Duan Rong guessed correctly, this secret manual was indeed personally transcribed by Xiao Baijiao.
A few months ago, after Zhao Mu’s Five Tigers and Sheep Saber had achieved the Entry Level First Level of Inner Breath, he ca to see Xiao Zongting to collect the secret manual for the Second Level.
According to the rules of the Yuan Shun Escort Agency, whether you’re an apprentice or an intern escort master, you can only be taught the next level of the secret manual after completing one level.
Only on the day you beco a formal escort master will you be taught the complete set of the Five Tigers and Sheep Saber secret manual.
When Zhao Mu ca to collect it, the second level manuals transcribed in previous years had unexpectedly run out.
Xiao Zongting then had Xiao Baijiao transcribe another batch.
The one in Duan Rong’s hands was exactly one from this batch.
With a slightly intoxicated expression, Duan Rong inhaled the fragrance from the secret manual. Xiao Baijiao’s fair face flashed by occasionally, and a bout of heat rose in Duan Rong’s abdon.
But at this mont, Duan Rong suddenly rembered sothing.
He flipped the manual to the third page, and sure enough, he felt a silver needle between the pages of the book.
"Read the Artifact Spirit!"
As Duan Rong’s mind thought, a set of data appeared before his eyes.
Artifact: White Hair Silver Needle
Artifact Spirit Tier: Tier One
Devouring Requirents: Host’s Spiritual Power Level 1 (Satisfied)
Devouring Effect: Mastery of Plum Blossom Needle Technique.
"So it is this silver needle!"
Duan Rong had intended to devour the silver needle when he clipped it, but he forgot due to distractions afterward.
Now, he could conveniently use the side effects of devouring the needle’s artifact spirit to dull his mind, preventing further fantasy.
"Devour the Artifact Spirit!"
Duan Rong internally exclaid, and at that instant, a foreign sensation arose in his mind.
His previously drifting thoughts suddenly jamd like a stuck gear, unable to turn...
Duan Rong collapsed onto the bed and quickly fell asleep. Just before entering the dreamland, Duan Rong smiled and muttered to himself, "The ability to devour artifact spirits can even help sleep. It’s much better than sleeping pills...use...more..."
Before finishing his sentence, he had already fallen into a deep sleep.
In his dream, Duan Rong saw a young boy holding a rag doll.
The rag doll had no eyes or mouth, but its body was covered with red dots. The boy pinched the silver needle and pricked it on the red dots of the rag doll.
Ti flowed like water, trickling away.
The boy’s hand grew from small to large, with slender and nimble fingers, clearly a pair of skillful hands.
In those hands, the silver needle remained, but the rag doll had vanished...
The boy faced a wooden figure, completely marked with red circles the size of pinky nails.
Using the silver needle, the boy pointed at the red circles on the wooden figure, muttering under his breath, "Huagai, Ziggong, Yutang, Tanzhong..."
Gradually, the boy’s hands grew calluses, and he began to pierce people with the silver needle...
The prickly figures rushed past the boy’s eyes like a revolving lantern...
Eventually, Duan Rong could no longer see clearly...
Duan Rong’s attention gradually shifted from the constantly changing figures before the boy’s eyes to the silver needle in the boy’s hand...
The silver needle pricked repeatedly on the changing figures, speeding up as the figures quickened, causing the needle and hand to move faster and faster...
So fast that it left afterimages, and Duan Rong gradually realized that these afterimages ford a plum blossom...
"Plum Blossom Needle Technique!"
Based on previous experiences, once the artifact spirit is fully digested and absorbed, Duan Rong would wake up...
During the digestion of the artifact spirit, Duan Rong was in a deep sleep...
In deep sleep, the body’s fatigue is quickly alleviated...
Therefore, Duan Rong typically only slept for two hours a day.
However, this ti, after digesting and absorbing the artifact spirit, he did not wake up.
The dream continued, becoming more and more alluring...
The geisha he had painted, one by one, swayed their waists before him...
Moreover, their bodies and faces constantly shifted...
Gradually, Xiao Baijiao, Zhu Xiaoqi, and Hu Huanhuan even appeared...
They smiled at Duan Rong, provocative and tempting...
Duan Rong...
One night of spring dreams, gone without a trace!
The sound of roosters crowing resonated, echoing near and far. Within the Yuan Shun Escort Agency, there was already a cacophony, yet Duan Rong remained lying on his bed...
Only when the first rays of sun pierced through the carved window covered with thin cloth did Duan Rong open his eyes, stung by the light.
As soon as Duan Rong opened his eyes, he felt a splitting headache, and only after several seconds did the pain slowly subside.
He then felt a sticky sensation under his buttocks. When he reached out and touched it, he found his hand covered in a cold, sticky substance.
Duan Rong lifted the blanket and saw a large wet patch beneath him, as if he had wet the bed...
Sensing the heat on his face, Duan Rong struggled to get up, groggily pulled off the sheet, put on clothes, picked up the wooden basin in the corner, and headed to the well.
Next door to Duan Rong lived an Inner Courtyard accounting apprentice, in his twenties, tall and thin, and clever.
As Duan Rong was scrubbing the bed sheets by the well, that man happened to walk out of the dorm, ready to go to the Inner Courtyard account room for attendance.
"Morning, Brother Rong, washing bed sheets?"
The man casually uttered and walked past Duan Rong.
"Ah..." Duan Rong mumbled a response and lowered his head, his face blushing as red as a monkey’s bottom...
Duan Rong hung the washed bed sheet on the hemp rope strung between the two cypress trees in the courtyard.
As he watched the bed sheet sway gently in the sunlight, a determined look appeared in his eyes, and he muttered to himself, "Could there be a problem with that dicine?"
Whether or not there’s a problem with the dicine, it’s already been taken, and there’s no use pondering over it now.
Feeling groggy and hungry, Duan Rong left the Escort Agency to have breakfast on the street and specifically ate a few extra eggs.
Only then did he return to the Martial Arts Arena to begin standing exercises.
As he began the exercises, the rising warmth cleared his mind.
Duan Rong stood for hours, practicing until almost 3 p.m.
During this ti, he only visited the canteen for lunch, and the rest of the ti was spent in the Martial Arts Arena practicing his stance.
As Duan Rong concluded his exercises, the white breath he exhaled shot diagonally nearly a yard ahead like an arrow before dispersing.
It had been two days, yet the dicinal power within him was still robust. Even after so much standing, his body didn’t feel the slightest bit depleted.
Moreover, the previous chaotic heart palpitations seed to have vanished.
"Perhaps it’s not the dicine?"
There was hesitation in Duan Rong’s expression.
A youth in his mid-teens is in the midst of adolescence, and spending long hours with geishas inevitably leads to heart-stealing thoughts.
"Maybe it’s just a normal physiological reaction..."
As the ti approached 3 p.m., Duan Rong dared not delay further. He returned to the dormitory, washed off the stench of sweat, then transford himself into a walking art station, headed to Huaying Building.
Upon reaching the old locust tree diagonally opposite Huaying Building, Duan Rong stopped in mild surprise to find a line of people already queued there, exactly ten in number.
It seed they also knew he could only draw ten pieces an hour, so there was no point in lining up further.
In that queue were not only geishas from Huaying Building but also so clients, as well as two dressed as servants at the end of the line.
Montarily stunned, Duan Rong glanced over the two servants...
Technically, these servants were not his typical custor base, given that one of his paintings cost ten silver taels each.
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