Chapter 250: A Perfect Performance

The battle in the forest ended faster than expected.

The two White-Eroded Aberrants, weakened to the strength of only the first rune of the Life Rune Stage, faced the joint assault of Li Luo and his two companions, and were directly wiped out before the Purification Tower could even be fully activated.

However, when both Aberrants vanished, Li Luo and his two companions were also utterly exhausted, sitting down on the spot with their whole bodies going limp, without even the strength left to collect the Aberrant fragments.

The most perilous part of the earlier battle was the very moment of contact with the Eight-Armed Aberrant. All three of them had been on high alert, because in their plan, if the Eight-Armed Aberrant failed to fall into the trap they had prepared, their plan would have been almost completely shattered.

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

Hum!

And while the three were resting, the Purification Tower behind them suddenly erupted with brilliant waves of light. The light waves swept outward, directly engulfing the entire withered forest, then continuing to spread toward the more distant areas.

The faint black mist in the forest gradually dissipated under these light waves filled with purifying power, finally vanishing completely.

The dimmed view of the world seemed to become much clearer at this moment.

The ever-present feeling of oppression also weakened along with it.

Li Luo and his two companions looked at the white tower radiating brilliant light, and joy surfaced on their faces. This meant they had successfully activated a Level-1 Purification Tower!

"Not bad. Congratulations on successfully activating a Level-1 Purification Tower on your own."

A voice came from ahead. Jiang Jiang Qinge and her two companions walked out from the gradually dissipating black mist. She walked straight toward Li Luo, stood before him, a hint of a smile on her exquisitely beautiful face.

Li Luo gazed at the slender, athletic long legs beneath her battle skirt in front of him, but didn't even have the strength to stand up.

Jiang Jiang Qinge extended her hand toward him. Li Luo was stunned for a moment, then reached out and grasped it. The touch was like warm jade, making one unable to let go.

He used the leverage to stand up, then held Jiang Jiang Qinge's hand back, grinning as he said: "Is this a reward?"

Jiang Jiang Qinge's golden eyes stared at him with a trace of a smile, saying: "Can't you be a bit more ambitious? Next time I'll give you a Level-2 Purification Tower. If you can complete it on your own, the reward will be even richer. Want to try?"

Li Luo withdrew his hand like lightning, saying solemnly: "The great matter of the Dark Cave is no joking matter."

What a joke. To handle this single Level-1 Purification Tower, they had to resort to some tricks to split that Eight-Armed Aberrant in two. Otherwise, if it had really come down to a direct fight, their final odds of victory would probably have been less than forty percent.

And a Level-1 Purification Tower was already this terrifying. How strong would a Level-2 Purification Tower be? At the very least, there would be Red-Eroded level Aberrants, and there might even be Calamity-level Aberrants with strength comparable to the General Stage.

If their rookie squad went, it would simply be delivering appetizers.

Although he held expectations for Jiang Jiang Qinge's generous reward, this Level-2 Purification Tower... really showed no sincerity at all! Only a fool would take it!

Bai Bai Mengmeng and Student Xin Fu both looked at him with some admiration. As expected of the captain, even backing down could be done so righteously.

Jiang Jiang Qinge said: "The fact that you could activate this Level-1 Purification Tower on your own is actually quite an achievement. After all, normally speaking, this Human-Skin Aberrant that devoured its own kind to evolve isn't commonly seen near other Level-1 Purification Towers either."

Earlier, this Human-Skin Aberrant had devoured the Flesh Aberrant and directly mutated into the Eight-Armed Aberrant, its strength even extremely close to the fifth rune of the Life Rune Stage. An Aberrant of this strength, let alone a one-star academy squad like Li Luo's, even many of the current two-star academy squads would probably have to give it a wide berth.

Of course, the way Li Luo and his companions ultimately completed it wasn't by directly defeating the Eight-Armed Aberrant head-on, but by employing an extremely special method to weaken it to the greatest extent.

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

"So it counts as exceeding expectations, then." Li Luo laughed.

However, through this experience, he gained a deeper understanding of the danger level around these Purification Towers in the Dark Cave. In a sense, it was indeed a bit early for their rookie squad to come to the Dark Cave, because even their squad, ranked first among the rookies, faced such life-and-death peril against a Level-1 Purification Tower, let alone other squads?

"When you saw the Human-Skin Aberrant devour the Flesh Aberrant, you didn't choose to strike immediately. At that time, you must have already planned to deal with it using the Stripping Art, right?" Jiang Jiang Qinge asked.

Senior Qiu Bai and Tian Tian glanced over with some surprise. At that time, Li Luo had already thought of the subsequent response? Such a mind is quite sharp.

Li Luo smiled upon hearing this: "At the time, I just saw that the Human-Skin Aberrant devouring the Flesh Aberrant was too forced. The two weren't actually that far apart in strength, so I felt the Human-Skin Aberrant couldn't devour it that easily."

"So I didn't choose to directly intervene at that moment, because the devouring progress between the two wasn't deep yet. If I had chosen to break the process then, the strength of these two Aberrants wouldn't have been weakened to their current levels. The final result might have been that they would have dealt with the three of us first, then settled things between themselves."

Senior Qiu Bai and Tian Tian exchanged a glance, both seeing the Solemnity Within each other's eyes. This Li Luo had actually deliberately allowed the Human-Skin Aberrant to devour the Flesh Aberrant, all so that the Human-Skin Aberrant's devouring would reach a deeper level. Only then, when interrupted, would it cause massive weakening.

Such a disposition is far too decisive and patient, isn't it?

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

"Once that Eight-Armed Aberrant fully formed, it would inevitably evolve to the Red-Eroded level, which is equivalent to the strength of the third stage of the Diviner Stage. It's absolutely not something you could contend with," Senior Qiu Bai also said.

Li Luo laughed helplessly: "What else could I do? Going out to fight at that time didn't necessarily mean we could win. We could only try a few things."

"Besides..."

His gaze turned to Jiang Jiang Qinge, smiling: "It's because I knew there were reinforcements here, otherwise I might have considered things more carefully."

Jiang Jiang Qinge nodded slightly: "What you did was actually very right. The Dark Cave is fraught with danger; absolute safety can never be guaranteed. Sometimes, being decisive is the only way to turn the tables and win."

It was clear she was extremely appreciative of Li Luo's response measures, because this not only highlighted Li Luo's careful sensitivity but also reflected his disposition.

Keen, courageous, decisive.

So overall, the test Jiang Jiang Qinge had set for Li Luo this time had yielded an answer that greatly satisfied her.

Senior Qiu Bai and Tian Tian beside her said nothing more, but the way they looked at Li Luo clearly became much more solemn. Previously, they had always treated him as a rookie, but now it seemed this young lord of House Luolan Mansion, who possessed Dual Phases, was actually far more seasoned than they had imagined.

Jiang Jiang Qinge's gaze turned toward the Purification Tower radiating light, then she took out the map. As everyone's eyes looked over, they indeed saw the small tower symbol representing this Purification Tower glowing faintly on the map.

This was the sign of activation.

Jiang Jiang Qinge lightly tapped the small tower symbol with her finger, and then faint light appeared on the small tower, finally forming two lines of tiny text.

Li Luo looked closely and found they were two squad names.

Black Swan Squad.

Justice Squad.

Li Luo was speechless, laughing: "It can record names in real time? Can other squads' maps see this too?"

Jiang Jiang Qinge nodded, saying: "There's nothing strange about it. These maps are refined from the bark of the Phase Force Tree, and the Purification Towers are closely connected to the Phase Force Tree. There are specialized departments within the academy linked to the Phase Force Tree, so they can obtain this information immediately and respond."

"It's actually just some ordinary motivational method, letting students see other squads' progress, thereby serving to encourage competition."

Li Luo shook his head. This academy really pulled out every chicken-blood tactic to motivate everyone into eliminating Aberrants.

"The objective here has been activated, much faster than we anticipated. Next, let's continue pushing forward, but this time we'll adopt an extreme-speed advance. You three, keep up." Jiang Jiang Qinge 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 three days from now, we can appear outside the Forbidden Zone."

Jiang Jiang Qinge was decisive and efficient, not giving the three of them too much rest time. She put away the map, then strode off with her long legs toward the direction of the second Purification Tower marked on the map.

Seeing this, the others hurried to follow as well. The next few days would likely offer no moment's rest.

(Today I'm posting a new illustration of Lü Qing'er on the public WeChat — "Beauty Asleep." Hahaha... anyone who's interested, follow the public WeChat.)