Chapter 179: The Power of Dual Phases

In the mountain stream, littered with debris everywhere.

Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan slowly walked out from the poisonous fog. They glanced at where Student Xin Fu was, smiles tugging at their faces.

"Li Luo, your team has already lost a member." Wang Wang Hejiu shifted his gaze to Li Luo ahead. Although Student Xin Fu had blocked their joint attack earlier, it was at an enormous cost—at the very least, Student Xin Fu no longer had the strength to fight in the battle to come.

And without Student Xin Fu lurking in the shadows, they could focus their strength on dealing with Li Luo. So in this fight, their Golden Gate squad already held an absolute advantage.

"How are you going to turn this around?" Duze Duze Beixuan also sneered, staring at Li Luo.

Li Luo looked at the two of them, his expression quite calm, and said: "Did you know? Turning the tables from a desperate situation is one of the traits a protagonist possesses."

Wang Wang Hejiu said with amusement: "Still dreaming your spring-and-autumn grand dream? Li Luo, every student who can enter the Sacred Profound Star Academy used to think they were the protagonist, because they were adored by ten thousand people and regarded as geniuses."

"But once they arrived at the Sacred Profound Star Academy, they would finally understand that, in fact, they were only a little more outstanding than ordinary people. Here, there are plenty of people more outstanding than them."

"You... should wake up too."

Li Luo shook his head and sighed: "Looks like you still don't believe it."

"Then let me tell you the second trait a protagonist possesses: it's... liking to achieve breakthroughs during battle."

Huff.

He drew in a long breath. At that moment, the natural energy of the surroundings seemed to grow restless, and then Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan watched in some shock as two kinds of natural energy surged toward Li Luo's body.

It was water-phase energy and wood-phase energy!

And as these two energies poured in, the phase force fluctuations released from Li Luo's body also climbed step by step at this moment. In the span of a few breaths, his phase force level reached the upper-stage Flower Seed tier.

He had advanced by a minor sub-stage.

Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan looked at Li Luo, whose aura had risen by a large margin, and their expressions turned slightly unpleasant.

"Believe me now?" Li Luo revealed a gentle smile.

Wang Wang Hejiu said flatly: "Earlier you deliberately took our attacks head-on, putting your body and the phase seed inside you into an extreme combat state, and then under that enormous pressure, you let the phase seed inside you take the chance to complete its breakthrough."

"Li Luo, you really have guts. Aren't you afraid that if it backfired, the internal and external pressures would erupt and directly blow up your own phase force seed?"

Li Luo laughed: "Looking at it now, didn't it blow up, right?"

"And don't overestimate yourselves. You did bring me pressure, but thinking you could use that pressure to crush me—you're overthinking a little."

Duze Duze Beixuan's face was expressionless as he said: "It's just one small step up, from lower-stage Flower Seed to upper-stage Flower Seed. Do you really think that can change anything?"

"Stop dragging this out. Finish him off." This line was directed at Wang Wang Hejiu.

Wang Wang Hejiu nodded, and then the two of them repeated the same trick. A kun-cry-like sonic wave erupted, sweeping up the poisonous gas, rolling toward Li Luo like a toxic storm.

The momentum was somewhat terrifying.

Li Luo stared at the rolling sonic poison gas, his expression gradually turning cold and stern. His eyes slowly closed, and the twin blades in his hands pointed diagonally at the ground.

Gradually, two phase forces of different colors surged out, each covering one short blade.

Li Luo brought the twin blades together, the edges clashed, and then he slowly ground them downward.

Squeak, squeak!

The sound of the blades scraping against each other rang out across the mountain stream.

And at the instant the tips of the two short blades collided, the two streams of phase force inside Li Luo's body seemed to stir up some special fluctuations. At the tips of the twin blades, dazzling brilliant light erupted explosively at this moment!

A terrifying surge of phase force appeared.

Hum!

The twin blades slashed down abruptly. Two blade lights, each roughly a zhang or so, shot out in a cross. The phase force surging on those blade lights was far stronger than Li Luo's own phase force level.

In just a few breaths, the crossed blade lights directly collided with the sweeping sonic poison gas. In that instant, the ear-piercing sound of the sonic poison gas abruptly stopped. Wherever the blade light passed, all the churning poisonous gas was shredded to nothing.

The blade light swept past, and the mountain stream returned to calm, leaving only the mountain rocks on the ground, sliced open with cuts as smooth as mirrors.

And the expressions of Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan slowly froze at this moment.

In their eyes, a trace of horror rose.

Their joint phase technique had actually been cut clean away by Li Luo in a single slash?

"That kind of phase force intensity just now..."

Wang Wang Hejiu's eyelid twitched slightly, and his voice turned somewhat hoarse: "It's already somewhat beyond the First Pattern."

"It's dual-phase power." Duze Duze Beixuan clenched his teeth, jealousy and unwillingness surfacing in his eyes.

"But he probably hasn't mastered it that stably either. He might not be able to unleash it a second time..."

And before his words had even finished, Li Luo was seen bringing the edges of his twin blades together again, slowly sliding them down, until they reached the tips of the blades.

Hum!

Another crossed blade light, roughly a zhang or so, shot out violently, aimed straight at Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan.

Seeing this, the two men's expressions changed instantly. With a low roar, the phase force inside their bodies erupted with full power, and they simultaneously unleashed their signature phase techniques, clashing head-on with the rapidly slashing blade light.

Clang!

It was as if the sound of metal rang out, and then the phase force shockwave suddenly swept outward, sending shattered rocks flying in all directions and splashing water into a skyful of droplets.

Wang Wang Hejiu, holding his folding fan, and Duze Duze Beixuan, holding his long spear, slid back over a dozen steps across the ground, their hands trembling slightly.

Their expressions grew increasingly sullen and irritated.

So this was dual-phase power? Clearly this Li Luo had only just broken through to upper-stage Flower Seed, yet the intensity of the phase force he erupted had actually suppressed both of them, who were at the First Pattern of the Marked Pattern stage.

"Dual-phase power is extremely difficult to master. I think he's just putting on an act, so he can't possibly do it a third..."

But before Duze Duze Beixuan's voice had finished speaking, Wang Wang Hejiu cut him off: "You'd better say less. Right now, Li Luo should indeed have just entered the state of dual-phase power, but this state should be extremely brief. What we should do now is not continue to clash head-on with him. As long as we retreat first, drag things out, and wait for him to exit this state, at that point, he will no longer have any power to resist."

Being suddenly cut off, Duze Duze Beixuan was a little displeased, but in the end he said nothing more. After all, right now the most important thing was still defeating Li Luo.

"Then let's retreat first."

As Duze Duze Beixuan agreed, the two figures began to retreat rapidly.

But the moment their figures moved, a dark curtain of shadows suddenly surged forth, enveloping them within it, making them unable to tell direction for a moment.

In the thicket, Student Xin Fu pulled down his hood, completely covering his even paler face caused by the depletion of his phase force, and rasped in a murmur: "Captain, I really don't have a single drop left..."

"Damn it, it's Student Xin Fu!" Within the shadow curtain, Duze Duze Beixuan was somewhat annoyed. Hadn't that previous heavy strike already let Student Xin Fu fully unleash his combat power?

Wang Wang Hejiu also felt a bit vexed. This shadow curtain had no killing power, but it could cut off their sense of direction. If they moved around blindly inside, they might end up delivering themselves right to Li Luo's doorstep.

However, just as they were about to forcibly use phase force to drive out the shadow curtain, a rustling sound suddenly came from the ground, and then they felt something wrap around their ankles.

"Don't panic, it's Qi Qi Luozi!" Duze Duze Beixuan reflexively was about to slash those things away, but Wang Wang Hejiu hurriedly stopped him.

Whoosh!

The moment his voice fell, the vines binding them suddenly retracted, yanking the two of them flying backward, and finally shooting them out of the shadow curtain.

The two landed beside Qi Qi Luozi, and Wang Wang Hejiu immediately said: "Fall back first!"

However, the moment the three of them turned around, they saw the single path of the mountain stream behind them suddenly split into over a dozen separate roads, making it impossible to tell at a glance which was real.

"It's an illusion." Wang Wang Hejiu's face was dark as water. Clearly, this was Bai Bai Mengmeng's obstruction.

Although such illusions didn't have much effect, at this moment, it was enough to slow down their retreat.

Meanwhile, Li Luo had his eyes slightly closed, the tips of his twin blades tracing through the air, as if a speck of light containing two kinds of power slowly descended and sank into the ground.

The next moment, the ground split open, and a tree resembling jade grew at an astonishing speed. Its branches and leaves flourished, and in just a dozen or so breaths, it became a phase-force tree roughly two meters tall.

Not far away, Wang Wang Hejiu and Duze Duze Beixuan saw this scene, and their gazes suddenly sharpened.

"This is... the Tiger General Art, Planting Trees into Soldiers?"

"How can it grow so fast? What is he trying to do?"