So ti ago, he also practiced the Earth-Traveling Skill, but it always felt awkward.
At this mont, breaking through to Tier Three, and with the help of the Earth Spirit Banner, he finally found the feeling. The Earth-Traveling Skill emphasizes blending with the environnt, moving in a state of nature, as if the mountains and rivers are undulating and moving with him.
In such a state, he could detect many beasts in advance, while those beasts found it difficult to discover him.
After initially utilizing the wondrous effects of the Earth Spirit Banner, he actually found several wild ginseng plants, skipped the ones that looked smaller, and selected three with long stems deeply hidden in the ground, trying to find a way to dig them out.
At this ti of year, the frozen earth is as hard as stone, a single hoe strike often leaves only a small white dot-like pit, and ordinary people simply can’t dig. He Kao not only used Technique ans but also resorted to a Divine Weapon.
His thod of dealing with the frozen layer was discovered unintentionally.
He was practicing the Earth-Traveling Skill, went up a high slope wanting to sit for a while, and casually inserted the Earth Spirit Banner into the snow, using so force. When he got up and reached to pull it out, he actually couldn’t!
It turned out the snow on the slope wasn’t thick, the flagpole pierced through the snow and directly into the frozen earth.
Then he experinted several more tis, and indeed in a normal state, he couldn’t insert the Banner into the frozen earth; using the Object Control Skill was even more impossible, his Power of Manipulation was still very weak.
So what was he doing at that ti? Holding the Earth Spirit Banner, practicing the Earth-Traveling Skill, injecting his Divine Sense into the Earth Spirit Banner, as if turning it into part of his body to comprehend its function... He was still in this state as he sat down.
He tried again and indeed inserted it.
But he could only use the Banner to make a few small holes in the ground, it wasn’t possible to use it as a shovel, so he returned to the Gu Mountain Secret Mansion to retrieve a short blade.
This short blade was obtained from a person codenad "Hated by Cats and Dogs," who was the "cleaner" under "Kucha Zi" Gu Jiang.
This person was hiding in Chen Yuhua’s house, preparing to kill Chen Yuhua and then falsify the scene, creating an illusion that Chen Yuhua poisoned his lover and then committed suicide by poisoning himself.
Fortunately, He Kao arrived just in ti and shot a crossbow arrow from the bedroom, taking him down.
When Hated by Cats and Dogs held this short blade, He Kao felt not only its extre sharpness but also its very special material, with a bit of the legendary ability to slice iron like mud, so He Kao kept it.
This is his collection, and he wouldn’t easily show it to others.
After unintentionally inserting the Banner into the frozen earth, he also began experinting with other things. His strength in manipulating objects was still very weak, but without using the Object Control Skill, just extending his Divine Sense into specific items, he made new discoveries.
In this situation, the sharpness of the short blade was simply beyond imagination.
If Divine Sense is compared to electric current, and various items to conductors, then successfully refined Magical Artifacts, like the Hidden Moth Gauze and the Earth Spirit Banner, are equivalent to superconductors.
Various Treasures of Heaven and Earth are roughly equivalent to good conductors, like Purple Jade Bamboo, then this short blade feels almost like a superconductor.
This indicates not only its special material but also that it was refined by a master, even if it’s not a Magical Artifact yet close to one. How could a small fry who does dirty work have such a good thing?
But when thinking about it, it suddenly made sense.
The cleaners under Gu Jiang are secretly doing dirty work for the Huiming Shi Family, even Hated by Cats and Dogs at least is a Tier One Cultivator, so he must be equipped with so decent gear.
The Huiming Shi Family is a "Wealthy Family" handed down through four generations, especially skilled in Artifact Refining, and often helps fellow Magic Sect mbers create Magical Artifacts, so having such a thing is very normal.
With this short blade, he could peel open the frozen layer, but the work was much harder than expected.
Even with the help of the Earth Spirit Banner, his Divine Sense could hardly penetrate too deep into the frozen earth; to avoid damaging the roots, he sensed while digging, and the pit got bigger and bigger.
The wild ginseng’s form is completely different from the garden variety commonly seen in stores; the stem is long, the body is slender, the branching parts are proportionally large, and the roots deeply embed with pearl-like nodes.
The three wild ginseng that He Kao dug were roughly judged to be around fifty years old, with complete roots over a ter long.
The frozen earth surrounding the roots was extrely hard to remove, and couldn’t just be smashed open, otherwise, the roots inside would break, so what He Kao finally dug out was a strange-shaped clump of frozen earth over a ter high.
This clump of frozen earth was extrely heavy, it would be hard for an ordinary person to move. He Kao put it into the Gu Mountain Secret Mansion to wait for natural thawing at room temperature, before cleaning out the complete wild ginseng.
Even with cultivation in him, holding that short blade to carve the frozen earth almost gave him tendonitis.
After finishing this job, He Kao planned to take a rest, leaving the mountains and heading to the nearest market town. Since ancient tis, there were inhabitants in these mountains, though sparsely distributed, and now most of the towns are connected by roads, but the winter roads are covered with snow.
The residents here are not completely hobound, on good days they still go to town, and so families even got professional snow vehicles.
The traditional, more economical transportation compared to snow vehicles is the birch wood sled. Many polar films show dog sledding scenes, but this isn’t considered polar, commonly horses pull sleds here.
He Kao chose a place to descend the mountain just between a village and a town, making it look like he was walking from the village to the town when a horse-drawn sled ca up from behind.
Upon hearing the sound, He Kao stepped aside to the roadside, and was surprised when he glanced over.
Driving the sled was an old man with a goatee, wearing a dog fur coat, hat covering tightly yet still showing his face—He Kao actually recognized this person!
His na is Xiao Guangnian, a Tier Four Divine Stick from the Lingxi Sect, and the sa sect brother of Jiang Daozhen.
Xiao Guangnian lives most of the ti in a place called Xiaohe Town on the Northeast Border, and he is an Old Ginseng Hunter, often going into the mountains to gather herbs, with his family also contracted to a plot of responsibility land and woodland.
He is a well-known figure locally, when speaking grandly, one could say he’s an old Immortal, with people from nearby miles often seeking him for "consultation," feeling like a part-ti shaman.
Such people are usually called Immortal Practitioners in the Northeast, and that’s the local telling, but Xiao Guangnian never verbally admitted being an Immortal Practitioner himself... anyway, to the locals, he’s a Divine Stick with so skills.
He Kao had never seen Xiao Guangnian or heard of his na before, so how could he recognize him now and know so much information?
The reason He Kao was surprised just now was that he finally understood what kind of Divine Thought Heart Seal Elder Jiang gave him before leaving after their al that day!
**
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