Chapter 624: Black Dragon Nether Water Banner

The Divination Arts Tower was a vital area of the academy. Even with Instructor Xi Chan leading the way, Li Luo was only granted entry after his identity was carefully verified and the token given by Vice Principal Su Xin was presented.

The Divination Arts Tower housed the many divination arts that the academy had collected and created since its founding. Its depth of foundation far surpassed that of any power in the Great Xia. Li Luo had also visited the library of their Lu Lan Mansion, but compared to the academy's Divination Arts Tower, it was undoubtedly a minor deity meeting a great one.

The Divination Arts Tower had four floors. The first floor stored ordinary divination arts, the second held Tiger General Arts, and the third held Dragon General Arts. Students who wished to exchange for the cultivation of any of these arts had to pay the corresponding academy points, and there were also strict return deadlines. If exceeded, points would continue to be deducted.

Li Luo's target this time, however, was not any of these three floors.

Amidst some startled gazes within the Divination Arts Tower, Li Luo followed Instructor Xi Chan directly to the fourth floor.

Seeing them ascend the stairs to the fourth floor, shock surfaced in the eyes of some students in the tower who were borrowing divination arts, because they had never heard of any student being able to go to the fourth floor of the Divination Arts Tower. In the past, they had at most heard that Purple-Glow Instructors had the right to enter, but among students, even Gong Gong Shenjun had never been permitted to enter the fourth floor.

However, they also had some guesses as to why Li Luo had been granted access to the fourth floor. Most likely it was because he had won the Dragon Bone Sacred Cup for the academy. This was something one could only envy, after all, the difficulty was truly despairingly high.

The fourth floor of the Divination Arts Tower was said to house the legendary "Marquis Arts." Could Li Luo have gone there precisely for this?

But this was perhaps being overly ambitious. A high-grade item like a Marquis Art—even for Li Luo, even if it were one of the academy's Seven Star Pillars, it would probably be very difficult to truly cultivate it.

Amidst numerous gazes that were both shocked and envious, Li Luo followed Instructor Xi Chan into the fourth floor.

The fourth floor appeared extremely simple, without the slightest hint of grandeur. However, on the somewhat dim walls, Li Luo seemed to faintly see mysterious light patterns wriggling past like earthworms. Clearly, this fourth floor was not as simple as it appeared.

Then Li Luo's gaze turned to the central area of the fourth floor, and there he saw five mottled stone pillars. The stone pillars were roughly the height of a person, with a stone lotus blooming at the top. Above the stone lotus, a faint radiance rose, as if forming a ring of light barrier.

Within the light barrier, there seemed to be something.

Li Luo blinked, his heart stirring.

Instructor Xi Chan had already taken the lead, walking toward those five stone lotuses, and said lightly: "Our academy has collected five Marquis Arts that outstanding students who have made contributions may choose from. They are all here, and they all belong to the 'Spirit-Communion Grade' of Marquis Arts."

"Come and try, see if you can pick a Marquis Art that is somewhat compatible with yourself."

Li Luo's heart burning with eagerness, he stepped forward quickly, arriving at the first stone lotus. His gaze swept across, and he saw a fiery red carp swimming within the stone lotus. The fire carp gave an extremely peculiar feeling, as if it were alive, but upon closer observation, one could discover countless incomprehensibly obscure characters inscribed on its scales.

An extremely terrifying temperature was slowly emanating from within the fire carp. Even with the concealment of the stone lotus's light barrier, Li Luo still felt a burning sensation.

"This Marquis Art is called 'Blazing Carp Demon Fire.' If cultivated, it can summon a special kind of demon fire. This fire is domineering beyond compare, capable of burning the heavens. If a Marquis-level powerhouse were to deploy it, even a single wisp could burn an entire mountain range." Instructor Xi Chan's voice came over.

"It is said that if cultivated to the highest realm, the demon fire will transform into a fire carp, gaining spiritual intelligence of its own. Wherever it swims, the heavens for ten thousand miles will become a furnace."

Li Luo smacked his tongue. So this was a Marquis Art? It could even give birth to a special kind of spiritual intelligence within the divination art itself. In terms of level, it indeed far surpassed the Dragon General Arts.

However, Li Luo ultimately gave up on this "Blazing Carp Demon Fire" without much reluctance, because he himself did not possess fire-attribute phase power. Although one could cultivate it by using certain fire-attribute treasures as a medium, doing so would increase the difficulty of cultivating the Marquis Art. At his current level, cultivating a Marquis Art was already somewhat of a stretch, so why add more difficulty to himself?

So he walked toward the second stone lotus.

Within the stone lotus, a small cyan sword roughly the size of a palm was suspended. The small sword stood motionless, yet emitted an extremely sharp sword qi, accompanied by the whistling sound of biting wind. Li Luo only had to gaze at that small sword to feel his eyes sting intensely, as if tears were about to flow.

At the same time, lightning flowed across the small sword, and the rumbling of thunder gathered with the sound of wind, appearing even more wondrous.

"This is the 'Cyan Wind Thunder Sword Art,' most suitable for those who possess wind and thunder attribute phase power. It can cultivate Wind-Thunder Sword Gang. With a flick of the finger, the Sword Gang sweeps across ten thousand miles, unbreakable, unstoppable."

Li Luo swallowed, feeling a bit covetous, but although he himself possessed the Lei Xiang, he did not have a wind phase.

So he gave up on it as well.

Next, Li Luo carefully observed two more Marquis Arts.

"The Ninefold Golden Bell Indestructible Body, a defensive body-tempering Marquis Art. This art requires metal-attribute phase power. Once cultivated, the physical body is guarded by nine golden bells. As long as the golden bells are not destroyed, the body is indestructible."

"Zhong Jie Zi Mu Zhong Jie, a Marquis Art possessing sealing power. Once cultivated, it can transform ten thousand trees into a realm, condensed within the palm. When facing an enemy, with a single palm, the powerful foe is drawn into the wooden realm within the palm, suppressed and sealed by the realm of ten thousand trees."

Of the next two divination arts, Li Luo finally saw a Marquis Art that moved his heart, and that was this "Zhong Jie Zi Mu Zhong Jie." This art was primarily based on wood phase power, making it extremely suitable for him. However, according to Instructor Xi Chan, the difficulty of cultivating this art was quite high, and cultivating it successfully would not be easy.

But Li Luo was clearly not a person who feared difficulty, so while his heart kept calculating, his feet also found it hard to leave that fourth stone lotus.

After a moment's hesitation, Li Luo finally decided to make a decisive choice.

However, just as he was about to speak, a subtle sensation suddenly rose in his heart. His gaze turned toward the fifth stone lotus, because at this moment, he seemed to hear a faint sound of dragon's cry emanating from there. This dragon's cry actually caused the dragon phase power within his body to tremble.

So he hesitated for a moment, took a step, and walked toward the fifth stone lotus, intending to see what this final Marquis Art was.

Soon, the fifth stone lotus came into Li Luo's view. Within it, there was actually a mottled, ancient banner. The banner was dark red, planted in a patch of black seawater, fluttering in the wind. And upon the banner, a black giant dragon was actually patterned.

The giant dragon coiled across the surface of the banner, as if slumbering, while an abnormally terrifying pressure slowly emanated, stirring up waves within that black sea.

And as Li Luo gazed at that dark red banner coiled with a black giant dragon, Instructor Xi Chan's voice also followed.

"This is the Black Dragon Nether Water Banner. If counted alone, it is also a Spirit-Communion Grade Marquis Art. Cultivating this art requires water phase power and dragon phase power, or an item possessing dragon race essence blood, as a medium. Once cultivated, it can transform into a black dragon and nether water. The black dragon commands water, capable of dissolving all things."

Li Luo nodded, then keenly detected something special in Instructor Xi Chan's words: "Counted alone? What does that mean?"

Instructor Xi Chan seemed to smile slightly and said: "This divination art was passed down from the Academy Alliance. In fact, some other Holy Academies also have backups, but this 'Black Dragon Nether Water Banner' is only a part of a certain higher-grade Marquis Art, which is why I said counted alone."

"A higher-grade Marquis Art?! Spirit Manifestation Grade?!" A flash of burning heat passed through Li Luo's eyes.

Instructor Xi Chan shook her head and said leisurely: "That Marquis Art is called the 'Three Dragon Heaven Banner Codex.' It is divided into three parts. Our Holy Academies only have the first part; the other two are collected in those ancient academies of the Inner Shenzhou. A single part of this art can only be considered Spirit-Communion Grade, but if one cultivates it completely and merges the three parts, its grade will reach 'Si Si Tianming Grade.'"

Li Luo drew in a breath of cold air.

Spirit-Communion, Spirit Manifestation, Si Si Tianming, peerless.

Marquis Arts had four grades, yet the "Three Dragon Heaven Banner Codex" actually reached Si Si Tianming Grade!

A Marquis Art of this level—not to mention the Holy Xuanxing Academy, probably even surveying the entire Outer Shenzhou of the Eastern Region, would be exceedingly rare!

This was a peerless treasure capable of making Marquis-level powerhouses fight each other to the death!

The Academy Alliance truly possessed terrifying foundations!

Li Luo forcefully swallowed, then decisively pointed at the black banner within the stone lotus.

"Instructor, I'll take this one!"