Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Seeing the three remaining Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators all decisively splitting up to escape in different directions after they realized he was someone in the Sea Formation Realm of the Profound Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit of admiration for how they had turned tail without the slightest hint of hesitation. Even with the difference in strength between himself and the three, the decisive decision to split up and escape in different direction while also making use of their trump cards to increase their own escape speed, had made it impossible for him to catch all three of them with his usage of the Dao of Space limited inside the Verdant Abyss.

If they hadn't acted so decisively, he would have been able to easily overwhelm them and prevent any of them from escaping, but now, he would at most be able to catch one of them. Maybe two if he decided to target the two weaker ones among the three and ignore the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator.

In the end, the choice that stood before him as he ripped apart the trapping formation and freed himself was to either go after the two weaker Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators or focus on the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator who should be the leader of these bandits.

Swish-!

And without much hesitation, he decided to chase after the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator while choosing to ignore the two Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators.

The reason for this was rather simple, as the strongest among the bandits and likely also the leader, was bound to have the most valuable treasures on him, while at the same time also providing the best opportunity for him to show off his strength to Huo Fen and Meng Jie and make sure they- or more specifically Huo Fen, didn't end up acting the same way he had done in case they ended up running into another group of cultivators in the future.

Not just because it was embarrassing, but more so because it made them stand out as easy targets, something that could quickly get annoying if they ended up being swarmed by people during the last bit of their journey out of the Verdant Abyss due to information about them being seen an easy target spreading among bandit groups lurking around the edge of the Verdant Abyss targeting people on their way out of the Verdant Abyss.

After all, being so close to the edge, not only had the number of cultivators they ran into grown but so had the number of troublemakers.

Remaining unknown was the best option, but in case that was impossible, he at the very least wanted to not get swarmed by bandits thinking he was an easy target… And in that case, two of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators escaping could be considered something positive, as they would at the very least be able to spread information about him and prevent other bandits from recklessly targeting them.

Shaking his head as these thoughts ran through his head while he executed the Illusory Light Steps to turn into a blinding light that rapidly closed the distance with the circular artifact that the leader of the bandits had pulled out and used to increase his speed far beyond that of someone in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm. Reaching a level comparable to someone close to the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

"How!? Is this person perhaps someone specialized in movement techniques!?" Unaware of the fact that Xuan Hao wasn't even fully focused on the chase, the leader of the bandits could not help exclaiming to himself in shock as he watched the distance between himself and Xuan Hao rapidly shrinking.

Even with the help of the escape artifact that he had gotten specifically for escaping inside the Verdant Abyss where normal escape techniques like using a teleportation talisman were rendered useless, he couldn't shake off Xuan Hao, who had by now gotten uncomfortably close.

"Damn it! Don't think I will just give up like this!" Going over his options as he looked back to see that the blinding light chasing him from behind had almost caught up, the leader of the bandits showed a somewhat reluctant expression on his face before he pulled out a small worn-down talisman from his interspatial ring. Looking over it for a good few seconds with an unwilling expression on his face before finally showing a determined expression on his.

Whoosh~

Coming to a complete stop before channeling his qi into the worn-down talisman, causing a small light to course through the talisman before several small indiscernible ancient symbols began to manifest on it.

"Hm? Planning a counterattack of some sort? No matter." Not knowing what the leader of the bandits was up to as he suddenly came to a stop, Xaun Hao simply assumed that he was about to pull some kind of final struggle after finding out that he would be unable to escape from him.

Of course, he was prepared for a powerful retaliation, as it was still the last ditch effort of a Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator, but he didn't really expect him to be capable of pulling out something capable of threatening him, as even if he did end up pulling out something capable of delivering the attack of a powerful Land Creation Realm cultivator, he felt confident that he should be able to survive it after having dealt with the spiritual tree and personally experiencing the strength of someone in the Land Creation Realm.

RUMBLE~

"Huh…?"

But as the worn-down ancient talisman that the bandit leader had pulled out began to activate, Xuan Hao could not help showing a somewhat stupefied expression on his face as he felt a pressure far stronger than what he had felt when facing off against the spiritual tree bearing down on him.

"S-Star Creation Realm…" Quietly muttering this to himself as he felt the terrifying pressure locking on to him, Xuan Hao could not help panicking internally. Having never expected a random Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm bandit to have a talisman capable of unleashing a Star Creation Realm attack.

Any confidence he had seconds earlier vaporized into thin air, as he understood very well that he was nowhere near strong enough to deal with an attack of this level.

The only thing he could think of that might be capable of resisting this kind of terrifying attack was the small flame that had formed between his brows following his absorption of both phoenix feathers and the blue divine energy on the Second Star Peak.

The problem being, he had no idea how to utilize this flame imprint to save himself and the activation in the past seemed to happen automatically whenever his life was in danger.

But…

RUUUUMBLE-!

As the power gathered by the worn-down ancient talisman finally seemed to reach its peak. Forming a towering heavenly blade above the bandit leader ready to slash down towards him, the small subspace where the blue divine energy absorbed by the small flame in the past seemed completely inactive. Showing no signs of it saving him from the heavenly blade above.

Unless… The heavenly blade is weaker than it appears and isn't strong enough to threaten me…?

Narrowing his eyes at this thought, Xuan Hao found himself examining the heavenly blade in great detail but found himself unable to spot any flaws. Instead, the observation only strengthened the feeling of despair he felt in the face of the heavenly blade.

"DIE!"

But as he was observing the heavenly blade, the bandit leader made his move, as his hand swung down along with the worn-down ancient talisman shining brilliantly between two fingers-

Ruuumble~

And along with this movement, the heavenly blade that had hovered motionlessly above his head swung down towards Xuan hao with a devasting power that caused the very fabric of space to tremble violently before breaking apart.

Whoosh~

Knowing that there was no way to defend against this kind of terrifying attack but still wanting to personally experience the might of someone in the Star Creation Realm, Xuan Hao decided against using the Dao of Space to get himself and the two he was carrying throw potentially far deeper into the Verdant Abyss. Instead, he used his strongest defensive technique, the ice lotus, to resist the descending heavenly blade. Planning to use the Dao of Space to escape the second the ice lotus couldn't hold on any longer.

After all, though the heavenly blade descending towards him was terrifying, it didn't lock down the space around him- or it was more likely that it was unable to lock down the space around him, as everything space related within the Verdant Abyss fell under the control of the terrifying spatial formation covering the Verdant Abyss…

Crack~! BANG!

Unsurprisingly, before the descending blade even touched the ice lotus, the first layer shattered under the heavenly blade's pressure alone, while the second layer barely held on before shattering just as the heavenly blade was a few centimeters from reaching it. Only the third layer managed to hold on under the heavenly blade's terrifying pressure until the blade reached it-

BANG!

At which point it was instantly shattered without offering the slightest bit of resistance as the heavenly blade continued seemingly unaffected by the first three layers of the ice louts. The fourth offered a tiny bit of resistance, but not much more than the resistance a soap bubble posed in the face of a sharp stick. Almost entirely unnoticeable if not for Xuan Hao having his full attention focused on the state of the ice lotus allowing him to sense the almost unnoticeable resistance posed by the fourth layer…