Chapter 0919: The Ninth Battle
The ninth battle of the Scales Seizure.
This was not an event that was seen in every Battle of the Dragon\'s Head. Ordinarily speaking, winning eight dragon scales was enough to make someone the Dragon\'s Head. There was not much point in going for the ninth battle, since most people who reached this point did not need the ninth scale.
Only those who had obtained the embryonic form of the Nine Scales Sanctified Dragon\'s Body during the Dragon\'s Ascent would consider trying. Those who only had the embryonic form of the Eight Scales Sanctified Dragon\'s Body, such as Li Qingfeng, had nothing to gain in the ninth battle. Thus, they would naturally choose not to go for such a challenge.
Although the ninth battle was very eye-catching and one could leave their name in history by clearing it, its difficulty was truly daunting.
Everyone\'s gazes were fixed on Li Luo as he pondered over it. He touched the dragon sigil between his eyebrows while he mulled it over. He had already obtained eight dragon scales. Once the battle was over, his Sanctified Dragon\'s Body would transform into the eight scales grade.
Although this was already a high grade, it was not truly at the level of perfection.
He was being given the chance to elevate his Sanctified Dragon\'s Body to its final form, the Nine Scales Sanctified Dragon\'s Body.
Every victory in the Scales Seizure had given him one dragon scale imbued with Heavenly Dragon energy, and the scales he had obtained towards the end contained stronger and more condensed energy.
As such, this was the only method to awaken the Sanctified Dragon\'s Body at the highest grade immediately.
If he gave up now, he could still exchange resources for items containing Heavenly Dragon energy in the future. However, the time and effort required to make the jump from the eth grade to the ninth grade would be extremely huge.
Li Luo clearly did not have so much time to spend on the Sanctified Dragon\'s Body alone.
Hence, the ninth battle would be the most direct way forward if he really wanted to awaken its full potential. Of course, the prerequisite was that he had to win.
He had given it his all to obtain the Nine Scales Dragon Sigil from the Dragon\'s Ascent. No matter what, he had to give it a try now. If he gave up so easily here, he would have wasted all his previous efforts.
With that in mind, he came to a decision. Li Luo looked up at the clouds above the sky. There was a faint but strong aura coming from something high above.
Li Luo put his hands together and asked politely, "How will the ninth battle be held?"
"There is no fixed format to the ninth battle. It will be decided by the drawing of lots."
As the majestic voice finished, a golden light fell from the sky and landed in front of Li Luo. It was an energy lottery box. The box was filled with numerous light tickets. Seeing this, he paused for a moment before he reached inside and drew one ticket out randomly.
Instantly, the light ticket flew into the sky above and transformed into a line of text with a glow.
"The ninth battle: battle against the previous Dragon\'s Head!"
Li Luo was dumbfounded when he saw those words. He bit his lips in disbelief. So he had to challenge the previous Dragon\'s Head for the ninth battle? Was it the previous generation\'s Dragon\'s Head or a Dragon\'s Head from the past?
However, it was likely not the Dragon\'s Head himself. It would likely be an energy mirage created to replicate the individual\'s strength. This made sense, as the previous Dragon\'s Head was at least at the Heavenly Resonance Tier by now. If he had to fight against them, there would be no chance of victory at all.
Whispers broke out among the spectators when they saw this. Everyone’s interest in the ninth battle grew. Who would have thought it would be a battle between their generation\'s Dragon\'s Head and the previous generation’s? This was really interesting.
Weng!
As the crowd was discussing among themselves, the light ticket transformed into a pillar of light that landed in front of Li Luo.
Huge amounts of worldly natural energy started to condense at that point.
A human figure gradually formed inside the pillar of light. All the spectators were staring at it without batting an eyelid. At this point, even Li Luo was watching it curiously.
Slowly, the silhouette in the light pillar became clearer. In the end, the person started moving and took a step forward, walking out of the light pillar.
The one who had walked out of the beam of light was a young man with a tall and straight body. His demeanor was pretty extraordinary. Even though it was just a replica created by energy, the confident expression on his face was vividly portrayed.
He was a heroic youth with an astonishing aura around him.
When he walked out of the light pillar, everyone exchanged gazes with each other. They had begun wondering which generation\'s Dragon\'s Head this was.
Some of the Banner Leaders were also finding this extremely peculiar, especially Li Fengyi and Li Jingtao. Their eyes were wide open as they stared at the heroic youth.
They were wondering why this youth looked so similar to Li Luo.
Moreover, they seemed to have seen someone like him before...
The confusion lasted for a few breaths before they noticed it. "Is that... a young Third Uncle? Like the one we saw in the painting?"
As soon as they said that, the expressions of Lu Qingmei and the rest at the side changed completely.
Was that... Li Luo\'s father, Li Taixuan?!
The man who completely overwhelmed everyone else in the Heavenly Dragon\'s Five Lineages in his generation?! In fact, it was not just within the Bloodline of Heavenly Emperor Li. During his time, he was well known throughout the whole Heavenly Origin Divine Continent.
In other words, Li Luo\'s draw for the ninth battle was his own father?
A battle between father and son? An uproar broke out within and outside the stone dragon when the spectators realized this.
Even the elders in the elevated platform high above started whispering among themselves. There were mixed reactions when some of the elders from the same generation as Li Taixuan saw this.
This was the youth who had left a really deep impression within their hearts. Their gazes turned complicated when they saw him.
For a moment, the terror he had induced in them back then surfaced in their hearts.
"How could it be Third Brother?" Li Qingpeng asked in surprise as he smiled bitterly.
Li Jinpan also revealed a bitter smile when he saw the familiar, dazzling youth. "It\'s been a long time since we\'ve seen Third Brother like this."
"Some people here probably did not want to be reminded of him," Li Qingpeng whispered with a grin.
Li Jinpan snorted coldly and replied, "That\'s good. Let them reminisce about the old days, when they bowed down respectfully to the Dragon\'s Fang Lineage."
"However, this isn\'t good news for Li Luo. To have selected Third Brother out of all the previous Dragon\'s Heads... He must have gotten the highest difficulty," Li Qingpeng commented helplessly.
"Well..."
Li Jinpan rubbed his nose and was at a loss for words. After all, Li Taixuan had gotten through the Battle of the Dragon\'s Head during his generation without much competition. He had reached the peak of thirty thousand feet, but his method was different from Li Luo’s. Li Luo had slain the flame to reach the peak, while Li Taixuan simply endured the infernal baptism and ascended.
In the Scales Seizure that followed, Li Taixuan fought off everyone regardless of whether they were friend or foe. He went through the battles smoothly and went into the ninth battle too.
As such, if one were to rank the Dragon\'s Heads throughout history, it would not be surprising if Li Taixuan was in the top three.
"If I remember correctly, Third Brother was a three-pearl in the Battle for the Dragon\'s Head, right? If this energy replica only mimics seventy or eighty percent of his strength, it would be around the level of a two-pearl. That would still be way stronger than Li Qingfeng," Li Qingpeng said worriedly.
Li Jinpan nodded and added, "Besides, don\'t forget about Third Brother\'s resonance."
Li Qingpeng pouted when he heard this. Li Taixuan possessed a quasi ninth-grade dragon resonance, which sounded similar to Li Qingfeng’s resonance. However, his dragon resonance was slightly different. The dragon resonance that he possessed was the rarest of them all... the Heavenly Dragon resonance. The Heavenly Dragon ruled supreme amongst all the dragon resonances. As such, a quasi ninth-grade Heavenly Dragon resonance was even rarer than a true ninth-grade dragon resonance.
All dragon resonances would be absolutely suppressed in the presence of the Heavenly Dragon resonance.
When they thought about this, Li Jinpan and Li Qingpeng exchanged gazes and shook their heads helplessly.
At the same time, the Lineage Chiefs were also staring at Li Taixuan on the stage. Li Jingzhe was the quietest. He closely observed the youth and seemed to be lost in thought.
For a moment, he could hear the fearless young man shouting, "Old man!"
However, Li Jingzhe soon recovered from his daze and turned towards Li Tianji. "Is this your doing?"
It\'s too much of a coincidence for Li Luo to pick this lot by chance.
Nonetheless, Li Tianji shook his head and replied with a smirk, "Please don\'t malign me, Lineage Chief Jingzhe. The world space in the stone dragon was created by our Ancestor, so even I have to follow its rules here."
Li Jingzhe frowned when he heard this. However, he did not have any proof, so it was pointless to argue over this. He simply looked back at the stage calmly.
……
On the stage, Li Luo had just started to recover from his shock too.
He could not help but laugh out loud when he look at the heroic, young version of Li Taixuan, who looked very similar to himself.
Though there was a hint of anticipation within his laughter.
"Dad, you were always bullied by Mom back in the day. Who would have thought that I\'d get a chance to pick on you as well?"