Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

After gaining magical power, Xia Dong's first thought was how to earn more cultivation resources.

There are four main ways for cultivators to earn spirit stones: pills, artifacts, formations, and talismans.

After careful consideration, Xia Dong set his sights on "talismanic arts".

The costs of alchemy and weapon crafting in the early stages are outrageously high, often requiring expensive alchemy furnaces, earth fire, and rare spiritual herbs and ores.

With Xia Dong's current meager finances, he can't even afford a single dreg of medicine.

However, talisman making is the one with the lowest threshold and cost among these four arts.

The spiritual paper needed for making talismans is mostly made from spiritual bamboo.

Qixia Mountain Range may not have much else, but the spirit bamboo that grows all over the mountains grows extremely fast. Therefore, in the market, a single low-grade spirit stone can buy a large stack of blank spirit paper of decent quality.

As for the demon blood or cinnabar used to draw runes, they are not considered rare items among mortals and low-level cultivators, and are not difficult to obtain.

What truly deters countless cultivators from creating talismans is the shockingly low success rate.

Drawing talismans requires completing the task in one go.

When a cultivator puts pen to paper, even the slightest fluctuation in their state of mind, the slightest deviation in the infusion of magical power, or even the slightest tremor of their hand can cause the spiritual energy of the entire talisman to dissipate, rendering it instantly unusable.

The intense consumption of spiritual energy during talisman drawing makes it a thankless and arduous task for many low-level cultivators. They are often grateful if they can succeed in drawing one out of ten talismans.

But this is not a problem at all for Xia Dong, who owns the ancient bronze bell!

"One certificate for life" perfectly covers these shortcomings.

As long as he can successfully draw a high-quality talisman, the perfect magical trajectory and exquisite brushstrokes will be imprinted deep within his soul.

After that, when he drew the same symbol again, it was like the most precise woodblock printing, with an extremely high success rate.

Having determined his direction, Xia Dong began searching his mind for the vast amount of strange tales in the Pingyang County Gazetteer, seeking a way to inherit the art of talismans.

Soon, a name buried in old papers caught his eye—Zhang Ping.

...

...

Zhang Ping was a native of Pingyang County more than a thousand years ago.

This person was obsessed with seeking immortality throughout his life, wandering around for half his life, but in the end he failed to join any famous sects and only learned the art of talisman water as a rogue cultivator.

In his later years, he returned to his roots and went back to Pingyang County.

According to the hidden records in the Pingyang County Annals, Zhang Ping was the master of talismanic magic.

One year, Pingyang County suffered a severe drought followed by famine and rampant plague. Zhang Ping then used his magical water to cure the sick and save lives outside the city.

Unfortunately, while talismanic water can cure evil spirits and epidemics, it cannot cure poverty, much less hunger.

As the number of refugees grew, the magistrate of Pingyang County, fearing that it would incite a popular uprising and that Zhang Ping would take the opportunity to incite a rebellion, sent troops to forcibly expel him on charges of "confusion and misleading the public with heretical doctrines."

Disheartened, Zhang Ping eventually went into seclusion in the deep mountains of Tiger Hill, eighty miles outside Pingyang County, where he lived among tigers until his death in the forests and springs.

The last few words about him in the county annals are that when villagers went into the mountains to collect herbs, they found that Zhang Ping's secluded cave had been destroyed, and that he himself had likely been devoured by a giant snake demon that had become a spirit.

"Given his sudden death, his inherited talismanic arts are most likely still hidden somewhere in Tiger Hill."

The reason he was so concerned about this thousand-year-old rumor was that just last month, Zhao Ting, the commander of the Eagle Wolf Guard, personally led a team to Tiger Hill to wipe out a group of roving cult bandits.

Instead of catching the cultists, they disturbed a terrifying snake demon deep in the mountains.

The serpent demon's scales were as hard as iron. Not only was it proficient in poisonous miasma, but its strength was also astonishing. Zhao Ting, a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining, along with several low-ranking members at the Skin Polishing Realm, were unable to defeat it. Instead, they lost several brothers, and even Zhao Ting himself suffered internal injuries.

In the end, it was Xia Dong who stepped in, using the "Changchun Medical Classic" in combination with the Dragon-Capturing Hand and the Rejuvenating Needle to stabilize their injuries.

"Tiger Hill... Snake Demon... Zhang Ping's Legacy."

Xia Dong connected these clues and made a plan in his mind. The snake demon that caused the Eagle Wolf Guard to suffer a setback was very likely a descendant of the giant snake that devoured Zhang Ping back then.

It occupies Tiger Hill, most likely because there is a cave dwelling left by Zhang Ping or some kind of miniature spiritual vein there.

Xia Dong decided to take a trip to Tiger Hill.

Of course, he also made preparations for both possibilities.

If he couldn't find Zhang Ping's inheritance during his trip to Tiger Hill, he would continue to hoard spirit stones in the clinic and then go to the market of Qixia Immortal Sect to buy a basic jade slip for making talismans.

Although one could exchange merit points for talisman-making techniques in the Eagle Wolf Guard's internal warehouse, it was not only expensive, but also impossible for a mortal physician "without spiritual roots" to explain to his superiors that he wanted to exchange for the various arts of immortal cultivation.

It's actually safer to go to the market.

In her recent letter, Qin Wan mentioned that her master, Master Gu Yue, had gone into complete seclusion since the end of last year and had not seen anyone. This great cultivator, who had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, was devoting all his efforts to opening up the legendary "Purple Mansion."

Opening the Purple Mansion is extremely dangerous, and even if one succeeds by chance, it will require a very long time to nurture and cultivate it. This means that for a long time to come, Master Guyue will have no time to attend to the outside world.

If Xia Dong goes to the market during this period, she doesn't need to worry about attracting the attention of this great cultivator.

As for the snake demon in Tiger Hill, Xia Dong, being a highly skilled doctor, naturally had the appropriate methods.

He needs to prepare some special medicine.

However, considering that this giant snake was already a spirit, the specially made medicine might not be effective, so Xia Dong was prepared to run away at any time if he couldn't defeat it.

Moreover, he plans to further strengthen his divine sense.

A strong sense of consciousness is extremely useful for survival. The most obvious benefit is that it can enhance the ability to observe the environment and detect danger in advance.

The promotion of martial arts in Pingyang County over the past three years has not actually been a good thing.

Because practicing martial arts consumes a lot of food.

Let alone ordinary families, even wealthy farmers would find it extremely difficult to support a martial artist.

This has led to a rapid increase in grain and meat prices in Pingyang County in recent years.

This year happens to be the second year of drought.

As a result, the people of Pingyang County are suffering terribly this year.

Other counties are even worse off than Pingyang County.

As a result, in the past two years, there have been many more disaster victims outside the city, and epidemics have been rampant.

Rumors of ghosts have also increased.

Some are true, some are false.

This also presented a good opportunity for the local gentry and powerful families in Pingyang County to seize land.

The Great You Dynasty may have had good intentions in promoting martial arts, but it must be admitted that after the new laws were implemented, many ordinary families were ruined by the need to support martial artists, thanks to the encouragement of the gentry and powerful.

At this time, many people in Linyuan Prefecture joined a heretical cult called the Wusheng Sect due to drought, famine, and epidemic.

Many people also prayed for the immortals of Qixia Mountain to come down and save them.

They had also heard rumors that the immortals of the Qixia Immortal Sect intended to relieve suffering, but they were suppressed by the government and therefore could not take action.

This is not without precedent. For example, the legendary immortal Zhang Ping from Pingyang County angered the government by using talismanic water to heal the people.

As a result, the government of Dayou in the Linyuan Prefecture area unknowingly incurred a lot of public resentment.

If a skilled cultivator were to use the Qi Observation Technique to observe, they would discover that this resentment is gathering in a certain corner.

This is an altar, where loud slogans echo:

"The Mother Goddess descended to earth, and all people were liberated."

"Divine power protects the body, making one impervious to swords and spears."