"W-What do you think you're doing?" The participants there looked at Yuan with nervous expressions when they saw that he'd suddenly retrieved his weapon and was standing there menacingly.

"L-Let's talk this out first, okay? There's no need for pointless bloodshed… We're all in this together…"

However, Yuan completely ignored them, and he lifted his Empyrean Overlord into the air.

"R-Run! He's going to kill us all!" One of the participants there suddenly shouted.

"Fuck you, you damn coward! Look at how many of us there are and how many they have! As if there's any need to run! Don't forget! He's no longer a Spirit Master in this world! We can take him!" Another participant refuted, even suggesting that they fight him together.

"Y-Yeah! Let's get him! All of us together! There's no way he'd be able to defeat so many of us at once!"

The participants there all prepared for battle, yet none of them dared to approach him first.

Yuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them, it flickered with a vicious light.

[Heavenly Domain!]

The place was suddenly assaulted by a tyrannical pressure that caused all of the participants there to feel as though they were carrying mountains on their back whilst their bodies were chained down, completely sealing their movements.

"W-What is this?! I can't move my body!"

One by one, the participants there began lowering their bodies until their knees were kissing the ground.

In just a few moments, everyone there was on their knees, almost as though they were greeting royalty— if not for the terrified expressions on their faces.

"W-Wait! Let's not be so hasty, alright? Let's talk—"

One of the participants there opened his mouth to speak, but before he could even finish his sentence, Yuan swung the Empyrean Overlord in his grasp in a wide motion.

Whoosh!

A massive red arc of sword light was released from the strike, sweeping through the participants there and slicing their bodies in half instantly.

"Ah!"

"Damn it!"

"I'll remember this!"

The participants cried out loud as their bodies disappeared from the Mystic Realm before appearing outside the gates.

After his initial swing, Yuan went to clean up the other participants he'd missed.

And in less than a minute, over 90 participants perished from the Mystic Realm and were disqualified from the event.

Meanwhile, outside the Mystic Realm, the spectators were shocked speechless by what they'd just witnessed.

"Is that the Young Master? He looks somewhat different…" Feng Yuxiang mumbled in a dazed voice as she stared at his figure in the mirror.

"Brother Yuan…" Xiao Hua released a sigh of relief after seeing that he was fine.

However, they were only able to see Yuan for a brief moment. Once Yuan killed all of the participants in the Mystic Realm, the mirror no longer spectated him anymore.

This baffled Senior Nie and the others.

"What the hell is going on with the Mystic Realm this year? How come the treasure isn't spectating that participant? And how did he open the Mystic Pagoda?" Senior Nie was filled with questions inside his head.

"Who was that masked figure just now?! Is he also a participant?! And did he just come out of the Mystic Pagoda?!"

The elders in Spirit Heavens were also greatly shocked by Yuan's presence, and they immediately bombarded Senior Nie with questions.

"He's a participant from the Dragon Essence Temple. Although his appearance is different from when he first entered, I cannot forget that Soul Weapon. However, I have no other information regarding his identity besides that."

"Oh yeah, he was also a Spirit Master before he entered the Mystic Realm, and he's apparently only 18 years old." Senior Nie added.

"What! Such a genius exists in the Lower Heavens?! We must secure him at all costs!" One of the elders said.

"I think so too… But which of our sect should he join?"

"He'll be joining my sect, of course!" Someone then said.

"Nonsense! Why should he join yours?!" Another one refuted.

"Because he's using a sword, and we're a sword sect! Why else?!"

"So what if he's using a sword? He can still join other sects! I have plenty of sword cultivators in my sect that focus on other weapons!" A second person refuted.

The experts began fighting over who would get to take Yuan in as their disciple.

Senior Nie shook his head and said, "You guys… You can discuss that after he agrees to follow us back to Spirit Heaven."

"What? Isn't that a no-brainer? Who would refuse to ascend?"

"Right? Who in their right mind would rather stay in this dump when they could ascend without any effort? If you're a true cultivator, you'd want to reach the peak!"

The elders didn't believe that anyone could possibly willingly refuse to ascend to the Spirit Heavens.

"I don't know… He seemed to be acquainted with that little girl who was a Spirit King… I wouldn't be surprised if they don't really belong to the Lower Heavens and only came down here for whatever reason like I did."

"Really? Just what are their backgrounds?"

"Only the Heavens know…" Senior Nie sighed.

"Hahaha! Do you see that? That's our Dragon Essence Temple's number one genius!" Long Yijun laughed out loud after seeing so many participants disqualified at once.

The other Sect Masters looked at him in envy. Why don't they also have a monster disciple in their sect?

Inside the Mystic Realm, after killing all of the participants, Yuan stows away the Empyrean Overlord.

"I didn't know you could be this ruthless, Yuan…" Wang Xiuying said with a smile.

"Well—"

"Yuan!"

Just as Yuan opened his mouth, he heard a familiar voice resound above him, causing him to look up into the sky.

And to his surprise, Lan Yingying was falling from the sky with her arms spread wide open and a blissful look on her face.

Yuan instinctively opened his arms to catch her.

A moment later, Lan Yingying landed in his arms and embraced him tightly, "Thank the Lord! You're still alive, Yuan!"