Hidden Moth

Some things are too embarrassing for the Magic Sect to actively publicize—like the failed operation plan in Red Port. But the Xiao Alliance doesn’t care; on the contrary, they’re dying to trumpet it everywhere.

From the Xiao Alliance’s point of view, the incident goes like this——

Magic Sect disciples fought internally over power and profit, and punished a Sorcerer named Zhao Ci, permanently sealing his cultivation. Zhao Ci refused to accept this and secretly contacted the Xiao Alliance, asking them to undo the seal in exchange for defecting.

Because the Supreme Council possesses the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, which can undo any seal cast by any master in the world. The so‑called Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror is the Magic Mirror in Great Elder Mei Lin’s hand; it was originally the Observing Body Sect’s sect’s sacred artifact.

The Xiao Alliance agreed to Zhao Ci’s request, ordering him to infiltrate Red Port, and promised to send someone to receive him. Unexpectedly, this was a trap laid by the Ancestral Hall, using Zhao Ci as bait in an attempt to seize back the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, but during the contact Elder Fabre saw through and counter‑plotted them...

In short, this fits perfectly into the Xiao Alliance’s usual narrative template, vividly highlighting the Magic Sect’s evil and greed!

He Kao was taken aback when he heard this: "I heard from Hu Weidong that there’s already such a story circulating inside the Xiao Alliance. That’s how Fabre boasted about it after he went back..."

Li Xiuyuan: "Not enough! Fabre certainly wants to brag, but the scope is limited to the small circle of top brass. For some things—especially certain details—the Supreme Council doesn’t necessarily want too many people to know.

But our goal is different: we want everyone who ought to know to know, while making sure the other side doesn’t think it’s coming from us. That’s where Hu Weidong needs to come up with a way. He’s built up his own power now; he can’t just take benefits without doing any work..."

He Kao frowned: "What do you mean by ’everyone who ought to know has to know’?"

Li Xiuyuan cocked his head and glanced at him, then suddenly laughed: "You really don’t pay much attention to internal affairs of the major Magic Sects. Otherwise, with your brains, even without ever cultivating Lingxi Skill, you ought to have worked it out by now."

He Kao: "Huh? What internal affairs?"

Li Xiuyuan: "For the past half year, all the major Magic Sects have been purging Xiao Alliance infiltrators inside their sects. Some people voluntarily confessed; another batch were rooted out. Among these people, as long as they hadn’t committed any prohibited acts, the Magic Sects gave them two choices.

Those willing to remain in the Magic Sect could stay on, but had to swear never again to serve the Xiao Alliance in shady dealings. Those unwilling to remain in the Magic Sect could leave of their own accord; the Magic Sects wouldn’t pursue them..."

He Kao: "I heard about that."

Li Xiuyuan shook his head: "You only heard of it; you didn’t ask how it was actually handled.

Come when you want, leave when you want—since when is anything in this world that easy? The external propaganda really put it that way, but if they did nothing else, how could they convince the other disciples!"

He Kao: "Oh, I really didn’t ask specifically. So how exactly did they deal with them?"

The Magic Sect’s handling plan wasn’t complicated: for those found to have committed prohibited acts, those who ought to be killed were killed, those who ought to be crippled were crippled.

As for those not found to have committed any prohibited acts, yet unwilling to stay on in the Magic Sect, all of them had their cultivation sealed and were expelled from the rolls and driven out. They were infiltrators of the Xiao Alliance to begin with; if they want their cultivation restored, they naturally have to go back and beg the Xiao Alliance.

He Kao had only heard that the Magic Sect let these people return to the Jianghu without deliberately making things difficult for them, but he hadn’t heard anything about their cultivation being sealed.

Thinking it over carefully, handling it this way was quite reasonable. These people had concealed their origins to enter the Magic Sect, received its inheritance and studied Techniques, and now, after being exposed, they want to pat their backsides and walk off... how could it be that easy? Merely sealing their cultivation was already the Ancestral Hall being merciful.

This kind of punishment—sealing cultivation—is rather peculiar, because as long as the casting method is appropriate, it doesn’t cause any substantive harm... to say nothing of whether they were allowed to leave safely.

They clearly only needed to swear not to serve the Xiao Alliance in shady dealings anymore, so why were these people unwilling to remain in the Magic Sect? In He Kao’s view, there were three main reasons.

First, they couldn’t bring themselves to believe the Magic Sect would really be so magnanimous, and thought this was only a temporary delaying tactic. After all, the number of people involved was relatively large; moving directly against them would trigger large‑scale conflict and upheaval.

So the Magic Sect planned to calm them down first, then settle accounts in installments afterward, quietly and by batches... whether or not the Magic Sect actually intended this, that was how these people saw it.

Second, the Ancestral Hall also played a small trick: beforehand they never said that cultivation would be sealed before they left, only stating that they would be allowed to depart safely... that was the version He Kao had heard.

Only after the list had been compiled, and before letting them go, did they seal their cultivation. None of this was done openly, and no announcement was issued.

The Magic Sect didn’t publicize it; the Xiao Alliance certainly wouldn’t either. Those who need to know will know, so even Hu Weidong never mentioned it specifically... he and He Kao have both been quite busy recently.

The last possibility was probably also the most important one: the fact that the Magic Sect didn’t find any prohibited acts on these people doesn’t mean they truly hadn’t committed any! Maybe they had done bad things that simply hadn’t been exposed yet; how would they dare stay in the Magic Sect.

Actually, from the Xiao Alliance’s standpoint, no one felt there was anything wrong with the Magic Sect’s approach. Once a mole is exposed and expelled, and they don’t get crippled but only have their cultivation sealed, that punishment can only be called too light!

If it were only one or two people, the Xiao Alliance would definitely suspect they were double agents sent back by the Magic Sect. But when a whole bunch of people were all handled this way, the Supreme Council could only curse the Magic Sect for its false benevolence and fake righteousness...

Thinking of this, He Kao couldn’t help interjecting: "How many people were actually sent back?"

Li Xiuyuan: "Two hundred and seventy‑four."

He Kao was startled: "That many!"

Elder Li tried hard to put on a sighing expression, but couldn’t quite keep the corners of his mouth down: "That’s why the Ancestral Hall has to push a full informationization reform, starting with a big census of all Magic Sect Disciples. Up to this matter, we can be considered to have achieved a phased result.

Don’t be too surprised. This is the outcome accumulated over many years. In short, over the past few decades the Xiao Alliance has been constantly strengthening its infiltration methods, to the point that we’ve ended up with the situation today..."

That was, in fact, the truth.

The technological development and changes of the times in the past few decades have been unprecedented, especially in the Eastern Country. The complexity of population movement far exceeds any other period in history, which has also provided tremendous convenience for the Xiao Alliance’s infiltration.

This situation has, objectively speaking, also forced the Magic Sect to conduct a thorough internal purge and rectification... but from Elder Li’s expression as he spoke, He Kao read another layer of meaning.

He Kao was not stupid; he immediately realized the Sect’s intention: "You want me to go find Hu Weidong, have him find a way to spread the news. The main point should be to let these people know that the Supreme Council has the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, which can解除 their Sealed states?"

Li Xiuyuan showed a "promising youngster" look, but deliberately shook his head and said, "No need to deliberately emphasize that. The focus is to curse the Magic Sect and praise Great Elder Fabre’s methods. Those who hear it will naturally decode the information they are most interested in."

He Kao pressed on: "Who were the ones that applied the Seals?"

Li Xiuyuan: "Jiang Daozhen, Mei Guyu, and Kang Rulin did not participate. The rest of us four Elders plus Zhou Yeming all made a move. Two hundred and eighty-seven people—we were run ragged!"

He Kao: "But the Xiao Alliance has two Tier Six Physicians, Fabre and Mei Lin. They can also解除 the Seals."

The profound logic behind Sealing and解除 Sealing is a bit like encryption and decryption. As long as a Sorcerer’s cultivation exceeds Tier Four, they can master the methods of Sealing; but except for Sorcerers of the Observing Body Sect, others can only解除 the Seals they personally applied.

The underlying principles of the Techniques are the same, but the details of Casting differ from person to person; only the one who set the password knows how to解除 it.

And the Observing Body Skill is equivalent to a universal password, with the only limitation being that the解除r’s cultivation cannot be lower than that of the caster. For example, a Tier Four Physician can, in theory, only解除 Seals applied by a Tier Four Sorcerer.

The Ancestral Hall has two Tier Seven Sorcerers, Jiang Daozhen and Mei Guyu, but they did not make a move. Jiang Daozhen is in Seclusion undergoing an earthly tribulation; Mei Guyu is nominally also undergoing a tribulation in another form, and others still don’t know she has already broken through to the Seventh Realm.

The five experts who did act are all Tier Six in cultivation. The Seals they applied—whether or not the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror is used—can theoretically all be解除 by Mei Lin and Fabre.

Li Xiuyuan couldn’t help but laugh, and countered: "I hear you also have the cultivation of a Tier Four Physician and have obtained a replica of the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror—the Shadow Mirror. Have you ever tried personally解除 a Seal applied by someone else?"

He Kao: "I know how to do it, but I haven’t personally tried it yet."

Li Xiuyuan waved his hand and said, "Then go try it. Find a Tier Four Sorcerer to cast a Seal, then find a volunteer to be Sealed, and you try解除 the Seal for them. You’ll understand how it works."

He Kao: "All right, I’ll go try it later."

Li Xiuyuan: "Hurry up, and don’t forget the real business—go find Hu Weidong and put him to work!"

...

Getting Hu Weidong’s help was very simple. He Kao later conveyed the Ancestral Hall’s request to him.

After understanding what the Ancestral Hall meant, Hu Weidong sighed, "This move is pretty ruthless—but I like it!"

He Kao: "Ruthless?"

Hu Weidong didn’t say anything aloud, but told a short story within Divine Thought. He Kao had actually seen this story before—not in a book, but as a reading comprehension passage on a high school English exam—

A certain businessman committed a crime and was about to be executed. He prayed to God, swearing to repent and mend his ways. If he could be saved, he was willing to spend the rest of his life doing good deeds to atone for his past sins.

He didn’t know whether God had manifested or not, but in any case he was saved.

Later the businessman committed many more crimes, but kept them carefully hidden. For many years nothing happened to him, and he gradually forgot about the whole thing.

One day he was crossing the sea by ship when a fierce wind suddenly rose and huge waves surged up. The ship looked as though it was about to capsize. He thought of God again and hurriedly knelt on the deck to pray.

At that moment he actually heard God’s voice: "Have you forgotten the promise you made back then?"

The businessman finally realized that this storm was the punishment God had sent down. A spark of inspiration hit him and he hurriedly shouted, "Oh God, please收了 your Divine Techniques! There are so many people on this ship—they’re innocent..."

A roar of anger came from the sky: "What do you think I’ve been busy with all these years? Do you have any idea how hard it was to gather this many people onto one ship?"

Even though he had already seen this story long ago, He Kao was still amused. He thought to himself that this Elder Hu was actually quite humorous.

**