Chapter 250: Perfect Performance

The battle in the forest ended faster than expected.

The two White-Erosion Otherkind, weakened to the strength of only the first pattern of the Pattern-Life Stage, faced the joint attack of Li Luo and his two companions and were wiped out completely before the purification tower could even be fully activated.

However, when both Otherkind vanished, Li Luo and his companions were also exhausted; they sat down on the spot, limbs limp, lacking even the strength to collect the Otherkind remnants.

The most dangerous part of the previous battle was the initial contact with the eight-armed Otherkind. At that moment, all three of them were mentally strained, as their plan would have been effectively shattered if the eight-armed Otherkind had not fallen into the trap they had prepared as intended.

After all, that "Water-Flow Stripping Art" truly required some environmental support to maximize its effectiveness.

Hum!

As the three rested, the purification tower behind them suddenly erupted with brilliant light waves. The light swept across, directly engulfing the entire withered forest, and continued to spread further into the distance.

The faint black mist in the forest gradually dissipated under these light waves, which were filled with the power of purification, until it finally vanished completely.

The dim vision of the world seemed to have become much clearer at this moment.

The ever-present sense of oppression also weakened accordingly.

Li Luo and his two companions gazed at the white tower emitting brilliant light, joy appearing on their faces; this meant they had successfully activated a first-grade purification tower!

"Not bad. Congratulations on successfully activating a first-grade purification tower on your own."

A voice came from ahead, and Jiang Qing'e and her two companions were seen walking out from the gradually dissipating black mist. She walked straight toward Li Luo, stood before him, and a faint smile played on her beautiful face.

Li Luo looked at the strong, slender legs under her battle skirt, but he didn't even have the strength to stand up.

Jiang Qing'e reached out a hand to him. Li Luo was stunned for a moment, then reached out and took it; the touch was like warm jade, making one reluctant to let go.

He used her strength to stand up, held Jiang Qing'e's hand in return, and said with a grin, "Is this a reward?"

Jiang Qing'e stared at him with a hint of a smile in her golden eyes and said, "Can't you be more ambitious? Next time, I'll assign you a second-grade purification tower. If you can complete it on your own, the reward will be even more generous. Want to try?"

Li Luo pulled his hand back like lightning and said in a deep voice, "The Dark Cave is a serious matter; how can it be treated as child's play?"

What a joke. They only managed to take down this first-grade purification tower by using some tricks to split the eight-armed Otherkind in two. Otherwise, if they had really fought head-on, their final win rate would likely have been less than forty percent.

And if a first-grade purification tower was already this terrifying, how strong must a second-grade one be? At the very least, it would have Red-Erosion level Otherkind, and perhaps even Disaster-level Otherkind comparable to the strength of a General-stage expert.

If their rookie team went there, they would simply be serving themselves up as appetizers.

Although he was looking forward to Jiang Qing'e's generous rewards, this second-grade purification tower... it really lacked sincerity! Only a fool would take that on!

Bai Mengmeng and Xin Fu both looked at him with some admiration; as expected of their captain, he could admit defeat so righteously.

Jiang Qing'e said, "The fact that you were able to activate this first-grade purification tower on your own is actually quite a good result. After all, normally, this human-skin Otherkind that devours its own kind to evolve is rarely seen near other first-grade purification towers."

Previously, this human-skin Otherkind devoured the flesh-and-blood Otherkind and mutated directly into an eight-armed Otherkind, its strength even extremely close to the fifth pattern of the Pattern-Life Stage. Such an Otherkind, let alone a one-star academy team like Li Luo's, would likely be avoided by many two-star academy teams even now.

Of course, the way Li Luo and his team ultimately finished it was not by defeating the eight-armed Otherkind head-on, but by adopting a very special method to weaken it to the maximum.

But regardless of the method, the result was the same.

"So it counts as completing it beyond our grade," Li Luo laughed.

However, through this experience, he had gained a deeper understanding of the danger levels around these purification towers in the Dark Cave. In a sense, it was indeed a bit too early for rookie teams like theirs to come to the Dark Cave, because even for their team, which ranked first among the freshmen, facing a first-grade purification tower was so perilous—let alone other teams?

"When you saw the human-skin Otherkind devouring the flesh-and-blood Otherkind, you didn't choose to strike on the spot. You must have already planned to use the Stripping Art to deal with it then, right?" Jiang Qing'e asked.

Qiu Bai and Tian Tian looked over, surprised. Li Luo had thought of the subsequent response back then? This kind of foresight was quite sharp.

Hearing this, Li Luo smiled: "At the time, I just saw that the human-skin Otherkind was struggling too much to devour the flesh-and-blood Otherkind; there wasn't actually much difference in strength between the two, so I felt it was impossible for the human-skin Otherkind to devour it so easily."

"So I didn't choose to intervene directly, because the devouring process wasn't deep yet. If I had chosen to break the process then, the strength of neither Otherkind would have been weakened to its current level. The final result might have been that they would have finished us three off first before dealing with each other."

Qiu Bai and Tian Tian exchanged a glance, both seeing the gravity in the other's eyes. This Li Luo had actually deliberately allowed the human-skin Otherkind to devour the flesh-and-blood Otherkind, all to let the devouring reach a deeper level so that interrupting it would cause a massive weakening.

Such a temperament—wasn't that too decisive and forbearing?

"Weren't you afraid of creating a disaster?" Tian Tian couldn't help but ask.

"Once that eight-armed Otherkind took shape, it would inevitably have evolved to the Red-Erosion level, which is equivalent to the strength of the third stage of the Palace-Master Realm. That is definitely not something you could contend with," Qiu Bai also said.

Li Luo laughed helplessly: "What else could I do? I wasn't necessarily going to win if I went out to fight then, so I could only try something."

"And..."

He cast his gaze toward Jiang Qing'e and smiled: "I knew there were reinforcements, didn't I? Otherwise, I might have considered things a bit more."

Jiang Qing'e nodded slightly: "You actually did the right thing. The Dark Cave is extremely dangerous; it's impossible to guarantee absolute safety. Sometimes, being more decisive is the only way to turn the tide and win."

It was clear that she highly appreciated Li Luo's response, as it not only highlighted Li Luo's careful sensitivity but also reflected his temperament.

Sharpness, courage, decisiveness.

Therefore, overall, the test Jiang Qing'e set for Li Luo this time yielded an answer that left her very satisfied.

Qiu Bai and Tian Tian, standing to the side, also said nothing more, but the way they looked at Li Luo had clearly become much more serious. Previously, they had always thought of him as a newcomer, but looking at it now, this young master of the House of Luolan, who possessed dual resonances, was actually far more seasoned than they had imagined.

Jiang Qing'e turned her gaze to the purification tower emitting light and took out the map. Everyone looked over and indeed saw that the small tower icon representing this purification tower on the map was blooming with a faint glow.

This was the sign of it being activated.

Jiang Qing'e reached out a finger and touched the small tower icon, and then a faint light emerged from the tower, finally forming two lines of tiny text.

Li Luo looked closely and discovered they were two team names.

Black Swan Team.

Justice Team.

Li Luo was dumbfounded and laughed: "This can be inscribed in real-time? Can other teams see this on their maps too?"

Jiang Qing'e nodded and said: "Nothing to be surprised about. These maps are refined from the bark of Resonance-Power Trees, and the purification towers have a close connection with the Resonance-Power Trees. The academy has a specialized department linked to the Resonance-Power Trees, so they can obtain this information immediately and react accordingly."

"It's actually just a common motivational tactic, allowing students to see the progress of other teams, thereby encouraging competition."

Li Luo shook his head; the academy really used every possible stimulant to encourage everyone to eliminate Otherkind.

"The target here has been activated, and the time was much faster than we expected. Next, we will continue to push forward, but this time we will advance at high speed. You three must keep up." Jiang Qing'e didn't say much more on this, put away the map, and said to Li Luo and his two companions.

Li Luo and his two companions nodded silently; they didn't want to truly become a burden.

"Let's continue."

"I hope that in three days, we can appear outside the forbidden zone."

Jiang Qing'e was swift and decisive; she didn't give the three of them too much time to rest. She put away the map, strode out with her long legs, and headed in the direction of the second purification tower marked on the map.

Seeing this, everyone hurriedly followed. It seemed there would be no moment of rest for the next few days.

(Today, a new picture of Lu Qinger is being posted on the public WeChat account—a picture of a beauty sleeping. Hahaha... if you are interested, please follow the public WeChat account.)