Above and below the Ice Pool, the two men reached a stalemate.
Watching from the side, Zhao Xintong was utterly bewildered. She could not understand this battle at all; it lay completely beyond the bounds of her knowledge.
She felt that she could move again, but that did not mean the villain had gained the upper hand. She could see the strain on his face, as though he were constipated, and a thoroughly inappropriate pleasure welled up in her heart. So even you have days like this?
According to the villain's instructions, she ought to leave the battlefield now. This was the best choice for a lower-realm cultivator to avoid affecting the battle. She could not help, but at least she had to avoid making things worse.
But she did not move. This did not come from an instinct for battle, but from Divination's prediction of how the situation would develop. She had a premonition that perhaps she could do something.
...Hou Niao felt his entire system of lightning being mercilessly trampled! This was the difference between the Dao and techniques. What he knew were techniques, but the lightning in Yu Shangque's barrier was the Dao.
In this collision between the Dao and techniques, pain and gain existed side by side. Though it was dangerous, he felt it was worthwhile, so he struggled to hold on.
Rather than seeking to pit lightning against lightning, he strove to find what they had in common.
The battle remained deadlocked.
As time passed, the scales began subtly tipping toward Hou Niao. This was inevitable, because Yu Shangque could not control heavenly thunder like this. He had merely brought it over to use, without being able to direct it. This gave Hou Niao time to familiarize himself with it, learn, accept, and assimilate it.