begin. John was assigned to stage one as number one and was first up.
John's first opponent surprised everyone watching from below because he was incredibly tall and strong, shaking the ground as he walked. Soon someone recognized him—Anthony Grete, former world wrestling champion.
As Anthony stepped onto the stage and looked down at John, noticing the prominent turtle emblem on his uniform, he said, "I heard your Turtle School was quite arrogant last time. That was only because I wasn't there. This time I will crush your bones!"
After saying this, he kept cracking his knuckles with a sound like "crack crack."
Seeing this scene, Tien Shinhan laughed at Chaoz and said: "Looks like we might not even need to step in; Anthony can take care of Turtle School."
On stage, John looked at Anthony as if he were a fool and replied: "Are you really that foolish? Just because you have some achievements in wrestling doesn't mean you can dominate in martial arts. You are truly naive."
Hearing John's words made Anthony furious; he roared: "Arrogant brat! Die!" He then lunged at John with arms outstretched as if to pick him up.
John swiftly dodged into his space and delivered an uppercut that struck Anthony's chin with such force that it sent him flying into the air before crashing heavily onto the ground below, unconscious.
The display of immense strength left everyone present momentarily stunned until the referee announced: "Number one wins!"
Only then did excitement return to the arena as cheers erupted.
After stepping down from the stage, John found Goku and others had already eliminated their opponents and joined him.
At that moment, Tien Shinhan approached them with Chaoz and said: "The strength of Turtle School seems to be nothing special after all?"
To be honest, before Tien Shinhan turned good, he was quite arrogant; John had long been annoyed by him. In this tournament besides Goku and two others from Turtle School, only Tien Shinhan could be regarded highly by others.
So before Yamcha could speak up, John challenged Tien Shinhan: "Strength isn't proven by words alone; do you dare fight me? I can personally show you our Turtle School's strength."
"Hmph! We'll see on finals day," Tien Shinhan coldly scoffed before preparing to leave.
Just then Chaoz pointed at Krillin and shouted: "Shorty!"
Krillin angrily retorted: "You little brat! You're shorter than I am; what right do you have to call me short?"
"Baldy!" Chaoz continued pointing at Krillin.
Krillin got even angrier and replied: "You don't have hair either! What right do you have to call me baldy?"
In response, Chaoz took off his hat revealing a single lonely hair on his head for everyone to see.
Tien Shinhan felt embarrassed by Chaoz's display and quickly helped him put his hat back on before pulling him away.
Watching them leave angrily, Krillin muttered: "That annoying little brat! I'll teach him a lesson in finals."
Thus concluded a day of preliminary matches where eight finalists for tomorrow's finals were selected across four stages:
Finalists
John
Man-Wolf
Yamcha
Pamput
Goku
Chaoz
Krillin
Tien Shinhan
Master Roshi felt that John's group was already very strong and didn't need him on stage for reminders this time; thus he did not participate. Goku regretted not seeing Jackie Chun this time around.
The last event of today was drawing lots for tomorrow's top eight matches. Under Chaoz's control, tomorrow's matchups became:
1. John vs. Tien Shinhan
2. Yamcha vs. Man-Wolf
3. Krillin vs. Chaoz
4. Goku vs. Pamput
With that, all processes for day one of the Martial Arts Tournament came to an end. Everyone returned to their hotels to prepare for tomorrow's top eight matches.