Chapter 1129: Merit Rankings Seventeen

When Li Luo unleashed his second arrow and slew a Greater Evil Ghoul, the situation here was completely reversed.

Yin Yue Zhiyu charged straight toward Li Hongyou's battle line, then formed a joint assault with her, launching fierce attacks against the second Greater Evil Ghoul.

With the two of them working together against a single Greater Evil Ghoul, the result was undoubtedly a crushing one. In just a few short minutes, this Greater Evil Ghoul was completely slain, its blood-red husk withering and collapsing to the ground.

Then Yin Yue Zhiyu and Li Hongyou turned toward Meng Zhou, Zheng Song Yunfeng and the others, beginning to harvest them one by one through coordinated strikes.

The situation looked very favorable.

Boom!

Suddenly, violent clashes of energy came from afar. Li Luo raised his eyes to look, and the corner of his eye twitched slightly—that was the battlefield between Wang Kong and three Greater Evil Ghouls.

In terms of intensity, that place was the fiercest on the entire field.

"This Wang Kong is impressively fierce. He single-handedly held off the attacks of three Greater Evil Ghouls and still wasn't at any disadvantage." Li Luo's gaze grew somewhat solemn. Wang Kong's physical defense and strength seemed to have reached a quite astonishing level; sometimes, even after taking direct hits from three Greater Evil Ghouls, he showed no particularly serious injuries.

Clearly, the advantage of the "Shi Xiang" he possessed had been wielded by him to perfection.

With such strength, it was no wonder he could become the second seat of the Celestial Star Division of the Holy Light Ancient Academy.

On their side this time, if Wang Kong hadn't borne the greatest pressure, the others would likely have paid an extremely heavy toll of casualties before Li Luo could arrive.

Beside Li Luo, a student of the Holy Light Ancient Academy, seeing his gaze, smiled and said: "Senior Wang Kong is the unrivaled number one in physical body within our Holy Light Ancient Academy's Celestial Star Division. He comes from humble origins, yet his cultivation achievements have surpassed Senior Yin Yue and Senior Wei, two prodigies with deep backgrounds."

"He is also the only one in our academy who has mastered the 'Ten Thousand Cuts Bone Refining Art.'"

"Ten Thousand Cuts Bone Refining Art?" Li Luo asked. It sounded like something brutal.

"This is a high-level secret art of our Holy Light Ancient Academy. Once cultivated, it feels like ten thousand blades scraping the bones, bringing extremely terrifying pain that ordinary people simply cannot endure. However, the benefit of this secret art is that it doesn't require too many cultivation resources, so it's also called the 'Commoner's Secret Art.' In recent sessions, only Senior Wang Kong has truly mastered it. So in our Holy Light Ancient Academy, many students from ordinary families regard Senior Wang Kong as their idol." The Holy Light Ancient Academy student said with some admiration.

Hearing this, Li Luo also felt some admiration rise within him for Wang Kong. To be able to endure such inhuman agony showed just how formidable his willpower was.

In a sense, the other fellow and he were walking two different paths—no background, no family name, purely relying on his own effort and risking his life to stand out among so many prodigies.

After a moment of reflection, Li Luo turned his attention inward. He sensed slightly that although the two "Poison Arrows" earlier had caused some damage to his body and greatly depleted his essence blood and Xiangli, all of this was within a recoverable range.

But the "Dual Strange Poison," Li Luo noticed, seemed to have become somewhat thinner.

This poison was, after all, an external thing and couldn't be replenished, so each use meant a little less.

Judging by this rate of depletion, Li Luo estimated that the "Dual Strange Poison" could only serve him for fewer than ten more uses.

At this moment, Li Luo felt the first twinge of reluctance toward the "Dual Strange Poison" within his body. This thing was Manager Pei Hao's sincere contribution, after all.

Now that Manager Pei Hao was no longer around, only this "Dual Strange Poison" could let Li Luo gaze upon it and think of him, offering a moment of remembrance.

"Looks like I'll have to find some other deadly poison to replace it in the future," Li Luo muttered to himself.

Although this "Great Blood Poison Art" was also a self-harming Mi Fa, its power made Li Luo genuinely envious.

While Li Luo was resting, he also casually checked the Merit Rankings in his "Ancient Spirit Leaf." Having claimed two Greater Evil Ghouls this time, he had smoothly earned two Grade-A merits.

So now his merits had reached four Grade-A and eight Grade-B, rocketing him all the way up to seventeenth place on the Merit Rankings.

At the same time, Li Luo casually glanced at the first place on the Merit Rankings.

Jiang Qing, Holy Light Ancient Academy, Merits: Eight Grade-A.

Hiss.

Li Luo drew in a breath of cold air. His side had scraped together four Grade-A and eight Grade-B mainly thanks to Li Hongyou's help, and also by relying on two costly poison arrows... but Jiang Qing's side had directly obtained eight Grade-A merits. How many Evil Ghouls, even Greater Evil Ghouls, had she killed?

This was a true, bona fide merit-harvesting machine.

Dual Nine-Grade Light Xiang, truly domineering beyond compare.

Marveling inwardly at Jiang Qing's monstrousness, Li Luo also gently closed his eyes, absorbing energy from the world to recover his earlier expenditure.

While Li Luo was recovering, the great battle on the field continued unabated.

But after Yin Yue Zhiyu and Li Hongyou joined forces and were the first to finish off the Greater Evil Ghouls on Meng Zhou, Zheng Song Yunfeng and the others' side, the situation became entirely clear.

Wang Kong's side was left for last. After all, although he was fighting three against one, he was exceptionally tough, keeping the three Greater Evil Ghouls completely pinned down.

And as the other Greater Evil Ghouls were gradually slain, the three Greater Evil Ghouls on Wang Kong's side grew restless and uneasy, showing signs of retreat. But Wang Kong charged straight in, his surging Xiangli sweeping across, dragging them back into the fight where they couldn't escape.

So, when a moment later Yin Yue Zhiyu, Li Hongyou and the others converged from all sides, these three Greater Evil Ghouls were driven into a dead end.

Working together, in just a few short minutes, these last three Greater Evil Ghouls were each cut down.

At this point, all ten Greater Evil Ghouls had been slain.

Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief. Although exhaustion surged after the great battle, their eyes were extremely exhilarated.

This battle could truly be called fraught with peril.

It was fortunate that Li Luo and Li Hongyou arrived in time at the end; otherwise, it would have been them being picked off one by one.

Li Hongyou held her Dark Wood Feather Fan, fanning a Bai Guang toward the group to accelerate their Xiangli recovery. Then she came to Li Luo's side, who was resting with his eyes closed. Her red lips parted slightly, a wisp of crimson breath drifted out, landing on the feather fan, which then fanned out a crimson light that brushed over Li Luo.

Then everyone saw the wounds on Li Luo's arm recovering at an astonishing speed.

Clearly, Li Hongyou was playing favorites a bit.

But the others could only turn a blind eye. From when Li Hongyou had empowered Li Luo earlier, helping him briefly step into the Xing Tian Zhu Jing, they had sensed that the relationship between these two seemed somewhat unusual. Added to that, in the previous battle, Li Luo had indeed contributed the most. Without his two poison arrows breaking the deadlock, their battle would have dragged on, and might have attracted more Evil Ghouls, resulting in their own losses here instead.

The others also seized the moment to quickly recover their condition.

After quite a while, Li Luo finally opened his eyes, and saw a pair of beautiful eyes staring at him—it was Li Hongyou.

"Thank you, Senior Hongyou," Li Luo smiled at her. Although he had been resting with his eyes closed earlier, he could still feel that familiar power.

Then he stood up and looked around. The battle had already ceased, and the place had grown quiet.

His gaze quickly stopped before the Soul-Summoning Altar, where Wang Kong and Yin Yue Zhiyu were still standing, staring at the thinning white mist on the altar.

Earlier, the white mist had been thick, protecting the Soul-Summoning Banner on the altar like a shield. But now, with those Greater Evil Ghouls slain, the chilling white mist was also continuously weakening.

Li Luo walked over.

Yin Yue Zhiyu glanced at him. Although she said nothing, her gaze held a few degrees more acknowledgment than at the very beginning. Clearly, Li Luo's earlier performance had earned some recognition from this proud prodigy of the Holy Light Ancient Academy.

"Junior Li Luo, I owe you thanks for earlier. To be able to unleash such a domineering and terrifying poison arrow while at the Tian Zhu Jing—that's no ordinary feat," Wang Kong said with a hearty laugh.

The other fellow was so polite that Li Luo naturally gave him face in return: "Senior Wang Kong is too kind. What I used were just some unorthodox tricks, nothing compared to you, holding off three Greater Evil Ghouls head-on."

"Alright, alright, stop flattering each other."

Yin Yue Zhiyu at the side pursed her lips and said, "Since you've all mostly recovered, let's prepare to join forces and break through this layer of white fog, and destroy the Soul-Summoning Altar here first."

Li Luo nodded. He gazed at the altar before him, but a sudden thought stirred in his heart. Previously, when he had broken that "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar" in the small town, the environment there had reverted to its origin, revealing a treasure like the "Heavenly Crimson Pill."

And by all rights, since this altar had been built here, it must surely be considered a unique place within the "Minor Chen Heaven," and in terms of the energies of heaven and earth, it would definitely be stronger than that small town from before.

So once they destroyed the altar and broke through the coverage of the "Myriad Souls Ghost Skin Tu" here, could they perhaps discover even rarer heavenly materials and earthly treasures?

Li Luo had been slow to refine the "Heavenly Crimson Pill," mainly because although this pill could help him advance further, it could not truly let him step into the Nine Star Tian Zhu Jing in a single bound.

Therefore, he still needed other, more powerful cultivation treasures to amplify his progress.

And in this Minor Chen Heaven, the easiest place to find treasures...

Li Luo stamped the ground beneath his feet with a hint of anticipation.

Was clearly right here.