Pingjiang

Pingjiang City.

Jiangbei Forest Park.

Jiang Ran's vision gradually cleared from a blur, and the dizziness receded like the tide.

Where am I?

"Be gentler. Don't ruin these corpses."

"Hmph. You can rest easy when I'm the one doing it..."

Faint voices drifted over from afar, too indistinct to make out. The surroundings were empty and desolate.

The sky was dim, twilight seeping into the woods, dead branches clawing at the air.

Have I been kidnapped?

That was the first thought that sprang to Jiang Ran's mind.

His memories still lingered in the boxing gym's break room. After showering, he had felt a little tired and lain down on the sofa for a nap.

No... it had not been a nap. It seemed he had died for a while.

Have I been reborn?

Jiang Ran's expression shifted slightly. He laboriously sat up, clenching both fists.

"How could something like sudden death happen to me?"

It could not be, right? He had struggled for half his life in his previous life to obtain wealth, status, and standing. To lose it all in an instant was something no one could accept.

But at that moment, he felt a sharp pain. Countless fragments of memory flooded into his mind like a tide.

After his mind crashed for several seconds.

Jiang Ran regained consciousness, his eyes filled with shock, his jaw nearly dropping.

College entrance exams, cultivation, the Ten Great Sects, Ten Thousand Arts University...

The original owner was also named Jiang Ran. He attended Pingjiang No. 1 High School, and with both parents dead, he lived entirely on government assistance.

"So I... transmigrated?"

Jiang Ran rubbed his brow, finding it difficult to accept.

This was going to be troublesome.

If he had merely been reborn, then as a worldly middle-aged man with extensive social experience, he would have been capable of making a comeback. Rebirth might even have been a good thing.

But now...

College entrance exams were one thing, but why the hell were they testing cultivation?

This was an era where everyone cultivated.

Driving a taxi required cultivation. Working an assembly line in a factory required cultivation. Even becoming a chef at a restaurant required mastery of fire-attribute spells!

If his memories were correct, Jiang Ran's cultivation talent was poor. His grades ranked among the very bottom of Pingjiang No. 1 High School.

"Damn it!"

"If you were going to transmigrate me, at least do it properly!"

No talent, no background, not even a family... this was a hell-difficulty start.

Jiang Ran sighed, shook his head, and stood.

Whatever. At least he was alive. That had to be better than being dead.

According to the original owner's memories, Pingjiang No. 1 High School had a one hundred percent college acceptance rate. As long as students took the college entrance exam, even the worst performers could attend some university.

Whether it was an elite school like Zhengqing University or Ten Thousand Arts University, or some vocational college no one had ever heard of, there would be somewhere to go regardless.

Jiang Ran subconsciously raised his hand, and streams of warmth surged within his body.

As a senior high school student, no matter how good or bad his grades were, he had naturally already begun cultivating.

The True Origin Formula, also known as the "Thirty-Sixth Middle School Basic Cultivation Method," was characterized above all by its balanced and moderate nature, making it suitable for most students.

A faint flicker of spiritual energy moved across his palm, slowly forming a spell.

Jiang Ran's eyes were full of wonder. To him, cultivation and spells were both new things, dreams that had been unreachable in his previous life.

Having a real chance to come into contact with cultivation, even being able to cast spells himself, made it difficult for him to calm down.

Wait...

After sorting through all his thoughts, Jiang Ran suddenly realized something.

"Why would a high school student like me be in a forest park in the middle of the night?"

There was no such scene in his memories. At this time, he should have been cultivating in his government-subsidized housing.

Senior year was the most critical year. Even students with poor grades would seize every moment to study.

The forest park beneath the twilight looked somewhat terrifying, while the large lake beside him continuously radiated a chill.

—Drip...

A clump of half-congealed liquid suddenly fell beside Jiang Ran's face.

Dark red, slightly cold, carrying a faint bloody stench.

It was... blood!

No!

Every hair on Jiang Ran's body stood on end. The smell was both familiar and strange. It was the scent of blood, but not the blood of a living person.

He slowly raised his head and looked upward, his entire body instantly going rigid.

On the massive ancient tree's trunk, dozens of bodies hung upside down in neat rows. Dead people—all of them dead! And that was not all. At least a dozen more corpses had been piled beside the tree.

Fine lines densely covered the soil beneath the tree, occasionally emitting a dark red spiritual glow, as though some kind of formation was operating.

The scene was far too bloody and sinister. Even Jiang Ran, who had seen his share of major occasions, could not help drawing in a sharp breath and stepping back twice.

In other words, the original owner should also have been one of those corpses.

Murder? Or... a cult?

Jiang Ran forcibly suppressed the unease in his heart and swiftly formed hand seals. Amid swirling moisture, a water sphere the size of a knuckle condensed into existence.

The Water Ball Technique was a basic water-attribute spell that senior-year spell classes had taught hundreds of times. Its power was mediocre.

Run!

No matter what had happened—whether it was a vendetta or a cult taking revenge on society—there was only one choice now: get out of here immediately.

Jiang Ran's only reliance was his Qi Refinement Level One cultivation and his sole spell, the Water Ball Technique.

But he soon discovered that he was wrong.

Bang... A red glow appeared beneath the ground, and a flash of spiritual light formed into a barrier.

The water ball smashed viciously into the barrier, yet it dissipated on the spot without even splashing a single drop.

His cultivation was too low. The two were not on the same level at all.

"This is bad..." Jiang Ran's heart sank.

His actions just now seemed to have fully activated the formation. The dark red patterns beneath the surrounding soil had now begun to slowly rotate.

Anyone capable of killing so many people and setting up such a large-scale formation was obviously no simple character.

In the distance, two figures shrouded in black trench coats suddenly stopped moving and sharply turned around.

"Third Brother..."

"Second Brother, someone touched my formation!"

The two moved in unison, transforming into two masses of gray mist as they sped toward the formation.

Jiang Ran naturally saw the vicious mist rushing toward him.

Judging by their bearing and aura, these two had cultivation at least on par with the teachers at Pingjiang No. 1 High School, perhaps even higher.

As a four-star high school in the Heavenly Lu Kingdom, Pingjiang High School required its teachers to be at least at the Foundation Establishment realm.

In other words, a senior high school student at Qi Refinement Level One was about to face two murderers above Foundation Establishment once again.

How was he supposed to deal with this? Had he just transmigrated only to get killed again?

"System, come out already! System!"

"..."

Jiang Ran was on the verge of tears. Only those who died often could understand this helplessness.

"Dad!"

At the very instant despair reached its peak.

A great deal of light suddenly appeared before him, and a flicker of purple could vaguely be seen darting through it.

"This..."

Jiang Ran immediately understood. He reached out and grasped that flicker of purple.

The next second.

The light dispersed, and his entire body vanished.

Everything returned to calm, as though nothing had happened.

"What's going on?" The vicious aura condensed into human form, his face filled with suspicion.

He had personally set up this formation. He had clearly sensed someone striking it earlier, yet upon arriving, he found nothing. That was impossible.

The other figure swiftly searched the entire area. His expression suddenly changed drastically, and he shouted sternly:

"Go. Those dogs are almost here."