A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 369 Gyrfalcon
In the pitch-black night, Duan Rong bypassed the patrolling yamen runners and spies everywhere and sneaked back to Lei's old house.

Duan Rong entered the dry well. She knew Xiao Yu had sharp senses and would be nervous at the slightest rustling sound, so she called out as soon as she stepped into the corridor, "It's me."

When Duan Rong walked to the door of the dark room, Xiao Yu had already lit the oil lamp in the corner.

The dim light of the oil lamp illuminated Xiao Yu's face. She had been hiding here for the past few days. Her hair was a little messy, her expression was a little depressed, and her eyes were slightly red, as if she had just cried not long ago.

Duan Rong knew that in this situation, instead of offering comforting words, he would be better off telling a joke to amuse Xiao Yu. However, he had been watching her day and night, and was overthinking it, so he couldn't think of a joke at the moment. He walked past Xiao Yu, quickly touched her face with his dirty fingers, and changed the subject, asking, "Where did you put my clothes?"

Duan Rong's dirty fingertips left a black mark on Xiao Yu's fair face.

"I stacked them there." Xiao Yu pointed to a dark corner of the dark room and said.

Duan Rong walked over and saw his folded clothes.

He squatted down, rubbed his clothes, and found his Taiyi Order and the sect's cloud certificate.

Xiao Yu looked at Duan Rong who was rummaging over there and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Taiyi Order, Sect Cloud Certificate."

Xiao Yu frowned slightly and asked, "What do you want to do with the Taiyi Order and the Sect Cloud Certificate?"

"I'm going to the contact point of the Tongzhengshisi."

Xiao Yu wanted to ask more questions, but Duan Rong had already taken the Taiyi Order and the sect's cloud certificate and walked out of the dark room.

Xiao Yu half-knelt there, listening to the rustling sound over there disappear, and couldn't help but sigh deeply.

At this time, Zhu Xiaoqi came over, and in the light of the lamp, her eyes moved and she said, "Miss Yu, why is there a black mark on your face?"

"Black mark? Where?"

"This! This place." Zhu Xiaoqi said as he reached out to wipe it.

As soon as she wiped that place, Xiao Yu knew that it was scratched by Duan Rong just now.

"I can't wipe it off... I'll use some clean water..."

Zhu Xiaoqi was about to go to the corner to put the water, but was grabbed by Xiao Yu. "Forget it, no need to wipe it. Go to sleep."

As Xiao Yu spoke, he blew out the oil lamp in the corner.

Zhu Xiaoqi didn't care. It was dark in there anyway, so it didn't make any difference whether he wiped it or not.

Xiao Yu fell asleep peacefully in the darkness, with his palms pressed against his face.

Duan Rong was at the bottom of the dry well, and he suddenly released his spiritual sense. After making sure that there was no one around, he suddenly became as light as a swallow, tapped the wall of the well with his feet, and jumped out.

Duan Rong was in the alley in front of Jie Lei's old house. He looked up at the dark night sky, identified the direction, and then walked along the alley, moving through the shadows, towards the South City.

Running quickly all the way, he suddenly rushed out of a dirty alley in the south city slum, then stopped abruptly and looked up at the city wall in front of him.

The city wall is more than three feet high and very thick. Moreover, the city wall here is still some distance away from the South City Gate.

Duan Rong used his spiritual sense to investigate and found that there were no patrolling yamen runners and spies nearby, so he moved his body and floated past like a fallen leaf, his toes touching the base of the city wall. Then his body rose up, almost sticking to the city wall, and jumped a long distance.

The city wall was polished very smoothly and there was no foothold. However, with Duan Rong's current state of lightness skills at the great perfection of the Qi realm, it was no problem for him to cross the city wall in front of him.

Duan Rong jumped over the city wall and flew down from the three-meter-high top of the city wall like a big bird. Fortunately, the moon was covered by clouds at this time, so his graceful and ghostly posture did not scare anyone.

Duan Rong landed lightly on the ground, and immediately leaped forward in a certain direction among the mountains and fields.

Xiangu County is located in a remote area. The nearest contact point of the Tongzhengshisi to Xiangu is in Wangjiazhuang at the southeast foot of Xiaoshan Mountain, more than ten miles away.

This contact point is responsible for the liaison between Xiangu County, Sheqi County, and Jiuchong County.

Duan Rong used his physical form to run wildly all the way, and when the sky was just getting light, he had already reached the foot of Xiaoshan Mountain.

Duan Rong stopped, let out a breath, and walked towards a village not far away.

When we reached the entrance of the village, we saw the three broken characters "Wangjiazhuang" on a half-buried stone tablet.

The contact point of the Tongzhengshisi was a house at the east end of the village.

Duan Rong looked at the direction and walked towards the east of the village.

Here, smoke from cooking fires is already rising from the village, and farmers have already had breakfast and are heading to the fields with hoes on their shoulders.

When the villagers saw a short beggar with scabies on his face walking at the edge of the village, they didn't pay much attention to him. They just glanced at him and continued walking on.

The contact point here is a house next to a sycamore tree that was struck by lightning and half burnt. An old bachelor in his early forties lives there.

Duan Rong arrived at the east end of the village and saw the half-burnt sycamore tree at a glance.

He walked slowly to the fenced yard of the farmer's house and saw a middle-aged man dressed as a farmer, wearing a torn cotton coat, sitting in the yard eating breakfast. In fact, it was just a few steamed sweet potatoes.

Duan Rong stood there and coughed. The man in the yard turned his head and looked at him. He had the common look of a farmer, with a dark face and three wrinkles on his forehead, which were all covered with dust.

If the sect had not given a description of this contact point and the contact person in the secret letter to Duan Rong, Duan Rong would not have been able to connect the nearly primitive farmer in front of him with the sect's Tongzhengshisi.

The man stood up, opened the fence post, stuffed a sweet potato into Duan Rong's hand, and said, "Let's go look somewhere else."

Duan Rong was slightly stunned when he looked at the hot sweet potato in his hand.

The man was about to close the fence gate when Duan Rong suddenly raised his hand and grabbed it.

The man frowned, as if he was about to get angry, but Duan Rong bit the sweet potato in his mouth, reached into his crotch with his right hand, and took out a black token the size of a palm.

It was the sect’s Taiyi Order.

Duan Rong saw the man's surprised expression and knew that he was the contact person. How could a real farmer have seen Taiyi Ling?

Duan Rong stuffed the Taiyi Order back into his crotch and walked into the yard while biting a sweet potato. Naturally, the man didn't stop him this time.

Duan Rong walked past the wooden table in the yard and took another sweet potato from the black porcelain bowl. He was really hungry after running so far.

There were only two mud houses and a low kitchen in this yard. Duan Rong stepped over the threshold and walked straight into the main room.

The house was bare and very poor.

"No wonder I can't get married." Duan Rong looked around and sat down carelessly at a tattered wooden table. The moment he sat down, the chair creaked, and it was obvious that it was about to break.

That person had also followed him in. He stood at the door, sizing Duan Rong up suspiciously, and asked, "Where's the sect's cloud certificate? Bring it here for me to see!"

Duan Rong just sat there, eating sweet potatoes, leaning forward and stretching one leg a little, reaching into his crotch to take out the sect's cloud certificate and throwing it on the shabby wooden table in front of him.

The man looked at the sect's cloud certificate on the table, and then remembered what Duan Rong had just taken out from there. His eyebrows raised, but he still walked over, picked up the sect's cloud certificate, and opened it.

The man looked at the sect's cloud certificate, then looked at Duan Rong again. His face was as cold as frost, and he said coldly, "This is not you!"

Duan Rong had finished his two sweet potatoes. He wiped his mouth, smiled, and suddenly stood up. The moment he stood up, his bones exploded, and Duan Rong's figure grew larger and larger.

The man looked at Duan Rong in horror as he suddenly transformed from a little beggar into a well-proportioned and strong young man.

Duan Rong pulled his greasy hair up, revealing a dirty face. He said, "I'm trying to hide this. The scab on my face is fake too. Do you want to take it off?"

"No need!" the man said coldly.

He could already recognize Duan Rong like this. They had already been trained on how to recognize people, just looking at the distance between the eyes, the bridge of the nose, the shape of the mouth and the lines of the chin.

The man threw the sect's cloud certificate in front of Duan Rong and asked, "Don't you have three months of home leave? Why are you reporting in now?"

Duan Rong said, "I didn't want to come either. I just came back and ran into a big case."

"A major case?" Duan Rong then recounted all the discoveries he had made in Xiangu County over the past few days.

When the man heard that Xiangu County was turned into a base of the Filthy Blood Cult, his face was filled with astonishment. When he heard Duan Rong say that the chief altar envoy and the leader of the Yuanyang Hall would come to Xiangu County together in four days, he stood there with his mouth half open, and he was unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

"You mean, in four days, the Dharma Envoy of the Head Altar will come to Xiangu County?"

"Yes." Duan Rong answered firmly.

The man was still silent.

Duan Rong saw his hesitation and explained, "The stronghold in Xiangu County has been built quite successfully. The chief altar envoy is here to inspect it."

The man looked up at Duan Rong and said, "Can you ensure the accuracy of this information?"

"can."

The man said, "To deal with a figure of this level, the sect will need to mobilize a large amount of resources. I must remind you that if the information is wrong, you will be punished."

Duan Rong said: "If there is any mistake, just deal with it."

Seeing Duan Rong's serious expression, the man finally stopped hesitating. At this point, he had already accepted the shocking information Duan Rong had said: in this remote Xiangu County, two large fish were caught in one day, and one of them was the chief altar envoy.

Once the case is successfully solved, all the people involved will be rewarded according to their merits. When that happens, he won't have to continue to suffer in this desolate place.

Duan Rong asked, "There are only four days left. Is it enough time?"

The man smiled slightly and said, "It's not too late. Do you think we, the Minister of Public Administration, are all vegetarians?"

Duan Rong felt relieved after hearing this. If the sect didn't provide support, he felt that facing the chief altar envoy and hall master of the Filthy Blood Sect would be a bit overwhelming!

"That's good!"

Duan Rong stood up, and with a crackling sound of his bones, his figure shrank again. After a few breaths, he became the little beggar who had just entered the door. He greeted the man, then left the farmer's house.

After Duan Rong left, the man first found paper and pen, wrote a secret letter, and affixed a seal at the end. Then he took the secret letter, locked the door, left the village, and headed for Xiaoshan next to the village.

Xiaoshan is not a big mountain, nor is it very steep. There are no ferocious beasts in the mountain, only wild boars appear occasionally.

The man came to a valley and suddenly started whistling.

Following the whistle, suddenly a gray shadow appeared in the dense forest and flew straight out like a sharp arrow.

When the man saw the shadow, he smiled.

The grayish-white shadow, folding its wings, landed on the man's shoulder. It was actually a fully grown gyrfalcon, and when it flew over, it was holding a vole in its mouth. The vole was not dead yet, but it was so frightened that it could not scream and only shivered.

The gyrfalcon landed firmly on the man's shoulder, tilted its neck back, and swallowed the vole into its stomach.

The man reached out his calloused hand and touched the gyrfalcon's head.

The gyrfalcon closed its eyes in great enjoyment and rubbed itself against the man's rough palm.

The man said with a kind look in his eyes, "Xiao Hui, it's time to work! I'll have to trouble you again."

The gyrfalcon seemed to understand and let out a soft cry.

The man tied the bamboo tube containing the secret letter firmly to the feet of the gyrfalcon, then patted its back, signaling it to take off.

The gyrfalcon rubbed its head against the man's face, then suddenly spread its wings, and while flapping them slightly, it kicked its legs and shot into the air.

The gyrfalcon began to circle in midair, rising higher and higher. When it had become an unrecognizable black dot in the man's eyes, it suddenly accelerated and flew in a certain direction...

At dusk that day, at the east gate of Xiangu County, a rather gorgeous carriage slowly drove over.

Two days ago, the county government had issued a strict order that all vehicles passing through must be strictly checked, and any suspicious persons must be reported to the county government immediately.

Such a gorgeous carriage was quite eye-catching, and the gatekeeper, Chen Lingde, immediately became alert.

The person driving the carriage was a servant who was as thin as a monkey. When the servant saw Chen Lingde looking at him, his face suddenly lit up with a smile as bright as a flower.

Chen Lingde led his men to stop the carriage. When the curtain of the carriage was lifted, a round and chubby head popped out. It was Ximen Kankan.

When Ximen Kankan saw Chen Lingde, he smiled and said, "Isn't this Old Chen? I haven't seen you for three years. I hope you are doing well!"

"Ximen...Young Master Ximen?" Chen Lingde was slightly stunned when he saw Ximen Kankan's familiar smiling face.

Ximen Kankan jumped out of the car with another servant.

Ximen Kankan looked at the strict inspection of the yamen runners at the city gate and asked, "Why? Is the inspection so strict when entering the city now?"

Chen Lingde sighed, "It's been quite uneasy these past few days."

Ximen Kankan uttered an "oh," nodded, and said nothing more. "Check it out. The carriage is empty. I just came back to check. After all, I haven't been back to my hometown in three years."

Chen Lingde said with a smile: "The Ximen family's business has all moved to the capital. Master Ximen, why are you returning to this remote place instead of enjoying your life in the capital?"

Ximen Kankan said: "No matter how good the capital city is, it is not my hometown after all! I grew up here, and in my heart, only Xiangu County is my home."

Ximen Kankan's words made Chen Lingde's heart move.

He lifted the curtain of the carriage and saw that there was nothing inside.

Chen Lingde walked over and looked at the two servants beside Ximen Kankan. He found these two servants very unfamiliar.

These two servants were actually Shen Mizhi and Liu Shushan in disguise.

Liu Shushan was from Ruyang Prefecture, so Chen Lingde had naturally never seen him before. Although Shen Mizhi had spent three years in Xiangu County, she was now dressed as a servant, and her face was painted with a light layer of pine wax, which made it look slightly sallow. How could Chen Lingde recognize her?
Chen Lingde smiled and said, "Didn't Shi Kang come back with Ximen Shaonian?"

Shi Kang was Ximen Kankan's personal attendant and grew up with him. Chen Lingde also knew this.

Ximen Kankan said, "Don't mention it. I've been in the sect for three years, and that guy has taken care of a lot of things. He can't leave at all. These two servants were bought by my father in the capital. I think they are pleasing to the eye, so I brought them here to serve me."

"Really?" Chen Lingde looked at the two servants again.

Ximen Kankan took out a silver note from his pocket, patted it on the back of Chen Lingde's hand, and said with a smile: "Have some tea for the brothers. We haven't seen each other for three years, so just say hello."

Chen Lingde took the banknote and, upon seeing the denomination, immediately beamed with joy. He said, "Master Ximen, you're so polite!"

"where?!"

Chen Lingde turned his head to look at the yamen runners who were checking the carriage and said, "We've checked everything we should check. Let it go."

"Old Chen, see you next time!"

"See you!"

Ximen Kankan turned his head to look at Shen Mizhi beside him and said in a deep voice, "Xiao Shen! Why don't you help me get in the car?"

When Shen Mizhi saw Ximen Kankan's look, she was immediately furious and really wanted to kick him in the fat face. But at this moment, in front of everyone, she had no choice but to pull the car curtain and help Ximen Kankan get into the car.

However, when Ximen Kankan got into the car, she twisted Ximen Kankan's thigh hard.

Ximen Kankan grimaced in pain, but didn't dare make a sound.

Chen Lingde stood at the city gate, watching Ximen Kankan's gorgeous carriage enter the city. There was no expression on his cold face.

Chen Lingde instructed his deputy, "Watch the city gate carefully. I'm going to the government office."

Ximen Kankan was a registered disciple of the sect three years ago, and his current status is likely to be an outer disciple. If such a person enters Xiangu County, he must go to the government office to report.

(End of this chapter)