Thunk!
Both Bai Doudou and Qiu Luo were looking apprehensive as they sliced through the vines. There was a special hardiness to them, and the wood resonant power imbued within was especially vibrant and full of life.
This was no ordinary Dendrical Intervention!
DING! DING!
Soon enough, the vines outgrew the pace of their attacks, and the two were slapped several dozen times.
Bai Doudou stood her ground, spear darting and weaving like a swift needle, undoing Li Luo’s weave of vines. Qiu Luo, however, was steadily being forced back.
Bai Doudou glanced over but was too occupied to help. Instead, she leaped forth swiftly, spear lancing straight for Li Luo.
First, to the root of the problem.
Li Luo slapped his palms together, and the vines responded immediately, focusing their attacks on the approaching Bai Doudou.
At the same time, the flowers on the vines withered away, funneling all of their stored energy into the green wood.
Just as Bai Doudou and Qiu Luo had realized, this was no ordinary Dendrical Intervention. He had included light resonance power in it, and it strengthened his plants with a resilience not normally seen with Dendrical Intervention.
It was a special skill that Li Luo had spent a long time thinking up, specially to counter their tiger-general resonance arts.
The green vines lashed out with the speed of striking snakes.
Bai Doudou stood her ground in the face of the rapidly expanding overgrowth. She gripped her spear in both hands and stepped forth, pulling her entire body taut.
“Tiger-general resonance art, Peregrine’s Cry!”
A falcon’s shriek accompanied a flash of green light on Bai Doudou’s spear, and suddenly it was cutting through the green wood like a hot knife through butter.
Li Luo was alarmed. Bai Doudou was even stronger than he had anticipated, enough to overwhelm his Dendrical Intervention with brute strength.
He retreated.
However, there was no way he could get away from the lower eighth-grade wind resonance Bai Doudou. In a flash, she closed the distance between them, spear thrusting towards Li Luo.
A shadow loomed over her as her hand darted out. A short dagger, so dark with shadow resonant power that it seemed to absorb light from around it, contorting its exact shape.
Xin Fu.
Bai Doudou was forced to give up her attack, moving her spear to defend.
DING!
A flash of green on black burst outwards when the spear answered the dagger. She was shaken, while Xin Fu was painfully thrown backwards. There was a flash of shadow resonant power, then he was gone again.
He had bought the few precious seconds that Li Luo had needed to pull his shortswords, now gleaming with blue Water Edge power.
He leaped at Bai Doudou, eager to see just how strong a Pattern Genesis Tier cultivator was.
Bai Doudou’s eagerness mirrored his own. She wanted to see how strong a dual resonance user was.
Both went at it with all they had, blasting towards each other with their powers fully unleashed.
DING!
A clash of steel and resonant power.
Bai Doudou staggered back half a step, Li Luo several.
So the lower eighth-grade resonance and Pattern Genesis Tier Bai Doudou was still a cut above him.
Things did not just end there. The two leaped again, their resonant power bubbling forth through their weapon conduits. Sparks flew from their furious fighting.
Again and again, they came together and separated in a blistering blur of weapons.
In such a direct clash, Bai Doudou was inching ahead, while Li Luo was being forced back step by step. Yet Li Luo did not break. His resonant power reserves ran deep, and with the endurance of his water resonance, he continued to deny Bai Doudou a convincing win.
The stalemate irritated Bai Doudou, an irritation that grew with each passing moment. Li Luo was clearly only at the Lower Flowering Tier, a full tier below her.
“Helix Gust!”
Bai Doudou took careful aim and made her move. The spear in her hand spun out, the rifling effect stabilizing its thrust and lending extra velocity as she attempted to punch through Li Luo’s block.
DING!
Another clash of metal. Li Luo was sent skidding back, and the Water Edge power on his shortswords flickered out for a long while before flaring back up.
He felt the shock of the blow all the way up to his shoulders. Bai Doudou was scary.
Li Luo glanced over at Qiu Luo. She was already free of his previous attack, and was now stalking him again, conserving her strength and biding her time.
And Yu Lang, that sneaky boy…
A jolt of realization. Yu Lang had not stopped running since just now. In fact, he was running around like his life depended on it, his tongue even hanging out from exhaustion.
“Is he spasming?” Li Luo thought.
No, something felt off.
But there was no time to pursue that mystery. Bai Doudou and Qiu Luo were coming for him again.
He sensed a threatening aura from them, an attack deadlier than before.
Both of them were charging him like knights on horses, their auras and strength at their peaks.
Li Luo tensed, retreating as quickly as he could.
Luckily, he was not alone. At the same time, a fey light spewed forth to cover his retreat, and his surroundings melted into a swamp. From its murky depths, vines came snaking towards Bai Doudou and Qiu Luo.
“Ignore them! It’s Mengmeng’s illusion!” Bai Doudou shouted, her eyes firmly fixed on Li Luo and nothing else.
Still, Qiu Luo could not help but slow down a fraction. Despite knowing it was an illusion, every single one of her senses was screaming at her that she was riding into a swamp.
Li Luo could feel them gathering their strength. They seemed to be maintaining some sort of formation, although there was a gap in it.
Yu Lang.
A brainwave flashed through his mind. “Xin Fu,” he yelled, “stop Yu Lang!”
Bai Doudou’s eyes flickered in panic. She hesitated no longer. “Now!” she yelled to Qiu Luo.
“Mistral Knights’ Charge!”
Wind resonant power armored the pair, and they were like horsemen in a stampede, intent on trampling every obstacle in their path.
Li Luo felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand in dread.
“Leader, watch out!” Bai Mengmeng cried out from behind him, sending a cool shower of glowing light that washed his paralyzing dread away.
Li Luo tightened his grip on his shortswords, keeping his body limber yet ready for anything.
At this time, the yelling and running Yu Lang started to steam. Resonant power was rising from his body, and his speed suddenly increased to superhuman levels. All of a sudden, there was a sharpness to his aura that had not been there before.
He carelessly plucked a spear from the air, never once breaking his quickening stride. He seemed to be running on air.
Once he linked up with the other two, their formation would be complete. Three riders in an armor of wind, a wedge to tear through them.
He was still a few paces away when a pitch-black shadow tripped him up. A shining dagger sheathed in tenebrous power flashed in his path, a well-calculated trajectory aiming for his weak point.
Yu Lang hurriedly turned to deal with it. Even with his newfound power boost, he was pressed hard by Xin Fu, who was much stronger.
The disruption succeeded. Yu Lang failed to complete their team formation.
Bai Doudou assessed the situation clinically and then pushed forward without hesitation. Their formation might’ve been lacking one corner, but she and Qiu Luo together were enough.
Li Luo alone could not stop their attack.
Two beams of green light roared forth as twin, green dragons of fury.
Li Luo was strangely calm. In the face of great danger, his mind clarified.
He stopped moving backwards. His knuckles whitened as he gripped his shortswords.
A memory flashed before him. He saw Mentor Chi Chan forcing his two resonant powers together. The bizarre melding clicked in his mind.
Just like a green flash in the quiet gloom of dawn that announced the rising sun.
He moved on instinct but with certainty. He planted his feet and sprung, not backwards but toward his attackers. His two swords struck out savagely at the two green spears of light.
Bai Mengmeng clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.
Chi Chan’s own resonant power surged forth, ready to prevent serious injury to Li Luo.
Blue on green, each sword snapped against a spear.
Time itself seemed to stand still as the wood and water resonant powers dancing along Li Luo’s blades merged in glorious harmony.
Resonant power bubbled, then it overflowed like a cauldron of hot oil. Raw, unstoppable—a relentless escalation of power roaring forth through an intangible floodgate that was now broken.
Li Luo seized the moment with grim determination.
DONG!
A shrill explosion rang out, a harsh, deafening sound.
Like thunder, a tremendous rumble of resonant power swept out across the entire training field.