Chapter 1855 — Chapter 1855 Punishment

"What?!" Ji Ran stood up in shock after hearing that Yuan had been disqualified. However, he was more shocked by Yuan's seemingly random brutality.

"How dare you, disciple!" The sect elder turned to face Yuan and shouted at him after declaring the results.

"Not only did you kill a fellow disciple, but it was even deliberate!"

As much as Ji Ran wanted to believe in Yuan, even he couldn't deny that Yuan had purposefully killed his opponent, and it was more unbelievable that Yuan would lose control of his own power.

Moreover, Yuan displayed clear killing intent before the match started and right before killing his opponent. Nobody would believe Yuan had killed his opponent by accident, and nobody did.

"H-he killed Senior apprentice-brother Bai Zhan!"

"No way!"

"I knew there was something wrong with that Bamboo Disciple at the beginning of the match! So he had planned on murdering Senior apprentice-brother Bai this entire time!"

The audience was in an uproar because of Bai Zhan's fame. Yuan ignored the audience and faced the sect elder to respond to her question, "I have nothing to say. It's true. I deliberately killed him."

Elder Jing and Elder Sun were left speechless after hearing his confession. They wanted to believe it was an accident, but Yuan's confession left no room for doubt.

"Ah… what a disaster. Even if he's a cultivation genius, he won't be able to get out of this unscathed. I wanted to recruit him as my disciple, too," one of the sect elders around Elder Sun suddenly sighed out loud.

"Even if the Sect Leader doesn't punish him, Senior Bai will definitely go after that disciple for killing his grandson."

It was widely known that Elder Bai greatly doted and spoiled Bai Zhan, his grandson, so it wouldn't shock anyone if Elder Bai went after Yuan for his actions. It was only a matter of when.

"Why? Why did you kill him?" The sect elder questioned Yuan.

"He offended me in the past," Yuan calmly responded.

"What…?"

"Sorry, but that's all I can say," Yuan shook his head.

"That's not good enough!"

Meanwhile, the Sect Leader watched everything play out with a slight frown on his face.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his expression shifted drastically.

"I remember now! Tian Yang, you bastard!"

After realizing why he found Yuan familiar, the Sect Leader leaped from his seat and landed directly inbetween Yuan and the sect elder.

"S-Sect Leader!" The sect elder immediately took a step back and bowed to him.

The Sect Leader suddenly swung his sleeves, and in an instant, the world around him seemed to freeze.

Everything—the audience, the disciples, the sect elders, even the spiritual energy in the air—abruptly stopped moving, as if time itself had been halted.

Yuan, however, remained unaffected.

"Tian Yang, you bastard! What the fuck are you doing here?!" The Sect Leader roared, his eyes filled with killing intent.

"W-what?" Yuan was taken aback by the Sect Leader's unexpected outburst, especially since Tian Yang's name came out of his mouth, and it was even accompanied by killing intent.

However, despite his shock, Yuan managed to keep a straight face and responded, "T-Tian Yang? Are you talking to me? My name is Xiao Yang, though."

"Bullshit! You may look a little younger, but you're definitely Tian Yang!" The Sect Leader shouted. "How else do you explain your mastery of the Peerless Immortal Technique?! There's no way you'd managed to reach that level in such a short time! You must've known it prior to coming here!"

After a moment of silence, Yuan said, "It's true. I knew about the Peerless Immortal Technique before coming here. However, that's only because I was taught it by Sect Leader Ji Ran. I am his disciple, after all."

"What?" The Sect Leader's expression suddenly froze.

"Ah, you don't recognize me because I had my mask back then, right? I was the one who asked if I could bring my companions, who would not be participating in the trial, with me."

Sure enough, Yuan was wearing a mask before entering the Immortal Gates. However, that mask disappeared alongside his real body, hence why the Sect Leader didn't recognize him.

The Sect Leader fell silent with a pondering face.

'Now that I think about it, there's no way he could be Tian Yang. He looks too young, and that bastard should've died long ago.'

Eventually, the Sect Leader realized that he'd made a mistake. However, he didn't apologize and said, "Forget it. Now tell me, why did you kill that disciple?"

"Because he offended me," Yuan said, keeping it vague on purpose.

"I know you said he offended you in the past. However, you also claimed you'd never met him before."

Yuan shook his head and explained, "That was actually a lie. That disciple just didn't remember me, and I agreed with him to make him lower his guard."

The Sect Leader narrowed his eyes at Yuan. Eventually, he said, "Whatever. I don't care why you killed him, but you will be punished accordingly for breaking the rules."

"What kind of punishment?" Yuan asked.

"Ten years in confinement," said the Sect Leader.

Yuan raised an eyebrow and said, "You expect me to just accept this? I'm not spending ten years in this trial, so you can just disqualify me from the trial entirely."

"Because you have something to do in the outside world? Then you should be happy to learn that time in this world flows differently—much slower than the outside world. Although you have spent over a year in this world, in reality, only a little over a month has passed in the outside world."

"Really?" Yuan's eyes widened with surprise after learning this information.

"What would I gain from making such a lie? I was going to announce this information sooner or later, anyway," revealed the Sect Leader.

"Anyway, I will give you two choices since you are currently ahead of the pack. One, you will spend ten years in confinement, but your time limit to become an Inner Court disciple will be halted. Or two, you will spend two years in confinement, but that timer will continue to tick even while in confinement, and all points you earn will be reduced by 50 percent for the next five years. Now, which do you choose?"