The Hidden Moth Sect has a Stealth Skill, and other major Magic Sects each have techniques to conceal Divine Qi. Hilary is undoubtedly very adept at this. Given his current environment, it's indeed challenging to detect him using only Divine Sense.
But He Kao is different; he saw it directly with his "eyes."
The Yin Spirit floated over the upper part of the carriage space and saw Hilary but did not disturb him, maintaining a state of silence.
About twenty minutes later, Hilary chose a particularly crowded and chaotic station to get off the bus, carefully keeping his presence concealed along the way.
Though still cautious, he clearly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he had safely escaped. Little did he know, once the Hidden Moth had marked someone secretly, it was nearly impossible to lose track of them.
After leaving the station, Hilary hailed a cab and headed towards the suburbs, with He Kao's Yin Spirit floating and tailing him from above.
The range for Yin Spirit Detachment is limited. With He Kao's current cultivation, the maximum in an open area is within six kilometers, but the vehicle had traveled more than six kilometers.
But this wasn't much of a challenge for He Kao because the true body of Hidden Moth can teleport. Just as he was approaching the distance limit, he teleported his true body to a hidden location that the Yin Spirit had observed beforehand, and continued to release the Yin Spirit to follow.
Even in the city, there are many corners hidden from view and surveillance, so it's always possible to find such a place to teleport. He Kao originally thought Hilary would soon reach his destination, but he never stopped.
He Kao chased for about an hour, teleporting more than a dozen times. The vehicle had long left the Qi Yuan City District and entered the southwest countryside, eventually reaching the Gu Mountain area.
What He Kao was doing also consumed Divine Power, and he couldn't endlessly track without limits.
Luckily, the vehicle finally stopped. Calculating the distance, it had traveled more than fifty kilometers from the starting point and was now a hundred kilometers away, almost reaching the neighboring province of Wucheng City.
This place is now Gucheng District of Qi Yuan City, formerly known as Gucheng County, with a large lake called Gu Lake. Two years ago, He Kao had even taken Gao Xue'e to the lakeshore for a farmhouse meal of crabs, and the Gu Mountain Secret Mansion he built was also in this area.
Hilary got off in the county seat and used an Illusion Technique to conceal his whereabouts again... This time, He Kao didn't lose him, because the distance Hilary concealed his tracks wasn't far, and he reappeared soon again.
He came to the foothills of Gu Mountain in the county, where there was a lakeside resort developed by locals, essentially a remodeled small village, filled with detached buildings.
Hilary appeared in a two-story building, and He Kao, using the Yin Spirit Tracking Technique, soon discovered him… This should be a stopover point he deliberately chose.
He Kao couldn't help but secretly complain, no wonder he hadn't tracked Hilary these past few days; it turns out he was hiding in such a distant place, also thanks to the convenience of modern transportation that he could cause trouble in Qi Yuan.
He Kao also secretly admired—President E is really impressive!
These words weren't praising Gao Xue'e's beauty, but rather her mastery in cultivating techniques. Hilary shouldn't know that Gao Xue'e is also a sorcerer.
Even though Gao Xue'e only possesses Tier Two Cultivation, she has several special applied techniques that she excels in, which He Kao specifically instructed.
After Gao Xue'e suddenly reached Tier Two Cultivation, He Kao told her that one should focus on establishing a solid foundation first before worrying about advancing to higher realms, ensuring that no one realizes she's a sorcerer.
So during this year, apart from cultivating the Fundamental Technique, Gao Xue'e primarily trained in applied techniques like Concealing Divine Qi, to make herself appear ordinary.
A Tier Two Sorcerer of the Hidden Moth Sect is also known as an Assassin, and a truly adept assassin isn't someone who can't be seen, but someone who, even when seen, doesn't draw suspicion.
If not already aware, even He Kao couldn't detect Gao Xue'e's cultivation presence in a normal state…
He Kao did not alert Hilary and decided to leave temporarily. Knowing his stopover point would make it easier to deal with him securely; he went to Floating Colors Grotto Heaven to gather reinforcements.
Li Xiuyuan was right. In the Qi Yuan territory, the one who should be scared is Hilary. Hilary would never dare to openly expose himself and cause a direct confrontation, so what does He Kao have to fear?
In terms of strength, He Kao is not weak, and in terms of status, he is a respected elder of a sect. The nature of this incident seems to be a personal vendetta, not something He Kao plans to leverage the power of the Ancestral Hall for; he decided to handle it himself.
This counts as the first collective external action since the founding of the Hidden Moth Sect.
During the early morning hours, He Kao brought Erji and Lan Jiwan to the outskirts of Gucheng. The reason he didn't bring Ye Liangchen and Chang'an Residence was that those two haven't yet broken through to Tier Four Cultivation and can't yet control Magical Artifacts.
Hilary used a series of methods to shake off the assailants but still felt uneasy.
Although this stopover point is quite hidden, he's been staying here a bit too long, which might lead to someone tracking him. He packed his belongings, planning to move to a different place tomorrow, preferably leaving Qi Yuan temporarily.
In the early morning, before dawn, while meditating and recuperating, Hilary suddenly felt a pang of unease, as if some unnamed danger was closing in.
The ambush that came from the sky during the day had churned his blood and energy. After forcefully using the Illusion Technique for a long time to escape, while nothing appeared on the surface, he was actually injured.
This injury wasn't very serious, a few days of proper recuperation would heal it, but fighting anyone right now was not ideal.
The sound of insects outside the window continued, but it seemed to grow more distant, reaching the ears as if through an invisible barrier. This was not right!
Hillary reacted swiftly, quickly dressed, grabbed a prepared bag nearby, and used an illusion technique to conceal her tracks, quietly leaving through the window of another room on the second floor.
However, after jumping down, the night didn't reveal the original village but instead a dense forest, with only fragmented moonlight filtering through the shadows of tree branches.
An illusion? Hillary herself was proficient in this art and immediately realized that this was not merely an illusion technique but an array; someone had quietly set up an array here.
The resort's guest rooms were all standalone buildings, convenient for protecting customer privacy and also convenient for He Kao and others to make their move. At this moment, He Kao had set up the Array of Ten Thousand Woods Rejuvenation, sacrificing the chessboard left by Jiang Daozhen.
Gu Chun set up the Array of Ten Thousand Woods Rejuvenation at Pugang Town, and the Array Artifact was the chessboard used by Jiang Daozhen at his stall.
The chessboard could be used for setting up an array elsewhere by itself, but this time it was not the Earth Qi Spirit Core around Pugang Town that maintained the array but the cultivation and magical power of the array's setter.
Hillary realized she was trapped within the array, and a short stick immediately flew out of her backpack, transforming into a spindle shape and darting swiftly away.
To break the array, besides relying on brute strength backed by powerful cultivation, one had to find the array's eye and core, best by directly destroying the array core. The present array core was He Kao himself, serving the role of a Jade Phoenix Tree.
If ordinary people were trapped in the array, they wouldn't have been able to discover He Kao's presence at all, but Hillary was clearly not ordinary. She launched an attack on He Kao at the first moment.
Because He Kao carried a strong killing intent, he was locked onto by Hillary's Divine Sense.
At this moment, He Kao appeared in a strange manner, enveloped in a mass of light and shadow charging straight forward, colliding with the flying shuttle's edge. The flying shuttle exploded, but what was shaken back was not He Kao but a chess piece.
This skirmish seemed evenly matched, the entire grand array trembled, yet no sound reached the outside world.
The Array of Ten Thousand Woods Rejuvenation primarily nurtures forms and spirits, but it is not without offensive capabilities, and the chess piece was part of the matching Array Artifact. At this moment, He Kao was activating a "chariot" piece.
The short stick returned to Hillary's hand, but before she could activate it for any change, she let out a strange cry and swung forward with all her might; it turned out to be Lan Jiwan attacking from the shadows.
Lan Jiwan used a "cannon" piece. As the saying goes, "the cannon strikes across mountains"; Lan Jiwan hid behind He Kao, or more precisely within He Kao's shielding divine power, even Hillary failed to perceive at first.
With Lan Jiwan's sudden attack, Hillary was a little too late to react. The short stick was met with an invisible impact, and then she was blasted away, blood oozing from her ear and nose.
Lan Jiwan's single strike injured Hillary, not because her cultivation was higher, but due to the suddenness of the assault and the perfect timing, with He Kao leading and concealing in the front.
Hillary was already wounded, now more so compounded by injury. She did not stand firm to fight back but instead took advantage of the direction she was knocked towards, charging fast, and summoned the short stick in hand, blending her form with the flying shuttle, intending to forcibly break the array and escape.
Her choice was very wise; the opponents' cultivation was not weak and they had the advantage of the array. Choosing to stay and entangle would only be more disadvantageous.
Resistance surged forward like a giant wave, as if intending to tear form and spirit apart. Hillary, enduring heavier injury, surged forward resolutely, suddenly feeling the pressure lighten, and she shot out, appearing on a hillside outside the village.
She finally broke through the array and escaped. By virtue of her cultivation methods, once successfully fleeing, capturing her again would be very difficult... just as she thought this, she faintly heard a strange incantation, as if time and space were in chaos, as if trapped in a swirling void.
Those who had been waiting for a long time, Erie had activated the Four Seasons Flower Screen, trapping her into another array, chanting a buddhist mantra simultaneously.
With He Kao's cultivation relying on the Array of Ten Thousand Woods Rejuvenation, it was not impossible to forcibly keep Hillary within, but doing so would also pose risks.
First of all, even if they managed to kill Hillary in a desperate struggle, He Kao or Lan Jiwan might also get injured. Secondly and most importantly, the power of the magical combat if uncontrolled, might affect that village.
The Array of Ten Thousand Woods Rejuvenation they set covered half the village, and other villagers were all lulled into sleep, shielded by He Kao through the array, but if the magical combat was too intense, they still might be impacted.
So He Kao first struck Hillary unexpectedly, then guided the panicked, disoriented Hillary to break the array and escape, which effectively opened a breach for her to run.
This reserved exit was on the hillside outside the village, and Erie was waiting there, causing Hillary to exit one array and enter another.
Hillary immediately activated the Dispelling Spirit Eye, the so-called Dispelling Spirit Eye was not about seeing with the eyes, but a technique activating divine sense, perceiving certain mysteries of the array's operation.
In her perspective, someone was manipulating the array's magical treasure, and on the nighttime hillside, phenomena of four seasons' flora alternated, confusing one's senses of time and space thus trapping within. Only maintaining concentration and depleting mana could break the array.
But Hillary no longer had time to break the array, suddenly colorful light appeared in the dusky night, and she saw a figure emerge in the chaos, the radiance coming from magnificently opened wings at its side.
Hillary couldn't discern He Kao's features, but what she saw felt like a gigantic moth.
He Kao personally entered the Four Seasons Flower Screen array, activated the magical treasure, Moth Wings. Not only could the Moth Wings assist him in transitioning to a glide when falling from heights, but they also allowed him to unleash Wind Blade attacks, safeguarding his form and spirit likewise.
**
