Unconventional [Rebirth] - Chapter 34

Jiang Rui was soon to break through the peak of the Foundation Establishment early stage. Miaoxuan also sensed this and was undergoing a minor advancement in seclusion.

The change in Xiao Jinnan’s fate had been a thorn in Jiang Rui’s side, preventing him from achieving peace of mind. Jiang Rui also felt that his mental state was unstable, but since Miaoxuan was also at a critical juncture, he didn’t want to disturb it. He merely contacted Xiao Jinnan from time to time to alleviate his inner agitation and unease.

Since returning from Jinlin, Jiang Rui had rarely entered the secret realm to cultivate. Firstly, he was afraid that his unstable state of mind during cultivation would be detrimental. Secondly, the breakthrough was imminent, within the next ten to fifteen days, and he was afraid of failing the breakthrough in this state.

Actually, Jiang Rui didn’t need to worry about the second point.

Jiang Rui possessed a Spiritual Bone, meaning his path to longevity was destined to be smoother than that of ordinary cultivators. Furthermore, since he began his cultivation, he had always practiced in a rare blessed land like the Miaoxuan Secret Realm, where the spiritual energy was more than just abundant. With countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures assisting him, his cultivation was solid. Since he was not a hasty person, even with the slight instability in his current state of mind, his previous accumulation was enough for him to get through this breakthrough.

Xiao Jinnan had long sensed that Jiang Rui’s condition was off and thought it was the blood he saw during the last trip to Jinlin that had left a psychological scar. After all, he heard that those who practice cultivation are quite wary of such things. Although Jiang Rui had stayed hidden and helped with spells, he hadn’t personally harmed anyone.

Xiao Jinnan didn’t understand these matters. Fearing that Jiang Rui was truly affected, he specifically sent people to find ‘semi-immortals’ and ‘enlightened monks’ to secretly inquire for a long time but received no definitive conclusion. This led the people in Yingzhang to believe that the boss of Beijiang had no other hobbies except being extremely superstitious.

About half a month later, when Jiang Rui entered the secret realm at night and prepared to enter meditation as usual, he felt the spiritual energy in his body, which was usually docile, suddenly become exceptionally restless.

Jiang Rui immediately understood that he had to break through now; he could not delay any longer.

Fortunately, Jiang Rui hit a weekend. He informed He Fulan in advance, saying that he was too tired from school and hadn’t rested well, so he needed a good sleep and might sleep for an entire day to recover.

He Fulan felt heartbroken upon hearing this. She thought the studies at Thirteenth High were too intense, tiring her smart son out like this. What if it ruins his health?

“You can’t skip meals even if you’re tired. Should I bring you your food when it’s time?” He Fulan asked worriedly.

Jiang Rui quickly refused: “Mom, just let me have a good, uninterrupted sleep. When I wake up, I’ll eat as much as you want. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in a long time.”

He Fulan was still worried, but since her son said so, she didn’t insist. She could only watch her son lock the door and go back to his room to “sleep.”

Jiang Rui was fortunate that this was only a breakthrough to a minor stage, unlike the major breakthrough from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation. Minor breakthroughs don’t take long, usually only a few days. With his secret realm, it could be completed in about one external day.

A major breakthrough would take several months. Some cultivators with lesser talent take one or two years to achieve a breakthrough.

Moreover, after a major breakthrough, it’s best to immediately stabilize the realm; otherwise, all efforts might be wasted. Stabilizing the realm can take years…

Jiang Rui spent seven or eight days in the secret realm before finally breaking through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. He then spent another two days briefly stabilizing his cultivation. Miaoxuan also reported the good news of successfully advancing a minor stage.

The last time Jiang Rui smoothly broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage laid a good foundation for Miaoxuan. Therefore, this time, Miaoxuan’s minor advancement successfully developed two new secret abilities.

One is the ability to communicate with Jiang Rui in the Sea of Consciousness anytime, anywhere, regardless of whether they are inside or outside the secret realm. The second is the ability for Jiang Rui to instantly bring external objects into or out of the secret realm with just a slight movement of his spiritual consciousness. Previously, Jiang Rui could only bring things in or out if he was holding them or wearing them.

Most importantly, he could now bring living beings, even people, into the secret realm simply by placing a trace of his spiritual consciousness on the target.

Jiang Rui asked Miaoxuan when it could transform again. Miaoxuan replied that it would take at least until Jiang Rui reached the Core Formation (Jindan) stage.

Jiang Rui’s current cultivation at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment took five or six years within the secret realm. From Foundation Establishment to Core Formation, a typically talented cultivator, even with sufficient spiritual energy and elixirs, might not form a core in one or two centuries. Since Miaoxuan had only witnessed one person with a Spiritual Bone in its tens of thousands of years of existence, it only knew that Jiang Rui’s cultivation speed was astonishing but wasn’t sure exactly how heaven-defying it was, so it couldn’t clarify when Jiang Rui would form a core.

With this breakthrough, Jiang Rui’s state of mind also changed. The matter of Xiao Jinnan’s altered fate, which had previously preoccupied him, now seemed like he had been overly focused on a trivial point.

He gained the Miaoxuan Secret Realm and thus changed his own fate—that was his own providence. Similarly, Xiao Jinnan meeting him in this life could also be considered a form of providence. The word ‘fate’ is inherently fickle and changeable. Who’s to say that what is happening to Xiao Jinnan now isn’t his destiny?

As the saying goes, fortune and disaster are intertwined. After a great calamity comes great fortune. After passing this mortal danger, Xiao Jinnan is likely to experience rapid success.

Jiang Rui had been in his room for nearly a day and a night, and He Fulan had paced back and forth outside his door almost a hundred times.

When Jiang Rui finally emerged, He Fulan sighed with relief when she saw her son looking refreshed and energetic. She immediately rushed to the kitchen to prepare a meal for him, regardless of the time.

After eating, Jiang Rui helped his parents look after the supermarket. On a whim, he asked He Fulan for the account books and flipped through the income and expenditure details for the past few months. He immediately noticed an issue.

At the end of July, while Jiang Rui was in Yidian, his father and mother withdrew ten thousand kuai from the account, and this ten thousand kuai had no specified purpose.

This ten thousand kuai was surprisingly returned around the end of August.

Jiang Rui’s first thought was that this ten thousand kuai was lent out by his parents.

His second thought was that the borrower was most likely his third uncle, Jiang Jianlin.

But if the money was lent to Jiang Jianlin, how could he possibly return it in less than a month? Even if Jiang Jianlin didn’t intend to pocket the money, his wife, Li Xiuzhi, was not the type to spit out meat she had already eaten.

Frankly, in this life, he had no karmic entanglement with his third uncle and aunt. The only person he was somewhat connected to was his cousin, Jiang Min.

In his previous life, if he had truly wanted to save Jiang Min, he always could have, but he chose to run away for fear of implicating Wang Chenghui and himself.

Jiang Min’s subsequent death was suppressed deep inside him, yet he never forgot it for a single day.

He always felt brotherly affection for Jiang Min, but this affection was overshadowed by his hatred for Jiang Jianlin at the time, leading him to make the wrong choice later.

In the past, Jiang Jianlin caused his parents to argue constantly, leaving their family destitute, which even led to Jiang Rui dropping out of school halfway through and going to Qingshi to work… Jiang Rui still dislikes Jiang Jianlin now, but he doesn’t want the child Jiang Min to repeat the tragedy of his past life.

When he was struggling in the city, he often neglected his parents. It was always Jiang Min who stepped in as a son to look after them. Later, when Jiang Rui came out, his parents refused to see him and returned all the money he had sent back, untouched. At that time, it was Jiang Min, who had already achieved some success, who looked after the elderly couple.

Jiang Min is a sensible and loyal child who deserves a good future.

Jiang Rui closed the account book and, acting as if nothing was amiss, returned the book to He Fulan.

That night, Jiang Rui did not enter the secret realm to cultivate. He released his spiritual consciousness in the room, spreading it out as far as possible…

The Mai Xi Ning Shen (Pulse Rest and Spirit Condensation) cultivation method Jiang Rui practiced is an extremely advanced mind technique specifically for cultivating spiritual consciousness. He also had a great aptitude for this path, so although he was only in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, his spiritual consciousness was on par with that of a typical late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

When Jiang Rui’s spiritual consciousness had covered about two-thirds of the area, he finally located Jiang Jianlin’s whereabouts.

He was in a remote alley.

To Jiang Rui’s surprise, his usually honest second uncle, Jiang Jianheng, was also with Jiang Jianlin.

There were also some unfamiliar men with them, their expressions carrying a slight murderous intent, clearly not decent people.

Jiang Rui’s spiritual consciousness captured all of their conversations and expressions, giving him a general understanding of Jiang Jianlin’s current situation.

Jiang Jianlin was lending money at high interest (loan sharking). The ten thousand kuai he borrowed from Jiang Jianjun and his wife was likely the initial capital. Jiang Jianlin had now tasted the sweetness of loan sharking and had even pulled the financially struggling Jiang Jianheng into the business.

These unfamiliar men were debt collectors Jiang Jianlin hired cheaply, specifically to deal with troublesome borrowers.

Jiang Rui rarely released his spiritual consciousness and didn’t pay much attention to Jiang Jianlin, so he wasn’t sure who introduced Jiang Jianlin to this line of work, but the person clearly had ill intentions.

Jiang Jianlin was currently fully invested in loan sharking and couldn’t be pulled out immediately. Jiang Rui decided to pretend he knew nothing, secretly monitoring Jiang Jianlin’s every move.

The person who lured Jiang Jianlin into this business would eventually contact him.

Jiang Rui intended to find out who wanted to drag the Jiang family down and solve the issue at the root.

Jiang Rui did not tell his parents about Jiang Jianlin’s situation, lest they worry.

After monitoring Jiang Jianlin for nearly half a month, Jiang Rui finally found out the person behind him.

It was an “old acquaintance” Jiang Rui hadn’t expected.

When Jiang Rui was first reborn, he thought about severely retaliating against this person when he saw them again. However, after embarking on the path of cultivation and his cultivation realm and state of mind improved, Jiang Rui felt an unexpected sense of calm when thinking back on his enemies from his previous life.

These people could now be instantly eliminated by a single thought or a simple spell from the current Jiang Rui, even denying them a chance at reincarnation.

They were too weak…

Jiang Rui actually lost the desire to deal with them.

However, this did not mean Jiang Rui would do nothing when an enemy delivered themselves to his doorstep.

Jiang Rui looked at the familiar face and recalled his seemingly pre-arranged encounter with this person in his previous life. The long-standing mystery in his heart seemed to have revealed a corner.

After some thought, Jiang Rui called Yang Feng.

Yang Feng was surprised to suddenly receive a call from Jiang Rui. Since their business dealings ended, they had rarely contacted each other. However, thinking of Mr. Rong’s previous attitude towards Jiang Rui, he didn’t dare to neglect him.

Some matters were best not discussed over the phone. Jiang Rui had his monthly exam coming up in the next few days, and Yang Feng was also a busy man, so they scheduled their meeting for the following week.

They agreed to meet at Taibai Tower on Saturday afternoon at three o’clock.