Within the Black Abyss, the forces of the three divisions had gathered separately, each occupying its own area as they waited in silence.
In previous exercises, the first two rounds of contention had been fairly peaceful. The Eastern Division had little competitive strength, so the Southern and Western Divisions could easily divide up the Spirit Orbs that appeared and control how matters developed.
But this time, unexpected changes had clearly arisen. After the fourth Spirit Orb appeared, the battles between them became incomparably fierce. Star Constellation Realm cultivators of the Little People Race occasionally fell in battle, and the danger far surpassed that of previous years.
The root cause was still the Southern and Western Divisions' underestimation of their opponents, coupled with the Eastern Division's sudden rise.
Among the cultivators of the three divisions, aside from the Eastern Division, where only three people had died once, nearly everyone in the Southern and Western Divisions had died at least once apart from their respective Star Constellation Realm Late Stage cultivators. Some had even died more than once.
That naturally caused no small drain on their Spiritual Power.
When cultivators fought, they placed great importance on maintaining their Spiritual Power reserves. Once those reserves fell below a certain threshold, it would affect how much strength they could exert.
That threshold was generally around fifty percent.
In other words, when one's Spiritual Power reserves remained above fifty percent, one could normally display their full strength. But once they fell below fifty percent, their strength would inevitably be affected, and many explosive methods would become difficult to unleash.
The Black Abyss's special nature allowed cultivators to undergo Rebirth from Death, but it did not replenish the Spiritual Power they had expended. In particular, rebirth itself consumed a tremendous amount of Spiritual Power.
Moreover, transporting