Understood

At Mandarin Duck Islet, two Ascension Realm cultivators were locked in the heat of battle.

The fight had begun without rhyme or reason. Rather than cautious old Immortals at the summit, they looked like two hot-blooded street youths who had met on a narrow road, taken one glance at each other, and decided neither could stand the sight of the other until one was knocked flat.

Heaven and earth had sunk into a murky gloom. The sun hanging overhead seemed to have been swallowed whole by the yellow-robed old man. Only the whirlpools remained, like spirits opening heavenly eyes, making this Small World all the more eerie and unnerving.

Even great cultivators like Qin Zao and Yan Ge felt their hearts race. How had they never seen an Ascension Realm cultivator at such a peak before, or heard so much as a whisper of him? What Young Taoist Priest? Yan Ge could be certain of only one thing: this unruly elder was definitely no enlightened master from the Central Divine Continent.

The higher the cultivation of the spectators at Mandarin Duck Islet, the more clearly they sensed the vast spectacle of the Great Dao in motion.

Mandarin Duck Islet had become a pond fished dry, its fish flung onto the bank. Every breath a cultivator took consumed Spiritual Energy from their own inner world.

The Immortals of the Upper Five Realms minded this little, but the Lower Five Realms cultivators who had accompanied their elders on this trip suffered badly. Their teachers protected them, some using superior spells to isolate a Small World, others bringing out sect treasures to shelter them. Still, the young cultivators looked deathly pale and swayed on their feet, terrified the sky might fall. Many had been ordered by their teachers to sit where they were