Hidden moth

Chapter 145: Knowing Someone Doesn't Mean You've Met Them

He Kao discovered that the leopard was extremely agile, and its nerve reaction speed was almost the same as that of a second-level perfect cultivator. Even He Kao did not dare to get close to tease it.

As for tigers, they are certainly more ferocious than leopards, and they can climb trees. However, due to their size and weight, some trees are difficult to climb, and there are some places they cannot reach.

In this environment, He Kao also conducted some test projects. For example, when being stared at by wild animals, would the ability of the stealth moth be limited? The answer is that in some cases it would be!
Further testing, under what circumstances would this happen?
The preliminary answer should be that the other party can recognize that he is an active individual, can distinguish himself as an object from the environment, and maintain a perceptual state.

Some animals can do it, some animals cannot, and even within the same species, some can do it and some cannot.

So if it is possible, how does the other party perceive it?

The first is vision. Some animals can often lock onto an animal just by staring at it, unless it can move to a place that blocks its sight in time.

As for hearing, the lock-on effect is not that noticeable unless he is making sounds continuously. If he remains still and the sounds he makes are very weak, the lock-on effect is mostly lost.

The most special thing about it is his sense of smell. He Kao discovered that several animals could lock onto him using their sense of smell. This was incredible! But after practicing synesthesia, He Kao could understand what was going on.

For example, before he entered the realm of enlightenment, he could sense the structure of space through hearing. After he broke through the third level, in certain situations, he could also form a spatial scene in his mind by smelling obvious odor signals.

For humans, this is a kind of magical power, but some animals may be born with this ability.

He Kao also discovered that as long as he did not deliberately provoke those animals and forced them to sense him, he would usually not be noticed and his ability as a stealth moth would be unlimited.

He Kao also solved a mystery in this way.

Why is it that in the documentaries I’ve watched, a herd of antelopes on the grassland ignores a lion resting not far away, and only runs away in fright when the lion sneaks up and suddenly attacks?

He Kao acts like a philosopher, pondering the concepts of self and other, subject and object, consciousness and existence... and like an experimental scientist, testing the reactions of silly roe deer and blind bears.

Testing under what circumstances he could be perceived was also testing under what circumstances he could avoid being perceived. So he also tested the effectiveness of stealth… After performing stealth, the possibility of being perceived was greatly reduced.

During the journey, He Kao also began to sacrifice and refine the newly acquired magic weapon. The so-called sacrifice and refinement was only the preliminary step. He used his spiritual consciousness to communicate with it and comprehend its spirituality. The first thing he did was the eye mask-like Yin'e Veil.

He wore it on his head and kept his consciousness constantly connected to it, which indeed greatly reduced the possibility of being discovered. However, this magical effect was only effective against tigers and leopards in the mountains, but had no effect on humans, unless others could not see him!

Why? Because wearing a black eye mask like that is so conspicuous that anyone who sees it would find it strange and impossible not to notice it! Therefore, its side effects far exceed the stealth effect.

It seems that if I want to unleash the true power of Yin'esha, I have to wait until I break through the fourth level and master the control of the weapon.

Because the thick snow blocked his spiritual sense, it was even more difficult to discover the roots of plants in the frozen soil. In this process, he did initially master the magical use of the Earth Spirit Banner, which happened to be of great help in this situation.

The Soul Locking Formation's tools consist of four small flags in red, yellow, blue, and black. With He Kao's current cultivation level, they are not enough for him to use, and he is not even close to being able to comprehend the formation.

Among them, the yellow flag was called the Earth Spirit Flag, but the two elders told him that it could be taken out and used alone, and he needed to figure out how to use it specifically.

After pondering the Yin'e Sha, He Kao took out the Earth Spirit Banner and actually found some tricks. The specific method of refining it was actually to extend the divine consciousness, treat it as a part of oneself, and then experience its "function".

He Kao discovered that through the stimulation of the Soul-Locking Banner, his spiritual consciousness could extend farther and sense more things, such as the direction of the earth veins and the spiritual hubs of the earth's energy - they were like the meridians and acupoints of mountains, rivers and streams.

Human meridians and acupoints are invisible and cannot be discovered even through anatomical means, but they can be felt because they are the trajectories and nodes of the flow of spiritual energy.

The first sign of entry into the art of body observation is "inner vision", which not only allows one to observe the internal organs, tendons, bones, blood and flesh, but also allows one to perceive the status of one's own meridians.

If we compare the structure of the human body to mountains and rivers, we can understand He Kao's experience when using the Earth Spirit Banner.

After discovering this state, entering this state, and maintaining this state, He Kao gained something new. He actually found the feeling of practicing the "Ren Di Ban Xing Shu".

In daily activities, He Kao practiced stealth the most, which was the exclusive technique of the Yin E Sect, and it also meant that abnormalities could be easily detected by experts.

But no one else should have seen the magic of the Yin Mo Sect. The best way for him to conceal his identity is to make people mistakenly think that it is another kind of magic.

The Xinpan Sect's Rendibanxing technique, in terms of its effects, was very similar to the stealth technique. Rumors spread that he was a secret disciple of a certain elder, either Elder Jiang or Elder Gu, and he could capitalize on this speculation.

Some time ago, he also practiced Ren Di Ban Xing Shu, but it always felt awkward.

Having broken through to the third level, and with the help of the Earth Spirit Banner, he finally found his rhythm. Rendiban's practice emphasized blending with the environment, allowing one to walk in a natural state, as if the mountains and rivers were rising and falling with him.

In this case, he can detect many wild animals in advance, but it is difficult for those wild animals to detect him.

After initially utilizing the magical power of the Earth Spirit Banner, he actually found several wild ginseng plants. He let go of the smaller ones and selected three ginseng plants with the longest reed heads that were hidden the deepest underground, and tried to find a way to dig them out.

The frozen soil at this time of year was as hard as stone. A hoe would often leave only a small white spot, making it impossible for an ordinary person to dig. He Kao not only used magic but also relied on magical weapons.

He had also stumbled upon the method for dealing with the permafrost by accident. While practicing Ren Di Ban Xing Shu (Ren Di Ban Xing Shu), he walked up a hill and wanted to sit down to rest for a while. He casually stuck the Earth Spirit Banner into the snow, exerted some force, and when he stood up, he reached out to pull it out, but it didn't budge!
It turned out that the snow on the slope was not thick, and the flagpole passed through the snow directly into the frozen soil.

Then he tried a few more times. Under normal circumstances, he really couldn't insert the flag into the frozen soil. Using the technique of controlling objects through the air was even more impossible. His power of controlling objects was still very weak.

So what was he doing at that time? He was holding the Earth Spirit Banner and practicing the Ren Di Ban Xing technique, injecting his spiritual consciousness into the Earth Spirit Banner, as if it had become a part of his body and was understanding its function... He was still in this state when he sat down.

He tried again and it went in again.

But the most he could do was use the flag to poke a few small holes in the ground. It was impossible for him to use it as a shovel, so he went back to the Gushan Secret Mansion and got a short blade.

This short blade was obtained from a man codenamed "Cats and Dogs Hate", who was the "cleaner" under "Ku Cha Zi" Gu Jiang.

This person was hiding in Chen Yuhua's home at the time, preparing to kill Chen Yuhua and then falsify the scene, creating the illusion that Chen Yuhua poisoned her lover and then committed suicide by taking the poison.

Fortunately, He Kao arrived early and shot a crossbow arrow from the bedroom, killing the man.

Cat and Dog were holding a short blade at the time. He Kao felt that it was not only extremely sharp, but also made of a very special material, a bit like the legendary ability to cut iron like mud, so He Kao put it away.

This is his collection, which he would not show to others easily.

After He Kao accidentally inserted the flag into the frozen soil, he began to experiment with other things. The power to control objects is still very weak, but without the method of controlling objects, he extended his spiritual consciousness and injected it into specific objects, and made new discoveries.

In this case, the sharpness of the short blade is beyond imagination.

If spiritual consciousness is compared to electric current and various things are compared to conductors, then the magical instruments that have been successfully refined, such as Yin'e Sha and Diling Banner, are equivalent to superconductors.

Various natural treasures are roughly equivalent to good conductors, such as purple jade bamboo, so this short blade feels close to a superconductor.

This meant that not only was it made of special materials, but it had also been refined by a master. Even if it wasn't a magical weapon, it was close to one. How could a small-time thief like me, doing some shady work, have such a good thing?
But on second thought, I understood.

The cleaners under Gu Jiang were all secretly doing shady work for the Huimingshi family. After all, he was a first-level cultivator and should have some decent equipment.

The Huiming Shi family is a wealthy family that has been passed down for four generations. They are particularly good at refining equipment and often help fellow practitioners to create magical instruments. It is normal for them to come up with such things.

With this short blade, he could cut through the permafrost, but it was a much harder job than he had imagined.

Even with the help of the Earth Spirit Banner, it was difficult for his spiritual sense to penetrate too deeply into the frozen soil. In order to avoid damaging the roots, he dug and sensed at the same time, and the pit became bigger and bigger.

The wild ginseng is completely different in appearance from the garden ginseng commonly seen in stores. It has a very long rhizome, a thin body, a large-scale forked part, and its whiskers are very deep and have pearl nodes.

The three wild ginsengs dug by He Kao were roughly estimated to be about fifty years old, and the complete roots were more than one meter long.

The frozen soil that wrapped the roots was difficult to peel off, and it could not be simply broken, otherwise the roots inside would break together. So what He Kao finally dug out was a frozen soil lump more than one meter high and with a strange shape.

This lump of frozen soil was extremely heavy and most people could not move it, so He Kao put it into the Gushan Secret Mansion, waiting for it to thaw naturally at room temperature before cleaning out the intact ginseng.

Even with his cultivation, he almost got tendonitis from cutting the frozen soil with the short blade.

After finishing his work, He Kao decided to take a break and walked out of the forest to the nearest market town. This mountain has been inhabited since ancient times, but the population is sparse. Nowadays, most towns have access to roads, but in winter, the roads are covered with snow.

The residents living here don't stay at home at all. When the weather is good, they go to the market in town. Some families have even bought professional snowmobiles.

A more economical and affordable traditional means of transportation than snowmobiles is a birch sled. Many polar films and TV shows feature dog sledding, but this isn't the polar region yet; horse-drawn sleds are more common.

The place He Kao chose to go down the mountain was exactly between a village and a town. It seemed that he was walking from the village to the town, and halfway there a horse-drawn sleigh came from behind.

When He Kao heard the noise, he turned sideways and moved to the side of the road, but was surprised when he looked over.

The driver was an old man with a goatee, wearing a dog fur coat and a hat that covered his face tightly, but his face could still be seen clearly - He Kao actually recognized this man!

His name is Xiao Guangnian, a fourth-level charlatan of Lingxi Sect, and a fellow junior fellow of Jiang Daozhen.

Xiao Guangnian spent most of his time living in a place called Xiaohe Town on the northeastern border. He was an old ginseng collector who often went into the mountains to collect herbs. His family also contracted a piece of responsibility farmland and a piece of mountain forest land.

He is a well-known figure in the local area. To put it in a grandiose way, he can be said to be an old immortal. People from miles around often come to him to "ask questions", and he feels like a part-time shaman.

This kind of person is usually called a Chu Ma Xian in the Northeast, and the neighbors also spread the word so, but Xiao Guangnian has never personally admitted his identity as a Chu Ma Xian... Anyway, in the eyes of the locals, he is just a charlatan with some stuff.

He Kao had never seen Xiao Guangnian before, nor had he heard of his name. How did he recognize him now and know so much information about him?
The reason why He Kao was surprised just now was that he finally knew what kind of divine mind seal Old Man Jiang gave him before he left home after dinner that day!
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(End of this chapter)