Li Luo flew down like a giant bird, sending a quick burst of resonant power to his feet so he could tread lightly on the crown of a lush tree before landing on top of a lake.
Below the crystalline, green surface of the water, ancient, gnarled trunks protruded from the muddy silt at the bottom, black branches forming an aesthetic contrast against the clear water.
Above them stood Li Luo, water gently rippling out from under his feet.
His shortswords remained belted at his hip. With his water and wood resonances, this lake was a favorable terrain for him. According to the ticket match rules, the losing school of the previous round was allowed to choose the next round’s battlefield. That was just about the only thing those useless Two Star Hall b.u.ms had done for him all day. Li Luo wasn’t about to pa.s.s up on a free leg-up like that. The crowd turned back to look at the sky.
Another figure was descending onto the lake. He gave no heed to grace, plunging down like a cannonball. He struck the water and sent large waves cras.h.i.+ng out in all directions.
The waves roared out, then died back down barely a meter away from Li Luo.
Li Luo saw that his opponent was a handsome man dressed in white. He smiled back kindly at Li Luo.
“Lu Cāng?”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s me. Tell me, friend Li Luo—I hear you are a legendary dual resonance user?”
“Dual resonances are rare, but hardly legendary,” Li Luo replied with a tight smile.
“My thoughts exactly,” Lu Cāng said, still smiling. “Friend Li Luo, neither of your resonance grades are particularly high. I doubt that their combined strength is anything of substance either.”
“You’re exactly right.” Li Luo agreed, as casually as if they were discussing the weather.
“If that’s the case, how about you surrender now? We could save some time fighting.”
Li Luo eyed him, then laughed out loud. “You’re very similar to your senior, Zhao Huiyin. Are you trying to goad me with words? Is that the Blue Abyss style? I had thought that the abyss was some enigmatic source of power, not your mouths.”
Lu Cāng shrugged. “Well, it seems like you are unaffected.”
“Neither of us have any other choice in this battle. We’re done talking. Let our abilities decide. It’s embarra.s.sing to resort to taunts, especially if the taunter loses.”
Li Luo’s shortswords flashed out in his hands.
Skimming them across the lake’s surface, his resonant power welled up.
Underwater ripples churned the mirror-like lake.
Lu Cāng smiled and nodded as if he were watching an amusing magic trick. Reaching into his pocket sphere, he pulled out a long, green staff. His faint, red power circled him in a thick, tubular coil. It was a red python.
The ferocity was equal to Qin Zhulu’s Snarling Golden Demon Tiger resonance.
And his opponent was also a First Changing.
Cras.h.!.+
Lu Cāng leaped forward with the sinuosity befitting of his avatar, a greenish light flying out towards Li Luo.
Li Luo did not dodge, instead taking the opening blow on his crossed shortswords. Sparks and resonant power flew.
Both resonant powers nullified each other.
Li Luo could feel the angry power strike out at him like a violent python, a vicious and poisonous bite that he could not allow to touch him.
An upper eighth-grade resonance bred resonant power with a life of its own. It would enter him, corrode him, damage him… all with a life of its own. Negating any damage would be tricky at best. Li Luo had experienced as much when fighting Qin Zhulu.
Without hesitation, he fired up both his resonant palaces, allowing his two streams of energy to mix within him.
Dual resonances!
Like a volcano, the dormant power roared to life within him.
Clang!
The clash of sword and staff raised waves several meters high.
Lu Cāng’s green python staff rang out loudly, and the shock of the impact numbed his fingers. His own resonant power was drowned out by the dual resonances.
Before this, he had absolute confidence in his upper eighth-grade resonant power. But even that had been repelled.
“This is the power of dual resonances? Fascinating!”
His eyes lit up with excitement as his irises started to narrow into cold and sinister snake eyes.
BOOM!
Scarlet power blasted out again, this time with even more speed from Lu Cāng. His green python staff turned into a snake that thrust itself at Li Luo’s neck, fangs bared.
“Dendrical Intervention!”
Li Luo hastily skidded backwards, shaking his sleeves and summoning long, green wooden tendrils of his own. They lashed out at the weapon many times before it was completely stopped.
Lu Cāng’s transformation did not stop at his eyes. Scarlet power flowed out from them, and it looked like he was crying blood. The power covered his body in red scales when it touched his skin, even as it flowed downwards to his feet. He looked like a snake man.
Li Luo knew that this was not an actual metamorphosis. Lu Cāng had simply managed to reach such a high level of affinity with his resonance that he could adhere it to his skin closely.
Lu Cāng leaped at Li Luo again.
Li Luo skidded backwards on the water, leaning away from the attack. His pointed toes glowed with power as he charged the water under them.
“Arboreal Bindings!”
The submerged branches awoke, exploding upwards as they broke the surface.
Lu Cāng was even more agile than Li Luo, who needed a way to slow him down.
“Hiss, hiss!”
Lu Cāng’s forked tongue flicked in and out of his mouth almost mockingly. His green python staff swept out left and right, smas.h.i.+ng the wood into splinters.
“You think these twigsss will sstop me?!”
Li Luo ignored him, flicking out a bead of concentrated, dark-blue energy onto the wood.
“Heavy Water Art!”
The branches groaned under their newfound weight, and they reached upwards anew.
Whack! Whack!
The reinforced branches were enough to give Lu Cāng pause. One broke past his staff, reaching around to smash into his back.
Lu Cāng was smacked out of the sky, landing heavily in the water and plunging down a dozen meters deep.
He had barely stabilized himself on the surface when the water moved under him.
“Flowing Shear!”
The water rose up in a prison that surrounded Lu Cāng, spinning violently. It began to close in on him, the swift water threatening to shear him down to bits.
“Water Arrow!”
Li Luo flicked out with his fingers, sending little darts of water resonant power flying into the water sphere, where Lu Cāng could not see what was coming. Little flowers of blood bloomed within the sphere.
It was a brilliant performance, each move carefully layered on the next, building and enhancing the effects of the last.
“A masterful plan,” the First Princess said approvingly. “Water and wood resonances already have a good affinity. Even though his resonance arts are not particularly strong, he’s using them cleverly to draw out the best results. Li Luo’s talent in resonance arts is underrated.”
Gong Shenjun nodded. “This is the advantage of dual resonances, and Li Luo understands this well. Still, he might hold a slight advantage, but it’s hard to say that the outcome will follow suit. If that’s the limit of the Blue Abyss Sage College’s ultimate secret weapon, I’ll be very surprised.”
The other Seven Astral Pillars nodded, eyes on the swirling water sphere.
Swis.h.!.+
The water sphere was suddenly torn apart, thinning out under the angry heat that came from within before evaporating completely. A blast of radiating fire energy pierced the skies.
Lu Cāng emerged, bleeding slightly from multiple cuts. They were light wounds, but they demonstrated that Li Luo’s masterful resonance art blending had broken past Lu Cāng’s guard.
Li Luo looked at him mildly.
Through the previous exchange, he had already ascertained his opponent’s abilities. Lu Cāng was roughly on the same level as Qin Zhulu, or perhaps slightly stronger. Among their peers this was quite good, but still not enough. Li Luo could beat Qin Zhulu, and so naturally he could beat Lu Cāng too.
It was just a matter of time.
“Show me your secret weapon. This level of testing is ba.n.a.l and boring,” he said indifferently.
He did not believe that this level of ability was the fount of the Blue Abyss Sage College’s confidence. As a strong card, yes, but not enough to be the decider in the all-important ticket match.
Lu Cāng’s glowing-red snake-eyes watched Li Luo closely. He stood silent for a moment, then he closed his eyes.
On the Blue Abyss viewing platform, the One Star Hall representative called Lu Cáng closed his eyes too.