Hidden moth

Chapter 324 Who Comes Like a Dream in the Still Dark Night

The Beiyuan Manor in Dangguan County is Zhao Ci's private property. Behind it, against the mountain, is a garden-style building that serves as the residence for the sorcerers of the Huailin lineage. It usually only receives members of the sorcery sect, and Zhao Ci also lives here on weekdays.

This kind of life is very convenient and comfortable. You can have the restaurant prepare and deliver whatever you want to eat. You don't even need to order takeout. You can also ask the hotel's room service to clean, tidy up, and do laundry.

After returning from Fengwei Township, Zhao Ci appeared outwardly normal, like a successful person enjoying life, spending his free time drinking tea in the garden and playing cards and drinking with some local friends.

He organizes drinking parties almost every day. People in small towns have plenty of free time, and as long as they have some financial means and a wide social circle, it's easy to organize all sorts of drinking parties, where they eat, drink, and chat about all sorts of trivial things every day.

Zhao Ci wasn't exactly an alcoholic; in fact, he had a high tolerance for alcohol and almost never got completely drunk. However, those who knew him well, including the hotel staff, noticed a change in him, and felt it was a significant one.

Because in the past, Mr. Zhao was a very busy, hardworking, and well-connected person, and somewhat arrogant. He didn't care about cultivating local relationships in this small county. He often went out, supposedly to visit and inspect various places and discuss various projects.

But in the eyes of ordinary people around him, this change should be a good thing. As a rich second-generation in a small county, he can live a comfortable life without worrying about food and clothing as long as he maintains a stable business and cultivates his local connections.

However, he's recently developed a rather problematic hobby: hunting in the mountains every few days. This is a risky activity, involving both legal and personal risks.

Located in the Dabashan Mountains, the local ecological environment has recovered quite well in recent years, and various wild animals are often seen there. Zhao Ci even used his connections to obtain a hunting license.

The hunting license specifies the time, location, species, and quantity of prey, mainly including rampant wild boars, and prohibits illegally entering protected areas to hunt other animals.

Zhao Ci was clearly not one to follow the rules. Not far behind Beiyuan Manor was an ecological protection zone, and he would occasionally go there to bring back some wild game, have it processed at the restaurant, and then invite his friends to taste it.

Although these are all private and undisclosed activities, the people who ate wild game at the banquet included many local officials. In the county, Zhao Ci's background could handle many things, but if someone reported him, he would still be in trouble.

More importantly, hunting in the mountains isn't safe either; what if you get gored by a wild boar or something?
To the sorcerers around him, these were clearly signs of despondency after losing hope for improvement, but they didn't know how to offer advice, and could only hope that he could pull himself together again.

And those who had long disliked him were just secretly laughing at him.

In the past few days, only his junior sister Qiu Yuelin and master Zheng Yisi have tried to persuade him. But Zhao Ci's response was also quite helpless: "My cultivation has been sealed indefinitely. Given my current situation, isn't this the normal life I should be living?"

Zheng Yisi: "Your cultivation has only been sealed, not abolished. You should not slack off in your cultivation."

Zhao Ci: "I have not given up cultivation, but under these circumstances, blindly cultivating will not yield results and will only be counterproductive. It is better to live a relaxed life."

Qiu Yuelin also advised, "In this situation, Senior Brother should perform even better and strive to have the seal lifted as soon as possible; that's the most important thing."

Zhao Ci sighed and asked in return, "This is the punishment the Clan Court has given me. What should I do to show good behavior? How can I make the Clan Court believe that I have sincerely repented, instead of still harboring resentment?"

Let's just let things take their natural course!

He Kao saw all of this and thought to himself that Zhao Ci was quite talented in acting, accurately capturing the feeling of being decadent while concealing a hint of unwillingness, and his performance was natural and not exaggerated.

He Kao had two unique ways of spying. The first was that his primordial spirit traveled, which is self-explanatory. In fact, it was to look at the reflection in the mirror through the mirror.

This requires He Kao to sneak up to a visually perceptible area beforehand and use a mirror to reflect a specific area, such as Zhao Ci's living room, which he usually chooses.

So when he uses the mirror, the scene of that area will appear in the mirror. If Zhao Ci is there, he will be able to observe him, as well as other people who are there.

The special thing about the reflection in the mirror is that it has a feeling of being able to see through people. It can see through various disguises and changes, and can also identify various spiritual energy and vitality characteristics, thereby roughly judging their cultivation level.

Judging cultivation level by looking in a mirror is not very accurate and requires some experience... but it becomes clearer when the conclusion is known.

He Kao could tell that Zhao Ci's cultivation and magical power had been sealed. According to the method taught by Elder Jiang, He Kao could unseal him remotely at any time.

The mirror's most powerful and ingenious use is its ability to lock onto the reflection in the mirror and cast spells from a distance, but He Kao would never use it lightly, because once he did, the other party would discover it.

Even without casting spells remotely, as long as you lock onto your reflection in the mirror, your opponent might still be able to detect it.

It wasn't that the other party directly discovered him, but rather it was an inexplicable spiritual connection, or like an instinctive intuition, that gave the other party a feeling of being spied on.

He Kao also conducted experiments on a group of sorcerers, including Mei Wenhua, Lan Jiuwan, Qian Guran, Ye Liangcheng, Xiao Pang, Gao Xue'e, Ye Hui from Chuanyue Manor, and ordinary people around him. The results showed that the higher the cultivation level, the more acute this perception became, but individual differences also existed.

For example, Lan Jiuwan is only a fourth-level cultivator, but her reaction is almost as sharp as that of Mei Wenhua, a fifth-level cultivator. This may be related to her own characteristics and experiences. She is always very vigilant, and it is also related to the secret techniques she cultivates.

Although Lan Jiuwan initially started her training with the Microscopic Technique and later became a fourth-level craftsman, she has now switched to the Hidden Moth Technique.

Practitioners of the Hidden Emei Technique demonstrate a higher level of perception in this area compared to practitioners of other sects, perhaps because the Hidden Emei Technique itself excels at infiltration and reconnaissance.

Unless He Kao is constantly staring and deliberately observing, low-level sorcerers usually find it difficult to detect, but Little Fatty is an exception.

Despite Little Fatty's mere first-level cultivation, if He Kao observes his reflection in the mirror for even a little longer, Little Fatty will sense something is wrong and subconsciously begin to pay attention to his surroundings... This might be because he was once a Hidden Moth.

Oh, right, during this time, Little Fatty just broke through to the second level of cultivation and became a member of the Body Observation Sect!
In contrast to Xiao Pang, there was Xiao Wu. He Kao also took the time to secretly "visit" him. After staring at his reflection in the mirror for a long time, Wu Yanjun, a third-level appraiser, didn't sense anything at all. He really has a big heart.

As for Mei Guyu... well, He Kao didn't dare to secretly use her as an experiment.

Therefore, when He Kao was "monitoring" Zhao Ci, if any high-level cultivators appeared in the scene, such as Qiu Yuelin or Zheng Yisi, he would promptly put away the mirror.

Zheng Yisi had already reached the fifth level of cultivation many years ago. As for Qiu Yuelin, she was twenty-nine years old this year, only two years older than He Kao, and already had the fourth level of perfect cultivation. According to He Kao's observation and judgment, she would have no problem breaking through to the fifth level soon.

Qiu Yuelin is a disciple of one of Zhao Ci's senior uncles and also belongs to the Huailin lineage... There are so many high-level sorcerers in the Guanshen Sect.

The mirror image can not only lock onto a scene in a specific area, but also onto a target that appears in the mirror, allowing the observed scene to move along with the target, as long as it does not exceed a certain distance.

For He Kao, this distance of about twenty kilometers was quite far, far exceeding the limit he could reach using only his divine sense.

As for "monitoring" Zhao Ci, it is only necessary to take a look at him occasionally. Even if the Xiaomeng hears about this and wants to secretly bribe and win him over, it will take a period of observation and testing, and there will be no immediate results.

He Kao had other tasks, such as making contact with that "Mr. Mi," but that would have to wait for notification from Elder Li, the head of the Clan Court. For him, the most important thing was to resolve the internal problems of the Hidden Moth Sect.

If Elder Jiang's judgment is correct, then the mysterious person who broke through to the fourth level of the Hidden Emei Technique is Xiao Wu's master, Zhang Yanfei. What should He Kao do?

In fact, Li Xiuyuan had already given him a hint at the time—there was already a ready-made path in the art!

He Kao is the current leader of the Hidden Moth Sect. If he acknowledges this position, then he must abide by the sect's rules. Any successor who cultivates the Hidden Moth Technique to the highest level will sense the call of the Floating Color Cave Heaven.

The lineage and teachings left by the patriarch to future generations are not anyone's private property.

The leader and higher-ups of the Hidden Moth Sect should not reject or refuse newcomers out of personal selfishness; instead, they should try their best to create conditions to welcome them. The recent announcement from the Clan Law Hall confirms this attitude.

As for the things that the sect can and should do after receiving the newcomer, it is to check their past behavior. If they have violated any rules, they must be dealt with according to the sect's regulations.

However, if no record of violations or misconduct is found in his past, and he requests to return to the sect, no one can refuse, and a second inheritance ceremony must be held for him.

If it is verified that their past behavior violated any rules, they should be punished according to the sect rules. However, if it does not reach the level of expulsion from the sect, it cannot prevent them from returning to the sect.

If the level of "prohibition of granting" is not reached, or if the period of prohibition imposed on them has expired, a second succession ceremony must still be held for them.

Therefore, regardless of any concerns He Kao might have, he had to guide Zhang Yanfei, whether Zhang Yanfei was willing to come or not was another matter. At this point, he could no longer remain a secretive figure at the entrance to his grotto.

The day after returning to Qiyuan, He Kao hung up the painting "Tan Xian Leaning on His Staff" again, choosing the abandoned Happy Valley amusement park as the location, between three and five in the morning.

The exact location where the scroll was hung was the indoor shopping street in the center of the amusement park. He himself was hiding in another building not far away, observing through a mirror.

On the first day, no one came, and he made no other discoveries.

No one came the next day, but around 4:30 a.m., He Kao noticed in the mirror that there seemed to be a transparent shadow in the air, quietly drifting into the indoor shopping street.

**
(End of this chapter)