'Impossible! This is impossible! There's no way we can beat a monster like him! He's way above our league!'
The participants felt as though someone from the upper heavens suddenly decided to come down to the Lower Heavens just to mess with them by showing off his heaven-defying talents in the Mystic Realm where only talents mattered.
Even for the sects with more than three tokens, they didn't feel any confidence in defeating the Dragon Essence Temple that only has three slots. In fact, even if the Dragon Essence Temple only had one slot and Yuan occupied that slot, they still wouldn't have any confidence despite having the advantage in numbers.
'Two Soul Weapons and a Spirit Master cultivation base… The Mystic Realm is going to be exciting this year…' Senior Nie smiled inwardly as his gaze remained on Yuan's figure.
Once the Dragon Essence Temple joined the other participants, Senior Nie spoke loudly, "I will open the Mystic Realm in five minutes! Use this time to prepare yourself if you haven't already!"
The next five minutes felt like an eternity for the participants and the Sect Masters alike. Even though it was a rare opportunity for these participants to show off their talents before someone from the Spirit Heavens, this cultivation monster came out of the blue and stole all of the spotlights without any effort.
Meanwhile, the players were more shocked about Yuan's age, as that gave them a little more information on his mysterious identity.
'Player Yuan is only eighteen years old? What a discovery! He's around my age!' Wang Xiuying thought to herself, feeling pleasantly surprised.
'Spirit Master… He definitely has the highest cultivation base out of all players as of this moment!' Lightning Emperor thought to himself, realizing just how much he'd underestimated Player Yuan's advantage.
Five minutes of absolute silence later, Senior Nie spoke, "I forgot to mention one more thing— once you go inside, every sect will be separated from each other so you won't immediately start fighting with each other the moment you go inside."
After his sentence ended, Senior Nie began making weird signs with his hands before shouting out loud, "OPEN!"
The symbols on each side of the gates suddenly began glowing golden, and the light coming from the Mystic Realm gradually grew brighter and brighter until it was nearly blinding.
All of the participants narrowed their eyes at this bright light, and unbeknownst to them, they were fully enveloped by this warm light.
Once the light subdued, the Sect Masters turned to look at the place where the participants had gathered, and as they'd expected, it was completely empty there, almost like all of the participants had disappeared like a ghost.
"They have successfully entered the Mystic Realm." Senior Nie said to them before waving his hands and retrieving this massive mirror from his spatial ring, putting it directly in front of the Sect Masters.
"We will be able to see the participants inside the Mystic Realm with this Mirror of Surveillance." Senior Nie said.
A few moments later, the Sect Masters could see their own disciples in the mirror as well as the other participants, almost like they were watching a movie or something.
However, Senior Nie was not finished, and he brought out a couple of crystal balls— seven to be exact— that hovered in the air around him.
"Connect!" Senior Nie suddenly said.
The seven crystal balls began glowing a subtle blue light.
"Can you all see it?" Senior Nie asked the crystal balls as though he was speaking to them.
"Yes… I can see it perfectly. Thank you for your troubles, Elder Nie." A feminine voice resounded from one of the seven crystals.
"It finally started, huh? I wonder if there are any promising talents this year. What do you think, Senior Nie?" Another voice resounded from a new crystal.
"There are definitely a few," Senior Nie nodded.
"Hoh… My anticipation just went up."
Senior Nie then looked at the Sect Masters and the other spectators and said, "They are all sect elders from each of the seven Spirit Academies, and they will be watching the spectacle with us."
"Greetings, Seniors!"
The Sect Masters there greeted the experts behind the crystal balls.
"Good luck to all of your disciples!" One of the crystals responded, sounding rather friendly.
Meanwhile, once their vision returned, the participants were surprised to find themselves transported to some unfamiliar land.
"So this is the Mystic Realm?" Xue Jiye looked at her surroundings with a slightly dazed look on her face, realizing that they were no longer at the Desolate Land but in a grassland in the middle of nowhere.
"Hey." Gao Dongya suddenly spoke.
"Hm? What is it?" Xue Jiye turned to look at his handsome face that had a frown on it.
"Where's our third person?" Gao Dongya said in a serious voice.
"Eh?" Xue Jiye's eyes widened with surprise after hearing his words, and she immediately looked around them. However, she could only see Gao Dongya there with her.
"Where's Disciple Yuan?! I thought he was supposed to be with us! Why did he get separated from us?!" Xue Jiye exclaimed.
"Disciple Yuan! Are you here?!" Xue Jiye began shouting his name at the top of her lungs, hoping that he was actually near them.
But alas, nobody responded to her.
"Disciple Yuan!" Xue Jiye did not want to believe that they had been separated and continued shouting his name.
"Stop your shouting, woman! It's clear that he was separated from us after entering the Mystic Realm! What are you going to do if you attract unwanted attention with your loudmouth? We don't have any cultivation to protect ourselves at this moment!" Gao Dongya said to her.
"W-Woman? Loudmouth?" Xue Jiye stared at Gao Dongya with a surprised look, as this is her first time seeing him being so vocal.
"Anyways, we can only focus on ourselves for now and look for him later when we have some capability to protect ourselves. Let's find someplace where we can cultivate." Gao Dongya then said.
Although she was not happy about the way Gao Dongya addressed her, Xue Jiye couldn't find any fault in his logic and nodded her head in agreement.