Chapter 0442: Li Luo's Troubles

Li Luo's hellish training continued.

For an entire week.

His howls were heard all around the volcano, loud and lusty enough that even the spirit beasts were pitying him...

Xin Fu and Bai Mengmeng, who were also training nearby, watched their mentor with trepidation as she drank tea casually near the volcano while she cooked their squad leader in a cauldron.

She looked as relaxed as if she was at a tea-and-poetry event, while Li Luo was composing poetry that sounded a little like "aaaaaaaaaargghghghghgh."

The two avoided Chi Chan's eye, scooting off to their training.

Suddenly, the training that they thought difficult looked like a walk in the park compared to their leader's. Their mentor was taking good care of them.

Good luck, Leader. Hope you survive. Li Luo was again gently lifted out of the cauldron in a bubble of water, which set him down against the slope of the volcano.

His skin was red as a cooked lobster, but this was skin, not shiny carapace. It was peeling badly at places, and blackened at others. However, the water bubble around him was pumping him full of healing energy that patched him back up.

Water resonant power from Mentor Chi Chan.

A Duke's water resonant power had healing powers far beyond Li Luo's own waterlight resonance.

In a few minutes, he was as good as new again.

He continued to lie on the ground and pant, staring blankly at the sky. He had made some good progress during his training, but his dual resonances had not managed to reach the Becoming One Stage yet.

He did not know why, but they were always just a little short.

"Mentor, what's going on?" His head creaked sideways to look at her. She inhaled deeply, taking in the fragrance of the tea, then he looked up at the mountain scenery.

"Come here," she said, setting down her teacup.

Li Luo creaked over, joints protesting.

"Put on your shirt," she said impatiently.

His shirt had been burned clean away. He had prepared some thermal-resistant pants, but his mentor was not interested in his topless form, even though he had some good definition on his muscles.

Li Luo pulled out another shirt from his pocket sphere with a shy chuckle.

"Give me your hand."

Li Luo reached out obediently, putting his overheated hand in her cooler one.

"Use your resonant power."

Li Luo sent out his water resonance, then his wood resonance.

She gave him a half-smile. "Still trying to hide it?"

Li Luo started, then laughed weakly. "Hehe, Mentor, you found out?"

"I always suspected. Your resonance arts were always stronger than they should have been, and a little different. And I confirmed it by putting you in the cauldron for the last few days."

Li Luo shrugged sheepishly. Now he showed his other two clearly—light resonance and earth resonance.

"You're really obsessed with hiding things, aren't you? Not just dual resonances, but with two more secondary resonances," she said with some surprise. "Well, it's not a miracle—some people naturally develop these. You don't need to think of yourself as a freak."

"Hehe, I don't really think that way," Li Luo said. "I only hid it out of habit. Always be unpredictable, right?"

She shook her head. "Wily as they come."

Still, she knew about House Luolan's circumstances as well. He was in more danger than other students. When one's life was on the line, anything you could do, you did.

She did not pay too much attention to that. "The dual secondary resonances must have given you much range and agility in your fighting up until now, but it's also brought some troubles."

"When what you needed most was raw power, it was a plus. But the crux of the transition to the Becoming One Stage is different. It marks a switch to fine control. At this time, the extra colors within you are muddying the direction."

"Do you mean that I can't reach the Becoming One Stage because of the dual secondary resonances' interference?" Li Luo asked, dismayed.

She nodded.

"But I always sift the light and earth out of my resonant powers when I combine them," Li Luo said.

"Maybe you try to, but it's not thorough. The two elements are too deeply entwined. How could a mere Resonant Master like yourself separate them cleanly?"

"Well then, what now?" he asked, crestfallen.

"It's not a difficult problem. You just need to reach the General Stage. Then this will not be a problem," she laughed.

"You can't do it right now, of course. So the other way is to borrow some external power."

"What external power?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Flowing Shear. You learned that resonance art, right?"

"The Flowing Shear resonance art?" Li Luo blinked, then nodded. He had indeed trained it before. He had used it against the human skin and fleshy Other back in the Umbra Cave to cut them apart from each other.

"Why not try using some Flowing Shear within your body? Borrow its power to make the cut, and maybe you'll be able to reach Becoming One a lot easier," she suggested.

Li Luo's eyes lit up at the idea.

"I can do that?"

"But you need to be careful," she cautioned him. "Don't go turning your organs into minced meat. Not even my water resonant power can save you from an internal grinder."

“Why must my secondary resonances be liabilities?! Why can't they be enablers instead, to improve my dual resonances?!" Li Luo grumbled, surly at having his expectations dashed.

"What are we learning now?" Chi Chan asked him acidly.

"Er, dual resonances, of course."

"And what does DUAL resonance mean?"

"Well, it means combining two resonances."

"And," she said testily, "if you want to add a third resonance into the mix, would it still be called dual resonances? I'm sorry to say that it would be called triple resonances instead. Even I haven't mastered that yet. What are you griping about?! What gun are you trying to jump?" she cried, waving her hands about agitatedly. "Besides, your secondary resonances are much, much weaker compared to your primary resonances. The melding would be too unbalanced to create triple resonances.

"Dual resonance melding is about deep control. Deep control. Deep control!! You are mixing two highly unstable, volatile elements together. Throwing a third resonance into the mix would be chaos."

Li Luo's eyes lit up with a wicked light. "Ah, so even if it fails, I could make a huge-ass explosion? An energy bomb?"

There was a dangerous look in Chi Chan's eye now. "Is that what I'm trying to teach you? If you really want to die, you might as well jump into the volcano now."

Li Luo knew when to surrender. "Well, I feel a strong surge of enthusiasm to try the Flowing Shear technique, Mentor! I'm going to do very well and work towards the Becoming One Stage, Mentor!"

He immediately sat down to cultivate, recovering his resonant power.

She sighed tiredly, shaking her head.

Li Luo was a sharp one, but sharp things were often dangerous. He liked playing with fire too much.