Foundation Establishment? Xuanling!

A pink card was flung heavily into Jiang Ran's arms.

"Jiang Ran, you've gone too far. I told you not to give it back to me."

"You..."

Zhang Jingjing rebuked him softly.

Tao Dapeng had not even heard the rest of it before he froze on the spot, his eyes widening.

"Wait... Zhang Jingjing, what's going on between you two?"

The pink bank card was clearly Zhang Jingjing's personal belonging. How had it ended up with Jiang Ran?

Could it be that the two of them really had something going on?

But hadn't Zhang Jingjing always looked down on Jiang Ran...

Tao Dapeng was utterly bewildered, his heart full of confusion.

Yet no one answered his question. Zhang Jingjing had already returned to her seat.

As for Jiang Ran, the male lead of this incident, his eyes remained tightly shut, and he did not move.

"Jiang Ran, what's going on between you two?"

"I was only gone for two months, and Zhang Jingjing actually came looking for you?"

"You didn't confess to her again while I was away, and then she accepted, did you...?"

Tao Dapeng's gossiping soul erupted completely.

If his best brother had successfully confessed, while he alone had been kept in the dark, that would be a true failure!

Unfortunately, Jiang Ran remained silent, with no intention of explaining.

That reaction only made Tao Dapeng more certain that there was something between Jiang Ran and Zhang Jingjing that he did not know about!

"Jiang Ran, are you really not going to tell me?"

Five minutes later.

"Hey... Jiang, you got yourself a girlfriend and decided to ditch your best brother, huh?"

With no response whatsoever, Tao Dapeng completely broke down.

"Fine, fine, fine. Forget it if you won't tell me!"

In the sixth minute of his anger, Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes.

"Stop yelling..."

"There's really nothing between us. I'll tell you later."

"Dapeng, do me a favor."

About half an hour later.

Under the adamant demands of Tao Dapeng and several male students,

the teacher leading the group had no choice but to bring the flying bus to a halt at a flight service area ahead.

Those boys were making far too much noise. During a journey of barely two hours, they insisted they were desperate to relieve themselves and could not hold it any longer, demanding a stop to use the restroom.

They were all cultivators. Where could they possibly have so much piss and shit...

But there was no helping it. The teachers could not stop the boys' "yearning," either.

Once they reached the service area, the students scattered in every direction in delight.

For high school students, opportunities for group outings like this were rare, so they were enjoying themselves.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ran—the culprit behind the restroom incident—was the only one who truly plunged headfirst into a stall.

"I can't hold it anymore..." Jiang Ran locked the door and swiftly entered a cultivation state.

He was not actually desperate to relieve himself. Rather, his divine radiance was overflowing, and his Qi Nourishment Realm cultivation was about to enter its final stage of consummation. He could not delay any longer.

Cultivating the soul was profoundly mysterious; it was difficult to predict exactly when it would reach completion.

Jiang Ran knew that he was about to break through, but he truly had not expected it to happen today, on the flying bus.

The completion of Soul Nourishment meant that all four stages of Qi Nourishment had been accomplished. The final step was the union of body and soul, achieving the true "Mystic Spirit Body."

According to the two Qi-Absorption Path techniques in his possession, attaining the Mystic Spirit Body was equivalent to shedding one's mortal frame and exchanging one's bones. Many extremely conspicuous changes would occur within one's body.

Therefore, continuing to cultivate on the bus was certainly out of the question.

In broad daylight and before the Foundation Establishment Realm teachers, he would surely be discovered.

Fortunately, they were now at the service area. The restroom stalls were very private, with formations that blocked odors and sounds.

Jiang Ran swiftly took out a pink injection, precisely drove it into his neck, then calmed his breath and focused his mind, devoting himself entirely to cultivation.

Divine radiance overflowed. His sea of consciousness was filled with light, clouds steaming and rosy mists rising.

As the pink medicine was injected, immense medicinal power flooded into his meridians.

The light of his soul bloomed with boundless splendor and, at last, in a certain instant, shattered some kind of limit.

His soul had reached completion...

The final piece of the Qi Nourishment Realm puzzle had finally fallen into place.

Flesh and blood, heart meridians, vital essence, and soul became smooth and unified, quietly drawing close together as a wondrous change took place.

Had anyone been standing nearby, they would certainly have noticed a strange sight—Jiang Ran was glowing.

Every pore of his body stretched open. All kinds of filthy impurities faintly seeped from his body, only to dissolve amid the light.

The "Mystic Spirit Body"—this was the Mystic Spirit Body that represented the very foundation of Qi-Absorption Path cultivation.

After a long while, Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes. A gleam flashed through them and vanished, while the light around his body withdrew as well.

"I seem to have changed..."

He could clearly sense that his entire body had undergone a qualitative transformation.

It was not an increase in strength, nor had even a trace of spiritual power been added.

The change originated from the deepest part of his body, yet spread through every minute corner of it.

His senses had become keener, his limbs more supple, his muscles filled with strength... Even his spiritual roots seemed to have become more active.

Jiang Ran had the strange feeling that even without using spiritual power, he might be able to cast spells.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to study it closely. There were still so many classmates and teachers waiting outside.

"It smells awful..." Jiang Ran's nose kept catching a faint, indistinct stench.

The restroom had a cleaning formation. The source of the smell... seemed to be himself.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered a sticky, blackened layer of matter on his skin.

Jiang Ran knew that these should be impurities produced by the Mystic Spirit Body's cleansing of the meridians and marrow, transforming his constitution.

Fortunately, the service area had shower rooms. He hurriedly gave himself a thorough cleaning in the shortest possible time.

After all that fussing about, quite a bit of time had indeed been wasted.

While Jiang Ran was happily showering inside, the teachers of Pingjiang No. 1 High School outside were beginning to grow anxious.

"Why is one person still missing?" The teacher leading the group called roll one by one and found that not all the students had returned.

"Class Three, Class Three, take a look. Who from your class hasn't come back yet?"

"It's Jiang Ran... Jiang Ran hasn't returned yet." Several Class Three students exchanged glances.

"That's not right. I didn't see Jiang Ran when I went to get food just now. Did any of you see him?"

The teacher leading the group overheard the conversation and immediately walked over with a frown.

"What's going on? Which student from your class is missing?"

The school rarely organized trips for students. If a student went missing along the way, that would be a real disaster.

Tao Dapeng's eyes spun rapidly. "Teacher..."

"Jiang Ran doesn't seem to be feeling well. He might still be in the restroom."

"How about I go check on him?"

"Alright. Go find him quickly."

The people on the bus wore all sorts of expressions.

Cheng Qian, the Class Three class monitor, was somewhat worried. She rose to her feet and caught up with Tao Dapeng, intending to check on him together.

Most of the other students watched curiously. After all, the name Jiang Ran was fairly well known at Pingjiang No. 1 High School...

Just as everyone was looking around, a handsome figure suddenly walked in through the bus door.

He stood loftily like clouds lifting in a rosy dawn, his graceful bearing soaring into the skies; bright as a jade mountain reflecting snow, clear as the moon among pine branches.

Everyone had seen plenty of handsome men, but a handsome man with such transcendent bearing was truly rare.

"Is that Jiang Ran?"

"Holy shit... Has Jiang Ran always been this handsome?"

Jiang Ran politely admitted his fault and apologized to the teacher leading the group. "Sorry, Teacher. I'm late."

The teacher nodded subconsciously. "It's fine. Go back to your seat."

He looked at Jiang Ran's tall, straight figure and the tips of his hair still beaded with water, and for a moment, he was dazed.

He was clearly just a high school student in the Qi Refining Realm. Why did he give him the illusion of a Foundation Establishment cultivator of the same generation?