Chapter 1256: ,264: The Secret of the Heavenly Dragon Bloodline

While the outside world was abuzz with news of Li Luo and Jiang Qing's dazzling performance on the Five Guards Ascending Steps, over the next half month or so, Li Luo kept a low profile, pouring all his energy into cultivation and the tempering of his Dragon Lightning Xiang.

To that end, he didn't even have time to handle the monthly fixed missions within the Dragon Fang Guard.

Under such effort, over the half month, his Xiang force grew increasingly robust, and he had now raised his own Heavenly Xiang Diagram from 8,400 zhang to 8,800 zhang.

This was mainly thanks to the forty thousand Dragon Essences he had won from this Ascending Steps wager.

Of that, nearly twenty thousand went toward repaying the previous debt from exchanging for the "Dragon Blood Nightmare Art," and the remaining Dragon Essences were used by him to exchange for some cultivation resources and high-grade Spiritual Water Marvelous Light.

However, although his Xiang force had advanced, the evolution of the Long Xiang that Li Luo most looked forward to was not so easily achieved.

To that end, he had already used up all the eighth-grade Spiritual Water Marvelous Light he had previously exchanged from the Tianyuan Ancient Academy, and combined with the high-grade Spiritual Water Marvelous Light obtained this time from Dragon Essences, in terms of value, these Spiritual Water Marvelous Light could probably drain the entire fortune of an ordinary scattered-cultivation Marquis-tier powerhouse.

Unfortunately, although Li Luo could clearly feel his upper-seventh-grade Dragon Lightning Xiang improving significantly during this period, it was still one step short of evolving to eighth grade.

The evolution of a Xiang's nature was indeed the most difficult.

This was also because he could refine and absorb Spiritual Water Marvelous Light without any scruples; if it were someone else, wanting to clearly feel an improvement in their Xiang's nature within half a month would simply be impossible.

For many people, the tempering of a Xiang's nature was a matter of years and months, because Spiritual Water Marvelous Light contained impurities, and absorbing too much would cause the Xiang Palace to seal itself. But Li Luo was different — what limited him was only the quantity of Spiritual Water Marvelous Light and the time to absorb it.

Theoretically, given enough Spiritual Water Marvelous Light and time, he would eventually be able to reach all nine grades.

Unfortunately, this theory was not easy to realize.

In a brightly lit room, Li Luo sat cross-legged before a low table, his eyes somewhat wistfully fixed on a few glass-like empty bottles on the table, which had originally been filled to the brim with pricey eighth-grade Spiritual Water Marvelous Light.

"Used up."

Li Luo sighed; the eighth-grade Spiritual Water Marvelous Light in his hands was now thoroughly spent.

He thought for a moment, and a purple badge shaped like an ancient leaf appeared in his hand — it was the Divine Tree Purple Badge, which he had not used in a long time. Wearing this item allowed one to temper and enhance one's own Xiang nature gradually over time, and if one was not content with such slow improvement, one could also activate its "Spirit Infusion" property to trigger an immediate boost. However, once "Spirit Infusion" was used, the Divine Tree Purple Badge would enter a period of depletion.

Li Luo had only activated the Divine Tree Purple Badge once back then, so now its energy had recovered to full.

"If I use Spirit Infusion one more time, can I raise the Long Xiang to eighth grade?" Li Luo pondered, then shook his head again, because what he wanted this time was no ordinary evolution.

He wanted to evolve his own Long Xiang into a "Heavenly Long Xiang"!

What he wanted was not an ordinary eighth-grade Long Xiang, but an eighth-grade Heavenly Long Xiang!

But the "Heavenly Long Xiang" was the "Sovereign of Dragon Xiangs," and its birth conditions were extremely harsh. Looking across the Li Li Tianwang lineage over the past hundred years or so, probably only his old man had been born with a Heavenly Long Xiang.

A naturally born Heavenly Long Xiang was out of the question for Li Luo, but fortunately his own Heavenly Dragon bloodline was pure and dense, so there was a chance to evolve it through acquired means.

However, although he had felt the improvement of his Long Xiang during this period, that sensation of evolving into a Heavenly Long Xiang had never appeared.

By his feeling, even if he successfully evolved to eighth grade now, the Long Xiang would probably still just be a Long Xiang, and would not evolve into a Heavenly Long Xiang.

So according to Li Luo's guess, this kind of evolution was certainly not as simple as he thought.

Perhaps, he still needed to find someone to consult on the key to it.

As for who to consult, within this Heavenly Dragon City, besides Li Li Jingzhe, there was naturally no better candidate.

With this thought, Li Luo directly put away the "Divine Tree Purple Badge," then left the Dragon Fang Gate where the Dragon Fang Guard was stationed, and headed straight for the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion at the center of Heavenly Dragon City.

Li Li Jingzhe had been stationed here for this entire period.

Li Luo arrived at the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion and stated his identity, naturally meeting no obstruction. After all, during the time Li Li Jingzhe was stationed in Heavenly Dragon City, everyone understood that within this city, the Dragon Fang Lineage now called the shots.

Deep within the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion, there was a pool of emerald lake. Li Luo found Li Li Jingzhe fishing from a stone platform by the lake.

After leaving the bamboo grove of the Dragon Fang Mountain Range, Li Li Jingzhe's hobby of growing bamboo shoots had also been interrupted, so he could only switch to another way to pass the time.

Li Li Jingzhe, who had his eyes closed, opened them, and looking at Li Luo who had come before him with a beaming smile, a faint smile also surfaced on his stern, aged face. He patted the fish basket beside him and said, "Perfect timing — there are no bamboo shoots here, so we can just make fish soup."

"Then I'm in for a treat."

Li Luo cheerfully agreed, then sat down beside him and casually told Li Li Jingzhe the purpose of his visit.

"Heavenly Long Xiang? You brat, your ambition is a bit too big. The Heavenly Long Xiang — even I have never evolved one." Hearing Li Luo's words, the fishing rod in Li Li Jingzhe's hand trembled.

Li Luo shamelessly said, "After all, I carry such a dense and pure Heavenly Dragon bloodline, so I still qualify to set my sights on the Heavenly Long Xiang."

At Li Luo's brazen self-praise, Li Li Jingzhe was a little caught between laughter and tears, but he still nodded and said, "Your Heavenly Dragon bloodline is indeed exceptionally dense. Some time ago, when you were executing that Dragon Blood Nightmare Art, your bloodline was stimulated and even a shadow of the Heavenly Dragon appeared."

"A shadow of the Heavenly Dragon?"

Li Luo blinked, then suddenly asked curiously, "Grandpa, speaking of which, why does our lineage carry the bloodline of a Heavenly Dragon? Could it be... our ancestor's true form was a Heavenly Dragon?"

"The ancestor was a genuine human." Li Li Jingzhe shook his head and said.

Seeing the thirst for knowledge in Li Luo's eyes, he hesitated slightly, then continued, "When the ancestor was young, he entered the Wang Hou battlefield. While training there, he encountered a severely wounded Heavenly Dragon senior. At that time, the one man and one dragon, by a twist of fate, formed a blood contract."

"This blood contract was actually not good news for the ancestor, because the other's strength was higher than his, so it would also drain his essence blood."

"But the ancestor was also a heaven-blessed prodigy. Through life and death, he not only did not perish, but gradually reached the peak and achieved the title of Li Tianwang."

"When the ancestor became a Li Tianwang, the blood contract transmitted the Heavenly Dragon bloodline, affecting the ancestor's descendants, causing all of us to be born with the Heavenly Dragon bloodline within our bodies."

Li Luo widened his eyes and could not help clicking his tongue in admiration. Their Li Tianwang ancestor had quite a few legendary tales in his youth as well.

"I wonder if that Heavenly Dragon senior... was a male dragon or a female dragon?" Li Luo asked with a reverent heart.

Li Li Jingzhe said exasperatedly, "Of course it was... a female dragon."

"This Heavenly Dragon senior is now one of the highest-ranking existences within the Dragon race. Precisely because of her, our Li Li Tianwang lineage actually has quite a deep friendship with the Dragon race, it's just that the Dragon race rarely goes out, so you youngsters have never had the chance to meet them."

Li Luo suddenly understood — a female dragon... well, no wonder. The ancestor truly is a model for us juniors.

But none of this was important.

"Then Grandpa, do you think I have a chance to evolve my Long Xiang into a Heavenly Long Xiang?" Li Luo pulled the topic back and asked sincerely.

Li Li Jingzhe pondered for a few breaths, then said, "If anyone else had come to ask, I could only reply with the four words 'wishful thinking,' but your Heavenly Dragon bloodline does indeed have some possibility."

"However, this is also not a simple matter. If you want to evolve through ordinary methods, even though you carry a pure and dense Heavenly Dragon bloodline yourself, it would still be very difficult to evolve into a Heavenly Long Xiang."

"Then what should I do?" Li Luo hurriedly asked.

The hand Li Li Jingzhe was fishing with trembled, the fishing rod flicked up, the shimmering water surface broke open, and a golden fish struggled on the hook. He placed the fish into the fish basket before speaking with a somewhat solemn expression.

"The method of long simmering — refine blood into the Xiang."