Chapter 0577: Modifying Resonance Arts
"Demon Ape's Will!"
As soon as the last illusion was skewered through by Ao Bai's trident, Sun Dasheng started them off by unleashing his long-charged up killer move. His entire body began to swell up with muscle, pushing his chest out until it was broader than a barrel. A jet-black light glimmered on his skin like polished iron.
His blood mingled with his resonant power within him, creating a new, powerful concoction that crawled through his veins and painted his skin in sinisterly arcane tattoos of crimson.
A tail of light formed behind him, long and agile like a monkey's tail.
Sun Dasheng's eyes turned red as well. He was an ancient ape that had come back to life.
Even Li Luo was impressed by the overall transformation.
Sun Dasheng was only a Third Changing, but in this state, even Li Luo would find it a challenge to beat him.
"How in the world did you beat him during the hall-level competition?" Li Luo demanded of Jing Taixu.
"His Duke Art is incomplete," Jing Taixu said indifferently. "Once he uses it, his rationality is suppressed. He's completely a primal ape now... dodge him for ten seconds and then he'll emerge in an extremely weakened state."
"Ah." Li Luo understood. "You beat him the sneaky way, not the proper way."
Jing Taixu snorted. "I beat him the easier way. Not the harder way."
BOOM!
While the two spoke, Sun Dasheng had already locked on to Ao Bai, roaring his defiance as he stomped the ground to loose gravel under his hairy foot.
He charged Ao Bai like a raging bull. No resonance art was employed—all he needed was brute strength and his metal staff, which he swung in a brutal smash aimed horizontally at Ao Bai's chest.
The raw physical strength was tremendous to behold, and the nearby buildings trembled as the staff passed by.
Li Luo was well and truly amazed by this attack. He was pretty sure that he would have been injured if he were in Ao Bai's shoes. A Duke Art was truly nothing to mess with. Sun Dasheng's incomplete mastery was already far stronger than any dragon-general resonance art he had seen so far.
Boom!
But while Li Luo and Jing Taixu might have chosen to avoid Sun Dasheng's attack, the possessed Ao Bai had no such presence of mind. He did not back down even an inch. His trident flicked out like a dragon's tail, crashing against the simian's attack.
Like the meeting of two comets.
CLANG!
A spider-web of cracks rippled out under the pair as they struggled for the upper hand. A few seconds later, Sun Dasheng suddenly slid backwards, then he was sent flying, shrinking as he went. His resonant power leaked out of him like a punctured balloon.
Demon Ape's Will had run out.
Curled up in a ball, he tried to break his landing as he crashed into a broken wall, coughing up blood.
"All... yours..." he wheezed.
Li Luo and Jing Taixu had no time to pay attention to his injuries. They were locked on to Ao Bai as well. The force of Sun Dasheng's attack had traveled past his defenses, landing on his chest and catapulting him back several dozen meters.
More importantly, it had blown apart a huge hole in the thick layer of silver dragon scales at the chest area.
As a bonus, Ao Bai was looking a little vague and unfocused, and the moth was flying in a strangely drunken pattern.
"Low grade dragon-general resonance art, Wind Demon's Wrath!"
Jing Taixu wasted no time. He formed a spear of pure energy with his green plantain fan, then whipped it at Ao Bai's exposed chest while the possessed student was still clearing his head.
"Li Luo!" Jing Taixu could only hope that Li Luo would complement his attack perfectly. He alone could not possibly break through the remaining Dragon's Bulwark.
Li Luo took a deep breath, then began his own move. Hand tight on the Onyx-Elephant Blade, he started to coat it with rippling light.
Jing Taixu stared at him. "Thousand Watery Knives Art? You don't have a dragon-general resonance art at all!" he cried in dismay.
Seeing Li Luo's cockiness before had convinced him that Li Luo had been hiding one up his sleeve, but now he was just using the common Thousand Watery Knives Art that Jing Taixu had seen too many times before.
It was not a bad resonance art, but ultimately, it was merely a tiger-general resonance art.
Li Luo might be quite strong with his buffed-up physical body and his dual resonances, but this tiger-general resonance art was not going to cut it at all against an opponent of this caliber. He was not even a peer of their same year—he was the damned winner of the Two Star Hall’s strongest student title!
Li Luo ignored Jing Taixu's dismay. He was busy honing the edge on his sword blade, until it was the sharp reefline that separated the inexorable tide from the shore.
The Thousand Watery Knives Art was a high grade tiger-general resonance art.
It was also the resonance art that Li Luo had cultivated closest to perfection. He understood the move deeply, had lived it, breathed it, and used it to save his life on more than one occasion. The fusion of light resonant energy into it elevated the speed of the water, and hence its cutting power, far beyond what others expected.
With each level of understanding that Li Luo developed for the move, he continued to refine it.
If others knew that a humble Resonant Master was ambitious enough to modify resonance arts, they would probably laugh, as if he were a toddler sharpening a twig with a stone. He did not care. He was talented in resonance arts, a talent that even Jiang Qing'e had acknowledged before. Back before anyone had activated their resonant palaces in Southwind Academy, he had climbed to the top based on this talent alone.
"The Thousand Watery Knives Art harnesses the cutting edge of water resonant power. The faster the flow, the stronger the cutting power. Until now, it was assumed that straight-flowing water was fastest and therefore produced the most cutting power.
"But is that really so? Changing the edge pattern of the attack is incredibly difficult... unless you can imbue light resonant energy like I do. Light resonant energy is ethereal, ever-changing, and even more versatile in form than water resonant power. I can use it to create new channels, mold the water's flow however I wish."
Li Luo's eyes gleamed in triumph.
Within him, his light resonant energy started to pepper the edge of his blade with points of light, throwing the flow of water resonant power into a unique pattern that he had carefully experimented with before. Mathematical curves that flowed back and forth, forcing the water onwards faster and faster.
Li Luo was not done yet. He continued to overlap the curves across each other to create jagged edges that joined seamlessly against each other.
Finally, he joined one end of the entire construct to the other, creating a full cycle! Water pushed against water, spurring it onwards in a virtuous cycle of speed, until the entire attack was humming with speed.
Jing Taixu's jaw dropped.
He could sense that this attack had gotten way stronger than it ever should have.
Was this even the Thousand Watery Knives Art anymore?!
The hum he heard from it reminded him of a dragon's purr.
"Indeed, I don't have a dragon-general resonance art yet," Li Luo said with a grim smile directed Jing Taixu's way.
"But don't you think this modified tiger-general resonance art of mine just about compares?"
Jing Taixu shook his head in wonder. Li Luo was truly mad. Had he managed to come up with his own resonance art?! Was this something a Resonant Master cultivator was capable of?
Li Luo stepped forward and unleashed the attack.
Weng!
The void itself warped around the attack as it shot out. Behind it, its creator smiled, the reflection of the wheel of water spinning in his eye.
Li Luo smiled.
"Senior Ao Bai, taste my newest creation. I call it... Thousand Watery Knives Wheel."