They had thought the Divine Emperor would agree to let the Sacred Heart Sect Eldest Disciple and the other two take them out of the Sacred Ruins Abyss and back to the Sacred Heart Sect. After all, that would mean the World-Ending Thunder Dragon and the Creation Divine Tree would go with them, allowing the Sacred Heart Sect cultivators to reap great benefits from these Saint-grade Heavenly Treasures. It would have been a win-win for both sides. But the Divine Emperor hadn't agreed. Instead, he had offered a pretty convincing justification: he wanted to use this crisis to temper Ling Tian and the others.
Ling Tian and the others fell silent. They knew that a great crisis could temper them well, of course, and they also knew the Sacred Heart Sect Eldest Disciple and the other two would never disobey the Divine Emperor. That left them with no choice but to figure out how to handle the Outer Realm Cultivators on their own.
To the Sacred Heart Sect Eldest Disciple and the others' surprise, Shen Wei and his companions refused to go back with them. They wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ling Tian and the others—and they were determined to stay despite knowing full well how dangerous it would be.
The Sacred Heart Sect Ninth Disciple frowned deeply and said in a grave voice, "Do you realize that, at your current cultivation levels, you'd meet your end if you faced a siege by countless cultivators from the star region, especially those attacks using that kind of archery? There are bound to be plenty of cultivators in the star region whose cultivation is no weaker than yours. More importantly, they vastly outnumber you and can surround you on all sides. If nothing unexpected happens, staying in the Sacred Ruins