Chapter 160: Insight into All Phenomena

Xiao Zongting walked to his desk, looked at Liang Wu, who had stepped onto the ring, with a cold gaze, and said in a deep voice: "Intern Escort Duan Rong, Inner Breath Realm Second Layer. Escort Liang Wu, you do not need to suppress your realm; you may begin fighting directly."

As soon as Xiao Zongting's words fell, among the nine candidate escorts under the ring, several looked at Duan Rong with strange expressions...

On the ring, Liang Wu, standing opposite Duan Rong, was even more stunned.

After all, when the Fourth Escort Team returned to the Escort Agency, the storm surrounding the Ruan Jing incident had already passed, and even Escort Head Wang Zhuoyong only learned of Duan Rong's realm at this moment, let alone Liang Wu.

It was not that no intern escort had ever achieved the Small Success realm of the Inner Breath Second Layer in the past, but this had not occurred for many years.

The last time, it seemed to have been the current Escort Head of the Second Escort Team, Sun Huang.

When he participated in the intern-to-full-member assessment back then, he had already achieved the Inner Breath Second Layer; the Old Shopkeeper was still presiding over the Escort Agency at that time, and the event seemed to have caused quite a sensation within the agency...

Liang Wu could not help but re-examine Duan Rong.

He had not expected that the person before him had also achieved the Inner Breath Second Layer during his time as an intern escort...

The Fourth Escort Team had been out on a mission and only returned the day before yesterday, and this Liang Wu had always been a glutton for lust; having been pent up for over a month while on the mission, even though he knew he had been selected as one of the ten candidate escorts for the promotion assessment, he still could not resist slipping into a brothel in Jinmao Lane and tossing about for an entire night...

And as luck would have it, when he came over today, he was the first one drawn by Xiao Zongting, and his opponent was a tough nut who had achieved the Inner Breath Second Layer.

Liang Wu could not help but secretly call himself unlucky.

But regardless, he was already on the ring, and he did not want to lose face for their Fourth Escort Team on the stage.

Although this Wang Zhuoyong was protective of his own, he was also a person who cared deeply about his reputation. If he were to lose to an intern escort from the Second Escort Team in front of everyone, Wang Zhuoyong would absolutely not let him off.

Liang Wu pulled himself together, drew the Ox-Tail Saber at his waist, and a look of gravity appeared on his flushed face.

Duan Rong looked at Liang Wu opposite him, but his heart stirred; he recalled the scene from last night when he projected his Divine Sense and it penetrated the patrolling Guard, only for him to suddenly feel a stabbing pain because he had practiced the Womb Treasury Sutra for two hours and his Divine Soul was under too much pressure, forcing him to retract his Divine Sense.

At that time, some thoughts that had welled up in his heart had not yet been tested, and now, facing Liang Wu, Duan Rong felt it was the perfect time to try and verify those thoughts.

Duan Rong stood on the ring, remaining still, but he urged his mind, and his Divine Sense suddenly expanded...

The moment his Divine Sense projected, Duan Rong focused his attention on Liang Wu...

Liang Wu's body was instantly penetrated by the Divine Sense and unfolded before Duan Rong...

For a moment, his body appeared even more transparent, clear, and detailed in Duan Rong's eyes than an X-ray scan...

Bones, fascia, meridians, dantian, Internal Breath, and even every single pore... in Duan Rong's eyes, they all became vivid and detailed, as if right before him...

At this moment, Liang Wu had already taken the initiative to attack Duan Rong with his saber, but the instant his body moved, Duan Rong had already seen through his moves from the vibrations of his bones and muscles and the circulation of his Internal Breath.

"A move from the Five Tigers Flock of Sheep Saber: Fierce Tiger Enters the Cave," Duan Rong thought to himself.

The moment Liang Wu thrust his saber, Duan Rong merely retreated half a step to the right rear with light and airy grace; Liang Wu's move missed, and Duan Rong took the opportunity to twist his waist and turn, and without knowing how he moved, he was already standing behind Liang Wu.

Liang Wu was greatly alarmed and turned to attack again, but Duan Rong still dodged with the ease of a leisurely stroll, his movements so concise that it was as if Liang Wu were deliberately dodging Duan Rong's attacks.

Around the ring, loud laughter had already erupted.

To those escorts watching the fun, Liang Wu was clearly still drunk and his footsteps were unsteady, while Duan Rong, moving slowly by a step or half-step, looked as if he were just standing there letting Liang Wu hit him, yet Liang Wu could not even touch the hem of Duan Rong's clothes.

Amidst the bursts of laughter, Wang Zhuoyong's face grew increasingly ugly; he stood up and roared at the ring: "Liang Wu, if you continue to be dizzy and confused up there, just get down here!"

Not only did the escorts watching the fun think Liang Wu was still drunk and messing around on the stage, but even the few Escort Heads present thought the same.

But in Xiao Zongting's turbid, dead-fish-like eyes, a calm and profound light shone; he saw some clues, but he was not entirely certain.

Because Duan Rong had only moved twice just now, and his movements were very concise, so to those watching the fun, it seemed as if Duan Rong had not moved at all.

And what puzzled Xiao Zongting even more was that he did not know how Duan Rong had managed it, or rather, he did not believe Duan Rong could reach such a state.

Because even when his martial arts were not ruined, in his prime, if he had suppressed his Internal Breath to the second layer to spar with Liang Wu, he could not have reached Duan Rong's level.

That was a kind of precision and confidence!

And it was absolute precision and absolute confidence!

Like a king in control of the whole situation, precise to the point of not wanting to waste a single ounce of strength or move an extra inch of distance.

It was as if the Liang Wu opposite him were a marionette in his hands; Duan Rong could completely control his moves and intentions.

Hearing Wang Zhuoyong's roar from under the ring, Liang Wu felt a surge of anxiety; he was in the middle of it and knew best that although he had a hangover, the moment he gathered his spirit to draw his saber, his head was clear, and there was no such thing as being dizzy or confused.

It was just that the moment he threw a strike, the opponent almost simultaneously stepped into the gap of his move, and when he changed his move, the opponent would again lightly pace and step into the gap of his move once more.

"This is hell!" Liang Wu cursed, looking at Duan Rong with some fear in his eyes. "Could it be that I am truly still drunk?"

Liang Wu clenched his fists and hammered his temples a few times.

Hearing Wang Zhuoyong's roar and looking at the doubt in Liang Wu's eyes, Duan Rong's heart also stirred. He scanned the area under the ring at Wang Zhuoyong, who was sitting beside Xiao Zongting, and thought to himself: I cannot keep doing this. Using the other party's hangover as a cover could be glossed over for two attempts, but if I keep teasing Liang Wu like this for the whole match, even a fool would be able to see that something is wrong.

Duan Rong retracted his Divine Sense, drew the Ox-Tail Saber from his waist with a swish, and attacked Liang Wu directly.

Having devoured the Small Success realm of over a dozen saber techniques, practiced the three remnant moves passed down by Xiao Zongting, and added the insights gained from sparring with Ximen Kankan recently, how could Liang Wu possibly withstand Duan Rong's saber technique today?

After only two moves, Liang Wu was defeated; he was kicked in the abdomen by Duan Rong and rolled off the edge of the ring...

Liang Wu rolled onto the ground and immediately jumped up; his face was covered in dust, and as soon as he jumped up, he felt his stomach churning, and with a "wah," he vomited, and suddenly, vomit mixed with the stench of alcohol spilled all over the ground...

Wang Zhuoyong sat there, looking at Liang Wu, his face twisted into the color of a pig's liver; he suddenly felt some regret, thinking that the slap Xiao Zongting gave Liang Wu at the beginning was truly too light.

Moreover, there was now an awkward problem: did this sparring assessment count or not?

Liang Wu was so hungover that he seemed to have no combat power, and Duan Rong had knocked him off the ring in a single encounter; they had not even had time to see each other's true strength, so how were they supposed to judge?

(End of chapter)