No matter how many doubts he had in his heart, he could only put them aside for now and first absorb the redemption power that descended from the sky after killing Xiong Yong.
Today's redemption power was much more powerful than yesterday's.
Jiang Yuan had killed Xiong Yong alone, with no one else interfering, enjoying the entire Initial Rank Second Grade fanatic all to himself!
A massive amount of redemption power poured into his body, and Jiang Yuan absorbed it greedily.
The higher the soul strength, the higher the absorption efficiency!
Let's just put it this way.
If the redemption power absorption efficiency of ordinary Awakened Ones is within 10%, then Jiang Yuan's current absorption efficiency has reached an astonishing 20% or 30%!
The progress in the divine power column was rising rapidly.
Beside him.
Chi Zhongyue hurriedly advised: "Jiang Yuan, I don't know how much redemption power you can digest."
"But remember, even if you can break through, you must not break through! You must not break through! You must not break through!"
"Your strength, endurance, and speed are indeed very strong, but I could tell from your battle just now that you haven't consolidated or fully mastered your current strength."
"Breaking through to Second Grade will only do harm and no good. If you have surplus redemption power, use it to strengthen your three attributes. Remember!"
If Chi Zhongyue hadn't said anything, Jiang Yuan might have let the redemption power push him to Initial Rank Second Grade.
After all, all three of his attributes had reached 30 points.
Upon hearing this, when his divine power reached level 10, he immediately stopped absorbing.
He controlled the surplus redemption power to cover his entire body, nourishing his physique.
This was only possible for Jiang Yuan. For other Awakened Ones, the redemption power they absorbed might not even be enough to reach the breakthrough threshold, but Jiang Yuan still had excess redemption power to nourish his physique.
This was why everyone immediately concluded that Jiang Yuan was a super genius after learning that he had withstood a Middle Rank Seeker's faith ritual alone.
The level of soul strength truly determines a person's talent.
There wasn't much remaining power left, and it was impossible to directly increase the original values.
However, it did play a role in consolidating and solidifying the foundation.
After fully absorbing it, Jiang Yuan's control over his own strength and muscles became more flexible, without the stiffness he had after his strength skyrocketed before.
With a period of high-intensity training, he believed he could consolidate his current strength and move on to the next stage.
"You leave first, we'll take care of things here."
Seeing Jiang Yuan open his eyes, Hu Zhengfeng had a lot of questions he wanted to ask but could only hold them back and let Jiang Yuan leave first.
More than ten minutes had passed since the battle, but both yesterday's male and female bandits and today's Xiong Yong had chosen to attack in extremely remote areas.
Today's location was even more remote than yesterday's.
Jiang Yuan nodded but didn't leave immediately.
Instead, he walked to the taxi, opened the back seat, and took out two pink food boxes.
Amidst everyone's stunned gaze, he took the food boxes and walked to Chi Zhongyue, his expression gentle and elegant like a nobleman, his tone helpless but sincere: "I'm sorry, the love breakfast I prepared for you yesterday was destroyed, and today's preparation encountered Xiong Yong..."
"Fortunately, today it just rolled around in the car a few times and wasn't destroyed. It should still be edible."
Chi Zhongyue took it in a daze. Jiang Yuan's passionate, sincere gaze made her eyes instinctively dodge, but she quickly remembered that this was acting, acting, acting. So she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart, and the next second she also entered the acting state.
Her exquisitely beautiful cheeks blushed slightly, inadvertently portraying the shyness and joy of a young girl. She lowered her head, took the food box with her small hand, and said with a hint of excitement: "Hmm... thank you! I like it very much!"
Then she hugged the food box tightly to her chest, a shy sweetness appearing on her small face.
Lin Le beside them was dumbfounded. At this moment, his expression was almost exactly the same as the small emoji in the chat software with hands covering the cheeks in horror!
Looking at Jiang Yuan, who was as gentle as jade and elegant as a nobleman, and then at Chi Zhongyue, who looked like a shy girl with a budding heart, his world collapsed.
Weren't you, Jiang Yuan, the madman who just violently killed Xiong Yong?
Weren't you, Chi Zhongyue, the one with a violent and manic personality who makes even psychos look like little brothers in front of you?
Putting on an act as a gentle nobleman and a shy young girl for me here?
This acting, I, Lin Le, am convinced!
"I'll leave first then."
Jiang Yuan smiled gently.
Chi Zhongyue nodded slightly, her deer-like eyes blinking, her voice soft and weak with concern: "Hmm... be careful yourself!"
"Yes, I know!"
Jiang Yuan replied, no longer delaying, turned around and quickly left the area.
...
Back at the backup safe house, Jiang Yuan went to the training room first, set the speed to 50 kilometers per hour, and started running.
During this period of training, Jiang Yuan discovered something.
That is, he found that when he exercises, especially the more intense the exercise, the clearer his thinking becomes.
He needed to carefully think about everything that happened today!
He had killed Xiong Yong, a serious problem, but he couldn't feel happy at all.
Instead, his mood became heavier.
Xiong Yong's last attack was clearly aimed at killing him.
But why did he suddenly change his mind at the critical moment?
And what did those successive changes in his eyes mean, as well as the sneer, pity, and mockery in his eyes when he was killed?
Since the day his parents had the accident, Xiong Yong had been hiding in the dark, as steady as an old dog.
Yesterday, he had even hired bandits to kidnap him, but he himself had never shown up.
But why did he come out today? Why did he appear so suddenly?
Was it because of yesterday's battle with the male and female bandits and the appearance of the team members that he finally confirmed his identity as an Awakened One and finally made a move?
That makes even less sense!
He clearly knew that he had joined the Redemption Organization and had many powerful people around him. How could he come alone to kill him?
What's the difference between that and courting death?
Also, who were those three unfamiliar gazes he had sensed earlier?
If the figure he had found was really Xiong Yong, even not counting the people arranged by Wang Dama, how did he manage to appear so quickly to intercept him and lock onto his position so quickly?
This is clearly unreasonable.
Jiang Yuan recalled the directions of those three unfamiliar gazes and his heart turned cold!
If Xiong Yong had been in the rightmost direction, then time-wise it would have been possible!
There would even be extra time!
Because that direction was near where they had fought!
But if that's the case, then whose faintly familiar back was the one he saw?!
Of course, it could also be his illusion. After all, people's appearances and figures are not that different, just differences in height, weight, etc. It's not rare for someone to have a figure, build, or back that's very similar to someone he knows.
So let's not talk about familiarity first, to avoid his thinking being misled by preconceived ideas.
Let's just say one thing—
Since that stranger watching him wasn't Xiong Yong... then who was it?!!!
And who was the other stranger?!!!
After killing Xiong Yong, one mystery after another emerged, layers of fog shrouded his vision, making it impossible to see clearly or understand.
"Forget it... thinking too much is useless!"
"When soldiers come, block them; when water comes, earth dams it. As long as my identity isn't completely exposed, no matter who the mastermind is, they will eventually show their feet!"
"Improving my own strength is the king's way. When my strength is strong enough, any conspiracy will be shattered!"
Unable to figure it out, Jiang Yuan simply stopped thinking.
Xiong Yong had been killed, and he had been killed by himself alone.
He believed that superiors would soon assign him tasks.
He had to use this limited time to strengthen himself as much as possible, so that he could face the dangerous situations ahead more calmly.
As for not being a disguise agent anymore and just muddling through each day, Jiang Yuan never even considered it.
In this dangerous world, taking a step back leads to an abyss. Only by moving forward bravely and cutting through thorns and brambles can one truly fight for a chance at survival.
The hidden threats in the dark could take his life at any moment.
It was no longer a matter of whether he wanted to slack off or not.
Putting aside all distractions, he focused entirely on training.
Chapter 28: Explosive Growth in Strength
Midnight.
Ninth floor, Jiang Yuan's bedroom.
Jiang Yuan waited quietly for the survival point settlement at midnight.
He didn't know how many he would get, but he thought it shouldn't disappoint him.
23:59
00:00
Congratulations on successfully resolving a crisis, killing a First Grade Initial Rank, and surviving for 24 hours.
Comprehensive calculation, reward: 1088 survival points
...
"1088 points?!"
Jiang Yuan had thought there would be quite a few.
But this number still far exceeded his expectations!
Jiang Yuan was overjoyed. This was unprecedented wealth.
Based on the calculation that each level of divine power requires 100 survival points, wouldn't he be able to immediately advance to Second Grade Initial Rank?
He smiled. The temptation was indeed great.
But Jiang Yuan definitely wouldn't do that.
Theoretically, rapid advancement doesn't work. The body can't handle it, the soul can't bear it.
Even without these reasons, someone who advances quickly might not even be able to defeat someone a small realm lower.
A paper tiger, as they say.
Moreover, if he wanted to become stronger in the future and climb to higher realms, he had to be steady and solid, first consolidating his current realm before considering the next one.
Putting aside this tempting thought, Jiang Yuan planned how to use these survival points.
Adding the original 4 points, he had a total of 1092 survival points.
He definitely had to increase his soul first!
Immediately, he began frantically adding to his soul.
25...
26...
27...
Until he was about to increase from 30 to 31, he suddenly discovered that each additional point now required 20 survival points.
After thinking about it, he temporarily stopped adding.
With 1042 points remaining, he would improve his strength, endurance, and speed!
His strength was 10 points. Jiang Yuan increased it by 20 points at once, consuming a total of 200 survival points.
When he tried to increase it further, like with his soul, each point now required 20 survival points.
Jiang Yuan roughly understood the pattern.
He stacked his 11 points of endurance and 10 points of speed all the way up to 30!
This consumed a total of 390 survival points.
452 points remaining!
At this moment.
Jiang Yuan felt an earth-shattering change in himself.
It was even more significant than the change when he entered the rank!
In fact, each point increase in strength, endurance, and speed brings considerable changes.
Not to mention increasing them by 20 points at once.
The massive improvement was not just a multiple of the numbers.
To describe it...
Let's put it this way.
This afternoon, Jiang Yuan had a spar with Lin Le.
They both entered the rank on the same day, but Lin Le had trained earlier. No matter how lazy Lin Le was, Jiang Yuan couldn't beat him.
But now!
If they fought again now, not just one Lin Le, but three, five, or even more Lin Les wouldn't be his match!
Jiang Yuan's biggest shortcomings now were only combat skills and practical experience.
If we were to describe the current improvement in a more intuitive way...
The current Jiang Yuan was equivalent to a Second Grade Initial Rank with insufficient divine power!
In fact, some Second Grade Initial Rank might not even match Jiang Yuan in terms of strength, endurance, and speed!
This.
Is the importance of these three attributes and the necessity of improving them!
Too important.
A person's strength is not just reflected in their realm.
After being excited for a while, Jiang Yuan continued adding points.
With such a large improvement in the three attributes, he needed time to adapt, so there was no need to improve them further.
The same applied to divine power. It was best to improve divine power after fully adapting and consolidating his current strength.
As a disguise agent, the importance of soul strength is self-evident.
What's more, in more than ten days, he would have to go to the provincial capital to participate in the Faith Ceremony.
Immediately, he began frantically adding points to his soul again.
This time he directly increased it by 17 points, bringing the total to an astonishing 47 points, consuming a total of 340 survival points.
The remaining 112 survival points were kept as backup.
After all, now that he had discovered that his soul could recover, he definitely had to keep enough survival points for emergencies.
Opening his attribute panel again, all the data had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Name: Jiang Yuan
Strength: 30
Endurance: 30
Speed: 30
Soul: 47
Divine Power: lv4
Strength: Third Grade Initial Rank
Survival: 112
...
The Divine Power column had moved down, above the Strength column.
This was another small feature Jiang Yuan had discovered. He could freely adjust the display position of each attribute on the attribute panel.
This adjustment made it feel much more comfortable.
Compared to the shabby state at the beginning, the current attributes were much more impressive.
His strength was already incomparable to before.
Even if Xiong Yong launched a sudden attack on him now, Jiang Yuan didn't know if he could defeat the opponent, but it would be almost impossible for the opponent to kill him...
If he couldn't beat him, he could still run!
Unless Xiong Yong was a Second Grade Initial Rank with all three attributes at the peak of this realm!
Or even beyond the current realm!
But the possibility was really low. This required a lot of time, a lot of energy, and most importantly, talent.
Xiong Yong definitely had enough time, given his age.
Energy was unlikely. He had to work every day. Talent was even more impossible.
If he had such powerful talent, why would he be a security guard? He would have long held a position in the Zhengyong Demon Cult he believed in.
At least a Hunter position would be guaranteed.
Looking at his attributes with satisfaction, Jiang Yuan couldn't seem to get enough of them.
Especially his mind and even his senses had become more clear and acute than ever before.
"After my soul strength increased, even my perception became so acute?"
Jiang Yuan was very happy: "In that case... when fighting people with low soul strength, I have an even greater advantage!"
This was definitely another pleasant discovery.
Not only that.
His thinking had also become exceptionally agile.
This had nothing to do with intelligence; it just meant his brain reacted faster.
...
Early the next morning, Jiang Yuan went to the kitchen energetically to make a love breakfast.
Yesterday's love breakfast was ruined, so he would make it again today.
Life had to go on.
Disguise training naturally had to continue as well.
When he came back last night, he had bought a new lunch box at the supermarket, a cute pink one.
The breakfast was rich and carefully prepared.
Homemade sandwiches, heart-shaped ones, two pieces.
Seafood porridge cooked before going to bed last night.
Jiang Yuan had discovered that Chi Zhongyue quite liked seafood.
Taking the carefully prepared love breakfast, he strolled out the door.
As soon as he stepped out of the first-floor elevator and onto the outside of the building, Jiang Yuan suddenly felt something, his expression stiffened for a moment, then immediately returned to normal.
But he was extremely vigilant in his heart.
Just now, the moment he walked out of the building, that feeling of being watched that he had experienced before came again!
And there was more than one!
A total of seven pairs of watching eyes were on him!
Jiang Yuan was instantly terrified, his whole body cold.
He knew who five of those watching eyes belonged to.
Wang Dama, Hu Zhengfeng, Wang Rou, Chi Zhongyue, Lin Le!
But what about the other two?
Assuming one of them was from Xiong Yong, then... who did the other watching eye belong to???
Or maybe...
Like yesterday, were they gangsters or killers hired by Xiong Yong???
It was even possible that Hu Zhengfeng and the others weren't watching him the entire time.
Jiang Yuan was numb.
One wave had not subsided, another wave arose. Just one Xiong Yong had caused him and the second team so much trouble. If there was another hidden mastermind, Jiang Yuan would really be at a loss!
He had to find out!
Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan suddenly frowned, clutching his stomach, pretending to have a stomachache, and turned back into the building.
As soon as he entered, that feeling of being watched disappeared.
At the same time, Wang Rou's voice came through the hidden earpiece: "Jiang Yuan? What's wrong? Do you have a stomachache?"
Jiang Yuan exhaled, with a hint of gravity: "No, I might... have discovered Xiong Yong!"
There was an immediate silence in the hidden earpiece.
The next second, Wang Dama's slightly excited voice immediately sounded: "That old bastard finally showed up!"
"Where is he? Did you sense him???"
"Wait... Did your soul break through???"
There was no one in the elevator. Jiang Yuan whispered: "After entering the rank yesterday, my soul did have a significant breakthrough."
"But... I can't be sure if it's him. I just sensed someone watching me in secret."
"First tell me your locations, and then tell me if all your eyes were on me when I walked out of the elevator just now?"
There was another silence in the earpiece.
Wang Rou asked gravely: "Do you mean... you sensed more than just Xiong Yong and us?"
"Wait, you... you even sensed Team Leader Wang's presence???"
"Your soul strength..."
By the end, Wang Rou's tone was filled with incredulity.
She wasn't surprised that he could sense them.
Jiang Yuan was a disguise agent with super strong soul strength. If he couldn't do this, what kind of disguise agent would he be?
But the key point was, Wang Dama was a Middle Rank powerhouse!
And a Middle Rank Second Grade at that!
Wasn't this soul strength a bit too exaggerated!?!