Chapter 279: The Second Art of the Spirit

After Zhao Gang left.

Xie Daohan called Yang Zhen in and said, "Yang Zhen, go to Liu Lu. Duan Rong has been promoted to a Sect Registered Disciple; as his childhood friend, you should go congratulate him and drag him to the Babao Building for a meal and drinks."

As Xie Daohan spoke, he walked over, stuffed a banknote into Yang Zhen's hand, and instructed, "Yang Zhen, let me remind you again. This childhood friend of yours is extremely dangerous! Don't you go picking the wrong side!"

Yang Zhen's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately cupped his hands and said, "This subordinate swears to follow Chief Xie to the death, with no disloyalty!"

Xie Daohan waved his hand and said, "Go."

Yang Zhen walked out of the room, his previously composed expression instantly turning deathly pale.

"Duan Rong! Could it be that you are the one who killed Xie Lei and Xu Ruhu?"

Yang Zhen felt that this answer was truly too shocking, even more impactful to his mind than Duan Rong being promoted to a Sect Registered Disciple.

As he walked, Yang Zhen carefully mulled over every detail of his time spent with Duan Rong.

As he walked, Yang Zhen was suddenly struck with horror! He realized that ever since Duan Rong had recovered from that major illness, the person had changed; he couldn't say exactly what was different, but there was an overall sense of unfamiliarity.

And it was from the moment this feeling appeared that Duan Rong would become more different every so often. Thinking about it now, it was from that time on that this Duan Rong in reality had grown further and further away from the "Duan Rong" in his own heart!

Thinking this, Yang Zhen had already arrived at the entrance of the Yuanshun Escort Agency.

After Yang Zhen left, Xie Daohan first went to the street to eat breakfast, then returned to the County Government Office and brewed himself a large pot of strong tea.

Although he had not slept all night, he was not sleepy at all; instead, he was very excited.

Xie Daohan had just drunk half a cup of strong tea when Yang Zhen walked in from outside with hurried steps.

Xie Daohan glanced at Yang Zhen and said, "What happened?"

Yang Zhen said, "Chief Xie, Duan Rong left the city just as the sky was beginning to brighten."

Yang Zhen had gone to Liu Lu and not found Duan Rong, so he went to question the Escort Agency's gatekeeper, Ma Wentao; Ma Wentao told Yang Zhen that Duan Rong had left the Escort Agency before dawn.

Yang Zhen then went to look for him in a few places on the street, and then, struck by a thought, went to the city gate and asked the guards on duty.

Xie Daohan's hand holding the teacup stopped in mid-air, as if petrified; his eyeballs rolled, his gaze sharp as lightning. He suddenly looked up at Yang Zhen and said, "You go. Do not tell anyone about Duan Rong's affairs."

"Yes." Yang Zhen cupped his hands and retreated.

Xie Daohan rubbed the rim of the teacup with his finger and muttered, "Leaving the city at this time? Duan Rong, it seems you have quite a few secrets. But don't worry, I will dig them out for you bit by bit!"

Duan Rong leaped down from the cliff top and landed gracefully on the platform at the cave entrance.

Duan Rong's figure paused almost not at all before walking into the pitch-black cave.

Duan Rong stood in a corner of the cave, blew the Fire Folder to life, and lit the oil lamp by his feet; instantly, a dim, bean-sized yellow light illuminated the cave.

After all, this cave was on a cliff, and the air circulation was good; Duan Rong hadn't come for several months, yet the air inside the cave was dry and fresh, without a trace of mustiness.

Duan Rong walked to the stone bed in the innermost part, took down the scroll tube he was carrying on his back, and placed it at the head of the bed.

Then he took out the Fire Folder and lit the other oil lamp beside the head of the bed.

With a flip of his hand, the Porcelain Bottle containing the Cold Toad Paste appeared in his palm; the bottle was as cold as ice, and Duan Rong felt as if he were holding an ice cube.

Duan Rong placed the Porcelain Bottle on the head of the bed next to the scroll tube.

Afterward, Duan Rong sat on the stone bed and took the Secret Manual of the Womb Treasury Sutra from his sleeve—a scroll of human skin with a yellowish, waxy sheen.

Under the lamplight, one could see that the original handwriting and patterns on the human skin scroll had been scribbled over with black lines, making them completely unrecognizable...

But Duan Rong's expression was calm, without the slightest surprise.

Because he was the one who had done it.

He had long since coated the secret manual on this human skin scroll with the medicinal liquid he had obtained from Ximen Kankan; it required heating with fire for the original handwriting to appear.

Duan Rong spread out the human skin scroll with one hand and picked up the oil lamp from the bedside with the other.

Duan Rong's right hand held the oil lamp, moving slowly beneath the human skin scroll...

The black lines on the top few rows of the human skin scroll slowly disappeared, revealing the original handwriting.

Once the content of the third layer was completely revealed, Duan Rong moved the oil lamp away.

Duan Rong then carefully studied the content of the third layer of the Womb Treasury Sutra.

Because he already had the cultivation experience of the first two layers, he quickly mastered the content of the third layer.

Duan Rong tucked the human skin scroll into the inner pocket of his robe; he prepared to begin practicing the third layer immediately.

Duan Rong brought over the scroll tube from behind him, opened it, and took out the portrait of the Four Great Wisdom Kings.

Duan Rong spread out the portrait and slowly roasted the bottom of it with the oil lamp; the images of the Four Great Wisdom Kings, hidden within the landscape painting, then appeared.

Duan Rong moved the oil lamp away, posted the portrait of the Four Great Wisdom Kings around the stone bed, and then sat cross-legged on the stone bed himself.

Duan Rong's eyes were tightly closed, his hands changed hand seals, and he murmured incantations in his mouth...

After three rounds of Dharma seal incantations were finished, Duan Rong suddenly reached out and grabbed the Porcelain Bottle containing the Cold Toad Paste; he opened the bottle and poured nearly half of the Cold Toad Paste into his throat.

Cold Toad Paste was a soft, cool, and icy substance; as soon as it entered his throat, it slid down the esophagus and floated in his stomach...

That mass of cool softness, once it entered the stomach, began to disperse in strands, turning into fine, icy-cold threads that floated in the stomach; wisps of cold air began to escape from the fine, icy threads and spread out...

Duan Rong shivered, and soon a thin layer of frost covered his entire body!

His two eyebrows were even more frosted white!

And at the very moment the cold air permeated, Duan Rong had already hit the elusive point of the respiratory transition; he felt a wave of dizziness before his eyes and appeared within his Spirit Sea.

At this time, inside the Spirit Sea, a layer of frost had formed on the Black Earth, and cold air filled the space between heaven and earth.

Duan Rong dared not delay; he immediately sat cross-legged and began to form seals to cultivate. If the Cold Toad Paste remained for too long, it would cause damage to his body...

Following Duan Rong's hand seals and chanting, the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings appeared in this world...

The divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings solidified bit by bit; at the same time, the mist rolling in the space began to settle...

The milky white mist settled on the surface of the ground, the air became clear, and one could finally see wisps of frost floating under the sky, like the imagery of frost filling the heavens...

Duan Rong knew very clearly that these wisps of frost were what the Cold Toad Paste had transformed into!

Duan Rong flipped his hands to form seals again; the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings had eyes shooting light and mouths and noses inhaling like whales. The milky white settled mist, like a dragon drawing water, drilled into the mouths of the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings. Then, wisps of light threads floated out from the noses of the divine shadows, heading toward the center of the sky...

The light threads floating out from the noses of the Four Great Wisdom Kings intertwined and gathered in the center of the sky, and as if the light threads had some kind of attraction, they attracted the wisps of frost floating under the sky, which also gathered and intertwined back and forth...

About half a stick of incense's time later, a blurry, phantom outline of an infant emerged in the center of the horizon, not far from two floating Star Bodies...

The moment that infant phantom appeared, the previously calm Tree Spirit Light Sea instantly began to ripple, and vast swathes of light filaments, like a passing swarm of locusts, surged densely toward the horizon...

The infant phantom greedily sucked in the light filaments, and his light-shadow body began to solidify bit by bit at a speed visible to the naked eye...

As time passed, the infant had already formed a thin cocoon; at first glance, that cocoon looked like a lump of ice, emitting a transparent white light...

The frost filaments beneath the horizon were already so thin they were invisible, and that patch of Tree Spirit Light Sea no longer had any light filaments drifting up...

Only the divine statues of the Four Great Wisdom Kings were still whale-sucking the settling mist, stripping away light filaments one by one...

The Tree Spirits in that part of the Tree Spirit Light Sea had already been swallowed up completely, and relying only on the Four Great Wisdom Kings to extract them bit by bit from the settling mist, the speed was comparable to a tortoise crawling...

Duan Rong formed seals with both hands and withdrew from the Spirit Sea of Spiritual Clarity.

The moment Duan Rong withdrew from the Spirit Sea, he spat out a breath of cold air; the frost filaments that had condensed all over his body had almost all dissipated, with only a clump of white frost remaining between his eyebrows...

He was currently inside Wild Boar Mountain; since the Tree Spirits had been swallowed up, he could just replenish them on the spot.

Moreover, the Ice Toad Paste had also been mostly consumed, so he had to withdraw first to replenish it before entering the Spirit Sea of Spiritual Clarity again.

Just as Duan Rong withdrew from the Spirit Sea, his figure flickered and he vanished from the stone bed; his silhouette flashed as he darted out of the cave entrance, descended along the rock wall, and arrived in the valley.

It was already late at night, and a crescent moon cast a miserable, pitiful bit of moonlight onto the pitch-black valley...

Where the mountain wind passed, black waves rose and fell, as if wanting to swallow that crescent moon whole...

Just at this moment, a black dot appeared amidst the black waves of the rising and falling mountain forest treetops; that black dot was as fast as a ghost, appearing and disappearing, and it was none other than Duan Rong...

About an hour later, Duan Rong returned to the cave once more; he entered the cave, his figure flashed, and he sat cross-legged on the stone bed.

Duan Rong reached out and grabbed the Porcelain Bottle containing the Ice Toad Paste, tilted his head back, and poured it all into his throat...

Once the Ice Toad Paste left its extremely cold environment, it would vanish into nothingness within twelve hours; he had gotten it from Ximen Kankan in the middle of the night yesterday, and it was clearly about to reach its time limit.

Duan Rong sat cross-legged, his entire body instantly covered in frost; his consciousness hit the point of breath transition, his vision blurred, and he entered the Spirit Sea of Spiritual Clarity...

At this time, Wutong Lane in the dead of night was completely silent.

Inside a dilapidated residence, a figure suddenly drifted into the courtyard, both feet landing without a sound, like a cat's paws.

Xie Daohan narrowed his eyes and listened; apart from the rustling of the night wind scraping against withered branches, there was not a single extraneous sound in the wilderness. Inside this courtyard, it was even more deathly silent.

Xie Daohan did not use his movement technique again, but instead walked slowly across the courtyard and arrived before the door of the main room.

Under the miserable, cold moonlight, Xie Daohan saw a door lock hanging on the door of the main room; Xie Daohan turned his steps and arrived before the window of the Inner Room, pressed his ear against it, and listened carefully for a while.

Only then did he suddenly draw the barrier-blade from his waist, inserted the blade into the window crack, and carefully pried open the window's internal latch.

Xie Daohan returned the blade to its sheath and pushed open the window; the moment he pushed it open, he clearly felt his hand smear against some spiderwebs...

Xie Daohan leaped and darted into the pitch-black room.

He stood in the darkness, his nostrils flared, and smelling the faint musty odor in the air, he could be certain that this room had likely not been lived in for a long time.

Xie Daohan flipped one hand and took a Fire Folder from his sleeve; he blew the Fire Folder until it sparked, and by this faint light, he examined the small room before him.

The objects everywhere were covered in dust; Xie Daohan was careful not to leave any traces, but he checked every corner of the room, including the cabinet by the head of the bed whose door had warped—which he had spent great effort to open—but inside it was only a rusted pair of scissors...

If one only looked at this residence, Duan Rong's background was indeed impoverished.

Xie Daohan searched this residence inside and out, but did not discover any suspicious items.

Xie Daohan did not take it to heart; for Duan Rong to have committed such a major case without a sound, and to have evaded the successive pursuits of himself and Fan Yuanhai—if not for him participating in the Hero Selection Assembly, he likely would not have been able to lock onto him even now.

A person with such a mind, how could he easily leave behind any flaws?

Xie Daohan leaped and left this courtyard; his figure flashed like a wild cat, disappearing into the pitch-black night of Wutong Lane.

The willow branches of Liu Lu had already sprouted, swaying gently in the night wind of the lingering spring chill...

Suddenly, a figure jumped down from the courtyard wall where the willow branches brushed, landing lightly like a large bird!

Xie Daohan followed the same method and searched Liu Lu inside and out as well.

Although the Yuanshun Escort Agency had night-patrolling guards, Xie Daohan was a powerhouse of the True Qi Realm; evading these guards was as easy as turning over one's hand.

After searching Liu Lu once, he still gained nothing.

Xie Daohan's expression was grave; Duan Rong was even more cautious than he had imagined. This place was already his regular residence, yet after a thorough search, he still had not discovered any clues or traces.

However, Xie Daohan understood in his heart: since there were no clues or traces at either residence, then the clues must be on Duan Rong himself!

He believed that Duan Rong leaving the city was not an escape. Having just become a Sect Registered Disciple, would he really just walk away and abandon such a great future?

He only needed to wait. Wait for Duan Rong to return to the city!

In the early morning of the Wild Boar Mountain valley, birds chirped faintly and spring water gurgled; Duan Rong suddenly walked out from the depths of the cave and stood on the platform at the cave entrance, looking exhausted.

The spring breeze brushed his face, and the sunlight shone upon him; Duan Rong smiled slightly and suddenly executed his movement technique.

With the Cloud Snake Step fully unleashed, he leaped and bounded along the rock wall, his robes fluttering...

Duan Rong arrived at the side of the spring, first used the cold spring water to wash his face, then scooped up the sweet spring water and drank two handfuls in a row.

Duan Rong wiped the water stains from the corners of his mouth with his sleeve; on a tree not far away, two birds were chirping happily...

Duan Rong's gaze suddenly shifted, and he fixed it sharply in the direction of the two birds.

Those two birds had just been chirping a moment ago, but under the sharpness of Duan Rong's gaze, they suddenly stiffened without warning, as if struck by a bullet, and fell from the tree branch.

Duan Rong smiled faintly and then stood up to walk toward the place where the two birds had fallen, but he had only walked two steps when those two fallen birds suddenly flew up, flapping their wings, and flew into the depths of the Wild Forest.

Duan Rong stood there, watching the direction the birds had flown off in, his gaze flickering.

"It seems this Divine Soul Wave attack cannot damage the Divine Soul; it only causes the Divine Soul to tremble instantly and fall into a brief blankness."

(End of chapter)