Chapter 416: Selection

Ten stone pillars stood within the great hall, the light clusters atop them dazzling and brilliant, each continuously drawing in the energy of heaven and earth to coalesce around them, forming all manner of wondrous energy spectacles.

Li Luo's burning gaze swept across them one by one; within those ten light clusters, the radiance pulsed unceasingly, and the objects within were vaguely visible—some were blades or swords, others armor, or various peculiar items—but every single one emitted an extremely formidable energy fluctuation.

"So these are true Golden Eye Treasures."

Li Luo muttered to himself in his heart. The energy fluctuations emitted by these ten Golden Eye Treasures far exceeded the "Light Falcon Bow" he had obtained previously. Moreover, he could vaguely sense that these Golden Eye Treasures possessed a certain spirituality, as if they had some form of autonomous consciousness; they would independently absorb the energy of heaven and earth to temper themselves, the pulsing of that energy akin to a breath in and a breath out.

In a certain sense, a Golden Eye Treasure was already a type of living thing.

Among those present, only the Princess and Gong Shenjun remained the most composed. After all, the two held the most noble status and had the royal family as their backing; although Golden Eye Treasures were rare, they would not go so far as to act like a poor kid such as Li Luo.

Even Jiang Qing'e was not entirely unmoved. Although her "Golden Que Sword" was also a Golden Eye Treasure, it was the only one she possessed; if she could obtain another Golden Eye Treasure of a different type, she would naturally be very pleased.

The others were looking on even more fervently, with only Zhu Xuan and Ye Qiuding wearing sullen expressions, for they were not qualified to choose Golden Eye Treasures and could only wait for Li Luo and the others to finish choosing before the academy bestowed upon them Gold-Thread White Eye-level treasures.

Although it would be a decent result if they could obtain a Gold-Thread White Eye-level treasure, having the comparison of the Golden Eye Treasures before them, they were inevitably a bit unbalanced.

But being unbalanced was useless; they knew clearly that if the tickets had not ultimately fallen into the hands of the academy this time, then given their two losses, they likely wouldn't even have been qualified to step through the door of the treasure vault.

That they were able to come in and snag a Gold-Thread White Eye treasure this time was entirely due to Li Luo turning the tide.

Of course, given the personalities of the two, it was clearly unlikely that they would feel any gratitude because of this.

But as for whether these two felt any gratitude, Li Luo had absolutely no interest in paying attention. At this moment, his gaze had already swept across the ten Golden Eye Treasures one by one. His goal was very clear: a matching set of dual-blade Golden Eye Treasures, but unfortunately, there were none among the ten.

This was also normal; dual blades were actually two separate blades, which was equivalent to two Golden Eye Treasures. If they were forged as a set from the start, then both their price and their rarity would increase exponentially.

Previously, Li Luo's dual blades were merely ordinary resonance tools, not even reaching the White Eye level, so they were naturally easy to find. But now that the level had risen to the Golden Eye grade, wanting to find them easily again was a bit of a pipe dream.

Therefore, after not seeing a matching set of dual-blade Golden Eye Treasures, Li Luo immediately let go of his extravagant hopes and settled for finding a single-blade Golden Eye Treasure instead.

This was much easier to find.

Among the ten Golden Eye Treasures, there were two blade-shaped ones.

And on the stone pillars, light flickered in and out, forming text that introduced the two blade-shaped treasures.

"Cold Nether Blade, Golden Eye Treasure, forged from ten-thousand-year cold stone. The blade Qi is extremely frigid; when driven by the power of the Ice Resonance, the two stack, and wherever the blade radiance passes, everything turns to ice shards." This was a long blade, deep blue all over, emitting an awe-inspiring chill; it floated silently within the light cluster, and the surrounding air was constantly condensing into ice crystals.

"Ink Scale Blade, Golden Eye Treasure. In the deep regions of the Eastern Sea, there is a fish called the Ink Scale, about a foot long, entirely jet-black, shaped like a blade, and covered in black scales. Ink Scale fish like to gather in groups, from a few hundred to thousands. When they swim, it is as if a monstrous blade radiance moves with the water; wherever they pass, even Marquis-level powerhouses must retreat." The Ink Scale Blade was a pitch-black short blade, the body slightly thin, the edge jet-black, emitting an extremely sharp aura. Occasionally, a stream of light would slowly flow across the blade, and as the light refracted, a faint tearing mark would appear in the void before it.

Li Luo looked at these two blade-shaped treasures. He swept past the Cold Nether Blade and didn't pay much attention, because it didn't match him; he possessed multiple resonance powers but did not have the Ice Resonance, so this blade could not unleash its maximum power in his hands. Instead, it was the Ink Scale Blade that made him feel somewhat tempted.

The black light flowing on the edge of this short blade made his eyes feel a slight stinging pain just by looking at it.

Such sharp and overbearing blade Qi far exceeded his previous dual blades.

Li Luo was moved.

"Do you want these two blades?" Jiang Qing'e's voice suddenly came from the side.

"If you want them, we can each take one." Jiang Qing'e's golden eyes blinked at Li Luo with a questioning look, causing the latter's heart to beat violently twice.

Li Luo was startled, then hurriedly shook his head: "No need, there are also Golden Eye Treasures here that you need; there's no need to waste it on these two blades."

"Don't you prefer dual blades more?" Jiang Qing'e said.

Li Luo felt a warmth in his heart and explained: "With my current strength, unless they are a matching set of the same origin, I might not be able to display their power even if I were given two Golden Eye Treasure weapons. Rather than that, it's better to be focused for now."

Jiang Qing'e thought for a moment and then nodded. Li Luo was right; while Golden Eye Treasures were powerful, the consumption of resonance power was not small. Li Luo was currently only at the Resonance Transformation stage and could not recklessly drive Golden Eye Treasures, so having more was not necessarily better.

"Alright, actually I have always wanted to get you a Golden Eye Treasure. After all, the one I have at home was forged for me by Master and Mistress, and you don't have one yet." Jiang Qing'e pursed her red lips and smiled.

"Why does it feel like there's a hint of showing off in your words?" Li Luo looked at the girl's stunning face before him, his expression a bit strange.

"Is there?"

Jiang Qing'e slightly widened her clear golden eyes, revealing an innocent look that did not match her usual calm and composed demeanor.

Li Luo rolled his eyes. Good for you, you black-hearted white swan.

"Did you see anything you like?" Li Luo changed the subject and asked.

Jiang Qing'e nodded and pointed her slender finger at a stone pillar. Li Luo looked over and saw that within the light cluster atop that stone pillar was a triangular stone disc, and embedded in the disc were three golden beads. In the center of each golden bead was a tiny vertical slit; at a glance, they looked like three tightly closed eyes.

Li Luo looked at the text on the stone pillar.

Three-Eye Golden Bead, Golden Eye Treasure. Driven by resonance power, it can erupt with the Light of Annihilation. This light can dissolve resonance power; once it invades a human body, the victim's resonance power will be rapidly dissolved. The Light of Annihilation has three colors, one color per eye; when the three-colored mysterious light is unleashed together, the victim will become nearly crippled in a short time.

A look of amazement appeared in Li Luo's eyes. The Golden Eye Treasure that Jiang Qing'e had taken a fancy to was clearly extraordinary; that overbearing Light of Annihilation was enough to make many powerful enemies wary.

It could be seen that the rewards given by the academy this time were substantial and not just perfunctory, and the reason for all this was undoubtedly to pave the way for the upcoming Holy Grail War.

While Li Luo and Jiang Qing''e both had items they were interested in, Vice Dean Su Xin looked at Gong Shenjun and the Princess and smiled: "Although you two are not lacking in Golden Eye Treasures, this is, after all, the academy's reward. You may as well pick one item here at your leisure."

Upon hearing this, Gong Shenjun suddenly revealed an inexplicable smile: "Vice Dean Su Xin, can anything here be chosen?"

The Princess's phoenix eyes lifted slightly, but she did not speak.

Vice Dean Su Xin was startled, then smiled and said: "Anything."

Gong Shenjun laughed, his heroic face becoming even more vivid at this moment: "Since the Vice Dean has said so, then don't blame this student for being greedy."

Vice Dean Su Xin's eyes flickered, as if she understood something, but she still nodded.

Their conversation was not concealed, so Li Luo, Jiang Qing'e, Duze Honglian, and the others all cast questioning gazes over. They didn't quite understand what Gong Shenjun meant. Although these ten Golden Eye Treasures were rare, they shouldn't be enough to make Gong Shenjun, the son of the Regent, use the word "greedy," right?

Under their puzzled gazes, Gong Shenjun strode out. However, to their surprise, he did not walk toward the ten stone pillars in front, but walked directly toward the very back of the great hall. Li Luo and the others followed his gaze, and then they saw something protruding from the wall there.

It seemed to be a long handle, grey and dull, making it hard for people to notice at all. Presumably, if Gong Shenjun hadn't specifically walked toward this side, Li Luo and the others would have found it hard to discover such an object here.

And Gong Shenjun was clearly aiming for it.

Li Luo frowned as he looked at the long handle. After a few seconds, his heart suddenly stirred.

That long handle... it seemed to be a sword hilt or a blade hilt...

Li Luo turned his head to look at Jiang Qing'e, and both saw a flash of realization in each other's eyes.

That was a blade or sword stuck in the wall!