Absolute Resonance

e had been nominated as meat shield.

Still, Qin Zhulu was cool-headed enough to consider the bigger picture, so he stepped forward mutely, taking up his duty without complaint.

”Little Lu is a very dependable man, ” Li Luo said.

Qin Zhulu glared at him.
”Don ’t go around giving me weird names! Tchah! ” Green Alioth swept in again, and he closed his mouth, setting his jaw grimly.

Lu Qing ’er laid a hand on Qin Zhulu ’s back, sending forth her power.
”Black Ice Armor! ”

Qin Zhulu was immediately encased in shining, transparent armor with a faint, black cast to it.
It protected him from much of the Green Alioth ’s damage.

Li Luo reached out as well, still grinning.
He used his own healing powers to boost Qin Zhulu ’s recovery.

With their support, Qin Zhulu bellowed with triumph, drinking in the newfound boosted power.
His muscles bulged, and golden tiger stripes began to show faintly on his skin.

Phish!

Green Alioth blew with renewed frenzy, but with the ice armor and Li Luo ’s healing, Qin Zhulu stood strong.

Their advancement speed picked up.

Nearby, Ning Zhao, Zhu Xuan, and Lin Suo saw Li Luo ’s squad pushing ahead with a new burst of speed.
This shocked them.
They had expected them to be badly beaten by the wind, but they had quickly adapted.

All across the breadth of the void, streaks of gold light pushed against and then past the belt of Green Alioth, making it safely to the land beyond.

Li Luo ’s squad managed to make it through safely, and then a powerful gravitational force brought them back down to land.
Their keys helped guide them back until solid ground was beneath their feet once more.

Li Luo looked around.
He saw that they were in a deep mountain-gorge, covered in thick snow.
The trees around them were frozen.

”This is the Golden Dragon Dao Fields? ” all three wondered privately.

”The worldly natural energy is very dense here—it ’s nothing like the world outside, ” Lu Qing ’er observed.

Li Luo nodded.
This was only the outskirts of the Golden Dragon Dao Fields, but already the worldly natural energy was more saturated than he could remember.
He could only imagine how favorable the conditions could be when one went deeper in.
The Golden Dragon Dao Fields were truly a Mecca for cultivation.

Suddenly, Li Luo found that an extra item had appeared in his hand.
It was a short piece of golden incense.
This had to be what Yu Hongxi had mentioned earlier.
Burn this to get your loot redeemed for dao-gold.

”Alright, let ’s get started.
We ’ll head east, pick herbs, kill beasts, earn dao-gold, and then swim at the Reservoir with our treasures! ” Li Luo punched the air.

Lu Qing ’er looked up from her cupped hands, still trying to blow some hot air on them.
”As if it ’d be so easy, ” she laughed.

She was buoyed by the beauty of the landscape.
Unlike the Umbra Cave, the Golden Dragon Dao Fields were breathtaking.
There were no abominations like the Others.
If not for Qin Zhulu sticking around, she would have considered this trip perfect. Dong!

Something fell from above, hitting her squarely on the head and making Lu Qing ’er yelp.

She caught the object before it touched the ground and saw that it was a snow-white fruit with runic patterns on it.
It also emitted an alien fragrance.

She examined it for a few moments, then turned to her team.
”Do you think this is one of the rare herbs? ”

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged.
”Maybe.
Want to try? ”

They gathered a few of them, then lit the golden incense.

Golden smoke rose, circling the white fruits.

To their astonishment, the white fruits started to fade away and then disappeared before their very eyes.

At the same time, a rift appeared in front of them, and four round, golden coins rolled out, landing at their feet.

They looked at the golden dragon marks on them and fell silent.

Dao-gold…
was this easy to get?

After their hellish time in the Umbra Cave, this seemed too good to be true.