NOVPUB"Then, Leader Jiangling, you should head back first; I can just take a taxi over there,"
On the highway outside the small border city, Fang Ren took out his newly bought phone and hailed a car through the app, seeing it was just a few minutes away from arriving, he turned to bid farewell to Jiangling standing beside him.
Jiang Ling gently shook his head and said, "I'd better not go back for now."
Fang Ren was puzzled by her words. In his view, Jiangling had nothing to do even if she stayed, and given that she had just had a breakthrough in her realm, she should be looking for a quiet environment to stabilize her realm.
Jiangling saw his expression and spoke, "Your own faction is about to make a move on you. If I stay, I can at least protect you covertly. Moreover, with my current realm, I can learn about the Tiandao Sword Sect without Song Mobei noticing, and finally, if possible, I might even make contact with Xuan Nv."
"You've planned this out quite thoroughly," Fang Ren said, blinking in astonishment, as he could find no reason for Jiangling to leave.
"All right, but the aura you're giving off is so strong that others will definitely become suspicious, and my Qi Concealing Pills are no use to someone as powerful as you anymore," said Fang Ren.
Jiangling smiled faintly, and her aura suddenly retracted rapidly. Fang Ren was standing right beside her and couldn't detect even the slightest anomaly.
"At my current realm, I can conceal my own aura," stated Jiangling.
"That's amazing..."
"Not as amazing as you. Just by absorbing a part of my Heavenly Tribulation, you managed to break through five minor realms," said Jiangling. "You're truly an oddity in human cultivation history. What was that you used to say... oh right, 'cheating.'
Fang Ren gave an awkward smile; the sudden breakthroughs truly baffled him, catapulting him directly from the early stages of Xianyun Realm to the peak of Azure Sky Realm, a mere step away from Yingyue Realm.
If he went around saying this, probably no one would believe him.
But then again, the energy from the Heavenly Tribulation was truly intense. Combined with the Void Energy, various elixirs, and the intense heat he released, all these immense energies converged and were absorbed by him. Not breaking through would have been the real shock.
Jiangling looked at the aura emanating from Fang Ren and couldn't help feeling sentimental, "I'm somewhat relieved that I met you earlier. If we had become enemies, I reckon that even if I managed to break through to the Xuan Ye Realm successfully, I would soon be suppressed by you."
Fang Ren was feeling the flow of True Qi within his body and was still profoundly shocked. It felt like he was dreaming; he had been cultivating for less than three months yet had leaped over twenty minor realms!
Others thought his cultivation speed wasn't just rocketing; it was more like he was riding a comet, but now it seemed like he was traveling at the speed of light.
A short while later, a taxi arrived at the roadside. Fang Ren and Jiangling got in, after all, Jiangling flying with her True Qi now would attract too much attention.
No sooner had Fang Ren sat down than the driver suddenly turned around, looking at him with disbelief.
"Young Master Fang?" The driver stammered before finally speaking up.
Only then did Fang Ren suddenly remember that he had become a public figure and that people in Tianjiang would certainly recognize him.
"Uh... yes," Fang Ren replied with an awkward smile.
"Oh my gosh! I'm meeting you in person!"
...
On the way, the taxi driver drove while chatting excitedly with him, his face full of admiration.
Fang Ren felt helpless inside while Jiangling watched him with an expression of wistful remembrance, as if to say: How nostalgic for the past.
Talking of Tianjiang, this gathering place for human elites, why would there be a profession like a taxi driver? That surely wasn't because of the cultivators, but rather because in Tianjiang there were also many alchemists and scientific workers who didn't possess cultivation abilities.
"Speaking of which, Young Master Fang, is this lady your girlfriend?" The driver was particularly gossipy, having just tossed out the question, he continued, "I heard yesterday that Princess Bai Xi was unhappy about your arranged marriage. Now it looks like you're quite averse to this marriage too! You've already got a different girlfriend."
"No... no,"
Fang Ren hurriedly responded and then glanced at Jiangling beside him, his mind speechless. The girl appeared to be in her early twenties, but in reality, she was already a forty-something-year-old aunt.
Jiang Ling was all smiles. At her age, being called the lover of a young man like Fang Ren was completely non-embarrassing for her. Her feelings were entirely those of nostalgia for her younger days and joy over her now youthful appearance.
"Mr. Driver, is there a camera inside your car?" Jiang Ling asked with a smile.
"Yes! For the safety of our passengers, our company has installed cameras both inside and outside the vehicle so that we can cooperate with the police if any problem arises during the ride," the driver explained.
"And where might that be?" Jiang Ling inquired.
"Right here."
The driver pointed to a small opening beside the rearview mirror.
Snap—
In the next instant, the small opening shattered directly, and even the memory storage for backup footage was reduced to dust.
It was Jiang Ling's doing. Although her youthful appearance now made her unrecognizable to many, the driver's gossip-prone nature could have been a problem. If he had uploaded the in-car surveillance to the internet, it would have been troublesome if the old geezers in the Central Area saw her.
The sudden shattering startled the driver, while Fang Ren appeared utterly baffled as he looked at Jiang Ling.
"How much is the camera?" Jiang Ling asked.
The driver, shocked, replied, "No... it's free."
As if you can talk about money with someone like her!
Fang Ren, with a headache, began to transfer money on his phone and said, "Master, I have transferred one thousand to your account. I hope that's enough."
He had overpaid, considering the extra amount as an apology.
"Enough, enough, enough..."
For the rest of the ride, the driver didn't dare to gossip anymore. Still, he felt as though he understood something—that the relationship between Young Master Fang and this woman was definitely not simple. Otherwise, why would she destroy his camera?
There must be an affair!
Princess Bai Xi was being cuckolded!
Whirr—
While the car was smoothly driving along, Jiang Ling suddenly sensed a powerful aura emanating from a far-off place in Tianjiang. She immediately said to Fang Ren, "Put up a sound barrier! Quick!"
Fang Ren, seeing her sudden seriousness, immediately set up a sound barrier, asking with a puzzled face, "What's going on all of a sudden?"
Jiang Ling, with a furrowed brow, said, "Just now, when I used True Qi to destroy the camera, I felt a powerful aura probing this way! There must be beings inside Tianjiang that are stronger than I am!"
"What?"
Fang Ren was astounded. It was only a short while ago that Jiang Ling had surpassed Mu Huanqing to become the world's strongest, and now she had discovered there were even stronger people than her!
"There's no mistake this time! There must be someone who has already broken through the Azure Sky Realm and is hiding in Tianjiang!" Jiang Ling's brows were tightly knit together, as she struggled to accept this reality.
She had thought that the strongest person in the world was Mu Huanqing, but now she realized there were even stronger beings than her!
"Who could it be?"
Fang Ren's perception was also shattered. Could there really be someone who avoided battlefields and cultivated in secret just to hide their strength?
