Chapter 235: Chapter 341: Jiang Ling in His Early 20s_1
Suddenly, the rocky layer on the surface of Fang Ren\'s body began to crack frenziedly. It fell off his body continuously, revealing the new skin that had regenerated underneath through the fissures in the black stone.
"Re... reborn?"
Jiangling was completely shocked. Just a moment ago, she had distinctly felt the life force fade from Fang Ren, yet now, an immense surge of life energy was emanating from him.
Hum—
A grey wave of light suddenly radiated from Fang Ren, shattering all the black rocks on his body, flattening the ruins within several miles of the area.
Jiangling\'s realm was too high, so she remained unaffected by the light wave.
"Is this! The peak of the Azure Sky!?"
Jiangling was totally dumbfounded; she was absolutely certain that the aura Fang Ren was now emitting belonged to the peak of the Azure Sky Realm, nothing remotely close to the Early Stage of Xianyun Realm!
"Fuck! That was close—I almost got blown to death!"
Fang Ren, drenched in cold sweat, opened his eyes and couldn\'t help but curse, although his vision was filled with darkness. He just felt something soft beneath him, as if someone was holding him.
Due to blindness, he had no choice but to open his "heart eye."
Hum—
The scope of the heart eye expanded, but as it did, he was completely dumbstruck.
"Holy shit! Is this supposed to be a map!?"
Fang Ren immediately let out a swear.
At that moment, the range of his heart eye\'s vision had expanded to a kilometer. The whole world seemed boundless!
But what shocked him even more was not just that; colors filled his heart eye in this moment. The entire world was tinted—just like what the naked eye would see.
"Mr. Fang?"
Jiangling watched Fang Ren\'s erratic shouting and became stunned—had his soul returned but his intelligence gone missing?
"Huh?"
Fang Ren heard Jiangling\'s voice, finally realizing she must have successfully made a complete breakthrough. He swiftly shifted his focus away from the shock of the heart eye, and reduced its visible range to the usual fifty-meter radius.
But the moment he narrowed down the scope of his heart eye, something even more flabbergasting happened... The lightning had just turned his skin to ash, but that wasn\'t the most important part.
What was crucial was that there was a gorgeous woman in her early twenties next to him, holding him in her arms!
"Who are you?"
Fang Ren immediately sprang up from Jiangling\'s embrace, staring blankly at her.
Jiangling blushed with embarrassment: *cough cough* "Mr. Fang, are you sure there\'s nothing wrong with your memory?"
"Mr. Fang?"
Fang Ren frowned slightly upon hearing this title. After sensing Jiangling\'s realm for a bit, he seemed to confirm a fact. The woman in her early twenties before him couldn\'t be Jiangling, right?
"Jiangling... Leader?" Fang Ren asked.
"Of course. Are you sure your memory hasn\'t taken any damage? How can you not recognize me?" Jiangling replied.
"Huh?"
Fang Ren looked at Jiangling, completely baffled: "No, Leader Jiangling, you... you look more than just 10 years younger."
"Younger?"
Jiangling blinked, conjured her Spirit Form—a black long sword—and looked at her reflection on the blade\'s surface. Then, she was taken aback as she saw what she looked like 20 years ago!
Joy and shock in her heart, Jiangling put down the blade and said, "Maybe it\'s because of my breakthrough to a new realm, but I never expected to become so much younger... It\'s incredible."
Fang Ren, hearing her talk about her breakthrough, was also happy for her. After all, now they had been through two life-or-death situations together and were comrades with the same goal.
Then, Fang Ren activated his soul force, but he found that Jiangling\'s soul appeared to be even brighter than Mu Huanqing\'s luminance!
Could it be... had Jiangling reached the legendary realm?
"Your current realm must no longer be at the peak of the Solar Realm, right?" said Fang Ren.
"Indeed, it\'s not," Jiangling responded, after sensing her own realm. "But it feels like I haven\'t departed too much from the Solar Realm, only faintly touched upon a higher plane."
"Are you talking about the Xuanyang realm!?" asked Fang Ren.
"Yes, it doesn\'t feel like a complete transition into a new realm, just a slight touch."
After hearing this, Fang Ren fell silent.
Shit! The first person in human history to touch the Xuanyang realm, and it was under his help that she had succeeded!
Jiang Ling saw him standing there, dumbstruck, and straightened out his clothes before saying, "So... are you planning to just keep staring at me like this?"
Fang Ren came back to his senses and noticed himself. His face turned red as he started looking around for something to cover up with, but before he could react, Jiang Ling suddenly rushed over and embraced him.
Whoosh—
The mighty True Qi in Jiang Ling\'s body started rotating, and he took off like lightning with Fang Ren toward the distance.
"What! What\'s happening all of a sudden?" Fang Ren was taken aback.
Even though my wife isn\'t as high in realm as you are now, her husband—if I\'m bullied by you—will definitely fight you to the death!
"People from Tianjiang are coming over; we need to move quickly to a different location."
Jiang Ling spoke these words, but within a few seconds, he had already carried Fang Ren more than ten miles away from their original location!
A few minutes later, a group of Tianjiang Guard Team practitioners floated above the ruins, looking down at the destroyed bamboo forest and then gazing up at the void above their heads.
"Could it be that a ninth-order Void Beast sneaked down here?"
"Quick, report this to the Central Area!"
...
At this time, in an alley of a small town hundreds of miles away, Fang Ren was putting on the clothes Jiang Ling had stolen for him.
That\'s right, she stole them, because she didn\'t have a penny on her.
"Where did you steal these from?"
Fang Ren, looking at the clothes he was wearing, which still had the tags on, and then at Jiang Ling\'s indifferent face opposite him, couldn\'t help feeling a headache coming on.
You just broke through to a new realm and used it to steal? You\'re a big leader, after all, and now the strongest in the world, surpassing Mu Huanqing. How could you do such a thing?
"From a mall in the city center. As for a men\'s underwear store, I couldn\'t find one, so I just stole a piece from a random store," Jiang Ling said nonchalantly.
Fang Ren slapped his own face, having just realized something was amiss. It definitely didn\'t feel like anything legit!
"My great leader... take me there, no matter what, we have to pay them back," Fang Ren said helplessly.
"Do you have money?" Jiang Ling asked him.
She hadn\'t touched money for almost 10 years because she simply couldn\'t appear in front of people, naturally couldn\'t work, and couldn\'t go out to buy things herself. As for shopping, that was done by a few female group leaders in the organization for her.
Fang Ren, seeing her expectant look as if he had no money, was annoyed. He immediately reached for his storage ring and said, "Are you kidding me? I\'m a top Alchemist, and as for money, isn\'t it just in and out of the bank card..."
Blinking, Fang Ren suddenly remembered that when he went all out on eating elixirs, his bank card, phone, and many other things had fallen out and were blasted by the thunder...
"Ahem, not showing wealth is the basic principle of us Alchemists."
Fang Ren awkwardly lowered his hand.
Jiang Ling: "Put it plainly."
Fang Ren: "Card\'s blown, need a replacement."
"Your identity card didn\'t get blown up?"
"Fortunately, I hid it in a more concealed spot."
Fang Ren fished out his ID card from his storage ring.
"Let\'s go; I\'ll go with you," Jiang Ling said as she turned and walked toward the alleyway exit.
"Hey! Aren\'t you afraid of being recognized?" Fang Ren quickly stopped her.
Jiang Ling took out a small round mirror from her skirt pocket, looked at her young and beautiful face, and said with a smile, "In this look, unless I stand in front of those old geezers in the Central Area, they\'ll be able to tell who I am."
"Makes sense, ha, but did you steal that little mirror too?"
"Stolen," Jiang Ling nodded.
Fang Ren looked up at the sun; it was about three in the afternoon, with three more hours until the eve of the grand meeting, enough time for him to settle all his affairs.
In the following hour, Fang Ren took Jiang Ling to reissue his bank and phone cards, and returned all the stolen items to the stores to pay for them. Even though the shopkeepers were baffled, Fang Ren felt that no matter what, he had to pay.
In the end, Fang Ren bought a new phone, and he and Jiang Ling stepped into a restaurant, after all, there was a lot to talk about, regarding Indra Sky, Central Area, Nightfall, and the Void.
"It\'s been a long time since I\'ve been out shopping like this; it\'s nostalgic, and I suddenly feel like continuing," Jiang Ling said, sitting in the restaurant, her gaze fixed on the bustling street outside, her expression full of reminiscence.
Fang Ren was completely baffled. It looked like the big leader wasn\'t just physically young; her mentality seemed to have rejuvenated quite a bit too.
At that moment, a female waitress came over with a smile.
"Sir, madam, congratulations, you are our store\'s hundredth customer today. We\'ve prepared a couple\'s juice for you, free of charge."
With that, the waitress placed a drink with couple\'s straws onto the table and left.
Fang Ren was stunned; when did he get a forty-year-old girlfriend?
Seeing this, Jiang Ling\'s smile widened: "It makes me all the more nostalgic for the past."