Chapter 1101: Spiritual Pool Stairs

Boom!

Thunderclouds filled the sky. Deafening thunder and flashing lightning were raging wildly. There was a faint, giant shadow slithering within the clouds.

In the next moment, the clouds were torn apart. A giant silver dragon emerged from it, with bolts of lightning repeatedly dancing across its silver scales.

It looked down upon a sole human figure with its ferocious eyes. Then the dragon wrapped itself around a bolt of lightning and smashed it down with devastating force.

Bang!

The void seemed to have shattered into pieces.

Li Luo opened his eyes at this moment. Traces of lightning could be seen waltzing around his eyes before it gradually died down.

"Phew."

He let out a long breath, bits of lightning coming out of his mouth.

He had begun to cultivate the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner as soon as he got his hands on it yesterday. However, he had yet to master it despite one whole night and hundreds of attempts.

Nonetheless, he was not feeling down. When he was cultivating the Underworld River's Black Dragon Banner, he had to borrow the help of the Golden Nirvana Lotus from the college. It was only with that precious treasure that he had managed to cultivate the art. This was mainly because he was still at the Fiend Palace Tier back then. It was too risky to cultivate a Duke Art at that level, and he had been forced to only because of the Housemeet.

Now Li Luo was a five-pearl. Not only had he cultivated the Underworld River's Black Dragon Banner to Grand Perfection, he had also cultivated even higher grade Duke Arts like the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation. Therefore, learning the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner now probably wouldn't be too difficult.

This was the main reason why he was able to endure that destructive baptism of the lightning dragon. If anyone else had attempted to do the same thing for a whole night, they would likely have been crippled already.

"It seems like this will take quite a bit of time," Li Luo whispered to himself.

The Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner was clearly more of an offensive art than the Underworld River's Black Dragon Banner. Its brilliant lightning could overwhelm and destroy anything standing in front of it. Nonetheless, he could sense some sort of connection between the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner and the Underworld River's Black Dragon Banner after countless attempts. If he could wield it freely, the two arts would be able to elevate each other. With the twin dragons working together, his strength would surely skyrocket.

With much anticipation in his heart, Li Luo left his cultivation chamber and walked into the living room, where Mentor Chi Chan had been waiting.

"Today is the day the Spiritual Tree Tide opens up. I heard that you will be setting out for the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm the day after tomorrow," Mentor Chi Chan told him.

"What a tight schedule." Li Luo sighed. The Heavenly Origin Ancient College was definitely rushing here. Clearly, things weren't optimistic.

"You must tread carefully in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm. The Others are extremely peculiar. Besides, there's a Triple Crowned King inside," Mentor Chi Chan reminded him with a serious look.

Li Luo nodded.

"After you enter the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm, I may have to rush back to the Astral Sage College as soon as I receive the resources. Vice Principal Su Xin and the rest are awaiting my return, so I will not be able to stay here and wait for you," Mentor Chi Chan continued in an apologetic tone.

"Don't worry about me. The Astral Sage College needs you more, Mentor," Li Luo replied with a smile.

"You've been a great help to the Astral Sage College. Sadly, there is not much that the college can reward you with. We can only give our full support to House Luolan and wait for the day you return."

"That is the best reward I could ask for," Li Luo replied.

Although the value of House Luolan was nothing compared to his status in the Dragon's Fang Lineage, House Luolan still held a special position in his heart. It was a place full of memories and feelings for him.

"Let's go. I wasnt to see how great the Spiritual Tree Tide of the ancient college truly is," Li Luo said with a grin.

Mentor Chi Chan accepted his invitation, and the two walked out of the small building. The college had arranged for someone to pick them up, so they boarded the flying leaf outside and speedily flew off into the sky.

After a while, the flying leaf stopped at a place full of bustling chatter.

It was a huge square surrounded by stairs, each step higher than the other. Thousands of unique rocks were placed onto each step, making it a pretty spectacular sight.

On the highest step was an ancient-looking Green Wood Portal with a simple design. There were ancient, glowing runes carved onto the portal, giving it a mythical appearance akin to something found only in legends.

When Li Luo arrived, he noticed that three people were standing on the highest step. There was a faint pressure coming from them that garnered admirable looks from many students and mentors.

These three people were Wu Yu, Lan Lingzi, and Qing Man, all the vice principals that were in the college at the moment.

A slightly lower platform at the side was packed with people. Li Luo noticed Feng Lingyuan and Jiang Wanyu at the front of the crowd.

Jiang Wanyu lightly waved at him when she noticed he had arrived.

Feng Lingyuan, on the other hand, appeared cool and nonchalant. She only took a quick glance at Li Luo but did not show any signs of friendliness just because they had decided to team up.

Li Luo was not too bothered by this. He knew that this was Feng Lingyuan's personality, and it was not like she had anything against him.

His eyes swept across all the youths. It was truly an extraordinary sight. Many of the people up there were at the Greater Heavenly Resonance Tier. Clearly, quite a lot of them were from the Heavenly Star Hall and even the Upper Hall.

As Li Luo was looking across the stage, he noticed some movement within a group of people on the platform. A man, surrounded by a few others, walked straight to the front of the platform.

He was a young and tall man with a strong and heroic appearance. His eyes were light blue, and he emitted a fierce aura when he looked around, giving people a strong sense of pressure.

When he appeared, the expressions of the surrounding students, who obviously held seats in the Upper Hall, became looks of admiration.

Li Luo knew this guy's identity as soon as he saw their reactions.

Who could command such respect amongst the students besides Wu Changkong, the top student in the Upper Hall of the Heavenly Star Hall?

As Li Luo was staring at Wu Changkong, the latter's eyes turned towards him too. Their eyes met, but there seemed to be no animosity on the surface. In fact, Wu Changkong smiled a little and even nodded slightly towards Li Luo.

If Li Luo had not gone through the pains of finding a team member earlier, he would have really thought that Wu Changkong was a magnanimous senior of sorts.

Wu Changkong turned his attention away from Li Luo and looked towards Feng Lingyuan. He smiled gently and said, "I heard that Student Feng has teamed up with Junior Li Luo."

Feng Lingyuan looked at him indifferently and replied, "Why? Is that not allowed?"

Wu Changkong grinned and responded, "I am just surprised. Judging by your personality, I thought you would have looked for a better option. Junior Li Luo only obtained fame because he borrowed the power of a spirit beast. However, the situation in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm is a little special. It's said that if you use such a ferocious power, you'll only get yourself into more trouble. If you're having trouble finding a suitable team member, I can recommend a True Seal-grade friend to you, Student Feng."

Jiang Wanyu, who was standing on the side, frowned when she heard this.

Feng Lingyuan turned her head, but her eyes looked straight past Wu Changkong. They landed on a delicate and gentle-looking lady behind him.

"If you're willing to give Xu Xi to me, I'll consider it."

The gentle lady had been looking at Wu Changkong all this while. However, she frowned when she heard this and replied in a nonchalant manner, "Feng Lingyuan, why are you dragging me into this out of the blue?"

Wu Changkong laughed twice and shook his head. "That's too much for me. After all, Xu Xi is the treasure of our team."

The pretty face of the girl named Xu Xi turned slightly red as she looked at Wu Changkong with a hint of admiration in her eyes.

Feng Lingyuan was not surprised by his reply. Although Xu Xi was only at the Illusory Seal-grade and did not rank amongst the top in Heavenly Star Hall, her resonance was really special. The Divine Lingzhi resonance was weak in offense and defense. However, it could be used together with special Duke Arts to support her team members, boosting their resonant power greatly for a short period of time.

This kind of support made her even more important than a True Seal-grade during a team mission like this.

It was extremely rare to find a resonance that could bolster the resonant power of others. In fact, there were only two students who could do it in the whole Heavenly Star Hall. One of them was Xu Xi and the other one was the tenth rank in the Upper Hall, Li Hongyou. She possessed the Crimson Heart Vermilion Fruit resonance that had an even stronger effect than Xu Xi's.

However, Li Hongyou already had a seat in the Upper Hall, so she could not form teams with other Upper Hall students according to the rules.

As Feng Lingyuan thought about all this, she could not be bothered to chat with Wu Changkong any further.

On the high platform where the three vice principals were, Wu Yu noticed that it was about time, so he announced, "The people from sage colleges have arrived. We'll let them in now, and they will go to their steps according to their hall levels."

When Lan Lingzi heard this, she shook her head and added, "That's not appropriate. Although some students are in a lower hall level, their strength has far surpassed that. As such, they should naturally go to a higher step."

According to the rules of Heavenly Origin Ancient College, the highest steps were closest to the Green Wood Portal. Those steps belonged exclusively to those in the Heavenly Star Hall. Moving down in order, there would be the steps for the Four Star Hall, Three Star Hall...

When the Green Wood Portal opened later, the Spirit Tide would pour out of the gate like water and the students nearest to it would naturally benefit more.

Wu Yu frowned when he heard this. "The rules have never been broken. Vice Principal Lan Lingzi, you aren't thinking of changing the rules just because of Li Luo, are you?"

Of course, he knew that when Lan Lingzi mentioned "some students," she was referring to Li Luo.

Lan Lingzi replied calmly, "According to the rules, the students from the sage colleges do not have to participate in this mission. They all know how dangerous this trip will be, but they've still decided to participate. Naturally, the Heavenly Origin Ancient College will have to make some exceptions and help them out as much as possible. Otherwise, if another mobilization mission arises in the future, everyone will shirk from it. How are we going to deal with it then?"

Wu Yu was unhappy. However, Vice Principal Qing Man interrupted them before he could speak. She smiled as she said, "There's no need to argue over it. I think we will let them decide for themselves. When the spiritual tide flows out, it will emit pressure across the field. We don’t need to assign them to any steps; they can stand wherever they want to, depending on their strength.”

Wu Yu frowned, but he did not say anything. After all, there was really no need to argue with Lan Lingzi in the current situation.

Lan Lingzi thought about it and then nodded slowly.

"Let's do it that way, then."