Chapter 1517: Purifying The Ice

"Upper ninth-grade ice resonance!" Jiang Qing'e and Li Luo's gazes lingered upon the mysterious Crystal Core between Lu Qing'er's eyebrows. Extremely pure and primordial ice resonant power poured out of it like a tide, causing the temperature within ten thousand miles to drop. Even Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e could feel a pervasive chill invading their bodies.

"She must have roused the Permafrost Sacred Seed within her body," Li Luo explained.

The Permafrost Sacred Seed could allow one to raise their ice-related resonances to the upper ninth-grade. This was also the only reason why Lu Qing'er could influence the weather to this extent despite being only a second-grade Transcendent.

Adding on the fact that the Star of Ice was filled with dense ice energy, it was like painting wings on a tiger, allowing the Permafrost Sacred Seed to reach new heights. This was similar to what Li Luo had done on the Star of Light, harnessing boundless amounts of light energy to smash Song Jing.

"She seems to be a little different," Jiang Qing'e said.

Li Luo frowned and nodded in agreement. The gaze in her eyes was simply too cold, lacking any sort of emotion. Looking at her was like staring at an icy sculpture. This was probably the disadvantage of activating her Permafrost Sacred Seed. After all, the Absolute Resonance Seed was a little different—the upper ninth-grade light resonance was only created by fusing his existing resonances together, the culmination of his acquired strength. However, Lu Qing'er relied on the Permafrost Sacred Seed itself. It wasn't created by her and was forged by a Heavenly Emperor's hard work. Although she was extremely compatible with it, her cultivation level was too low to allow her to completely wield this power. Thus, casually activating it would result in her emotions being frozen and neutered by the Permafrost Sacred Seed.

As Li Luo looked at the altar, he realized that there was a small pool right in the middle of it. It was filled with mysterious dark-blue water. A blue mist continuously arose from the pool, rising into the air. Wherever it passed, the void would congeal and freeze, showing just how terribly cold it was.

Meanwhile, Lu Qing'er's body was fusing with the mist.

Beside the pool, the frozen Lu Ruyan could be seen attempting to stretch out an arm to touch the water as well.

It looked as though the two had fought a fierce battle over the mysterious liquid.

"This should be Frost Divinewater which Qing'er mentioned previously. This is their goal in the Celestial Mirror Pagoda," Li Luo explained.

"She is absorbing it, but it looks like the more she takes in, the stronger the Permafrost Sacred Seed becomes. As a result, her emotions will freeze further. If this continues, the Permafrost Sacred Seed will fully awaken and she will no longer be the same Lu Qing'er we once knew," Jiang Qing'e surmised.

Li Luo frowned. "She isn't strong enough to contain it. Once the Permafrost Sacred Seed fully awakens, it won't do her any good either. We need to help her."

"Let me give it a try and see if my light resonant power can purify and suppress the influence of the Permafrost Sacred Seed," Jiang Qing'e said after sighing.

She clasped her hands together, quickly forming a series of handseals. Then runes appeared on her fair skin and condensed on her forehead, forming divine halos.

She had activated her Archaic Runes, all three of them.

This was the transformation of her three middle ninth-grade light resonances.

"Can your Genesis Seed help you evolve your light resonances to the upper ninth-grade?" Li Luo asked. The Genesis Seed was renowned since ancient times and in terms of quality, it surpassed even the Sacred Seeds. After all, the Sacred Seeds were imitations created by Heavenly Emperors with the Genesis Seed as a reference. Thus, it made no sense that Lu Qing'er was able to borrow the aid of the Permafrost Sacred Seed to reach the upper ninth-grade while Jiang Qing'e's Genesis Seed was unable to.

"The Genesis Seed has to be slowly awakened. Otherwise, it would have aftereffects on me. Simply speaking, the explosive rise in strength does not do anyone any good. Lu Qing'er as a prime example of this. Furthermore, the Sacred Seeds are something created by man, constantly being nurtured by each subsequent generation, and thus contain a massive amount of power. However, the Genesis Seed has to be strengthened by itself step by step," Jiang Qing'e explained.

She then paused and supplemented her statement. "However, reaching the upper ninth-grade shouldn't be far away."

Li Luo glanced at her. Attaining an upper ninth-grade resonance, which was what countless prodigies desired, seemed to be a simple task for her. At this point, Jiang Qing'e had already pushed her light resonant power to the maximum, and it transformed into holy flames that swept towards Lu Qing'er.

However, as the flames surged, Lu Qing'er's Apex Resonance Crystal Core seemed to have sensed danger and began emitting glittering light. Streams of ice energy poured out, colliding against the sacred flames.

Resounding tremors shook the world as the two energies noiselessly struggled.

"Upper ninth-grade resonant power is truly thorny to deal with." After a while, Jiang Qing'e retracted the sacred flames. She could break through Lu Qing'er's passive defense, but doing so could not be considered helping her.

"My light resonant power is not as effective in purifying her upper ninth-grade ice resonant power. It looks like you'll have to take action instead." Jiang Qing'e looked a little helpless.

Li Luo had to pay quite the price to transform his resonances, but it looked like there was no avoiding it.

They needed resonant power of a similar grade to achieve the result they wanted.

He nodded and, without hesitation, made his way to Li Hongyou's side, requesting a Three Transformations Jade Dragon Pill. He then activated the Absolute Resonance Halo to fuse his resonances. Endless streams of light burst out from Li Luo's body.

The Apex Resonance Crystal Core appeared between his eyebrows yet again, resembling an inscrutable vertical eye.

Li Hongyou and Chi Chan were taken aback by the sight of his upper ninth-grade light resonance. To them, this was a far-fetched dream and they had never seen a Duke possess the ability to evolve their resonances this far.

Meanwhile, Li Luo had roused his boundless amounts of light resonant power, turning it into purifying flames which rushed towards Lu Qing'er yet again.

The situation from before repeated itself—the icy, blue Apex Resonance Crystal Core began to defend its owner automatically.

However, the purifying flames were much more effective than before, quickly spreading and melting away the icy spiritual energy that was emitted from the crystal core.

As the cold energy was forced back, the frigid aura that surrounded Lu Qing'er began to recede. Finally, her frozen emotions seemed to thaw, revealing a hint of liveliness that wasn't there before. Although it wasn't too much, it was unquestionably present.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Lu Qing'er stared at the descending Li Luo with her icy, blue eyes and her Apex Resonance Crystal Core began to dissipate, turning into a stream of energy which re-entered her body.

When the Permafrost Sacred Seed's aura retracted, the sealed Lu Ruyan also began to unfreeze. The moment she recovered, all of the resonant power within her body spilled out like a tide and she shouted forcefully, "Is it my turn now Lu Qing'er!?" But before she could speak further, she saw Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e. At the same time, she recognized the Apex Resonance Crystal Core that had yet to vanish from Li Luo's forehead. The immense amounts of sacred and dazzling light resonant power emanating from him caused her to pause.