Hidden Moth-Chapter 461 - 260: Purging Lead Poison As Always
He Kao was at Nanhua with Lan Jiwan and Ye Liangcheng, and after finishing the meal, he practiced to dissipate the alcohol. The sun hadn’t set yet when he returned to Qi Yuan.
During the meal, Gao Xue’e mentioned what President Qian said in the elevator today. He Kao laughed but didn’t reveal much, only suggesting that it wasn’t impossible for Gao Xue’e to be promoted to deputy general manager, considering her qualifications and abilities.
When Qian Guran initially took the position of deputy general manager, he was in charge of He Kao’s department. If Gao Xue’e were to truly assume that position, the pressure wouldn’t be greater than being a departmental manager, but her rank and salary would be higher.
The company personnel issues were mentioned just in passing; He Kao mainly reminded Gao Xue’e to take this holiday as an opportunity to focus on cultivation, not slacken any day, and strive for advancement.
Gao Xue’e took an extra week off, planning to spend this half-month secluding at home. He Kao also planned to go into seclusion during the Spring Festival, attempting long-term meditation, requiring a three-day fasting prior. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
So, after accompanying Gao Xue’e for the meal, he started fasting, having already acquired the relevant fasting cultivation technique.
On the afternoon of the New Year’s Day, north of Wulong River in the Forest Sea Snowfield within Maoluo Country’s borders, beside a river valley, He Kao sat on a tiger skin armchair basking in the sun, holding a thermos with tea from Chang’an Residence.
This was genuine tiger skin and a genuine chair.
He Kao had processed the chair himself, using leftover teak material from flooring his house’s third floor.
Around this time last year, Magic Sect renegade Zeng Hongye, along with foreign disciple Xiaosi, crossed Wulong River while pursuing Wu Yanjun. Though Zeng Hongye was a cultivator, he didn’t have the reputed spatial storage equipment and had hunted a tiger nearby for food.
They had left behind a complete tiger skin and skeleton, which He Kao later took away.
He was thrifty, emphasizing resourcefulness, and even took home the massage clothing from Chang’an Residence after having a massage there earlier this year.
Some items couldn’t be taken out otherwise; they would be illegal. The tiger skin, after he processed it, was stored in the Gu Mountain Secret Mansion. As for the tiger bones, he privately gifted them to Lin Qingshuang for medicinal purposes.
Since he still needed to fast for three days before attempting long-term meditation, he wasn’t staying in Floating Colors Grotto Heaven all the time. He took the opportunity to gather some spirit medicine here and tried to see if he could find another Snow Glimmer.
Last year, he gifted Lin Qingshuang a high-quality, aged wild ginseng, which greatly pleased Elder Lin. As for relatively ordinary mountain ginseng, He Kao left them to grow further in the wild.
Owing to differences in climate and environment, here grow various spirit medicines, which neither Lin Qingshuang’s Qihuang Spirit Garden nor Hidden Moth Sect’s Floating Colors Grotto Heaven possessed. If encountering high-quality ones, it wouldn’t hurt to gather some.
Tomorrow, he had to pay New Year’s visit to Lin Qingshuang, thus it would be awkward to go empty-handed.
As for his quest for Snow Glimmer, the artifact is elusive and depends on opportunity. He had visited here during summer, but the water level was high and rapid, nearly overflowing the entire valley.
He couldn’t search for pearl clams beneath the riverbed mud and had to wait until the freeze.
Now the river had frozen over, and the ice level dropped several meters compared to the flood season, revealing large patches of shore covered in rocks and mud, under a blanket of snow.
Last year, He Kao’s divine sense could only penetrate less than a meter below the earth’s frozen surface; now it could delve almost two meters deep. His exploration range extended more deeply through the ice layer and the water below.
The harshest time of the year turned out to be the best for seeking Snow Glimmer.
Winter here was bone-chilling, with nighttime temperatures plunging to negative forty degrees, though midday hovered around negative twenty degrees. During snowstorm gales, losing direction among the dense forest valleys was easy.
Moreover, there was no road here, making transport impossible, posing considerable danger.
Despite being a cultivator, He Kao need not endure undue hardship; he arrived at noon amid no wind nor clouds, with rare sunshine allowing the temperature to climb just below negative ten degrees.
He spread his Moth Wings to glide close to the ground, using divine sense to survey the riverbed... this method consumed considerable mana but was efficient. Tiring, he rested in a sheltered spot on the tiger skin chair under the sun.
He amassed quite a bit today, placing two face-basin-sized river clams at his feet, frozen solid—he found two Snow Glimmers.
He had decided to cease his search; greed shouldn’t overextend.
Some river clam species have lifespans comparable to humans, rare among mollusks. The cold-water river clams from the Wulong River basin were named pearl mother clams.
Even in deep winter, despite the river’s frozen surface, the water depth below maintains temperatures above zero, with pearl mother clams semi-buried in the deep sediment in dormancy.
Failing depths, trapped within surface ice when frozen, the pearl mother clams would freeze to death.
Only clams over a hundred years old might form Snow Glimmer, yet merely might; it appears some mutated phenomenon. These clams were still fresh but devoid of vitality, evidently frozen into the riverbed this winter.
It seemed during the slow freezing process, pearl mother clams compressed a century’s accumulation of intangible essence into a perfect, flawless pearl, which was Snow Glimmer.
The rarity of Snow Glimmer need not be mentioned; even pearl mother clam shells are a rare medicinal ingredient, used to clear heat toxin, improve eyesight, enhance yin, calm the heart and spirit, promote cell growth, dissipate masses, and also—beautification.
The older the pearl mother clam, the more potent its shell as a medicinal ingredient. The best, naturally, is the hundred-year pearl mother clam capable of forming Snow Glimmer, whose shell became a spirit medicine, known as pearl mother.
Pearl mother is the primary ingredient for a Beauty Pill.
Beauty Pill’s effect needs no explanation; the name speaks for itself. Its concoction requires great expertise, beyond He Kao’s current capability.
Last year, He Kao collected a Snow Glimmer, storing the pearl mother shell at the Gu Mountain Secret Mansion, only realizing its use after receiving Elder Li’s alchemy technique inheritance.
Though pearl mother is precious, can Snow Glimmer be used in medicine too?
Theoretically, yes, but practically, few would do so as that would be tantamount to squandering treasure. Snow Glimmer approaches a natural treasure, requiring minimal refinement to become an actual magical artifact, containing Beauty Pill’s effect.
Today, he found not only two Snow Glimmers but each clam yielded two shell pieces, four face-basin sized pearl mothers in all.
He Kao planned to drive from Pugang to Runzhou tomorrow to pay a New Year’s visit to Lin Qingshuang. He intended to gift a pair of pearl mothers, certainly to the delight of Elder Lin, along with other gifts.
He Kao gathered nine other spirit medicines, all various spirit plant roots imbued with essence... Gathering medicine this season was extremely difficult, almost impossible for many, yet yielded the best results.
Anyone else wouldn’t manage easily as he did. Yet He Kao, as Hidden Moth, could instantly reach any previously visited place, effortlessly obtaining needed items.
For instance, the Cold Needle Jade and Celestial Palace Curtain used in crafting Awakening Incense were not only found in Floating Colors Grotto Heaven; He Kao had discovered them in several other locations, whenever necessary, easily found.
He Kao sat amidst the icy landscape, yet felt warm and content—a thrill beyond ordinary understanding, akin to a transcendent enjoyment.
Earlier, he inexplicably pondered legendary storage magical treasures, or rather spatial divine artifact—could the Magic Sect possess one? He’d witnessed a Flying Divine Artifact; spatial divine artifact ought to exist too.
A few days ago Elder Li handed him a Bottle-Opening Spirit Pill and a gourd of Transformation Pill, yet he couldn’t discern where Elder Li retrieved them from.
In reality, whether spatial or flying divine artifact, giving them to He Kao now would be futile, his cultivation lacking, needing at least Tier Six for use. However, he possessed even more marvelous means.
Flying around is exhausting; he could traverse through space directly. With Moth Wings now, aerial gliding was possible. Regarding spatial divine artifact, wasn’t it akin to carrying a large bag? To him, it was akin to carrying the world itself.
Using reverse thinking, the world itself acted as his spatial divine artifact, from which he could draw various worldly items anytime, like the tiger skin chair he now sat upon, just carried over from Gu Mountain Secret Mansion...
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