Chapter 0908: 29,700 Feet

When the Heavenly Pearl materialized behind Li Qingfeng, the worldly natural energy in his surroundings trembled violently and rushed towards it. As it gathered around the Heavenly Pearl, the energy was instantly transformed and fused into Li Qingfeng's body.

His resonant power instantly surged up immensely.

A wave of terrifying resonant power pressure swept across the field. Not far behind him, Lu Qingmei and Li Luo were partially affected, and their pace slowed.

The Heavenly Pearl Tier was part of the Heavenly Dipper General Stage. In terms of resonant power strength and intensity, it was far ahead of the Fiend Finisher Tier, which was at the end of the Earth Fiend General Stage.

Each Heavenly Pearl was like an engine to a machine. Not only could it bolster one's resonant power by itself, it could also gather up the worldly natural energy from the surroundings and strengthen the user.

At this moment, Li Luo's eyes turned serious as he stared at Li Qingfeng’s back. He posed a much bigger threat after breaking into the Heavenly Pearl Tier.

The talents from the Heavenly Dragon's Five Lineages were truly extraordinary.

If they were in the Astral Sage College, Li Qingfeng would have been in the Three Star Hall. Reaching the Heavenly Pearl Tier at his age would surely have caused a huge commotion in the Xia Kingdom. At this moment, Li Qingfeng could feel the immense resonant power flowing through his body. With this, the dragonfear from the stone dragon became considerably weaker than before. He took another glance at the six flame dragons circling around him. His face remained unchanged as he took another steady step forward. He continued his climb towards the top, this time at a much faster pace than before.

As he sped up the mottled stone stairs, another one hundred feet were covered in the blink of an eye.

Everyone else was left behind in the dust.

Astonished cries erupted from the back.

At this very moment, Li Qingfeng had stolen the limelight. This must have caused a really huge commotion even amongst the thousands of banner members spectating from the outside.

When Lu Qingmei saw Li Qingfeng getting further and further ahead, she turned around and asked Li Luo, who was not far behind, "What do you think? Are you still confident in becoming the Dragon's Head? The power of the Heavenly Pearl Tier far exceeds that of the Fiend Finisher."

Hearing this, Li Luo replied with a sigh. "Indeed, he's truly amazing. He's without a doubt the most famous guy in the Twenty Banners for a reason. However, having such a formidable rival will be a good chance to sharpen myself too."

"Using an opponent at the Heavenly Pearl Tier to sharpen yourself? You're brazen. Aren't you afraid of breaking yourself if you make a mistake?" Lu Qingmei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's just the Heavenly Pearl Tier; it can't be that bad, right?" Li Luo replied with a laugh.

"If those words had come from anyone else, I'd write them off as being arrogant. But since it's you, I'll give you a pass. I'll wait and evaluate your upcoming performance before drawing a conclusion," Lu Qingmei calmly responded.

At this point, Li Luo stared at her and smiled. "Banner Leader Lu Qingmei, you must have broken into the Heavenly Pearl Tier too. Why aren't you using yours?"

"I won't hold back, then." Lu Qingmei smiled brightly. Then the wind lightly ruffled her tidy, short hair, and she gave off the confident aura of a heroine.

As soon as she finished speaking, a ray of light emerged behind her figure. The light grew brighter rapidly, and a dazzling pearl of energy condensed behind her.

This pearl of energy was like a blackhole that sucked in all the worldly natural energy from the surroundings before fusing it with the resonant power flowing inside her.

Without a doubt, Lu Qingmei had entered the Heavenly Pearl Tier too. However, the brightness of her Heavenly Pearl paled slightly in comparison to Li Qingfeng’s.

Nonetheless, she was still at the Heavenly Pearl Tier.

"I'll make a move first," Lu Qingmei said as her resonant power surged up. She instantly flashed ahead as she chased after Li Qingfeng.

As Li Luo watched their figures rapidly shrinking into the distance far ahead, his face remained unchanged. He was not particularly rushed or panicking over it. Instead, he maintained his pace steadily and proceeded with his climb.

As the six flame dragons floated around his body, they continued to occasionally pass through him, resulting in excruciating pain. The burning sensation made him feel like he was about to burst into flames from the inside out.

Raging flames burned inside him while dragonfear pressed down upon him from outside.

Under such tremendous torture, there was no room for one's mind to waver, not even for a moment. It would be close to impossible for one to take another step if that happened.

Li Luo kept his eyes on the end goal as a glimmer of a tri-colored light enveloped his Glass Fiend Body. The resonant power in his three resonant palaces was becoming purer and more condensed thanks to the repeated incineration of the flame dragon.

As his resonant power flowed, there seemed to be a really faint ray of light being conceived deep within his body. When the light glowed, there was an extreme fierceness to it. This was the Fiend Dipper Energy of the Fiend Finisher Tier.

Although the Dragon's Ascent was extremely tough and challenging, Li Luo was utilizing the tremendous pressure from it to help him attain another breakthrough.

With that in mind, Li Luo made his way up, one step at a time.

The situation on hand had completely changed while he was doing so.

With the aid from their Heavenly Pearls, Li Qingfeng and Lu Qingmei had gone way ahead of the rest.

Twenty-seven thousand feet.

Twenty-eight thousand feet.

In the end, they both nearly reached the twenty-nine thousand foot mark.

There were eight flame dragons swimming around their bodies at this point. They impeded the Heavenly Pearl Tier duo like eight chains tethering them to the ground, bringing indescribable pain with every step they took.

At the same time, the dragonfear from the stone dragon had reached a truly terrifying point. The Heavenly Pearls on their backs radiated strongly, trying their best to resist the immense pressure.

At the twenty-nine thousand foot mark, Li Qingfeng was the first one to pause in his tracks. He looked at the peak ahead with an eye of seriousness. He was so close to the finishing line.

However, the flame dragons around his body would increase to nine as soon as he took one more step forward.

The legendary Nine Dragons Infernal Baptism. This was the scariest part of the Dragon's Ascent.

There must have been countless talents who had their journey brought to a halt here.

Even with his Heavenly Pearl Tier cultivation, Li Qingfeng was not confident that he could climb the last thousand feet. Numerous Heavenly Pearl Tier Banner Leaders had been forced to a halt at this exact same point.

As he pondered over this, his eyes lit up. Li Qingfeng shoved all his worries and hesitation aside and took a step forward. After coming this far, he had to give it a try no matter how tough it was.

With countless gazes trained on him, he bravely took a step forward.

A gray light appeared as soon as his foot landed on the mottled stone step, transforming into the ninth flame dragon.

The moment this happened, the other eight flame dragons suddenly let out low, draconic roars. It was like the dragons had achieved some sort of resonance with each other with the addition of the ninth.

The nine flame dragons grew even bigger and livelier. At this moment, even the dragon scales on their bodies became significantly more clear. One could clearly see the fire runes carved on the dragons’ bodies now.

In the next moment, the nine flame dragons opened their maws tyrannically and breathed fire onto Li Qingfeng. His resonant power burst ablaze immediately. Li Qingfeng possessed a quasi ninth-grade Wind Dragon resonance, which already produced an extremely pure and mighty form of resonant power. Even with this, his resonant power was unable to resist, burning up rapidly under the domineering flames.

The Heavenly Pearl behind him glowed resplendently as it was pushed to the maximum, sucking in the worldly natural energy to replenish Li Qingfeng's resonant power as quickly as possible.

Yet the dragonfear from the outside strengthened at this point too. When it slammed onto the Heavenly Pearl, a faint ringing sound could be heard.

Li Qingfeng gritted his teeth tightly and started to sweat profusely. Every step forward required every bit of his will.

But he continued his climb, one step at a time.

At this moment, nearly everyone was watching him. After all, it was not common to see someone attempt to reach the top.

Even Lu Qingmei had stopped her advance and watched him quietly from the back. She stared at Li Qingfeng intently, wanting to see how far he could go.

Under everyone's gazes, Li Qingfeng conquered one step after another.

He pushed his quasi ninth-grade Wind Dragon resonance to its extreme, and a faint manifestation of a wind dragon could be seen behind him. He burst forth with everything he had, leaving nothing in reserve. Green veins bulged out of his forehead, and he let out a low growl.

Just as Li Qingfeng made it to twenty-nine thousand and seven hundred feet, the Heavenly Pearl behind him let out a sharp, whining sound.

The nine flame dragons that were floating around his body began to change once again. This time, they merged together. In the next moment, they transformed into an enormous, flame dragon that hovered in the sky, staring down at Li Qingfeng with its fiery eyes. Following this, its body burst into flames, morphing into a singular strand of dark-gold flame that flew straight towards Li Qingfeng.

It did not seem particularly terrifying in the eyes of others, but Li Qingfeng felt like it could set the whole world ablaze.

The dark-gold flame was far too powerful for him to endure. If he took it head-on, he might end up seriously injured.

In that short moment, Li Qingfeng sighed helplessly. He retreated backwards by half a step.

With this small retreat, a ringing sound echoed in the air. Suddenly, Li Qingfeng appeared back at the twenty-nine thousand foot mark.

Nonetheless, a faint glow was now hovering in his previous position at twenty-nine thousand and seven hundred feet.

This marked the final point that Li Qingfeng had ascended to.

Twenty-nine thousand and seven hundred feet. He could have reached the peak with just three hundred more.

However, the small distance was as vast as the sky. Li Qingfeng could barely progress any further.

Whether it was the thousands of banner members spectating on the outside, or the Banner Leaders that were on the stone dragon itself, everyone let out a sigh at this moment.

Reaching the peak at thirty thousand feet was a true accomplishment.

In actual fact, many people had hoped that Li Qingfeng could achieve it. After all, if anyone could do it, it would be him. If he could make it there, it would be a proud moment for the Twenty Banners of this generation to outshine the others.

Unfortunately...

This was far harder than they had imagined.

If even Li Qingfeng had fallen short just three hundred feet away, there was little hope left for this generation. If the leader of their generation couldn’t do it, who could?