There was no denying that Ling Tian had gained a great deal from sparring with Lei Ba. In particular, he had once more entered that desperate state in the final moments, further bringing out his strength. That would surely help him advance faster in both cultivation and power from here on.
Chi Xue and the others had also realized the benefits of sparring, including the Twenty-ninth Heaven of Near-Saint cultivators who followed Ling Tian. They especially valued the chance to spar with experts like Divine Emperor and Lei Ba, and so they, too, would join in from time to time. Of course, their main purpose remained honing Ling Tian, particularly by improving his resistance to the pressure of the universe as much as possible. In their later sparring sessions, nearly every cultivator would use the Externalized Small World secret art to suppress him. This would undoubtedly maximize his resistance to outside pressure.
Ling Tian now had several hundred, nearly a thousand, cultivators by his side, and every one of them was an expert among experts. Nearly all could dominate others of the same realm, and they had all opened multiple Small Worlds and become highly skilled in Externalized Small Worlds. When hundreds or even a thousand of them joined forces to use Externalized Small Worlds, the pressure was terrifying. Even cultivators of Lei Ba and Divine Emperor's caliber would be greatly affected, perhaps unable to take a single step if caught in the middle of it—much less Ling Tian. His battle with Lei Ba had already shown that he was considerably weaker than him, and the gap between Ling Tian and Divine Emperor was even greater. If even Divine Emperor and Lei Ba could barely withstand the pressure of so many cultivators' combined Externalized Small Worlds, Ling Tian certainly couldn't,