With the seven Evil Spirits slain, the corruption on the streets cleared up completely.
Li Hongyou looked at the scene in surprise. She had not expected Li Luo to dispatch the Evil Spirits so easily.
"The light resonant energy on those arrows was extremely pure. It's comparable to that of a high-grade light resonance. However, his light resonance is only a secondary resonance, right?"
Li Luo was not even a seven-pearl and yet he had killed off Evil Spirits! Such a feat was truly shocking.
Li Luo jumped down and landed beside Li Hongyou. Just as he was about to speak, his body staggered due to momentary weakness. Li Hongyou hurried forward to support him with her delicate hands.
"Eh?" Li Luo finally snapped out of his euphoria. He checked himself in surprise and noticed that his body had turned weak because some of his blood had disappeared from his body.
"My blood... has been consumed by the Auric Halo?"
Li Luo was a little startled. Earlier, he was firing those arrows off so happily and nonchalantly that he had not noticed that his blood was slowly being siphoned away from his body. When he traced the disappearance back to the source, he discovered that it was due to the mysterious Auric Halo.
"So the resonant power conversion from the Auric Halo uses my blood as a catalyst as well." Li Luo was surprised. Before this, he had only used the Auric Halo to convert his resonant power once. He had not felt any side-effects back then. However, the arrows he had just fired contained extremely pure light energy, and he had used up quite a bit. As such, he finally felt the physical strain.
"It seems like the secret art you used earlier consumes your blood essence," Li Hongyou explained as she held onto Li Luo's wrists.
Although her resonance was not particularly effective at attacking, she was able to sense the changes in one's body very acutely.
Li Luo nodded in agreement with a gentle smile.
"A little loss of blood is fine."
Li Hongyou took out a jade disc from the pocket sphere on her wrist. She then bit her fingertip, and a drop of crystal-clear blood dripped down onto it.
Ding!
When the drop of blood landed on the disc, a crisp sound echoed in the air. Then an invigorated, blood-red pearl rolled about playfully, emanating a delicate fragrance.
"Drink this. It will help replenish your blood essence." Li Hongyou pa.s.sed the jade disc over to Li Luo.
Li Luo's face was full of surprise. "Wow, Senior Hongyou. You're full of treasures!"
Who knew that Li Hongyou's blood could help replenish another's blood essence? It was almost like a pill!
"What else can I do? It's one of the specialties of support resonances. We are not good at fighting, so we have to learn some tricks to help others."
"Why does it feel a little evil to be drinking someone else's blood?" Li Luo frowned as he grasped the blood-red pearl between his thumb and index finger.
"Stop fooling around!" Li Hongyou rolled her eyes. If Li Luo wasn't critical for her entry into the Dragon's Fang Guardians, there's no way she would be helping him right now?
Li Luo threw it into his mouth with a grin. Suddenly, he felt a rush of hot air flowing through his body. Slowly, strength returned to his legs that had turned wobbly from the loss of blood essence.
"Magnificent!" Li Luo exclaimed. Li Hongyou was truly the greatest boon for a team with her wealth of supportive capabilities.
It was no wonder both Wu Changkong and Feng Lingyuan wanted her on their teams.
"Senior Hongyou, did you get merits as well?" Li Luo asked.
"Yes, four B Merits," Li Hongyou replied. When Li Luo finished off the seven Evil Spirits earlier, she had sensed the vibrations coming from her Ancient Spirit Leaf.
"I've gotten seven B Merits. It seems like I have gotten the bulk of the rewards." Li Luo felt a little guilty about this. Although he had finished the enemies off cleanly, it was mainly due to the fact that Li Hongyou had pinned all seven Evil Spirits down and they were left completely helpless. If not, his strength would've hardly been enough to finish each of them off with a single arrow.
Li Hongyou did not mind it though. She shook her head and replied, "It's fine. I know what's more important right now. We should take things slow and steady instead of hoping for a single ma.s.sive windfall."
Li Luo was stunned for a moment. Despite her cold appearance, her att.i.tude to things was so light-hearted. He gave her a thumbs up and responded, "Senior, you are the best."
Afterwards, he thought for a moment before he took out an emerald fan and pa.s.sed it to Li Hongyou. "Although I don't have any triple violet-eye treasured artifacts to lend you at the moment, this violet-eye treasured artifact should suit you, Senior Hongyou."
It was the Blackwood Feather Fan that he had gotten back in the Spiritual Resonance Cave. With a single swipe, it could output the mysterious light of life and death. The light of death created a black wind that dissolved one's blood and bones. The light of life created a radiant bestowment of vitality and speedy recovery.
This treasured artifact was best suited for Li Hongyou. The light of death could boost her offensive capabilities while the light of life would strengthen her ability to support her team.
After he explained the effects to her, Li Hongyou's heart wavered for a moment. However, she shook her head in the end. "A single-eye violet-eye treasured artifact is still worth a lot. I do not deserve it."
Nonetheless, Li Luo grabbed onto her hand and forced it onto her. He told her sternly, "No one can reject a gift from me."
For a moment, he felt a little imposing. Li Hongyou was at a loss for words after hearing him. She looked at the emerald fan in her hand and felt a little warmth in her heart. After spending all those brutal years with just her mother, she had seen how cold people could be, yet she could sense the sincerity emanating from him.
Although practically speaking, his goodwill was partly due to her special resonance, at the very least she could sense that Li Luo's feelings were genuine.
Even then, Li Hongyou was not concerned with whether Li Luo was doing it for her or for her resonance. After all, she had gone through enough experiences all these years and was no longer too particular about such things.
"In that case, thank you for the gift," Li Hongyou replied softly when she received the fan.
"We're from the same family. There's no need to be so polite," Li Luo responded with a grin. Although a single eye violet-eye treasured artifact was worth quite a bit, it was nothing compared to the value Li Hongyou brought.
After this, the two of them took a short break before they hurried over to the nearest Soul Summoning Altar.
It was not all smooth sailing, however. Evil Spirits and Others appeared one after another to stop the two of them. However, they posed no threat to them as long as no Greater Evil Spirit emerged.
Li Hongyou was able to stand up to them with her Greater Heavenly Resonance strength. Meanwhile, Li Luo stayed at the back and finished off their enemies with his converted light resonant energy.
Although doing so consumed some of his blood essence, the problem was easily resolved with the blood essence pearls from Li Hongyou. The teamwork between the two of them was nearly flawless.
In just half a day's time, the two of them traveled through the complex and large city. Many Evil Spirits had been killed by Li Luo's arrows.
In an alley of the city.
The bowstring buzzed and the arrows of light shot through the air. The last Evil Spirit that had been pinned onto the ground by Li Hongyou quickly evaporated after being purged by the domineering light energy.
Li Luo put his bow away. His face turned slightly pale, and he sighed.
Li Hongyou rushed up to his side and handed him a blood essence pearl yet again. He quickly swallowed it before he checked the scoreboard.
At present, he had acc.u.mulated two A Merits and eight B Merits.
Although it wasn't too spectacular, he had squeezed into the top fifty. The others on the scoreboard were all students from the Heavenly Star Halls of the two colleges. Li Luo was the only Heavenly Pearl on it.
"Looking at the map, the Soul Summoning Altar should be right up ahead." Li Hongyou looked far into the distance. At the end of the alley was thick, white mist full of corruption energy.
As they fought their way over here, the number of Others had been increasing as well.
However, they had not met any other teams. Most people must have fallen prey to the Ten Thousand Curses Ward. In fact, even some students from the Upper Heavenly Star Hall had fallen for it and turned into human skin lanterns floating high up in the air.
Very few had managed to escape this fate.
This showed just how truly difficult their mission was.
"But why didn't we meet a single Greater Evil Spirit?" Li Luo was a little confused. They had encountered quite a number of Evil Spirits on the way here, but not a single Greater Evil Spirit. It was like they had completely disappeared.
Li Hongyou shook her head. Before she could open her mouth, her eyes turned serious. She looked towards the thick, white mist at the end of the alley.
"There's resonant power undulations coming from that direction," Li Hongyou said.
Li Luo was shocked. "Did other teams arrive at this Soul Summoning Altar before us?"
"Let's go!"
The two of them took a glance at each other before their resonant power surged up. They flew forward like bolts of lightning as they dashed straight into the mist.