Chapter 408: Li Luo Takes the Stage

Li Luo's figure swooped down like a great bird; while mid-air, phase force erupted beneath his feet, briefly suspending him, and then his figure landed atop a towering, densely grown ancient tree, leaping across a stretch of forest before descending toward a vast lake.

The lake was jade-green, with ancient trees growing up from its bottom; the reflections of water and trees echoed one another, creating quite a poetic scene.

Li Luo stepped onto the lake's surface, ripples spreading beneath his feet.

He rested his hands on the twin blades at his waist, his expression calm. His two phases were primarily water and wood, so this lake terrain was especially advantageous for him. According to the rules of the ticket match, the side that lost the previous match had the priority right to choose the battleground. Although Li Luo was by no means afraid of his opponent, if he refused such a beneficial condition handed to him on a platter, that would be far too pedantic and arrogant — and besides, it didn't suit Li Luo's character of loving a freebie.

Among the mountains, countless gazes converged.

At the same time, a figure descended from the sky, landing on the lake's surface like a cannonball; phase force erupted on impact, churning up waves of water that roared out in all directions.

Yet the waves quietly subsided when they were still half a zhang from Li Luo, merging back into the lake.

Li Luo's gaze looked toward the figure on the lake ahead. The newcomer was dressed all in white, his looks fairly handsome. At this moment, he was also staring at Li Luo, his smiling appearance seeming especially amicable.

"Lu Cang?" Li Luo asked.

The white-robed youth smiled and nodded, saying, "I am Lu Cang. Fellow student Li Luo, I've heard you possess the legendary dual phases?"

Li Luo smiled. "Dual phases may be rare, but they're far from legendary."

Lu Cang said with a smile, "I also feel the rumors were somewhat exaggerated. Fellow student Li Luo's dual phases probably aren't of a high grade, so the dual-phase power fused from them likely won't be all that strong either."

Li Luo's expression remained calm as he nodded in agreement. "You're right."

Lu Cang continued with a cheerful smile, "If that's the case, why doesn't fellow student Li Luo voluntarily concede this victory to me, so we don't waste time fighting?"

Li Luo's gaze fixed on Lu Cang, then he smiled and said, "Your tactics are quite similar to that Zhao Zhao Huiyin's — are you trying to provoke me with words on purpose? Is this the tradition passed down within your Blue Abyss Saint Academy?"

Lu Cang shrugged. "It seems fellow student Li Luo is very calm."

"This battle leaves no retreat for either of us, so there's no need for further idle talk. Let's settle it with our skills directly. If one's strength is lacking, relying on such lip-service only invites ridicule." As Li Luo spoke, his hands gripping the twin blades tightened, and with a ringing sound, the blades slid from their sheaths.

His twin blades angled down toward the water's surface, and already vigorous phase force was rising from his body.

On the lake's surface beneath his feet, ripples spread outward in rings.

Seeing this, Lu Cang smiled and nodded. He swept his palm across the spatial orb worn on his wrist, and immediately a long green staff appeared in his hand. At the same time, phase force slowly rose from the surface of his body. His phase force was a faint crimson, and as it rose it seemed to circle around him like a fearsome, murderous crimson python.

Such a fierce, murderous aura was in no way inferior to Qin Qin Zhulu's Gold-Devouring Tiger Demon phase.

Moreover, the opponent's strength, as the intelligence had stated, was at the first transformation of the Transformation Phase stage.

Bang!

Lu Cang's figure shot out first, the long staff in his hand transforming into a blazing, violent streak of green light that tore apart the lake water ahead, then hurtled toward Li Luo's face like a gale.

Li Luo did not retreat; his twin blades met it head-on. Layer upon layer of blade light rippled like jade waves, directly blocking Lu Cang's heavy frontal strike head-on. Sparks flew as phase force shockwaves sent up wave after wave of spray.

The two sides' phase forces made contact and immediately began eroding each other.

Li Luo could clearly sense a scorching, vicious phase force surging toward him along the twin blades — phase force like a vicious python that, if it invaded his body, would devour flesh and blood. It was truly domineering and sinister.

Phase force cultivated from an upper eighth-grade phase nature had stronger spirituality and was far more troublesome to neutralize — a point Li Luo had deeply experienced when he previously fought Qin Qin Zhulu.

So now he didn't hesitate at all. The two phase palaces within his body trembled directly, and two streams of phase force roared out like mountain streams, crashing into each other.

Dual-phase power!

Suddenly, boiling, surging phase force erupted like a volcano, and astonishing phase force fluctuations burst directly out from within Li Luo.

Clang!

Blade and staff collided violently; wild phase force swept outward, and the lake's surface heaved up waves over a zhang high.

Lu Cang's expression shifted subtly at this moment. The powerful phase force transmitted through the Green Python Staff this time was far stronger than before, and that phase force was mingled with two kinds of phase force, fused and layered together — its might was astonishing.

Under the impact of such phase force, even his usually proud upper eighth-grade phase force had been forced back.

"So this is dual-phase power? Indeed, it's somewhat interesting!"

However, facing such a strong enemy, Lu Cang's eyes instead grew brighter and more fervent. A crimson hue surfaced in his eyes, and his pupils underwent a subtle change, faintly transforming into the vertical slits of a serpent, giving off a cold, vicious air.

Boom!

Crimson phase force erupted; Lu Cang's speed and strength suddenly surged. The Green Python Staff in his hand transformed into a skyful of green serpents, lunging to bite at every vital point on Li Luo's body.

"Jade-Green Entangling Hands!"

Li Luo's figure retreated several steps; with a shake of both sleeves, green light surged forth from within, likewise meeting the attack like green pythons. In an instant the two sides clashed over a hundred times, and the phase force shockwaves made the water ripple.

The next instant, Lu Cang's figure shot out from amid the phase force shockwaves. At this moment his body was suffused with a crimson hue — on closer look, these were actually red snake scales, covering patches of his skin like armor, making Lu Cang look almost like a snake-person.

But Li Luo knew this was because the opponent had achieved a fairly high level of fusion with his own phase nature.

Lu Cang was extremely fast, charging straight at Li Luo.

His murderous aura was overwhelming.

Li Luo's feet slid back across the water's surface; at the same time, his fingertips formed seals, transforming into points of light that fell into the water around him.

"Ten Thousand Trees Binding!"

Immediately, the ancient trees in the lake seemed to awaken, and countless branches shot toward Lu Cang like vines to entangle him.

At this moment Lu Cang's agility was greater than Li Luo's, so Li Luo needed to find a way to limit the opponent's speed.

"Hiss hiss!"

Lu Cang grinned, his somewhat pointed, elongated tongue sliding out, making a sound like a serpent's hiss. The Green Python Staff in his hand swept out, sending a skyful of green light that directly blasted apart all the branches and vines lunging toward him.

"These tricks won't slow me down!" Lu Cang sneered.

Li Luo paid him no heed. With a flick of his finger, several streams of deep-blue glowing liquid shot out, landing on those vines.

"Heavy Water Art!"

Immediately the vines became extremely heavy, and as they swung through the air, a piercing whistling sound rang out.

Bang bang!

The sudden surge in the vines' offensive power caused Lu Cang's expression to shift slightly. The next instant, finally one vine broke through his attack, coming at him from a tricky angle and slamming heavily into his back.

Lu Cang's figure was sent flying, rolling embarrassingly across the water's surface for several dozen meters.

Yet just as his figure steadied and before he could react, the lake water beneath his feet suddenly surged up violently.

"Water Flow Stripping Art!"

The lake water seemed to form a water prison that directly enveloped Lu Cang, and then the currents within it raged violently, bursting forth with a tearing force as they spun, attempting to shred whatever was inside to pieces.

"Water Flow Arrow!"

Li Luo flicked his finger, and streams of arrows condensed from water phase power shot from his fingertip directly into the spinning water sphere, instantly making the churning force within even stronger, and from within the water sphere, the faint red of fresh blood gradually began to seep out.

From the viewing platforms among the mountains, waves of exclamations kept ringing out at this moment.

"What exquisite phase-art coordination."

The Eldest Princess sighed in admiration and said, "Water phase and wood phase arts coordinating with each other—even though they're only some not-particularly-powerful phase arts, they can still unleash a force that cannot be underestimated. Li Luo's talent in phase arts is truly stunning."

Gong Gong Shenjun also nodded slightly and said, "This is the advantage of dual phases. Li Luo knows very well how to bring it out. However, although he currently holds a slight upper hand, it's still hard to say who will win or lose. After all, if this is all Lu Cang is capable of, then the decisive match that the Blue Abyss Saint Academy went to such lengths to arrange would be far too disappointing."

"They must still have a trump card capable of turning the situation around."

The other Seven Star Pillars all nodded, their gazes fixed intently on the spinning water sphere in the arena.

Hiss!

Amid those many exclamations, a fierce, vicious hiss suddenly rang out from within the water sphere. At the same time, a surge of crimson phase power erupted like raging flames, and the entire water sphere was evaporated in an instant. A streak of red light shot up into the sky, then crashed down heavily, sending towering waves surging.

At this moment, Lu Cang's expression was dark and sullen, and several bloodstains had appeared on his body. Although they were only minor wounds, they undoubtedly revealed that in the previous exchange, he had been suppressed by Li Luo's exquisite phase-art coordination.

Li Luo stared at Lu Cang, his expression calm and unhurried.

After the exchange just now, he had already probed out his opponent's strength. This Lu Cang's strength should be at the same level as Qin Qin Zhulu's, perhaps a little stronger than Qin Qin Zhulu, but only marginally so. Among peers, that was already quite impressive, but it still wasn't enough—because if he could defeat Qin Qin Zhulu, then naturally he could defeat this Lu Cang as well.

It was only a matter of time.

"Show me your trump cards. Probing of this level is already meaningless," Li Luo said slowly.

He didn't believe the Blue Abyss Saint Academy would be so confident as to entrust the decisive battle to a Lu Cang of this caliber. It wasn't that Lu Cang wasn't strong—just that this level of strength couldn't bear the weight of a decisive battle to determine the ownership of the ticket.

Lu Cang's crimson vertical pupils stared coldly at Li Luo. He didn't utter any sharp-tongued retort either, but slowly closed his eyes.

At the same time, on the Blue Abyss Saint Academy's viewing platform, the one-star academy representative named Lu Cang—no, Lu Zang—also closed his eyes.