"Are you sure you weren't ambushed or something?" The Diamond Palms Sect's Master asked the two disciples that had been brutally killed.
"I'm confident that we were alone, Sect Master!" One of the disciples quickly responded with a serious expression on his face. "We were in open land, and we haven't encountered another participant since we entered!"
"Then how did you two die? Who killed you?" The Sect Master mumbled in a dazed voice.
Even he didn't see what had happened to them through the treasure. Their death was so sudden and random that if he was told his disciples were killed by ghosts, he would probably believe it.
The Sect Master then turned to look at Senior Nie and bowed to him, "Senior Nie, what should we do now? Has something like this happened before? Where the participants die out of nowhere?"
Senior Nie shook his head and said, "No, this has never happened before. As for what happens… Since your participants have died inside the Mystic Realm, regardless of the circumstances, your sect is now disqualified. Whatever points you received before the disqualification will be your final score."
The Sect Master of the Diamond Palms Sect staggered like he was about to faint after hearing Senior Nie's words. How could they be disqualified so early on in the Mystic Realm? They have been in the top ten for over a hundred years! At this rate, it would be a miracle if they manage to even get into the top 100! How could such a tragedy befall their sect?! Who did they offend to deserve this?!
However, as much as the Sect Master of the Diamond Palms Sect wanted to ask for a second chance, he knew it was pointless, and he'd only be making himself into a laughing stock.
The other Sect Masters swallowed nervously when they saw this, silently praying to themselves that this wouldn't happen to their sect.
But Alas, within the next few hours, many other participants experienced the same tragedy the Diamond Palms Sect had experienced.
The participants were dying left and right without a single person knowing the cause, and this caused a great commotion outside the Mystic Realm.
"Just what in Heaven's name is going on?! Who is responsible for this?!"
"Could it be another participant? Or is someone from the Mystic Realm responsible for this?!"
"This is outrageous! At this rate, the sect ranking for the next 10 years will be all messed up!"
Senior Nie was greatly bewildered by this situation, as he has never seen anything like this before.
"What do you think is happening, Elder Nie?" One of the crystal balls asked him.
"I really don't know what to tell you. Somebody is killing all of these people without showing himself or his methods. It's like he has an invisible weapon or something similar. And at the rate he's killing them, taking into account the distance between each victim, this predator is traveling very quickly— too quickly if I am being honest."
"What does this all mean?" Another voice asked.
After pondering for a moment, Elder Nie said, "This may sound absurd, but if we cannot see this killer from the treasure, he's probably a Mystic Realm native, and for some reason, he's killing every single participant. As for his reason for doing so… We will probably never know…"
"We have known that the natives inside the Mystic Realm aren't very friendly towards us outsiders, but they have never outright hunted the participants until today. Did something change within the Mystic Realm?" One of the voices from the crystal ball spoke.
"What should we do about the sect ranking this year? It's a freaking mess already, and there are still three weeks left. At this rate, all of the participants will be disqualified."
Senior Nie then said, "The cultivation world is volatile in nature. Anything can happen, even ridiculous events that nobody can imagine, and this is simply one of these moments. Even if the sect ranking is flipped around this year, where the previous lowest ranking sect becomes first and the previous first rank becomes last, we will judge it as we usually do."
Meanwhile, at the Dragon Essence Temple, Long Yijun and the other sect elders were clearly very worried about the current situation.
"I wonder what's going on, really. It's been a week since the Mystic Realm started and we still haven't seen Disciple Yuan's shadow, much less the person himself. I hope he's fine." Long Yijun sighed, completely unaware that Yuan was behind this phenomenon.
While he did tell Yuan to disqualify as many participants as he could, Long Yijun could've never expected this kind of outcome.
However, two people there understood what was going on.
"Xiao Hua, these invisible attacks… It's definitely him, right?" Feng Yuxiang turned to ask her.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Hua nodded, "The way all of these people are killed as efficiently as possible with a single strike to the head… It definitely resembles Brother Yuan's style."
After spending so much time with Yuan, she was obviously used to his fighting style, and Yuan was someone who would always go for the head whenever it was possible. Out of the thousands of magical beasts he has slain, most of them had died from a single strike to the head.
After getting Xiao Hua's confirmation, Feng Yuxiang said to Long Yijun and the others, "I think it's the Young Master behind these attacks."
"What? Yuan? Really? How can you tell?" Elder Xuan quickly asked.
"The attack patterns and these invisible strikes… One of the Young Master's Soul Weapons can turn invisible, and looking at the size of these holes, it matches what his Starry Abyss is capable of." Feng Yuxiang explained to them.
"If that's the case, how come we can't see him? Where is he killing them from?" Elder Shan then asked.
"I have a speculation, but it sounds a little too absurd even for the Young Master…" Feng Yuxiang said.
"Let us hear it." Long Yijun said with a serious expression on his face.
Feng Yuxiang took a deep breath before continuing, "The sky."
"What? Are you saying that Disciple Yuan is somehow killing them from the skies— that he's flying?" Elder Shan looked at her with wide eyes, as it was too unbelievable.
After all, only Spirit Grandmasters could possibly achieve such feats!
Feng Yuxiang sighed, "That's why I didn't want to say it. It sounds absurd, I know, but it's the only thing I can think of."
And she continued, "Think about it— the first two victims were in an empty grassland for miles with nowhere to hide, yet they were killed without seeing a shadow. If there's nobody around them, then the attack could've only come from one place— the skies."
"I see, that makes sense… but it also doesn't make sense at the same time." Elder Xuan said.
"In order to attack from the sky, Disciple Yuan must have learned to fly, but in order to do so, he must have reached at the very least Spirit Grandmaster. However, it's only been a week since the Mystic Realm opened. Even if Disciple Yuan somehow managed to escape having his cultivation base wiped, he still wouldn't be able to reach Spirit Grandmaster in such a short time— at least he shouldn't."
Feng Yuxiang shrugged, "I don't know. The Young Master is unpredictable. He's literally the reason why I try to avoid using the word 'impossible' since he somehow always makes the impossible… well... possible."
"Let's continue watching. Maybe Disciple Yuan will show up sooner or later." Elder Shan suggested.
Inside the Mystic Realm, Wang Xiuying watched as Yuan disqualified the 39th disciple with a nonchalant expression on her face, almost like she was already used to seeing such a sight.
'At this rate, he'll kill all of the participants in the Mystic Realm before the 30 days time limit is over…' Wang Xiuying sighed inwardly.
The disparity between Yuan and all of the participants was simply too vast.
This made Wang Xiuying wonder why he was being so nice and friendly to her. Normally, someone as secretive as Player Yuan wouldn't reveal so much about himself to a stranger like her, yet he has spoken to her as though they were already friends.
In fact, Wang Xiuying already considers Player Yuan as her friend, something she didn't think was possible before today.
"Congratulations, Yuan." Wang Xiuying suddenly said to him.
"Hm? What for?" He raised his eyebrows slightly in a puzzled manner.
"Congratulations on getting first place for the Mystic Realm, obviously."
"Haha… We don't know that yet. There are still 3 weeks left. Anything can happen in these next three weeks."
"You're so humble, Yuan. Think about it… You're a Spirit Grandmaster who can take out any participant with a single thought. Who in this place could rival someone like you?"
"Perhaps that's the case, but despite my cultivation base, I nearly died today. This shows me that no matter how powerful you are, you are not invincible and you can never be too careful in the cultivation world."
"If you say it like that, I guess so…" Wang Xiuying nodded.
Meanwhile, at the Mystic Pagoda, three figures stood before a tall building that emitted a majesty aura.
"What are we doing here, grandfather?" Lan Yingying asked him.
"I just felt like coming here, that's all…" Grandpa Lan responded with a gloomy feeling around him.
After standing there silently for a few minutes, Grandpa Lan clasped his hands together and bowed to the Mystic Pagoda.
"I'm sure it was fate that he came to this place. Thank you for guiding that young man here, Lord. If only I was a little bit stronger..."