It turns out, they were the main characters.

boom!

The figure in the distance transformed into a streak of light, accelerating as it hurtled towards the scene before finally coming to a steady stop.

"Sorry, some unexpected things happened on the way and I was a little late." Mu Zhian glanced at the incense stick not far away and smiled, "But it looks like the timing is just right."

The old man nodded slightly, glanced at the disciples of Hidden Sword Peak on the platform, and said, "Now that everyone is here, let's get ready."

Standing on the high platform in the distance, Yan Ruyu gazed at Mu Zhian with her beautiful eyes. Although her expression was calm, there was a hint of worry in her eyes.

Although I believe in Mu Zhian's abilities, the disciples of Hidden Sword Peak are at least at the peak of the fifth rank of Refining Spirit, which is almost two ranks lower than Mu Zhian.

If it weren't for the martial arts assessment, things would be fine, but now Mu Zhian has fallen to the early stage of the fourth level of the Divine Refinement realm due to the tribulation... Such a gap is bound to cause concern.

Ning Yuan, the head of Zui Meng Peak, clearly noticed the worry in Yan Ruyu's eyes. He turned his head and smiled, "Junior Sister, you can relax. Many people from all over the Nine Provinces have come to this Ascension Conference. We should unite against the common enemy. Even if Mu Zhi'an is really eliminated, there are still disciples of Zui Meng Peak."

Yan Ruyu smiled faintly and said, "No need for you to trouble yourself, senior brother. I trust my disciple."

After saying that, he ignored Ning Yuan and calmly looked at the high platform where Mu Zhian was.

Ning Yuan opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but seeing Yan Ruyu's indifferent expression, he ultimately held back his thoughts.

Upon seeing this, Yu Xuanji, the head of Tianji Peak, couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle: "Although Senior Brother Ning has now reached the sixth level of the Returning to Void Realm, he is probably not as good as Mu Zhian's disciple when it comes to pursuing female cultivators."

Among the chief disciples, Yan Ruyu is the youngest, and because of her beauty and intellectual temperament, she is very popular not only among the chief disciples but also among the disciples.

However, this woman has rarely had intimate interactions with others in the past. Back when she was still at Daofeng, she had an extremely close relationship with her senior sister, Yu Ziyan, but they later parted ways due to some entanglements.

Looking at the two people who were ready in front of the high platform in the distance, the chief suddenly smiled and asked, "Who do you think will be the final winner of this Ascension Tournament?"

"Then naturally they are disciples of my Canghai Peak," Yi Hao said with a confident tone.

He had complete faith in Bai Ruoxi's talent and strength. Even though there were many geniuses this time, Bai Ruoxi would definitely be the one to win in the end.

Yu Ziyan chuckled lightly: "My two disciples are in no way inferior to Bai Ruoxi's disciple in terms of talent. If they really meet, it's not certain who will win."

"Among cultivators of the same generation, if we're talking about cultivation level alone, apart from that girl Lan Mulian, probably no one can compare to my disciple Wei Mengrou," the head of Huabao Peak said with a proud laugh.

At this moment, the nine chiefs suddenly formed a stark contrast: one side looked quite happy, while the other side remained completely silent.

In the past, when vying for these highly talented inner disciples, they didn't participate at all, but instead chose other disciples they thought were more promising.

The reason for this is that they feel it would be beneath their dignity to do so.

To put it bluntly, they don't want to be so involved; accepting an inner disciple would come at a huge cost.

But who would have thought that this Ascension Ceremony would become the focus of attention across the Nine Provinces?

The most important reason for the head monk to accept disciples is for fame, and one of the simplest ways to gain fame is for his disciples to become famous throughout the world.

Making it into the top ten of this Ascension Ceremony will make you famous throughout the world.

In the future, when people see a genius disciple who ranked in the top ten of the Ascension Conference, they will remember who taught that disciple... Just thinking about it will make them proud.

And now...

The top disciples who hadn't tried to recruit those talented students in the past were now kicking themselves.

This should have been a great opportunity for my own peak to become famous, but for the sake of 'prestige', I can only watch other peaks shine.

Fortunately, no matter what, they still have someone at the bottom...

The heads and elders of several main peaks, including Hidden Sword Peak, all looked at Mu Zhi'an, the disciple standing in front of the high platform in the distance, intentionally or unintentionally.

Even if their disciple is eliminated before the top 100 in the Ascension Tournament, it's still better than the disciple that Junior Sister Yan took in.

After all, most of the disciples they take in are around the fifth level of the Refining Spirit realm, while Mu Zhian is only at the fourth level of the Refining Spirit realm.

And unfortunately, he ran into a genius disciple at the peak of the fifth rank of the Divine Refinement Realm right from the start.

"It seems that Mu Zhian is about to lose to Yuan Ping."

At this moment, the deputy leader of Hidden Sword Peak suddenly spoke up.

All eyes turned to the high platform where Mu Zhi'an was. His spiritual energy was slightly disordered, and he was panting heavily. In front of Mu Zhi'an, nearly thirty swords surrounded him. As Yuan Ping raised his hand to form a hand seal, the flying swords continuously attacked Mu Zhi'an.

“He just used up a lot of spiritual energy traveling, and he probably hasn’t fully recovered yet,” Yu Ziyan said, frowning as she noticed something.

"The Ascension Ceremony is such an important occasion. His strength is not as good as Yuan Ping's to begin with, and he was even late for so long. He can't blame anyone else for losing," Ning Yuan said, shaking his head.

"Yuan Ping is, after all, a disciple of my Hidden Sword Peak. Losing to him is not shameful." Xiao Lin laughed heartily, looking at Yuan Ping in front of the high platform with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

Then, he looked at Yan Ruyu and smiled, "Actually, when Junior Sister so decisively chose Mu Zhian as an inner disciple, I thought Junior Sister had discovered his talent. But now it seems that Junior Sister may have just liked him back then?"

Mu Zhian's current performance is truly disappointing, so it's no wonder that Xiao Lin is gloating.

Yu Ziyan smiled and looked at Yan Ruyu, saying, "If Junior Sister regrets it now, you can still let him come to my Dao Peak as an inner disciple later."

Yan Ruyu remained calm, gazing at the arena, ignoring them.

At this moment, in front of the dueling platform, Yuan Ping stood with his hands behind his back, surrounded by nine swords. Looking at Mu Zhi'an, who was still panting and surrounded by sword blades, he smiled and said, "Although Miss Bai is exceptionally talented, it seems that her eye for choosing a Daoist partner is still a bit lacking."

He had heard of Mu Zhi'an's name before, but not because of Mu Zhi'an's talent or anything like that. It was only after learning that the celestial beauty of Canghai Peak had found a Daoist partner that he learned of Mu Zhi'an.

Although he was not so virtuous as to directly provoke Mu Zhian, Yuan Ping was still somewhat unconvinced. After all, in his opinion, Mu Zhian's talent was not worthy of a beauty like Bai Ruoxi.

Mu Zhian looked around at the swords surrounding him, then casually glanced at Yuan Ping and smiled, "Love and talent have nothing to do with each other. Brother Yuan seems to have some misunderstandings about relationships."

Yuan Ping's eyes held a hint of mockery as he said, "Fellow Daoist Mu is currently at the fourth level of Refining Spirit, while Miss Bai, if I remember correctly, is already at the seventh level or higher, right? When she reaches the Returning to Void Realm in the future, having experienced more, her perspective will broaden, and at that time, she will—"

"Will she discover that her beloved is such an outstanding Daoist partner?" Mu Zhi'an said with a smile.

Interrupted abruptly, Yuan Ping's eyes flashed with anger as he said, "She will naturally know that there are many excellent cultivators in this world, and many choices they can make."

"As the saying goes, a wife who has shared hardship should not be abandoned... Ugh, I seem to have put myself in the shoes of the female lead... Anyway,"

He looked up at the disciple from Hidden Sword Peak and smiled, "I don't think I'm weak either."

"Whether it's weak or not, I'm the one who decides now." Yuan Ping chuckled, raised his hand and made a hand seal, and nearly thirty sword blades behind him rushed towards Mu Zhi'an at the same time!

Perhaps Mu Zhian's talent is not weak, but if he is eliminated in the first round of the Ascension Tournament, it is easy to imagine how the disciples in the sect and the cultivators in the Nine Provinces will view him in the future.

As the sword blades came raining down, Mu Zhian's mouth gaped open: "You..."

"Enough with the nonsense..." Yuan Ping's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. As the blade hurtled towards Mu Zhi'an, he drew the sword from his back and charged towards Mu Zhi'an.

Mu Zhian took a step forward.

In that instant, the whole world turned gray.

The sword blade froze in mid-air, Yuan Ping's lunge at Mu Zhi'an came to a halt, and even the wind that had been blowing seemed to freeze in mid-air.

After Wei Mengrou obtained a portion of the Primordial Witch's power, this power indirectly became one of Mu Zhian's powers!

Two seconds later, time resumed its flow.

By the time Yuan Ping reacted, Mu Zhi'an had already appeared in front of him and then threw a punch!

The force of the punch surged, and the simple yet powerful blow sent pain through Yuan Ping's internal organs. Then, he flew out of the arena like a cannonball.

The old man in mid-air watched this scene, his eyelids twitched slightly, and then he calmly said, "Mu Zhi Ansheng!"

The room fell silent for a moment.

Even the elders were stunned for a long time.

Even the elders hadn't realized what Mu Zhian had done in those brief two seconds.

The heads who had been making comments earlier now had a look of surprise and doubt in their eyes.

Whether Mu Zhi'an just used a secret technique or something else, even they can't figure it out yet...

At this moment, Yu Ziyan seemed to realize something and subconsciously glanced behind her.

Not far behind them, a peerless fairy dressed in a green dress was floating in mid-air. She had bare, fair feet and an ethereal air. Her clear, bright green eyes were looking in the direction of Mu Zhian, her expression remaining calm.

Yu Ziyan's actions were naturally noticed by the other chiefs, and when they all turned to look, they all felt a slight tremor in their hearts.

Qingdi...?

Why is she here too...?

Not all the chiefs and elders knew about the relationship between Mu Zhi'an and the Azure Emperor. So far, only a few female chiefs who had discovered that Mu Zhi'an was a natural furnace cauldron knew this secret.

But they didn't mention it to anyone else.

Yan Ruyu looked at the young man on the stage and felt a little relieved. Then, a faint smile appeared in her beautiful eyes. She glanced at Xiao Lin and said with a smile, "Senior Brother Xiao, have you ever thought about why I would accept him as an inner disciple if he were just a simple fourth-grade Refinement Spirit cultivator?"

Xiao Lin frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "Not only the library... but he's also the Azure Emperor's disciple?"

Yan Ruyu smiled knowingly, but did not answer.

Xiao Lin frowned slightly, glanced at Mu Zhi'an on the stage again, then calmed his mind slightly and inadvertently glanced at the fairy in the green dress behind him.

And in that instant, he saw that the fairy had a faint smile on her lips, her emerald eyes were gazing in the direction of Mu Zhian, and there seemed to be a hint of gentleness in her eyes... as well as some special emotions hidden in her eyes.

I have indeed heard that Mu Zhian saved the Azure Emperor's life in the past, so it's not surprising that she took Mu Zhian as her disciple... Xiao Lin thought to himself.

If that's the case, it would explain why Junior Sister Yan accepted Mu Zhi'an as an inner disciple in the past... After all, she later received a divine favor from the Azure Emperor because of this relationship.

As Xiao Lin thought of this, he couldn't help but recall Yan Ruyu's meaningful look from earlier.

He frowned, as if he had thought of something. Then, it was as if a blue lightning bolt had flashed through his mind, and his heart suddenly trembled. He subconsciously looked at Mu Zhian again, just in time to see him and Qingdi staring at each other.

Logically speaking, even the chief disciples wouldn't dare to look the Azure Emperor in the eye like that, so why would a cultivator in the Refining Spirit Realm dare to be so disrespectful...?

Xiao Lin's eyes flickered slightly, and he subconsciously looked at Yan Ruyu, who was not far from his side. An utterly absurd phrase flashed through his mind.

...A Daoist partner?

Chapter 303 You little bitch, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm back too! 4K

The exchange between the two has only lasted for less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and Mu Zhian's actual attack time is even less than a few seconds.

What exactly happened in those nearly two seconds is still unclear even to the leaders on the stage.

However, there is something even more concerning than this right now.

From the very beginning, the Azure Emperor had been watching them from not far behind... Even though she wasn't looking at them, it still gave them a strange feeling.

After the old man declared Mu Zhian the winner, Yao Meng turned and quietly left.

If a Dao Integration Realm expert were to suddenly appear in such a place, it would cause a huge disturbance and put considerable psychological pressure on the other participants.

After all, not everyone is like Mu Zhian, who can act recklessly towards an empress at the Dao Integration Realm.

Mu Zhian bowed slightly to the old man on the stage, then stepped down from the arena. He then looked at the high platform in the distance and bowed slightly in the direction of Yan Ruyu.