Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Near Qixia Mountain, Xia Dong, carrying the spirit stones Qin Wan had just sent, used the token that allowed him to enter and exit the cultivation market to quietly visit the market of the Qixia Immortal Sect.

This time, his goal was clear: to exchange a spirit stone for three fasting pills.

According to the records in "Miscellaneous Records of Cultivation", one Bigu Pill is enough to allow a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage to go without food for a whole month, and can ensure that the essence and energy in the body will not decline.

Xia Dong was eager to know how effective these immortal cultivator's pills would be for him, a "different kind of cultivator" who relied on his blood and qi to nourish his consciousness.

Back at the Changchun Medical Clinic, after locking the door, Xia Dong swallowed a fasting pill.

When the elixir entered the stomach, there was no violent heat, only an extremely long and gentle flow of vital energy spreading in the stomach.

However, three days later, Xia Dong sat at his desk with a somber expression.

Just three days.

The essence contained in that pill, which was said to enable cultivators to fast for a month, was completely consumed by him.

"Cultivators could never do what I do, relying solely on consuming blood and qi to nourish their spirit." Xia Dong tapped his fingers lightly on the table, secretly speculating, "They must have a more sophisticated immortal technique that directly absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to nourish their soul."

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but feel doubtful about the "Mysterious Yin Scripture." Since this demonic cultivation technique had a secret method to devour Yin spirits and strengthen the divine soul, could there also be another method to devour blood and food to strengthen one's qi and blood?

There is a high probability.

However, devouring blood and food to strengthen one's vital energy, just like devouring ghosts to strengthen one's soul, probably also has side effects.

As Xia Dong pondered this line of thought, he felt a chill run down his spine.

If there are side effects, why do cultivators still capture martial artists? Is it because martial artists' blood and qi are purer than ordinary blood and qi, so the side effects are much milder?

The Great You Dynasty is so kind in implementing new laws and promoting martial arts, could it be that...?

Xia Dong felt a chill run down her spine and dared not think too deeply about it.

At present, preserving his life is the most important thing to him.

Only with life can we keep moving forward.

Xia Dong remained focused on improving her skills.

On the other hand, although the Fasting Pill was effective, the trade of "one spirit stone for three days' worth of food" was far too extravagant. Xia Dong also consulted medical books and discovered that most of the medicinal materials required for the Fasting Pill were imbued with spiritual energy, making them impossible to find in the mortal world, thus blocking his own path of refining them.

Fortunately, although he could not retain the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within his body, he could use his divine sense to guide the surrounding free spiritual energy and directly infuse it into the ancient bronze bell in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Although divine consciousness is extremely depleted, it can be replenished by consuming mortal flesh and blood.

This means that he can replenish his qi and blood by eating voraciously, then transform his qi and blood into divine sense, and finally use his divine sense to help the ancient bronze bell absorb spiritual energy and accumulate the spiritual power needed for deduction.

Furthermore, Xia Dong discovered that the concentration of spiritual energy in the secret chamber at the bottom of the dry well was far higher than that on the ground. Inside the secret chamber, with the same amount of spiritual energy expenditure, the ancient bell could absorb far more spiritual energy.

Therefore, Xia Dong carefully put away the remaining spirit stone and two Bigu pills.

He began a regular life of "binge eating and sitting in a dry well".

...

...

A new January.

The "soft rice" (a euphemism for a meal) sent by Wan'er arrived as scheduled.

This time, in addition to the two spirit stones that never change, there were also a full five Bigu Pills!

In the letter, Qin Wan mentioned that the five Bigu Pills were not purchased by her, but were a gift from her master, Master Guyue.

In her letter, Qin Wan also explained a common knowledge in the cultivation world to him: the Bigu Pill is extremely expensive in the market, but for the inner disciples of the Qixia Immortal Sect, it is actually not worth much money.

Moreover, the number of inner disciples in the Immortal Sect has decreased sharply, and the storeroom is filled with a large number of unused Bigu Pills. This is because, for cultivators who pursue the path to immortality, Bigu Pills are just a small thing to save time when eating, and they are of no benefit to improving cultivation. They are far inferior to spiritual rice, which is rich in essence.

After reading the letter, Xia Dong felt utterly helpless: "So it turns out that I was taken advantage of by that unscrupulous merchant in the market."

But more than being cheated out of a spirit stone, another piece of information revealed in the letter made Xia Dong's heart tighten.

Master Guyue is watching him!

The matter of the Yin Sha Pill must not have been exposed, otherwise I would have been captured and taken to the mountain long ago.

After a moment's thought, his gaze fell on the token that allowed him to enter the market.

This token was made by Master Guyue himself. Last month, he took the token to the market to buy fasting pills, and it was probably activated by Master Guyue. Master Guyue learned that he had bought fasting pills at the market, so he casually asked Qin Wan to send him a few.

It seems that it was just a casual act of kindness from Senior Lonely Moon.

After figuring things out, Xia Dong breathed a long sigh of relief, but he didn't let his guard down.

"It's best to avoid the Immortal Cultivation Market for now."

Anyway, he only went there once after saying goodbye to Qin Wan, so not going again wouldn't be considered unusual behavior.

On the other hand, with the help of the "free" Bigu Pill from the Lonely Moon Immortal, Xia Dong was able to accumulate spiritual energy for the ancient bronze bell even faster.

He completely calmed down and neither participated in the military examination nor planned to participate in the provincial examination for the imperial examination for the time being.

Currently, he is thriving in Pingyang County.

He was both a renowned doctor and a scholar.

He had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds. As long as he didn't actively seek trouble, he could live a life of ease in the small county of Pingyang.

Spring goes and autumn comes, and the seasons change.

For a whole year, he rarely went out, like a crane hiding in the deep mountains to cultivate its skills, silently accumulating its strength.

During that year, he did not go to Huangni Village to capture ghosts to refine Yin Sha Pills.

He knew very well that the stronger one's spiritual sense, the more vital energy one would consume daily. Before finding a more efficient method for refining essence into vital energy, blindly increasing one's spiritual sense would place an enormous burden on the physical body.

However, even without deliberately cultivating martial arts, with the help of the residual Yin Sha Pill in his body and his continuous hard work over the past year, his martial arts realm still naturally broke through.

The skin-smoothing effect is perfect.

Then, Xia Dong naturally entered the third stage of martial arts – the Bone Forging Realm.

After gaining consciousness, his martial arts cultivation progressed very smoothly.

When Xia Dong practices standing meditation in the courtyard, a faint, muffled thunderous sound can be heard deep within his bones, and his qi and blood feel as heavy as lead and mercury.

As night fell that day, Xia Dong sat on the bed, his mind focused inward.

Deep within his consciousness, the face of that mottled bronze clock was already shimmering with an extremely lustrous spiritual light.

Over the past year, he has saved every single spirit stone Qin Wan sent him and used it all today.

Moreover, after gaining divine consciousness, he could directly draw out the spiritual power of the spirit stones and inject it into the ancient bronze bell.

In addition, by using his divine sense to guide the spiritual energy of the ancient well day after day for the bronze bell to absorb, the ancient bell has now accumulated a great deal of spiritual power.

"Crane-shaped stance, Dragon-capturing skill, Changchun Medical Classic... it's time!"

"The ancient bronze bell aids my spiritual practice!"