Chapter 1289: The Birth of the Tianlong Phase

Tianlong City, in the great hall deep within Tianlong Pavilion.

Li Li Jingzhe stood outside the "Scorching Mountain Cauldron," his gaze fixed on its interior. The once-vast spiritual liquid within had now grown far thinner, no longer enough to conceal even Li Luo's figure.

And Li Luo sat cross-legged inside the cauldron, eyes tightly shut.

After two months of cultivation, the fluctuations of Li Luo's phase force had clearly grown stronger, and with Li Li Jingzhe's perception, she naturally also sensed that within Li Luo's body, an extremely pure and ancient majesty was being nurtured.

Li Li Qingpeng, standing beside Li Li Jingzhe, wore a look of astonishment in his eyes. Though that aura of majesty was faint, it caused the dragon phase power circulating within his own body to grow slightly sluggish in its operation. Although a single shift of his will dispelled that sluggishness, he could not help but feel a touch of surprise.

"This is... Tianlong might?" he could not help but say.

Li Li Jingzhe gave a slight nod and said, "Under two months of tempering, the dragon phase within Xiao Luo's body has fused with his Tianlong bloodline. Now, it should be about to begin evolving."

"This step, he has managed to endure through it."

Li Li Qingpeng was slightly shaken and said, "It actually evolved into a 'Tianlong Phase'?"

Evolving a "Tianlong Phase" should be considered the most longed-for thing for those of them who carried the bloodline of Li Li Tianwang's lineage. After all, it was the "Sovereign of Dragon Phases," naturally possessing a certain suppressive force over other dragon phases.

This could be seen clearly enough from how Li Taixuan, relying on his Pseudo Ninth-Grade Tianlong Phase, had directly overwhelmed his peers among the heavenly talents.

But evolving a "Tianlong Phase" was hardly easy to speak of, because it had nothing to do with talent or strength—it depended entirely on the purity of one's own Tianlong bloodline, and that point was purely a matter of fate, something no one could change.

Among Li Li Tianwang's lineage, so many top-tier experts—who among them did not harbor this ambition? Yet in a hundred years, not a single person had succeeded in evolving.

Li Taixuan's "Tianlong Phase" was also innate, not a postnatal evolution.

But now, Li Luo was about to accomplish this great feat.

"Xiao Luo's Tianlong bloodline is truly so pure it's almost inconceivable," Li Li Qingpeng sighed.

"The question now is to see what grade of Tianlong Phase he can evolve into," Li Li Jingzhe said.

Li Li Qingpeng was instantly taken aback upon hearing this and said, "Xiao Luo's dragon phase was originally Upper Seventh-Grade. Even if it evolves now, at most it would only be Eighth-Grade, right?"

He knew very clearly just how difficult it was to raise the grade of a Tianlong Phase. Back then, even Li Taixuan had complained to him about it many times. Li Taixuan's Pseudo Ninth-Grade Tianlong Phase had swallowed a massive amount of Spiritual Water and Strange Light, among which was even a Lower Ninth-Grade Spiritual Water and Strange Light, and yet... it still had not been able to evolve into a Lower Ninth-Grade as desired.

Li Li Jingzhe fixed her deep gaze on Li Luo's figure within the cauldron and said, "Who knows. Let's just watch."

Boom!

And just as the two were speaking, violent energy fluctuations suddenly erupted within the "Scorching Mountain Cauldron." The fluctuations churned within the cauldron, causing even the cauldron walls to tremble ceaselessly, emitting a fierce humming sound.

A fierce purple-gold radiance howled forth, and faintly, an ancient dragon's chant rang out.

Both Li Li Jingzhe and Li Li Qingpeng stared at the center of that purple-gold radiance, only to see Li Luo's body visibly growing taller at that moment. In just a few breaths, he had transformed into a little giant of several zhang.

The flesh and blood across his entire body seemed to be writhing, but Li Li Jingzhe and Li Li Qingpeng sensed that, under this frequency of trembling, Li Luo's physical body's strength was rising at an astonishing speed.

Moreover, on Li Luo's skin, purple-gold patterns emerged. At a rough glance, these patterns resembled purple-gold divine dragons baring their fangs and brandishing their claws.

"Purple-gold dragon patterns—is this the forging of the Tianlong True Body?" Li Li Qingpeng's gaze sharpened.

The so-called Tianlong True Body was a capability innate to the Tianlong Phase. Under this augmentation, the strength of the physical body would be greatly enhanced and elevated—a boost no less than having meticulously cultivated a top-grade Spirit-Forging-tier body-tempering Marquis Art.

Moreover, this Tianlong True Body would continue to rise as the grade of the Tianlong Phase evolved. Back in the day, this had also been one of Li Taixuan's trump cards.

Now that purple-gold dragon patterns had appeared on Li Luo, it meant he had already formed the Tianlong Phase!

Boom!

A pillar of purple-gold light suddenly shot violently from the crown of Li Luo's head, blasting the cauldron lid flying and then charging straight toward the vault of the hall.

Li Li Jingzhe flicked a finger, and an invisible energy light barrier unfurled from the dome, blocking that purple-gold pillar. Otherwise, judging by the momentum, this pillar of light would have shot straight into the clouds and alerted every person in all of Tianlong City.

The purple-gold pillar was blocked by the light barrier, and then, in the eyes of Li Li Jingzhe and Li Li Qingpeng, its form was revealed.

It was none other than a purple-gold dragon shadow roughly a hundred zhang in size. The dragon shadow swam slowly within the purple-gold radiance, and an ancient, pure might spread out to blanket the heavens and earth.

However, this kind of might had little effect on Li Li Jingzhe and Li Li Qingpeng within the great hall. The two gazed at this dragon shadow and, for a moment, were slightly lost in thought.

Because they understood—this was the most noble phase nature of their Li Li Tianwang lineage.

The Tianlong Phase!

After a full two months of tempering, Li Luo had finally taken this step of evolution, transforming his own dragon phase into the "Sovereign of Dragon Phases"—the Tianlong Phase!

Moreover, the purple-gold dragon shadow before them still had a gleam of thunder circulating across its body, clearly because of that Thunder Auxiliary Phase of Li Luo's.

Li Li Jingzhe sensed slightly and immediately detected the grade of this Tianlong Phase.

Upper Eighth-Grade, Tianlong Phase.

This grade was not beyond her expectation. From the start, when she assessed Li Luo's bloodline, if he successfully evolved a Tianlong Phase, it should have been about this grade.

As for wanting to go further, the difficulty was truly too great.

Between Upper Eighth-Grade and Pseudo Ninth-Grade Tianlong Phase, the Spiritual Water and Strange Light required far exceeded that of other phase natures.

Even though Li Luo's own Tianlong bloodline was thick and pure, after all, his original dragon phase was only Upper Seventh-Grade. If he could have raised his own dragon phase to Upper Eighth-Grade first and then evolved, then it might have been possible to reach the Pseudo Ninth-Grade tier.

Still, an Upper Eighth-Grade Tianlong Phase was already no easy feat. To speak truly of its might, it was stronger than many Pseudo Ninth-Grade dragon phases, and because the Tianlong Phase could naturally suppress other dragon phases, it might not even fear some Lower Ninth-Grade dragon phases.

"As expected, it can only be Upper Eighth-Grade?"

And at that very moment, Li Luo within the Scorching Mountain Cauldron also felt the result of his Tianlong Phase's evolution this time. Although successfully evolving a Tianlong Phase was a joyful matter, his ambition was clearly not limited to this.

Because after he stepped into the Marquis Realm, he would be charging at the Ten-Pillar Golden Terrace, so he had to think of every possible way to elevate his own foundation.

And an Upper Eighth-Grade Tianlong Phase seemed to still be one breath short.

"Really can't take one more step forward?"

Li Luo felt a touch of unwillingness within, but he could also feel that the tempering Mi Fa had already begun to lose its effect, and the effect of his own Tianlong bloodline had been squeezed to its limit. That boundary of Upper Eighth-Grade was clearly extremely hard to break through.

Li Luo's thoughts raced as he considered all the means at his disposal, whether any could play a stimulating role at this moment.

"Dragon Seed True Pill?"

"Li Tianwang Token?"

"..."

Li Luo deliberated, and then, without the slightest hesitation, resolved to try.

However, just as he was about to make a move, he sensed a faint rumbling sound transmitted from deep within his body. Immediately shifting his focus, he saw that the mysterious golden wheel deep within his body had begun to rotate slowly at this moment.

And as the mysterious golden wheel turned, Li Luo instantly sensed a vast and pure energy surging forth from within it, then flowing toward the Dragon Thunder Phase Palace.

"This is?"

Li Luo was shaken with doubt and uncertainty. From that mysterious, overwhelming energy, he sensed a resonance like that of Spirit Water Strange Light, and the feeling was as if the Spirit Water Strange Lights he had used before had all been stored within this golden wheel.

Moreover, the energy that had erupted from the golden wheel this time seemed to be pure to an unimaginable degree.

But Li Luo had no time to think further, because as this pure energy poured into the Dragon Lightning Resonance Palace, the Heavenly Dragon Resonance coiled within it immediately opened its dragon maw and greedily devoured it all.

The next instant, the purple-gold radiance bursting from the Heavenly Dragon Resonance suddenly intensified several times over, and its massive body also rose steadily at this moment.

The changes within the Resonance Palace were also reflected in the outside world.

Thus, Li Jingzhui and Li Li Qingpeng both saw, somewhat astonished, that the purple-gold dragon shadow above Li Luo's head continuously swelled, until it filled the entire vault of the great hall.

But what Li Jingzhui and Li Li Qingpeng cared about was not the change in the purple-gold dragon shadow's size, but rather that they faintly sensed a special resonance emanating from this dragon shadow.

As experienced and knowledgeable beings, the two of them knew this resonance all too well.

That was — a resonance touching the Ninth Grade.

"This is..."

Li Li Qingpeng drew in a breath of cold air, his voice barely concealing his shock.

"A quasi-Ninth Grade Heavenly Dragon Resonance?!"