Hidden moth

Chapter 251: Swords Come and Flowers Fly

Qixia Mountain is located in the northeastern suburbs of Qiyuan City, close to the south bank of the river. It has been a famous Buddhist attraction since ancient times. The mountain is not high but beautiful and long. From the perspective of geomancy, it is actually a very good natural medicinal field. It has now been planned as a national forest park.

There is an ancient temple in the mountains called Jingshe Temple, which is quite large. Many areas of the temple are not open to tourists, such as the dormitories where the monks live.

The old monk in the cell looked up to the sky and asked questions, then slipped away without noticing... It wasn't that he slipped away, but that his consciousness left his body and flew out of the cell, just like the legendary soul leaving the body.

After breaking through the fourth level of the Hidden Moth Technique, he comprehended the magical power of "traveling". He was practicing it repeatedly but had not yet mastered it completely. So when he looked up at the sky indoors and couldn't see the stars, he subconsciously flew out.

Although the distance that the soul travels is within the range of spiritual consciousness, the feeling is completely different from extending spiritual consciousness. It is equivalent to the soul being free from the constraints of the body and being able to fly freely.

This is also a kind of great freedom. The deeper the feeling, the more fascinating it is. At the same time, the more eager one is to solve another mystery - where is Yin'e Dongtian and how to enter Yin'e Dongtian?

At this moment, he suddenly saw movement on the ground from high above. Three night walkers sneaked into the temple!
How could someone break into an empty temple in the middle of the night, and in both senses of the word? Famous temples do have many valuables, and in this age of electronic payments, large amounts of cash are rare, but thieves are rare.

This is partly due to superstition, as many criminals who have committed crimes still come to the temple to burn incense and donate money to pray for blessings. Another reason is the strict security and surveillance. After all, it is a key cultural relic protection site, and stealing here can easily make the news.

The old monk immediately discovered that these people were not ordinary petty thieves. Not only were they very skilled in martial arts, but they also mastered spiritual awareness. They avoided or cleverly blocked the surveillance cameras in various places without alerting anyone.

Looking more closely, they probably weren't here to steal anything.

When stealing things, one should avoid people, but these people were not going for cultural relics or treasures. Instead, they were touching wherever there were people... No, they were looking for people!
The old monk's consciousness instantly returned to his body. He couldn't help but wonder if the other party was coming for him. Should he run away immediately? His mind raced, and he gritted his teeth and made a decision: not to leave!

If we evaded the search at this moment, we would likely fall prey to the enemy's strategy of alerting the enemy. Those in the art of magic always like to set up a trap for the underworld, so who knows if there are any people watching outside the temple?

It's not illegal to be a monk in a temple, but running away like this will only expose yourself.

Thinking of this, he simply lay down and fell asleep. His breathing was restrained very naturally, with almost no flaws. After a while, he felt a spiritual sense sweeping over him... The person who came was a master, probably a high-level sorcerer.

The three intruders moved forward alternately. Whatever situation one of them encountered, the other two would notice it in time. It was obvious that they had cooperated very well, and they quickly searched the entire temple.

After the search was complete, several men climbed over the wall and gestured toward the higher ground outside. The old monk had been right; someone was watching from a nearby commanding height, and high-resolution infrared surveillance equipment had been set up.

If he had been alarmed and tried to hide secretly, he would have been discovered. His cautious mentality and excellent concealment skills helped him avoid investigation.

He Kao, who was far away in Nanhua, had finished his last recuperation, and then gave Lan Jiuwan a task to use the processing plant manufactured by Jiuliang to forge a sword blank.

Lan Jiuwan and Ye Liangcheng were not capable of refining a formal magical flying sword, but creating a rough draft of a magical weapon was no problem. Moreover, He Kao's requirements were not high. He just needed to process a metal bar, and the material had special requirements.

He Kao agreed to come back in three days to get it, and he would personally complete the subsequent refining work. If he could make it into a sword in the future, he would be able to fully master its magical powers and use it most conveniently.

The efficiency of the Shumen's top management was very high, and he received a reply from Elder Li the next morning.

Elder Li analyzed the surveillance data provided by him and made an important conclusion: the uninvited guest who sneaked into his home was most likely a Buddhist monk.

The basis for judgment was not only the bald head, but more importantly the shoes the man was wearing. Those old-fashioned boat-shaped cloth shoes were rare nowadays, let alone a pair specially changed when committing the crime, but monks in the temples in the Qiyuan area usually wore such shoes.

Li Xiuyuan also sent people to investigate the surveillance cameras in the Pugang Town area and found that the man was very cautious in his movements. He came out from the nearby Baima Mountain and then slipped back into the depths of Baima Mountain.

The mountains were deep and the forests were dense, and the man was very good at hiding, so no clues were found. However, last night, Li Xiuyuan had organized a team to investigate several famous temples in Qiyuan, but no further discoveries were made.

However, due to time constraints, we only checked a few famous large temples last night, such as Wenwu Temple in the city and Jingshe Temple in the suburbs. We did not have time to check the nearby small temples, nor did we check the more distant Buddhist scenic spot Niugong Mountain.

In the area surrounding Qiyuan, within a day's drive, Niugong Mountain had the most monks. The mountain's summit had been hollowed out, and an eighteen-story underground palace had been built beneath it, housing the Buddha's hair relic. There, too, were a number of disciples cultivating their skills.

There are also monks among the disciples of the sect, and the absolute number is quite large, almost five hundred Taoists and two hundred monks.

Although there are not as many monks as Taoists, and most of them are not formal monks, their external image is basically that of highly versed monks in Buddhism. Many of them have advanced academic qualifications, such as top students in Buddhist colleges, PhDs in philosophy from universities, and so on.

It is easy to deal with the registered disciples of the Shu Sect. Li Xiuyuan is already investigating whether these Shu Sect monks sneaked into Pugang Town yesterday, but there is no result yet... The people who came may also be wandering cultivators.

Although he didn't find the person, He Kao was still impressed by the efficiency and ability of the Shumen's senior management. This time, he finally learned his lesson. Such a large-scale investigation could not be airtight, and he believed that the other party would not dare to act rashly for the time being. He Kao's guess was correct. Although the old monk hiding in Jingshe Temple had not been found, he was indeed frightened. He never imagined that just sneaking into the secret room of He Kao's house to take a look would actually provoke such a move from the Shumen.

But he wasn't quite sure, it was just a coincidence this time.

In three days, the rough draft of the sword He Kao had requested was ready. Jiuliang Manufacturing selected the finest materials they could find, and Lan Jiuwan and Ye Liangcheng worked tirelessly day and night to refine it.

This was the first sect mission assigned by the head brother, and they dared not neglect it. This object looked like a white steel bar, only a foot long. If there were no special material requirements, the processing factory could complete it in twenty minutes.

Why is the sword blank so short? He Kao didn't plan to make it into a three-foot-long Qingfeng sword. That would be inconvenient to take out except for taking a walk in the park near his home.

After He Kao got the steel bar, he tried his magical power of refining equipment, making the blank material stretch and deform extremely slowly under the control of his spiritual consciousness, as if it had undergone repeated cold forging.

In fact, this process can still be completed with a hydraulic press, but using the refining technique step by step can continuously refine the material and lay the foundation for giving it magical powers in the future.

He Kao had never refined a weapon before, and he wasn't even that skilled at it, except for refining the Snow Light Frost Sacrifice into a proper magical weapon. If he tried to refine a magical weapon right away, he would likely fail. However, he didn't forge a magical weapon; he simply processed the steel bar into a steel ruler.

From the outside, it looks similar to a common stainless steel ruler, with scales on both sides: the front is engraved with 30 centimeters for the metric system, and the back is engraved with 1 foot for the municipal system.

The entire ruler is about 40 centimeters long. Since there is a blank area without scale at the top, you can wrap it with white tape for easy holding... It doesn't look very serious, but it's fine to carry it out.

All learning starts with imitation. He Kao's swordsmanship was inherited from Mei Guyu, and the specially made steel ruler was also modeled after Mei Guyu's.

Despite its short length, this ruler can be used to wield and slash objects, and it can also be used for ranged attacks. If used with the wielding technique, it can be extremely powerful in close combat, requiring a special material that has been refined to withstand it.

If you practice the sword-controlling technique to the fourth level, you can also cut out sword energy similar to a wind blade, which is equivalent to casting a spell, and the short sword will turn into an invisible long sword.

The so-called fourth-grade sword control technique is a sword technique that can only be practiced after reaching the fourth level of cultivation. However, the fourth level of cultivation is only the foundation, and it does not mean that any fourth-level sorcerer can master it.

With He Kao's current fourth-level cultivation, he can barely master the third-grade sword-controlling technique. If he wants to go further, he needs to work hard, and his aptitude and comprehension must keep up.

Another advantage of the holding and controlling method is that He Kao can also activate the moth's wings at the same time.

This steel ruler itself isn't a magical weapon. Even if it were, it could be controlled without using the magical power of controlling the weapon. High-level sorcerers can only use one magical weapon at a time, and can switch between them, but they can't control both at the same time.

He Kao has been an honest child since he was young. Apart from being dexterous and able to process dangerous items such as bamboo bombs, he does not have much experience in fighting with others, let alone formal fighting drills.

The Five Elements Staff that Elder Gu had taught him, encompassing both boxing and spear techniques, was merely a foundational training exercise. The inheritance of the full set of sword techniques was what filled in his shortcomings in certain areas.

He Kao remained quiet for the next few days, going to work and coming home as normal. He practiced his fundamental mental skills during midnight and practiced sword-controlling in his free time. As for the little tricks that Elder Li had taught him, he practiced them during his daytime slacking off.

These days seem to be dull, but they are actually quite fulfilling.

He hadn't yet mastered the fourth-grade sword technique, but he had already mastered the third-grade technique. He Kao felt that since the steel ruler could be used to perform sword control, then the realm of "even falling flowers and plucked leaves can injure people" was not just a legend, and he could achieve it himself.

However, ordinary petals are too fragile and can only be used as disposable weapons. They are not suitable for use against overly powerful opponents.

If he were to meet those three thugs now, he could just break off a branch and knock them down without using any magical powers, but he couldn't be as casual and unrestrained as Mei Guyu.

There are only three working days left before the Spring Festival holiday, and the year-end bonuses were just distributed today. He Kao received the same bonus as last year, equivalent to three months' salary.

With their year-end bonuses in hand, many in the department were already disinterested in work and were considering taking two days off to go home. He Kao hadn't requested leave, but he was already planning to use the long break to retreat and meditate.

After eating the New Year's Eve dinner, you should fast for at least three days in advance. According to Wei Luo, you should start fasting for a long time in the early morning of the fourth day of the New Year. The first time you try it, you don't need to wait too long. You can sit for three days on the fourth, fifth and sixth day of the New Year.

When he got off work, He Kao was still thinking about these things, but he suddenly stopped and his spiritual consciousness quietly grasped the steel ruler on the side of the backpack.

**
(End of this chapter)