Meng Ya, the name 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 some sensitive details and didn't mention some important information at all. He told Meng Ya that in today's society, sorcerers must act covertly and never reveal their identities.

And Meng Ya's cultivation was still shallow; she had to pass task tests and break through higher realms before she qualified to become an official disciple of the Magic Sect, and then she could connect with other allies of the magic sect...

At that time, Meng Ya had already cultivated the introductory level of the Observing Body Skill and became a Tier One "Diagnoser", but she didn't know that continuing cultivation would make it difficult to break through to become 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 Establishment 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 meticulously designed advancement ritual for himself. As Meng 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 same principles could have been applied in other ways.

So, does that mean the advancement ritual Peng Xian designed was too unscrupulous? Meng 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 Meng Ya genuine mystic arts, giving an ordinary person the chance to cultivate the introductory level of the Observing Body Skill and achieve extraordinary accomplishments—this wasn't necessarily harmful to Meng Ya.

Peng Xian himself certainly saw it that way, which seemed somewhat reasonable.

But if he couldn't even achieve these results, the advancement ritual would also be impossible to succeed.

Meng Ya always wanted to call Peng Xian her master privately but never formally became his disciple. Normally, she called Peng Xian her brother-in-law, but they weren't actually related by blood.

During her summer vacation in her junior year and the first semester of her senior year, Meng Ya worked an internship at a company, not because she needed money to work part-time, but to gain social practice.

The person in charge at this company was a woman in her thirties, from Meng Ya's hometown and distantly related, twisting through connections. According to their hometown's customs, they called each other cousins when meeting outside.

This cousin was said to be the widow of a big boss, who had passed away, although some 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 came to discuss cooperation, which resulted in forming another kind of partnership with her cousin.

So Meng Ya called him brother-in-law, feeling it a stroke of luck that her cousin met a man like Peng Xian. As for Peng Xian's means of gaining both love and wealth, Meng Ya wasn't aware at the time, and even if she was, she wouldn't think much of it.

In Meng 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...

Meng Ya admired Peng Xian greatly, was psychologically dependent on him, and followed his words blindly, never doubting for a moment.

Peng Xian arranged for her to come to Qi Yuan, assigning her to work at the emergency 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 emergency 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 emergency 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 mention frequent night shifts, yet Meng 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 Meng Ya informed Peng Xian in a timely manner.

This was against work discipline, but Meng Ya took on this job with a different purpose and mindset anyway.

Before the Golden Week holiday, Peng Xian told Meng Ya he had important matters to attend to, which might take some time, roughly a month or two, instructing Meng Ya not to contact him unless necessary; he would reach out to her if anything came up.

Peng Xian said the same to the subordinates at Jinxing Media.

Therefore, for a long period after the holiday, Meng Ya didn't feel anything unusual, and even Jinxing Media 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 something was wrong.

Meng Ya first went to Jinxing Media to inquire. Over there, they were also trying various ways to find their boss, and from the management 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 Media had decided to report to the police.

Meng 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, Meng Ya contacted a cousin in another city. When the cousin heard she was looking for Peng Xian, she began cursing, but not Meng Ya, rather Peng Xian.

The cousin told Meng Ya that Peng Xian was a person who swindled money and cheated on women, 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 Meng Ya with concern—was she also deceived by Peng Xian?

Meng Ya suggested the cousin report to the police, but the cousin hesitated... She wasn't aware that the money had issues, its origins were somewhat shady, and the cousin didn't want to involve the police.

Meng Ya felt as if her worldview was collapsing; she couldn't believe her cousin's words and thought Peng Xian must have encountered some trouble, feeling very anxious.

The various negative energies at work, which she didn't care about before, gradually became an unbearable ordeal recently, so she took leave.

She just wanted to find Peng Xian, even if something happened to him, she wanted to find out what it was.

Meng Ya recalled Gao Xue'e, whom Peng Xian had mentioned; the department led by Gao Xue'e had collaborations with Jinxing Media, and Peng Xian had also told her to dig into Gao Xue'e.

With no other choice, Meng Ya finally found Gao Xue'e. She claimed 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 someone came to inquire about Peng Xian, Gao Xue'e's alertness was immediately heightened, and she asked Meng Ya what she did. Upon learning that the other person was an operator at the police center, Gao Xue'e realized this was her nemesis!

When those sorcerers came 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 time passed, the trauma Gao Xue'e suffered gradually faded. Sometimes, she even thought, if it weren't for that, perhaps there wouldn't have been such a deep development between her and He Kao.

But today, upon suddenly meeting Meng 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, merely saying with a stern expression that she didn't know any news, and after meeting once at a department team-building a few months ago, she hadn't contacted Peng Xian since.

Meng 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 informed 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 Media, 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 time 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 come to their door, her identity, name, and contact information were confirmed.

He Kao felt it was necessary to have a good conversation with Meng 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, Meng Ya might now be the only one in the know, but surely He Kao couldn't silence her, right?

The first time He Kao heard the term "Hidden Moth" was in the conversation recording between Peng Xian and Meng 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 some way, Meng 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 somewhat developed feelings of compassion, but how to act depended on what kind of person Meng 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 meet Meng Ya was simple; just call her and say there's news about Peng Xian, setting the meeting time at precisely eight in the evening.

Meng Ya arrived more than half an hour early, and after He Kao confirmed no one else was tailing her, he appeared right on time before her in what used to be the café they frequented.

**

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