Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Chapter 132: A Review of the Gains

Looking at the three Yinling Pills in his palm, each emitting an alluring fragrance and faintly glowing with a dark red hue.

Xia Dong flipped his wrist and took out a specially made jade bottle. He carefully put away the three pills, not intending to take them for the time being.

Firstly, although his spiritual sense has reached the early stage of Foundation Establishment, he does not possess the subsequent cultivation techniques of the "Mysterious Yin Refining Divine Art." Without the guidance of these techniques, even if he rashly consumes this powerful soul-refining medicine made from high-level evil creatures, its medicinal power cannot be perfectly absorbed, rendering it largely ineffective—a complete waste.

Secondly, Xia Dong's primary purpose in traveling to Nan Yue Province was to find an opportunity to break through to the "True Intent Realm" in martial arts. The True Intent Realm in martial arts emphasizes the perfect fusion and transformation of essence, energy, and spirit, and is closely related to the cultivation of the soul. Keeping these three top-grade Yin Spirit Pills in hand is not only a trump card that can replenish the loss of spiritual energy at any time, but it may also play an unexpected and miraculous role at a crucial moment in the future when attempting to break through to the True Intent Realm.

After carefully storing the pills, Xia Dong's gaze fell on the dusty storage bag beside him. A villainous master like the old wizard, who spent years killing and robbing in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, would surely have his storage bag covered with vicious restrictions, and might even still retain a secret aura that would allow the Barbarian Witch Clan to track him.

If it were an ordinary rogue cultivator, they would probably have to go to great lengths to slowly erase this restriction.

But Xia Dong didn't have this concern.

His expression remained calm. He did not rashly use his divine sense to forcibly investigate. Instead, with a thought, he mobilized the extremely precious "innate essence" within his body.

Its innate ability to "return to its origin" is a heaven-defying characteristic, making it perfectly suited for erasing restrictions and marks.

A faint yet ancient aura swirled around Xia Dong's fingertips. He carefully guided the innate energy, like warm water melting snow, slowly covering the surface of the storage bag, gradually dissolving the restrictions on it, while meticulously washing away all abnormal auras that his divine sense could detect.

Accompanied by an extremely faint hissing sound, a layer of eerie green light appeared on the storage bag's face, but it only resisted for a moment before completely dissipating like a burst bubble.

The entire cracking process went surprisingly smoothly.

Xia Dong's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and a look of realization flashed across his face.

Fortunately, this cultivator of the Witchcraft and Ghost Path had devoted all his skills and energy to refining witchcraft and ghost puppets and feeding ghosts, and his own expertise in formations and restrictions could only be described as average.

The restriction left by the old wizard seemed dangerous, but it was actually weak inside and out, and it didn't waste much of Xia Dong's innate talent.

His innate Qi is extremely precious; every bit of it is hard-won. Good steel must be used where it is most needed.

Thinking of this precious and irreplaceable innate Qi, Xia Dong couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia for Senior Gu Yue's "Essence of Yin".

He sighed inwardly. If he could frequently receive the pure and vast essence of Taiyin from Senior Guyue to aid his cultivation, continuously transforming it into innate energy, Xia Dong felt that he would soon be able to fully master the Divine Treasury Chapter of the "Changchun Xingqi Jue".

At that time, his body will undergo another profound transformation of his root, which will significantly improve the quality of his originally inefficient spiritual root.

The biggest challenges he faces in his cultivation of immortality are twofold: first, the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth and converting medicinal resources is too low, with most of the medicinal power still being wasted; second, he is extremely prone to being trapped by bottlenecks when breaking through in the realm of immortality.

Ultimately, the root cause of all this lies largely in the problem of extremely poor spiritual root aptitude.

On the other hand, martial arts training that focuses solely on cultivating one's qi and blood has been much smoother, and one has now reached the threshold of true understanding.

Xia Dong then calmed his mind and probed the old wizard's storage bag, which had just had its restrictions removed, with his divine sense.

However, as soon as Xia Dong examined what was inside, he couldn't help but frown, and a wave of nausea rose in his stomach.

"No wonder the Witchcraft and Ghost Path is considered a low-level heretical sect in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and can't even be considered respectable. What kind of heinous things are these?" Xia Dong couldn't help but curse inwardly.

The storage bags were mostly filled with gruesome and disgusting things—even through the bags, Xia Dong felt extremely uncomfortable.

Although Xia Dong himself also used the ancient bronze bell to devour evil spirits and refine souls into medicine, if those self-proclaimed righteous sects knew about this method, they would most likely condemn him as an evil demonic cultivator. However, Xia Dong would absolutely not do something as heinous as the Witchcraft and Ghost Path.

Pour out all this filth.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xia Dong summoned the "Sacred Lotus Flame" from his dantian once more. A pure blue flame surged from his palm.

He manipulated the strange fire, mercilessly burning away all the evil and filthy things stained with the resentment and blood of countless innocent people.

Just in case, Xia Dong took out a few more exorcism talismans to wash away the remaining evil spirits and deathly aura before starting to examine the remaining spoils of war.

After some cleaning, the remaining items looked much better.

It mainly contains some low- to mid-grade spirit stones, rare spiritual herbs unique to the Ten Thousand Mountains, and several pieces of high-quality refining ore.

At the very bottom of these supplies lay a simple, ancient jade slip containing the transmission of cultivation techniques.

Xia Dong reached out and took out the jade slip. At first, he didn't have high expectations. He thought it was just a kind of sinister and evil technique from the Witchcraft Sect and was preparing to see if he could learn something from it.

However, when his divine sense probed into the jade slip and read its contents, a look of extreme surprise flashed in Xia Dong's eyes.

What's recorded in this jade slip isn't some kind of evil or heretical witchcraft at all; it's actually a legitimate Xuanmen puppetry technique!

Xia Dong was slightly taken aback. He recalled the details of his previous fight with the old wizard and quickly figured out the key points.

"I see—" Xia Dong suddenly realized.

The old wizard somehow obtained this authentic Xuanmen puppetry jade slip by chance. However, he lived in the Hundred Thousand Mountains and lacked the magical foundation and knowledge of a true Xuanmen cultivator, as well as the precious spiritual wood and spiritual metals to refine authentic puppets.

Thus, the old monster went astray. He mechanically copied the puppetry manipulation array patterns and core concepts from the jade slip and forcibly combined them with the crude and cruel witchcraft of his native land.

He used the corpses of martial artists and mortals to replace the spirit wood, and the souls of living people to replace the core of the puppet, ultimately piecing together that kind of evil yet fearless "witch ghost puppet".

Although he had embarked on an extremely cruel and evil path, it was enough to show that the old wizard had some ingenious ideas, but unfortunately his intentions were too wicked.

Xia Dong carefully studied the jade slip for a long time.

The puppetry techniques recorded in the jade slip are, to put it simply, closer to the "art of crafts" among the various arts of immortal cultivation. Its core lies in finding resilient spiritual wood and spiritual metal as the body, supplementing it with spiritual stones as the central power source, and then using divine sense to inscribe intricate array patterns to serve as the puppet's "meridians" and "nerves".

After careful study, Xia Dong discovered that the most difficult aspect of this puppetry technique, and the root cause of the old wizard's descent into evil, lay in the extremely demanding requirements for controlling the inscription of "spirit runes." Even the slightest disruption in the flow of spiritual energy would cause the entire puppet to malfunction, turning it into a pile of scrap metal.

But this is precisely Xia Dong's strength!

In his eyes, inscribing spirit patterns on puppet parts is essentially no different from drawing talismans on talisman paper. In fact, because of the pull of the talisman seed's origin, the spirit patterns he draws will only be more effective and more stable.

"As long as I find suitable spirit wood and mineral materials in the future, this puppetry technique, which others consider an insurmountable barrier, will be a piece of cake for me." Xia Dong solemnly put the jade slip into his storage bag.

If he masters this skill, it will be of great benefit to him.

After sorting and organizing all the spoils, Xia Dong stood up. Before leaving the hidden cave, he casually took out a bright yellow earth-element talisman, activated it, and slapped it against the cave ceiling.

With a muffled boom, the cave collapsed, and the thick layer of soil completely buried all traces.

After doing all this, Xia Dong closed his eyes and communicated with Pei Hongling's natal soul tablet through his divine sense.

Using the connection of the soul tablet, he quickly pinpointed the approximate location of the Eagle Wolf Guard team. Then, with a flick of his body, he activated the "Wind Control Technique," transforming into a gentle breeze and rushing forward.

When Xia Dong reappeared before Zhao Ting, Pei Hongling, and the others, the Eagle Wolf Guard, who had just escaped death, erupted in a suppressed cheer.

Zhao Ting, in particular, looked at Xia Dong, who was unharmed, and his eyes showed not only ecstasy but also deep awe. That was a ferocious evil creature in the early stage of Foundation Establishment! Xia Dong was not only able to lure it away but also escape unscathed. His strength was simply unfathomable.

"Xueyi, I'm so glad you're alright!" Zhao Ting quickly approached, lowering his voice. "This place is no place to linger. Since those Wusheng Sect demons and barbarian witches dared to ambush us here, they might have other plans. I suggest we abandon our original route immediately, find the nearest county town to set up camp, and then ask our superiors for instructions on the next course of action!"

Xia Dong glanced at the still-shaken and injured Imperial Guards around him and nodded in agreement: "Brother is absolutely right, it's best to be cautious."

Seeing that Xia Dong agreed, Zhao Ting immediately ordered the troops to break camp.

On the way to set up camp in a nearby county, Zhao Ting pulled Xia Dong aside and whispered about writing the battle report.

Of course, we must give special credit to Xia Dong, the biggest contributor, and award him a great deal of credit.

"However, we need to embellish the numbers in this battle report a little," he analyzed to Xia Dong. "The death toll is hard to falsify, after all, the higher-ups need to verify the rosters and compensation. But the number of wounded—we'll exaggerate it as much as possible! Even if it's just a scratch from a rock, we'll have to wrap their whole bodies in bandages."

Xia Dong understood immediately upon hearing this.

Zhao Ting's meaning was clear: We encountered an extremely dangerous ambush in the Ten Thousand Mountains. The enemy had planned it in advance, and our information had been leaked. Although we fought desperately to break through, our troops were riddled with wounded soldiers and our combat strength was greatly reduced. We were simply "unable" to continue advancing and could only hold our ground and wait for reinforcements.

This is also a means of self-protection.

In the days following their settlement in the county town, intelligence reports flooded Zhao Ting's desk. They soon received news of reinforcements from several other Eagle Wolf Guard units, also ordered to the sword cultivator's secret realm in Nanyue Province.

As Zhao Ting had predicted, this mess was going to be very difficult to navigate.

At least half of the teams heading to the secret realm encountered fierce resistance from the Wusheng Sect and various evil cultivators in different locations.

Some teams were unlucky and plunged headlong into the enemy's killing formation, suffering extremely heavy casualties, with even the centurion and deputy commanders of the teams being killed in action; while other teams, like Zhao Ting and Xia Dong's group, although they suffered minor losses from the ambush, also tacitly chose to "set up camp and hold back."

For a time, the entire outskirts of Nanyue Province were shrouded in an extremely eerie silence.

The Eagle and Wolf Guards from all sides adhere to the principle of "remaining steadfast when allies are in trouble."

This is an old, unspoken tradition among the officials and soldiers of the Great You Dynasty when facing enormous risks.

However, while Zhao Ting was secretly congratulating himself on his wise decision, Xia Dong, who was sitting opposite him reviewing the secret reports, frowned more and more.

"Something's not right." Xia Dong put down the file in his hand and tapped the table lightly with his fingertips.

He noticed something strange about these seemingly independent requests for help and reports of attacks.

According to intelligence, almost every reinforcement that was attacked was subjected to frenzied mockery by the Wusheng Sect demons during the battle.

The content of their mockery was surprisingly consistent—the enemies all openly revealed the secret that "the Sword Cultivation Secret Realm was actually bait used by the imperial court to lure people in!"

There's a mole inside, needless to say.

But why would the enemy be so foolish as to say it?

Is this a deliberate attempt to create confusion?

Xia Dong vaguely sensed the other party's true purpose, which was probably still the Sword Cultivation Secret Realm. Because these evil heretics knew the nature of the government troops, once the secret was revealed, regardless of whether they succeeded in obstructing them, they could greatly delay the government troops' reinforcement speed.

In any case, if an unexpected situation arises, we will definitely have to go through the procedures and ask for instructions from our superiors.

The process will definitely take a long time to complete.

Moreover, the other Eagle Wolf Guards were clearly happy to see this happen.

Why not avoid taking risks if you can?

Other people's lives are lives, but your own life is even more precious.

For the low-ranking Eagle Wolf Guards, how many spirit stones do they earn in a month? Why risk their lives like that!

During this time, those evil masters can finally free up their hands and feet to plot against the sword cultivator's secret realm.

After all, this is a secret realm, and even if it's about to be abandoned, it must still contain immense mysteries. If one can gain anything from it, it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to one's cultivation.

Although Xia Dong understood these things, there was nothing he could do.

Moreover, there are many intelligent people in the imperial court.

He also realized that ordinary Eagle Wolf Guards had limited use in front of high-level cultivators, so why were they sent to provide support instead of the higher-ups showing up?

There must be some hidden reasons behind this.

Ultimately, these people are probably just cannon fodder in the eyes of the Eagle Wolf Guard's higher-ups. They're no different in essence from that Blood-Robed Hall Master of the Wusheng Sect.

Although Xia Dong was very interested in the sword cultivator's secret realm, he suppressed his greed and decided not to go up and join the fun.

He called Pei Hongling along, and they planned to stroll around the nearby cultivation market, partly to relax and partly to see if they could find any bargains.