Hidden Moth

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

At the time, it felt particularly sharp, so He Kao kept it. After his cultivation broke through to Tier Three, he discovered it was indeed a precious blade, with a very special material and imbued with mana.

Its surface looks like metal, treated with a matte finish resembling bluing, yet it neither conducts magnetism nor electricity, and shows no reaction before a metal detector; however, when divine sense is injected, it flows very smoothly.

He Kao used this blade to dig out three large frozen soil chunks in the icy land, within which lay three pieces of old ginseng.

The assassin was a secretly trained cleaner by the Huiming Shi Family. The Huiming Shi Family has a so-called Cleaning Department, specializing in dirty work in secret, established by Gu Jiang, the adopted son of Patriarch Shi Zhizhai.

Members of the Cleaning Department are usually contacted by Gu Jiang individually, and the list is only in his possession. There was a small accident during the Ancestral Hall's investigation of the Huiming Shi Family, where Gu Jiang actually committed suicide.

Afterwards, it was confirmed that Gu Jiang indeed ended his life, but at the time, he had already been taken by the Ancestral Hall's personnel, yet was not given detailed interrogation... Who gave him this opportunity?

Certain details were not disclosed to the outside world by the Ancestral Hall, but according to He Kao, during the disposal of the Huiming Shi Family, two investigators sent by the hall were also expelled, related to Gu Jiang's death.

Expulsion means stripping away one's cultivation and banishing from the Magic Sect, which is the most severe sanction next to execution.

The Huiming Shi Family was destroyed, but this Cleaning Department was not unearthed; with Gu Jiang's demise, it seemed to vanish without exposure of its members' identities, likely causing them to hide separately.

The assassin He Kao took down was codenamed "Cat Hates Dog Annoys," as he found two cell phones on the assassin, one possibly for everyday life with a password, and the other likely a work phone, which could be opened on the spot.

The work phone contained little valuable information but had a dedicated chat software, featuring a chat group with thirteen members, the assassin's codename "Cat Hates Dog Annoys," and the group owner's codename "Kucha Zi."

"Kucha Zi" was none other than Gu Jiang.

This chat software, once closed, won't leave chat records behind and makes tracking members' identities very difficult. The information He Kao held included only these members' codenames.

With the failure of Cat Hates Dog Annoys's action, Gu Jiang likely sensed something was wrong and immediately disbanded the chat group, and probably issued individual hiding orders to the other members.

Regarding Cat Hates Dog Annoys's other phone, He Kao didn't lack a way to unlock it and determine its identity, but he adopted a simpler method—he directly threw the body to the entrance of Nanhua Public Security Bureau.

The police would naturally investigate the deceased's identity.

He Kao later enquired about the police's findings; the cleaner was named Yan Qixian, unmarried, living alone, employed by a local township enterprise in Nanhua, but didn't usually work there and only collected a salary.

The enterprise was a foreign trade factory receiving overseas orders to produce various plastic molds; it appeared insignificant yet had decent business, showing no apparent connection to the Huiming Shi Family.

The clearance of the Huiming Shi Family was incredibly intricate and detailed, with over fifty people assisting the Ancestral Hall, including lawyer Yao Shaolan.

Various subsequent actions have yet to be handled completely... The so-called Cleaning Department, these few small fish, is not the focus at all. Yet He Kao's focus differs; he kept pondering over them.

Someone once orchestrated two accidents targeting Xiaomiao's father and Xiaopang's mother, merely as a trial.

Should immediate family end up in the emergency room, Hidden Moth would probably rush there at the earliest, wouldn't they? The investigation into when they received the news and when they reached the hospital could reveal hints.

Rumor had it that Mrs. Chen fell into a ditch riding an electric bike, suffering head injuries and being taken to the hospital; He Kao initially thought it was an accident, but later hearing Xiaomiao's father nearly experienced the same thing elsewhere, realized something was amiss.

But the Ancestral Hall, when dealing with members of Huiming Shi Family, didn't uncover these two incidents, presumably black hands of the Cleaning Department—He Kao certainly wouldn't forgive them!

He Kao also holds grudges; his unresolved feelings about failing to expose these people always haunt him.

Who knows what Gu Jiang conveyed to them before he ended his life; might there be death warriors cultivated by the Shi Family among them, or perhaps extremities who have fallen into demons?

With no findings from the Ancestral Hall, he had no good solution, until discovering the wondrous use of the "Tan Xian's Walking Stick Painting," thoughts began to stir.

Last time opening a fun conversation with Immortal Tan in the painting via a phone, nearly injured from the mental backlash, he dared not act recklessly again, soon embedded in the incident of Ren Zhongqing and therefore lay low for a long time.

After much contemplation today, he ultimately placed the short blade on the incense table, with a mental prayer during incense burning for the Ancestor Immortal Tan in the painting to "analyze" this item.

Based on the past "identification" experience of Xue Guanghan, perhaps clues may be discovered from the short blade... Ultimately, he still remained unsatisfied.

Not all dissatisfaction stems from unresolved feelings, and not all unresolved feelings transform into heart demons; He Kao merely believes he should clarify this matter, without obsession, simply striving to his utmost.

The Immortal Tan in the painting naturally won't move, yet upon He Kao's prayer, he felt the Ancestor slightly frowning, followed by a divine thought imprinting into his primordial spirit, a substantial amount of information nearly engulfing consciousness...

As He Kao struggled to straighten up, the three sticks of awakening incense had burned out, feeling a peculiar soreness and ache all over even with no external injuries, seemed thoroughly thrashed from inside to out.

No matter how magical the use of a divine artifact is, it depends on the level of the one wielding it, consuming He Kao's own divine power in the process. This is the recoil from forced activation of the divine artifact.

This thrashing was solid indeed, not only exhausting divine power, draining all strength, were it not for some concurrent cultivation in Ice Skin Jade Bone recently, he wouldn't have withstood.

He Kao felt as if he had just had a long dream, where the experiences were so vague, and now that he had awoken, many details were forgotten.

Of course, this was just an illusion. With his current cultivation level, even if he used the Immortal Painting Divine Artifact before him to "analyze" that short blade, in accordance with his heart's thoughts during his prayers, he could only obtain such a blurry result.

In the dream, he was the short blade, starting from a rough tool embryo, experiencing intense heat and immersion, and undergoing processing through divine sense refinement. He was unable to think or move, basically being subjected to various tortures.

"He" was separated from a large piece of embryo material, which was eventually forged into ten nearly identical short blades, all placed in a partitioned wooden box, taken to an unknown location.

One day the wooden box was opened, and it was handed to Yan Qixian, the one who was "disliked by both cats and dogs." Don't ask how He Kao knew this, somehow he was that short blade…

Yan Qixian had the short blade for quite a short time, using it for certain tasks that were now forgotten dream sequences. The only relatively clear feeling was that it was regularly wiped clean.

The short blade's experiences, or He Kao's feelings, have a clear demarcation line. Before this, all sensations were vague and indistinct; after this point, they became very clear, as if reading He Kao's own memories.

This demarcation was when he killed Yan Qixian, taking the short blade into his own hands.

This phenomenon is also understandable, because without the artifact's analysis, he is the most aware of what the short blade experienced in his possession.

Through this short blade, He Kao also came to understand the former arrogance of the Huiming Shi family. Though they seemed to lack the skill to create standard magical treasures, they were attempting such things.

This short blade was crafted similarly to the fabrication of a magical artifact. Though not a true artifact, it is a quasi-standard weapon suited for sorcerers, with ten produced in the same batch.

Kucha Zi Gu Jiang in a secret base, bestowed these ten short blades to ten of his cleaners as a sort of issued work equipment.

He Kao couldn't clearly sense the situation of the other nine cleaners but knew they all held similar short blades. This was an important clue to verify their identities.

However, this clue is hard to investigate, as those individuals would not openly expose it. Actually, the most decisive way is to discard anything that might reveal one's identity.

But it's unlikely for those individuals to discard the short blade, as when He Kao obtained his blade, he didn't dispose of it and merely refrained from using it before outsiders.

Fortuitously, He Kao seems to have discovered the approximate location of the secret base.

Originally, it was almost impossible for him to discover it, as the indistinct information in the divine thought lacks labels, or map and navigation display. Who could know what place it is?

However, after Yan Qixian got his short blade and left, he excitedly swung it around, cutting a few branches along the road, presumably testing if the weapon felt comfortable in hand.

The area Yan Qixian once passed by gave He Kao a strange sense of familiarity, and then he recalled it was Chaotic Flower Mountain Forest Park in the northern suburb of Nanhua City.

He Kao had been there, not only flying drones to observe the overall terrain but also stealthily sneaking around with a shotgun to ambush, killing a Tier Four Cultivator from the Huiming Shi family, and seizing the Earth Spirit Banner.

Gu Jiang and others chose to lay an ambush in Chaotic Flower Mountain Forest Park using a Spirit Lock Array, intending to capture Hidden Moth, involving four core cultivators of the Shi family.

No wonder they chose that location, as there was a Huiming Shi family secret base nearby.

He Kao sat silently on the cave hall floor, taking a Rejuvenating Pill, which was the small gift Elder Lin gave him last time at Qihuang Spirit Garden, primarily for internal injury recovery; Xiaopang and Meng Ya also had them.

He Kao ordinarily didn't need to take it, but now he really needed it to recover, otherwise, he couldn't move at all.

This time again, through the means of worshipping the ancestor to activate the Immortal Painting Divine Artifact, He Kao was mentally prepared, anticipating he might pay a price, and willing to do so.

Actually, the content displayed in the divine thought of the painting was far more than the Micro Realm Sect's Artifact Identification Skill; it also included the mystical Celestial Secret Skill of Lingxi Sect. When the level of techniques from various sects reaches a high enough level, their profound reasonings are interconnected.

The Celestial Secret Skill of Lingxi Sect, only Tier Five Wanderers can barely start to cultivate. Even Tier Six Calculators, Tier Seven Grand Calculators do not dare to claim to fully understand it.

Today, He Kao relied on the might of the artifact, experiencing the power of the immortal! But with his mere Tier Three Explorer cultivation level, the divine thought he deciphered was still indistinct.

The final piece of divine thought within the painting seemingly, roughly said... Not to be repeated? Moreover, before he officially breaks through Tier Four, Tan the Immortal depicted in the painting probably won't acknowledge him again.

Because from the perspective of guiding the cultivation, all directions that needed to be given have already been provided.

He Kao had some mental preparation for this.

If he could always do this, wouldn't he solve any case as a policeman?

The divine artifact possesses spirit; seeing the painting is akin to seeing Tan the Immortal. But grandfather Tan the Immortal is not his personal elderly companion, nor is he a free service tool man.

Along with the Rejuvenating Pill, He Kao also took a Jade Phoenix Tree Seed, meditated for a long while, and when the external world was already deep into the night, he traversed several thousand miles, directly appearing in the northern suburb of Nanhua City.

**