Once the player's corpse disappeared from the Mystic Realm, Yuan returned to the ground with Wang Xiuying.
"The door didn't open for that player. How weird." Wang Xiuying went to knock on the door again a few moments later, but there was no response this time.
"It's not opening even for us now. I wonder how this place works," she sighed.
Yuan didn't say anything and approached her.
"Eh?! It opened again!" Wang Xiuying was surprised when the door suddenly opened.
She then turned to look at Yuan with a pondering expression on her face.
"Yuan, can you go over there for a second?" Wang Xiuying pointed.
Yuan nodded and walked to the location.
And just as Wang Xiuying expected, the Mystic Pagoda closed its doors when Yuan distanced himself from the building.
"Yuan! I think the door is opening for you! Come back here!" Wang Xiuying said to him.
"For me? Why?" Yuan raised his eyebrows in a puzzled manner.
Once he approached the Mystic Pagoda, the doors opened again.
"Look! The door opened when you got close! And it will close if you walk away!" Wang Xiuying said.
And she continued, "Do you know why this is happening? Did you do anything special before coming here?"
Yuan shook his head, "Not that I remember."
Besides fighting some demons and meeting the Lan Family, he didn't really do anything special.
'Hmm? Wait a second. If the Empyrean Overlord belonged to the Lord, perhaps the Mystic Pagoda recognizes it, hence why it's opening its doors for me?' Yuan suddenly recalled this fact.
"I'm going to go inside then," Yuan said a moment later.
"I will come with you!" Wang Xiuying quickly said.
Although there might be traps inside, it was much better than staying out here by herself, especially when there might be many participants who will be arriving soon. In other words, she felt much safer by Yuan's side.
Yuan nodded his head, and the two of them entered the pagoda a moment later.
"This place is… empty…" Wang Xiuying said as she looked around the room that had literally nothing but a spiraling staircase a few meters away.
After looking around to make sure the room was really empty, they proceeded upstairs to the second floor.
However, the second floor was also empty.
"Nothing here either? Where are the treasures? A place this difficult to get into should have at least a couple of heaven-defying treasures, right?" Wang Xiuying sighed.
And just like previously, after spending a few minutes looking around, they proceeded to the next floor.
"From its appearance outside, the Mystic Pagoda should have nine floors." Wang Xiuying said as they entered the third floor.
"Why am I not surprised?" Wang Xiuying merely shook her head in disappointment when she saw that nothing was on the third floor as well.
However, they still looked around regardless.
Sometime later, they reached the eighth floor, and as expected, it was empty.
"There's only one more floor. I hope there's something there." Wang Xiuying said after looking around the place.
After taking a deep breath, they walked upstairs.
"Look! There's actually something here!" Wang Xiuying spoke with excitement when she noticed something different about the room.
However, when she realized what these things were, her excitement immediately died.
"A bed… a desk… a chair… That's it?" Wang Xiuying sighed.
Then she noticed the mask hanging on the wall behind the desk.
"Well, that's something unique, I guess."
Yuan looked around and said, "Well, I was told the Master of the Mystic Realm used to live here, so it makes sense this room looks like this."
He then turned to look at the mask on the wall and mumbled, "That must be the mask he wore. What an ordinary-looking mask."
Compared to his Black Jade Mask, the mask on the wall looked too ordinary. In fact, it was just an ordinary mask with nothing special about it.
"I was hoping for this mask to be a treasure, but it turned out to be ordinary as well." Wang Xiuying said after inspecting the mask.
"Here." She then handed it to Yuan.
"Your old mask broke, right? You can use this one instead."
"Thank you." Yuan accepted the mask and immediately put it back on his face.
Coincidentally, the mask fitted his face perfectly.
"What should we do now? There's clearly nothing in this room besides the furniture." Wang Xiuying said.
Yuan looked around, and he noticed that there was another staircase leading up.
"There's still one more floor," he said to her.
"What? How is that possible? I remember very clearly that there are only nine floors in this place! At least that's what it looked like from the outside!"
"I also counted nine floors." Yuan agreed with her.
"Maybe it's a secret floor where the treasures are held?" Wang Xiuying's eyes began flickering with excitement and hope again.
"Let's check it out."
A few moments later, they climbed the staircase.
The tenth floor was clearly much smaller than the other floors, almost like an attic or sorts.
However, there was nothing on this floor as well— nothing physical at the very least.
"What do you think this drawing is?" Yuan asked her as he looked at the complicated drawing on the floor.
"This looks like a magic circle… At least that's what they look like in movies." Wang Xiuying said.
And she continued, "But this is the cultivation world, so it's probably a formation. I have seen a couple of them before, but none of them look even remotely as complicated as this one."
"I think this is what is protecting the Mystic Pagoda." Wang Xiuying said after pondering for a moment.
"I think so too." Yuan agreed.
However, just as they prepared to go back downstairs, the formation suddenly began to glow brightly.
"W-What's happening?!" Wang Xiuying exclaimed, and she subconsciously hugged Yuan.
"I have no idea—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the two of them disappeared from the room, almost like they had been teleported or something.