Chapter 1287: Chu Qing's Assault

Bang!

Rocks that had been burnt black like charcoal continued to roll down. In the distance, many spectators watched in shock and disbelief.

Zhao Zhuoyan had been defeated?!

He was a second-grade Duke, the Grand Commander of the Divine Tiger Guardians. Had he really been defeated by a Greater Heavenly Resonance Tier cultivator?

What an unbelievable turn of events.

Although the gap in their strength had narrowed thanks to the assistance of the two thousand Guardians, Li Luo was only at the Greater Heavenly Resonance Tier. Zhao Zhuoyan had an edge in that he possessed various abilities and methods that only a Duke could access.

On the top of the mountain, a look of surprise surfaced in Lu Shuanglu's beautiful eyes. However, she was not as shocked as the others. In the brief moment of their earlier clash, she could tell that Li Luo had exhausted all his means in this final strike. Triple resonant palaces and six resonances. Two of his resonances had even reached the ninth-grade. Based on this alone, his resonant power reserves could rival those of a first-grade Duke. When one added in the domineering power of his Destiny-grade Duke Art...

The truth was that Zhao Zhuoyan had been too careless.

That stunning arrow earlier was intimidating, but it had consumed an extremely large amount of energy. Li Luo had exhausted more than half of his resonant power for it.

This made one wonder if he could use it a second time.

"He went all-out with his strongest attack and defeated Zhao Zhuoyan to frighten the others," Lu Shuanglu said with a light smile. Li Luo had acted decisively, killing the monkey to scare the chickens.

At this point, the two Divine Tiger Guardian groups had suffered from a backlash following Zhao Zhuoyan's defeat. Close to half of the two thousand Guardians spat out blood. Their energy undulations were chaotic and many even fell from the sky as well.

Second Grand Commander Zhao Zhu watched on with a pale face. He tried to hold the army together, but it was hard to hide their defeat.

"How's this possible..." he muttered. This conclusion was totally different from how they had imagined it would be. They had managed to ambush Xia Yu, their greatest threat, successfully. Li Luo was merely at the Greater Heavenly Resonance Tier. No matter how hard he tried, there was no way he would be able to stand up against Zhao Zhuoyan, right?

Yet Zhao Zhuoyan was the one that had fallen.

They were just a group of defeated soldiers now, so there was no way they could snatch the Sovereign Pearl from Li Luo anymore.

In other words, they had failed their mission completely.

Zhao Zhu broke out in a cold sweat when he realized this. He could imagine how furious Zhao Jiyun would be when they returned empty-handed. The other four Guardians in the Ten Thousand Beast Guardians would definitely laugh at the Divine Tiger Guardians over this failure.

Zhao Zhu's morale had crumbled completely. At the same time, Li Luo had released his trembling fingers on the bow. He took a glance down and noticed a fine crack running down the length of the bow.

His heart ached when he saw this. The arrow earlier was too strong even for the Heavenly Dragon's Sunchaser Bow. If he used it a few more times, his treasured bow would shatter completely.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"The Three Dragons’ Kingslayer Arrow is truly fearsome. It's truly worthy of being a killer move capable of harnessing the Three Dragons’ Heavenly Banner Canon," Li Luo commented with a sigh. He had devoted a lot of his time to cultivating the Three Dragons’ Heavenly Banner Canon and had only discovered the secret to wield the power of that divine light afterwards. It allowed him to shape the light into a form more suitable for combat and increase its potency. The light referred to the Three Divine Dragons’ Demon Smiting Light that was created by the art.

The formless Demon Smiting Light was more suitable for general suppression, whereas the arrow form was suitable for delivering a swift and devastating blow.

However, the energy needed to condense the arrow was overwhelming. Only a fourth-grade Duke would be able to use it. Li Luo had only managed it thanks to the assistance of the two thousand Guardians that supported him. He was shocked when he sensed how much energy was flowing through his body. More than half of the Guardians' energy had been depleted, showing what a gluttonous beast the arrow was.

If he tried to fire another arrow, the energy from the Guardians would be completely exhausted.

However, Li Luo did not hesitate because of this. His eyes shifted towards Zhao Zhu and the defeated army. He raised the Heavenly Dragon's Sunchaser Bow once again and lightly pulled the bowstring, as if he had locked onto his next target.

Zhao Zhu's heart skipped a beat when he saw this. Without any further hesitation, he took the remaining army and retreated in a hurry.

Even Zhao Zhuoyan could not stop this arrow, whereas he now only had a fraction of the power Zhao Zhuoyan wielded before, so how could he hope to block it?

Meanwhile, Li Luo's eyes were ice-cold. He turned around and looked at the others hiding in the shadows. "Does anyone here still want the Sovereign Pearl?"

His voice echoed across the mountain range, but there was not a single response. The eyes of many rogue cultivators lit up, but they merely stared warily at the bow in Li Luo's hands. They could tell that the arrow had consumed a horrendously large amount of energy. In reality, Li Luo probably did not have the energy to fire such a terrifying arrow again.

However... no one dared to bet on it.

If they were wrong about this, they would have to pay with their lives.

After all, nothing was more important than survival. Lu Shuanglu chuckled a little as she watched Li Luo silence everyone with his words. "He really is quite charming; it's no wonder Sister Qing'er has fallen head over heels for him."

Li Luo’s gaze softened when he looked over at Lu Shuanglu. He clasped his hands together and said, "Thank you, young mistress. If I have a chance in the future, I'll definitely repay you. So I hope you don't trouble Qing'er over it."

Although Lu Shuanglu had been kind to him, he did not know how her relationship with Lu Qing'er was. Things were complicated in Golden Dragon Mountain, perhaps even worse than in the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Li. That was precisely why Lu Qing'er had encountered so much danger in the past. As a result, Li Luo hoped that she wouldn't have to suffer for his actions.

"Oh? It seems like you know how to care for others," Lu Shuanglu responded playfully.

Li Luo did not bother to reply to her. He had just finished off Zhao Zhuoyan as quickly as possible, but this was also the most terrifying moment for him. He had to make full use of this chance to slip away. Otherwise, it would be disastrous when the watching predators noticed any weakness in him.

He waved his hand and flew off into the distance with his Guardians. The goal was simple: get past Black Soul Peak as fast as they could.

Zhao Zhu and the other Dukes watched on with complicated looks as Li Luo flew off before their very eyes.

Suddenly, Lu Shuanglu's eyes changed. She looked into the other end of Black Soul Peak and noticed a beam of light shooting up into the sky. A mighty aura filled the air.

Black light flooded the skies, and a flag could be spotted within it. A boundless black ocean was emblazoned on the flag.

"The Blackwater Guardians from the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Qin?!"

Lu Shuanglu frowned when she saw this. The commotion over here had been so great that the other Heavenly Emperor lineages had been drawn over.

Li Luo stopped in his tracks and his face darkened when he saw this. He could sense an extremely dominating presence amongst the ocean of black light locked onto him.

"Li Luo, this is bad. It's the Blackwater Guardians from the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Qin. They're here!" Xia Yu shouted out in a hurry.

Upon closer inspection, they had way more Guardians as well.

At the same time, another stream of immense energy surged up from the other corner. A vast shadow emerged in the sky with a red flag flying high, covering the sky and sun itself.

"That is..." Li Luo's heart sank.

"It's the Heaven Devouring Guardians from the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Zhu!"

They had dragged their feet for too long. The armies from the other two Heavenly Emperor lineages had arrived. Li Luo sighed in his heart. He looked in the direction of the Blackwater Guardians. It was like an endless black swamp with no end in sight. Within it were many fierce figures wearing full suits of black armor.

"Grand Commander Li Luo, you guys made too much of a fuss. I had no choice but to come and take a look. I am here on orders, so it's nothing personal. Hand over your Sovereign Pearl immediately."

An impressive voice boomed from the direction of the Blackwater Guardians.

Li Luo looked over and saw that a handsome and muscular figure was the source of it. Rings of gold and silver could be seen on both of his wrists, and he gave off an almost heroic temperament.

It was Chu Qing, someone he was relatively acquainted with.

On his side was another familiar figure.

She wore a light-green dress and looked extremely beautiful. Her skin glittered like light reflecting off water, looking soft and moisturized. Who else would it be but Qin Yi, the Fairy of Water?