While Li Luo waited for the Spiritual Tree Tide to arrive, Vice Princ.i.p.al Lan Lingzi brought him a surprise. It was the other two parts of the Three Dragons' Heavenly Banner Canon, Purgatory's Crimson Dragon Banner and Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner.

He was looking at two ancient, small, and plain banners, one crimson and the other silver. A mysterious light radiated from the banners, and one could vaguely see countless ancient runes revolving around them.

Li Luo stared greedily with fiery eyes. These were the two Duke Arts that he had been longing for!

If he managed to successfully cultivate them, the three arts would be united and he could have a Destiny-grade art in his a.r.s.enal!

A Destiny-grade Duke Art was considered top-tier amongst all the major Heavenly Emperor-level forces. The only grade above that was the legendary Transcendent Duke Art.

Li Luo could not fathom just how powerful a true Transcendent Duke Art would be, because even though he had cultivated the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation, it was probably categorized as a Destiny-grade Duke Art. It was just that its full potential had not been fully realized yet, so it was considered Transcendent for now.

Lan Lingzi looked at the fiery-eyed Li Luo and smiled. "Since I've made a promise, you may choose one of these two arts."

Truth be told, both the Purgatory's Crimson Dragon Banner and the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner could only be considered Communion-grade Duke Arts. Their individual grades were not particularly high, but their advantage was their huge potential for growth, which explained why the Three Dragons' Heavenly Banner Canon was considered a hot favorite among Duke Arts for students in the Heavenly Origin Ancient College.

However, there were very few students who were able to cultivate all three arts and merge them into the Three Dragons' Heavenly Banner Canon. After all, even though the Three Dragon's Heavenly Banner Canon was simplified and split into three Communion-grade Duke Arts, it was still Destiny-grade at the end of the day, so how could it be easy to cultivate it?

The higher the grade of the Duke Art, the harsher the conditions for successfully cultivating it. In addition, a lapse in concentration would lead to a violent backlash, damaging the cultivator's potential or even crippling them outright. The college had witnessed its fair share of over-ambitious students over the years who had stunted their futures due to coveting a high-grade Duke Art.

Li Luo stared wide-eyed and couldn't help but ask greedily, "Can I have them both?"

"Letting you choose one at this time is already abusing some loopholes, and you still want both? Do you think this college is a lawless land?" Vice Princ.i.p.al Lan Lingzi snapped back at him.

"And if I wanted to redeem the third part, how many merits would I need?" Li Luo asked.

"Generally speaking, a Communion-grade Duke Art can be redeemed with a single A Merit, but the three parts of the Three Dragon's Heavenly Banner Canon are different—each of them requires two A Merits," replied Lan Lingzi.

"As for how to obtain A Merits, you will understand when you enter the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm."

Li Luo thought for a moment and then asked, "What about if I wanted to redeem the high-grade Tree of Resonant Power seed?"

Vice Princ.i.p.al Lan Lingzi replied, "Very few students seek to redeem the high-grade Tree of Resonant Power seed because the item doesn't have much of an effect on their own cultivation. It can only be provided to the sage colleges for use, and the subsequent maintenance is also an extremely troublesome matter. Of course, it's cost is definitely high as well—it requires five A Merits. "

Li Luo's face changed slightly. Although he knew that the high-grade Tree of Resonant Power seed was bound to be terribly difficult to obtain, he did not expect it to be so expensive.

Each A Merit required the completion of an extremely difficult task fraught with danger; otherwise, someone at Feng Lingyuan's level would not be worried about obtaining three of them. Therefore, it would be extremely troublesome for him to achieve five A Merits.

Even more vexing was the fact that he might need two of the high-grade Tree of Resonant Power seeds, one for the Astral Sage College and the other to complete the Divine Cultivation Serum.

Based on these calculations, wouldn't Li Luo have to earn twelve A Merits in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm to achieve all his goals?

He sighed silently. He could only tell himself that he would pull through when the time came.

"I'll go with the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner first, then." Li Luo pointed to the small silver banner that was flowing with lightning energy and made his choice. He had a lightning resonance, so it would be easier for him to cultivate this Duke Art. Otherwise, he would have to cultivate the Purgatory's Crimson Dragon Banner with the aid of items that possessed fire attributes.

Lan Lingzi nodded and took back the Purgatory's Crimson Dragon Banner before Li Luo's teary eyes, then handed over the silver banner.

Li Luo carefully stashed it away and then sincerely said, "Thank you, Vice Princ.i.p.al Lan Lingzi, for taking care of me."

He understood that if it wasn't for Lan Lingzi, obtaining the Heavenly Judgment's Silver Dragon Banner from Wu Yu would've definitely entailed a lot more headaches. And if the other party used the rules of the college against him, Li Luo wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Lan Lingzi waved her hand dismissively, asking, "How is your team formation coming along? Need some a.s.sistance?"

Li Luo smiled. "I've teamed up with Senior Feng Lingyuan."

As for the matter of Wu Changkong's obstruction, he didn't divulge it to Lan Lingzi. The latter had already helped him a lot, and there was no need to pursue the matter lest he be belittled.

There would be opportunities to settle these grudges in the future.

"Feng Lingyuan? She is indeed a good candidate; her strength is second only to Wu Changkong. With the two of you working together, the strength of the team can't be underestimated." Lan Lingzi chuckled.

Although Li Luo was only at the Fifth Heavenly Pearl Tier, the combat power he had displayed during the academic evaluation was far beyond the Illusory Seal-grade, and he also possessed many other trump cards.

Thinking about this, Lan Lingzi suddenly remembered something. "You have some sort of means of utilizing the power of spirit beasts, right?"

As she said this, her eyes locked onto the scarlet bracelet on Li Luo's wrist. "I feel some familiar energy fluctuations coming from that," she said as she sighed softly.

Li Luo didn't hide it and replied honestly, "There is a Five-tailed Heavenly Wolf with the strength of a first-grade Duke in here. Princ.i.p.al Pang was the one who made the seal."

"This intricate method of sealing was something I invented with him back in the day," Lan Lingzi calmly explained.

Li Luo was a little surprised and did not expect this kind of backstory. The seal in the bracelet and the strange ward that siphoned the power of the Five-tailed Heavenly Wolf that even Li Jingzhe evaluated highly had actually been jointly researched by Princ.i.p.al Pang and Lan Lingzi.

"He has a big heart. The power of the spirit beast is too overbearing and ferocious for you, so if you use it too many times, your mind will be eroded by it and you will be reduced to being its slave."

Stopping herself, Lan Lingzi shook her head slightly and laughed. "However, that grandfather of yours is more capable than me, so I'm guessing he also knows about this and there is no need for me to say any more."

Li Luo nodded. He only used the Five-tailed Heavenly Wolf's power in life-or-death situations, and he had learned how to harmonize, which reduced the Five-tailed Heavenly Wolf's erosive effect even further.

In the end, external power was external power, and he would not be over reliant on it. Otherwise, he could affect his cultivation by changing his mindset for the worst when it came to power sources.

Lan Lingzi pondered for a while before warning him, "Try to refrain from using the power of the Five-Tailed Heavenly Wolf in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm. The whole place has been enveloped by the All-Being Ghostly Skin Dominion, which is mysterious and unpredictable. Since the power of the spirit beast is ferocious and wild, it may attract evil powers and herald something troublesome."

"To a certain extent, this All-Being Ghostly Skin Dominion is even more sinister than the Umbra Cave of your Astral Sage college, after all, this is a domain created by a Triple Crowned King level Other King, and even if it's just a projection, the degree of danger in it is still beyond imagination."

Li Luo nodded solemnly. He couldn't imagine how terrifying a Triple Crowned King was, because the Ichythian King that existed in the depths of the Umbra Cave in the Astral Sage College was probably just an ordinary Single Crowned King. Even so, it had caused the destruction of the Astral Sage College, and the entire Xia Kingdom had been affected as a result.

It seemed that the trump card of the Five-tailed Heavenly Wolf could not be recklessly employed in the Fifth Minor Earthly Branch Realm.

"I truly appreciate your wise words, Vice Princ.i.p.al." Li Luo smiled and thanked the other party for her kind warning.

Lan Lingzi shook her head as she slowly retracted her gaze from the scarlet bracelet before she turned around and left. At the same time, her voice rang out.

"Prepare yourself, the Spiritual Tree Tide will open tomorrow. And after that...

"The mobilization mission will officially begin."