The had initially believed that in the future, he would definitely be able to gain entrance into the best high-level academy of the Xia Kingdom, the Astral Sage College.
When Li Luo had first entered the Southwind Academy, he had lived up to their expectations, demonstrating an absolutely astonis.h.i.+ng apt.i.tude for training in resonance arts. He had been immediately granted entrance into its First School, where all the most talented students of the entire Tianshu Province were gathered.
Alas, as time advanced and as all the students began to manifest their resonances, his current problem had reared its ugly head. By now, he was the only one with a resonant palace but nothing inside it. As a result, although he was always faster to learn new arts than the other students, his resonant power grew at a much slower rate. By now, his resonant power had actually fallen to be below the average for the First Academy.
The whole point of learning resonance arts was to be able to apply your resonant power to greater effect, but if your resonant power was weak to begin with? Well, there was a limit to what even the most profound of resonant arts could achieve.
After subjecting Li Luo to a battery of tests, the administrators had come to the conclusion that Li Luo’s body simply, innately, lacked any resonance at all. In the future, it would be incredibly difficult for him to advance in his cultivation. After they reached this conclusion, the resonance instructure of the First School immediately requested that Li Luo be removed from the First School and sent to the Second School.
To be fair, this made sense. The First School was the place where all the most talented students were gathered, and the teacher simply didn’t want Li Luo to hold the others back. But of course, the other, more important reason was that right at that time, both of Li Luo’s parents had vanished. With them gone, House Luolan had quickly become the weakest of the four great Houses. Their position was now quite awkward.
And so, in the end, Li Luo had been sent to the Second School.
Xu Shanyue sighed to himself. When Li Luo had first arrived at the Second School, Zhao Kuo wasn’t even a match for him. Now, a mere semester later, Zhao Kuo was able to overwhelm him. If this continued, his ranking within the Second School would most likely continue to drop over the course of the next semester. Unless he was able to dramatically improve his performance, it was likely that he would stand no chance at all of being granted entry into the Astral Sage College.
The more Xu Shanyue looked at Li Luo’s calm, handsome features and his suave demeanor, the more pity he felt. He knew that the youth was incredibly hard-working, but his parents were simply so spectacular that everyone had incredible expectations for him. As a result, their prestige had become a source of tremendous pressure.
Everyone knew the saying that talented parents often had useless children, but few would delve deeper into the reasons behind this.
Li Luo cast a glance at the many pitying gazes aimed at him, swept the splinters off his clothes, then sat down cross-legged. He knew exactly what all of them were thinking, of course.
A blank resonance, eh? This pretty much guaranteed that his future prospects were dim. But… Li Luo smirked slightly. He couldn’t help but unconsciously reach down to touch his lower abdomen.
He had a secret which no one else knew. In his resonant palace, there was more than just a so-called ‘blank resonance’.
For cultivators of this world, at first their bodies would give birth to a single resonant palace; only later, when they reached the Duke stage, would they gain a second resonant palace. Finally, upon reaching the King stage, they would gain a third. However, the number of Dukes in the Xia Kingdom could be counted on one hand, while Kings were virtually unheard of despite how powerful the Xia Kingdom was.
But of course, there were no absolutes. Supposedly, there were some especially blessed individuals who had a chance of gaining a second resonant palace even before they reached the Duke stage. This happened naturally as their resonant power advanced, but the chances were incredibly low.
And this was what made Li Luo special. Although he was still at the earliest Ten Seals stage, he didn’t have just one resonant palace in his body – he had three, which was completely unheard of!
Normally, only supreme experts who had reached the King stage would have three resonant palaces, but somehow this had manifested within his body. But what was even more shocking… was that all three palaces were blank!
Having a blank resonance meant your future prospects were dim. But three blank resonances – did that mean you had a future, or not? Li Luo let out a sigh, a rather depressed look on his face.
Just as Li Luo was feeling all these mixed emotions, Zhao Kuo came over and sat down next to him. Zhao Kuo whispered, “You still haven’t resolved your resonance problem, eh?”
Li Luo silently shook his head. Upon seeing this, Zhao Kuo let out a helpless sigh as well. Actually, he knew that this was a dumb question. A person was born with a resonance; it was innate, and no one had ever heard of someone later filling in a blank palace with something else. Clearly, Li Luo was facing a serious problem.
As the two chatted, Xu Shanyue walked into the dueling grounds. After giving Li Luo a few words of encouragement, he turned and said to the many students present, “Everyone, important exams will be starting next month. Your chances at entering a college will be dependent on your performance in the exams. I urge you all to train hard.”
The students were all silent, and they all had solemn looks on their faces. All their years of hard work were focused towards the exams coming up next month. If they were able to get into a college, then their future prospects would improve dramatically.
After this, Xu Shanyue announced that cla.s.s was over. Li Luo and Zhao Kuo walked side-by-side as they left alongside the other students.
“I’m going to spend some more time training my resonance arts. Honestly, you gave me a good scare today. I suspect that if your resonant power was just slightly higher, you’d beat the pants off of me,” Zhao Kuo said with a sigh after exiting the training grounds. He then waved goodbye towards Li Luo.
Li Luo smiled as he watched Zhao Kuo depart. He knew the truth; Zhao Kuo was afraid that Li Luo was in poor spirits after this defeat, and so wanted to give him some alone time. What Zhao Kuo didn’t understand was that by now, Li Luo had grown accustomed to it all.
Li Luo withdrew his gaze, then turned and followed a tree-lined road that led outside the Academy. He ran into quite a few students as he walked, and all of them, both male and female, would glance at him as they pa.s.sed. It wasn’t just because of his good looks; rather, it was because he was now a rather notorious figure at the Academy.
In the face of their gazes, Li Luo maintained a look of practiced indifference. He continued to follow the pathway until he reached the Academy gates, at which point he paused.
In front of him was a large number of students who were all speaking in a lively manner. These students were all surrounding a very special bluestone wall – the Southwind Academy’s Wall of Honor. It contained the descriptions of all the mighty figures who had once graduated from the Southwind Academy.
By now, all the students had seen the Wall of Honor countless times. Logically speaking, they should’ve grown weary of examining it long ago, but for some reason they were quite focused on it today.
Li Luo pursed his lips. He knew what was going on. The vast majority of the students here were because of ‘her’.
Li Luo turned his gaze to a very specific point on the Wall of Honor. There was a gleaming crystal at that point, emanating rays of light that slowly coalesced into a tall, willow, and almost lifelike figure.
The figure was that of a girl. She was dressed in the school uniform of Southwind Academy – a light blue cape, a simple white tunic, and a short black dress. She had a pair of long, dainty legs that were perfectly white and pleasing to the eye.
Her facial features were similar exquisite. She had an elegant, raised nose, long and thick lashes, and snow-white skin. All of these were quite mesmerizing to behold, but it was her eyes that truly engraved her in everyone’s mind.
Her pupils were golden, and they emanated an ineffable feeling of purity. If you stared into them long enough, you would begin to feel a sense of pressure.
Her gaze was rather cool, and she stared straight ahead, with one hand on her slender hips and the other resting on the hilt of a heavy sword. Any who saw her would instantly feel a sensation of heroic, fierce majesty emanating from her. She truly was a soul-stirring girl, in terms of both appearance and demeanor.
The wall behind her projection held her name – Jiang Qing’e. She was one of the dazzling star graduates of the Southwind Academy, born with a ninth-grade Light Resonance and enough talent to cause the countless people of the Xia Kingdom to sigh in amazement.
After spending just two years in the Academy, she had been immediately recruited by the Astral Sage College even though she had yet to take her graduation exams. In the past hundred years, she was the only person in Tianshu Province to receive such an honor. By now, she was a legend of the Southwind Academy, and the many students who had enrolled after her practically wors.h.i.+pped the ground she walked on. In fact, she was now incredibly famous throughout the entirety of the Xia Kingdom.
Li Luo stared at the projection of Jiang Qing’e in a daze for a few moments, before noticing that quite a few gazes had turned towards him. Those gazes were filled with a look of resentment, envy, and puzzlement.