Chapter 0498: Lu Ming, Again

Li Luo strolled up the mountain path. Dull sunlight filtered down through the bare branches above his head, striping the mossy path ahead with yellow and gray.

His footsteps were quietened by the carpet of moss, in an already quiet environment.

It was almost peaceful, if not for the signs of battle that littered the way.

One could only imagine how intense the fighting must have been over the last few days.

Meanwhile, Li Luo strolled up the mountain like a hitchhiker.

Only at the halfway mark did he start to see scorch marks reminiscent of a lightning resonance user.

Three people lay inert on the floor.

Their entire bodies were badly burned, flesh grotesquely split as they groaned miserably.

Li Luo paused and looked down at them.

"Li-Li Luo?" one person stuttered in amazement.

Li Luo gave a small laugh when he recognized the person. It was Zhao Xingying, who he had fought when he found his first medium anima cumulonimbus. They had actually made it all the way here. More credit to them.

"Looks like you're out of this one," Li Luo said with a sympathetic smile.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"I don't know when you got here," Zhao Xingying said sourly, "but do you really imagine things are going to go well for you?"

Li Luo looked up at the forest ahead. "Lu Ming?"

Seeing these three badly done in by lightning resonance, he could not imagine there were many suspects around besides the Illusory Thunderbolt.

Zhao Xingying nodded, then he grimaced at the pain of the simple action.

"Jing Taixu didn't choose this path?" Li Luo asked.

"Jing Taixu and Sun Dasheng met on the other path, I heard."

"Hmm, hmm." Li Luo stroked his chin. The unstoppable versus the immovable. Who knew whether Sun Dasheng's Duke Art was stronger than Jing Taixu's quasi ninth-grade resonance?

Still, he was going to be putting up quite the show on his side as well.

Dual resonance user versus dual resonance user.

At least they would be fighting in the same aspect.

Satisfied with the information, Li Luo turned away from Zhao Xingying and moved in deeper.

Back in the Dragon's Belly, Lu Ming had been an accomplice in taking him down. Even though Jing Taixu was the mastermind, he was not going to let her slide so easily.

Lu Ming's parting shot had almost sunk them all.

If not for the Nightmarish Eversnow Platemail, he might not have even made it this far.

His luck had held in the end, but when he thought about all those days spent hunting down anima dew coming to naught, his teeth started to ache.

He knew the cure: pass the ache on to Lu Ming, preferably through a punch to the mouth or something.

It looked like his minor fears that they would not meet were unfounded.

Li Luo did not walk far into the forest ahead before he slowed down and looked around him.

A girl was perched high up on a tree, looking down haughtily at him with beautiful eyes.

Lu Ming.

"Li Luo... I didn't expect you to make it out of Dragon's Belly," Lu Ming said, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Many thanks for your contributions to my safe journey," Li Luo replied dryly. "Oh, yes, my eliminated friends told me to beat you up as revenge."

"I'm afraid they're going to be disappointed, then," Lu Ming said indifferently.

Cool and arrogant.

Li Luo unsheathed his Onyx-Elephant Blade slowly, charging it with resonant power until it began to hum. The blade moved like a stick through water, leaving behind ripples in the air.

Lu Ming sighed inwardly. Her trap in the Dragon's Belly had been executed to near-perfection. Ideally, both the Enlightened Sage College and the Astral Sage College would be completely wiped out, while she would have a strong team at Dragonbone Island. She should have had all the advantages.

Unfortunately, Lady Luck had disagreed with her plans.

Not long after reaching Dragonbone Island, she had met with Sun Dasheng's group, and a cutthroat battle had ensued.

Both sides had been left bleeding badly and retreated.

Her group had limped their way over to the core arena, being attacked by other groups along the way and worn down further. Now she was alone.

But still, her goal had been more or less achieved.

Sun Dasheng going up against Jing Taixu? One of them was going to be eliminated for sure, and the other would be weakened for her to finish off. There was no other major competitor...

Or so she thought before Li Luo had shown up fashionably late.

Which meant that her trap in the Dragon's Belly had caught neither of the big fishes that she had been aiming for.

She adjusted her state of mind quickly enough, sorting through facts and reassessing the situation. Things could still turn out well for her.

Of the three main competitors, she would choose to fight Li Luo if she could. He was a dual resonance user too, but a Second Changing one with resonance grades below hers.

She should have an advantage in every aspect.

There was no reason she would lose this fight.

In other words, she could treat Li Luo as a warmup.

Besides, she was curious to see how another dual resonance user would measure up to her. Perhaps he would make for an amusing exchange.

Reaching behind her, she took out a golden hairpin with a trickle of lightning jumping up and down its length. She activated the little spark of energy, and it grew in length to become a thin, golden sword.

It was even thinner than a rapier; it really just looked like an elongated golden needle.

Freed from the pin's tension, her long hair fell down loosely, dancing in the breeze.

Lu Ming leaped down, graceful as a fox. Her resonant power crackled forth, a sparkling, silver lightning that crackled and popped wildly against her skin. It made her look like a mythical goddess.

It was time to face the famous Illusory Thunderbolt.

Lu Ming showed no mercy. She brought her full power to bear, pouring more and more silver electricity onto her hairpin sword until it glowed like a lightning rod.

Dual resonances, Becoming One.

From the get-go.

A sense of impending doom filled the clearing.

"Come, show me your Becoming One Stage." Lu Ming pointed her sword imperiously at Li Luo. "I have no time to waste with banal preliminaries."

Li Luo brought forth his own dual resonances without a word, and the signature halo of dual resonances was around his wrist.

He lifted his head and smiled, looking behind Lu Ming.

"Jing Taixu. Now!" Lu Ming spun around in fear, her crackling sword sweeping up in defense.

There was nothing behind her, not even a sliver of a shadow of her feared rival.

Weng!

The deadly sound of a crashing wave smashed down towards her from behind.

She felt a tinge of anger.

Li Luo was handsome like a playboy, and apparently he treated women with as little respect as one too.

He even dared to lie to a girl?

The Onyx-Elephant Blade swept down onto Lu Ming's neck mercilessly.