Chapter 1625: Shen Jinxiao's Backlash

While Shen Jinxiao was stunned by the changes happening to his body, the people down in Xia City were even more shocked to see that Li Luo was relatively safe and sound!

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Even Li Qingpeng, who had attempted to rush to their rescue, had halted. His eyes were full of disbelief, unable to look away from Li Luo. Although his nephew's resonant power undulations were extremely weak, it looked as though the boy had merely sustained a serious injury that wasn't fatal.

"What an insane boy! He actually managed to resist a King all on his own?!" Li Qingpeng looked a little different from usual. His chubby body had slimmed down greatly, giving him a much more heroic appearance. At the same time, his resonant power undulations were even stronger than before!

When he confirmed Li Luo’s safety, his body convulsed in weird ways, becoming even fatter than before. It almost resembled the abilities of those from the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Zhu. Li Qingpeng huffed and puffed, wiping the sweat gathering on his forehead.

In the skies above, Li Qingying sighed secretly. "Did he use the source origin core of the Enchanting Fox King to create that burst of source origin energy? That is simply too gutsy of him. Is he not afraid of the corruption taking over his mind?"

She had naturally seen what Li Luo had done with the Absolute Resonance Halo, using it to harness the source origin energy within the core. That was a feat so miraculous that she was thoroughly amazed.

This was likely only possible because of the Absolute Resonance Seed.

It was indeed fortunate that Li Luo was not seriously injured. Now that he was no longer in danger, she couldn't afford to split her attention any longer. Her previous attempt to rescue Li Luo had caused the Cadaverous King to gain the upper hand. It launched a barrage of attacks towards her.

With that thought in mind, the golden dragonscale shuttle between her fingertips pierced through the air, letting out a majestic draconic roar. It shot through the void at an unimaginable speed, smashing through the countless corpse clones the Cadaverous King had created and striking his true body with great force.

In an instant, the roles of attacker and defender were reversed.

"That brat is insane!" Yu Lang shouted passionately. He was leading the Devil Hunting Squad from the Astral Sage College, doing his best to break through the Others' defensive perimeter. He was currently standing atop a ruined building with a view of House Luolan's headquarters.

"Hurry, hurry. Work harder and push in the direction of House Luolan's headquarters. Help Li Luo get rid of the small fry!" He swooped down from the rooftop with his dagger in hand, a stormy gust condensing around the blade as he fought fearlessly against two True Devil Others that had appeared at the end of the street ahead. The fighters from the Astral Sage College poured in like a tide and chased after him.

Vice Principal Su Xin, Chi Chan, and the rest of the Dukes were at the front lines. They glanced at the two individuals within the headquarters with complex expressions.

"It was fortunate that the Astral Sage College produced Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e. Otherwise, we might have long been overthrown by Shen Jinxiao." Vice Principal Su Xin's voice was tinged with both hatred and relief. She had actually voted in favor of letting Shen Jinxiao become a mentor! Who could have ever imagined that he had such sinister intentions.

"I told you long ago, something about him has always felt off." Chi Chan's clear eyes were filled with enmity as it was Shen Jinxiao who had sown it all those years ago.

Vice Principal Su Xin felt a little embarrassed. When Chi Chan and Shen Jinxiao had that altercation years ago, she stood between them. It seemed silly in retrospect.

Chi Chan quickly changed the topic. "However, if I had not butted heads with Shen Jinxiao, I wouldn't have become Li Luo's mentor."

During the Choosing of the Mentors, it was precisely because she hated Shen Jinxiao that she had chosen to take Li Luo under her tutelage, as well as to protect him.

Seeing how things had turned out, it seemed every minor decision everyone involved had made had led to this.

Sounds of battle continued to erupt throughout Xia City.

Above House Luolan’s headquarters, Shen Jinxiao was forced to stop due to the changes to his body. His face was like shattered porcelain, covered in cracks. His left eye had transformed into the eye of a snake. The left side of his lips moved involuntarily, and Li Lingjing's voice came out of them.

Clearly, she had not been completely assimilated by Shen Jinxiao.

"Li Lingjing!" Shen Jinxiao's right eye was filled with absolute terror. He couldn't even start to imagine how Li Lingjing had managed to survive and retain a strand of will, silently festering within him and waiting for the right opportunity to strike. How could this have happened?

When he fused with the three Corruption Seeds and stepped into the King Stage, he had thoroughly inspected his own body and erased all traces of the other two. The Golden Armored Giant, for example, had long been crushed into oblivion, so how had Li Lingjing managed to avoid his detection and perception? This woman was much more mysterious than he had thought.

"Li Lingjing, you're a member of the Origin Reversion Institute. If you stop me here and cause the mission to capture Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e to fail, you'll suffer severe punishment. Why don't we work together? If we capture them, the Honored Lords will grant anything you wish for." Shen Jinxiao attempted to wave both the carrot and the stick in front of her.

Li Lingjing was ruthless and cruel, and he found the so-called familial relationship between her and Li Luo laughable. The newcomer to the Origin Reversion Institute, Qin Jiujie, was once the leader of the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Qin, yet he had sold his people out without any hesitation. How could mere cousins have an unbreakable relationship?

"That’s a great offer, but I can tell you’re searching for my traces. You truly aren’t worthy of even a modicum of trust." The snake eye on Shen Jinxiao's face glinted with a chilly light as she mocked him.

Shen Jinxiao's expression sank. Indeed, he was doing his best to search every inch of his body, attempting to locate that strand of Li Lingjing’s will!

"Li Lingjing, do you think I have no way to deal with you?!" Shen Jinxiao's right eye blazed with killing intent. As of this moment, his hatred for Li Lingjing far surpassed his hatred for Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e. After all, she was a fatal source of danger lurking within his body, and if he wasn't careful, his own mind might be infiltrated and taken over by her!

"Good, good, good! I was planning to use this as my final resort against those two, but now I'll use it on you!"

Shen Jinxiao's hands joined together, forming an intricate seal. A moment later, his incomplete blood-red Crown began to melt down.

It then turned into a torrential rain of fresh blood, covering the entire headquarters.

In just a few short moments, the fresh blood formed lakes, submerging the buildings.

The dense stench of blood wafted into the skies.

When the lakes appeared, Shen Jinxiao's body also began to break down rapidly, turning into bloody water that fused into the lakes.

Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e hurriedly made their way to the highest point in the area, avoiding the blood.

"Cousin Lingjing is still alive!" Li Luo’s face was filled with joy. Everything that had happened had not escaped his eyes.

This was indeed the best news so far.

Jiang Qing'e, on the other hand, was looking solemnly at the blood lakes that had just appeared. "Shen Jinxiao has melted down his Crown into the most pure form of blood source origin. He plans to use that energy to locate the hiding Li Lingjing and extinguish her existence."

Li Luo examined the surging, sticky blood. He could see that source origin traces were flowing through the liquid, almost akin to spirits dancing within.

This was essentially a place of purgatory! If a ninth-grade Pinnacle Duke or even a False King were submerged, they would quickly be reduced to nothing by the sheer power in the blood.

However, the price Shen Jinxiao had to pay was his Crown. If he wished to refine one again, it would require copious amounts of time and effort. That said, Shen Jinxiao was now one with the blood pools. He was fully entangled with the strand of Li Lingjing's will, and dealing with her was his priority. Thus, he couldn't be bothered with all this.

Meanwhile, the duo could simply ignore all this and go deep into Xia City to destroy the summoning platform.

"We can't let Cousin Lingjing deal with Shen Jinxiao alone. We have to help her!" Li Luo said with a determined voice. It wasn’t at all surprising that he did not plan to leave.

Li Lingjing had helped him countless times, sacrificing her own body to force out Shen Jinxiao's final move. If Li Luo left now, Li Lingjing might not be able to handle Shen Jinxiao alone.

After all, their enemy still possessed the power of a King.

Jiang Qing'e nodded, not commenting on Li Luo's decision.

Plop, plop, plop

! Suddenly, bubbles arose from the blood, exploding and revealing black snake corpses.

Li Luo's expression changed.

He could sense a familiar aura coming from the snake corpses.

Clearly, Shen Jinxiao's insane method of sacrificing his Crown to produce all this blood source origin had allowed him to locate the traces of Li Lingjing within him, and he was now gradually wiping her out.

It was obvious that Shen Jinxiao still had the upper hand.