Hidden Moth-Chapter 443 - 251: Sword Freely Flies, Flowers and Leaves Respond

Chapter 443: Chapter 251: Sword Freely Flies, Flowers and Leaves Respond

Qixia Mountain is located in the northeast suburbs of Qi Yuan City, adjacent to the south bank of the Great River. It has been a famous Buddhist attraction since ancient times. The mountain, though not high, is picturesque and sprawling. From the perspective of Earth Qi Spirit Core, it is actually an excellent natural medicinal field, and has now been designated as a national forest park.

The mountain houses an ancient temple named Jingshe Temple, which is quite large in scale. Many areas of the temple are closed to tourists, such as the monks’ dormitories.

In the dormitory, an old monk assumes a pose of celestial inquiry, and inadvertently slips out... It’s not the person who slips out, but the consciousness detaches from the body and flies out of the monk’s quarters, akin to the legendary Primordial Spirit Travel.

After breaking through Tier Four cultivation of the Insect Concealment Skill, he comprehended the "Travel" divine technique. He is repeatedly practicing it but hasn’t mastered it completely yet, so when he looks up to the sky indoors and sees no stars, he instinctively flies out.

Although the distance of Primordial Spirit Travel is within the range of Divine Sense, the feeling and extension of Divine Sense are completely different. It’s akin to the soul breaking free from the body’s restraints, allowing for free soaring.

This is also a kind of great freedom. The deeper the feeling, the more addictive it becomes, and simultaneously, the more eager to solve another mystery—where exactly is the Hidden Moth Grotto Heaven, and how can one enter it?

At this moment, he suddenly sees some movement on the ground from high in the sky; three night travelers have infiltrated the temple!

How can there be someone breaking into a temple in the middle of the night, and it’s a double meaning of the empty gate? Famous temples do have many valuable things, and in today’s era of electronic payments, it’s rare to have a large amount of cash, but external thieves are uncommon.

On the one hand, it is because of superstition; many criminals, after doing bad deeds, come to burn incense and donate money for protection. On the other hand, there is strict security surveillance, as it is a key cultural relic protection unit, stealing something here can easily make it onto social news.

The old monk immediately realized that these people are not ordinary petty thieves; they are highly skilled and also possess Divine Sense, avoiding or cleverly obscuring the various monitoring, without alarming anyone.

Looking more closely, they are likely not here to steal.

Stealing should involve avoiding people, but these individuals are not targeting cultural relics or treasures; wherever there are people, they are probing... no, they are here to find someone!

The old monk’s consciousness instantly returns to his body, and he can’t help but suspect they’re here for him, should he flee immediately? Amid thoughts rapidly turning, he gritted his teeth and made a decision, not to leave!

If he avoids the search now, he might just fall into their scheme of startling a snake with grass. Magic Sect’s members like to set a trap on hand while doing anything, who knows if there are people watching outside the temple?

Being a monk in the temple isn’t illegal, fleeing in such a well-off manner might just expose oneself.

Thinking of this, he simply lies down to sleep, his breath naturally collected with almost no flaws, and after a while, he senses a Divine Sense sweeping over... the intruder is a master, presumably a high-tier sorcerer.

The three intruders alternated in advancing, with one timely aware of any situation encountered by the others, evidently well-coordinated, as they quickly searched the entire temple.

After completing the search, they climbed over the wall and made a gesture to the outside high ground. The old monk’s guess was correct; there’s indeed someone keeping watch from elevated points nearby, along with high-resolution infrared monitoring equipment.

If he had been alerted and tried to secretly avoid earlier, he would have been discovered already. His cautious mentality and excellent concealment techniques helped him avoid being detected.

Far away in Nanhua, He Kao had finished the last healing session and then assigned Lan Jiwan a task, to use Jiuliang Manufacturing’s processing plant to create a sword embryo.

Ritually refining the formal magical artifact flying sword is beyond the capabilities of Lan Jiwan and Ye Liangcheng, but crafting a magical treasure initial embryo is no issue, and He Kao’s demands are not high, just processing a metal bar with specific material requirements.

He Kao agreed to collect it after three days and will personally undertake the subsequent ritual refining work. If he can eventually forge it into a sword, he will fully grasp its divine technique, making it most handy to use.

The efficiency of the Magic Sect’s higher-ups is very high; he received Elder Li’s reply the next morning.

Elder Li analyzed the surveillance data He Kao provided and made an important judgment: the uninvited guest who infiltrated his house is likely a monk.

The judgment basis is not only the bald head but more importantly the shoes worn by the person. That kind of old-style boat-shaped cloth shoes is now very rarely seen, not to mention deliberately wearing a pair when committing a crime, but monks in the temple around Qi Yuan usually wear such shoes.

Li Xiuyuan also dispatched people to try to investigate various monitoring around Pugang Town and found that the person acted very cautiously, coming from nearby Bai Ma and sneaked back into the depths of Bai Ma Mountain afterwards.

The mountain is deep and forest dense, and since the person is extremely adept at hiding, no trail clues have been tracked. However, last night, Li Xiuyuan had already organized a sweep of several famous temples in Qi Yuan, but nothing new has been discovered yet.

But due to the tight schedule, only a few famous large temples were searched last night—such as Wenwu Temple in the city and Jingshe Temple in the suburbs, while nearby small temples haven’t been inspected yet, nor has the more distant Buddhist landmark of Niu Gong Mountain.

Throughout the surrounding area of Qi Yuan, within a day’s round-trip range, Niu Gong Mountain has the most monks. The mountain top of Niu Gong Mountain has been hollowed out, built eighteen levels underground palaces downward, enshrining Buddha’s relics, where a batch of Magic Sect disciples also cultivates.

Among the Magic Sect disciples, there are also monks, and in absolute numbers, they are quite a few, roughly five hundred Daoists and two hundred monks.

Although the number of monks is not as many as that of Daoists, most of them are not proper monks, but their external image is generally highly skilled in Buddhism, many possessing high degrees, like top students from Buddhist academies, or philosophy PhDs from universities.

For the registered Magic Sect disciples, it’s easier to handle. Li Xiuyuan is already investigating whether these Magic Sect monks infiltrated Pugang Town yesterday, but there are no results yet... The intruder might also be an independent cultivator from Jianghu.

Although no one was found, He Kao still has great admiration for the efficiency and capability of the Magic Sect’s high ranks, having truly experienced it this time. Such a large-scale investigation is impossible to completely keep under wraps, and it’s believed that the other party would also be cautious for the time being.

He Kao guessed correctly. The old monk hiding in Jingshe Temple hadn’t been caught but was indeed frightened. He never would have thought that just by sneaking a glance inside He Kao’s home’s secret chamber, he would trigger such a reaction from the Magic Sect.

However, he was unaware that it was simply a coincidence this time.

After three days, the initial embryo of the sword He Kao wanted was finished. Jiuliang Manufacturing selected the best materials they could find, and Lan Jiwan and Ye Liangcheng personally worked on it, taking turns day and night to refine it.

This was the first sect task assigned by the Sect Leader Senior Brother, so they dared not slack in the slightest. It looked like just a piece of white steel bar, merely over a foot long. If it weren’t for the special material requirement, the factory could have finished it in twenty minutes.

Why was the sword embryo so short? He Kao never intended to make it into a three-foot Cyan Sword, which would only be practical for a stroll in the park near his home and not convenient for everyday carry.

After receiving the steel bar, He Kao attempted artifact refining divine techniques, letting the embryo slowly extend and transform under the control of his divine sense, as if it underwent repeated cold forging.

Actually, this process could also be completed with a hydraulic press, but using the artifact refining technique bit by bit allows the material to continually refine, laying the foundation for bestowing future divine skills.

Other than refining Xue Guanghan into a formal magical treasure, He Kao had never refined artifacts and couldn’t claim to be skilled at it. If he tried to refine a magical artifact right away, he would likely fail. However, he wasn’t creating a magical treasure, just processing the steel bar into a steel ruler.

In appearance, it didn’t differ much from the usual stainless steel ruler he used, with scales on both sides. The front has a 30-centimeter metric scale, while the back has a traditional one-foot scale.

The entire ruler is about forty centimeters long, as the top also has a blank area without scales, which can be wrapped with white tape for easier grip... It doesn’t look very proper, but it’s fine to carry around outside.

All learning begins with imitation. He Kao’s swordsmanship was inherited from Mei Guyu, and the specially crafted steel ruler was also a mimic of Mei Guyu’s.

This ruler may seem short, but it can be thrown for a flying cut using the Object Control Skill and can similarly be used for ranged attacks. If used with the Holding and Controlling Skill, it is extremely powerful in close combat, hence requiring the refined special material to withstand it.

If the Sword Control Skill is cultivated to the fourth grade, it can slash out wind blade-like sword qi, equivalent to casting magic, with the short sword transforming into an invisible long sword.

The so-called Fourth-Grade Sword Control Skill can only be studied with a Tier Four cultivation. But Tier Four cultivation is just the foundation; it doesn’t mean any Tier Four Sorcerer can master it.

With He Kao’s current Tier Four cultivation, he can barely grasp the Third-Grade Sword Control Skill. To advance further, he still needs to put in arduous effort, and both his aptitude and comprehension must keep up.

The Holding and Controlling Method has another advantage, which is that He Kao can simultaneously activate the Moth Wings.

This steel ruler itself isn’t a magical artifact, and even if it were, the Holding and Controlling Skill doesn’t require the Artifact Divine Techniques. A high-tier sorcerer can only manipulate one magical treasure at a time, capable of switching use but unable to control multiple artifacts simultaneously.

He Kao has always been an honest child since young; aside from being handy enough to craft dangerous items like Bamboo Thunder, he had little experience in physical confrontation with others, let alone formal magical combat exercises.

The Five Elements Staff taught by Elder Gu, encompassing fist techniques and Great Spear Techniques, is merely basic routine practice. The complete swordsmanship inheritance has finally compensated for some of his shortcomings in certain areas.

In the ensuing few days, He Kao remained calm, maintaining his usual work routine. At midnight, he practiced the Fundamental Heart Method, and in his free time, he studied sword control skills. As for the little tricks taught by Elder Li, he practiced them during his occasional idling at work.

Although the days seemed uneventful, they were quite fulfilling.

The Fourth-Grade Sword Control Skill had yet to be mastered, but the Third-Grade Sword Control Skill had reached the entry level. He Kao felt that since the steel ruler could be used to perform the sword control skill, then the realm where "even petals and leaves can harm" was not just a legend, and he could achieve it.

However, ordinary petals and leaves are too fragile to be anything more than disposable weapons, unsuitable for dealing with strong opponents.

Now, if he were to encounter those three thugs again, he could break a branch and knock them all down without using any divine power, though he couldn’t reach the leisurely ease of Mei Guyu yet.

With just three workdays left until the Spring Festival holiday, today the year-end bonus was issued. The year-end bonus He Kao received was the same standard as last year, still equivalent to three months’ salary.

Having received the year-end bonus, many in the department had lost the heart to work, considering taking two days off early to return home. He Kao did not take leave but was already planning to enter seclusion during the long holiday for long-term meditation.

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, he would start fasting. According to Wei Luo, fasting should start at least three days in advance, so on the morning of the fourth day of the New Year, he would begin long-term meditation. The first attempt doesn’t need to be too lengthy, so he scheduled it for the fourth, fifth, and sixth days of the New Year.

As He Kao pondered these things after work, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, and with a quiet move, his divine sense had grasped the steel ruler on the side of his backpack.

**