Wait a minute, where is my master?

Sae Moth.

It's a kind of moth with wings of various colors, broad and powerful.

The powder from its wings can be made into various pigments, which is the main economic source for Sae Island.

Therefore, this medium-sized island situated above the East Sea was directly named after the Sae Moth.

——————

At this moment, on Sae Island.

The sun was already high, its rays fiercely hot.

Although such weather didn't greatly affect cultivators, nobody loved to stroll under the scorching sun.

But right now, at the main street junction on the island, which was usually empty, a crowd of islanders and foreign cultivators had gathered.

They formed several layers inside and outside, whispering among themselves, seemingly discussing something.

Inside the circle.

An old man and a young man, both cultivators dressed modestly.

The younger one was holding a transparent cover in his arms, which was empty inside.

The elder one was energetically calling out to the people around him.

"My friends, once this chance passes, you won't find another like it. Inside the cover my son is holding is a Hidden Moth from the Colorful Secret Realm, a rare sight that appears only once in a thousand years. If you go to the stores on the island that sell moth powder, you'll know how precious this item is.

"If anyone here is interested, it can be yours for just one Golden Core Formation Pill."

After the elder cultivator finished speaking, he looked around at the buzzing crowd, seeing no one respond, a hint of subtle anxiety flashed through his eyes.

Fan Changnian was an old cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm, with average talent. For generations, his ancestors were moth catchers on Sae Island, and their daily income came from catching Sae Moths in the Colorful Secret Realm and collecting the powder from their wings.

Although they couldn't become fabulously wealthy, they managed to get by on the island, which was much better than those Foundation cultivators who followed trading companies out to sea and often never returned.

Fan Changnian thought he would live a quiet life on the island forever, having inherited his father's moth-catching skills.

But unexpectedly, in his old age, he had a child whose talent far outstripped his own; in just a few decades, the child managed to reach Foundation Establishment Perfection.

Unfortunately, the resources required for Core Formation, much less reaching the Golden Core Realm, were enormous. Even if Fan Changnian and his son worked together, a hundred years of moth catching might not gather what they needed.

This was probably the helplessness of a lower-level cultivator; even with a little genius in the family, it was difficult to turn one's fortunes around.

But perhaps the heavens were looking out for them.

Just as Fan Changnian was regretting, day and night, why he hadn't spent all his savings to send his son to a sect outside the island when the child was born.

His son, who had gone to the Colorful Secret Realm alone to catch butterflies, suddenly came back home excitedly, holding a jar, claiming he had caught a Hidden Moth!

Fan Changnian was stunned when he heard the news but soon burst into excitement.

...

Hidden Moth.

A variant among the Sae Moths, said to be one in a hundred thousand, it loves moisture and spends its youth buried deep in fertile soil. The powder from its wings has a remarkable effect of concealing aura.

It can also be refined into a special magical artifact to hide one's form, cover one's aura, and lower the chance of being noticed, making it highly favored by cultivators who choose to be killers for a profession.

Moreover, it's rumored that the Golden Feather Killer from the Jingyu Building mainly relied on this creature to successfully complete many assignments.

...

After his excitement, Fan Changnian immediately checked the jar in his son's hand using the ancestral methods.

When he confirmed that the empty jar indeed contained a hidden moth, he made a snap decision and took his son to the largest moth powder merchant on Sae Island, hoping to exchange it for a Golden Core Formation Pill for his child.

However,

Fan Changnian could never have imagined what the merchant's manager in charge of reception told him.

Hidden moths also have their years, and the one his son caught could only fetch at most, at most, the price of half a Golden Core Formation Pill unless they encountered a cultivator skilled in assassination willing to make an offer.

If that were the case, it would have been alright. Fan Changnian could sell the hidden moth, and with his son, they could strive once more. Perhaps the Fan family could then produce their first cultivator in the Golden Core Realm.

But what he never expected was that while he was planning to take the hidden moth to another merchant for an appraisal, to judge whether the cultivator manager had been deceiving him,

a rich young master who just happened to pass by recognized what he was holding.

What followed was a clichéd scene of a profligate tyrannizing a lower-class cultivator.

The wealthy son declared that the hidden moth must be sold to him within three days at half the price offered by the first manager cultivator.

The son emphasized that, although the law and order on the island were good, beyond the city lurked many dangers. Moreover, once he learned that Fan Changnian and his son were moth catchers, he further stressed that although the Colorful Secret Realm was relatively safe, people had indeed died there.

And due to his father's influence, the merchant associations on the island dared not purchase the hidden moth from him anymore.

After all, merchants value amicable transactions for profitable business, and offending a powerful profligate over an old hidden moth was utterly unnecessary.

Fan Changnian had been weak and yielding all his life, but when his son's future and the Fan family's fate were at stake, he was unusually firm and bold for once.

He rejected the rich son's demand on the spot because the latter did not act against him there and then, within the city.

But by the next day, Fan Changnian discovered that the family's moth-catching tools had been smashed to pieces by someone unknown.

Thankfully, the hidden moth was safe as he had kept it close in his arms.

At that moment, he knew this issue could not be delayed any longer.

Fan Changnian considered that although the Island Master of Sae Island was relatively just in his dealings, the wealthy son's father was an official under the Island Master's command, so he immediately discarded the idea of seeking justice from the Island Master.

Likewise, after discussing it with his son, they decided that since the major merchant associations weren't buying, they might as well try their luck on the street.

Given that many cultivators were staying there because of the recent unsealing of the Nine Provinces Sea Eye, there was a chance they might find one skilled in assassination and directly exchange the hidden moth for a Golden Core Formation Pill and have his son take it on the spot.

If successful, father and son could immediately leave Sae Island by boat and start anew somewhere else.

If it did not work out,

they would use the hidden moth as fare to leave regardless, for they couldn't possibly comply with the wealthy son's wishes.

After all, they had already offended him, so at this point, unless they went to him and served like dogs, father and son likely had no good prospects left on Sae Island.

And even if they did...

Anyway, Fan Changnian and his son arrived at the street corner clutching the jar with the hidden moth and began to shout loudly.

Because of the reputation of the hidden moth,

a large crowd quickly gathered around them. Even outsiders unfamiliar with the item were soon informed by those nearby about what exactly it was.

But for all the commotion and onlookers,

after half an hour had passed, not a single person had made an offer.

At best, some idle onlookers occasionally popped out with comments like, "Do you even have anything in that cover of yours?"

"You two wouldn't be trying to fool us with an empty jar, would you?"

"I've grown up hearing legends about hidden moths but never seen one. Elder Fan, why don't you use some special method to make the hidden moth appear and give us a look?"

And many other similar remarks.