Chapter Fifty-Nine: An Auspicious Beginning

Because of this unexpected incident, the sacrificial ceremony ended, and the priests of the Olympic committee went to resolve the matter. As for the athletes, from the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony, they were to reside at a fixed location for these five days. Yan Luo had no idea whether Wang Dongwei, Zhu Xiaoyong, and the more than ten Athenian sages outside had succeeded or failed in their endeavor, nor did he know the final outcome.

Each city-state's athletes lived together, yet Yan Luo was surprisingly assigned a private room—a privilege he did not understand. In fact, the reason was that his clothes had been taken, and the priests had compensated him. Moreover, staying here was not without cost.

On the pretense that "shoes are not allowed during Olympic competition," his pair of athletic shoes was also confiscated.

It was outright expropriation!

The storage of the Soulless Doll once again reached its limit. This time, the emotions were fifty points of bewilderment and fifty points of shock. If these emotions were to be used to craft a mask of personality, the result was uncertain, but the chances for a successful fusion of such similar emotions were high, though with only two types, it was still a failure.

The consolation was that this time, he gained 25% of a mask fragment, equivalent to a quarter of a Heroic Soul mask.

The next day, as the sun rose, a referee delivered two items: a small wooden box filled with olive oil and a long strip of white linen.

Upon seeing these, Yan Luo understood that the campaign for women's liberation had succeeded. The linen was for a loincloth, and the olive oil was to be applied to the skin before competition, enhancing surface gloss so that the muscular lines would be more pronounced, even creating shadows for a three-dimensional effect.

He removed his robe and smeared olive oil over his body, his skin now glistening and slick like the bodybuilders in some competitions of the surface world. He then wrapped the linen around his waist.

The Olympic arena was located near the Temple of Zeus, at the foot of Mount Kynisos—the hillside serving as a natural grandstand. Yan Luo entered the stadium and looked up, seeing a dense crowd—he immediately spotted Socrates and the other Athenian sages. Wang Dongwei and Zhu Xiaoyong were there as well, seated in the VIP section.

The stands could accommodate about twenty thousand people, with one hundred sixty VIP seats, but now, with the outer walls of the hills collapsed, the crowd was even larger—at least forty thousand by rough estimate. Moreover, the entire northern section of the stands was filled with female spectators.

The previous night, because the parade had occupied the competition grounds, coupled with the political pressure brought by Socrates and the Athenian scholars, and fearing that the women of the city-state would erupt into full-scale revolt, the priesthood of the Temple of Zeus, after difficult negotiations, agreed to allow women to attend the Olympic Games as spectators.

A section of the stands was allotted to female spectators, accommodating ten thousand. To prevent discontent among the men, tearing down the walls expanded the stands, turning a twenty-thousand capacity into forty thousand—ten thousand women, thirty thousand men, a total of forty thousand spectators.

With so many female onlookers, it was natural for the athletes to wear loincloths, a restoration of the tradition from the first fourteen Olympic Games.

No matter what had happened, the Olympic Games, held once every four years, remained a grand festival. Outwardly, the priesthood kept their smiles, and the chief priest explained the restoration of ancient rules for this Olympic Games, then performed the ceremony of igniting the Olympic flame at the altar of Zeus.

Then, the first event began.

The current Olympic Games, strictly speaking, consisted of seven events, though horse racing and chariot racing were for demonstration only, held on the fourth day. The competitions that truly mattered to the athletes were running, boxing, wrestling, pankration, and the pentathlon.

Today was the second day of the Games, and the event was:

Pentathlon.

This category included sprinting, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, and wrestling. After each event, the winners advanced to the next round; only those who excelled in every event could hope to become the ultimate champion in the final round.

It is worth noting that discus and javelin throws often resulted in accidents due to a lack of safety measures.

For example, people were sometimes killed by flying discuses or impaled by javelins.

However, the Greeks believed that Olympic athletes were the finest warriors of every city-state—if one could not dodge a discus or javelin thrown by another, then death was their own fault. Thus, fatalities caused by these events caused no trouble.

In other events—pankration, boxing, horse racing, and chariot racing—deaths were also common. Killing someone by mistake during a match was considered justifiable. In some respects, this was somewhat akin to the future Roman gladiatorial games.

Arcadia’s foremost warrior, Cornelus, had instructed Yan Luo to await him in the wrestling event for precisely this reason.

The order of the pentathlon was: discus, long jump, javelin, sprint, wrestling.

Wrestling was considered the most important event; only the victor here would be crowned the champion of the pentathlon. The Greeks believed that a pentathlon champion must not only have the agility and athleticism of a soldier—able to run and jump—but also the power for combat and a well-built physique. Wrestling best demonstrated an athlete’s training and competitive ability.

Few athletes participated in this event, for five consecutive competitions consumed too much stamina, affecting the next day's more important running, boxing, wrestling, and pankration.

Yan Luo signed up for all the events. As one of the pentathlon athletes, when he walked onto the field led by the referee, the applause and cheers from the stands surged in waves.

"You have achieved a milestone: Participation in the Olympic Games."

"You have earned the title: Athlete."

When this title was worn, it allowed the selection of one athletic specialty—such as running or jumping—and increased the relevant attribute in that activity by 10%. If running was chosen, one’s speed would be permanently increased by 10%.

Unfortunately, Yan Luo already possessed the title of Bronze-class Warrior, and since only one could be worn at a time, he had to forgo the new one.

For Olympic spectators, the first thing to admire was the athletes’ well-built physiques. Yan Luo’s figure had already driven many women wild in Athens; now, with his body oiled in olive oil and shining in the sunlight, he appeared seductively sleek.

“It’s Yan Luo!”

Wang Dongwei, Zhu Xiaoyong, and the Athenian sages spotted him at once. Among the thirty-some pentathlon competitors, he stood out like a crane among chickens.

“Go for it!” the two shouted in Ancient Greek.

Hearing them, Yan Luo set the mask of emotions upon his hair to "joy," then turned to the stands and smiled—a gesture that instantly melted countless women’s hearts.

“He’s like a faerie!”

In ancient Greece, there were legends of faeries, like the beautiful sea sirens whose enchanting songs bewitched all who heard them. Now, Yan Luo, clad in nothing but a loincloth, his streamlined muscles gleaming with olive oil under the sun, looked as if he’d stepped out of a forest—fresh, elegant, and mesmerizingly handsome.

A woodland faerie!

Amid the thunderous cheers and frenzied atmosphere, Yan Luo stood quietly on the field, waiting for the referee’s call. Soon, it was his turn.

The discus here was little different from modern ones. The famous statue, the Discobolus, was the work of Myron, a sculptor of this era.

Myron was quite notable, not only as a sculptor but also as a six-time Olympic champion! He once carried a calf into the stadium and ate the entire animal in one day. He died about ten years ago—his death was peculiar: spotting a crack in a tree, he idly inserted his hands to try and split it, but became stuck. That night, a wolf arrived. Unable to free his hands, this Olympic champion, sculptor, and even general of the city-state of Sybaris, was devoured by the wolf—a legendary end.

Yan Luo took the discus handed to him by the referee. Made of bronze, it weighed only about two kilograms—very light in his grasp, since his battle staff weighed sixty-two jin.

Recalling the discus-throwing technique he’d seen on television, Yan Luo grasped the discus in his right hand, swinging it back and forth at his side to gather momentum. After several swings, his right foot stamped down, his torso twisted left, and using his left heel as a pivot, his body spun three full rotations.

Neither the Olympic priests, referees, nor the spectators had ever witnessed such a discus-throwing technique! Yan Luo's graceful and dashing movement drew gasps of amazement. His spinning figure seemed to dance in the sun!

Using centrifugal force from the spin, his right hand launched the discus forward.

A wave of awe swept through the stands. The discus’s trajectory—its arc and height—were perfect. It was clearly a powerful throw!

However, the direction of the throw...

A scream rang out. All eyes turned to where the discus fell, and a collective hiss of pain ran through the crowd. There, in the VIP section, a man clad only in underwear and a red cape, wielding a royal scepter and bulging with muscle, stood wide-eyed and unmoving, collapsed on the ground, a discus embedded in his forehead.