KABOOM!
Up in the sky, Casablanca flinched at the sound of the explosion as Brutus was engulfed by a sea of flames.
While his woman worried for him, inside the sea of flames, the Lord of Profanity had a crazy grin on his face.
The fire didn't touch Brutus because at this moment, just before the tip of Brienne Ironheart's Battle Axe ignited in flames, he switched his grip on his sword, using the flat side to block the full force of the explosion.
This was after dodging the original trajectory of the Battle Axe.
The flat side of the sword could only block a part of the explosion though, Brutus knew this and was why he improvised still.
The requirement to breakthrough from the qi gathering realm to the Foundation realm is to accumulate and compress qi energy. This compressed qi energy in the Foundation realm is no longer confined inside a cultivator's body.
