A brief moment later, all of the participants had ugly faces. Initially, they thought that a seeded participant wouldn’t affect them if they weren’t intending on getting into the top three. But with four seeded participants making it into the top ten, nearly half of the spots were gone.

“The rules are pretty brutal since half of the participants will be eliminated in the second round.”

“Not only that, the seven elites will fight for the seeded positions. They can’t afford to lose a single match, which means more pressure for us.”

“I just hope that I can make it into the top twenty.” The participants discussed among themselves, but they weren’t feeling optimistic. However, there were still those who could make it into the top ten. After all, no matter how the rules changed, everyone had to rely on their strength.

No amount of grumbling would cause any changes. If they were as strong as the three kings, they would benefit from the new rules. However, their strength was nowhere near the level of the three kings who were genuine experts. The three kings definitely didn’t fear the rule changes.

“I believe everyone knows the rules now. I’m going to announce the groups now. As usual, the top three from the previous banquet won’t be placed together and ranks four through ten will also be divided. The division has been determined by the judges,” explained the old man before he started announcing the groups.

With a wave of his hand, flames hovered in the sky and condensed into words. Very quickly, the groups were written for all to see.

“Lin Yun, you’re in the fourth group,” said Situ Yi and the others. Lin Yun noticed his name and started looking at the other names. When he looked at the list, he couldn’t help being surprised. He was fortunate because Zhao Wuji, Yan Long’zi, and Yu Haotian weren’t in the fourth group.

However, he was also unlucky because three of the seven elites were in the fourth group. These elites were the Northern Snow Manor’s Nangong Wanyu, the Heavenly Sword Sect’s Li Mubai, and the Profound Yang Palace’s Lin Tao. Coincidentally, the two strongest swordsmen of the seven elites were placed together.

“What a coincidence.” Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts because the strongest swordsmen were placed in the same group. This probably meant that the strongest swordsman would have to be determined in this group.

Just as Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts, two sharp gazes fell onto him. Nangong Wanyu and Li Mubai were looking at him after they found their names. If it was in the past, they wouldn’t even care about Lin Yun. But now, they couldn’t neglect him. However, Lin Tao was rather low profile as he barely looked around.

“Holy shit, what’s going on with the fourth group?! They have three of the seven elites and Flower Burial Lin Yun.”

“How brutal. That’s this year’s Death Group!”

“I’m afraid that might be true. The other three groups have the three kings, so the competition won’t be as ferocious. Nangong Wanyu, Lin Tao, Li Mubai, and Lin Yun won’t give up easily.” Very quickly, people noticed the unique situation of the fourth group, which caused a huge commotion among the crowd.

Suddenly, someone spoke emotionally, “Holy shit! Did you guys see that? The strongest swordsmen in this banquet are all in the fourth group!”

“That’s really the case! No wonder the atmosphere between the three of them is so intense. In addition to the seeded participant, we will probably get to see who the strongest swordsman in the Ancient Southern Domain is!”

“In the past, Nangong Wanyu was acknowledged as the strongest while Li Mubai was only slightly weaker. But Lin Yun appeared out of nowhere and is primed to challenge Nangong Wanyu’s title. The fourth group is really exciting.” Similar discussions spread about the fourth group, causing the intensity of the fourth group to rise.

“The banquet will officially begin!” The old man announced with a booming voice that created hundreds of geysers. After the old man left, eight judges belonging to the Sacred Alliance descended upon the stages. With that, the ranking battle would commence.

Participants made their way to the four stages and cupped their hands before each fight. What was once 100,000 participants was now only 100. At this point, there were no weaklings, so it would be hard for the participants to suppress each other.

After the battles started, things quickly became dangerous. In just fifteen minutes, a loser had their profound amber aura seized. Everytime the profound amber aura was absorbed, the dragon projection in the winner’s jade token would roar in excitement and try to break free.

So the dragon projection will fly out after absorbing enough profound amber aura. Lin Yun analyzed the situation with his sharp eyes. The dragon projection didn’t just contain a wisp of dragon aura and fortune. If one could refine it in the end, they would enjoy lots of benefits.

Every single one of the participants could tell that there was something unusual about the dragon projection. When the geniuses noticed the odd behavior of the dragon projection, their faces turned grave. In the first round, there were a few exciting battles, but the crowd didn’t get riled up until Zhu Qingshan arrived on stage.

Demon Blade Zhu Qingshan was a dark horse in the Draconic Banquet. He had yet to run into the top ten, so he managed to maintain his winning streak. But his fortune would come to an end eventually since he was in the same group as Yu Haotian. Besides Yu Haotian, there weren’t many powerful opponents in his group.

Continuing his strong performance from the elimination round, Zhu Qingshan used three swords to nearly cut his opponent into two. This act practically scared his opponent into surrendering. When the loser’s profound amber aura poured into Zhu Qingshan’s jade token, Zhu Qingshan’s dragon projection flew out of the jade token. The dragon projection was nearly four meters long and emitted a faint dragon aura as it entered Zhu Qingshan’s body.

“What just happened?” Everyone was shocked by this scene. Zhu Qingshan quickly closed his eyes to figure out what happened. When he opened his eyes, a dragon projection was seen in the depths of his eyes. With joy written on his face, he left the stage and snickered, “Hehe.”

“The dragon projection actually flew out? There were others that won, but they didn’t receive that phenomenon.”

“Perhaps it’s because his winning streak allowed him to accumulate his profound amber aura to a higher level than the others.”

“This is really a battle between dragons.”

“That might not be the case. Those who are weaker might not be able to summon their dragon projection and can only resign themselves to becoming stepping stones.” The scene of the dragon projection breaking out of the jade token had caused a huge commotion.

“This is getting more interesting.” Lin Yun had expected this, so he wasn’t surprised. But the dragon projection from before was like an illusion that couldn’t be touched. It was only after it broke free from the jade token that it became more realistic.

As the battle continued, more dragon projections broke free from and the participants would leave the stage with excitement on their faces. Clearly, they benefited greatly from the dragon projection.

“Fourth group, Lin Yun VS Ji Wuye!” Lin Yun and Ji Wuye had fought in the Withernorth Sea a while back. At that time, Ji Wuye considered his defeat a source of humiliation and tried to gain honor back by competing with Lin Yun in the beast tide. However, Ji Wuye lost terribly.

When they ran into each other again, Lin Yun was already the brightest star in the banquet. Because of this, Ji Wuye was no longer confident that he could defeat Lin Yun. However, he wouldn’t admit defeat so easily. Taking a deep breath on the stage, Ji Wuye spoke, “Lin Yun, let’s settle this in one move.”

This was a bold request because one would need to be in the same position or have the same status as the other person. As of right now, Lin Yun’s reputation in the banquet was dazzling while Ji Wuye wasn’t as impressive. Naturally, Ji Wuye didn’t have the qualification to request this. His action was deserving of the same disdain that Ji Feng had for Lin Yun when they initially squared up.

“Sure.” Lin Yun was rather decisive. He wouldn’t do this for others, but he would surely give Ji Wuye the chance.”

“Bloodlust Soulbreaking Sword!” Ji Wuye stabbed his sword out. A terrifying crimson light exploded and formed an eerie execution stage with eighteen crimson shackles. Each shackle had hundreds of bones hanging from it. In fact, the entire stage looked like a mountain of bones.

As the eerie wind blew, the terrifying phenomenon tingled many people’s scalps. This was Ji Wuye’s strongest attack; the culmination of countless days, sweat, and effort. Although this was a brilliant sword, it was a shame that he ran into Lin Yun. Lin Yun’s hand turned into a mix of jade and emerald as he started accumulating his origin energy on his finger. On the back of his hand, the pattern of an Iris Flower also appeared.

Heart Connection, Spiritual Sword!

When the execution stage flew over, Lin Yun gently flicked his finger. The Iris Flower on the back of his hand exploded and turned into thousands of petals that flew towards the stage. A wisp of sword ray flew across the sky and destroyed the stage before hitting Ji Wuye.

Ji Wuye’s face paled and he went flying. When he landed on the ground, he took three steps back before vomiting blood. The execution stage had already disappeared, meaning his attack failed. The lake that he stood next to was cold, but his heart was even colder. Lin Yun actually defeated Ji Wuye with a single flick.