Thunder rumbled through the starry void beyond the world. Lightning serpents filled the sky, striking one after another with terrifying pressure.
Under such a heavenly tribulation, even a cultivator at the peak of Spirit Transformation would perish in no time, let alone one at the limits of this world's late Spirit Transformation stage.
That was why, when the Nine Firmaments Divine Thunder True Sovereign and Blood Lake Bone Mountain controlled this small world, they often managed to contact the upper realm only once every ten thousand years—or even several tens of thousands.
The Ascension Platform Law required someone exceptional even among peak Spirit Transformation cultivators before it would allow that person to ascend to the upper realm.
For cultivators who failed to meet its standard, attempting to ascend could end only in death.
"That capacity to embrace all rivers..."
Jiang Ding's heart jolted with alarm.
The cultivators of the upper realm already stood above countless small worlds. Their realm was a birthplace of immortal cultivation civilization, one of its wellsprings, and represented heights of that civilization beyond imagination. Yet they still possessed such humility and caution. It was terrifying.
They were vastly stronger than you, yet more open and accepting, drawing outstanding talents from countless lesser worlds like a sea embracing a hundred rivers.
How could anyone defeat people like that?
"No!"
"There's no need to frighten myself."
"From what I've seen of those overbearing Thunder Division Dao Soldiers of the Nine Firmaments Divine Thunder True Sovereign, who don't regard lower-realm beings as their own kind at all, they hardly seem open or accepting."
Jiang Ding reassured himself. "The way they look at lower-realm beings is how one looks at ants or servants. That is absolutely not what openness and acceptance look like."
"Perhaps the ancient immortal-level power that established