Chapter 1546: Great Breakthrough! Great Upgrade!

Boom!

A surging energy storm raged through the void deep within the Celestial Mirror Pagoda, causing the void itself to tremble violently, rippling outward in concentric rings like water.

Wang Xuanjin stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze fixed with keen interest on the source of the energy storm... the two figures within the two crystal mountains.

After a full year and a half of accumulation, Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e had amassed an utterly terrifying amount of energy within their bodies. They had deliberately suppressed it all this time, all for the sake of this earth-shattering breakthrough.

"These two little ones truly have solid, profound foundations. They accumulated for a full year and a half before gradually reaching their limit." Wang Xuanjin sighed slightly. Take Lü Qing'er, for instance—even bearing the Sacred Ice Seed, her closed-door cultivation only lasted a year. Yet Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e lasted half a year longer than her.

If their own foundations weren't stable, they simply couldn't have endured it.

After all, containing such vast energy within the body demands extremely high requirements of the physical vessel.

Under Wang Xuanjin's gaze, wave after wave of increasingly terrifying energy storms continuously erupted from the two figures within the crystal mountains.

Crack!

Suddenly, cracks began spreading rapidly across the crystal mountains, permeating the entire mountain body in just a few breaths.

Vast, majestic heaven and earth energy gathered above the mountains, seemingly forming two enormous energy whirlpools.

Boom!

At a certain moment, the crystal mountains finally reached their limit and violently exploded. Countless crystalline lights tore across the sky like a grand meteor shower.

And Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e within the crystal mountains abruptly opened their eyes, which had been shut for a year and a half.

Dazzling, brilliant light shot forth thousands of zhang from their eyes, like rainbows piercing the horizon.

The two figures then shot straight up into the massive energy whirlpool above. The whirlpool churned violently and began rapidly contracting.

After a moment, when the energy whirlpool was completely absorbed and vanished, brilliant energy radiance surged forth in the void, as if multiple dazzling great suns were rising.

Wang Xuanjin was unaffected. He pierced through the pure, majestic energy and clearly saw six flawless, magnificent Marquis Platforms standing above the heads of Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e.

"Unparalleled Sixth Rank."

Wang Xuanjin sighed softly. Although from the energy accumulated during their year-and-a-half closed-door cultivation, he could vaguely make some guesses, seeing it with his own eyes, even he—the Grand Principal of the Heavenly Yuan Ancient Academy who had witnessed countless prodigies—couldn't help but be shocked by how monstrous the two of them were.

In a single closed-door cultivation, Li Luo went from Unparalleled Third Rank, and Jiang Qing'e from Unparalleled Fourth Rank—both breaking through to Unparalleled Sixth Rank!

One leaped across three ranks, the other two!

And these were Unparalleled ranks, not ordinary Marquis ranks.

The difficulty involved, Wang Xuanjin knew well. After all, who in their youth hadn't forged a Ten-Pillar Golden Platform as a prodigy?

As Wang Xuanjin sighed, deep in the void, the brilliant light in Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e's eyes rapidly faded. They looked up at the Ten-Pillar Golden Platforms above their heads, a trace of excitement involuntarily surfacing in their eyes.

This was the greatest increase in strength they had experienced in all their years of cultivation.

Unparalleled Sixth Rank—just one step away from a true Unparalleled Marquis!

If they took that step, they would become Unparalleled Marquises on par with King-stage powerhouses!

At that point, they would truly enter the ranks of the world's titans, figures who could hold up the sky no matter where they stood.

Moreover, within the Li Li Tianwang lineage, they would now possess the qualification to establish a branch, becoming the genuine head of a branch.

The two who had once walked out from the Great Xia were finally about to become towering, world-standing titan-level powerhouses.

Li Luo's heart surged. Then, unable to wait, he sensed his Xiang Palaces within, wanting to know exactly how much his Affinity Rank had risen during this year-and-a-half cultivation.

The energy from the "Divine Fruit Crystal Phase" was extraordinarily wondrous, its effect on raising Affinity Rank no less than a continuous stream of Ninth Rank Spiritual Water Marvelous Light. So this great opportunity was absolutely the greatest Li Luo had ever obtained.

Li Luo's mind sank into his body. The four Xiang Palaces quickly surfaced into his perception, and then his heart couldn't help but pound violently.

A feeling of wild joy rose within him, flooding every corner of his body.

Because now, his affinities...

Lower Ninth Rank Water Light Phase!

Lower Ninth Rank Wood Earth Phase!

Lower Ninth Rank Heaven Dragon Thunder Phase!

Middle Ninth Rank Crystal Ice Phase!

What terrifying progress! One must know that before this closed-door cultivation, among Li Luo's affinities, only the Water Light Phase had reached Lower Ninth Rank, while the Wood Earth Phase and Heaven Dragon Thunder Phase were both False Ninth Rank, and the Crystal Ice Phase had only reached Seventh Rank!

Yet now, aside from the Water Light Phase which hadn't evolved, the other three phases had all received tremendous boosts. And the Crystal Ice Phase, which had clearly been obtained for the shortest time, had surged from behind to take the lead, being the first to step into the Middle Ninth Rank tier!

Faced with such a massive upgrade, even with Li Luo's composure, he was now thrilled beyond measure.

Because he had experienced firsthand just how difficult it was to advance after reaching Ninth Rank, he understood how precious and incredible this great evolution was.

This saved him an unknown amount of time and Spiritual Water Marvelous Light.

Right now, Li Luo felt very strong!

As the surging emotions in his heart gradually calmed, Li Luo turned to look at Jiang Qing'e beside him. A confident smile appeared on his handsome face: "Qing'e, I've finally caught up to you. We're both Unparalleled Sixth Rank now."

Jiang Qing'e's brilliant, deep golden eyes narrowed slightly, a dangerous aura faintly emanating. This guy had only just caught up to her a little, and he was already changing how he addressed her?

Sensing Jiang Qing'e's dangerous gaze, Li Luo said stoutly: "Qing'e, from now on, the offense and defense have switched!"

Jiang Qing'e said irritably: "Sorry, I'm Upper Sixth Rank, you're Lower Sixth Rank. We're still not on the same level."

"My affinities have had a massive upgrade, my combat power is extraordinary!" Li Luo argued.

Jiang Qing'e snorted coldly. At her smooth brow, a ray of light suddenly appeared, then slowly split open. A crystal core sacred to the extreme, like a divine vertical eye, emerged between her brows, blooming with intense holy light.

That was... the Sacred Phase Crystal Core!

Li Luo was somewhat shocked and said: "Your Light Phase has evolved to Upper Ninth Rank?!"

"Just one successful evolution," Jiang Qing'e said lightly.

Li Luo smacked his lips, somewhat envious. As one who had once experienced the "Upper Ninth Rank" Light Phase trial card, he knew very well just how powerful this "Sacred Phase Crystal Core" was.

It seemed that although he had improved significantly this time, Jiang Qing'e had also benefited greatly.

Originally Li Luo had thought he would complete the overtake from this point, but unexpectedly he was still led by Jiang Qing'e by a little.

How frustrating.

Jiang Qing'e snorted coldly, stared at Li Luo and said: "If you want to change how you address me, wait until the day you truly and completely surpass me."

Li Luo was speechless.

"So, call me that again." Jiang Qing'e, however, had no intention of letting him off, urging him on.

Li Luo's expression turned a little odd, because he discovered that when it came to this sort of thing, Jiang Qing'e actually had an unusual stubbornness. So he said with a half-smile: "So you like me calling you that—what a strange little habit you have."

A rare flush rose on Jiang Qing'e's fair, delicate cheeks, and a trace of shyness welled up in the depths of her eyes—she'd been caught out by this rascal...

Perhaps this was just a habit carried over from childhood.

"Sister Qing'e."

Li Luo scooted over with a beaming smile, reached out and took hold of Jiang Qing'e's slender hand, and said gently: "Actually, I quite like this little habit of yours too."

As Li Luo held her soft hand, Jiang Qing'e's face grew ever redder. Finally, a surge of embarrassed annoyance welled up in her, making her unable to resist digging her nails into the back of Li Luo's hand and viciously scratching out a few bloody marks.

Li Luo, meanwhile, was in so much pain he was baring his teeth and wincing.

And just as this young couple, who hadn't had any physical contact for a year and a half, were flirting and teasing, a faint, ghostly voice suddenly came from the side.

"Are you two done showing off?"

"If you are, then get ready—find a time to go collect Pang Pang Qianyuan's corpse."