Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Noticing that the heavenly blade was starting to grow unstable after it failed to directly break through the final layer of the ice lotus, Xuan Hao's train of thought shifted away from escaping and instead turned towards thinking about ways to resist the heavenly blade until the growing instability caused the heavenly blade to collapse in on itself.

BANG-!

CRAAAAACK~!

However, as the heavenly blade pressed down again with an even more terrifying power than before, causing countless small cracks to spread throughout the ninth layer of the ice lotus, the slowly budding dream of making use of the growing instability in the heavenly sword to escape danger without needing to make use of the Dao of Space disappeared just as fast as it had appeared.

Although the heavenly blade might inevitably end up collapsing because of the growing instability, he also became keenly aware of the fact that he had no way to hold on long enough for that to happen with his current strength. Even relying on the combined might of the ice lotus and his spiritual sea, he could at most endure a single attack before the final layer of ice began showing signs of shattering.

Seeing this as well, the originally uneasy bandit leader didn't feel relieved, but instead became even more nervous, as he firmly believed Xuan Hao to be someone capable of dealing with the heavenly blade if he wanted to. The only reason he hadn't pulled out any treasures to fend off the heavenly blade in the eyes of the bandit leader being because he was busy calculating whether it was worth it or not.

After all, with his strength, getting thrown deeper into the Verdant Abyss when already close to the edge of the Verdant Abyss wasn't considered too dangerous, as the further one was from the core of the Verdant Abyss, the more lenient the spatial formation would be with where one ended up.

Because of this, the core region of the Verdant Abyss was also far more dangerous, as using the Dao of Space to travel inside that region after getting thrown there was nothing short of a death sentence, as the only other location one could be thrown at that point in time was the true core or the abyss itself located at the very core of the Verdant Abyss, a location deadly even to someone in the Star Creation Realm .

Of course, the bandit leader had no way of knowing that Xuan Hao had already offended a Land Creation Realm cultivator and an equally powerful demon beast. Making him extremely reluctant to get thrown back into the core of the Verdant Abyss where there was a very Real chance of him running into those two again on his way out.

In his eyes, Xuan Hao's continued struggle against the heavenly blade merely looked like him calculating if it was worth it to stay around or perhaps even taking advantage of the opportunity to clash with the weakened attack of someone in the Star Creation Realm. After all, clashing with such a powerful attack was bound to be an insightful experience. Not just because it would allow one to personally feel the might of the Star Creation Realm, but also because it would allow the defender to see several flaws in their defensive technique that those at the same realm wouldn't have discovered. Allowing them to mend these flaws and further strengthen their own techniques in the process.

In this regard, Xaun Hao did indeed find several flaws in the ice lotus during the clash that the terrifying energy inside the heavenly blade had taken advantage of to easily break through the ice lotus.

To some extent, the main reason why he had been able to last up to this point had to do with the fact that he had made rapid adjustments to the ice lotus after the fifth layer had been broken through. Strengthening the ice lotus and allowing it to buy him a few more seconds in the face of the descending blade.

But…

Swish-!

No matter how much he strengthened the final layer of the ice lotus, there was no way for him to make up the massive difference in strength that existed between himself and the heavenly blade, as the blade came down for the second time…

BOOOOOM-!

And along with a massive release of energy that bathed the sky above in a bright golden hue, the strongest ninth layer of the ice lotus finally began crumbling around Xaun Hao, Huo Fen and Meng Jie, the latter two having no clue about what was happening, as their cultivation realm was far too low to perceive the battle that was taking place. The only thing they had seen from the battle from their limited vision was Xuan Hao creating a giant ice lotus to block a towering heavenly blade that seemed to be carved out from the very heavens. Successfully blocking the first strike, while the second strike seemingly ended in a draw with the ice lotus being shattered while the heavenly blade was flung backwards.

Unknown to them of course, this battle was far from as positive as the two of them viewed it, as Xuan Hao had long since overdrawn the qi inside his dantian and in turn his spiritual sea to just barely block those two terrifying attacks from the heavenly blade that still shone with little sign of faltering due to the slowly growing instability inside the blade.

Blocking a third strike from the blade was essentially impossible, as he had no qi left to conjure up a second ice lotus. The most he had left in terms of qi was what little he had saved for teleportation and ensuring that he could keep himself and the master disciple pair safe until he recovered his strength after being thrown back to the core region of the Verdant Abyss.

For now, his only real option in the face of the heavenly blade that had already begun to descend for the third time was to use the Dao of Space to escape.