Chapter 759: First Experience in the Evil Demon Cave

When Li Luo's gaze shifted away from the enormous golden pillar, it was drawn to the light screen beside the black great hall. The screen radiated from a crystal bead embedded in the rock wall, and upon closer look, it actually displayed the progress of the Twenty Banners within the Evil Demon Cave.

Ranked first was the Golden Blood Banner of the Dragon Blood Vein, at the forty-third level.

Second was the Sacred Scale Banner of the Dragon Scale Vein, at the forty-second level.

In the fifth position, Li Luo saw the Jin Guang Banner of the Dragon Fang Vein, at the thirty-ninth level.

After that came a cluster of banners hovering around the thirty-fifth level. The Purple Qi Banner and the Red Cloud Banner were also in this range, and further down, at fourteenth place, he spotted the Qing Ming Banner.

The Qing Ming Banner's result was the twenty-seventh level.

Bringing up the rear alongside a few fellow sufferers.

This was indeed a rather poor result, because the other banners at the bottom were basically all from the Dragon Bone Vein and the Dragon Horn Vein. These two veins were not direct lineages, and in terms of foundation, they had always been suppressed by the other three veins.

And the Qing Ming Banner falling to the same tier as them—when one recalled the glory and brilliance of the Qing Ming Banner back when his old man was around—naturally filled one with endless sighs.

His old man's departure back then was indeed a heavy blow to the Qing Ming Court.

"Quite a gap, isn't it."

Li Luo muttered. The first echelon had already reached around the fortieth level, while the Qing Ming Banner was only at twenty-seven. The gap between them truly left nothing to say, and the Jin Guang Banner's height of thirty-nine levels was indeed enough to look down on the other three banners of the Dragon Fang Vein.

The Purple Qi and Red Cloud Banners, under Li Li Jingtao and Li Li Fengyi, had also been left far behind by Deng Deng Fengxian.

No wonder Deng Deng Fengxian was so forceful and domineering—turns out she had results like these backing her up.

With such solid advancement progress, the Jin Guang Banner was indeed the face of this generation of the Dragon Fang Vein.

But what Li Luo wanted most right now was still to experience firsthand just how much Earth Fiend Profound Light harvest those evil demons in the Evil Demon Cave could bring him—this would affect his subsequent cultivation progress.

So Li Luo exchanged a few words with Li Li Jingtao and Li Li Fengyi, then returned to the Qing Ming Banner's side.

He found Zhao Zhao Yanzhi and asked, "We're pushing for the twenty-eighth level next, right? Have you all attempted this level before?"

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi replied, "Each opening of the Evil Demon Cave lasts three days. Our Qing Ming Banner last time broke through to the twenty-eighth level on the final day. You know, at that time our Fifth Department hadn't even selected a Banner Head yet—we were a complete mess—so our Fifth Department didn't even reach one-tenth of the progress."

"But that wasn't because we lacked ability. The main thing was that we ran into the Dragon Bone Vein's Iron Bone Banner, Second Department... we fought them, which delayed our progress."

"You can run into other banner departments inside the Evil Demon Cave?" Li Luo asked, somewhat astonished.

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi nodded and said, "You won't encounter other banner departments in the first two days, but on the third day, the mechanism changes. At that time, if you break into a new level, you might bump into other banner departments, and the situation becomes much more complicated, because not only do we have to clear the evil demons, we also have to compete against the opposing banner department."

"This kind of inter-banner competition is random, so if your luck is bad, running straight into the Dragon Blood Vein's Golden Blood Banner, First Department isn't impossible. And at that point, surrendering on the spot might be the more dignified option."

Li Luo was speechless. This mechanism was clearly designed to foster competition and tempering among the banner departments, this—

The higher-ups of the Li Li Tianwang lineage were quite clever indeed.

"Does the progress in the Evil Demon Cave reset each time?" Li Luo asked.

"It doesn't."

"Then couldn't you just grind through with time and eventually clear it?" Li Luo said in surprise.

"In theory, if you had enough time, maybe you could, but if you're counting on that to blast through all seventy-two levels, you're underestimating those thirteen golden pillars far too much." Zhao Zhao Yanzhi pointed at the thirteen dazzling, resplendent golden pillars before the great hall and said with a charming laugh.

Li Luo nodded. Over the hundreds of years of the Twenty Banners, only thirteen banners had cleared all seventy-two levels. If it were really that simple, it would be too much of a slight to those predecessors of the Twenty Banners.

"Banner Head."

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi's alluring figure leaned closer, her faint fragrance drifting straight into Li Luo's nose. She whispered, "I heard that Zhong Ling has been making noise over at the First Department, saying that this entry into the Evil Demon Cave must clear two levels within three days. He's earning prestige, laying the groundwork for competing for the Qing Ming Banner's Grand Banner Head later."

"If Banner Head has any interest in that position, you need to prepare in advance. In the Twenty Banners, the hearts of the people are very important. Once the banner members truly support you, when you activate 'United Qi,' it won't only be easier—it'll be far more powerful."

Hearing Zhao Zhao Yanzhi's reminder, Li Luo nodded slightly. The power of the Twenty Banners was rather special—it came from the collective, not the individual. So gaining the people's support here was no small boost.

And the simplest way to win hearts was to lead everyone in clearing the Evil Demon Cave.

Because this way, all the banner members of the Qing Ming Banner would benefit, and whoever contributed the most would naturally enjoy the highest prestige.

Zhong Ling was clearly thinking along these lines, which was why he was going all out to clear the Evil Demon Cave.

Li Luo smiled helplessly. It seemed that ever since he had mastered the Nine-Turn Dragon Breath Evil Refining Art, Zhong Ling had already regarded him as a threat. The two of them had essentially already begun the competition for Grand Banner Head.

But he naturally had nothing to fear about this. If even such a minor character could block his path, then what future could he possibly speak of in the Dragon Fang Vein?

Throughout the entire Five Dragon Veins, who knew how many gazes were secretly fixed on him, the son of Li Taixuan. If he couldn't even handle a Zhong Ling, countless people would secretly laugh—the dazzlingly brilliant Li Taixuan had actually produced such a useless son.

Just as Li Luo was thinking these thoughts, several streaks of flowing light suddenly descended from above Evil Demon Peak, appearing outside the black great hall.

They revealed themselves to be several black-robed elders. They were stern-faced and solemn, and with a single sweep of their gazes, the clamor in the field fell silent.

Presumably they were the elders presiding over the opening of the Evil Demon Cave.

Once they arrived, they didn't say much of anything—presumably those words repeated thousands of times truly didn't need saying again. So they directly formed hand seals, and as their phase power surged, runic symbols materialized out of thin air and fell onto the doors of the black great hall.

Boom, boom!

Faintly, it seemed as if the rumbling of phase power clashing rang out.

Then everyone saw the tightly shut, heavy doors slowly open at this moment.

Beyond the doors was a massive energy vortex. The vortex formed a passage leading to an unknown destination.

When the energy vortex appeared, over at the Jin Guang Banner, Deng Deng Fengxian took the lead, her figure leaping forth and plunging straight into the vortex.

After her

came the eight thousand banner members of the Jin Guang Banner.

The Purple Qi Banner and the Red Cloud Banner were also unwilling to fall behind and set off one after another.

Before entering the vortex, Li Li Fengyi glanced toward Li Luo, gave him a thumbs-up gesture of encouragement, then her figure vanished into it and disappeared.

"Qing Ming Banner, prepare to enter. First Department, charge with me."

At this moment, Zhong Ling gave a light shout and shot forth first, with the First Department's banner members following closely behind.

Li Luo had no interest in contesting such boring limelight with Zhong Ling. He merely waved his hand, then his figure moved and plunged into the energy vortex behind the hall doors.

His greater interest at this moment was still this Evil Demon Cave itself.

Whether he could strengthen and polish at least two of his phase palaces to the level of the Great Evil Palace within the next less than three months would depend on what he gained here.

As Li Luo passed through the energy vortex, dazzling light erupted before his eyes, causing a momentary dizziness.

And by the next instant when he came back to his senses, he found the scene before him had completely changed. His gaze swept the surroundings—this was an island, and the island seemed to exist within a special space. In the distance, space twisted and layered, clearly impossible to reach.

This place is the Evil Demon Cave.

The space behind Li Luo kept twisting, and one figure after another shot out from within, landing behind him.

It was the Fifth Division's banner troops.

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi's slender form leapt, landing lightly beside Li Luo. Then her delicate jade finger pointed forward as she said, "Banner Leader, do you see them? Those are the Evil Demons."

"On this island, the number of Evil Demons is no less than several tens of thousands. Only by wiping them all out can it be considered passing."

Li Luo's gaze followed where she pointed, and then he saw, in the sparse woods, countless dark-gray figures wandering aimlessly.

Those figures were roughly several zhang tall, their bodies seemingly covered in dark-gray scales. Their features were a blur, looking somewhat eerie.

From those figures, Li Luo sensed a familiar energy — it was Earth Evil energy.

"If we wipe out these tens of thousands of Evil Demons, how much Earth Evil Mysterious Light can the gathered Earth Evil energy condense?" Li Luo licked his lips and asked.

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi thought for a moment and said, "It should be around three to four thousand strands."

Li Luo was a bit disappointed upon hearing this. Although three to four thousand strands of Earth Evil Mysterious Light sounded enormous, it wasn't for him alone — it would be distributed among fifteen hundred banner troops.

So in the end, it would probably amount to just two or three strands per person.

But then he thought, after all, this was only the twenty-eighth level. The deeper they went later on, the greater the harvest would surely be.

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi seemed to know what Li Luo was thinking. She smiled charmingly, pointed toward the depths of the island, and said, "Banner Leader, deep within that island there must surely be an Evil Demon Leader's presence. If you defeat it, then according to contribution distribution, you might get nearly a hundred extra strands of Earth Evil Mysterious Light."

Li Luo's heart jolted at those words.

A hundred strands of Earth Evil Mysterious Light was nearly equivalent to over a dozen top-grade Yuan Evil Pills.

Just one level yielding such a harvest — that was quite a windfall.

At this thought, his bold spirit surged, and he waved his hand.

"Brothers, charge!"