Chapter 620: The Five Concealment Sect
Using a tooth as a storage ring to hide a legacy jade slip—
This Hidden Second was truly insidious and cunning.
Murong Caiyun and the others were stunned. Then they turned their gazes toward Mo Hua—and were even more shocked.
How was it that their little junior brother felt even more cunning than Hidden Second…?
Even something hidden inside a tooth—he could find it, smash the tooth open, and fish out the jade slip.
Hidden Second's face was filled with panic and disbelief.
He'd hidden that jade slip in an unimaginably secretive spot. For over a hundred years, no one but himself had ever known about it.
How the hell did this brat see through it?
But looking at Mo Hua grinning happily as he held the jade slip, Hidden Second's heart filled with resentment. He sneered and spat blood through the gaps in his broken teeth:
"Don't get too happy… brat…"
He spoke with a lisp, leaking air—he was missing almost all his teeth.
"That's a legacy jade slip. It's sealed with a ward rune. Without the specific seal pattern, you'll never unlock the contents—never access the formula for the Small Five Element Concealment Technique!"
"The sealing rune—only the inheritor of the Five Concealment Sect knows how to break it!"
He grinned triumphantly, his expression twisted with pride.
Ouyang Feng raised a brow, pointing his sword at him.
"Hand over the sealing pattern and you won't suffer."
Hidden Second spat more blood, giving a grotesque smile:
"A bit of pain? I couldn't care less…"
Ouyang Feng frowned.
"Then what do you want?"
"What else?" Hidden Second's eyes gleamed coldly.
"Naturally… I want my life!"
"I'll give you the sealing pattern, and you let me go!"
Ouyang Feng shook his head.
"Dream on."
"Then forget it," Hidden Second chuckled coldly.
"Kill me, and that jade slip becomes useless."
Murong Caiyun frowned and turned to glance at Mo Hua.
Mo Hua was fully focused on the jade slip, his expression intense and serious—clearly obsessed with uncovering the concealment technique hidden inside.
She hesitated, then spoke sternly to Hidden Second:
"It's not like there aren't formation masters who can break sealed jade slips…"
"True," Hidden Second smirked.
"There are formation masters who can crack seals…"
"But ones who are skilled in Primordial Magnetic Arrays? Extremely rare."
"And those who can reverse-engineer a seal made with Primordial Magnetism? Even rarer."
"Constructing a Primordial Magnetic Array to seal something is one thing. Decrypting it is a whole other ballgame."
"Just because someone can draw an array doesn't mean they can undo it…"
"And even if they could, do you think a top-tier formation master would waste their precious time and spiritual sense on unlocking some obscure Foundation-Stage legacy?"
Murong Caiyun's face darkened.
Everyone else hesitated too.
Of course they wanted to help Mo Hua obtain the concealment technique—but there was no way they could let Hidden Second go free.
He'd committed countless crimes—letting him go would be like releasing a tiger back to the mountains. Absolutely out of the question.
Asking a senior formation master to break the jade slip would cost a massive sum—possibly more than all the merit they'd earn from this mission.
Seeing the hesitation, Hidden Second grinned wider and added:
"And even if you do try to crack it—what if you get it wrong?"
"What if you damage the magnetic runes inside?"
"Then the jade slip is destroyed. Gone forever. And with it—the Five Concealment Sect's legacy."
Ouyang Feng's gaze turned razor-sharp.
"Nonsense. The true legacy lies with the sect. As long as the Five Concealment Sect still exists, the technique survives. You're nothing but a traitorous disciple."
Hidden Second suddenly burst into laughter—wild, bloody, and twisted.
"The Five Concealment Sect still exists?"
"Heh… You think the Five Concealment Sect still exists?"
"It's gone. Completely gone!"
"This jade slip is the last legacy. The Five Concealment Sect… will soon be erased from history."
Murong Caiyun and the others exchanged worried glances.
"Hidden Second, what nonsense are you spouting?"
His face contorted into a sinister, meaningful smile.
"Believe me or not, I don't care. I'm just telling you—this jade slip is probably the only one of its kind you'll ever see."
"Mess up while cracking it, and you'll never—"
"All done!"
A cheerful voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone turned in shock—Mo Hua was standing there, forehead pressed to the jade slip, grinning from ear to ear, reading intently.
Murong Caiyun and the rest stood there, mouths agape.
…"All done"?
Did he mean… he'd unsealed it?!
"Impossible!"
Hidden Second's expression changed drastically. His eyes bulged.
Then he narrowed his eyes, growled:
"No… impossible!"
"You despicable brat—don't pretend! You're just faking it to fool me!"
"The Five Concealment Sect's sealing runes are not something you can just break on a whim!"
Mo Hua tilted his head, then calmly began reading aloud:
"The Small Five Element Concealment Technique—core secret art of the Five Concealment Sect, absolutely not to be shared externally…"
"Feel the Five Elements, blend into the world, vanish from perception…"
"Lesser concealment hides within a single leaf; greater concealment hides within the five-elemental flow of Heaven and Earth."
"Its purpose is profound, its applications vast…"
"It can attack, defend, sustain, kill, and conceal. It has form and formlessness…"
"A cultivator must not act evilly in the dark…"
"One who uses concealment to murder, spy, seduce, or steal brings shame to their peers and sect. Such a one shall have their technique abolished and be expelled from the sect…"
…
With every sentence Mo Hua read, Hidden Second's face turned a shade paler.
By the time he finished, the man was as white as a sheet—completely bloodless, eyes wide with disbelief.
"You… this… how…"
Mo Hua sighed.
"You've betrayed the Five Concealment Sect's ancestral teachings."
To master the Small Five Element Concealment Technique, only to use it for assassination, ambush, gutting victims…
He'd surely done the spying, seducing, and stealing too.
Given the chance, people will always choose evil.
Not everyone is like himself—kind-hearted, with a righteous Dao heart!
Mo Hua nodded to himself.
Now that he had the concealment technique, Hidden Second was worthless.
He was a seasoned criminal cultivator—twisted, cruel, cunning, and tight-lipped. If you wanted something from him, you had to break his defenses and take it.
Well—mission accomplished.
Now all that was left was to hand Hidden Second over to the Dao Tribunal and exchange him for merit points.
"Off you go to the Dao Tribunal for your last meal."
Mo Hua said, looking down on the kneeling Hidden Second.
Hidden Second glared back with pure hatred, as if swearing to haunt Mo Hua for eternity.
Mo Hua wasn't scared.
If he did become a ghost—well, Mo Hua would fear him even less.
But since Hidden Second was still staring daggers at him, Mo Hua didn't feel particularly charitable.
With Mo Hua's kind suggestion, Hidden Second's arms were broken, his right hand's tendons severed, and his meridians ruined…
Now he couldn't stir up trouble even if he wanted to.
Ouyang Feng grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of Canglang Mountain, through the Compass Mountain path, all the way to the Dao Tribunal in Qianxue Province.
The transfer went smoothly.
Toothless, crippled, and maimed—Hidden Second was tossed into the Dao prison pending final judgment.
With that, the team could return to the sect and await their mission rewards.
Mo Hua had wanted to see Commissioner Gu again, but after asking around, he found out from the enforcers that Gu Changhuai was away on a mission.
As a third-grade commissioner, he stayed quite busy.
Mo Hua felt a little disappointed.
He'd really wanted to discuss something with Uncle Gu…
…
With everything settled, the group prepared to return to the sect.
On the way back, Murong Caiyun hired a carriage again. Inside, there were sweet fruits and fragrant tea.
Everyone was in high spirits.
They had originally expected this trip to be long, dangerous, and troublesome.
But to their surprise, everything went incredibly smoothly.
No one got injured, barely any time was wasted, and the mission was completed in just a single day—they were already heading back.
Naturally, the mood inside the carriage was very relaxed.
Murong Caiyun and Hua Qianqian sipped floral tea, whispering intimately, covering their mouths as they laughed.
Shangguan Xu was polishing his heavy sword.
Mo Hua had both hands around a giant melon, nibbling away as he admired the scenery outside the window, the juicy fruit dripping with sweetness.
Only Ouyang Feng seemed preoccupied. He kept glancing at Mo Hua, wanting to say something but hesitating every time.
Just as he wore a conflicted look—
A bright red spirit fruit suddenly appeared in front of him, and a cheerful voice piped up:
"Senior Brother Feng, have a fruit."
Ouyang Feng blinked, then chuckled and took the fruit from Mo Hua.
"Thanks." he said warmly.
Mo Hua nodded, took another big bite of melon, puffing his cheeks as he asked:
"Senior Brother, is there something you wanted to ask me?"
Ouyang Feng looked startled, then after a moment's silence, sighed:
"This might sound a little rude… but I still want to ask."
He paused, then asked seriously:
"Junior Brother Mo… how did you break that seal?"
The carriage grew quiet.
Shangguan Xu stopped polishing his sword. Murong Caiyun and Hua Qianqian also stopped whispering and turned their eyes to Mo Hua.
Clearly, they all wanted to know the answer.
But they were hesitant to ask, since this might touch upon some secret cultivation method.
Mo Hua, however, answered frankly:
"I got lucky—I guessed it!"
Ouyang Feng took a bite of his spirit fruit and silently watched Mo Hua.
Murong Caiyun and the others narrowed their eyes. Clearly, they didn't believe it.
So Mo Hua explained:
"I memorized some secondary thunder runes—those are similar to 'secret patterns' used in formations. When I was breaking the seal, I just tried them one by one and got lucky."
"If you're lucky enough, the seal opens…"
In truth, there was some luck involved.
Hidden Second was on Boss Jiang's "list."
So Mo Hua had a hunch. He used the rune library he'd compiled from Boss Jiang's jade slip and started testing them one by one against Hidden Second's jade slip.
After trying around ten, he managed to unlock it.
So yeah—it could be called lucky guessing.
But behind that "luck" was a massive reserve of spiritual sense, solid formation theory, and powerful technical skill.
Ouyang Feng didn't know all that. He just stared in awe:
"You've studied Primordial Magnetic Arrays?"
Mo Hua didn't hide it. He nodded.
"A little."
Ouyang Feng was amazed.
True Primordial Magnetic Arrays involved profound magnetic principles and required dual-layer rune structures. They were on a whole other level compared to basic ones like the Small Primordial Magnetic Array.
He had thought he already gave Mo Hua's skill enough credit…
But clearly, he still underestimated this junior brother.
"Then…"
Ouyang Feng asked in a low voice,
"You… know how to break seals now?"
Mo Hua replied:
"I've only just started learning. I wouldn't say I know how, and I definitely can't break all of them. Most of the time, it still depends on luck."
Mo Hua deliberately emphasized the "luck" part to cover his true ability.
"Luck, huh…"
Ouyang Feng exhaled in relief.
No wonder…
He had feared that Mo Hua could steadily and reliably crack sealing runes with his own formation mastery…
That would've been absurdly powerful.
And a bit terrifying.
Since it was "luck-based," everyone nodded slightly and didn't ask further.
Suddenly, Mo Hua remembered something. He reached into his storage ring and pulled out the jade slip containing the Small Five Element Concealment Technique, asking:
"Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters—do you want a copy of this concealment technique?"
After all, they'd all helped capture Hidden Second. The merit was shared, so it made sense to share the technique too.
Everyone was briefly stunned, then shook their heads.
Ouyang Feng said:
"We don't really practice concealment techniques. Even if we learned it, it wouldn't be much use. You keep it."
"Alright."
Mo Hua put the jade slip away, then asked:
"By the way, if I hand this technique over to the sect, can I trade it for merit points?"
Murong Caiyun thought for a moment, then nodded:
"You can. But it's a bit of a hassle…"
"Hassle?"
"Yeah," she explained,
"The sect already has a massive collection of techniques. If you submit a new one, the elders will have to compare it with what we already have to see if it's worth adding."
"That's not so bad…"
"The real issue is that a lot of techniques overlap with other sects."
"Some techniques have deep ties to other sects. In those cases, it's usually not appropriate to add them to the Great Void Sect's archives."
"If we carelessly include them, it might cause disputes."
"Of course, as long as the technique isn't some common street-level garbage, and you can prove it's legitimate, the sect will give you some merit points."
"But chances are, it won't be much."
"All in all, the sect prefers disciples to earn merit by doing bounties and completing missions—not by submitting techniques."
"Exactly!"
"That's right, that's right!"
Hua Qianqian's voice was crisp as she eagerly nodded and leaned in to gossip with Mo Hua:
"Rumor has it that 'Stingy Sect'—that is, the Broken Gold Sect—got into trouble over something like this once..."
"Some disciples, just to earn merit points, stole secret techniques from their own families and handed them over to the sect to trade for merit."
"The Broken Gold Sect, greedy for new techniques, quietly accepted them and shamelessly declared them to be their own 'ancestral arts'..."
"Later, the original families came knocking. The sect, unwilling to lose face, flat-out denied everything. The two sides ended up fighting, and it became a huge laughingstock..."
"Since then, sects have become much more cautious when accepting new techniques. The merit rewards also dropped a lot..."
Murong Caiyun sighed and gave Hua Qianqian a glare.
"Qianqian, the Broken Gold Sect holds grudges—don't badmouth them too much..."
Hua Qianqian just chuckled mischievously.
Mo Hua nodded slightly, then seemed to remember something and asked:
"Senior Sister Murong, hypothetically..."
He blinked deliberately, emphasizing:
"I said hypothetically..."
"If I just happened to obtain a few techniques from other sects in Qianzhou, could I still learn them?"
Murong Caiyun gave him a meaningful look and asked softly:
"Are they high-grade techniques?"
Mo Hua shook his head.
"Nope. All low-tier, bottom-grade stuff..."
(The high-tier ones… he couldn't afford to use even if he had them.)
"Then it's no big deal," Murong Caiyun said.
"They won't cause trouble for me?"
Murong Caiyun shook her head again:
"Unless you killed someone for them or acquired them through shady means, you should be fine. If they're low-tier and bottom-grade, it's generally not a problem to learn or use them."
Seeing Mo Hua still seemed unsure, she explained further:
"Low-level techniques are widely learned and used. They're messy, mixed with many schools and lineages. A lot of them are so similar, it's hard to tell where any specific technique even came from."
"Take Fireball Technique, for example..."
"You use it. He uses it. They all look like flaming balls. Even if there are slight differences, most cultivators couldn't tell the difference, let alone trace the origin."
"But it's a whole different story for high-tier techniques."
"Those have distinct features. Once you use them, people will recognize them. You couldn't deny it even if you wanted to."
"So here in Qianxue Prefecture, as long as it's a bottom-grade technique with a clean origin, go ahead and learn it."
"But for high-tier techniques—unless it's from your own sect—if you obtain one, you either submit it to the Dao Court, or return it to its rightful sect."
"Otherwise, it'll be a whole mess..."
"Thanks, Senior Sister," Mo Hua nodded. "I got it!"
So basically—bottom-grade techniques? Go wild. Strip the wool off that sheep.
But mid-to-high-grade techniques—especially the high-tier ones—better not mess around with those casually.
Like the Broken Gold Sword Command…
If he really wanted to learn it, he'd have to be careful.
Either don't use it in public—or don't let anyone see you use it…
Just like how Boss Jiang handled things.
Now that he understood, Mo Hua felt much more at ease.
When the carriage returned to the Qianxue Prefecture border, Ouyang Feng and Hua Qianqian each said their goodbyes.
As Ouyang Feng stepped off the cart, he gave Mo Hua one more look—still seeming like he had something on his mind—but in the end, said nothing.
Hua Qianqian looked at Mo Hua, eyes sparkling.
She realized this little junior brother of theirs had an innocent and naive face, but with a sly side—and occasionally even a hint of ferocity...
Which, oddly enough, made him even more likable.
Afterward, Mo Hua returned to the Great Void Sect with Murong Caiyun and Shangguan Xu. Shangguan had something to do and left first, leaving Mo Hua and Murong to walk together for a while.
When it came time to part ways, Murong Caiyun paused and reminded him:
"Don't casually mention anything about unlocking seals to others…"
"Mm."
Mo Hua nodded, then asked curiously:
"Is there something taboo about unlocking seals?"
He already had a feeling that Primordial Magnetic Arrays were rare and hard to master, and unlocking sealed jade slips was no ordinary feat.
But that was just his guess. He didn't know the full story.
Murong Caiyun sighed:
"Unlocking seals is extremely difficult…"
"There are so many sects across Qianxue Prefecture, and most of their legacies are stored in jade slips—those slips are all sealed with array patterns…"
"Because unsealing is so hard, jade slips became a common way to preserve legacies, creating a solid barrier against theft…"
"If just anyone could crack seals, then most of the vast legacies in this region would've been stolen by now…"
"So…"
She gave Mo Hua a pointed look.
"Whether you truly broke it with skill or by 'luck'—don't talk about it lightly."
"Even if you did break it with skill, say it was luck."
Mo Hua understood instantly. He grinned:
"Thanks, Senior Sister—I'll remember that!"
Murong Caiyun smiled warmly in return.
After they parted, Mo Hua returned to his disciple quarters and immediately threw himself into studying the secret technique passed down from the hidden Five Concealments Sect:
The Small Five Element Concealment Technique.
This concealment method was much stronger than the ones he currently used.
Hidden Second may have had plenty of experience, but his divine sense wasn't strong enough to fully bring out the technique's potential.
Not to mention—he'd used it to commit evil. In his hands, this art was like a pearl hidden in the mud.
Mo Hua took out the jade slip, ready to examine it thoroughly—when suddenly, some words from Hidden Second echoed in his mind...
That bloody grin, those final words:
"It's gone."
"This jade slip… is the last of the legacy. The Five Concealments Sect… is going to be erased…"
Mo Hua frowned slightly.
Could it be that due to poor management, the Five Concealments Sect had been driven out of Qianxue Prefecture… and wiped out?
Was it true?
If Hidden Second had just been bluffing, that'd be fine…
But if he was telling the truth—then what really happened inside the Five Concealments Sect?
(End of Chapter)