Chapter 19  : Mid-Stage Of Foundation Establishment

After their brief meeting in the bar, Jiang Churan had never talked to Chen Fan again. Even when they passed each other at school, they simply nodded at each other without exchanging any words.

Despite the gradual increase of distance with Jiang Churan, Chen Fan had started to hit it off with Jiang Tanqiu. Although he wasn’t too proud of having Chen Fan as his desk-mate, he at least was willing to converse with the new guy and sometimes even hang out with him. In the eyes of their classmates, Jiang Taniu was the closest person to being a friend to Chen Fan in the class.

One day, the class leader Chang Wen came up to the two and said: “The school basketball team will be training at noon. I want you two to help out with the water bottles.”

Before the two boys had a chance to utter a word, Chang Wen had turned around and started off.

Jiang Tanqiu complained under his breath, “Whatever, she treats Si Yinxia like a god and treats us like dogs!”

He turned around and saw Chen Fan had kept his silence which Jiang Tanqiu took for acquiescence.

“You are too nice to her. One day you will regret it!”

Chen Fan pretended he didn’t hear his friend’s complaint and had remained silent.

After the two had lunch, they arrived at the basketball court. They found out that most seats were already taken by girls. They scanned the court expectantly while whispering to each other from time to time. The substitute players were the first to enter the court, but no one had paid any attention to them. However, once Si Yinxia showed up, the entire stadium was filled with cheers and screams.

“Why the hype?”

Even though Chen Fan knew that Si Yinxia was the girl’s idol, he was taken aback by the girl’s feverish enthusiasm.

“There goes the hotshot.” Jiang Tanqiu sighed. “I have already seen more than four of his admirers who were at least as pretty as our class leader. But he is not interested in any one of them.”

Chen Fan shook his head and then sighed.

He didn’t sigh out of envy for Si Yinxia’s popularity; In the past five hundred years, he had traveled many galaxies, and had his fair share of outright drop dead gorgeous goddess. These girls in their earthly bodies failed to live up to even a fraction of those goddess’ sublime beauty.

What he was lamenting about was the sight of Yang Chao.

Surrounded by girls, it was evident that both Yang Chao and Si Yinxia were both popular studs among the girls.

“Do you see that tall one? He is Yang Chao, captain of the school team. He is quite a character, that one.”

Jiang Tanqiu pointed to Yang Chao and said: “His dad is the CEO of Tiansheng Hotel. It was said that even the cheapest meal at the hotel would cost at least three thousand yuan. Someone had ticked him off once, and he ended up dropping out of school with a broken leg. And guess what happened to our Captain Yang? Nothing.”

Jiang Tanqiu said with a mixture of envy and loathing in his voice:” When will I be like him? That would be awesome.”

So saying, he shot Chen Fan a sidelong glance and then heaved a sigh of resignation: “Forget it, What am I thinking? Us and Yang Chao live in two different worlds.”

Chen Fan smiled and didn’t say anything.

Jiang Tanqiu’s family was well-off, but it was a far cry compared to the Yang family’s hundreds of millions of assets.

The training quickly turned into Si Yinxia’s solo performance. Every time he had control of the ball, he easily zig-zagged his way through the opponent’s defense and scored. Every time that happened, the gym was filled with girls’ screams.

The training session ended with an overwhelming victory of 82 to 22. Si Yinxia alone had earned 30 points out of that 82.

Seeing the game had ended, Chang Wen hurried to Si Yinxia and handed him a bottle of iced-water. And then she took out a soft, warm towel and went on to dry Si Yinxia’s sweaty forehead.

Meanwhile, Si Yinxia remained aloof and didn’t speak a word to the girl.

“Jiang Tanqiu, Chen Fan, what are you two staring at? The other players need water!” Chang Wen gave the two boys on the sideline a stern look and then said hotly.

“Let’s go.” Chen Fan patted Jiang Tanqiu’s shoulder and lifted the cooler by his feet.

“Thank you.” Yang Chao took the drink before he got a chance to look at who had handed the drink to him. When he did, he was surprised to see that it was Chen Fan. A hundred different emotions ranging from shock to embarrassment roiled and mixed inside of the team captain, and each appeared on his face for only a fraction of a second.

“What’s going on?” The player next to Yang Chao nudged him.

“Ah-nothing.” Yang Chao smiled awkwardly.

“Long time no see.” Chen Fan nodded to him.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Yang Chao did not want to chat with Chen Fan as he was still grappling with the chaotic emotions inside of him.

Chen Fan wasted no time on him either. After he had given out the drinks, he quickly left with Jiang Tanqiu.

It wasn’t until Chen Fan had disappeared from the court, Yang Chao heaved a deep sigh of relief as fear flickered in his eyes.

“Isn’t that the new transfer student?” Si Yingxia asked Yang Chao while sipping on his drink.

“Do you know him?” Yang Chao asked curiously.

“His name is Chen Fan, a new student in our class. I really have nothing to say about him. I asked him to come to help out with the water.” Chang Wen said lightly.

In her eyes, Chen Fan was not nearly as attractive as Si Yinxia and Yang Chao. If she were not the class leader, which made her obligated to know every classmate, she would never waste a single breath on him.

Yang Chao scowled and was about to say something, but he thought better of it. After all, what had happened at the KTV was an embarrassment. He didn’t want to be a laughingstock.

Unbeknown to all of them, Chen Fan was able to hear their conversation, and he was not very impressed by Chang Wen’s ungracious remarks.

Time flew by, and before Chen Fan knew it, two weeks had already gone by.

This evening, like many evenings before it, Chen Fan sat cross-legged on the rooftop of his house and started to cultivate. He had met a bottleneck ever since September started. However, today, he felt something was different in him: the hurdle in his cultivation was about to be overcome.

“Hopefully, I will enter the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment after tonight.”

He sat still, and let the Void Mortal Refinement art do its work. The Spirit Qi hidden in the air around him turned into countless wisps of energy, and they burrowed themselves into Chen Fan’s body through every hole and crevice on his body.

As he gathered energy to break through the bottleneck, the art of Void Mortal Refinement also picked up speed, spurring his body to hungrily absorbed as much energy as possible.

The moon in the sky also seemed to have answered the art’s beckoning call as it sent a ray of creamy light down on Chen Fan. Looking from afar, Chen Fan’s body was suffused with a milky white glow.

No cultivators were able to absorb the energy of celestial bodies such as the sun and moon without the help of the Void Mortal Refinement art. This powerful art was able to turn a celestial entity into energy that could be absorbed by the cultivator.

As the True Essence in Chen Fan’s system gathered strength, he felt he was almost ready to breach the bottleneck.

Almost, but not quite just yet. Even the combined strength of the Spirit Qi and the moon energy was not enough to overcome the resistance.

“Fortunately, I stashed some pills that I made for Wei Fu.”

He fished out three Essence Enhancing Pills and swallowed them. As soon as the pills reached his belly, Chen Fan felt a heat wave rush through his system as a blissful euphoria seized his mind.

Finally, with a soft popping sound, he had breached the barrier and reached the next stage of cultivation.

The countless cells that made up his body seemed to have joined together in a cheerful choir, singing out their welcome to the brand new level of True Essence that flowed freely in his system.

Not only the True Essence in his body was improved, but Chen Fan’s physical body was also strengthened significantly.

Thus it was, many cultivators had viewed their practice as a form of evolution. Only through cultivation could humans elevate themselves from their mortal body to become one with the universe, and eventually, immortality: the end goal of evolution.

Although Chen Fan had reached the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment, he looked just like he was before. However, inside of Chen Fan, he might as well be a brand new man.

Chen Fan heaved a sigh and then stood up slowly.

After a month of hard training, he had finally entered the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment.

“If not for the Essence of Enhancing Pills, I would still have to struggle for at least half a month. It seems that I will have to focus on making more money from now on so that I can buy more herbs.”

Chen Fan thought to himself.

The next day, Chen Fan received a call, and to his surprise, it was from Zhou Tianhao.

Zhou Tianhao invited him over to the Mingdu Restaurant at noon, saying that he wanted to apologize to him in person.

After giving the invitation some thought, Chen Fan agreed to go.