All eyes were on Li Luo as he burst out of the onyx lake, the last one to emerge.
His resonant power was clearly far stronger than it was when he went in.
So he had made a breakthrough. But… had he reached the 38th step?
Jiang Qing’e saw the wild look in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
Li Luo forced himself to calm down. He hesitated. What if he had simply imagined the threat down below?
Now that he was out of onyx lake, the ominous depths seemed a world away, and the feeling of danger had passed, as if it had never affected him in the first place.
Eventually, he shook his head, indicating it was nothing.
“Did you make it to the 38th step?” Jiang Qing’e looked at him more closely and realized that she did not need an answer.
The resonant power coming from him was more than what a single breakthrough could bring.
Li Luo nodded with a smile. “I reached the 38th step and then I made a double breakthrough. Third Pattern now.”
Wow!
His words were met with a wild gasp.
Li Luo had made it to the 38th step?!
And a double breakthrough just like Jiang Qing’e?!
Too damn awesome!
Qiu Bai and Tian Tian were looking a little thrown off as well.
Li Luo had done it…
“Impossible!” The voice came from Song Qiuyu, who had lost her composure. Her face was livid.
Li Luo had snatched that onyx leaf out of their hands… What if they hadn’t set themselves against him? What if they hadn’t made it so he had a clear target to focus on? Would he have failed?
She felt the sour taste of regret fill her mouth.
Wang Yufeng was blinking stupidly as well. The 38th step was beyond him, even. And yet Li Luo, a One Star Hall student, had done it?
It seemed too fantastical to be true, and yet the resonant power pulsing from Li Luo’s body was all the proof that he needed.
In less than two hours, he had undergone an incredible metamorphosis.
“Leader, you’re amazing!”
Bai Mengmeng cheered for him enthusiastically.
Xin Fu looked at him admiringly as well. Back when they had just started school, he was ahead of Li Luo by one stage, and now Li Luo was already two ahead of him.
Even with the cultivation disadvantage, Li Luo had still managed to beat the likes of Wang Hejiu. It was hard to imagine how strong he was now.
He was probably ready to take on the true champion of the One Star Hall, Qin Zhulu himself.
Li Luo was the center of envy. A consecutive breakthrough to Third Pattern—he was now considered strong even within the Two Star Hall.
Even Wang Yufeng himself was only a Fourth Pattern.
Li Luo was already hot on his heels after half a year. A speed to rival Jiang Qing’e’s.
Her eyes were soft and golden. “Since you’re done here, let’s go,” she said happily.
They had gotten great gains here. Now they should continue on their purging mission.
Li Luo grinned. “Hang on, I’ve got business to attend to.” He slowly pulled out a bunch of familiar-looking black leaves. Her mouth dropped open.
“Ahem!”
Li Luo drew their attention with a cough, then fanned himself with the black leaves.
The students rubbed their eyes incredulously. They wanted the leaves so much that they thought they were hallucinating.
How could Li Luo possibly be holding a bunch of onyx leaves?
You have to be kidding.
Some started to laugh weakly—the madness had gotten to them.
Li Luo reaching the 38th step was hard enough to believe, but at least that had been done before. Who had ever heard of someone bringing onyx leaves back from the lake?
Amidst the denial, some of the sharper ones saw the opportunities. Their breathing grew heavy with excitement.
Li Luo stepped up. “Ladies and gentlemen, while I was in the onyx lake, I saw the onyx tree and took some onyx leaves…
“Yep, these right here. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.”
He waved them and smiled.
Silence.
Growing excitement.
Eyes locked hungrily onto the leaves.
Qiu Bai and Tian Tian were staring open-mouthed. Things were going crazy.
They had never seen such a thing before!
“How did you get those leaves? The worldly natural energy should have formed a barrier that’s impossible to penetrate.” It was Jiang Qing’e who asked him.
The astonishment was even more justified coming from her. She had been to the 38th step and seen the same leaves, but she had come short.
“The dual resonances,” Li Luo said smugly. “Normal resonant powers can’t penetrate them, but my powers are anything but normal.”
Dual resonances were truly something else. No wonder Dukes were so powerful.
The others couldn’t care less about the explanation. All they wanted was the leaves, not the backstory of how they had come about. How was he going to distribute them?
None of them thought that he was just flaunting it in their faces. They would just lead to public anger and no profit.
“So I guess everyone’s interested,” Li Luo said, cutting straight to it.
“Half a bottle of Royal Sap for a leaf.
“Fair trade is no robbery. I’ll trade with anyone.”