Chapter 492: Lu Ming's Illusion Array

Boom!

An abnormally violent and ferocious Xiang force shockwave erupted in the open forest, instantly snapping the surrounding crimson trees in half at their waists, then grinding them to dust under the torrent of Xiang force.

Lu Ming's figure flashed backward in midair, landing atop a large tree; her cold gaze fixed on the source of the shockwave below, where a deep sword mark had appeared on the ground, the area around it scorched black as if struck by heavenly thunder, the mark stretching forward until it vanished into the billowing dust.

That previous strike, she had held nothing back.

She had not only unleashed the dual Xiang force of her He Yi Jing realm, but also executed that thunder-like sword strike; she knew well the power of this strike, one that even some at the third transformation of the Hua Xiang stage could not withstand.

Yet Li Luo had chosen to meet it head-on.

Normally, this strike should have decided the victor.

But Lu Ming did not relax her guard; her gaze remained sharp, fixed on the gradually dissipating dust. A few breaths later, her eyes narrowed slightly, for she saw a figure slowly emerge from the dust.

It was Li Luo.

At this moment, Li Luo held an ancient straight blade; his arms seemed thicker, the skin on them torn with blood flowing down, dripping along the blade, yet Lu Ming saw no thunder sword marks on his body.

Clearly, her previous swift strike had been forcibly blocked by Li Luo.

"You are indeed strange," Lu Ming said slowly.

The density of Li Luo's Xiang force had somewhat exceeded her expectations.

This was not the Xiang force a normal dual-Xiang practitioner at the second transformation of the Hua Xiang stage could possess.

"Did you cultivate some kind of Xiang Storage Art?" she pondered, quickly guessing at the clue; such Xiang arts were quite rare, capable of storing some Xiang force to temporarily boost combat power, but as she knew, the Xiang force provided by Xiang Storage Arts had certain limits, yet Li Luo's Xiang force density somewhat exceeded this boundary.

While Lu Ming pondered, Li Luo said no more nonsense; he extended his palm and suddenly clenched it tightly toward Lu Ming's position.

"Ten Thousand Trees Bind!"

Boom!

Immediately, the tree beneath Lu Ming's feet trembled; those tree trunks, as if endowed with life, transformed into great pythons rapidly coiling around Lu Ming's feet.

Yet against these surging tree trunks, Lei Guang flickered across Lu Ming's slender body, and she tapped her toe.

Boom!

As if thunder had struck, the entire tree instantly turned black, those trunks turning into black ash that rustled down.

Li Luo's eyes flashed; he continued to wield Wood Xiang force, commanding the surrounding trees to coil toward Lu Ming, while simultaneously deploying Water Xiang force to execute another Xiang art: "Heavy Water Art!"

With the deployment of the Heavy Water Art, a layer of deep blue water film instantly appeared on those tree trunks extending toward Lu Ming, and their power increased, swinging with a wind-breaking sound as they smashed fiercely at Lu Ming.

Lei Guang leaped from Lu Ming's slender fingertips; over a dozen bolts of lightning shot forth, attempting to destroy these trunks.

Sss!

Yet this time, the collision did not yield the previous effect; some trunks pierced straight through the Lei Guang, appearing before Lu Ming, and like tentacles shot toward her limbs.

Clearly, Li Luo still sought to restrict Lu Ming's speed; after all, her Lei Xiang speed was too fast, posing a great threat to Li Luo.

"Your coordination of Water and Wood Xiang arts is quite skilled."

Seeing this, Lu Ming praised, then Lei Guang flickered beneath her feet; afterimages appeared in midair, evading all branch bindings; her slender body leaped, appearing before Li Luo as if by teleportation.

Lei Guang leaped upon the golden slender sword in her hand; as the blade vibrated, several Lei Guang sword images split forth, to Li Luo's astonishment, the sword images carving out tricky angles, thrusting directly at Li Luo's vital points.

These Lei Guang sword images, alternating between real and illusory, left one defenseless.

Clearly, this was also Lu Ming's coordination of Illusion Xiang force and Lei Xiang force.

This counterattack came quite swiftly.

Li Luo could not discern which of the opponent's thunder sword lights was real and which false, so he simply disregarded everything, gripping the Zhu Xuan Xiang Blade tightly, simultaneously unleashing dual Xiang force and Elephant Spirit Power, and slashed down with one stroke.

The strength of that slash was so great it even left faint traces in the void.

A piercing sonic boom exploded.

Bang!

As the blade light descended, countless Lei Guang sword images shattered continuously, finally colliding violently with the single true Lei Guang; amidst rolling thunder, both figures shuddered.

In the next instant, they unleashed an extremely swift offensive.

Sword lights and blade lights erupted wildly, almost completely enveloping both figures; the surrounding ground was continuously torn open with deep marks; these two seemed to have become a tornado storm, destroying everything in their path.

In merely a few minutes, the two had clashed head-on for hundreds of rounds.

Such high-intensity collisions caused both to breathe heavily.

Clang!

After the final collision, Lu Ming's slender body retreated first; her eyes were now filled with Solemnity, and the hand holding her golden slender sword trembled slightly.

Li Luo's strength was terrifying.

"Is it because of that blade in his hand?"

Lu Ming's gaze swept over the Zhu Xuan Xiang Blade in Li Luo's hand; at every instant of blade-on-sword contact previously, she had felt a surge of immense power from that blade, a ferocity that made her feel as if wrestling a fierce beast.

"Li Luo, you are truly formidable," Lu Ming said earnestly.

Opposite Lu Ming, Li Luo stood holding his blade, expression indifferent; yet his hair now stood on end, for during the previous exchange, Lu Ming's Lei Xiang force had left him tingling and numb.

He grinned, saying, "I think so too."

Then a wisp of black smoke rose from his mouth; he quickly closed his lips, inwardly annoyed; Lu Ming's Lei Xiang force was truly troublesome.

Seeing Li Luo's wretched state, Lu Ming's lips curled slightly, then she said calmly, "However, I will not lose this battle to you."

"Oh? Is that so?" Li Luo narrowed his eyes slightly.

Lu Ming smiled brightly; her usual aloofness making this smile somewhat dazzling, yet Li Luo sensed a hint of danger in her smile.

But before he could act, Lu Ming slowly stepped back.

With this step, Li Luo was astonished to find Lu Ming's figure had vanished from his sight.

"Li Luo, this was originally a technique to deal with Jing Jing Taixu, but now, it must be used on you first," Lu Ming's voice came from all directions.

At the same time, Li Luo noticed the surrounding environment beginning to change.

The open forest faded, replaced by an endless sea of flowers spreading out, with him standing at the center of this flower sea.

Li Luo's expression grew solemn.

"Illusion Array?"

This so-called sea of flowers must be an illusion; in other words, he had once again fallen into Lu Ming's illusion array.

Boom, boom.

And with the appearance of the sea of flowers, dark clouds began to rapidly gather above Li Luo's head, gradually covering this stretch of sky.

Within the dark clouds, lightning flashed, and the thunderous roar resounded.

Li Luo's expression grew even more solemn.

This illusion array had also incorporated the power of thunder.

The combination of illusion power and thunder power ultimately formed an Illusion Thunder Array?

This Lu Ming was truly unexpectedly troublesome.