Chapter 773: Five Thousand Complete

In the period that followed, Li Luo went through another trip to the Evil Demon Cave. This time, he led the Fifth Division to once again beat the First Division in clearing the thirty-second floor.

Zhong Ling, having suffered a loss last time, didn't dare act rashly and impulsively anymore, so even upon seeing Li Luo claim another victory, he could only grit his teeth and swallow it. What he was looking forward to was the Banner Division battle on the third day, where he could exert his strength and win back his lost face.

But unluckily for him, on the third day's Banner Division battle, the First Division of the Qingming Banner encountered the Second Division of the Holy Scale Banner of the Dragon Scale Lineage. Their opponent was the second-ranked Banner Division, extremely powerful, so Zhong Ling's lofty ambitions were once again ruthlessly ground to dust.

The First Division was nearly wiped out in this clash.

As for Li Luo's side, their luck finally turned good for once. They were assigned an opponent from the Dragon Bone Lineage, so in the end they defeated them with relative ease, and after paying a rather painful price, cleared the thirty-third floor.

Thus, in the second Evil Demon Cave, the Fifth Division led by Li Luo once again became the most illustrious Banner Division in the Qingming Banner, their prestige rising another level.

At the same time, in this second Evil Demon Cave, Li Luo once again harvested over five hundred streams of Earth Evil Mysterious Light.

Combined with bitter cultivation over the past ten-plus days, the Earth Evil Mysterious Light within Li Luo's Water Light Phase Palace had already reached over four thousand, just a stone's throw from the five-thousand limit.

So Li Luo's cultivation grew ever more diligent.

Finally, when Li Luo reached the one-month mark at the Dragon Fang Lineage, the number of Earth Evil Mysterious Light within his Water Light Phase Palace finally reached the limit.

Inside the cultivation chamber.

Li Luo's mind observed the five thousand streams of Earth Evil Mysterious Light flowing like birds within his Water Light Phase Palace, his heart brimming with joy. After this period of cultivation, his first Water Light Phase Palace had finally cultivated out five thousand streams of Earth Evil Mysterious Light.

And at this step, he could borrow the power of these five thousand streams of Earth Evil Mysterious Light to begin truly tempering and strengthening the Phase Palace, elevating it to the level of the Grand Evil Palace Realm.

Generally speaking, if a normal single-phase practitioner reached this step, they could only wait for this tempering and strengthening to complete before their Phase Palace could continue to accommodate more Earth Evil Mysterious Light.

But Li Luo didn't need to wait, because he had only just filled his first Phase Palace. His two subsequent Wood-Earth Phase Palaces and Dragon Thunder Phase Palace were still completely empty.

For this kind of Phase Palace strengthening, the more Earth Evil Mysterious Light there was, the faster the strengthening would be, and the better the effect.

So Li Luo could completely continue to strengthen the Water Light Phase Palace while simultaneously continuing to condense Earth Evil Mysterious Light, then channeling it into his two subsequent Phase Palaces. Moreover, this Earth Evil Mysterious Light could also help accelerate the strengthening of the Water Light Phase Palace.

The advantage of multiple phases began to manifest itself at this moment.

Li Luo's mind stirred, and he directly activated the "Strengthening Chapter" within the Nine-Turn Dragon Breath Evil-Refining Art. The next instant, the five thousand streams of Earth Evil Mysterious Light rapidly fused together within the Water Light Phase Palace, faintly seeming to transform into a dragon shadow.

This dragon shadow opened its dragon maw and breathed out dragon breath, which poured over every corner of the Phase Palace again and again.

Thus, faint light blossomed within the Water Light Phase Palace. With each pouring of dragon breath, Li Luo could clearly feel this Phase Palace seemingly becoming more resilient and expansive.

Even the clear, bright lake condensed from Water Light Phase Force at the center of the Phase Palace continuously bloomed with rippling waves at this moment.

This kind of Phase Palace strengthening was also a baptism of one's own Phase Force, which would make it thicker and more domineering.

And Li Luo possessed three Phase Palaces, so this Phase Force strengthening, he could do it three times!

Feeling the Phase Force within his body grow increasingly thick and powerful, Li Luo finally opened his eyes in satisfaction. At this pace, he might only need a few days to complete the strengthening.

When that time came, his first Water Light Phase Palace would step into the Grand Evil Palace Realm.

"Worthy of being the Inner Shenzhou. This kind of cultivation speed is far faster than when I was in the Great Xia." Li Luo sighed. The same talent, in these two different places, resulted in entirely different cultivation progress.

This is cultivation

resources' importance.

Having only talent but no resources means you can only take it one step at a time, slowly grinding away, but sometimes you'll inevitably miss the best cultivation window. Especially before the Marquis Realm, this is the time when young people are at their most vigorous and advancing. If you fall a step behind at this time, you'll likely have to expend more effort and seize more opportunities later to catch up.

Li Luo rose, walked out of the cultivation chamber, and came to the lakeside of the rear courtyard.

He clenched his palm, and a large bow as white as jade appeared in his hand—it was the Light Falcon Bow, which Li Luo had forgotten about for quite a while.

This bow-type treasure was only of the Upper Grade Golden Thread White Eye tier. Li Luo had once thought it was pretty good, but with his current advancement in strength, a treasure of this tier was somewhat beneath his notice.

But since there was no better replacement for now, he could only make do with it.

Li Luo drew the bowstring. The Dragon Thunder Phase Force within his body began to flow at this moment, finally gathering at the bowstring. Immediately, faint dragon roars sounded indistinctly, and streams of Phase Force light shuttled continuously through the bowstring, gradually seeming to form an arrow of a grey-white hue.

The arrow appeared extremely plain, grey-white and mottled, but for some reason, the grey-white light flowing upon it gave one an indescribable sense of sharpness.

As if it were a giant dragon's fang.

This was the high-grade Dragon General Art Li Luo had obtained from Li Li Jingzhe before—Dragon Fang Thunder Flow.

During this past half month or so, aside from continuously cultivating and condensing Earth Evil Mysterious Light, he had poured all his focus into cultivating this high-grade Dragon General Art.

This Dragon General Art was also extremely difficult to cultivate, requiring both Dragon Phase and Thunder Phase power. For ordinary people, this was quite demanding, but for Li Luo, it was a perfect match.

Moreover, Li Luo inherently possessed extremely high talent in cultivating Phase Arts, so after half a month or so of comprehension and cultivation, along with repeated failures, he had finally grasped the threshold of Dragon Fang Thunder Flow.

The slender grey-white dragon fang grew increasingly condensed upon the bowstring. Li Luo's mind calmly manipulated Thunder Phase power, sketching and inscribing extremely complex thunder patterns at the tail of the dragon fang arrow.

As these thunder patterns took shape, one saw Lei Guang begin to flow out, seemingly transforming the entire arrow into flowing thunder magma.

Thunder arcs leaped wildly.

The surrounding heaven and earth energy trembled violently.

Li Luo felt the bowstring beginning to creak, knowing it had reached its limit. He immediately narrowed his eyes slightly and released his fingertips.

Boom!

Thunder roared.

It was as if a streak of startling lightning swept across the void. The lake surface ahead was directly torn apart at this moment. That Lei Guang, with an indescribable momentum, pierced through several thousand zhang, and finally struck a reef at the center of the lake, blasting it to pieces, while simultaneously raising towering waves that surged toward the shore.

A satisfied smile surfaced in Li Luo's eyes.

Having cultivated for over half a month, this was the first time he had successfully executed "Dragon Fang Thunder Flow."

"The Phase Force consumption is still within an acceptable range. Compared to the 'Black Dragon Dark Water Banner,' it's far easier, and its power is also a notch stronger than 'Flowing Water Blade Wheel.'" Li Luo assessed this arrow's consumption and might, and grew increasingly satisfied.

"Clap clap!"

At this moment, the sound of applause suddenly came from behind.

Li Luo turned his head and saw Zhao Zhao Yanzhi standing prettily beneath a large tree, her pretty face bearing an amazed smile.

"Congratulations, Banner Head, on cultivating yet another Phase Art of considerable power. Dominating the Dragon Fang Lineage is just around the corner." Zhao Zhao Yanzhi's eyes swirled, exuding a seductive charm. Coupled with her curvaceous, alluring figure, she truly appeared like an enchantress.

To Zhao Zhao Yanzhi's soul-stealing, captivating glances, Li Luo turned a blind eye, put away the Light Falcon Bow, and walked over.

"Something you need?" he asked.

Zhao Zhao Yanzhi heard this, restrained her seductive expression, and said softly, "Today is the day each Banner Division receives its monthly resources. I heard it's the Second Hall Master and Third Hall Master personally coming."

Li Luo's gaze flickered.

Every month, the Academy would distribute a massive amount of resources to the Qingming Banner, and these resources were tied to the monthly stipend of each member.

banner member.

In the past, the resources of the Qingming Banner's divisions had actually been distributed evenly, with each division receiving twenty percent.

But later, after Zhong Ling took charge of the First Division, in order to win over the hearts of its members and also to demonstrate his own ability and tactics, he increased the First Division's resources by another ten percent.

In other words, every month the First Division received thirty percent of the resources.

The Second, Third, and Fourth Divisions each received twenty percent.

And the Fifth Division, which hadn't even elected a banner leader yet, became the sacrificial lamb, reduced to ten percent.

In other words, Zhong Ling had directly swallowed up the Fifth Division's share of resources.

Although the Fifth Division members had always harbored grievances about this, given that the First Division was the spearhead unit, and considering Zhong Ling's status, they could only swallow their anger.

But now... after Li Luo learned of this, he had no intention of putting up with it.

His cultivation urgently needs resources right now—how could he possibly tolerate Zhong Ling cutting flesh from his own body?

After all, when it came to status, could you really compare to me?