Hidden Moth

He Kao introduced this artifact known as the Shadow Mirror, which is a replica of the Observing Body Sect’s sacred artifact, the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror. It was lost a thousand years ago alongside the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror and later emerged in the Xiao Alliance.

A disciple of the Xiao Alliance carried this mirror, infiltrated the Eastern Country, and attempted to harm the Magic Sect disciple. However, He discovered this and killed them, thus acquiring this item... But the fact that he possesses the Shadow Mirror must still be kept strictly confidential for now.

Using the Shadow Mirror for spellcasting has effects somewhat akin to Xue Guanghan. He Kao even suspects that the ancestor of the Magic Sect might have borrowed the wondrous effects of treasures like Xue Guanghan to create such a divine artifact as the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror.

However, the magical workings of the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror are much stronger than Xue Guanghan, and even its replica, the Shadow Mirror, is the same.

Assisting in unlocking seals is only one of the numerous magical uses of the Shadow Mirror. While not as extraordinary as the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, it is much easier than conventional methods, mainly because it can accurately probe the operational state of the meridians’ divine energy.

To give an inappropriate metaphor, it’s like adding dynamic CT function to a doctor’s eyes, providing significant convenience to surgical procedures, of course.

In roughly the space of an hour, He Kao unlocked the seal for Lan Jiwan.

Afterward, he made a summary: utilizing the magical benefits of the Shadow Mirror can greatly reduce the consumption of divine qi and mana, allowing precise detection of the meridian’s operational state, accurately sensing the convergence nodes of sealed meridians, and analyzing methods to resolve them.

The most crucial conclusion—this can greatly reduce the chance of errors!

It’s indeed useful, but it still doesn’t save much time, requiring mental focus during the spellcasting process, though the consumption of energy is noticeably lower.

By extension, if using the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, the effect improvement should mainly lie in this aspect, which would naturally be much better than using the Shadow Mirror...

With the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, it doesn’t even require the spellcaster to be an Observing Body Sect Sorcerer; as long as one has Tier Six cultivation and receives the Divine Soul Mark inheritance, they can unlock seals for others.

But Tier Six cultivation is necessary; otherwise, one cannot truly grasp the divine artifact’s magical uses, which is better if one’s already a Tier Six Physician.

As He Kao pondered, he heard Lan Jiwan asking again, "Has Sect Leader Senior Brother’s experiment achieved its purpose?"

He Kao replied, "Almost, but we need to try with another person."

Given that it’s an experiment, a horizontal and vertical comparison is necessary. Vertical meaning experimenting with different methods on the same person; horizontal meaning using different people for experiments.

These past two days, He Kao has already unlocked Lan Jiwan’s seal four times continuously and needs to relieve the tense state, so the next stage of the experiment is placed a week later.

Time quickly passed another week, and by Saturday noon’s regular meeting, the disciples of Hidden Moth Sect were ready. Er Ji exerted an envelopment over Chang’an Residence’s cultivation, skipping the simplest Three-Node Method and directly using the conventional Five-Node Method.

He Kao led Chang’an Residence into a quiet room to unlock the seal for him, neither using Xue Guanghan nor the Shadow Mirror, but relying entirely on the cultivation of the Observing Body Skill.

This time also took around an hour, but compared to unlocking for Lan Jiwan last week, it felt much more difficult, especially in terms of energy consumption, making He Kao nearly unwilling to continue the experiment in the short term...

The reasons primarily have two aspects.

First, He Kao is very familiar with Lan Jiwan, comprehensively understanding the situation of his internal organs, tendons, bones, blood, energy, and meridian operation, making the spellcasting proficient. However, regarding Chang’an Residence, he’s almost completely unfamiliar.

Secondly, Chang’an Residence’s cultivation is lower than Lan Jiwan’s, currently only Tier Three, which means his physique is weaker in certain respects, requiring extra caution when spellcasting to unlock the seal.

Usually, the higher the spellcaster’s cultivation and the lower the recipient’s cultivation, the harder the envelopment is to unlock!

The envelopments He Kao has unlocked thus far were all applied by Tier Four Cultivator Er Ji, and the highest techniques used were merely the conventional Five-Node Method. If the Elders from the Ancestral Hall were to apply them instead, unlocking would be of unknown difficulty.

No wonder Hu Weidong commented—the Ancestral Hall’s move is truly ruthless!

Two hundred seventy-four sorcerers with differing cultivation and conditions were enveloped by the Elders of the Ancestral Hall. The Xiao Alliance relying solely on Mei Lin and Fabre, these two Tier Six Physicians, to unlock them all, is simply treating people like livestock.

With the cultivation of Mei Lin and Fabre, to unlock the envelopment for one or two people may require some effort but doesn’t feel too troublesome, however, more than two hundred individuals would suffice to result in qualitative change due to quantitative change.

He Kao’s personal experience in experimentation shows that if it’s just once or twice, it wouldn’t matter, but to proceed further, one must properly decompress and adjust their state; otherwise, errors could occur.

This is an extremely monotonous and energy-intensive task, where even if one’s cultivation is high, maintaining a high level of focus is imperative, as there cannot be the slightest mistake during the entire process, or the recipient will face dire consequences.

Attempting to unlock envelopments for two hundred seventy-four people, compared to just two or three, the difficulty doesn’t simply increase a hundred times, rather it is a prolonged test and torment.

This might be a situation no one has encountered since the birth of magic; anyone in this position would be bewildered and defeated. If only using conventional methods, even if Mei Lin and Fabre exert all their effort, it’s unknown how long it would take to accomplish, perhaps not even in the foreseeable future.

Moreover, Mei Lin and Fabre, as Great Elders of the Supreme Council of the Xiao Alliance, have many other responsibilities in their daily lives, and they themselves also need to cultivate, so how could they devote all their time and energy to this matter?

Therefore, the Xiao Alliance will certainly use the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror... In fact, even with the use of the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, the situation is not that simple.

He Kao has already grasped the general situation, but he still needs to conduct one final experiment.

This time, it was Lan Jiwan who cast the spell to seal Chang’an Residence’s cultivation. He Kao rested for about a day and a half, and at dawn on Monday, unsealed Chang’an Residence in a way different from previous attempts.

Chang’an Residence sat alone in a quiet chamber, as instructed, relaxing his form and soul without any resistance. He Kao was not by his side but in another quiet chamber in the Rest Garden, holding the Shadow Mirror to perform a long-distance spellcasting through the mirror’s reflection to unseal him.

He Kao’s purpose for using the Shadow Mirror was to simulate the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, thereby arriving at the final and possibly most important conclusion: to unseal a person using the Bone-Penetrating Treasure Mirror, the caster and recipient need not be in the same location, but the distance cannot be too far.

At this point, He Kao fully understood that the move by the Ancestral Hall was an open stratagem that the Xiao Alliance had to accept whether they wanted to or not. Although its fierce nature might not be obvious at first, it would become apparent over time.

No need to be anxious, nor can you be anxious; just wait.

After completing this series of experiments, He Kao had an unexpected gain that he hadn’t anticipated beforehand. His Observing Body Skill cultivation unexpectedly broke through, making him a Tier Five Healer!

Among the various cultivation techniques he practiced across different sects, He Kao’s Observing Body Skill was carefully taught by Lin Qingshuang, providing a solid foundation. With the improvement in cultivation, his previous realm had already reached Tier Four Perfection.

However, to ascend to the next tier requires the right opportunity and trigger. He hadn’t done anything special recently, so how did his Observing Body Skill suddenly break through?

Four words came to He Kao’s mind—Advancement Ritual!

Could it be that in his actions, he inadvertently discovered a ritual to advance from Tier Four to Tier Five in the Observing Body Skill? Yet all advancement rituals require clear, specific, nearly standardized executable processes.

Therefore, over the following week, He Kao continuously reviewed his experiences during this period, not only drawing on inspiration from the Lingxi Skill but also utilizing the deduction abilities from Tier Six Cultivation to summarize a formal advancement ritual.

The specific process of this ritual is as follows—

Step one: The cultivator’s Observing Body Skill must reach Tier Four Perfection.

Step two: Find two casters, both at Tier Four, preferably from different magic sects.

Step three: Then find two volunteers to serve as recipients, cultivation levels are unlimited but must have cultivation, with the best combination being a Tier Four Cultivator and a Tier Three Sorcerer.

Step four: Each caster seals the cultivation of two recipients using different methods, each person seals twice. Each must act four times, totaling eight actions.

After each sealing, the cultivator must unseal them.

Considering the risks of spellcasting, the cultivator must adjust to the best state each time, the ceremony needs at least one month, but for best results, should be completed within two months...

The ritual summarized by He Kao surpasses any of the current records of advancement rituals within the Observing Body Sect, but its requirements are very specific and clear, and its executability exceeds any known ritual.

Why hasn’t such a clear and specific ritual been summarized by ancestral masters or left in the records? After much contemplation, He Kao believes there are two main reasons.

Firstly, the ritual is not only exhausting but carries certain risks; at least four helpers must be found, and the risk is borne by the volunteer recipients.

Secondly, nobody has ever tried repeatedly accepting sealings and unlocking them with the cultivation of a Tier Four Physician like He Kao. What is this even for? It’s presumed that this kind of thing hasn’t occurred in history.

Even if historically there was a situation where multiple seals needed to be unlocked, it would either be cast by the sealing person themselves or jointly by experts from the Observing Body Sect.

The Observing Body Sect is not short of experts; how could such a task be left to a Tier Four Physician alone? Let alone repeated sealings and unlockings—it’s purely a hassle!

The so-called advancement rituals are derived from patterning factors summarized during a disciple’s promotion breakthrough. If historically no Tier Four Physician did this, or coincidentally advanced during this process, it’s understandable for ancestral masters not to have summarized it.

He Kao’s insight today was purely a stroke of fate.

However, the advancement ritual must not only be summarized; it must be validated for effectiveness to be considered successful. Additionally, according to He Kao, if someone summarizes a new, more feasible advancement ritual, they will receive generous rewards from the corresponding magic sect.

Thus, he went to find the predecessor of the Observing Body Sect, Lin Qingshuang.

**