Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

As dawn broke, a chill seeped into the room through the window.

Xia Dong opened his eyes from the bed and exhaled a long breath.

That night, he slept soundly, without even a single dream. There was no mysterious, strange space, nor the magnificent spectacle of millions of white cranes dancing together as before.

He instinctively reached out and lifted the pillow.

Sure enough, the two warm and lustrous spirit stones had turned into a pool of dull, grayish-white powder.

"This time there's been absolutely no movement..." Xia Dong frowned slightly and immediately focused his mind to examine his sea of ​​consciousness.

The mottled bronze bell still floated silently in the darkness, the scarlet characters on its surface unchanged. His "Spiritual Root" column was still a glaring "None", and the "Martial Arts" column remained "Crane Stance (Breaking Limit)".

A wave of unconcealable disappointment washed over Xia Dong.

It seems that after the Crane Stance was developed to the "limit-breaking" level and gave birth to the Crane Shadow Step, it had reached the point where it could not be improved any further.

"What a pity." Xia Dong sighed.

The two spirit stones were like two pebbles thrown into an abyss, not even making a splash, and were simply wasted.

Just as he was staring at the pile of powder and feeling annoyed, a short, panicked cry suddenly came from the courtyard.

"what!"

It was Xiaohong's voice.

Xia Dong's eyes sharpened, and he instantly forgot his disappointment, put on his coat, and pushed open the door to go out.

The cold morning wind scraped against my cheeks like a knife.

Winter has arrived, and although it hasn't snowed yet, the weather is still very cold.

Xiao Hong, her face deathly pale, slumped down beside the dry well, the bucket she was carrying rolled to the side. Pointing at the well opening, she stammered, unable to speak: "Young...Young Master...there's a sound in the well...water...there's water!"

Xia Dong quickly stepped forward.

There have always been rumors that this dry well is haunted.

However, the dry well had remained quiet for the past few months, so Xia Dong didn't dare to investigate it rashly, lest it cause any unforeseen complications.

He peered into the well.

A chilling wind, carrying a foul stench, swept over us. Deep at the bottom of the well, a pool of black water had appeared out of nowhere. The surface of the water was as still as stagnant water, yet it shimmered with a creepy, eerie green glow in the dim light.

Not right.

Xia Dong's blood and energy were currently abundant. But the moment he saw that layer of eerie light, he felt a sudden chill run down his spine, and even the circulation of blood and energy in his body seemed to be sluggish by some invisible yin energy.

The water at the bottom of the well remained undisturbed, and nothing strange crawled out of it for the time being.

"Don't panic. Go to the kitchen and start a fire to cook. Don't go near this well again." Xia Dong said calmly, pulling Xiao Hong up.

Although Xiao Hong was scared, seeing her young master so calm, she felt as if she had found a pillar of support and scrambled into the kitchen.

Xia Dong did not hesitate; he found a discarded bluestone millstone in the corner of the yard.

With a sudden surge of energy and blood, he lifted the stone millstone, which weighed several hundred pounds, and strode to the well. With a loud "bang," he firmly placed it over the well opening.

Xia Dong did not sleep that night.

As night fell, the temperature dropped to freezing. Xia Dong lay on the bed fully clothed, her eyes fixed on the roof beams, listening intently to any sounds outside.

In the middle of the night, a teeth-grinding scraping sound broke the silence.

"Crunch... crunch..."

That was the sound of heavy stones being forcibly pushed aside on blue bricks.

Xia Dong's heart skipped a beat. She suddenly rolled out of bed and pushed the window open a tiny crack to look outside.

Just one glance sent chills down his spine.

The hundreds of kilograms of stone roller that he had pressed down on the well opening during the day had now been overturned and placed on the ground. A thick, ink-like shadow, as if it were alive, spread out from the well opening and slowly, silently, crawled outwards along the blue brick floor.

Wherever it passed, a layer of pale frost instantly formed on the blue bricks.

"There really is a ghost!"

He made the decision almost without thinking—run!

Although his vital energy was vigorous, it was far from reaching the legendary level of "vital energy and smoke" that could burn away evil spirits. It would be unwise for him to fight against such an unknown and strange entity with his flesh and blood.

He stayed tonight to see what was going on and to have a clear understanding of the situation. That way, he wouldn't be at a loss if he encountered similar dangers in the future.

Now that danger has truly arrived, there's no need to confront it head-on.

With a flash, he activated the Crane Shadow Step, and his entire body swept out of the main room like a wisp of smoke, heading straight for the east wing next door.

"Bang!"

Xia Dong shattered the latch on the east wing door with a single blow, preparing to pick up the still-sleeping Xiao Hong and climb over the wall to escape the courtyard.

But just as his hand touched the door frame...

clang!

Deep within his consciousness, the silent, weathered bronze bell began to tremble without warning.

A distant, vast, and majestic bell tolling, carrying an absolute majesty that transcends all things, resounded deep within Xia Dong's soul.

Xia Dong was shocked to discover that the originally cold and gloomy winter night had suddenly changed. The crescent moon overhead, which had been obscured by dark clouds, suddenly shone with extremely bright and pure silver moonlight, illuminating the entire courtyard as bright as day.

As the echoes of the bells rippled, the bright moonlight underwent an incredible transformation—it was no longer cold and aloof, but instead radiated a heat as intense and powerful as the midday sun!

This incredible, intense moonlight, as if it possessed its own consciousness, converged entirely on the writhing shadow in the center of the courtyard.

Chi Chi Chi.

Like ice and snow splashed with molten iron, the vast, eerie shadows churned and boiled violently under the moonlight, sending up plumes of foul-smelling black smoke.

what! ! !

A piercing, inhuman scream, seemingly capable of shattering eardrums, emanated from the black smoke and exploded directly into Xia Dong's mind.

Xia Dong could tell that the scream was filled with extreme fear and despair.

In just two or three breaths, the shadow that had spread across most of the courtyard was completely evaporated under the scorching moonlight, leaving not a trace.

As the bells fell silent, the moonlight instantly returned to its original cool and dim state.

The courtyard returned to tranquility, with only the rustling of the cold wind through the bare branches.

Xia Dong stood at the door of the side room, watching all of this with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

He slowly walked to the center of the courtyard and looked down at the dry well. The eerie green light at the bottom of the well had completely disappeared, replaced by clear well water.

He can now even see the general outline of the bottom of the well by the moonlight.

At that moment, his mind was stirred once again.

On the bronze bell, the scarlet characters twisted and contorted, and at the very bottom, a new line of text slowly emerged:

[Yin Sha Pill: Two]

Before Xia Dong could react, he felt a slight weight on his palm.

He opened his right hand and saw two pills, each the size of a soybean, jet black, with a faint, cold luster on their surface, lying quietly in his palm.

A wondrous aura, extremely pure and cold yet devoid of any evil feeling, was slowly emanating from the two pills.

"This...this is the ghost from the well?"

Xia Dong was both surprised and delighted.

It seems that the ancient bronze bell absorbed two spirit stones. Although it did not continue to deduce the cultivation technique, it silently accumulated spiritual power.

When they encountered this evil and malevolent creature, they used it directly as a material for alchemy and refined it into the so-called "Yin Sha Pill"!

"I wonder what level this ghost is. It was completely powerless in front of the ancient bronze bell."

The image of the ancient bronze bell transforming moonlight into blazing sunlight still lingers in Xia Dong's mind, leaving him somewhat awestruck.

This can be described as turning yin and yang upside down.

Even though he already knew the extraordinary nature of the ancient bronze bell, Xia Dong was still surprised by the fact that it could instantly refine the ghost.