Customising the read more link

Hello,

I’ve been trying to customise the read more link so the excerpt appears in one set of <p> tags, and beneath that the ‘continue reading’ appears in another set of <p> tags. I can’t work out how to get just the excerpt text and not the excerpt as well as the read more link from this function or my own function?

https://friendpaste.com/5VKR41MQaEWziyZ9m70n2e

Thanks