The pile of rocks over the black knight looked satisfyingly like a grave mound.

Li Luo puffed air to his cheeks and then out. That attack from Jiang Qing'e had been godly. The Fiend Palace Tier black knight had been completely wrecked.

Her resonant power faded away, and she turned to him in concern. "Are you alright?"

Li Luo smiled and nodded. "I was almost not alright. Damn, that guy was dangerous. He was waiting to ambush me here."

Luckily, he had not panicked.

"We were careless. We didn't check to see if there were other humans in the city," she said.

"You did very well. You actually managed to get the cleansing barrier up while fighting against a Fiend Palace Tier expert," she said approvingly. She had watched the later half of the battle as she approached. Li Luo had played it to perfection.

He had not tried to escape, but faced the problem head on, playing on his opponent's thought process perfectly to get the last drop of cleansing dew in place.

Li Luo smiled in gratitude, then he looked over at the rubble heap. "I'm more worried about who this guy worked for. Why would he try to stop me?"

Jiang Qing'e nodded as well. A concerning point.

She gestured with a hand, using light resonant energy to lift the rocks away. Both of them inhaled sharply.

Underneath was the crushed suit of black armor, but the man wearing it was completely gone.

"Like a cicada molting," Li Luo said.

Jiang Qing'e lifted up the armor with the tip of her sword and examined it. There were strange, sinister runes on it.

"He's gone. These indicate a powerful escape resonance art was imbued in them. He must have gotten away the instant before the rubble crushed him. But he couldn't have gotten far," she said, looking alertly around.

"Forget it," Li Luo said, putting a cautionary hand on her shoulder. "We don't have time to waste hunting him down. The mission calls." The most important thing here was still the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent.

Jiang Qing'e nodded reluctantly. She knew he was right. The cleansing barrier would only hold the Others for a limited time. They had to get rid of the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent as quickly as possible before the minions were mobile again.

As for the black knight, he might have escaped, but he was likely seriously wounded from his own spear that Jiang Qing'e had skewered him with. Hopefully, they had scared him enough that he would think twice before showing up again.

Perhaps he would make an attempt to break the cleansing barrier after they had moved on, but there was no need to worry about it. They would be underestimating the Academic Federation if they thought it would be so easily broken.

"I'm going to help the First Princess. Take care of yourself." Jiang Qing'e shot off like a streak of light across the sky without a backward glance.

Li Luo scaled the tall tower while keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings. He wanted to watch the fight too.

The First Princess and Jiang Qing'e together? A rare combination.

They were probably the two most outstanding female students of the Astral Sage College presently.

With Jiang Qing'e entering the fray, the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent felt the odds turn against its favor, and it hissed desperately, the single demonic eye darting around in fear.

"Qing'e, you're here!" the First Princess cried out.

Jiang Qing'e nodded. "I'll help you to hold it down, Your Highness, but you'll have to do the bulk of the work."

The First Princess' face lit up with joy. "You're truly something special."

Jiang Qing'e was only an Earth Fiend, and theoretically much weaker than both the First Princess and the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent, yet she was strong enough to hinder their opponent. If she hadn't known Jiang Qing'e before this, she would have thought she was boasting.

Jiang Qing'e just smiled, putting her hands together to form a seal.

"World of Light!"

This time, the skill prioritized strength over coverage. The resultant field was small and rapidly shrinking.

In a few moments, it shrunk from hundreds of meters to tens of meters.

From afar, it looked like a halo of light descending from above.

And at the center of the ring was the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent.

Light resonant energy continued to gather within the circumference, so dense that it almost seemed to form liquid light that rained down inside.

Caught in the field, the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent screamed in anger and pain. The drops of light burned it like boiling oil, and the corrupted air began to evaporate.

"What a powerful World of Light," Li Luo marveled from his spot.

World of Light was a middle grade dragon-general resonance art, but it could well be mistaken for a high-grade one.

Li Luo remembered that his parents had gone to great lengths and cost to find this for Qing'e. Dragon-general resonance arts were not cheap, especially such high-quality ones.

Jiang Qing'e had worked relentlessly to perfect it, and now she had it at an extremely high level of mastery.

Augmented by her ninth-grade light spirit avatar, the strength was truly awe-inspiring.

That was why a mere Fiend Finisher Tier cultivator like her could pose a serious threat to the Lesser Heavenly Disaster-class Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent, along with the added bonus that light resonant energy had against their enemies.

It was not just Li Luo who was admiring her feat—the First Princess' phoenix eyes were glowing as well. Jiang Qing'e's suppression was even more effective than she had imagined, and her admiration for Jiang Qing'e only grew further after witnessing her in action.

"Thanks, Qing'e. Leave the rest to me," the First Princess said confidently. She was the equal of the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent, and now that it was severely weakened, it would be an easy win for her.

Her jade scepter summoned seven heavenly pearls behind her, worldly resonant energy flowing into them and shifting into robust resonant power that flooded into her body.

The concentration of energy was enough to rattle all of Riverguard City.

After seeing Jiang Qing'e's performance, the First Princess was motivated to go all out as well.

She formed a seal with one hand and brandished the jade scepter with the other. Using it as though it were a brush, she drew inscriptions in the air.

Resonant power was poured into the drawing.

With each stroke, the sky filled with a little more green light, until two green-colored light scaled-dragons swam in the air before her. 

The low roar of dragons rang out.

And following that, the First Princess' clear voice.

"High-grade dragon-general resonance art, Green Scaled-Dragon Scissor."

The scaled-dragons shot forward, smashing into the Four-limbed Demon-eye Serpent from each side.