Hidden moth

Chapter 175: The Immortal Leads the Way

This short blade was obtained by He Kao from an assassin when he rescued Yang Lingxi's mother Chen Yuhua in Nanhua last year.

At that time, He Kao felt that it was particularly sharp, so he kept it. After his cultivation broke through the third level, He Kao discovered that it was also a precious blade. It was made of a very special material and had been refined with magical powers.

The surface of the material looks like metal, and has been treated with a matte blue finish, but it is neither magnetic nor conductive. It does not react in front of a metal detector, but it is very smooth when spiritual consciousness is injected into it.

He Kao used this short blade to dig out three large lumps of frozen soil in the snow and ice, which contained three old mountain ginsengs.

The assassin was a cleaner secretly trained by the Huiming Shi family. The Huiming Shi family had a so-called cleaning department that specialized in doing dirty work in secret. It was set up by Gu Jiang, the adopted son of the family head Shi Zhizhai.

Gu Jiang was the sole contact person for the cleaning department members, and the list of members was in Gu Jiang's hands. During the investigation of the Huiming Shi family by the clan law hall, a small accident occurred, and Gu Jiang actually committed suicide.

It was later found out that Gu Jiang had indeed committed suicide, but he had already been taken away by the staff of the clan hall and had not been interrogated in detail... Who gave him this opportunity?
There are some situations that the clan law hall did not disclose to the outside world, but as far as He Kao knew, in the process of dealing with the Huiming Shi family, the two investigators sent by the clan law hall were also dismissed because they were involved in Gu Jiang's death.

The so-called abolition and expulsion means abolishing one's cultivation and being expelled from the sect. This is the most severe punishment besides being executed.

The Huiming Shi family was destroyed, but the cleaning department was not dug out. With the death of Gu Jiang, it seemed to have disappeared. The identities of its members were not exposed, and they should have all gone into hiding.

The assassin that He Kao killed at that time was code-named "Cats Hate Dogs" because he took out two mobile phones from the assassin. One might be used for daily life and had a password, and the other should be a work-only phone that could be opened on the spot.

There was almost no valuable information in that work phone, but there was a dedicated chat software with a chat group containing thirteen members. The assassin was codenamed "Cats and Dogs Hate" and the group leader was codenamed "Bitter Tea".

"Ku Cha Zi" is Gu Jiang.

Once this chat software is closed, no chat records will be left afterwards, and it is difficult to track the identities of the members. The information He Kao has is these member codes.

Operation Cat Hates Dog Hates failed, and Gu Jiang may have realized that something was wrong, so he immediately disbanded the chat group and probably gave hidden instructions to other members individually.

As for the other mobile phone that Cats and Dogs disliked, He Kao had no way to unlock it and thus confirm its identity, but he used a simpler method and threw its body directly in front of the Nanhua Public Security Bureau.

The police will investigate the identity of the deceased.

He Kao later learned about the police's investigation results. The cleaner was named Yan Qixian, unmarried, lived alone, and worked in a township enterprise in Nanhua. However, he usually did not go to work and only received a salary.

It was a foreign trade processing factory that accepted overseas orders and produced various plastic molds. It looked inconspicuous, but its business was doing well. On the surface, there was no connection between it and the Huiming Shi family.

The process of investigating the Huiming Shi family was extremely tedious and complicated, and the clan law hall mobilized more than 50 people to assist, including lawyer Yao Shaolan.

Various follow-up matters have not yet been completed... These small fry in the so-called cleaning department are not the focus at all. But He Kao's focus is different; he has been thinking about them all the time.

Someone once created two accidents, one targeting Xiaomiao's father and one targeting Xiaopang's mother, just to test them.

If a loved one were to enter the emergency room, wouldn't a hidden moth rush there immediately? By investigating the time they received the news and arrived at the ward, we could uncover some clues.

He heard that Mother Chen fell into a ditch while riding an electric scooter and was sent to the hospital with a bleeding head. He thought it was an accident at the time. Later, he heard that Xiao Miao's father had almost the same thing happen in another place, and then he realized something was wrong.

However, when the clan law hall dealt with the members of Huiming Shi's family, they did not find out about these two things. It must be the work of Baojie's subordinates - He Kao must not let them go!
He Kao also holds a grudge, and he always feels uneasy if he doesn't dig these people out.

Who knows what Gu Jiang told them before he committed suicide? Are there any assassins trained by the Shi family among them, or are there any extreme demons who have been possessed by demons?
He didn't find any clues at the clan hall, and he didn't have any good ideas for the time being. It was not until he discovered the wonderful use of "The Picture of Tan Xian Holding a Cane" that he started to think of something.

Last time, he used a mobile phone to play a joke on the immortal Tan in the painting, and was hit on the head and almost injured. He didn't dare to do it again. Then he encountered the incident with Ren Zhongqing and lay dormant for a long time.

After much deliberation today, he finally placed the short blade on the incense table. When he lit the incense and kowtowed, his intention was to ask the ancestor Tan Xianren in the painting to "analyze" this object.

Based on the experience of "identifying" Xue Guanghan last time, he might be able to find clues from this short blade... After all, he was still unwilling to give up.

Not all unwillingness is hard to accept, and not all hardship will turn into inner demons. He Kao just felt that he should get to the bottom of this matter. There was no need to be obsessed with it, just do his best.

The Immortal Tan in the painting certainly didn't move, but as He Kao kowtowed, he felt the ancestor frown slightly. Then, a divine thought imprinted itself into his soul, a flood of information so overwhelming that it nearly swallowed his consciousness...

When He Kao struggled to straighten his body, the three incense sticks for awakening him had burned out. He felt extremely sore all over his body, even every bone was aching. Although there were no visible scars on the surface, it seemed as if he had been beaten from the inside out and was badly ravaged.

No matter how miraculous the divine weapon's magical power was, it depended on the skill of the one activating it, and it consumed He Kao's own spiritual energy and mana. He Kao was essentially being beaten up by his own mana, the backlash of barely activating the divine weapon.

This beating was very solid. Not only was his spirit and magic power exhausted, but also all the strength in his body was drained. If he had not practiced the Ice Skin and Jade Bones during this period, he really would not have been able to bear it.

He Kao felt as if he had just had a very long dream, a dream so hazy that now that he was awake, he couldn't remember many of the details. This was of course just an illusion. With his current level of cultivation, even if he used the Immortal Painting artifact in front of him to "analyze" the short blade, according to his thoughts during the kowtow, he could only get such a vague result.

In his dream, he was the short blade, starting from a crude embryo, going through hardships and suffering, and being processed by divine consciousness. He couldn't think or move, it was like being tortured in every possible way.

"He" was separated from a large piece of raw material, which was eventually made into ten almost identical short blades, all placed in a wooden box with partitions, and taken to an unknown place.

One day, the wooden box was opened and handed to Yan Qixian, the man who "hated cats and dogs." Don't ask how He Kao knew about it, he was the short blade...

Yan Qixian had the short blade not long ago and had done some things with it, but they were all forgotten in dreams. He Kao could not remember them clearly at all. The only clear feeling he had was that it was wiped frequently.

There is a clear dividing line in He Kao's experience with the short blade, or rather, his own feelings. Before this point, all his feelings were hazy and unclear, but after this point, they became crystal clear, like reading He Kao's own memories.

The dividing point was when he killed Yan Qixian and took the short blade into his hands.

This phenomenon is also easy to understand, because there is no need for the analysis of the artifact. He himself knows best what the short blade has experienced in his hands.

Through this short blade, He Kao also realized the former arrogance of the Huiming Shi family. The Huiming Shi family clearly didn't have the ability to create a standard magic weapon, but they seemed to be experimenting with it.

This short blade was made in the same way as a magical weapon. Although it is not a magical weapon, it is a quasi-standard weapon suitable for warlocks. Ten blades were made in the same batch.

In a secret base, Ku Cha Zi Gu Jiang gave these ten short blades to his ten cleaners, which were equivalent to their work equipment.

He Kao couldn't sense the situation of the other nine cleaners, but he knew that they all had the same short blade in their hands, which was an important clue to confirm their identity.

But this clue is difficult to find because those people will not expose it publicly. In fact, the most decisive way is to throw away everything that may expose their identity.

But it is unlikely that those people would throw away the short blade. For example, Hu Kao did not throw away the short blade after he got it, but he never used it in front of outsiders.

Fortunately, He Kao seemed to have discovered the approximate address of the secret base.

Originally, it was almost impossible for him to find it. The vague information in his mind had no labels, and there was no map or navigation display. Who could know where that place was?
However, after Yan Qixian got the short blade and left, he waved it around excitedly and even cut off a few branches on the way outside, probably to test whether the weapon was easy to use.

He Kao felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with the place Yan Qixian passed by at that time, and then he remembered that it was the Luanhuashan Forest Park in the northern suburbs of Nanhua City.

He Kao had been there before. Not only did he fly a drone to observe the overall terrain, he also sneaked over and launched a surprise attack with a shotgun, killing a fourth-level cultivator from the Hui Mingshi family and taking the Earth Spirit Banner with him.

Gu Jiang and others chose to set up an ambush in the Luanhua Mountain Forest Park with a soul-locking formation in an attempt to capture the hidden moth alive. The participants were the four core cultivators of the Shi family.

No wonder they chose that place, because there is a secret base of the Huimingshi family not far away.

He Kao sat on the floor of the cave hall and silently took a Huiyun Pill. This was a small gift given to him by Senior Lin last time at Qihuang Lingyuan. Its main function was to heal internal injuries. Xiaopang and Mengya also had it.

He Kao doesn't need to eat at ordinary times, but he really needs it now. He needs to take a good rest, otherwise he won't be able to move at all.

This time, He Kao was mentally prepared to activate the magical artifact of the immortal painting by worshiping his ancestors again. He anticipated that he might have to pay a price, and he was willing to pay it.

In fact, the content of the divine consciousness displayed in the painting goes far beyond the Ruwei Sect's appraisal technique, also encompassing the mysteries of the Lingxi Sect's Tianji technique. When the realm of each technique reaches a high enough level, the profound principles are interconnected.

The Lingxi Sect's divine arts can only be barely practiced by a fifth-level inquirer. Even a sixth-level mathematician or a seventh-level great mathematician cannot say that they can fully comprehend it.

He Kao was leveraging the power of a divine artifact today, experiencing the power of an immortal! However, with his mere third-rank explorer cultivation, the divine thoughts he could interpret were only vague and unclear.

The divine thought in the painting ended with a thought, perhaps... This won't happen again? Furthermore, before he officially breaks through to the fourth level, the Immortal Tan in the painting will probably ignore him again.

Because from the perspective of guiding spiritual practice, all the guidance that should be given has already been given.

He Kao was somewhat prepared for this.

If he could always do this, wouldn't he be able to solve any case if he became a policeman?

The artifact has spirit, and seeing the painting is like seeing the immortal Tan. But the founder, the immortal Tan, is not his old grandfather, nor is he a tool who serves him for free.

In conjunction with Hui Yundan, He Kao took another jade sycamore seed. After sitting for a long time, he waited until it was already late at night outside before traveling thousands of miles and appeared directly in the northern suburbs of Nanhua City.

**
(End of this chapter)