Chapter 1

The Great Xia Nation, Tian Shu Commandery.

In June, Nanfeng City blazed under a scorching sun that baked the earth.

Nanfeng Middle Academy.

A spacious, well-lit training ground.

Dozens of youthful boys and girls, their faces fresh with youth, wore training robes and sat in a circle around the field, their gazes fixed on two figures rapidly exchanging blows in the center, their wooden swords clashing with sharp, ringing sounds that echoed through the training ground.

The two in the field were both around fifteen or sixteen; the boy on the right stood tall and lean, his face handsome, eyes sharp beneath his brows, his physique and bearing exceptional—merely his outstanding appearance drew glances from some girls in the crowd, their eyes sparkling with admiration, tinged with shy affection.

"Li Luo, go!"

Some bolder girls shouted out words of encouragement.

Before the boy named Li Luo stood a burly youth, whose face was far coarser, his skin darkened by sun, making him look like a man beside a black bear in contrast to Li Luo.

So when he heard the girls cheering for Li Luo, he scowled enviously, then barked: "Li Luo, I'm not holding back anymore!"

He stepped forward, causing the floor to tremble; his wooden sword sliced through the air, faintly whistling as it slashed toward Li Luo ahead.

As the sword shadow descended, Li Luo's eyes flashed—he tapped his toe and shot forward like a flying sparrow, his steps agile and swift, evading the heavy, fierce strike entirely.

"Wind Sparrow Step!" someone in the crowd exclaimed, admiration in his voice; this was a low-rank Phase Art, known to many present, yet few could wield it as skillfully as Li Luo.

Li Luo's figure darted forward like a sparrow, closing the distance to the burly youth; his wooden sword drew in a swift draw-strike, and in that instant, a faint glimmer flashed—his blade pierced toward the burly youth's chest with blinding speed.

"Little Radiant Sword!" another cried out in surprise; Li Luo's strike was like a deer's horn hanging unseen—sudden, brilliant, swift, and ruthless—forcing them to admit that the academy's top genius in comprehension truly lived up to his reputation.

The sword shadow rushed toward him; the burly youth's face changed, but his strength was no ordinary match—he forced himself steady in the crisis, stomped his foot, and retreated several steps rapidly.

At the same time, a faint silver glow flickered across his body; his grip on the wooden sword seemed to transform into a blurred, silver bear-paw shadow.

A low, faint growl of a bear echoed faintly from within the burly youth's body.

Seeing this, the students in the field gasped: "That's Zhao Kuo's Fifth-Rank Silver Bear Phase—he's serious now!"

Amid the chorus of exclamations, Zhao Kuo stepped forward, cracking the floor with a fissure; his heavy sword, wrapped in ferocious brute force, whipped up a gust of wind and slammed down toward Li Luo ahead.

Silver light surged along the wooden blade, the wind-whistling sound piercingly loud.

"Brutal Slash!"

The burly youth roared as the blade, streaked with crimson, crashed directly into the oncoming sword shadow.

Boom!

The next instant, the two swords collided head-on.

In the violent impact, Li Luo's wooden sword shattered on contact; a force as wild and brutal as a charging bear surged through it, violently shattering the entire blade.

The force sent Li Luo reeling backward over a dozen steps.

Li Luo steadied himself, looked down at the broken wooden sword in his hand, and smiled helplessly: "Alright, Zhao Kuo, you win."

"Ah."

At these words, some girls in the crowd sighed in disappointment, while many boys smirked—after all, as spirited youths, they naturally felt envy and resentment toward Li Luo's popularity among the girls.

"What a shame—he clearly had the sharper offensive, and his application of Phase Arts was far superior to Zhao Kuo's; if only he had a Phase, he'd have won this for sure." Someone commented.

"Yeah, Zhao Kuo possesses a Fifth-Rank Silver Bear Phase—immense strength, and his Phase Energy is likely at Five Seals already. No wonder he's the strongest in our Second Academy now."

"Li Luo's comprehension and talent in Phase Arts are truly remarkable, but his innate Empty Phase is a fatal flaw—without sufficient Phase Energy to support it, no matter how refined his Phase Arts become, they're useless."

"Hah, don't pity him—he's Li Luo, the Young Master of the Luo Lan Mansion, one of the Four Great Mansions of Great Xia! His parents are the youngest Marquises in our nation; in just ten years, they built the Luo Lan Mansion into one of the Four Great Mansions. Their fame isn't just within Great Xia—it's known beyond its borders too."

"Come on, why bring up old history? Since Li Luo's parents vanished three years ago in the Wang Hou Battlefield, the Luo Lan Mansion has declined sharply. And from what I've heard, internal divisions within the mansion are now extreme—it might split apart soon. He probably won't hold onto his title as Young Master much longer."

"Oh? Really? Then who's currently leading the Luo Lan Mansion? Isn't it… Jiang Jiang Qinge, our senior?"

The moment that name was spoken, every boy's gaze burned brighter—for that name was a legend within Nanfeng Middle Academy.

Yet as they recalled the relationship between this legendary senior and Li Luo, their glances toward him turned strangely uneasy.

While the boys and girls around whispered among themselves, Zhao Kuo walked over to Li Luo, clapped his shoulder, and grinned: "You okay? Don't blame me for winning unfairly."

Li Luo smiled; Zhao Kuo was straightforward and had always been on good terms with him, and he'd broken no rules in this match.

After all, his own innate Empty Phase was his greatest flaw—it wasn't Zhao Kuo's fault.

At the edge of the field, a middle-aged man withdrew his gaze from the two in the arena; his name was Xu Xu Shanyue, a teacher of the Second Academy.

His eyes, too, were filled with regret.

Li Luo's comprehension was extraordinary—any Phase Art in his hands was mastered faster than by ordinary people; in this, he clearly inherited the strengths of his two prodigy parents, even surpassing them.

But sadly… Li Luo was born with an Empty Phase, making Phase Energy cultivation a serious problem.

Human cultivation relies on one's innate Phase Nature—that is the foundation of cultivation.

By drawing in celestial energy through one's Phase Nature, one forms what is called Phase Energy.

Human Phase Natures come in countless varieties, but broadly fall into two categories: Elemental Phases and Ten-Thousand Beasts Phases.

Elemental Phases are the elements of heaven and earth—water, fire, wind, thunder, and so on; the so-called Ten-Thousand Beasts Phases originated from ancient legends, when a Supreme Stronghold sought to strengthen humanity by fusing the spirits of ten thousand beasts into human bloodlines, thus birthing the Ten-Thousand Beasts Phases.

Whether Elemental or Ten-Thousand Beasts Phases, all have ranks, simply and clearly graded from One to Nine.

When human children reach around ten to fifteen years of age, a secret orifice within their body naturally opens—this orifice is called the Phase Palace.

When the Phase Palace awakens, one's innate Phase Nature emerges simultaneously.

Take Zhao Kuo—he awakened a Fifth-Rank Silver Bear Phase within his Phase Palace, a type of Ten-Thousand Beasts Phase.

Its characteristic is immense strength; when combined with his Phase Energy, its destructive power is truly astonishing.

But Li Luo's problem lies precisely here: since his Phase Palace opened, it revealed no Phase Nature whatsoever—its interior was utterly empty, earning it the rare designation of Empty Phase.

Without a Phase Nature as the foundation to absorb and refine celestial energy, Li Luo could not cultivate strong Phase Energy—that is the fundamental reason he lost to Zhao Kuo.

Because his Phase Palace has no Phase.

The academy has conducted numerous tests on Li Luo's Empty Phase, given the extraordinary reputation of his parents; initially, academy leadership held high hopes for him, believing he would inevitably enter Sheng Zhu Xuan Star Academy, the pinnacle of Great Xia's higher institutions.

In his first year, Li Luo lived up to expectations—he displayed astonishing talent in Phase Arts and was immediately promoted to First Academy, where the most gifted youths of Tian Shu Commandery gathered.

But as time passed, when students reached the age when Phase Palaces manifest, his most embarrassing condition became undeniable.

That meant everyone else possessed their own compatibility, yet although his resonance palace had been born, it was empty inside.

And lacking his own compatibility, although Li Luo was always a step ahead in the cultivation of resonance arts, his own resonance power improved quite slowly, over the course of a year even falling below the average level of the First Courtyard.

And the cultivation of resonance arts was meant to bring out the full strength of resonance power, but if one's resonance power was weak, then no matter how advanced the resonance art, its might would be limited.

After repeated examinations, the higher-ups of the academy reached a conclusion: it should be due to Li Luo's constitution.

This kind of constitution lacked compatibility within the body, making it difficult to absorb and refine the energies of heaven and earth, and future cultivation would be especially arduous.

Once this result came out, the resonance master of the First Courtyard directly submitted a request to the academy's higher-ups, demoting Li Luo from the First Courtyard to the current Second Courtyard.

This was actually normal. After all, the First Courtyard was the pride of Nanfeng Academy, and that resonance master naturally did not want Li Luo to hold it back. Most importantly, Li Luo's parents had already been missing for a long time by then, and with the loss of these two pillars, the Luo Lan Mansion — whose foundation was already the weakest among the Four Great Mansions — had found itself in an increasingly awkward situation within the Daxia Kingdom in recent years.

And so Li Luo ultimately ended up in the Second Courtyard.

Xu Xu Shanyue sighed inwardly. When Li Luo first came to the Second Courtyard, Zhao Kuo was actually no match for him, yet now, in less than half a year, Li Luo had already begun to be suppressed by Zhao Kuo.

At this rate, in the next half year Li Luo's ranking in the Second Courtyard would likely continue to slip.

If Li Luo's results were ultimately only this much, then the Shengxuan Star Advanced Academy of the Daxia Kingdom — which everyone yearned for — would likely have nothing to do with him.

Xu Xu Shanyue gazed at Li Luo's tall, slender figure and his handsome, calm face, his sense of regret growing. In truth, this youth had already worked very hard, but because his parents were too outstanding and brilliant, others' expectations of him had been set very high. Now, those outstanding parents had instead become a kind of pressure on him.

After all, people would only say "a tiger father begets a dog of a son," and would not bother to look into anything deeper.

Li Luo faced the many regretful gazes, brushed all the wood shavings off his body, then sat down cross-legged to one side. Of course he knew what everyone was thinking at that moment.

An empty resonance.

This practically declared a dim future.

Only Li Luo slightly curled his lip, and his palm unconsciously brushed the spot below his navel. In truth, apart from himself, no one knew that his special quality was not merely the so-called empty resonance.

In this world, cultivators at the start would only open and give birth to a single resonance palace within their bodies. In the future, if they Enter the Marquis Realm, a second resonance palace would be born; at the King Realm, they would possess a third resonance palace. However, in the entire Daxia Kingdom, those at the Marquis Realm could be counted on one's fingers, and as for the King Realm, even within this mighty Daxia Kingdom it was rarely heard of.

Of course this was not absolute. Legend had it that those with extraordinary talent, when their resonance power advanced in grade, had an extremely low probability of giving birth to a second resonance palace before ever reaching the Marquis Realm — but this probability was likewise exceedingly rare.

And Li Luo's other special quality lay right here. Although he was still only at the earliest Ten-Seal Realm, within his body there were not one resonance palace, but — unheard of — three!

That's right, this was a level originally only reached by peak experts who had entered the King Realm, yet it had somehow appeared within Li Luo's body.

But what made one's heart rise and fall even more was that all three of these resonance palaces were empty!

So, one empty resonance meant no future — then please tell me, three empty resonances, does that count as having a future or not?

Li Luo let out a sigh, his expression somewhat melancholy.

While Li Luo's thoughts were in turmoil, Zhao Kuo also sat down beside him and asked in a low voice, "Has your empty resonance problem still not been solved?"

Li Luo only shook his head at his words.

Seeing this, Zhao Kuo could only sigh helplessly. He knew he had probably asked a pointless question — compatibility was innate, and he had never heard of it being possible to fill one in after birth.

Li Luo's problem was clearly a tremendous difficulty.

While the two were talking, Xu Xu Shanyue walked into the field, offered Li Luo a few words of encouragement, and finally said to the many students, "Everyone, starting next month we will enter the most important phase — the Grand Examination. Whether you can enter an advanced academy in the future depends entirely on this assessment, so each of you, work hard at your cultivation."

Hearing this, the many students all wore solemn expressions. They had studied bitterly for years, all for that Grand Examination next month. If they could use it to enter an advanced academy, their future achievements would also be greatly elevated.

After Xu Xu Shanyue finished speaking, he announced the end of class.

Li Luo and Zhao Kuo also walked shoulder to shoulder out of the training ground with the stream of people.

"I'm going to go cultivate resonance arts some more. Today I got hit pretty hard by you, you monster. If your resonance power were a bit stronger, I'd probably be hung up and beaten by you." After leaving the training ground, Zhao Kuo sighed wistfully, then waved goodbye to Li Luo and parted ways.

Li Luo smiled at his retreating back. He actually understood — Zhao Kuo was afraid that the outcome of their previous bout would affect his mood, so he had left first.

Only, after such a long time, he had long grown used to it.

Li Luo withdrew his gaze, then followed the forest path toward the outside of the academy.

Along the way he could meet many students, yet regardless of gender, all of them would cast their eyes upon him. After all, aside from his handsome looks, Li Luo was also something of a person with a legendarily unusual reputation within this academy.

As for those gazes, Li Luo behaved rather calmly. He walked along the path all the way until, at the academy gate, his footsteps paused for a moment.

Up ahead, a large crowd had gathered, noisy and clamorous.

What those students were surrounding was a wall of bluestone — the Honor Wall of Nanfeng Academy, recording every prodigy who had ever walked out of Nanfeng Academy.

This Honor Wall, the students of Nanfeng Academy had already looked at countless times. Logically speaking, they should have grown tired of it, yet every day this place remained the liveliest spot.

Li Luo pressed his lips together. Of course he knew the reason — because the vast majority of people here had come for her.

Li Luo's gaze turned to a spot high up on the Honor Wall. There was a crystal stone, from which beams of light emanated, finally weaving together into a slender, tall, lifelike figure.

It was a girl. She wore the uniform of Nanfeng Academy — a simple white top, with a deep-blue short cape over it fluttering gently in the wind. Below was a black short skirt, and beneath the skirt a pair of long, straight, slender legs, fair enough to dazzle the eye.

She had delicate features, a pert, upturned nose, thick and long eyelashes, and skin fair as snow. Yet although every one of these points was worthy of admiration, what left the deepest impression was still the girl's eyes.

They were a pair of golden pupils, radiating a kind of indescribable purity. If one stared for too long, they would even bring a faint sense of pressure.

Her expression was somewhat cool. She gazed straight ahead, one hand on her slender waist, while the other rested upon A Heavy Blade. And in an instant, that dashing, sharp, commanding presence came rushing forth.

This was a girl who, whether in looks or in bearing, made anyone's heart skip a beat.

On the wall behind her light-figure, the girl's name was inscribed.

Jiang Qing'e, the radiant pearl produced by Nanfeng Academy, Possesses Ninth Rank Light Resonance. Her talent was so strong it drew sighs of amazement from countless people throughout the Daxia Kingdom.

Two years into her studies, before even reaching the advancement examination, she was specially recruited by the Shengxuan Star Academy of the Daxia Kingdom, becoming the first person in a hundred years in Tianshu Prefecture to receive such an honor.

She had already become a legend of Nanfeng Academy. Countless students who came after looked up to her here, and now she was already extremely famous throughout the entire Daxia Kingdom.

Li Luo stared blankly at Jiang Qing'e's light-figure, then he noticed gazes from around him landing on him. Those students, male and female alike, now looked at him with a certain unwillingness, envy, and strangeness.

As for their gazes, Li Luo remained unmoved. He understood the source of those looks.

Because of Jiang Qing'e.

This girl, regarded as a goddess by every male and female student in Nanfeng Academy, was not only the disciple his parents had taken in since childhood, but also had a marriage contract with him.

To put it bluntly, Jiang Qing'e was his fiancée.

(The new book has opened. Thank you all for your support. Whether new readers or old, I hope "King of All Resonances" can once again accompany everyone in the future.

Haha, writing this new book, when I wrote Li Luo I had this sense of being like an old father — maybe it's because I've become a dad myself?

Mm, I hope everyone will enjoy the new book. That is my greatest honor.)

(End of this chapter)