Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling his strongest defensive technique, being rendered completely useless in the face of the descending blade, Xuan Hao for the first time realized just how massive the difference between himself and someone in the Star Creation Realm was.

Rumble~ Bang!

It was only when the blade reached the fifth layer of the ice lotus that it showed signs of being affected. Slowing down the speed at which it descended for a bit before shattering the fifth layer in a similar way to the four previous layers of the ice lotus.

Hm? Something… Is wrong…

But during the process of the sword cleaving through the fifth layer, Xuan Hao sensed something off about the descending sword in the short time it had used to cleave through the ice layer, something he had not noticed before because the previous layers had shattered far too fast for him to notice anything.

Even then, he couldn't be entirely sure, as he decided to focus all his attention on observing the heavenly blade as it reached the sixth layer of the ice lotus. Knowing that the sixth layer would provide more resistance than the fifth layer. Giving him a better chance to sense the state of the descending heavenly blade and try to figure out where the strange feeling came from… And if he couldn't sense anything, there was still the seventh and eighth layer. In any case, he didn't plan on escaping through the Dao of Space before the blade reached the final ninth layer.

The reason for this was not because he believed he stood any chance resisting the descending blade, but more so because he wanted to observe the power of the Star Creation Realm as long as possible. Deepening his own understanding so he could prepare and be ready when encountering someone in the Star Creation Realm in the future.

Of course, the descending heavenly blade was somewhat restricted by the spatial formation of the Verdant Abyss and although it could restrict his movement. Preventing him from using the Illusory Light Steps to try and avoid the attack, it couldn't lock down space around him.

At the end of the day, it was still a valuable experience, though it did fall short of what he had originally wanted when deciding to chase down the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator, as he had essentially lost his opportunity to show off his strength to Huo Fen and Meng Jie.

After all, while running away from this kind of terrifying attack was indeed impressive, it wasn't exactly what he had in mind when it came to showing off his strength to the master disciple pair…

Craaack~

As the heavenly blade reached the edge of the sixth layer, the icy surface didn't immediately break apart upon contact but instead came to a halt as countless cracks spread out from the impact area of the blade. For the first time since descending, the heavenly blade faced real resistance and was unable to continue its former dominant descend of breaking through everything in its path with no resistance-

BAAANG-!

Though this resistance barely lasted for a second before the weight of the heavenly blade crushed the sixth layer and began descending towards the seventh layer of the ice lotus.

So that is the case… There is indeed something wrong with this heavenly blade! Looks like the talisman used by that little bandit wasn't entirely undamaged…

But this single second was more than enough time for Xuan Hao to analyze the abnormality he had noticed in the heavenly blade when it had crashed through the fifth layer of the ice lotus. The abnormality in question stemming from the damage the ancient talisman housing the Star Creation Realm attack had sustained over the long years it had been left to slowly decay on its own in some unknown location before ultimately being picked up and carefully stored away by the bandit leader.

However, although there was a flaw in the descending heavenly blade that had significantly weakened it, Xuan Hao also understood he was far too weak to try and take advantage of this flaw to resist the descending heavenly blade.

Knowing of a critical flaw, yet too weak to exploit it… That was truly a painful situation, as he not only realized that he was still too weak to contend with someone in the Star Creation Realm, but also realized that the overall strength of the heavenly blade descending towards him had only retained one tenth of its original strength.

For the first time, he realized just how massive the difference between someone in the Star Creation Realm and someone in the Land Creation Realm was, as with the latter, he could at the very least resist to some extent, while someone in the Star Creation Realm rendered him completely helpless even in the face of a remnant attack that barely carried a tenth of the creators original attack power.

The only somewhat reliving thought was that the one who should have created the ancient talisman and stored an attack inside it shouldn't have been a normal Star Creation Realm cultivator… Or at least, he hoped that this was the case…

BAAANG-!

Along with the seventh layer of the ice lotus shattered just as he finished going over what he had learnt about the heavenly blade, Xuan Hao understood that he truly didn't have any way to deal with the attack.

Unwilling as he was, the only way he could get out of his current situation alive was to make use of the Dao of Space to teleport, something that would end up triggering the spatial formation covering the entire Verdant Abyss. Ultimately throwing himself and the master disciple pair deeper into the Verdant Abyss. Potentially far deeper than they had originally ended up when first entering the Verdant Abyss.

Outside of the normal danger that came from the far stronger demon beasts that would be present deeper inside the Verdant Abyss, Xuan Hao felt far more worried about encountering either the demon beast whose child he seemed to have killed, or the expeditionary force led by the Land Creation Realm cultivator he had forced into dealing with the demon beast.

Craaaack-!

Along with another loud cracking sound, Xuan Hao frowned slightly as he watched the heavenly blade slamming into the eighth layer of the ice lotus.

Although this layer showed a far stronger resistance compared to the rest. Holding up even after ten seconds passed, he understood from a glance that it was only a matter of time.

The only real way he had to buy a bit more time was by directly using his spiritual sea to infuse a massive quantity of spiritual qi to the ice lotus to try and forcibly hold back the descending blade.

BAAAANG-!

In the end, this method only really bought him a few seconds longer before the heavenly blade shattered the eighth layer of the ice lotus. Leaving only the final and strongest ninth layer of the ice lotus behind to resist against the descending blade.

Powerful as the ice lotus was, this was ultimately the attack of someone in the Star Creation Realm. From beginning to end, the strength of the blade hadn't faltered and the might it carried at the start was no different as it reached the final ninth layer of the ice lotus-

BOOOM-!

However, a clear qualitative change had taken place between the ninth layer and the remaining eight layers, as even when the heavenly blade slammed into it head on, it managed to resist without immediately cracking like the previous eight layers had.

"Huh? This is…"

Seeing this, even the bandit leader who had been confident in easily taking care of his opponent after taking out his trump card couldn't help freezing on the spot with a shocked expression on his face.

As the owner of the ancient talisman, he understood full well just how powerful it was. Even someone in the Land Creation Realm would find it difficult to resist the heavenly blade, let alone someone in the Sea Formation Realm.

For Xuan Hao to be capable of directly resisting the heavenly blade…

"Land Creation Realm…? No, he should be in the Sea Formation Realm, but this defensive technique actually reaches the Land Creation Realm!" Muttering this to himself filled with disbelief, the bandit leader no longer felt the same level of calm and confidence as he had before.

After all, a Sea Formation Realm Profound Immortal capable of using this kind of powerful defensive technique was bound to be special and would undoubtedly have some kind of trump card capable of resisting against the ancient talisman he had used.

Now, all the bandit leader hoped for was that Xuan Hao decided it wasn't worth it to waste one of his trump cards on him.

Rumble~

Back inside the ice lotus, Xuan Hao had no idea about the panicked thoughts coursing through the bandit leaders head after he managed to directly resist the initial hit of the heavenly blade. Instead, he found himself deep in thought while observing the weakness he had spotted in the heavenly blade earlier.

Not because he planned to try and take advantage of the weakness to forcibly break the heavenly blade, but instead because he noticed the weakness in question growing larger as the heavenly blade was unsuccessful in directly breaking through the ninth layer of the ice lotus.

More so than that, he was focused on the growing instability of the heavenly blade that made itself visible in the brief time the weakness expanded…