Chapter 495: Li Luo's Breakthrough

Boom!

As layers of thunder clouds surged continuously in the sky, a massive sphere of thunderlight finally formed. That thunderlight sphere was slowly squeezed out from the layers of thunder clouds and descended like a thunder meteor, smashing heavily onto the towering tree where Li Luo was.

Li Luo sat cross-legged beneath the tree, raised his head, and the thunderlight sphere was reflected in his pupils.

His expression was remarkably calm, with no panic whatsoever, but the two Xiang Palaces within his body trembled violently at this moment. Xiang Power poured out like a torrent, finally surging entirely into the great tree behind him.

Instantly, the tree became even more upright and vigorous.

Strictly speaking, this great tree was derived from the Wood Xiang nature within Li Luo's body, though it was also bolstered by the Water Light Xiang and Earth Xiang powers.

With the aid of these multiple forces, it was able to reach its current state.

Boom!

The thunderlight sphere roared down, finally smashing heavily onto the crown of the towering tree, which radiated a dazzling halo and resembled a magnificent canopy.

Crackling!

In that instant, countless leaves and branches instantly turned withered and black; a vast area of the crown, fully one-tenth of its region, turned scorched black, eroded by the thunder power.

However, as time passed, the thunderlight sphere finally dimmed, for its power had been completely exhausted.

After the power was consumed, the thunderlight sphere dissipated accordingly. The towering tree left behind was exceptionally battered; blackness spread across nearly half the area, and the entire tree seemed to be teetering on the verge of collapse.

Seeing this, Lu Ming within the illusion array immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

But before she could fully exhale that breath, she was shocked to see the scorched black areas of that great tree rapidly dissipating, as if a life-filled power surged out from the tree once more. Then the blackness began to fade, and the previously destroyed areas revived with life, turning verdant green again.

Branches and leaves continued to grow out steadfastly, displaying extremely tenacious vitality.

Lu Ming's beautiful face turned cold, yet her heart found it somewhat hard to believe.

Because the recovery ability and steadfastness possessed by this great tree, derived from Li Luo's own Wood Xiang nature, were somewhat beyond imagination.

She had encountered Li Luo's methods before; previously, she had fought people possessing the Wood Xiang, yet the defenses derived from their Wood Xiang nature shattered instantly under her thunder. The so-called recovery ability of the Wood Xiang was utterly useless before absolute power.

But this great tree of Li Luo's was exceptionally tenacious.

"Is it due to the support of the Water Xiang?"

Lu Ming's delicate brows tightened, but even with just the power of the Water Xiang, could it really possess such monstrous recovery ability?

"However, let's see how many waves of attacks you can withstand!"

Lu Ming's gaze flickered, finally turning resolute. At present, both sides had formed a standoff; she had only one path: to forcibly destroy Li Luo's Wood Xiang great tree. And this was also Li Luo's final defense.

Once the great tree was split open, the outcome of this duel would be decided.

Thus, Lu Ming extended her slender fingers; thunderlight jumped at her fingertips. As her fingertips descended, the thunderlight seemed to transform into a thunder pattern.

The thunder pattern shot skyward, merging into the layers of thunder clouds.

Boom, boom!

The thunder clouds immediately surged violently once more. After a dozen breaths, thunder resembling giant pythons descended, covering the sky and earth, roaring down, the booming sound echoing through heaven and earth.

Bang, bang, bang!

The giant tree below began to endure this storm-like, chaotic assault at this moment.

The massive crown was constantly destroyed, everything turning scorched black.

Yet amidst the sky-filling thunderstorm, the giant tree rooted silently into the earth, enduring the baptism of the thunderstorm. No matter how fierce that offensive was, it remained motionless, revealing astonishing tenacity.

This scene fell under the gaze of everyone before the tower.

Qin Qin Zhulu, Lu Qing'er, and the others all had solemn faces; they clearly did not expect Li Luo to choose this method to counter Lu Ming's relentless bombardment.

This was a contest of Xiang natures between the two sides.

Vice Dean Su Xin was also watching this side; a trace of admiration swept through her eyes. Li Luo's response was very rational. The strength of Lu Ming's illusion array lay in its unpredictability; once one fell into it, one naturally fell under her control.

But although Li Luo fell into it, he did not panic; instead, he adopted an unchanging measure. Under his static, motionless defense, Lu Ming's illusion array was actually already restrained by him.

However, with this, Li Luo was still in a passive defensive position; after all, in his situation, he had no way to break out of the array.

And as long as the array could not be broken, Lu Ming would still retain some advantage.

But there was no way; Lu Ming was also Dual-Xiang, and moreover, she was in the Third Transformation of the Xiang Transformation Stage, which was already ahead of Li Luo. Perhaps it was already very good that Li Luo could turn the situation into this.

At this moment, not only the students of the Holy Profound Star Academy, but also everyone else within this Holy Chalice Space, before all the other towers, all those who had been eliminated, were likewise staring at this intense standoff.

They all wanted to know: in this situation, who would ultimately emerge victorious?

Boom, boom, boom!

The violent thunderclaps echoed endlessly.

The sea of flowers had long been ravaged into a mess on the ground.

Within this illusion array, only the area where that great tree stood remained unscorched.

Li Luo looked up, his face turning solemn as he gazed at the thunder flashing across the sky. The Wood Xiang great tree constantly shattered under this bombardment, yet constantly displayed tenacity and resilience, rapidly growing new branches and leaves to resist the lightning strikes.

He could feel the Xiang Power within his body being rapidly consumed.

But Lu Ming was likely much the same.

Thus, he chuckled lightly and said, "Lu Ming, doesn't the current situation seem to have deviated from your expectations?"

Within the illusion array, Lu Ming's cold snort soon sounded: "Li Luo, you have indeed surprised me somewhat, but there is no need for you to be arrogant. You cannot break my illusion array at all. Here, you will inevitably lose sooner or later."

"If you surrender voluntarily now, you can still retain some dignity."

Li Luo smiled and said, "If I've already lost, what dignity is there to keep?"

"What is the point of struggling forcibly?" Lu Ming said coldly.

"It seems you think you have victory in the bag?" Li Luo said.

"Although you can still hold out for now, you are within my illusion array. The initiative is with me, while you cannot find my true body. If this continues, although it will consume much time, the one who will inevitably win is me," Lu Ming said.

Li Luo smiled: "Is that so? But I do not think so."

Lu Ming sneered, taking Li Luo's words as mere stubbornness at the end.

Li Luo, however, looked up at the thunder filling the sky. With the power of the Three-Tailed Sky Wolf, forcibly breaking the array would not be difficult, but that was not among his choices.

He had another method.

Moreover, it had already been successfully executed.

"Lu Ming, I think I should be the one to win," he suddenly smiled and said.

"Li Luo, you cannot win by dreaming," Lu Ming said disdainfully.

Li Luo raised his head, his gaze turning toward the Great Tree of the Wood Attribute. The tree, having endured countless thunder strikes, was already somewhat broken, yet it continued to heal constantly. Li Luo's line of sight, however, focused on a specific spot within the tree's crown.

Hanging on a branch there was a black fruit.

The fruit had already shattered under the previous thunder strikes; unknowingly, wisps of black qi had risen and dispersed throughout this illusion formation.

Li Luo's hand gripped the Xuanxiang Blade as he raised his other arm. On that arm, black poison qi had spread at some unknown time; half of the arm's flesh had been corroded by the poison, turning pitch black.

Li Luo slashed the Xuanxiang Blade in his hand, creating a blade-light that cut through.

Then, a large patch of black flesh on Li Luo's arm was torn off, even exposing the white, bone-white bones.

Li Luo grunted, immediately channeling the attribute power within his body into healing power. Instantly, the flesh on his arm writhed and began to gradually recover.

"Are you mad?"

Lu Ming, watching Li Luo's act of self-harm within the illusion formation, could not help but exclaim in shock.

However, the moment her voice fell, she felt a sudden, intense stabbing pain within her body; even the attribute power inside her began to become chaotic at this moment.

"What is happening?"

Lu Ming turned pale with fright. She hurriedly raised her hand and saw that a black poison spot was gradually spreading in her palm.

That poison qi was exceptionally domineering; wherever it passed, even her own attribute power was scattering in disarray.

"Poisoned?!"

An endless chill rose in Lu Ming's heart.

But what shocked her was: when exactly had she been poisoned?!

Did Li Luo do it?!

How did he do it?!