A hundred li away, Xu Wucheng became a blur, flickering through the air and sometimes even plunging beneath the sea.
But no matter how Xu Wucheng dodged or evaded, two figures remained beside him, attacking relentlessly, while a third lurked on the perimeter, waiting for an opening.
Xu Wucheng struggled to defend himself. Sometimes he managed to knock one of them away with all his strength, but the man on the perimeter would immediately seize the opportunity to leave a gaping wound on his body.
Xu Wucheng's strength was exceptional. He was only half a step away from the peak joint aperture realm.
However, there was no such cultivation stage as the half-step peak joint aperture realm. Many powerful late joint aperture realm cultivators were, in fact, only a short distance from the peak joint aperture realm.
Yet that tiny gap held them firmly in place, preventing their cultivation from advancing any further.
Xu Wucheng was in the same situation. Several years earlier, however, he had encountered a stroke of fortune and discovered a spiritual plant deep beneath the sea.
Xu Wucheng had been unable to determine its exact grade at the time, but after consuming it, the essence power within his body had become even purer than it already was at the late joint aperture realm.
Anyone in the late joint aperture realm had to undergo three collapses of their joint aperture. Each collapse purified the essence power within their body once.
The third collapse restored the joint aperture to the size it had been upon first entering the early joint aperture realm, marking their official entry into the late joint aperture realm.
As for the supreme cultivation methods of the ten great factions, rumor had it that their third collapse could refine the joint aperture until it was