Ling Tian had failed to pierce the energy barrier above the firmament with a single attack. More importantly, this test had given him a clear sense of just how powerful the barrier was, dealing him a blow. From his assessment, he quickly concluded that even his strongest attack might not be enough to break through it. By his strongest attack, Ling Tian meant influencing and controlling the surrounding formations—the Myriad Sword Demon Extermination Grand Formation and the Buddha Kingdom World formation—then drawing on their energy to unleash a Merged Entity Arrow attack using arrows like Zhu Xian.
At that moment, Po Tian and the others didn't tell Ling Tian the full truth about the Enlightenment Sacred Tree's earlier assessment. They were worried it would badly shake his confidence, which would do nothing to help him break through the firmament.
"On second thought, it makes sense. This is the final step in opening a passage to the Outlying Territories and escaping the Lord of the Universe's control. It was never going to be easy to break through. Especially since we already figured the Lord of the Universe was stronger than we'd predicted," Po Tian added. After a brief pause, he continued, "But you can still unleash an even more powerful attack next time. And with all those cultivators helping, the ninth tribulation cloud will weaken further. So your strongest attack might still have a chance to pierce the firmament."
"Right, that's true," Ling Tian said. But then he thought of something and furrowed his brow. "The ninth tribulation cloud is just too strange. The lightning it gathers can strike both downward and upward, and it moves incredibly fast—even arrows can't match its speed. On top of that, its power is immense. If I use arrows like Zhu Xian, they could be