Chapter 187

The twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month, the eve of the start of school.

This morning, the buzzing vibration disturbed Lu Ran, who was in the midst of bitter cultivation.

"Ughhh~~~"

Lu Ran stretched viciously, got up, went to the bedside table, and picked up his phone.

The caller ID, however, made Lu Ran pause for a moment.

He answered the phone and said: "Li Laoshi?"

From the other end of the phone came the homeroom teacher's voice: "Lu Ran, are you in Rain Lane City?"

"I am."

"Mm, school starts tomorrow."

"I know." Lu Ran thought for a moment and added, "I won't be late."

Li Yanzhu couldn't help but smile: "What is your strength rank now?"

Lu Ran answered truthfully: "River Realm, first stage."

"Good!" Li Yanzhu exclaimed in admiration, "According to past practice, every time the second semester of the third year of high school starts, the school will count the students who have advanced to the River Realm.

And on the first day of school, a school-wide martial arts competition will be held.

River Realm students who have learned the Water Flow Armor can all sign up to participate."

"Oh, that matter." Lu Ran understood in his heart.

As early as a few months ago, on the day Lu Ran's squad was eating cold drinks, the few of them had discussed this matter.

At that time, Chang Ying was still fantasizing that only Lu Ran would advance to the River Realm, and then he would win without a fight and take the prize directly.

"You meet the criteria, do you want to sign up?" Li Yanzhu asked.

"Sign up!" Lu Ran agreed crisply, then asked, "Li Laoshi, are there many students in our school who have advanced to the River Realm?"

"Not many." Li Yanzhu didn't hide it and added, "But compared to previous years, it's considered many."

"Oh?" Lu Ran was quite surprised.

Li Yanzhu sighed lightly: "The growth speed of the students in your grade is generally high, which is indeed not bad."

Lu Ran: "..."

Has my homeroom teacher been possessed?

Aren't we the worst grade of students you've ever taught?

This! Is! Impossible!

Li Yanzhu: "Including you, there are probably 4~6 River Realm students."

"Oh, that's indeed not few." Lu Ran nodded.

He vaguely remembered that in the previous grade, when the second semester of the third year of high school started, there were only 3 River Realm students.

Li Yanzhu continued: "The number of Stream Realm fourth and fifth stage students is also much higher than in previous years."

Lu Ran was somewhat curious, what had caused this phenomenon?

Was it because under the high-pressure living environment of Rain Lane City, the students were keeping a tight string and growing faster?

Or was it some other reason?

Li Yanzhu exhorted: "Whether it's cultivation or martial arts competition, you must work hard and absolutely cannot slack off!

Your opponents are chasing you!

Every fifteenth day of the month, the demons invading the world are also getting stronger; you must guard against arrogance and impetuosity..."

It still had to be the homeroom teacher.

Once she opened the chatterbox, she couldn't stop at all!

Lu Ran responded repeatedly, seizing a gap to interject: "Teacher, Teacher~

What is the prize for this school martial arts competition?"

Li Yanzhu: "..."

Lu Ran: "..."

The homeroom teacher was obviously choked; after several seconds, she said unhappily:

"The first prize is a River Grade Divine Power Bead, as well as 30 believer points."

"Received!" Lu Ran's mind became active.

Currently, he wore two Divine Power Beads around his neck, and both were River Grade.

But such treasures that guaranteed endurance were never too many!

Lu Ran's level was constantly improving, and the grade of his techniques was also rising step by step.

More importantly, his spellcasting frequency was extremely high!

Just for the Immortal Hoof alone, Lu Ran was constantly "hissing" on the battlefield...

It could be foreseen that after every battle, the total amount of divine power he consumed was particularly astonishing.

And Lu Ran being able to cast spells so recklessly, of course, had the credit of the two River Grade · Divine Power Beads.

Lu Ran clenched his fists, his heart filled with fighting spirit!

The first prize of the school martial arts competition must be obtained!

In this way,

He could be even more reckless in his "hissing"...

"By the way, congratulations on achieving good results in the final exam." Mentioning points, Li Yanzhu thought of the final exam of the previous semester.

"Oh?" Lu Ran immediately became spirited, "How many points did I get?"

However, Li Yanzhu just mentioned it casually; since being choked, she didn't intend to say more, directly saying:

"See for yourself tomorrow!"

As the words fell, the phone was hung up directly.

"Tch~" Lu Ran seemed to have been infected by little Yuanyuan; at least the pronunciation was very similar.

Lu Ran put down his phone, returned to the shrine, and sat cross-legged again.

He quickly collected his mind and resumed his previous bitter cultivation mode.

In the few days since returning home, Lu Ran really wanted to make some progress in his strength realm.

However, ever since advancing to the River Realm, Lu Ran could clearly sense that the path of cultivation was becoming increasingly difficult!

Lu Ran advanced to the first stage of the River Realm on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month last year.

Now a month and a half had passed, and he hadn't even touched the bottleneck of breaking through.

Hmm... he still had to work twice as hard.

The next day, at dawn.

Lu Ran fed the little Li Hua cat, changed the cat litter, carried the trash, and walked out of the house.

Today was March 1st on the solar calendar; although the sky was still overcast, the temperature had warmed up quite a bit.

It quite had the feeling of ice and snow melting and all things recovering.

The pity was that the atmosphere of Rain Lane City was not among those recovering.

Lu Ran walked all the way, except for meeting a few people at the bun shop, the streets could be described as cold and clear.

It wasn't until Lu Ran arrived at the street where the school was located that he felt it was a bit livelier.

"Lu Ran!"

Behind him, a familiar female voice suddenly came.

Lu Ran turned his head to look, only to see a tall, dark-skinned young girl striding to catch up.

"Ha!" Chang Ying pressed one hand on Lu Ran's shoulder, "Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year." Lu Ran's expression was strange as he looked up at the young girl, "Did you grow taller again?"

"Eh~" Chang Ying waved her large hand, "It's the New Year, don't say such depressing things!"

Lu Ran: "..."

First of all, the first lunar month is almost over!

Secondly, is this considered a depressing thing?

Chang Ying's face approached "whoosh," a pair of large eyes staring at Lu Ran's eyes.

The young girl's beautiful and wild face was close at hand, making Lu Ran's expression somewhat unnatural.

He tilted his head back: "What are you doing?"

Chang Ying asked very seriously: "Is it that the higher people's strength becomes, the further the distance will become?"

Such words, coming from the heartless Chang Ying's mouth, actually made people feel a bit sad.

Lu Ran held the twin blades wrapped in cloth, using the hilt to push her face away:

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like I haven't heard any news about you for a long time." Chang Ying shrugged her shoulders.

Lu Ran: "During the New Year, didn't I wish everyone a Happy New Year in the group?

And you were grabbing red envelopes?"

"Eh?" Chang Ying paused for a moment, thinking for a moment, "That's right!"

Lu Ran glared at the young girl and continued to walk forward.

Chang Ying caught up and whispered: "Except for the day of the New Year, you didn't have any news at all, and you didn't speak.

I just feel like you're becoming more and more like a stranger, further and further away."

"Don't let your imagination run wild, it's only been a month and a half since we last met." Lu Ran raised the twin blades and tapped Chang Ying's head through the cloth.

"Fine~" Chang Ying pouted and rubbed her head.

Lu Ran walked away: "I saw you say in the small group that you're already at the fifth stage of the Stream Realm?"

"Eh? You, why didn't you celebrate after seeing it?"

"I'm waiting for you to advance to the River Realm so we can celebrate together!"

"You..."

The two argued and made noise as they arrived at the school gate.

Lu Ran had long since seen the large bulletin board posted on both sides of the school gate; there were quite a few students and parents gathered here, and many people were taking pictures with their phones.

The two came to the back of the crowd, Chang Ying leaning on Lu Ran's shoulder with one hand, standing on tiptoe, peeking around.

The next moment, her mouth opened into an 'o' shape: "Wow!"

Lu Ran: "What's wrong?"

"First, we're first!" Chang Ying lowered her voice, but couldn't hide her excitement, hurriedly taking out her phone.

"Here." After taking a picture, she handed the phone to Lu Ran.

On the red bulletin board were large black characters.

The fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Rain Lane No. 1 High School third-year final exam, team performance list is as follows:

"First place, team number 98!

Team members: Tian Tian from Class (4) of the third year, Lu Ran from Class (4) of the third year, Deng Yutang from Class (4) of the third year, Chang Ying from Class (4) of the third year.

Task comprehensive score 92.7 points."

When Lu Ran was watching the results, he also heard the crowd's discussion:

"No way? Wasn't there a special event on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month? Everyone should have gotten full marks, right?"

"You kid, this time it's out of 100 points, you want to eat all 100 points, right?"

"The gambler is really lucky, she mixed into Brother Ran's team!"

"Right! This time it's really worth it, even if Beauty Jiang comes back and kicks Chang Ying out of the team, she has no regrets."

Chang Ying was originally full of smiles, but upon hearing this, her expression stiffened.

"Damn! Lu Ran's team went straight to over 90 points! How did they take the exam? Did they save the world?"

"Yeah, second place is only 76 points, this..."

"Because after the Night of the Ghost Parade, Lu Ran's team didn't enter the shelter at all."

"Ah?"

"What are you 'ah'-ing about? It was just a Ghost Parade of the Straw Demon clan, I also wanted to kill enemies outside!"

"You just talk, if the Moon-Watching people really let you go, would you dare to go out?"

"What do you mean? Say it again?"

Lu Ran ignored the messy crowd and pushed Chang Ying toward the other side of the school gate.

It was just that as he walked, he discovered Chang Ying's abnormality: "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Chang Ying was unhappy, taking the phone Lu Ran handed over.

"Did so well on the exam, still not satisfied?" Lu Ran was very curious.

The crowd was noisy, with many people talking at the same time, so he naturally couldn't hear everything.

"Satisfied, satisfied." Chang Ying responded perfunctorily, arriving at the back of the crowd on the right side of the school gate, standing on tiptoe to look.

As the personal list came into view, Chang Ying's eyes suddenly widened:

"Holy crap?!"

Lu Ran's expression was strange: "How come after a New Year, you learned to swear?"

Chang Ying was full of astonishment, looking at Lu Ran: "You... you..."

Lu Ran asked suspiciously: "What's wrong with me?"

After a full 2 seconds, a sentence finally popped out of Chang Ying's mouth: "Your score exploded!"

"Ah?" Lu Ran was also a bit confused, "Exploded?"

Chang Ying nodded foolishly: "Yes, it just overflowed, you blew up the exam!"

Lu Ran: "..."

Asking for some monthly tickets.

(End of chapter)