Even after letting go of the three subordinates that he had been protecting, it was still difficult for the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple to protect himself against the attack of the formation, Xuan Hao, and Pei Yang at the same time. Even though he was stronger, he was still locked in a situation where he was essentially being attacked from three sides at the same time, all of which had Earth Immortal Realm level power.
Because of this, it did not take long before he was forced to use all of his energy to defend himself from the constant onslaught. Unable to mount a serious counterattack against Xuan Hao or Pei Yang.
Of course, if he knew that Pei Yang was currently in an injured state and wouldn't be able to properly defend himself and could only attack with the help of the formation and several pills he had swallowed before the start of the battle, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple might have not ended up in the current situation of only being able to passively defend himself. Unfortunately for him, he had no idea about this and just thought of Pei Yang as a normal Earth Immortal Realm Expert without any problems so to speak.
As for the reason why, he didn't sense anything off about Pei Yang, it also had to do with some of the pills that specifically masked the weakness in his aura.
At the end of the day, Pei Yang was still a Grandmaster Realm Alchemist and had countless ways to mask his own weakness and boost his own strength to give the illusion that there was nothing wrong with him. Although it wouldn't work for an extended period of time, it was more than enough that it could last for a few minutes and give them a chance to either kill or severely injure the lord from the Heavenly Dragon Temple.
Boom!
Unable to free himself after being forced into a defensive position, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple could only continue blocking the endless barrage of attacks raining down on him from Xuan Hao, Pei Yang, and the sand spear killing formation.
Just who is it!?
In this stalemate that had emerged, he could not help looking towards Xuan Hao and Pei Yang before trying to figure out who they were, where they came from and how they had managed to find out about him going through the desert of a small empire at the outskirts of the continent.
Did one of those elders discover my plans and send these two to ambush me? Or did Hui fail to notice someone from the Blue Sea Empire spying on him leading up to my arrival?
Frowning as he thought about this to himself while comparing Xuan Hao and Pei Yang to any of the Earth Immortals from the Heavenly Dragon Temple and the Blue Sea Empire that he knew about, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple ultimately couldn't recall seeing any of them before.
The main reason why he couldn't recognize Xuan Hao was rather obvious, while the reason he had no idea about Pei Yang was due to the fact that he was a wandering cultivator before joining the Star Shattering Sect and hadn't done anything notable other than killing an Earth Immortal from the Blue Sea Empire… And even the fact that he was the person who had killed the Earth Immortal did not yet have time to spread outside the Blue Sea Empire.
Even if it did end up spreading outside the Blue Sea Empire in the future, it was doubtful whether a lord from the Heavenly Dragon Temple would pay any attention to someone in the earlier stages of the Earth Immortal Realm who happened to win a life and death battle with another Earth Immortal in the earlier stages of the realm.
The only thing that might be of interest to someone like that would be the fact that the dead Earth Immortal belonged to the Blue Sea Empire, one of the Heavenly Dragon Temple's enemies in the core region of the continent.
Whoosh~
Unaware of the thoughts going through the head of the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, Xuan Hao decided to momentarily step back after seeing that the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple had been restrained and unable to move away from his current location before pouring all of his strength into his divine void eyes-
Rumble~
Not intending to give the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple a chance to fight back, both of Xuan Hao's eyes shone eerily under the burning hot desert sun as he used his divine void eyes to forcibly increase the speed and strength of the spatial collapse, something had learnt to do after his strength had increased.
In a sense, it was not that he couldn't do this before, just that his strength was insufficient to do it. Even now, increasing the speed and strength of the spatial collapse would drain what little strength he had left after causing the spatial collapse…
"Aaaaah!" Feeling the change in the speed and power that the space was collapsing; the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple could only let out a painful scream from within the collapsing space as he used all of his power to fight back against it to no avail-
BOOOM-!
However, just as it seemed like he was going to be crushed and torn apart by the spatial collapse, he managed to forcibly break through his own limits and gain a momentary enlightenment allowing him to condense the ninth layer around his dao lotus. Officially breaking through to the realm of what was considered the Late Stage of the Earth Immortal Realm.
""…""
Not having expected something like this to happen, Xuan Hao and Pei Yang momentarily froze in surprise.
"Aaaaaah! I will never die like this!"
BOOOOOOOOM-!
Feeling the speed and power of the spatial collapse momentarily weakening due to the slight lapse in attention from Xuan Hao, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple used all of his strength and artifacts to forcibly rush out of the area covered by the spatial collapse before tearing apart another spatial talisman and escaping before Xuan Hao and Pei Yang had a chance to stop him.
"Just you wait old man! We might both be from the same place, but I will have my revenge in the future!" Screaming these few words as he disappeared, Xuan Hao and Pei Yang could not help looking at each other surprised over what had just happened.
"This is… Unexpected…" Muttering this to himself Xuan Hao could not help frowning. Not expecting the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple to somehow gain enlightenment in a life and death moment before condensing another layer around his dao lotus and using this new strength and his lapse in attention to break out of the area covered by the true spatial collapse with the protection of his artifacts and escape.
"Don't worry too much about it, in his current state, I doubt he will be able to recover in a short time. Even if he manages to recover, he seems to have a misunderstanding thinking we were sent by one of his enemies from the Heavenly Dragon Temple. Even if he returns to the Heavenly Dragon Temple, we should be fine." Noticing Xuan Hao's worry, Pei Yang walked over as he said this in a reassuring tone.
Even if the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple had escaped, he should not be thinking about the ruins of the Shattered Star Peaks any longer and should instead be worried about recovering and getting revenge on the "old man" who was behind the ambush.
"Indeed…" Nodding his head in agreement after hearing what Pei Yang said, Xuan Hao relaxed a bit.
Although the enemy had managed to escape alive, the situation should be fine in the short term. Maybe it might even be better this way, as the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple didn't end up dying but instead left the place thinking that someone else from the Heavenly Dragon Temple had arranged an ambush on him.
Even if he ended up finding out that this was not the case in the future, it would be hundreds of years from now… And at that point in time, the Star Shattering Sect should be more than strong enough to contend with a powerful force like the Heavenly Dragon Temple.
Understanding this after thinking about the situation for a bit, Xuan Hao could only shake his head hoping that the lord from the Heavenly Dragon Temple would not cause any more problems for the Shattered Star Peaks. "Haaa… Let's go back for now…"
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