The forested area was a woeful scene of splintered trunks and churned soil.
Shen Ya had lost all hope. In a mere ten minutes, their entire squad had been totalled by Li Luo.
Three out of four were down, and he alone was left.
If it were a raw competition of resonant power, he would win. After all, Li Luo was only a Lower Flowering, while he was an Upper Flowering.
But Li Luo’s dual resonances had proved incredibly unpredictable to deal with, thanks to the combinations between water and wood. Plus, Bai Mengmeng’s unique powers had nullified their numbers advantage quickly enough.
No wonder this guy could take Duze Beixuan down.
He sighed heavily. The dazzling reflection from the water mirrors were fading. That had to mean that they were drying up, the water resonant power consolidating back with its user.
He lifted his glittering, golden longsword, pointing it at Li Luo. “You’re good. Really good. I thought my plan was perfect, but still you beat it.
“I have nothing else up my sleeve, but at the end of my sleeve is a strong wrist holding a good blade. I want to know how strong a Violet Vibrance student is. If you want to truly convince me of your strength, come fight me one on one.”
Li Luo looked at him as though he was speaking bird language. “Why the hell would I care if you’re utterly convinced?
“I just want a third of your badges. Does utter conviction get me any more?”
Shen Ya shut up now. His last thread of hope evaporated when Li Luo refused to take his bait.
Take more of their badges? Don’t make me laugh…
Out of words, he let his golden resonant power envelop his body. The longsword in his hand shone brighter than before.
Shen Ya was a metal resonance user.[1]
Li Luo looked at his metal resonant power and recalled the traitor of House Luolan, Pei Hao. Damn, metal resonances really liked to manifest themselves in losers!
Shoosh!
Shen Ya made his opening stab at Li Luo.
Li Luo did not shy away, answering with his reinforced shortswords. The sound of crashing waves could be heard.
Blue on gold, their weapons crackled loudly as each sought the upper hand.
A dozen rounds later, Shen Ya’s face was even bleaker than before. Clearly, his resonant power was better than Li Luo’s. But why did he not feel any advantage at all?
His offense was relentless and strong, but Li Luo’s water resonant power never once wavered off his blades. Inexorable and timeless as the tide, the sharp edge of his metal resonance offense was blunted.
“Tiger-general resonance art, Blade Whirlwind!”
Out of ideas, he resorted to his best resonance art. With a gleam of gold, a hundred blades seemed to appear out of nowhere, glittering menacingly in the sun as they began to spin together.
They flashed out at Li Luo in a flurry of yellow. He stood his ground, legs apart, movements unhurried.
His water resonant power brought his shortswords to life. They leaped like fish breaking the waves, smacking the golden blades away.
He smiled to himself.
This was a tiger-general resonance art he had been practicing recently. It was called Dancing Pisces.
His blades danced and leaped like fish. They seemed gentle, but they had hardened at the perfect time and pushed away the blades coming from below.
They put up a flawless defense against the torrent of blades.
Shen Ya was completely broken now, his fear and panic showing.
From start to finish, Li Luo had only fought him with water resonant power. His dual resonances had been held in reserve.
Such was the difference between the two.
Li Luo was too strong.
“If you’re spacing out even at this time… I’m not going to hold back,” Li Luo quipped.
He stepped out, waterlight pooling beneath his feet and lending him speed.
The two dancing fish locked tails, forming a pair of watery scissors.
Li Luo struck him with a running blow as he passed.
Shen Ya looked down at his limp hands, blood trickling down from between his fingers.
Unable to grip his sword any longer, it fell to the ground with a clatter.
He was screwed. He made one last desperate run away into the forest.
Shoosh!
A fey light held him, then a thin blade landed lightly on his throat. It was as delicate as a butterfly’s wing.
A beautiful girl in blue smiled angelically back at him.
“If you run away, how are we going to get badges?” she said almost shyly.
Shen Ya sighed. The resistance leaking out of him, he sat down on the floor.
Li Luo sheathed his swords a little grumpily. “That’s it? You’ve a problem with perseverance.” Shen Ya scowled at him. “You’re a problem yourself. Your cultivation level is lower, so how are you stronger than me?”
Li Luo grinned in reply. Although he had yet to master dual resonances, two resonant palaces gave him a deep reserve of resonant power. How could Shen Ya hope to compete?
By his estimation, those at the first-tier of the Resonant Master Stage would need at least an upper eighth-grade resonance to compete with him.
Although those with that criteria were already at the second tier of the Resonant Master Stage—Qin Zhulu, Wang Hejiu, Bai Doudou—he wondered how he would match up against them.
“My woodearth resonance is already a fifth-grade, but it’s still a little low. After the ranking battles, I should try to get it to the sixth grade as quickly as possible,” Li Luo thought to himself. If he couldn’t get his sixth-grade waterlight resonance to rise to the seventh grade just yet, then he would focus on the easier upgrade.
With two sixth-grade resonances, he could take on an upper eighth-grade opponent!
Caught up in his thoughts, Li Luo sat down opposite Shen Ya. He seemed to be in no hurry to take his badge.
“Are you still hoping the Sky Blade Squad shows up?” Li Luo chuckled.
“Can’t I?” Shen Ya said stiffly. “I’m about to be eliminated, but seeing something, anything, not go your way would make me feel better.”
Li Luo shook his head and waited with him in silence.
About ten minutes later, the sound of urgent footfalls could be heard.
Shen Ya looked up hopefully.
The newcomers walked into sight.
Shen Ya looked down sadly.
Li Luo inclined his head at the group, led by Zhao Kuo, and then smiled at Shen Ya.
“Feeling better yet?”
1. TN: metal and gold both use the same word jin 金