Shocking response

Zou Yi gritted his teeth as he swung his fist, however, he saw the axe swerve to his left the moment it was about to hit him. 

Has he missed

A clashing sound and force hit Zou Yi just as this thought hit his mind. The force made him trip to his left. Luckily Zou Yi still had some control of his body, so the moment he tripped to the side, he performed a sideway roll which gave him the chance to see the source of the explosive sound.

He saw a long narrow trench had been created from where he stood, up to the direction the scarlet blur had disappeared to. Within that trench was a green object that looked like a plant's root, but from the smoothness of the object, it looked more like a branch.

Zou Yi saw the green object move. It rapidly retracted back leaving a 30 cm whip lash trench behind that seemed to producing smoke. He Shan's axe was buried in the ground of that trench with faint cracks and smoke being produced from it.