CHAPTER 74: CHAPTER 38: THE TURMOIL OF YIN NIANG AND THE WOODCUTTER (PART 3)

The Hidden Moth is extinct, so the task of overseeing the actions of sorcerers across the world mainly falls on the Heart Plate Sect’s elder Earth Master. This is not an official rule, but a tacit understanding accepted by all.

Because cultivating the Heart Plate Skill also requires traveling the world, and now that the Hidden Moth is gone, the Earth Master is the most suitable candidate for this task... In short, the Earth Master takes the lead, and elders from other sects provide necessary support.

The Xingshen Sect opened the grand array and admitted defeat, explaining what had happened. The other Six Great Technique Sects initially didn’t believe it, as the explanation sounded like a tale made up by a three-year-old.

But precisely because it was too bizarre, it might actually be true!

It took thirty years for this misunderstanding to be resolved, and the Xingshen Sect was finally reaccepted by the other Six Great Technique Sects. The new era "Magic Sect Union" was successfully established, marking the end of a century of chaos and division.

How was the misunderstanding resolved? Because that woodcutter, Gong Da Fang, was finally found! The records are very detailed, ordinary disciples don’t have the right to view them, but all sect elders know.

Thirty years later, Gong Da Fang was no longer a woodcutter; he had become a local gentry who had once donated money for an official post, taking on a very elegant name, living in a beautiful estate with a charming wife and beautiful concubines, surrounded by his many descendants.

An elder from the Xingshen Sect discovered him and then informed the Ancestral Hall of the Six Great Technique Sects, after which a large batch of sect experts arrived, and they found that old chopping knife.

It was still the same old chopping knife, but it had been carefully polished and maintained, usually wrapped in red silk and placed in an exquisite sandalwood box, obviously a beloved treasure of Master Gong.

Strangely, this Master Gong had completely forgotten anything related to the Hidden Moth, including the fact that he had once been the Hidden Moth.

Why did he cherish that chopping knife so much? Master Gong explained that he was once a woodcutter and that this chopping knife was his livelihood and also brought him luck... such as when he snuck into the enemy camp and chopped off the head of the commanding general.

As for how he snuck in? It was stealthily done in the dead of night!

Thirty years ago, there was also a gang of bandits who tried to steal his treasure, but he cleverly tricked them back into the knife, chopped open the door, and hacked his way out of the bandit lair.

As long as he held the chopping knife, he always had good fortune; this was his stubborn and inexplicable belief that one must not forget one’s roots, hence he cherished the chopping knife.

A commoner trying to deceive the high ranks of various sects was impossible. Everyone was flabbergasted because they found—Master Gong was actually telling the truth!

This was very wrong, as if there was something wrong with the world. Of course, they wouldn’t give up; they took Master Gong and imprisoned him in the same secret room as back then, leaving behind the chopping knife.

But it was useless, as Master Gong was near starvation yet couldn’t leave. So, everyone had to give up and sent Gong Da Fang back home.

The chopping knife story was absurd since that chopping knife clearly couldn’t have a hundred-year history.

Those who personally experienced the "Yin Niang Revolt" were still alive back then, like the Tier Seven Grand Physician from the Observing Body Sect, who was over a hundred years old.

According to his recollections, the Hidden Moth Divine Nun never actually used a chopping knife, let alone carry one into magical combat.

So what happened with the woodcutter, or rather the Hidden Moth? The sects didn’t give up on secretly surveilling Gong Da Fang, but shortly after Gong Da Fang returned home, he passed away, possibly due to fright.

This act was ignoble, and the ending was unpleasant, so ordinary disciples don’t have the rights to view related records.

But what happened next was even stranger; someone discovered that the Hidden Moth might have changed into another person, and it turned out to be a maid who ran away from Gong Da Fang’s household.

The maid was sixteen when she fled, very pretty and liked by Master Gong, who planned to take her as a concubine. But this maiden surprisingly ran away, two years before the sects found Gong Da Fang.

In the closed environment of ancient times, a maid running away often meant eloping with a servant, but no servant from the Gong household was reported missing. Where could an identity-unidentified young lady run off to?

Whether eloped or kidnapped, the Gong Family reported to the government. A few years later, the government actually found her; she had become the proprietress of a shop in the State Capital City.

The proprietress would come forward to do business, mainly receiving women with shopping needs, but on that day, she happened to meet an acquaintance from back then. When the authorities went to verify, the proprietress had disappeared, along with various valuables from the shop.

No one knows who, when, or how these items were transported away; this was key to determining her identity as the Hidden Moth.

If this maid was the Hidden Moth, then what Hidden Moth object did she obtain? Surely not that chopping knife, which remained at Master Gong’s home, cherished by his eldest son!

These are the secret records available to sect elders, currently stored in the Ancestral Hall.

For a thousand years afterward, there continued to be traces of Hidden Moths appearing, but the sects never caught a real Hidden Moth. Or, like with the woodcutter, the people were found, but they were no longer the Hidden Moth.

As for the Hidden Moth object, it was even more unfathomable, not that there were no clues, but various clues contradicted one another, as if the world’s logic was flawed.

Today, the Hidden Moth turmoil has risen again; Gu Chun found Jiang Daozhen, wanting him to answer these questions.

**

PS: This Chapter is quite lengthy, hence it took a long time to write.