The 40th level rang out with explosions and bangs, blasts of energy being traded back and forth.

Li Luo shot forth amidst the chaos, eyes firmly fixed on the advanced absinthe puppet and its huge halberd. He had tuned out all the other fights. His only mission was to take down this stronger-than-Lin Suo puppet in record time.

If they lost the advantage to the other alliance here, it would all be for naught.

Li Luo's shortswords gleamed with Water Edge.

As he neared, he lifted off the balls of his feet, light as a dancing swallow. His resonant power was concentrated on his swords, two twig-like blades against the tree-trunk monstrosity of an ax.

The absinthe puppet raised its halberd in defense. The blades were deflected with a pitiful spray of sparks, and the puppet stood like a rock.

The huge halberd was flipped, swung out in a reverse sweep aimed to cleave Li Luo into two.

He dodged adroitly, allowing the huge and deadly arc of green light to pass by harmlessly. He shivered a little, knowing that it could have ended him if it had connected.

Its first move not succeeding, the advanced absinthe puppet leaped forward, its ax spinning in a blur as it closed in on Li Luo with a deadly whirl of blades.

The hum of blade through air made a keen, whining sound, as though the weapon was crying out for his blood.

Li Luo watched it carefully while summoning his resonant power up.

An azure-blue sword flew out, charged with incredible penetrative power and leaving after-images of blue swords in its wake.

Thousand Watery Knives Art!

With such a powerful advanced absinthe puppet as his opponent, Li Luo did not hesitate to pull out his dual resonances as well as the Thousand Watery Knives Art, one of his strongest moves to date.

Weng!

The water-charged weapon crashed against the advanced absinthe puppet's halberd, and this time the cascade of sparks was impressive to behold.

Li Luo was sent flying, while the advanced absinthe puppet staggered back two steps. Its defenses were rock solid, and it felt no fear. It steadied itself before coming at Li Luo again.

Li Luo leaped backwards. He was still reeling internally from the last clash, and afraid of the absinthe puppet's attack.

In the Golden Dragon Dao Fields, he had his trusty meat shield Qin Zhulu to help him tank attacks. This time, he only had himself. Fortunately, his resonant power was much stronger than before. Although he had yet to make it through to the Evolving Resonance Tier, Angelwood Hollow had helped him grow stronger nevertheless. Previously, that attack would have left him bleeding internally.

As he flew backwards through the air, Li Luo carefully watched the absinthe puppet chasing him. Reversing the grip on his hilts, he sheathed his swords and reached into his pocket sphere to pull out a silvery-white bow.

Lambent Hawkeye.

This bow made the absinthe puppet slow its advance as it assessed the new threat. After a moment, it glowed green again, and its armor was suddenly coated with a fresh layer of energy swirls.

An armor reinforcement.

Although these puppets lacked greater intelligence, they still possessed a threat assessment function to calibrate their defense and offense accordingly.

Whish!

Li Luo's finger was a blur on the string, sending out a dozen light arrows that screamed forward, filling the air with hawk cries. Each one flew straight and true towards the absinthe puppet's vital points.

Every single one was blocked, only shaking the absinthe puppet slightly. More energy vortexes bloomed across the surface of its armor to negate the light arrows.

Occasionally, an arrow found its way through the bolstered defenses, but these did not deal too much damage, especially not to a puppet that did not feel pain. It muscled onwards through Li Luo's arrow storm.

Li Luo took a quick look around to assess their situation. Qin Zhulu didn't seem to be faring too well himself, although he was definitely keeping his absinthe puppet busy. As for Xin Fu and Lu Qing'er's side, the situation was a bit worse. Even with numbers, the absinthe puppet was smacking its way through them. It didn't seem like they would last too much longer.

The puppet was closing in on him, but Li Luo couldn't resist. He looked further over to Ye Qiuding's side.

Two figures were fighting well, keeping level with their opponents. Ye Qiuding was evenly matched with his, trading blows in a good exchange. That was to be expected—Ye Qiuding was a Second Changing. With his other skills and weapons, he would definitely be able to match up to a Third Changing advanced absinthe puppet.

Ye Qiuding was the one who would swing the battle for them.

Time was running out.

While Li Luo thought, his hands were still busy, sending a constant barrage of arrows towards the absinthe puppet.

It responded accordingly, its armor blooming with energy vortexes that blocked the arrows.

This was not a useless endeavor, because Li Luo was marking out the weak points on the puppet's armor. Strictly speaking, they were not weak points, but rather bands on the armor where the energy vortexes spawned a little slower.

"Right hip..." Li Luo muttered to himself. He understood that he had to take his shot now. Time didn't permit much dawdling, and Ye Qiuding was going to win his fight soon as well.

“Whew.”

He sucked in a deep breath to steady himself, a look of determination creeping into his eyes.

He would only have this one shot.

“ROAR!”

Just then, the ground shook as his own opponent roared. The halberd swung around in a fury to whip up a green cyclone that bore down on Li Luo's position.

He hurriedly raised his hand, calling up his water resonant power to form defensive whirlpools.

"Whirlpool Barrier."

Swish, crash!

The green cyclone smashed through them as though they were brittle cones of glass. Li Luo held up his bow as his last defense.

CRACK!

Li Luo was sent flying, his sleeves completely ripped up by the force of the attack. A trickle of blood stained his forearm.

Li Luo ignored it, instead taking advantage of the distance to draw his bow again.

Dual resonances activated!

Seven resonant bubbles popped!

Weng!

Within him, his resonant power ratcheted up again and again, condensing on his bow. The arrow's wings of light spread wider and wider.

He breathed out halfway, then released his finger.

The scream of the hawk announced his attack. High up, the Violet Vibrance mentors watched him.

Li Luo's arrow punched far above his cultivation class.

But as Duke experts, they could tell immediately... Li Luo's attack was not going to be enough.