Hidden Moth-Chapter 465 - 263: Awaiting the Thaw

He found the place from his memory, standing on a patch of ice in the river valley, and took out a Spirit Awakening Pill. Wisps of luminous mist drifted out from the pill, settling into the ice layer before him.

The ice layer here was about a meter thick, with the river water flowing slowly beneath. Within the mud and sand at the riverbed lay a pearl mother clam, about the size of a washbasin. If one were to count the tiny lines on its shell, they would find it had been growing for over a century.

When He Kao came here searching on the first day of the Lunar New Year, he had discovered this pearl mother clam. Its position was nearly at the limit of what He Kao’s divine sense could explore, but he hadn’t touched it.

This pearl mother clam was still alive, in a dormant state yet concealing vital essence. There were no pearls within its shell, much less Xue Guanghan. According to Lin Qingshuang, its shell was also a pearl mother.

He Kao wasn’t here today to take the pearl mother; he wanted to try if he could have the pearl mother clam consume a Spirit Awakening Pill.

The greatest difficulty in doing so was that he couldn’t dig out the pearl mother clam in the subzero temperature, or it would freeze to death. He could only cast spells through the ice layer and the flowing water.

Fortunately, he succeeded in casting the spell, and after much effort, he finally helped the pearl mother clam "consume" the Spirit Awakening Pill. Unfortunately, he had wasted a precious elixir, and the pearl mother clam showed no apparent change.

He Kao felt slightly dizzy and sensed the cold in the icy world. The two casts just now, especially the one to "medicate" the pearl mother clam beneath the ice, had nearly exhausted his divine power.

After catching his breath, he left a mark on the clam shell’s surface, so next time he could find it within the range of his divine sense, hopefully finding it again... then he directly returned to Pugang Town.

He needed a good rest today because he had to go to work tomorrow.

It was already his seventh day of fasting. With such a long period of fasting, one must cautiously and gradually restore food intake, avoiding sudden bingeing.

This was He Kao’s first time fasting, but he felt quite good. It seemed as if his body and mind had undergone purification. He thought he could persist for a few more days, not in a hurry to eat, just taking a Jade Phoenix Tree Seed.

At this time, he finally had the chance to plug in his phone charger. After turning it on, he checked the messages from the past few days. There wasn’t anything urgent from others, except Li Xiuyuan said he needed to talk to him.

He dialed Elder Li’s number. It was hard to explain clearly over the phone, so he hurried to the location Elder Li specified, deep in the mountains not far from Phoenix Tail Town.

When He Kao activated the map, he avoided the Phoenix Tail Town area, but had been to the nearby places. Li Xiuyuan gave him a coordinate and explained the terrain, making it recognizable and easy to find.

It was a gently sloping ridge like a fish’s back, over two thousand meters in altitude, with large exposed rocks on the ridge, patterned with fish-scale-like cracks, easily identifiable from afar.

When He Kao walked up the ridge, Elder Li was already standing there waiting. He approached and said, "Elder, why did you arrange to meet here?"

Li Xiuyuan: "You came quite quickly. Do you know what this place is?"

He Kao: "I’ve studied the maps and place names around Phoenix Tail Town. This place is called Dragon Scale Slope."

Li Xiuyuan pointed down the mountain and said, "That basin is the Fengyu Plateau, where the portal to Fengyu Grotto Heaven is located. I’ve been bringing Zhang Jin Kui and Chang’an Residence to Fengyu Grotto Heaven these past few days for secondary inheritance and to pay respect to the ancestral patriarch. It’s the most convenient to meet here..."

The matter for which Li Xiuyuan sought He Kao was related to Zhang Jin Kui.

Zhang Jin Kui had met someone with the alias of Moderator online, who had fooled him for several years. The information about Elder Mei and He Kao was also disclosed by that moderator.

Zhang Jin Kui came to Qi Yuan looking for He Kao, only to encounter Li Xiuyuan. After verifying his identity and investigating his past actions, not only was it a matter of acknowledging his ancestry, but it was more important to investigate the clues he provided.

It was expected they could use Zhang Jin Kui to lure out the moderator, but things weren’t that simple. After Zhang Jin Kui met He Kao, the moderator blacklisted him and kicked him out of the so-called "Cultivation Chat Group."

Zhang Jin Kui didn’t know the moderator’s real identity, with only an online contact, and many online records weren’t kept.

Over the past couple of days, Li Xiuyuan had been helping him recall various details. After all, he had interacted with the moderator for so long. Surely there must be some clues among the traces.

After some investigation, they indeed pinpointed a suspect, whose identity surprised Li Xiuyuan – it turned out to be Xing Rui, the Steward of the Alchemy Sect!

The Alchemy Sect had three stewards, namely Wan Zhongle, Wu Chongshan, and Xing Rui.

Sect Leader Mei Guyu was too young and had been in seclusion in the Immortal Pot Grotto Heaven over recent years, so the sect affairs were mainly managed by these three stewards.

Xing Rui was both a religious and Daoist title. Historically, many Magic Sect disciples had religious titles. A religious title was the name given by a master during the transmission of teachings, but nowadays, it’s not strict whether one has a religious title.

Her real name was Song Fengyang, a salaried Daoist, commonly known as a Daoist Nun in the vernacular, and known in lay terms as Layman Xingrui, and in Dao as Xingrui Daoist.

Upon hearing Elder Li’s introduction, He Kao frowned and said, "The steward of the Alchemy Sect leaked information, and it’s not Wan Zhongle?"

Li Xiuyuan glared at him, "I know Wan Zhongle has some indirect vendetta with you, but without evidence, you can’t unjustly accuse someone!"

He Kao: "Then what evidence is there for Xing Rui’s leak?"

Li Xiuyuan: "There’s no evidence either, just suspicion, which is why I need your help."

Not only was Zhang Jin Kui kicked out of the group, but the Cultivation Chat Group was also disbanded following the investigation. Elder Li instructed Zhang Jin Kui to recall every group member’s information and every word they had said.

It’s impossible to remember everything, but anything recalled is beneficial; a high-tier cultivator has a remarkably good memory... Based on the gathered intelligence, some clues pointed toward Xing Rui.

The Cultivation Chat Group that Zhang Jin Kui joined had a member with the online name "AI Qingfeng." In Zhang Jingu’s memory, "AI Qingfeng" was very mysterious, rarely speaking in the group, almost like an invisible presence.

Li Xiuyuan had an impression of this because Xing Rui had once used that online name.

That was a long time ago, roughly twenty years, when Song Fengyang had not yet started entry-level cultivation and wasn’t a salaried Daoist but still a high school student who once used the name "AI Qingfeng."

Xing Rui was also from an independent cultivator background, initially taught techniques by an old Daoist. She developed an interest in Daoist culture in college and then was appointed as a Daoist, for that reason.

Her master gave her the Daoist title Xing Rui, after which she continually used that name. About fifteen years ago, she broke through to Tier Four cultivation, sensed the Grotto Heaven summon, and found the Immortal Pot Grotto Heaven of the Alchemy Sect. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Nowadays, in the Magic Sect, no one knows she once used such an online name. But fifteen years ago, when she returned to the sect, the Ancestral Hall also secretly assisted by Li Xiuyuan to verify her identity, background, and past actions.

Li Xiuyuan is quite familiar with Xing Rui’s situation, so he also remembers it.

**