As Ling Tian and the others had guessed, once the battle began, neither the North Profound nor the Profound Realm side went all out. They only tested each other. Though the distance between them continued to close and the power of their arrow techniques kept increasing, it was clear that both sides were holding back.
The two sides probed each other, and though their arrow techniques grew more powerful, many energy arrows collided and were knocked aside by their opponents' arrows. Even those that made it through had their power greatly diminished, making them easy to stop with energy shield formations. So neither side suffered any casualties.
Though Ling Tian, Tan Tai Chang Feng, and the others did not take part, they kept observing the Profound Realm cultivators. From the power of their arrow techniques, they judged how well they had mastered them; from the strength of their attacks, they gauged how their forces were deployed. They managed to deduce quite a lot.
Of course, while Ling Tian analyzed the Profound Realm side, Jiu Jie, Meng Du, and the others were also assessing their opponents' strength. They had thought that, with their advantage in numbers and experts, they would gain at least a slight upper hand even during this probing stage. But after sensing the power of their opponents' arrow techniques—and realizing their own side seemed to be at a slight disadvantage—they understood that defeating the Profound Realm would not be as simple as they had imagined.
"I thought that with so many realms fused together, we'd have an overwhelming advantage in numbers and experts. And now that we've mastered various arrow techniques over the years, I thought we'd have an absolute advantage against the Profound Realm. Who'd have guessed we'd only be evenly matched—or that our side would even