Jason was shocked.

Never in his life would he have imagined that the opponent he had to face had such a devastating strength.

He had failed to realise the first telltale signs of his trusted weapon, Byakur receiving its very first cracks. This was an unbelievable sight, which caused Jason to widen his eyes in shock.

Instinctively, he retracted his weapon, allowing it to return to the soul world.

This gave the one-eyed giant, the Cyclops, to continue the sword slash with an unfathomable force.

Knowing the trajectory, Jason evaded it by a hair's breadth, but before he realised it, the Cyclops landed a solid kick into the abdomen.

Flung away, Jason crashed into the ground, more than a dozen meters away from his previous position, only to continue to roll.

Gasping for air, Jason felt as if his entire body was shaking, yet, before he could even think, his body reacted instinctively.

Pushing himself up from the ground, Solaris' wings manifested on his back, and he soared into the air, giving him some time to breathe, just as the Cyclops appeared below him.

Its speed was terrifying, and Jason had barely evaded it, which was his fortune.

If it had reached him in time, he would have been in a completely different situation by now.

'Three cultivation energies and it reached the 2nd threshold? What the fuck?!' Jason thought the moment he got the time to make an evaluation of his opponent's strength.

It was devastating, and it was only a moment after his initial evaluation that he was able to calm down to some extent.

'No...it's still in the 1st threshold...and has just started to create the first of three large rotating crystals!'

This find was reassuring, but the rest was definitely not.

Byakur was only slowly recuperating within his soul world, which was one of the advantages of a Soul weapon- its regeneration ability.

Yet, before the faint cracks on it would be completely healed, at least half a day or, probably more had to pass.

That was not something Jason could afford to give Byakur to heal right now.

To put it bluntly, Jason had a marginal upper hand due to Solaris' wings that enabled him to fly around the Cyclops, however, this advantage was short-lived because the Cyclops was preparing something.

Jason had a premonition about it, and without hesitation, he manifested several hundred fire needles.

He just wanted to target the Cyclops' sole eye and render it blinding, but the moment the fire needles were shot out, Jason understood that it was useless.

Solaris might be on the way to create its third solidified prismarine crystal, but there was still a big difference between possessing the strength of three prismarine crystals and nine.

Furthermore, the Cyclops had the advantage of cultivating in all three main paths.

Thus, its strength must already be at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage.

With that in mind, Jason couldn't help but feel a little bit odd because the opponent on the 10th Floor shouldn't already be that strong!

It simply made no sense considering that he began ascending the floor with a single solidified prismarine crystal!

Even if he was a halfling of the Celestia and human race, that didn't mean he was able to do everything!

Right now, his chances to win a battle against the Cyclops were close to zero.

As such, Jason didn't even feel like attacking the Cyclops, to begin with.

There had to be a different way of tackling the beast, and figuring it out was what he had to do right now.

Jason was able to come up with several plans owing to the Spiral Spirit being his soulbond that enhanced his mind.

Most of them had to be discarded because they were too dangerous, but one particular plan was stuck in his mind.

'The gate is open...so I should be able to enter the 11th floor, right? If I manage to leave, I can cultivate before encountering the other guardians!'

In the end, the plan was simple, and Jason wanted to employ it without hesitation.

Yet, he also knew that his speed was too slow.

Nevertheless, with the ability to fly, Jason planned to approach the gate slowly. Thus, he released his entire mana at once while flying towards the gate carefully in an attempt to speed through the portal.

Unfortunately, his plan shattered into smithereens, the moment he realised that the Cyclops didn't remain idle.

Instead, its eyes were fixated on Jason from the beginning of the battle, but it was only now that it began to act.

Huge streams of energy enveloped the Cyclops, only to gather around its eye that began to release a unique kind of merged energy.

At this moment, Jason understood that the Cyclops was using a weird type of special technique.

Yet, before Jason could do anything, whether it was desperately attacking, or fleeing, his surroundings seemed to twist as the gravitational force increased by several times.

Unsure whether it was just his mind that assumed the gravitational force was increasing, or if the Cyclops was pulling him towards it, Jason could only stare at the Cyclops for a confused minute.

However, it was crystal clear that he wouldn't be able to continue flying anymore.

He was only a few meters away from the portal, but at the same time, this small distance suddenly became too vast to cross for him!

Looking down, he noticed that the Cyclops was merely inches away from him, and both the joy and killing intent inside its eyes caused Jason to feel that he couldn't hold back anything anymore.

Otherwise, he might die!

At that moment, Jason did something he had wanted to prevent at all costs because he could tell that his body was not ready yet!

Earlier, he had already unsealed many minor seals, and if it was possible to do that again, he would do it by all means.

However, this time it was different.

Forcefully releasing another seal, Jason grit his teeth, knowing that this seal was different compared to the ones before!

It was not a minor seal, but one of the few bigger seals the Chaos Emperor had put on him.

This seal had multiple purposes, but among the most important was the fact that the major seals of the Chaos Emperor prevented the Celestia bloodline from directly merging with and overwhelming Jason's human bloodline!

Only because of that, Jason was able to awaken the soul world, in the first place, and it was similar to his humane emotions that wouldn't have existed without the human blood coursing through his veins!

As such, the moment Jason broke his seal, the energy that was released almost tore his body apart, as the Celestia bloodline tried to suppress the human bloodline.

Yet, before anything like that could happen, the Cyclops seemed to have noticed that something was odd, which caused it to react instinctively.

Only a fraction of a second later, Jason's eyes were sprayed with hot blood- his blood!

Instinctively looking down, Jason realised that the Cyclops had chopped off his leg using a vast amount of energy to sever through the tidal waves of energy Jason suddenly released.

Realising this, Jason roared out, as his eyes and Celestia aura turned bloody while his mind went blank.

__________________