Chapter 1734: Upper Ninth-grade Woodearth resonance!

While Li Luo cultivated in seclusion for four months, the divine continents saw an unsettling period of tranquility. The Shadow World's incursions had halted, giving all the powers a sense of respite. However, the true peak experts all knew that this was merely the calm before the storm.

There was no longer any point to the invasions—what both parties needed to focus on was the appearance of the true Spiritual Resonance Cave. When it finally revealed itself, the hidden withering glory resonance would also show itself and the true decisive battle would begin. The silence of the Shadow World was purely because they were accumulating strength as well.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The federations of the divine continents began to wholeheartedly improve themselves. With the Divine Continent Federation at the lead, plenty of precious cultivation resources were doled out and distributed. Venerated Heirlooms, pinnacle-grade pills, spirit liquids, and purifying lights were also issued from the treasuries of countless powers. Transcendent Arts were no exception, as anyone with sufficient ability and contribution could obtain them as well.

Clearly, all of the leaders were well aware that if they lost this decisive battle, the entire world would be overtaken by the Shadow World. If that happened, hoarding all their precious resources would be for nought. Instead of wasting them, it was better to use everything to improve their odds of winning the battle. It would be a good thing if they could improve even a little.

The four-month period was more and more peaceful as time passed. Gradually, the silence became a formless pressure that started to weigh down the hearts of all the living creatures in the divine continents.

Even so, time did not stop ticking. The day of the decisive battle loomed closer and closer.

In the fifth month of Li Luo's cultivation, boundless golden light radiated in the starry skies above Golden Dragon Mountain. Lu Qing'er opened her eyes, and a terrifying frost swept across the area, freezing even the celestial bodies in her vicinity. The originally dim mark of light between her eyebrows had transformed into an ancient rune shaped like an ice lotus, engraved on her smooth forehead. Her Permafrost Sacred Seed had finally reached perfection.

Lu Qing'er released boundless frost energy as she stood up on the copper coin altar. Her seven Duke Bergfrieds were majestic, looking as though they were crafted from ice crystals. Billions of mysterious ice runes adorned their surfaces.

These were the seven Ten-Pillar Golden Duke Bergfrieds she had forged. However, it wasn't just that—the ice lotus rune between her eyebrows began to glow brilliantly as vast amounts of ice source origin swept out like a hurricane, transforming everything in the vicinity into a frozen world. In particular, there were three swathes of source origin that were constantly expanding. They were her three resonances.

Ice resonance!

Powdered snow resonance!

Ice Phoenix resonance!

The latter two resonances were clearly derived from her primary ice resonance, allowing her to further amplify her ice affinity. The three resonant source origins began to condense, transforming into a mysterious beam of light that shot up into the sky. As the light bloomed and the icy aura flourished, another Duke Bergfried was formed. This one also had ten pillars, glinting with frosty light that could freeze anything in the world. It was her eight Ten-Pillar Golden Duke Bergfried!

When her Genesis Seed had reached completion, she had absorbed the aura of prosperity of Golden Dragon Mountain to take yet another step on the Path of Ascension, becoming an eighth-grade Transcendent.

When Lu Taiyi and Lu Sui saw this, they heaved sighs of relief. Golden Dragon Mountain had been accumulating that aura for thousands of years, precisely for this moment. And they had succeeded. Now that her acquired Genesis Seed was perfected, if she were to step into the Heavenly Emperor Stage, she would not be an ordinary Heavenly Emperor, but a Divine Fruit Heavenly Emperor.

Lu Qing'er took in the eight Ten-Pillar Golden Duke Bergfrieds with her frozen eyes. Her icy visage revealed no expression despite the achievement. She then turned towards Li Luo, who was still deep in cultivation. The source origin undulations he emitted gave her a sense of oppression. The mysterious Absolute Resonance Halo was slowly turning in the air behind him, releasing a magnificent roar as the ten different resonance source origin energies continued to flow around it.

Lu Qing'er could sense that Li Luo's woodearth resonance had already reached the limit of the middle ninth-grade. If it were just a normal evolution, it would have already succeeded. However, his situation was different as he had five resonant palaces and ten different resonances, all perfectly integrated with one another. Thus, he had to feed all of them at the same time.

As he was at the final step where no further advancement was possible through ordinary means, he had a difficult trial to overcome. Even after cultivating for five months, using up four portions of upper ninth-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights, and the aura of prosperity, Li Luo was still stuck at the very cusp of evolution.

Lu Qing'er pondered over this slightly, then her gaze turned towards the remaining strands of the aura of prosperity. Her advancement had not consumed all of the aura that had been accumulated for thousands of years. After she glanced at Lu Taiyi and Lu Sui outside, she made her decision.

"Hey, your daughter is about to use up the family's savings again," said Lu Taiyi as he stroked his beard. Lu Sui sighed helplessly. The two of them were wily old foxes, so they instantly understood what she planned to do upon seeing her look at them.

"The aura of prosperity could potentially create five new Kings for Golden Dragon Mountain in a hundred years," Lu Sui said with a pained expression.

"We would need to survive for a hundred years first," Lu Taiyi said with a grin. "Perhaps this can be an investment. If Li Luo succeeds, he'll owe us a great favor. This investment might possibly bring the best return Golden Dragon Mountain has ever had in its history."

Lu Sui sadly replied, "I hope so. I can't do business at a loss."

As the two spoke, Lu Qing'er took action. She took control of the ceremony, sending all of the remaining aura of prosperity towards Li Luo. Millions of streaks of light descended, akin to a shower of golden coins crisply landing on the floor. The Absolute Resonance Halo behind Li Luo was like a black hole, greedily sucking up all of it. In the short span of half a day, all of the aura of prosperity was swept clean.

The consequence of this was that the giant golden dragon began to dim, and its body shrunk by half. The mountains atop its back began to shake and many experts looked into the sky in surprise.

They understood what had happened and burst into chatter. Some of the more short-sighted individuals expressed their dissatisfaction with Lu Qing'er. Lu Taiyi and Lu Sui had to swiftly swoop down and placate the masses. Even so, such criticism could not be completely avoided.

As the controversy raged across Golden Dragon Mountain, worldly natural energy suddenly began to surge. Boundless streams of source origin energy emerged in the starry sky, turning into ten endless heavenly rivers of source origin. The source of it was none other than Li Luo.

At this point, his Absolute Resonance Halo was bursting with vast and esoteric light, sufficient to illuminate the entire world. His five resonant palaces were like grand suns, blindingly bright. A vertical emerald mark wriggled and cracked open between his eyebrows, and an emerald Crystal Core akin to the third eye of a god revealed itself, giving off boundless vitality.

All of the bickering within Golden Dragon Mountain came to an end at this moment as they could sense an overbearing pressure emanating from Li Luo's body.

Upper ninth-grade woodearth resonance!

As his eyes opened, the Absolute Resonance Halo exuded an unfiltered aura of perfection. After going through endless difficulties and overcoming countless obstacles, he had finally reached this step. All of his resonances were at the upper ninth-grade! Was this foundation robust enough to let him take the hardest step of all? He took a deep breath. After travelling along the Path of Ascension for so many years, perhaps now was the time to reach the end.