Chapter 91: A Transaction

"There must be some kind of transaction between Xu Ruhu and Xie Lei."

Duan Rong paced back and forth, lost in silent thought.

Duan Rong suddenly wondered why the jailbreak happened at the dawn before the Taiyi Sect Imperial Envoy arrived.

He had originally thought that Xie Lei had timed it perfectly, taking advantage of Shen Yanliu's absence and the fact that the Taiyi Sect Imperial Envoy had not yet arrived to suddenly break the prisoner out, so that the County Government Office's search would inevitably be obstructed and thrown into chaos, and the more chaotic it was, the safer he would be!

But, it seems now, the truth might not be so!

"Their transaction was only reached on the very last day!" Duan Rong suddenly stopped and said: "Someone made a concession!"

"Because if the transaction wasn't reached, once the Imperial Envoy arrived, everything would be too late..."

Duan Rong muttered to himself while starting to pace again!

"It's just, in this transaction, what exactly did Xu Ruhu pay to make Xie Lei willing to take such a huge risk?"

Duan Rong suddenly stopped behind the dilapidated door of the dormitory, his forehead almost touching the back of the door, but Duan Rong seemed completely unaware, muttering to himself: "Xie Lei, what exactly did you get? That makes you willing to take such a big risk?"

Duan Rong stood there, motionless for a long time, as Xie Lei's gloomy complexion and his back, which looked like a clothes rack, flashed through Duan Rong's mind one after another...

"Is it money?"

Duan Rong immediately shook his head.

Xie Daohan is the Head Constable in charge of criminal matters for the county; the wealth to be gained from this is definitely not something a commoner can imagine!

And Xie Daohan never married in his life and had no children; the next generation of their Xie family has only Xie Lei as the sole seedling, and Xie Daohan regards him as his own, pouring almost all resources into Xie Lei!

Moreover, Xie Lei himself also works in the Ya Men; after all, being his own nephew, Xie Daohan gave him a lot of power, and Xie Lei himself probably hasn't skimmed little off the top!

He lacks neither silver nor cultivation resources!

"Then what on earth is it? That could make him willing to take such a big risk?"

Duan Rong's eyes suddenly lit up. "It must be something that can change his destiny!"

Duan Rong turned around and continued to pace in the cramped dormitory, though he didn't notice it himself, his footsteps were getting faster and faster!

"Something that changes destiny?"

"What kind of thing is it?"

Duan Rong suddenly stood there, his expression changing. "Change destiny? Cultivation talent? Is it the Soul Technique!?"

"It must be the Soul Technique!"

"Xu Ruhu... has the Taiyi Sect's... Soul Technique!" Unconsciously, Duan Rong's fists were already tightly clenched!

In his heart, a strong emotion of fear and excitement intertwined surged up!

It has been several days since Devouring Tree Spirit, but there has been no obvious change in his Mental Power!

He still cannot determine if the path of Devouring Tree Spirit is viable!

And he has not thoroughly studied what the phrase "Divine Sense Space related areas are saturated" means after a failed devouring; he only has some preliminary guesses!

Under these circumstances, a clue to the Soul Technique suddenly appeared before him; how could Duan Rong not be tempted?

If the path of Devouring Tree Spirit is not viable, the current clue to the Soul Technique can be considered his stroke of luck.

It's just that this luck is a bit too hot to handle...

Moreover, this luck won't just stand there waiting for him, because once the heat dies down, Xie Lei will likely move Xu Ruhu.

But... he still... cannot determine if Devouring Tree Spirit... is actually viable?

This matter is like a huge storm; at the very eye of this storm are Xie Lei and Xu Ruhu, but on the periphery of this storm are Xie Daohan, the Taiyi Sect Imperial Envoy, Shen Yanliu, and even further out, it will involve the higher-ups of the Taiyi Sect—that is, after all, the Soul Technique!

Any one of these existences is not someone he can afford to provoke!

But, since it is a stroke of luck, it isn't just about the risk!

There must still be an opportunity, right?

His biggest advantage here is that he already knows it is Xie Lei who broke Xu Ruhu out of jail and hid Xu Ruhu in his own home!

But, no one knows that he knows!

Although anyone on the periphery of this huge storm could kill him, he might not necessarily be unable to fight the two people in the eye of the storm?

As long as he steps into the eye of the storm, it will temporarily have nothing to do with the people on the periphery; it will just be a battle between the three of them in the eye of the storm.

Although he is not clear about Xu Ruhu, Xie Daohan should be in the True Qi Realm!

It's just that he was locked in the Dungeon for over a month, his collarbone pierced by heavy torture instruments; being so severely injured, he is a sick tiger!

And Xie Lei is at the Inner Breath Realm Second Layer! The same realm as him!

Moreover, once Duan Rong steps into the eye of the storm, Duan Rong can secretly observe their movements, but they have no idea of Duan Rong's existence at all!

The initiative is on his side!

If he can plan properly, there is still a chance of winning!

Duan Rong sat in front of the bed and used a brush to constantly scribble on a piece of paper...

On that paper, he listed every person related to this matter and used intricate arrows to mark the relationships between them!

He deduced various situations regarding the before and after of the event!

Duan Rong looked at the densely packed text written in small script; the fear had still not been erased from his heart, and he was still caught in a battle between heaven and man!

Duan Rong's thumb and index finger began to rub against each other incessantly...

Duan Rong's eyes suddenly focused, he spread the paper out in front of him and said: "Do it! To hell with being afraid!"

Duan Rong finally made up his mind because if he backed down and didn't do it, and then in half a month or so the path of Devouring Tree Spirit was confirmed to be a failure, he would have no room for maneuver!

At that time, he would definitely regret it until his thighs were twisted!

Because Xu Ruhu would likely have been moved by Xie Lei to who knows where!

Anything he wanted to do then would be too late!

Once Duan Rong decided to do it, he began to set about deducing and formulating a detailed and thorough plan.

Although he dared not be certain about a lot of information, which meant many details of the action could not be truly deduced, even so, he could still first formulate a compatible framework and then adjust for error tolerance based on the actual situation during the action.

Duan Rong scribbled and drew incessantly, filling three large sheets of paper; the action contingency plan was like an upside-down tree, constantly branching out, with every possible scenario spawning a new course of action.

Deducing this action plan took Duan Rong nearly two full hours!

The moment the deduction was complete, Duan Rong crumpled the three sheets of paper into a ball, channeled his Internal Breath into his palms, clapped his hands together, and turned the action plan directly into powder!

Duan Rong pushed open the window, threw the paper dust outside, and then shut the window tight; although quite a few paper specks had fallen by his bed and on the floor, Duan Rong's gaze was icy, and ignoring them entirely, he pushed open the door and left the dormitory!

An action plan is not for anyone else to see, nor is it even for himself to see!

Duan Rong only used writing the action plan to clarify his own train of thought.

Now that his thoughts were clear, why keep that scrap paper?

(End of chapter)