Hidden Moth

Lin Qingshuang’s trip will take at least two months, and Director Huang’s carefree life officially begins.

There is still a lot of work, but for Xiaopang, it doesn’t feel overwhelming; he just often has to appear very busy.

He doesn’t always have time to go to Qihuang Spirit Garden, but Meng Ya can come to him. The two of them wander the food street when they have time, and if it’s late, they return to Sesame Apartment to stay, and can thoroughly research dual cultivation...

He Kao hasn’t inquired much about Xiaopang’s cultivation recently, and Xiaopang unexpectedly broke through to Tier Three cultivation, becoming a Healer in Observing Body Sect, achieving the rare feat of breaking through without ceremony.

Tier Three cultivation allows one to master Divine Sense; the breakthrough from Tier Two to Tier Three is almost like crossing the threshold from ordinary person to "Superpower User." This threshold holds back most Sorcerers, with many unable to break through for their whole lives.

Huang Xiaopang was promoted to Tier Three, received a pay raise, and became a director; everything is going splendidly for him right now.

A director is a position between departmental manager and vice president of the company, such as a finance director, human resources director, or administrative director. Huang Xiaopang is a project director, responsible for the digital life project, overseeing three departments.

The digital life project is under the supervision of Vice President Gao Xue’e, and with business expansion, a director position was specially added, which has also eased the burden on Gao Xue’e significantly.

Now Gao Xue’e no longer stays late unnecessarily; once her current work is completed, she will proceed to other tasks, which is a huge progress for her.

President E has more leisure time, allowing her to dedicate more time to cultivation, including sparring with He Kao.

Gao Xue’e’s cultivation is already at Tier Two Perfection; for Hidden Moth Sect disciples, Tier Two Assassins are almost the lowest level. Due to the characteristics of Insect Concealment Skill, breaking through Tier Two within a month after Tier One is required; otherwise, further cultivation is not suitable.

Actually, Gao Xue’e’s talent is quite good, especially with excellent innate physique. She lacks no resources for cultivation and has He Kao’s meticulous guidance.

Destiny differs among people. Breaking through from Tier Two to Tier Three is a difficult barrier for most Sorcerers, but logically, it shouldn’t be difficult for Gao Xue’e, at least not very hard.

Yet Gao Xue’e just doesn’t break through to Tier Three promptly; with He Kao’s current cultivation, he can actually detect the issue—she struggles to comprehend the Realm of the technique itself.

The term Realm sounds mysterious, but it is very real. Hidden Moth Sect Tier Two Sorcerers are also called Assassins. Even if Gao Xue’e has cultivation, from where can she gain the understanding of the so-called Assassin’s mentality?

He Kao usually protects her well, preventing her from getting involved in Magic Realm conflicts, so she doesn’t experience the feeling of lurking in the shadows, constantly avoiding exposure, observing anomalies, and moving when opportunistic.

Everyone has their own issues, facing different circumstances at different stages... Gao Xue’e’s biggest past issue was anxiety, severe anxiety.

Anxiety is almost the most common Heart Demon of contemporary people; everyone has some degree of it, mainly manifesting as worries about future uncertainties.

The unprecedented pace of developments of the era can provide countless novel experiences, as if anything is possible in the future, yet it also spreads anxiety everywhere, leaving people wondering what the future will truly be.

The more one has received higher education, the more one tends to think, and perhaps the deeper the anxiety they feel. Against the tide of the era, individuals often feel small and powerless.

Playing games, reading novels, and binge-watching shows are all ways of release; these behaviors have often simplified into an external form, which is using a phone.

Some people can’t stop once they start using their phones, often continuing to browse brainless, fragmented, emotional content, yet they just can’t resist continuing.

It can be explained with the simplest IQ, just by letting emotions take over, without needing to think further in such moments.

Some have leisure but can’t relax, always considering matters, always wanting to find something to do. Unlike some leaders who insist on starting unnecessary work and require the whole department to work overtime together.

This is exactly how Gao Xue’e used to be.

When He Kao first met Gao Xue’e, she was just a departmental manager, positioned neither high nor low. The Metaverse project at the branch company was just cut; she was fortunate not to be optimized but transferred to the digital life project team.

In a project centered around future technology application scenarios, she was not technical but a managerial talent, even though she was a department leader, she was considered replaceable personnel.

The future prospects for the company, project, and individual were all filled with great uncertainty, so her work attitude often seemed very strict, sometimes even unreasonable, reflecting her personal stress.

Stress needs to be released.

After the fright of being kidnapped that night, experiencing the great terror between life and death was a release at the stress peak... Her intimacy with He Kao was both alluring and intense, becoming her primary way of releasing anxiety, letting herself go.

Gao Xue’e was like this; He Kao in the past was even more so.

Originally, He Kao was just a regular programmer. After his grandfather’s death, all he had left was an old house and very unreliable relatives. After becoming Hidden Moth, he constantly faced looming threats.

At some point, He Kao’s stress was enormous, the string tightly tensed, feeling he was often walking the line between life and death.

The first time he killed at an abandoned amusement park, it was out of necessity, with Huang Xiaopang as the main force. But later, He Kao killed more than once, almost all by himself.

Every time the killings occurred, it seemed to be at midnight, and then he would walk into Gao Xue’e’s room.

He Kao had always left an impression of being well-behaved and sensible since childhood, even meek and cautious, but at that time, he appeared very rough, full of aggression and conquest desire, as if releasing the beast within.

Gao Xue’e understood his feelings, fully embraced and endured, and gave a melting response.

How long did that state last, over half a year or more than a year? Even the two of them couldn’t say for sure, later gradually Gao Xue’e was no longer anxious, and He Kao was no longer tense.

However, President E seemed addicted to He Kao’s "midnight raids," which were no longer about releasing pressure but became about releasing beauty, becoming a pleasure of life to enjoy vigorous vitality.

Her transformation was also evident, not only the inner charm of her ice skin and jade bones but her appearance becoming more plump and enticing.

Peach gum can nourish the face, and similarly, apricot gum can nourish the person...but she still couldn’t break through to Tier Three cultivation.

For Gao Xue’e’s cultivation realm, although He Kao saw the problem, he didn’t have a good solution, which required creating an opportunity for breakthrough.

For an ordinary Hidden Moth Sect disciple, they can complete a Sect task through obeying orders, to achieve harmony and sublimation of the mind, thus breaking through from a Tier Two Assassin to a Tier Three Explorer, which might be the significance of the so-called ritual.

For Gao Xue’e, it would be necessary for He Kao to come up with a feasible ritual for her to complete.

Before that, try to practice various applied techniques as much as possible, He Kao also taught her some techniques from the Observing Body Sect, and later just let her also practice the Observing Body Skill.

The Observing Body Skill can not only explore vitality but also nurture vitality, at least in the aspect of beauty and makeup its effect is excellent, and she also wears Xue Guanghan with her.

In fact, being able to enjoy life steadily, enjoy the physical and mental pleasure brought by cultivation, who would wish to always encounter danger?

In short, during this period Xiaopang and Meng Ya were somewhat letting themselves go, He Kao and Gao Xue’e had a very comfortable time, even the new student Hu Henry from Qi Yuan University felt very invigorated by apprenticing to a mysterious high-level person.

But far across the ocean, the Great Elder Fabre of the Xiao Alliance’s Supreme Council had a somewhat tormenting time.

He had just cast a spell to lift the seal on a Xiao Alliance disciple, but accidentally made a mistake, resulting not only in failing to lift the seal but also crippling the other’s cultivation!

The disciple named Yu Sifu, from the Eastern Country, was a Tier Three Zongheng Scholar from the Qi Observation Lineage, the First Elder Arthur specifically instructed yesterday to have Fabre lift the seal for him first.

With his cultivation ruined and his meridians damaged at the same time, Yu Sifu suffered severe injuries, coughed up blood, and fainted on the spot. If Fabre hadn’t immediately cast a spell to treat him, the consequences would be unimaginable, potentially leaving lifelong disability.

Fortunately, Yu Sifu’s injury was stabilized, but Fabre experienced dizziness and blurred vision, which is typical of excessive divine sense consumption.

With Fabre’s cultivation, focusing on casting to unseal someone, almost no chance for distraction or absentmindedness existed, the mistake was mainly due to two reasons.

Firstly, the seal was extremely difficult to break.

This seal was imposed by Gu Chun himself, not a simple three-node, five-node method, but made as complicated as possible, intentionally posing a challenge to the unsealer.

Secondly, Fabre’s energy consumption was too great, he thought resting for two days had mostly restored him, but continuously casting for over an hour with highly focused precise operation became hard to sustain.

It was just that slight deviation, the consequences became so severe.

This was his third time in a week to unseal someone, the first was simple, finished easily in about an hour, three days later he did it a second time, also successful.

This earned him much praise, but despite the pride, only he knew that continuously casting might lead to mistakes, and inevitably what he feared happened.

Why didn’t he delay more because someone urged him urgently! There were too many people in line waiting for unsealing, over two hundred in number, so if done step by step slowly, how long would it take?

So many wanted to cut in line, but getting in requires background.

Yu Sifu was born in the Eastern Country, only twenty-five this year, found by the Xiao Alliance early on for secret cultivation, then arranged by the organization to study abroad, even receiving personal guidance from Arthur.

How could a person from the Eastern Country be found by the Xiao Alliance? The Xiao Alliance has a specific department for this task, searching for good seedlings with decent qualifications worldwide, especially in the Eastern Country, screening them based on specific criteria, then cultivating them.

Among the Seven Great Magical Veins, Lingxi Sect has the fewest disciples, besides, good seedlings from the Qi Observation Sect are also hard to find.

So Arthur valued Yu Sifu highly, arranging for him to go undercover at the Magic Sect, hoping he would successfully break through to the high tier and return with gains.

Unlike other covert personnel, Yu Sifu’s background was very clean, even if the Magic Sect sent people to scrutinize, they wouldn’t find any violations.

This time Yu Sifu was unfortunately exposed, probably bitten out by other traitors, but he wasn’t willing to stay at the Magic Sect, thus after being sealed his cultivation was banished.

Yu Sifu was Arthur’s connection, Fabre’s first two times casting to unseal were to try and study the Ancestral Hall’s methods, then the third time arranged for Yu Sifu, and that’s when the accident happened.

**