Spirit Root

This renewed encounter with an attack by demonic cultivators taught Jiang Ran a painful lesson.

Tianlu was not safe, and neither was Pingjiang.

Entrusting his life and possessions entirely to the police bureau, hoping the police could resolve every danger, was itself an extremely dangerous thing.

After all, no one could predict what would happen in the future.

He was in the light while the enemy lurked in the dark; demonic cultivators hid in shadowy corners.

No matter how capable the Immortal Police Bureau was, it might not be able to plug every gap through which danger could seep. There would always be moments of oversight.

Therefore, if one wanted absolute "safety" in this world, in the final analysis, one still had to rely on oneself.

Jiang Ran knew himself well.

He did not think that, with his current abilities, he could gain strength capable of rivaling those terrifying demonic cultivators in the short term.

What he needed to do was improve himself as much as possible.

At the very least, if a similar crisis arose again, he needed the ability to resist.

All in all, Pingjiang was still far safer than the Grand Ruins Realm.

Tianlu's strength was beyond doubt. As long as he could hold out until the police arrived, the crisis would resolve itself.

"Buy a magical artifact?"

"No. My cultivation is too low; I can't wield artifacts that are too advanced."

"Change to a different cultivation method?"

"That won't work either. The college entrance examination is imminent, and switching cultivation methods now would waste too much time. I'll wait until university..."

"Buy pills..."

After turning it over and over in his mind, improving his own cultivation was still the most effective choice.

Jiang Ran had mastered the Qi-Collection Method and was fully confident that he could fill Qi Refinement Level Two in the shortest time possible. Qi Refinement Level Three afterward would not be difficult either.

But the problem was that if he wanted to take the college entrance examination, his cultivation could not exceed the standard. It had to remain within the early stages of Qi Refining.

That practically locked down the upper limit of how much he could improve his strength.

"No, my Qi Refining cultivation can't rise too quickly..." Jiang Ran frowned.

The pain of having money with nowhere to spend it was truly hard for ordinary people to understand.

"No more hiding it. I'll push for Qi Refinement Level Three first." He quickly made his decision.

In the past, he had always wanted to hide his talents. The gun shot the bird that stuck its head out; he had feared others would see his exceptional gifts and turn him into that bird felled by a bullet.

Now, whether he was the bird that stuck its head out no longer mattered. As long as he was a bird, he might be shot dead.

The only way to break the deadlock was to cast off his identity as a bird, leave the branch, and become a phoenix!

Wanted safety? Fine!

Either his strength had to be great enough, or... his reputation had to be great enough!

A genius admitted to one of the ten most prestigious universities was a golden signboard for any city and would naturally receive official protection.

Jiang Ran purchased a large batch of cultivation resources from the Flying Sword Network.

Qi-Concentrating Pills, the advanced product of Qi-Gathering Powder—one thousand per pill, six thousand per bottle.

A small household cultivation artifact—the Spirit-Gathering Cushion—fifteen thousand each.

With spiritual power cultivation maxed out, he could not let improvements to his physical fitness fall behind either.

Jiang Ran did not go to a KeHua specialty store. Instead, he specifically sought out Teacher Wang from PE and bought five of the latest "KeHua No. 7" injections, each costing a full three thousand.

To Jiang Ran, although KeHua No. 7's medicinal effect was ten times stronger, its price was dozens of times higher. Its value for money was far inferior to KeHua No. 5.

But he had no choice. He had to do this.

After spending so much money, he was not really hoping to turn himself into a "top student" with these things.

In essence, Jiang Ran now only needed to refine True Qi to attain the fastest cultivation speed.

The reason he was making such a big show of it was merely to throw others off the scent.

It was to show that Jiang Ran was working hard, that Jiang Ran had the right to grow stronger.

Even if some truly formidable figure with hands that reached the heavens and eyes that covered the earth set their sights on him, the only information they could uncover was that the source of this money... was the Pingjiang Police Bureau!

Since he had decided to change, he would change thoroughly.

Jiang Ran had already made up his mind. He would charge into Qi Refinement Level Three and see whether he could make one final push for the "ten most prestigious universities."

It was another day of spell class.

"Your classical language teacher is unwell today, so I'll be substituting for the class. Classical language will be changed to spell class."

With the National University Spell Exchange Competition approaching, Zhou Tianfang, the spell class teacher, had temporarily added many extra spell classes.

The Spirit-Control Technique had already been taught in full.

Recently, everything taught had been advanced courses from the Five Elements Spellbook.

"Torrent Technique," "Flame-Raising Technique," "Stone-Splitting Technique"...

They were, in truth, all practical applications of the Spirit-Control Technique within the Five Elements. As long as one learned the Spirit-Control Technique well, one could grasp all these spells by analogy.

But these spells were, after all, the most difficult portion of the college entrance examination.

For many students, the difficulty was anything but ordinary.

"I've already taught you everything that needed to be taught."

"For the next few months, our focus will be on review."

"Practice diligently after class. If there's anything you truly don't understand, you can go to the Ten Thousand Arts Forum and see how your peers, those outstanding students, do things..."

"Ten Thousand Arts Forum..." Jiang Ran committed the name to memory.

This was not the first time Jiang Ran had heard the name Ten Thousand Arts Forum.

The Ten Thousand Arts Forum was the nation's largest forum for studying spells, and it was even endorsed by Ten Thousand Arts University and the Ten Thousand Arts Immortal Sect.

From Nascent Soul secret arts above to Qi Refining martial techniques below, cultivators of the same path could be found on the forum to exchange insights.

High school students, however, were merely beginners who had just come into contact with cultivation, so they did not have much need to visit the Ten Thousand Arts Forum.

"Almost time..."

"I've more or less taken care of the Qi Refinement Path." Jiang Ran glanced at the appointment information on his phone and took a deep breath.

"What must be faced still has to be faced. I still have to go to the Grand Ruins Realm."

He had remained in Pingjiang for quite a long time. The fundamental reason was actually his fear of the unknown dangers in the Grand Ruins Realm and the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect.

But reality lay before him. Jiang Ran knew perfectly well that relying solely on his current resources and methods was far from enough to let him sleep with his head on a high pillow.

Two million in cash, along with ores worth several million more.

If he spent sparingly, it might support him until he entered university. He should be able to complete Foundation Establishment.

But what then?

The immortal path was vast and boundless. At the end of the day, getting into a cultivation university was only a beginning.

For the dream in his heart, he had to stake everything on one attempt.

There were no opportunities in this world that came for nothing. To gain something, one inevitably had to pay.

Wanted the supreme inheritance of the Grand Ruins Realm? Then come and fight for it!

Jiang Ran had made up his mind.

But before returning to Great Ruins once more, he still had one extremely important matter to complete.

An hour later.

[Pingjiang First People's Hospital, arrived.]

Jiang Ran's destination was Pingjiang City's best public hospital.

To be more precise, it was the hospital in Pingjiang City with the best reputation for performing Spirit Root Transplant Surgery.

That was right. His purpose today was spirit roots!

"Mr. Jiang, please show me your appointment information..."

Upon entering the consultation room, there was not a single word of nonsense.

The attending physician directly laid out the spirit root transplant catalog.

[Type-One Mid-Grade Water Spirit Root (Quality 9)---Compatibility 99%]

[Type-One Mid-Grade Water Spirit Root (Quality 9)---Compatibility 98%]

[Type-One Mid-Grade Water Spirit Root (Quality 8)---Compatibility 98%]

[Type-One Mid-Grade Metal Spirit Root (Quality 9)---Compatibility 97.7%]

"Take a look. Which one would you like?"

Wait a moment...

Jiang Ran was completely dumbfounded.

"Doctor, may I ask... I can still transplant a Metal Spirit Root?"