As Li Luo gazed at the two figures of light, Li Taixuan began to speak.
"Xiao Luo must have gotten even more handsome, right? Has any girl at the institute been chasing you?" Dantai Lan asked with a beaming smile from the side.
Li Luo rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself, "Aside from being handsome, your son is practically useless nowadays. Who on earth would chase me?"
"Is Xiao Luo feeling sorry for himself right now? Do you feel like you're completely useless?" Li Taixuan's projection asked with another smile, as if he knew the exact thoughts passing through Li Luo's mind.
Dantai Lan asked, "Is it because of the empty resonance inside your body?"
Hearing this, Li Luo was instantly startled. Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan had already disappeared by the time his resonance palaces manifested, so how could they possibly know his current condition?
"Don't be startled, Xiao Luo. In fact, before your resonance palaces even appeared, we used a special secret technique to observe the condition of your empty resonance, including the three resonance palaces you possess," Dantai Lan said with a gentle gaze.
Li Luo opened his mouth. At that moment, many thoughts flooded his mind. It turned out his parents had known about his special condition even earlier than he did. If that was the case, could his parents' disappearance be related to this? Where on earth are you right now? Are you doing all right? Why hasn't there been any news from you for so many years?
"Xiao Luo, first of all, I want to tell you here that a natural empty resonance is not useless at all. On the contrary, in my view, it is the most powerful physique in the world. You don't need to feel depressed about it; instead, you should rejoice," Li Taixuan's words struck like a thunderbolt, leaving Li Luo dumbfounded.
"Dad, you don't have to go that far just to comfort me, do you?" Li Luo wore an expression that clearly said, *stop trying to fool me*. Even channeling resonance power with an empty resonance was difficult, let alone calling it the ultimate physique. Who was his old man trying to kid?
"You were born with an empty resonance, unable to absorb and refine the energy of heaven and earth. That is indeed a problem touching the very root, but this problem is not truly without a solution," Li Taixuan said with a slight smile.
"Since it's an empty resonance, we just need to find a way to fill something into it," Dantai Lan added with a smile.
Li Luo frowned deeply. That sounded simple, but in reality, it was practically impossible. Resonance was innate; wanting to artificially implant one later was something he had never even heard of. He had attempted similar things before, and every single time had ended in failure.
"Conventional methods certainly cannot achieve it. But ever since we learned about your natural empty resonance, we have been working tirelessly to find a way."
"And heaven does not disappoint those who keep trying; we finally found one."
When Li Taixuan said this, Li Luo could clearly hear his own heart pounding like a battle drum—the beating was so violent that it caused a momentary wave of dizziness in his head.
"We searched through and deduced countless ancient texts, and finally found a method. This method is called the 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art'. Using this technique, an acquired resonance can be forged. Furthermore, if the blood essence and soul of the person to be integrated are added during the forging process, the final completed resonance can be successfully merged into the resonance palaces."
"Xiao Luo, being born with an empty resonance is not necessarily a bad thing. Because innate resonances are far too random and difficult to control, an acquired resonance forged through the 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art' can be crafted entirely according to your own will."
"If you want an elemental resonance, you can forge it in the direction of elemental attributes; if you want a myriad-beast resonance, you can head in the direction of beasts."
"Once your three resonance palaces are equipped with three meticulously forged resonances in the future, they will resonate with one another, and their power will far surpass those innate resonances."
Li Luo's eyes couldn't help but light up. That statement made a lot of sense. There were countless resonances in the world; when many people opened their resonance palaces, their resonance types were fixed and could never be altered no matter what. In his case, although he lacked an innate resonance, his advantage lay in his strong acquired plasticity.
"Xiao Luo, there is another wonderful benefit to the acquired resonance forged by this 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art'," Dantai Lan added.
Even though he knew the entities before him were merely lingering projections, Li Luo instantly perked up. If you're talking about benefits, I am wide awake.
"The vast majority of normal innate resonances are purely single-element, but the acquired resonance forged through the 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art' is different, because it contains two attributes: one primary and one secondary."
"If these two attributes can be chosen to support each other, it will undoubtedly add wings to a tiger. Although there are certain rare heavenly treasures in the world that might cause a person's resonance palace to give birth to a few other elements, those are far too minuscule, providing at most a tiny boost. Compared to your primary-secondary resonance pairing, they fall far too short."
"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!"
Li Luo clapped hard. He naturally understood just how precious this was. If he chose a fire resonance as his primary and added a thunder resonance element as his secondary, the overlapping of fire and thunder would undoubtedly greatly enhance the destructive power of his resonance power.
At this thought, even he couldn't help feeling a bit excited. Viewed this way, his so-called empty resonance really was far more ingenious than an innate resonance!
"Ahem, but nothing in this world is truly perfect. Although this acquired resonance is an incomparable match for an empty resonance, it does have one flaw: the initial grade of the forged acquired resonance cannot exceed the fourth grade," Li Taixuan suddenly gave a dry cough and said.
Li Luo was momentarily stunned, hesitating slightly. A fourth-grade resonance... the grade truly was a bit low. Compared to Jiang Qing'e's Ninth Grade Light Resonance, the gap was vast.
With such a gap in grade, even if his acquired resonance possessed both primary and secondary elements, he might not easily catch up.
However, this hesitation was ultimately brief. After all, his current situation could hardly get any worse; even a fourth-grade resonance could still be considered pretty good!
"Of course, you don't need to worry. Although an acquired resonance starts with a low baseline, its grade can be raised through acquired methods," Dantai Lan, who doted on her son the most, immediately pointed out to him.
Li Luo came to a sudden realization. That's right; there were still many marvelous medicines and rare treasures in the world that possessed the miraculous effect of elevating resonance grades. In particular, there was a profession known as Phase Tempering Masters, who could refine various Spiritual Water and Strange Light designed to temper resonances, making them the most sought-after figures among countless resonance practitioners.
Yet, relying on such external objects to elevate resonance quality ultimately had certain limitations. Generally speaking, managing to raise a resonance grade by one or two ranks in the end was already the absolute limit.
If his acquired resonance could only start at a maximum of the fourth grade, then after all kinds of enhancements, it would at best stall around the fifth or sixth grade level.
"Is Xiao Luo worried that using external objects to elevate the resonance has its limits?" While Li Luo was deep in thought, Li Taixuan's laughter rang out.
"Oh?" Seeing Li Taixuan's smile, Li Luo's brow couldn't help twitching. Could it be that even this flaw could be remedied?
Just as Li Luo was waiting with great anticipation, Dantai Lan gave a light cough from the side, interrupting Li Taixuan just as he wanted to speak. With a somewhat disgruntled expression, she said, "You've gone and said everything. What is left for me to tell Xiao Luo?"
Li Taixuan was clearly taken aback for a moment, then hastily said, "Wife, I'm sorry. Wife, I was wrong. Go ahead and tell our son the rest."
Seeing this scene, Li Luo couldn't help shaking his head. His old man's survival instincts were truly beyond reproach—was this something beaten into him?
"Brat, are you mocking your old man?"
As if knowing Li Luo's reaction to seeing this scene, Li Taixuan's projection immediately snorted and said with utmost solemnity, "You're still young and don't understand. I'm not afraid of your mother; my love for her is simply too deep. I've told you many times, loving your wife is our family's number one family rule. In the future, when you are with Qing'e, you must strictly uphold this family rule too, understand?"
Hearing this, Li Luo couldn't help letting out a cold laugh. Dad, every single time you tell me this, if it weren't for the fresh bruise on your face, I really would almost have believed you.
However, mentioning Jiang Qing'e made Li Luo sigh once more. Qing'e had been practically raised single-handedly by his mother, so her personality was very similar to hers—she wanted to beat him up at the slightest provocation.
What was he going to do in the future?
Filled with worry in his heart, Li Luo glanced up at his father's projection, and the latter seemed to instantly read his thoughts. For a moment, father and son shared a mutual feeling of bitterness.
"Li Taixuan, will you stop fooling around and wasting my time?" Seeing the father and son sympathizing with each other, Dantai Lan arched her willow brows and said.
Hearing this, Li Taixuan nodded hurriedly to indicate he understood.
Then, Dantai Lan looked at Li Luo, her tone turning gentle once more. "The limitation of external objects in raising resonance grades only applies to innate resonances. Because no matter how those external objects are purified, they will inevitably contain certain impurities. It is the accumulation of these impurities that eventually causes the resonance palaces to seal up completely, making it impossible to ever elevate the resonance grade again."
"But Xiao Luo, your empty resonance does not fall into this category. Because other people's resonance palaces naturally possess elemental attributes, they will inherently repel those external tempering agents. But your empty resonance has no distinction of attributes; emptiness is nothingness, and nothingness also represents the capacity to contain all things."
"Therefore, your resonance can continuously rely on external objects for tempering and elevation. Although the higher the grade, the greater the difficulty, you truly have the opportunity to make your acquired resonance tend toward perfection."
"That is why I say, Xiao Luo, this so-called empty resonance is probably the most powerful resonance in the world. What it lacks is simply the key to unlock it."
Li Luo's heart churned violently. Over the past few years, the empty resonance inside his body had caused him to endure a great deal. At first, he had felt unwillingness and anger, but eventually, all that reluctance and hard work dissolved into helplessness, leaving him with no choice but to accept reality.
Yet now, his father and mother were telling him that this empty resonance was not a useless thing, but the most powerful in the world?
At that moment, Li Luo couldn't help his eyes turning red.
"Xiao Luo, that first acquired resonance has already been refined using your blood essence and a wisp of your soul. It is right inside this crystal ball."
"The 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art' is inside it as well," Dantai Lan said.
A warm current surged through Li Luo's heart. He then opened his arms wide. "Dad, Mom, thank you! Come on, I'm ready. Pass that acquired resonance and the 'Lesser Formless Divine Forging Art' to me, and let your son embark on this soaring life from this moment on!"
However, at this moment, Li Taixuan's expression turned solemn. He remained silent for several breaths before speaking. "There is one last point that needs to be explained to you. Integrating this acquired resonance into your body is not as simple as you imagine."
"When the acquired resonance is integrated, it will drain a massive amount of your blood essence. The reason we required you to unlock this item at the age of seventeen is precisely because you need to reach this age to barely withstand the depletion of such blood essence."
"But most importantly, by fusing with the acquired resonance, what you lose is not just blood essence—it is also your lifespan."
"From the very moment of integration, your remaining lifespan will be exactly five years. Unless you can step into the Duke Stage within five years and evolve your life level, your life will come to an end when those five years are up."
"Your mother and I argued about this matter for a long time, because this price is simply too heavy. But Xiao Luo, you have grown up, and we decided to tell you the truth so you can make your own choice. Xiao Luo, will you choose to maintain the status quo, become a wealthy idler in the future, and live out a peaceful life? Or will you choose to integrate the acquired resonance, begin gambling your life against the heavens, and step onto that endless path of perils?"
"If you choose the former, you simply need to close the crystal ball, and everything inside it will self-destruct. If you choose the latter, reach your hand into it. The choice is yours to make. But no matter what choice you make, your dad and mom will always support you."
The voice stopped abruptly. The projections of Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan spoke no more, simply gazing forward quietly with gentle eyes.
Li Luo slowly sat down, staring fixedly at the pitch-black crystal ball, his expression shifting uncertainly.
He had felt all along that an empty resonance with such massive potential couldn't possibly be without side effects—so it was waiting right here.
Now, the choice before him was deciding whether he wanted to be a weakling or someone with a shortened life?