Whilst Jiang Qing'e descended upon her ambushers, Li Luo was fully sucked into Lu Ming's illusion formation. In comparison to the heaven-shaking battle taking place on her end, Li Luo's side was calm and quiet.

A gorgeous sea of flowers below, ominous thunderclouds above. Li Luo's brows were furrowed at this fantastical sight. The gray clouds were filled with maniacal amounts of lightning resonance power and might, an actual force of nature looming.

Lu Ming clearly intended for the illusion formation to serve as a supporting tool, awaiting the right moment to strike. 

Conversely, Li Luo did not intend to sit there idly. He slashed outwards with the Onyx-Elephant Blade, creating countless sword lights that contained heaven-rending might, directing them towards the clouds.

Swoosh!

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, the sword attacks merely passed through the ephemeral clouds to no effect.

"It's an illusion." It seemed that most of the gray clouds that were covering the sky above were illusions. They were designed to obscure and confuse. As a result, he could not locate the actual thundercloud that was the core of the lightning resonant power.

"Ugh, tricky and confounding." Li Luo couldn't help but sigh. Lu Ming had truly perfected the art of utilizing her dual resonances. Her Illusory Thunderbolt would pretty much leave everyone with their hands tied.

When Li Luo paused, the thunder clouds above were not going to sit there idly. They roiled with anticipation, and thunderous booms echoed without pause.

"It's coming." An impending attack could be felt in the air as static crackled across his skin.

BOOM!

As the thought flitted across his mind, a section of the clouds seemed to have come alive, throwing a bolt of lightning that sought to strike Li Luo squarely. 

Lightning had flashed across the sky, scorching the air, and an acrid smell arose.

This was no time to underestimate the opponent and Li Luo understood that. He circulated water resonant power throughout his body, forming a layer of water armor to cover him and protect him. 

The Heavy Water Toga.

Simultaneously, Water Edge began to circulate rapidly atop the blade as his resonant power blasted out, slashing out a beam of sword energy into the sky, once again confronting the lightning directly.

At the moment of impact, the sword energy effortlessly sliced through the attack.

Li Luo's gaze furrowed. Another dratted illusion. Was Lu Ming planning to drain him of his resonant power through these little tricks?

Boom, boom, boom!

At the same time, three more bolts of lightning struck forth, approaching him ferociously.

Were these all illusions again?

Li Luo was unable to tell and did not dare to shrug them off carelessly. If just one of these bolts were real, it would be a nasty experience.

Lu Ming was truly demonstrating a masterful performance in illusions.

Li Luo flicked his finger, and the Octagold Shield immediately deployed, protecting him from the impending attack.

Boom!

The three bolts struck the shield in succession. The first two did not seem to have had any effect, immediately dissipating on contact, clearly demonstrating that they were illusions. However, the third bolt was not the same. Although the Octagold Shield radiantly dispersed the resonant power, a large, black patch that was sizzling with smoke could be seen on it, finally falling by Li Luo's feet.

Li Luo quickly stowed away the exhausted Octagold Shield. Even though it was a white-eye treasured artifact, it could not continuously be used.

This brief exchange had allowed him to clearly understand Lu Ming's strategy. As long as he remained in the Illusory Thunderbolt, nothing was for certain. However, a single moment of carelessness would lead to situations of peril.

At the same time, being perpetually on guard would only serve to drain himself both mentally and physically. If he took too long to resolve his predicament, his condition would worsen and Lu Ming could pick him off whenever she chose to.

Li Luo stared at the gloomy clouds above him, reminiscent of his mood, in deep thought.

This was not an easy situation to get out of.

He would need to possess absolute strength to completely tear the illusion formation to shreds. Yet the only way he could do so was to tap upon the three-tailed heavenly wolf's strength... using it here would mean that he would have less cards to utilize in the remaining battles.

At the same time, he suddenly laughed as he realized something. "When it comes to a battle of stamina, you just might not be my equal."

Lu Ming possessed illusion and lightning resonances, whereas he had water and wood resonances. In terms of offensive capabilities, the combination of water and wood would definitely be worse. However, when it came to certain things, neither lightning nor illusion resonances had the advantage there.

Water resonances, like the waves, were perpetual and continuous, whilst wood resonances were full of life and endless growth. 

It was a battle of endurance now. Li Luo immediately sat down in a cross-legged position, circulating his wood resonant power before slamming the ground with his palm.

"Yggdrasil's Shelter."

At this very moment, a tiny sapling burst out from the ground.

With the infusion of wood resonant power, the sapling grew explosively, and it expanded into a massive and lush tree in the span of ten breaths, without any hints of stopping.  

Li Luo's actions instilled a sense of wariness within Lu Ming. She immediately activated the illusion formation to strike that strange tree, hoping to extinguish his hopes of a turnaround.

In response, Li Luo raised the Onyx-Elephant Blade above his head and spun it in a continuous circle, receiving the numerous bolts of lightning. 

Under constant pressure, the Onyx-Elephant Blade gradually began to run out of resonant power.

Li Luo's expression was unchanging. He channeled all of his waterlight and woodearth resonant power into the tree, stimulating its growth. The water resonant power improved the rate of growth whilst the light resonant power compounded its effects.

A tree also required a strong foundation within the earth to remain unyielding and unafraid of the elements.

The earth resonant power within him was the perfect nutrient to solidify and strengthen the tree itself.

In just the span of a few short minutes, a tree that stretched towards the sky was born. Li Luo was sitting beneath the massive object, sheltered from the elements. If one looked from above, it would seem like a massive umbrella was protecting Li Luo, each and every leaf shining with incomparable amounts of energy. 

Lu Ming had now discovered Li Luo's objective and was inevitably slightly taken aback. This guy was truly a troublemaker!

She had wanted to finish things off within the illusion formation, yet this irritant kept coming up with new and strange moves. Now he had parked himself below a massive tree that he was using as shelter, seemingly to counter the bolts of lightning thrown at him. It looked as though she would need a change of plans as the branches and leaves would inevitably nullify the lightning bolts.

Hadn't this fight just turned into a contest of endurance?

Lu Ming had thought of eliminating Li Luo through attrition, never expecting that the opponent was thinking exactly the same.

Perhaps it wasn't surprising. Li Luo possessed a water resonance after all, having an advantage when it came to drawn-out fights.

Her gaze flickered as her expression turned icy.

If this was the case, then she'd no longer bother. It was time to focus all her strength and win in the shortest amount of time possible, burning down Li Luo's hopes and trees.

Both of them were dual resonance users, but she had dual seventh-grade resonances. Her resonant power was also higher by a grade and thus there seemed to be no way that Li Luo could resist her imposing might.

Straightening her thoughts, she no longer felt gloomy, and both of her hands started crackling with lightning.

Boom!

The sky seemed to have gone through another transformation as the thunderclouds receded. The new clouds were even darker, and one could feel that the energy within them was even more berserk, to the point that it was leaking out!

When Li Luo sensed the changes above, he raised his head to look, his eyes squinting at this new development.

"You don't want to play around anymore?" he jested, unafraid of the danger.. 

"Let's see if your damn thunder can crack my tree apart!"