ng Ya, the na itself carries an imagery, is twenty-two years old this year, having graduated from her bachelor’s degree over a year ago.
She started school a year earlier than most, graduating earlier too. It’s not that she was bad at studies; it’s just that she encountered Peng Xian.
Postgraduate studies are just about learning knowledge and skills, but is there any knowledge or skill in the world more enticing than the enigmatic mystic arts? What she followed Peng Xian to learn was the Observing Body Skill.
Peng Xian appeared before her as a sorcerer from the Observing Body Sect, introducing her to many aspects of ancient magic sects, techniques, and sorcerers.
Most of Peng Xian’s words were true, but he glossed over so sensitive details and didn’t ntion so important information at all. He told ng Ya that in today’s society, sorcerers must act covertly and never reveal their identities.
And ng Ya’s cultivation was still shallow; she had to pass task tests and break through higher realms before she qualified to beco an official disciple of the Magic Sect, and then she could connect with other allies of the magic sect...
At that ti, ng Ya had already cultivated the introductory level of the Observing Body Skill and beca a Tier One "Diagnoser", but she didn’t know that continuing cultivation would make it difficult to break through to beco a Tier Two "Acupuncturist".
At least from Peng Xian’s perspective, it was practically impossible.
The techniques Peng Xian taught her only included the Foundation Establishnt of the Observing Body Skill and Tier One content, but it didn’t include the advanced ritual for a Tier One Diagnoser to breakthrough to a Tier Two Acupuncturist, because Peng Xian himself hadn’t obtained it.
Peng Xian’s intention wasn’t to train a disciple of the Observing Body Sect, but rather a ticulously designed advancent ritual for himself. As ng Ya cultivated the introductory level of the Observing Body Skill, Peng Xian also successfully upgraded from a Tier One "Disguiser" to a Tier Two "Fisherman" in the Xingshen Sect.
The essence of this ritual is to successfully perform a perfect disguise, not only making the target of the disguise deeply convinced but also accomplishing a core objective consistent with the disguised identity.
Did the ritual have to be designed like this by Peng Xian, deceiving an inexperienced girl? Of course not, the sa principles could have been applied in other ways.
So, does that an the advancent ritual Peng Xian designed was too unscrupulous? ng Ya believed herself a prospective disciple of the Observing Body Sect, unaware that she could never receive complete inheritance or access the real Magic Sect.
Peng Xian was indeed unscrupulous, there’s no doubt about it, as practice has fully proven.
But looking at it from another angle, he did teach ng Ya genuine mystic arts, giving an ordinary person the chance to cultivate the introductory level of the Observing Body Skill and achieve extraordinary accomplishnts—this wasn’t necessarily harmful to ng Ya.
Peng Xian himself certainly saw it that way, which seed sowhat reasonable.
But if he couldn’t even achieve these results, the advancent ritual would also be impossible to succeed.
ng Ya always wanted to call Peng Xian her master privately but never formally beca his disciple. Normally, she called Peng Xian her brother-in-law, but they weren’t actually related by blood.
During her sumr vacation in her junior year and the first sester of her senior year, ng Ya worked an internship at a company, not because she needed money to work part-ti, but to gain social practice.
The person in charge at this company was a woman in her thirties, from ng Ya’s hotown and distantly related, twisting through connections. According to their hotown’s customs, they called each other cousins when eting outside.
This cousin was said to be the widow of a big boss, who had passed away, although so said he was on the run, while others said the big boss was actually a high-ranking leader...
Anyway, a widow is a widow, and she "inherited" a well-run company, mainly valuable for its franchising credentials. Peng Xian ca to discuss cooperation, which resulted in forming another kind of partnership with her cousin.
So ng Ya called him brother-in-law, feeling it a stroke of luck that her cousin t a man like Peng Xian. As for Peng Xian’s ans of gaining both love and wealth, ng Ya wasn’t aware at the ti, and even if she was, she wouldn’t think much of it.
In ng Ya’s eyes, Peng Xian was viewed with rose-tinted glasses; he was a charming, mysterious man with extraordinary abilities, opening a door for her to the mysterious world...
ng Ya admired Peng Xian greatly, was psychologically dependent on him, and followed his words blindly, never doubting for a mont.
Peng Xian arranged for her to co to Qi Yuan, assigning her to work at the ergency call center as an operator, which she gladly accepted. She could have easily found a better job, at least far superior to this one.
As an operator at the 110 ergency call center, she received a lot of negative emotions every day; you couldn’t expect callers to be happy when making reports, could you? And emotions are contagious.
There were also many inexplicable people calling the ergency line, like unreasonable ones, ignorant ones, troublemakers, even perverts of various sorts... Only by experiencing it firsthand would one understand how complicated it was.
The job of an operator was arduous with low pay, not to ntion frequent night shifts, yet ng Ya was quite happy with it for a while. She didn’t approach it with a normal person’s mindset but as a "master of the mystic arts" experiencing worldly affairs.
To exaggerate, it was like a god descending to understand the sufferings of the world, without feeling the hardships herself.
To her, this was a test mission from the Magic Sect, as well as the sorcerer’s training in the mortal world. Peng Xian wanted her to pay attention to special cases and incidents, and she faithfully executed this.
One day, Xiaopang pulled a prank, swapping the apples in Gao Xue’e’s living room with oranges. Nobody else noticed this nor could anyone outside know about it, yet ng Ya inford Peng Xian in a tily manner.
This was against work discipline, but ng Ya took on this job with a different purpose and mindset anyway.
Before the Golden Week holiday, Peng Xian told ng Ya he had important matters to attend to, which might take so ti, roughly a month or two, instructing ng Ya not to contact him unless necessary; he would reach out to her if anything ca up.
Peng Xian said the sa to the subordinates at Jinxing dia.
Therefore, for a long period after the holiday, ng Ya didn’t feel anything unusual, and even Jinxing dia was operating normally.
But as nearly three months passed, and the end of the year was approaching with Peng Xian still missing, she finally sensed sothing was wrong.
ng Ya first went to Jinxing dia to inquire. Over there, they were also trying various ways to find their boss, and from the managent to the employees, they finally realized one thing—Boss Peng was really missing!
Although Boss Peng had often been absent for ten days to half a month in the past, such a long period of being out of contact had never happened before, and with the end of the year approaching, many things needed his decision, like—how much the year-end bonus should be and how to distribute it?
Just two days ago, Jinxing dia had decided to report to the police.
ng Ya wasn’t the one who answered the police call; she was on leave this week.
Unable to find anyone in Peng Xian’s company, ng Ya contacted a cousin in another city. When the cousin heard she was looking for Peng Xian, she began cursing, but not ng Ya, rather Peng Xian.
The cousin told ng Ya that Peng Xian was a person who swindled money and cheated on won, took a large sum of money from her, and then disappeared, causing her company’s cash flow to be in trouble...
The cousin had determined that Peng Xian was a con man who must have fled with the money, and she also asked ng Ya with concern—was she also deceived by Peng Xian?
ng Ya suggested the cousin report to the police, but the cousin hesitated... She wasn’t aware that the money had issues, its origins were sowhat shady, and the cousin didn’t want to involve the police.
ng Ya felt as if her worldview was collapsing; she couldn’t believe her cousin’s words and thought Peng Xian must have encountered so trouble, feeling very anxious.
The various negative energies at work, which she didn’t care about before, gradually beca an unbearable ordeal recently, so she took leave.
She just wanted to find Peng Xian, even if sothing happened to him, she wanted to find out what it was.
ng Ya recalled Gao Xue’e, whom Peng Xian had ntioned; the departnt led by Gao Xue’e had collaborations with Jinxing dia, and Peng Xian had also told her to dig into Gao Xue’e.
With no other choice, ng Ya finally found Gao Xue’e. She claid to be a relative of Peng Xian, inquiring about his whereabouts because he had been out of contact.
Having heard about President Peng’s collaboration with the project team and their previous team-building activities, she asked Gao Xue’e if there were any recent updates about President Peng, hoping for any clues.
When soone ca to inquire about Peng Xian, Gao Xue’e’s alertness was imdiately heightened, and she asked ng Ya what she did. Upon learning that the other person was an operator at the police center, Gao Xue’e realized this was her nesis!
When those sorcerers ca to Qi Yuan looking for the Hidden Moth, what did it have to do with her, Gao Xue’e? Yet, because this little girl tipped them off, those guys kidnapped her along with He Kao.
As ti passed, the trauma Gao Xue’e suffered gradually faded. Sotis, she even thought, if it weren’t for that, perhaps there wouldn’t have been such a deep developnt between her and He Kao.
But today, upon suddenly eting ng Ya in person, Gao Xue’e still couldn’t suppress her anger!
She didn’t explode on the spot, nor did she show a friendly face, rely saying with a stern expression that she didn’t know any news, and after eting once at a departnt team-building a few months ago, she hadn’t contacted Peng Xian since.
ng Ya asked to add her as a friend, requesting that if Gao Xue’e had any news about Peng Xian, to please notify her. Gao Xue’e didn’t add her as a friend, only leaving her contact number and then inford He Kao.
He Kao had once asked Gao Xue’e to keep an eye on that police center operator’s information, trying to find out her identity through Jinxing dia, mainly to get the Observing Body Skill inheritance from her.
Later, He Kao told Gao Xue’e not to worry about it anymore because he had already obtained the inheritance.
So much ti passed, and He Kao was very busy, such as playing riddles with Elder Jiang, and had almost forgotten about this matter. But now, upon suddenly hearing that person had co to their door, her identity, na, and contact information were confird.
He Kao felt it was necessary to have a good conversation with ng Ya, as he couldn’t let her continue searching, or it might lead to trouble.
The Hidden Moth incident had once involved Gao Xue’e, and besides He Kao and Gao Xue’e, who were the parties involved, ng Ya might now be the only one in the know, but surely He Kao couldn’t silence her, right?
The first ti He Kao heard the term "Hidden Moth" was in the conversation recording between Peng Xian and ng Ya. After going through so much, He Kao could guess that this girl was probably deceived by Peng Xian and used by him.
If this matter isn’t resolved in so way, ng Ya might spend her life in confusion, endlessly searching, ultimately not just for Peng Xian but for an answer to life.
He Kao understood this personally; after hearing that recording, he was also puzzled about his father’s past experience and wanted to understand what had happened... Fortunately, he later resolved the knot in his heart.
He Kao also admitted that he sowhat developed feelings of compassion, but how to act depended on what kind of person ng Ya is and if she’s worth it.
Although Peng Xian was dealt with by Xiaopang long ago, his story hadn’t ended, and the traces left continued to affect things.
Arranging to et ng Ya was simple; just call her and say there’s news about Peng Xian, setting the eting ti at precisely eight in the evening.
ng Ya arrived more than half an hour early, and after He Kao confird no one else was tailing her, he appeared right on ti before her in what used to be the café they frequented.
**
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