Without knowing what specific secret arts the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators had mastered, Ling Tian didn't dare rashly engage them in close combat. In this situation, he might not be able to escape successfully, and the stakes were too high for him to take that risk. As things stood, his ranged attacks couldn't force the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators to use other methods, leaving him with only one option: get away from them.
Ling Tian was decisive, too. After hearing the World-Ending Thunder Dragon's words, he immediately reached the same conclusion. He said no more, simply putting away the Sky-Breaking Bow and fleeing at top speed. His strength had increased considerably after breaking through, so getting away from Shen Wei and the others was easy—much easier than the first time.
Sure enough, Ling Tian soon shook Shen Wei and the others off again. When he saw them begin searching blindly, he was even more certain of his assessment. He then changed direction and put as much distance between them as possible. That was easy enough for him.
Next, Ling Tian needed to keep consolidating his realm and improving his strength. At the same time, he had to monitor Shen Wei and the others' movements so he could shake them off whenever necessary. He also began assessing the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators' strength and the methods they had mastered.
Though the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators hadn't used many different methods, what they had shown was enough to glean some useful information—especially after Chi Xue and Tu Gui analyzed it with him and compared notes.
"Ling Tian, it seems the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators have only used space-based secret arts. For instance, they used spatial barriers to block your archery attacks, and spatial compression to destroy them. Even the secret art they