PE Class

It had to be said, Pingjiang's food still suited his palate better.

Jiang Ran had been trapped on Black Dragon Mountain for three days, then stayed in Xiang Family Village for over ten more. What he ate was either simply roasted food or a chaotic stew from a huge pot—none of it had anything to do with the word "delicious."

This chicken casserole filled both the emptiness in his heart and the emptiness in his stomach.

Fed and watered.

"The school monthly exam is in a few days. We'll probably get chewed out again, sigh..."

In the end, Tao Dapeng still did not let Jiang Ran pay. Young Master Tao did not have the face to make his poor buddy treat him to a meal.

"Oh, right, Jiang Ran."

"What are you planning to do about Zhang Jingjing?"

"Zhang Jingjing?" Jiang Ran froze for a moment.

A flood of unpleasant memories suddenly surged through his mind.

School beauty Zhang Jingjing, bottom-feeder Jiang Ran, one hundred confessions, ninety-nine failures...

Oh no...

There really was such a melodramatic mess!

The previous owner of this body had ranked near the bottom for a long time, and his cultivation had been unable to improve. He had long since let himself go.

Egged on by several male classmates, he had actually grown a bear's gallbladder and publicly confessed to Zhang Jingjing, the school beauty of Pingjiang No. 1 High School.

Who was Zhang Jingjing? Fair-skinned and beautiful, from a wealthy family, and even her grades had occupied the top ten of the year for ages.

The result came as no surprise. He was rejected—rejected brutally.

Being rejected once would have been one thing. If you embarrassed yourself once, no one would remember it.

But the previous owner had been an idiot. He believed he could move the goddess with a heart full of sincerity, so he swore that he would confess one hundred times and bare his earnest heart before her.

Counting carefully... over the past two years, he had confessed exactly ninety-nine times, and every single one had ended in failure.

Tao Dapeng looked deeply concerned. "Jiang Ran, your hundredth confession is coming up soon."

"I used to think you were a stupid dog, but now I believe you're sincere."

"With perseverance like yours, you'll succeed at anything."

"Maybe Zhang Jingjing will really be moved by you this time!"

"This..." Jiang Ran felt a headache coming on.

The vows Jiang Ran had made and the sins he had created—what did any of that have to do with him, Jiang Ran? Publicly confessing one hundred times and getting rejected ninety-nine times—was that really something a human being could do?

"No. I'm not planning to keep pursuing her."

What a joke. The college entrance exam was imminent, and cultivating immortality was the most important thing. How could a high school student date?

"Huh?" Tao Dapeng stopped chewing and blanked out for a moment.

"You're not pursuing her anymore?"

"Why? I think Zhang Jingjing is about to accept you..."

"There's no reason. Do not ruin my Dao heart." Jiang Ran spoke with righteous dignity.

The next day, at Pingjiang No. 1 High School.

Jiang Ran's return did not attract much attention.

The police and the school had joined forces to suppress the incident involving the demonic cultivator's rampage half a month ago. It had not spread, and was ultimately classified directly as a missing-person case.

Besides, they were already in their final year of high school. Every student's attention was on studying, leaving them no time to care about anything else.

As usual, Jiang Ran entered Class Three's classroom, found his seat, and sat down.

"Jiang Ran, where did you go these past few days?"

"Jiang Ran, you seem a little different..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you grow taller?"

A few classmates at the neighboring desks still chatted about it. After all, they were fairly familiar with one another.

"I don't think so." Jiang Ran looked up and smiled.

"Focus on class. The teacher's here."

There was only one class that morning: Ancient Language.

The three main subjects were physical education, spells, and ancient language—PE class, spell class, and ancient language class.

Among them, PE carried the greatest weight, spell class came second, and ancient language class ranked last.

There was no helping it. For high school students who had only just begun cultivating, the martial arts and body-tempering methods taught in PE were the best way to improve their grades.

After several rounds of reform, education in the Heavenly Lu Kingdom had evolved into the current ten years of compulsory education: seven years of primary school and three years of middle school.

The officially recognized optimal age for cultivation was around fourteen. Thus, elementary education consisted entirely of learning foundational immortal-cultivation theory and building habits.

After entering middle school, students began learning cultivation techniques in their first year and came into contact with the fundamentals of various spells and spiritual inscriptions.

In their second year, the school organized aptitude evaluations and class-placement exams. Then, all students officially stepped through the gates of cultivation.

In other words, students only truly cultivated for two years.

The college entrance examination tested the fruits of those two years of cultivation, as well as their overall learning achievements over the past ten years.

"Stop talking, everyone. Teacher Wang is teaching us today."

The speaker was Cheng Qian, Class Three's class monitor. She ranked within the top three hundred of the year and had reached Qi Refinement Level Two.

There were differences between people. They had both begun cultivating in their second year of high school, yet a poor student like Jiang Ran struggled even with Qi Refinement Level One. In just a little over a year, Class Monitor Cheng Qian had already broken through to Qi Refinement Level Two.

Based on college admissions in previous years, as long as one broke through to Qi Refinement Level Two in high school, getting into an undergraduate program was a sure thing—that was, a first-tier immortal-cultivation university.

"Hello, students!"

Before the man arrived, his voice did.

The voice of PE teacher Wang Changming entered the classroom, like distant rumbling thunder.

"Your ancient language teacher isn't feeling well today, so I'll be substituting with PE for this period."

"Are you students happy?"

"Happy..."

The students in the classroom answered listlessly, and quite a few wore mournful expressions.

For most people, PE class was a nightmare.

Physical training, martial technique drills, and the most terrifying part of all—body-tempering sessions...

After a whole morning of PE, many students would collapse to the ground from exhaustion.

Compared with that, ancient language class in the classroom was much more comfortable. They only had to sit and listen to the teacher, and they could often watch ancient-language films and documentaries during class. What bliss.

Jiang Ran had always liked sports. He had even run a boxing gym in his previous life.

Now that PE taught immortal-cultivation martial arts, it naturally piqued his interest even more.

Unfortunately, Teacher Wang did not go straight into martial arts. Instead, he began with physical training.

On the four-thousand-meter track, they had to sprint ten laps.

With iron plates weighing dozens, even over a hundred jin, they had to perform a thousand weighted squats...

"Faster, faster! Don't fall behind!"

"The more effort you put in now, the more points you'll score on the college entrance exam!"

"Think about it—how many competitors can one extra point put you ahead of?"

"Run! Run faster!"

After the entire set of training, barely anyone in Class Three could remain standing and talk.

Only because they all had cultivation could they adapt to such a monstrous training regimen.

"All right, sit down and rest." Wang Changming held a small leather case and revealed a satisfied expression.

Drilling students was his greatest hobby. The harder they gasped, the more satisfied he became.

"Today, we'll continue learning the third set of Long Fist. Watch carefully."

The Ministry of Education and the ten great immortal-sect universities had jointly developed thousands of basic martial arts. There were over a hundred fist techniques alone. Long Fist had more than one set, and they were currently learning the third.

Jiang Ran watched with great concentration.

To him, everything was fresh and new.

This fist technique was not merely simple boxing and kicking. It was genuine immortal-cultivation martial arts, requiring the circulation of spiritual energy to execute.

Teacher Wang had Foundation Establishment cultivation. When he performed a set of Long Fist, its depth of meaning was naturally extraordinary.

As his fists and palms intertwined, the faint howl of wind accompanied them.

Interestingly, not many students were carefully watching their teacher demonstrate the fist technique at this moment—not even half.

Many classmates were lost in thought, and some even simply closed their eyes to rest. Yet Wang Changming seemed not to care, offering no verbal reminder.

There was no helping it. To many students, the martial arts taught at school were far too low-level.

Anyone whose family had some means basically took supplementary lessons outside school and mastered some advanced martial arts ahead of time.

The third set of Long Fist was only a basic martial art, after all. It offered no advantage whatsoever in the college entrance exam.

"How could this be..."

After watching seriously for a long while, Jiang Ran gradually frowned.

"How could it be like this? Teacher Wang's strength..."