Chapter 1307: 99,200 Feet
With the Descending Devil Tide, the entire World End's River Region erupted into chaos. Countless Others emerged and even though those who were present in this area were experts in their own right, there were still many unlucky individuals who fell each day.
This included many Dukes.
However the atmosphere within the World End's River Region had not dampened. On the contrary, even more experts from the Heavenly Origin Divine Continent made their way over. They all knew that the World End's River Treasure Domain was about to open as well.
The World End's River Treasure Domain was an opportunity that everyone was interested in. It contained a great variety of Foundational Spirit Treasures including those of upper and even top grade!
If they could chance upon a top grade Foundational Spirit Treasure, even if they weren't going to use it for themselves, they could sell it to the Golden Dragon Bank. They could then exchange for an immense amount of cultivation resources for themselves.
When faced with such temptation, whether it was rogue cultivators or Dukes from esteemed Heavenly Emperor powers, they would all do their best to compete for these treasures.
Furthermore, Foundational Spirit Treasures could be considered to be hard currencies.
Thus the news of Duke's dying daily did not deter the tide of people entering the World End's River Domain, all keen on making preparations to enter the World End's River Treasure Domain.
That said the situation in the region had become much more dangerous and more and more rogue cultivators poured into Heavenly Dragon City, Abyssal City and the other strongholds built by Heavenly Emperor powers.
It might be expensive to reside there but it was ultimately safe. There were grand formations protecting them and were capable of preventing Others from infiltrating.
Additionally, they also had to make preparations for the Stygian Rain of Calamity.
During this period of time, Heavenly Dragon City had become extraordinarily bustling and order had to be maintained. This task naturally fell upon the Five Guardian Armies.
Even though many Others had surfaced as a result of the Descending Devil Tide, there were no traces of Others within Heavenly Dragon City. However Heavenly Dragon Peak was massive and also encompassed countless hunting grounds and other districts.
These districts on the other hand began to show signs of Others infiltration.
The hunting grounds were capable of producing rare treasures that could be refined into Foundational Spirit Treasures and thus were incredibly valuable. As a result, the Five Guardian Armies had to first spend a period of time to purge them of the Others to prevent the hunting grounds from becoming corrupted.
The Five Guardian Armies were thus inundated with a large volume of missions and they were incredibly busy as a result.
The Dragon's Fang Guardians were no exception. Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e only had a small amount of time to rest and recuperate within Heavenly Dragon City whereas the bulk of their time was spent accomplishing missions in the coming half a month.
What had to be said was that after the events of the Falling Star Terrace, Li Luo's Heavenly Resonance Diagram had reached a size of 98,000 feet.
That was an increase of 2000 feet from before.
This was not even a fraction of the amount his Heavenly Resonance Diagram had increased by the first time he utilized the Star Pearls.
That said, Li Luo was still incredibly pleased. The first time he arrived on the Falling Star Terrace, his Heavenly Resonance Diagram was only 60,000 feet. How could he compare the difficulty he faced now with what he experienced then?
At this point, wanting to attain the final two thousand feet would require both a tremendous amount of talent and resources. Even Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College's Ning Meng with a middle ninth-grade Light Chaser Beast resonance was only able to reach 98,000 feet whereas Wu Changkong reached 96,000 feet, the latter having been surpassed by Li Luo already.
Thus being able to reach 98,000 feet was already a monstrous achievement and display of his immense foundation in many people's eyes.
He could already begin the process of breaking into the Duke stage.
However Li Luo was not satisfied with this. His goal was to reach the perfect stage of 100,000 feet!
This was the hardest accomplishment one could attain before the Duke stage and the perfect stages that Li Luo had attained before were undoubtedly insignificant when compared to this.
That said Li Luo was not afraid of the challenge. He could sense that he had not tapped all of his innate potential and so long as he was given more time and opportunities, it was not impossible to do so.
Additionally he wanted to improve his personal strength further before the opening of the World End's River Treasure Domain. Thus he feverishly took on countless missions to earn dragon essences and to use the large number of battles to temper his own body and draw out more of his potential.
With his hard work, within a month's worth of time, his Heavenly Resonance Diagram had increased by another 200 feet.
He was now at 98,200 feet.
At the same time, the Falling Star Terrace had opened up yet again.
During this particular opening, Li Luo continued to assist the other three Guardian Armies to refine Star Pearls as he needed a large amount of dragon essences to purchase things he wanted as part of preparation process.
After absorbing all of the Star Pearls during this round, his Heavenly Resonance Diagram grew by yet another 1000 feet.
He had finally reached 99,200 feet. His Heavenly Resonance Diagram was the envy of the Five Guardian Armies. They had not seen someone as talented and as rife with potential as him in the Greater Heavenly Resonance stage. Even Li Zhihuo and Li Foluo, the two Guardian Generals, had not been his equal at the same stage.
Their hearts were shaken as if they could vaguely imagine how yet another Ten-Pillar Duke Bergfried might be constructed before their very eyes.
At that point, the Dragon's Fang Guardians would have 2 Ten-Pillar Duke Bergfried unrivaled geniuses.
This would mean that Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e's starting point would have surpassed Li Taixuan and Tan Tailan all those years ago.
This gave rise to complex emotions in people's hearts. This couple were incredibly disgusting when it came to how outstanding they were. No one would be able to shake their position in future amongst the Five Guardian Armies.
Li Luo on the other hand paid no attention to how shocked the crowd was. Instead he was bitterly wracking his brains trying to figure out how he could obtain that last 800 feet. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to do anything in a short period of time.
Wanting to break through this barrier would require a special opportunity.
Jiang Qing'e had managed to borrow the aid of the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm and the Nine Marks Sacred Heart Lotus to take this step. However Li Luo very quickly realized that there was no need to be anxious at this point. He just had to wait for things to fall into place.
Thus once the Falling Star Terrace concluded, Li Luo chose to rest and adjust his condition over the next few days. After all, he had something important to focus on next.
It was none other than Li Hongyou's breakthrough into the Duke stage. She had spent quite some time preparing herself and it was time.
Dragon's Fang Guardians Encampment.
Li Luo, Jiang Qing'e, Li Foluo and the rest were gathered around a cultivation abode. There were majestic undulations of resonant power that continuously emanated from within.
A gigantic energy vortex had taken from atop the abode which ravenously devoured worldly natural energy.
It was naturally Li Hongyou who was cultivating within.
His breakthrough had already lasted for a few days.
Everything was going smoothly and Li Hongyou had only chosen to breakthrough upon reaching a 96,000 feet Heavenly Resonance Diagram. This was on par with Wu Changkong, a top elite of the Heavenly Star Hall. Adding on to the fact that she had a lower ninth-grade resonance and an upper grade Foundational Spirit Treasure, it would not be an arduous process to do so.
Furthermore, it was about to come to an end soon.
Weng!
The gigantic energy vortex above the abode suddenly gave off a boom before finally transforming into a final torrent of energy which flowed down below as things turned silent.
Tens of breaths later, a humongous pillar of light shot into the air and one could see a crimson red Duke Bergfried condensing within.
As Li Luo saw this, a smile broke out on his face.
Li Hongyou was finally a Duke now.