Soul-Nourishing

Essence Nourishment is about to reach perfection!

Jiang Ran felt a wave of excitement in his heart.

Over these past days he had been focusing mainly on the practice of the Qi Refinement Path.

It was not that the Grand Ruins Realm's cultivation method lacked sophistication; on the contrary, he knew very well that the Qi-Consumption Cultivation Method was vastly superior to the Qi refining methods handed out at school.

It was simply due to the peculiar nature of Qi Nourishment, which required one to wait until Essence Nourishment reached absolute perfection and flawlessness before entering the next stage.

Jiang Ran sensed the changes within his own body.

Kidney essence transformed into Qi, and the power of pure yang pervaded his whole body, casting his entire physique into a wondrous state.

At most three to five days, and I can begin Soul-Nourishing.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes, feeling quite satisfied.

Soul-Nourishing was the final hurdle of the Qi Nourishment Realm. Once Qi Nourishment reached perfection and the Mystic Spirit Body was forged, he would be able to attempt Qi-Consuming Initiation.

Next, the most important matter he needed to consider.

Was precisely which kind of True Qi he should consume to initiate into the Dao.

The college entrance examinations were drawing closer and closer, and the curriculum at Pingjiang No. 1 High School had also undergone several adjustments.

The exam score weight for classical literature classes was relatively low, so those classes naturally decreased quite a bit.

Physical education and spellcasting classes had both been increased by several sessions, and on top of that, the school had deliberately added extra self-study periods.

In reality, these were just times for self-directed sitting and meditation under the supervision of the teachers.

Cultivation was a personal matter, and one could not rely on others to drive the circulation of the heavenly orbit, but with teachers of the Foundation Establishment Stage present to supervise, the students' cultivation efficiency was evidently much higher than it would have been at home.

A full month had passed.

Jiang Ran had already grown accustomed to this kind of study and life.

Far from feeling any rejection, he even enjoyed it somewhat.

As long as he put in the effort, he made progress, and everything had a sense of hope to it; it had been a very long time since he felt this way.

As for the Grand Ruins Realm side, he had not been over there for quite a while.

Having attended classes in Pingjiang for a month, he had only returned to Black Dragon Mountain once during that period, leaving right after handing in the ore assignment.

Previously, Jiang Ran's idea had been to vie for the ore-delivery leaderboard, hoping to use that opportunity to join a sect directly.

The Hundred Yue Sect possessed numerous inheritances; as long as he became an official sect disciple, there was a very high probability he could obtain middle-tier True Qi, and there was even some hope for upper-tier True Qi.

Yet ever since he witnessed the cruel methods of the azure-robed cultivator that day, he completely abandoned that notion.

Not only were that person's methods cruel, but after slaughtering thousands of miners, his expression did not even change—he was entirely accustomed to it, treating it as a matter of routine.

If they treated miners like that, then in the eyes of those big shots, the status of ordinary sect disciples might not be much higher than that of miners.

Under the circumstances where he could not ascertain whether the Hundred Yue Sect was a demonic sect or not...

Jiang Ran decided that he still had to prioritize his own safety and must not take risks.

The cultivators of the Grand Ruins Realm were too powerful; Qi-Consuming Initiation alone was overwhelmingly powerful beyond imagination. Once he entered a sect, he would inevitably be restricted, and breaking away at that point would probably become extremely difficult.

Right now, Jiang Ran treated mining as his own means of accumulating wealth and no longer harbored extravagant hopes of joining a sect by handing over ores.

The Grand Ruins Realm was immensely vast, and even Black Dragon Mountain was merely a tiny corner of it.

He vaguely remembered that Old Man Liu had once mentioned taking his son Iron Ox to Azure Profound City to seek out a master.

Perhaps leaving the sphere of influence of the Hundred Yue Sect and leaving Black Dragon Mountain was the better choice.

Jiang Ran believed that seventh-grade True Qi was definitely not his upper limit.

He would stockpile more Vermilion Dense Iron, and when the time came to go to other cities, he should have the opportunity to trade it for True Qi or Qi-absorption spiritual resources.

Almost a month ago, Essence Nourishment reached perfection, and Qi Nourishment entered its final stage—Soul-Nourishing.

The so-called Soul-Nourishing was the nourishment of the divine soul, using the physical body to nurture the soul.

Once the flesh and blood reached its most flourishing state, it could naturally feed back into the divine soul, causing the divine soul to grow stronger and stronger.

In truth, this was the fundamental difference between the inheritances and cultivation methods of the two worlds.

The practice of the Qi Refinement Path usually required waiting until after the Foundation Establishment Stage, or even until the Late Foundation Establishment stage, before one began to touch upon the cultivation of the divine soul.

Meanwhile, the Qi-Absorption Path had already been synchronously nourishing the divine soul right from the initial Qi Nourishment stage.

Where the divine soul resided was indescribable, profound and abstruse.

Even with a Qi-Absorption Path cultivation method, it was very difficult to cultivate it rapidly.

Fortunately, however, Jiang Ran had a heavenly treasure in his possession: the Soul-Nourishing Herb.

The Soul-Nourishing Herb was originally an heirloom treasure of the Liu Household, something Old Man Liu had left behind for his son Iron Ox.

Later, Jiang Ran took Iron Ox's place in responding to the conscription notice and acquired this heavenly treasure.

The Soul-Nourishing Herb was extremely peculiar; it existed in a semi-illusory state, and ordinary flesh and blood could not hold it in the palm of one's hand. It had to be stored using a box made of aged peach wood.

Old Man Liu had not left behind a method for consuming the Soul-Nourishing Herb—it was not out of stinginess, but rather because he himself did not know the specific technique.

Luckily, Jiang Ran was in Pingjiang and had teachers he could consult.

After looking up information on various spiritual herbs in the library and repeatedly consulting his head teacher, Old Sun.

Jiang Ran ascertained that the characteristics of the Soul-Nourishing Herb basically matched those of Tianlu's "mental-type spiritual herbs".

The method of use was very simple: simply "sniffing" it.

Using spiritual power as an arm, he scraped off a small amount of powder from the Soul-Nourishing Herb each day and inhaled it into his body in small, frequent doses, which could maximize its efficacy.

Facts proved that his approach was entirely correct.

Over the course of a month, the quantity of the Soul-Nourishing Herb had decreased by a fifth, and Jiang Ran's divine soul had also gained very noticeable enhancements.

Even so, a single Soul-Nourishing Herb fell far short of directly bringing Soul-Nourishing to perfection.

Jiang Ran had already considered that after a while, on the Flying Sword Flash Sale platform, he could buy some other mental-type spiritual herbs as substitutes, or certain mental-type medicines which were also good choices.

In short, in Pingjiang, as long as one had money, anything was possible.

For Qi-Absorption Path cultivation, the importance of spiritual resource materials was even more crucial.

To Jiang Ran, this was undoubtedly a good thing.

Making money—making money meant he could make progress!

That guy Tao Dapeng had taken a leave of absence from school recently; he heard that his family had arranged the spiritual root transplantation surgery for him.

With this leave of absence and subsequent return, the person he would see when he came back would probably be the Superior Spirit Root bearer, Tao Dapeng.

Perhaps not just a Superior Spirit Root; it might even be the higher-tier Earth Spirit Root.

For this best brother of his, Jiang Ran only felt blessings in his heart, hoping he would succeed smoothly.

The Tao family had only one son, and this time after Tao Dapeng successfully transplanted his spiritual root, he would definitely be able to take over a portion of the family business.

Once his good brother struck it rich, Jiang Ran could also bask in a bit of the glory.

Not to mention anything else, he could definitely help him "launder some money" with absolute ease.

Today was a full day of spellcasting classes, and Jiang Ran felt somewhat worn out.

He went to the cafeteria and ruthlessly indulged in a fifty-yuan dinner before leaving the school gates feeling fully satisfied.

Living a bit too far from the school...

I must definitely buy a new house in the future. Jiang Ran shook his head, quickening his pace with an urgent desire to return to his big bed and lie flat.

After all, it was government-subsidized housing, which could only provide basic living standards and could not guarantee the quality of life.

Just as usual, Jiang Ran cut through the snack street outside the school's west gate, and passed by the commercial street lined with shops selling "spellcasting supplies" and "body-tempering tonics".

Walking forward for another ten minutes, he would be home.

Yet today's road appeared exceptionally long.

The area was sparsely populated, and the streetlamps somehow grew somewhat dim.

Jiang Ran suddenly halted his steps.

Something is wrong...