Chapter 177: Achieving the Third Layer

"Shouzhi." Ximen Yong turned his head to look at Yuan Shouzhi, who was still sitting in the pavilion.

"Master." Yuan Shouzhi's expression shifted, and he immediately stood up; he knew Ximen Yong had something to instruct him.

"Go and investigate this person named Duan Rong. Look into his background. See what his purpose is in getting close to Kankan."

"Yes."

An Escort, not a scion of a noble family, yet walking so closely with Kankan and even letting Kankan call him Big Brother—he could not afford to be careless.

Although Kankan was sharp, he was, after all, inexperienced in the world; he had not yet truly learned the sinister nature of the human heart.

"Yilin, don't worry. I will definitely take good care of Kankan; no one will be able to hurt him." Ximen Yong looked at the deep night in the garden, his eyes flickering as he muttered to himself.

Recently, Duan Rong had rarely gone to the Middle Courtyard canteen to eat, because his training was too frantic; the grease and oil in the Middle Courtyard canteen were no longer enough to replenish his consumption.

Furthermore, during this period, Duan Rong had further compressed his sleep.

This day at dusk, Duan Rong walked out of the Yuanshun Escort Agency with heavy steps, preparing to go to a shop by the street to eat.

The moment Duan Rong stepped out of the Escort Agency, he suddenly released his Divine Sense, and instantly, everything within a hundred-meter radius centered on him was revealed in his mind, just like a holographic scan...

This was a habit Duan Rong had recently developed.

The security inside the Escort Agency was still guaranteed; after all, the Yuanshun Escort Agency was one of the major powers in Xiangu County, and there was no shortage of patrolling and guarding Guards.

But, once outside the gate of the Escort Agency, it was not necessarily so; the market was, after all, a place where all sorts of people mingled, and recently Duan Rong had already seen quite a few government soldiers and secret agents...

Duan Rong walked down the steps in front of the Escort Agency, and after walking just a few steps, he suddenly discovered something abnormal: at the mouth of the alley behind him, a pair of eyes was staring fixedly...

Duan Rong continued to walk forward, and that person actually left the alley entrance, seemingly following him.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense immediately locked onto that person.

After Duan Rong passed three alley entrances, that person was still following him at a distance, neither too far nor too close...

Through his Divine Sense, he could clearly "see" that person's appearance; Duan Rong could be certain he had never seen this person before.

Duan Rong still walked with a normal expression to the beef soup shop he often frequented, eating and drinking while using his Divine Sense to monitor every move of that person.

For a time, thoughts swirled in Duan Rong's mind.

Why was this person following him?

Could it be that he was suspected in the case of Xie Lei? It didn't look like it; if it were about Xie Lei, even if the ones tailing him weren't Xie Daohan and Fan Yuanhai, at the very least they should be people from the Ya Men. But this person was clearly a total stranger.

If it wasn't about Xie Lei, then who would have set their sights on him?

Duan Rong's heart suddenly stirred; a few nights ago, he, Ximen Kankan, and Jiang Qingyu had won quite a bit of money in the main hall on the first floor of Weiyang Workshop. It was very possible that they had been targeted then, and after learning his identity, someone had come to scout him out.

Ximen Kankan and Jiang Qingyu were, after all, scions of noble families and difficult to deal with, but he, an Escort who had just joined the agency this year, seemed much easier to handle.

"It seems I am very likely to become a target for some people to scout out," Duan Rong thought with a grave expression.

After Duan Rong finished his meal, he bought some cooked food to feed the hedgehog at a nearby shop and returned to Liu Lu to practice Standing Stake. He had already decided that for this recent period, he would stop socializing; apart from eating, he would only train within the Escort Agency, and would not stop until he achieved the Third Layer.

Those people, even if they were scouting, would they dare to attack and break into the Yuanshun Escort Agency? The most critical thing was to improve his own strength as quickly as possible.

However, in the following days, Duan Rong discovered that after that person had followed and monitored him for three days, they disappeared.

Afterwards, they never appeared again.

But Duan Rong did not lower his guard; instead, he paid even more careful attention to his surroundings.

In the following days, Ximen Kankan and Jiang Qingyu came to Liu Lu to invite Duan Rong out several times, but were all turned down by Duan Rong.

"Practicing martial arts every day, look at you, you're almost obsessed!" Ximen Kankan saw that Duan Rong's eyes were bloodshot, clearly caused by long-term lack of sleep.

"If you're not crazy, you won't succeed!" Duan Rong said with a determined expression: "You two go ahead, I really don't have time recently."

Seeing that Duan Rong was training so diligently, the two found it hard to disturb him further and left in low spirits.

After more than ten days of bitter cultivation, Duan Rong finally achieved the Inner Breath Realm Third Layer!

Duan Rong was naturally happy, but he did not slack off; he just had a good sleep and immediately threw himself into the frantic training for the Inner Breath Realm Fourth Layer.

Once he started practicing this, Duan Rong realized that the Inner Breath Realm Fourth Layer had an essential difference from the first three layers; no wonder Xiao Yu, Xia Shuangshuang, and the others were all stuck in this realm, finding it difficult to achieve!

The increase in Inner Breath required to achieve the Inner Breath Fourth Layer was almost equivalent to the sum of the first three layers.

Moreover, the complexity of the circulation circuit for the Inner Breath Fourth Layer could almost be called perverted!

Ximen Kankan was able to achieve the Fourth Layer relying solely on his own talent for Mental Power; this kid really had some ability!

Duan Rong estimated that given the difficulty of achieving the Inner Breath Fourth Layer, if he could not solve the problem of medicinal power permeability, no matter how frantically he trained, it would be impossible for him to achieve the Inner Breath Fourth Layer before March of next year.

He could only try his best to improve his Inner Breath; if he couldn't achieve it, he would just have to participate in the selection assessment with the Inner Breath Realm Third Layer.

Although there was risk, the chance was still quite high; after all, among the scions of noble families, only Ximen Kankan had achieved the Inner Breath Realm Fourth Layer.

After he himself practiced the Fourth Layer, he suddenly felt that it probably wouldn't be an easy thing for Xiao Yu and Xia Shuangshuang to break through in a short time.

During this period, Duan Rong went on an escort mission again, following the Second Escort Team to Ruyang Prefecture for the second time.

This trip went smoothly all the way, without any trouble, except that along the way, Xiao Yu's attitude toward Duan Rong had changed significantly.

Although she would still explain some knowledge about escorting to him, she was clearly much colder toward him.

Even so, Duan Rong respected her even more, and whenever they met, he would always respectfully call her Master.

However, every time Duan Rong called Xiao Yu Master like that, Xiao Yu would always look at him with a strange expression.

Although Duan Rong and Xiao Yu's interactions were a bit awkward, he had already become familiar with the others in the Escort Team; several Escorts in the Second Escort Team no longer treated Duan Rong as an outsider and often joked with him. Moreover, Duan Rong had no airs, and the two Escort Runners also got along very well with him.

This escort mission was, after all, the second one Duan Rong had gone on, and he already knew many things.

This trip went much more easily than the first one.

After Duan Rong returned from his second escort mission, he threw himself back into frantic training.

This day at dusk, Duan Rong was practicing Standing Stake in the courtyard when suddenly, the sound of knocking on the door came from the gate of Liu Lu.

Duan Rong's expression shifted, and he released his Divine Sense.

His Divine Sense passed through the door and the courtyard, scanning Ximen Kankan and Jiang Qingyu standing outside the gate.

Duan Rong "saw" his two friends, smiled slightly, stopped his training, walked quickly over, and opened the courtyard gate.

Duan Rong had previously closed his door to practice, and then went out on an escort mission; the three of them hadn't seen each other for over a month. At this moment, as their eyes met, they were all beaming with joy.

"Good fellow! First you go into seclusion, then you go on a courier mission; it really isn't easy to see you these days!" Ximen Kankan joked with a smile.

Duan Rong smiled honestly; he also knew he had neglected his two good friends recently, so he immediately led Ximen Kankan and Jiang Qingyu into the courtyard, where he set out tea and refreshments in the pavilion to host them.

(End of this chapter)