"ah..." Tai'Ren sighed, his eyes scanning the slowly arriving competitors.

The twenty-four hour deadline had passed and now he was just waiting for all the participants to arrive.

From what little he could see, this year looked pretty disappointing.

Shaking his head, he silently extended his senses, quickly reaching out tens of kilometers, searching for his daughter's aura.

After just over three seconds, he found her, a strange expression crossing his noble face.

He couldn't define what she was doing, but he could clearly see that she was standing next to someone else, the owner of the powerful explosion of draconic Qi that had taken over the horizon the day before.

Tai'Ren thought for a brief moment before sighing. His daughter didn't seem to be in any danger.

"Patriarch, we should start analyzing the carcasses, shouldn't we? We have many more competitors than last time." An elder bowed to Tai'Ren, who reflected briefly before nodding.

With one smooth movement, he jumped down from the high dressing room where he was standing, landing softly on the ground, causing less disturbance in the air than a single, small leaf.

He adjusted the tiger skin he carried on his shoulders like a cape, his piercing green eyes landing on one of his family's young talents: Lioran.

The young man looked dejected, despite having hunted one of the best prey in the competition, a huge crystal crocodile in the early stages of the false immortal realm.

Tai'Ren observed the carcass of the beast carefully, studying its general condition, the wounds caused and the weight of the animal.

After a brief moment, he patted Lioran on the shoulder.

"You did well."

Lioran shuddered, but didn't reply, drawing a sigh from Tai'Ren.

This younger generation... Or perhaps it was he who was too old. A lot could change in ten thousand years.

Soon after, Tai'Ren focused his gaze on Xuefeng, the young man from the dragon people who was taking part in the competition.

He too had captured a powerful beast, not inferior to Lioran's, a three-colored toad, killed with a single, clean blow to the inside of the mouth that reached the brain.

Eyes, skin, everything perfectly intact.

Tai'Ren studied it for a brief moment, turning the five-ton carcass over with ease, making sure not to miss any details.

After his inspection, he just nodded to Long Xuefeng.

This was going to be a fierce competition between Xuefeng and Lioran.

After evaluating the two main candidates to become his next son-in-law, Tai'Ren continued analyzing the hunts of those who had no chance of victory, handing out smaller rewards and words of support.

Just as he was about to return to the two main ones, only ten minutes before the deadline, Tai'Ren stopped, turning his face.

On the horizon, he saw the figure of his daughter appearing empty-handed, with a flushed face and rapid breathing.

Naturally, both Xuefeng and Lioran's eyes lit up when they saw Linyue like this.

They both feared that she would get the best hunt; seeing her empty-handed took a great weight off their hearts.

Of course, there was still Qingyi and the steel-shelled turtle, but they didn't even know if Qingyi had been able to defeat it, especially given how long it had taken.

The two of them were already certain of victory, at least until a dry rumble echoed a few hundred meters away.

Slowly, they saw an enormous shadow approaching, a body of steel, flesh and bone weighing over thirty tons being carried on the shoulders of a young man of transcendental beauty, his feet sinking into the ground with every step.

Qingyi wasn't even sweating with that weight, not with his current power.

He was sure that, counting only his Qi-enhanced physical strength, he was capable of lifting even two fully armed and equipped Abrams tanks, more than sixty tons in each arm.

In the end, although the primordial laws greatly limited his power and the amount of damage he was able to cause in the immortal heavens, they still didn't change how powerful his body was.

He saw everyone's face change and Linyue shyly hid behind her father's huge body.

Exchanging glances with Qingyi, she stuck out her tongue before crossing her arms and looking away.

Xuefeng and Lioran naturally realized this, both feeling their hearts sink.

"You're quite strong, young dragon," Tai'Ren spoke, his Qi extending to Qingyi's fighter, taking it from the young man's grasp. The more than thirty tons floated towards Tai'Ren as if they were a feather.

Qingyi couldn't help but be a little shocked.

Linyue could lift beasts like that with her Qi because of an artifact, and Qingyi could only lift that beast using his powerful body, with the ability to lift weight only with his Qi barely exceeding tens of kilograms.

For Tai'Ren to be able to do this without any artifacts demonstrated a level of power that Qingyi was simply unable to comprehend, at least not yet.

'I wonder... is he capable of opening a mountain with his bare hands?' Qingyi wondered.

Even in the mortal heaven, he was still far from being able to open up an entire mountain with a single attack, although he could create a crater kilometers long.

In the end, mountains were too big and too massive.

Barely noticing Qingyi's reaction, Tai'Ren just continued to study the body of the iron-shelled turtle, observing the total wound.

The only real damage to the carcass was the wound on the top of the head, where a blade at terrifying temperature seemed to have been used to melt the creature's brain.

The other damage was only internal, explosions destroying it from the inside.

It was truly a very good slaughter, impossible when Tai'Ren only considered Qingyi's cultivation.

Even if this young man had a powerful lineage, the idea of crossing two realms was still hard to believe.

Tai'Ren wanted to question Qingyi, but when he glanced over and saw how his daughter was reacting to the young man, he just sighed and grabbed Qingyi's shoulder.

It was strong and muscular, unlike Lioran's frail and thin shoulders.

This was what a man's shoulders should look like.

Long Qingyi immediately bowed to Tai'Ren. "Junior Long Qingyi greets father-in-law!" he declared.

Many hisses echoed among the elders accompanying Tai'Ren, judging Qingyi for his boldness.

To their surprise, Tai'Ren only laughed.

"Welcome to the family, son-in-law."

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