Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Before we knew it, the day of our trip had arrived.

Carrying his medicine kit, Xia Dong skillfully left Pingyang County and sped towards the deep mountains eighty miles away.

Although the famine and epidemic had eased somewhat, many starving corpses could still be seen in the wilderness. With the help of her divine sense, Xia Dong had long since avoided groups of refugees suspected of being cults or villages that looked strange.

A day later, he arrived at Tiger Hill.

This is an extremely treacherous deep forest, with trees blocking out the sun and a pervasive miasma in the air.

When Xia Dong circulates the "Eternal Spring Qi Circulation Technique," the miasma that can even poison martial artists naturally transforms into pure primordial energy upon encountering "Qi."

He didn't wander aimlessly through the mountains like a headless fly.

Based on the terrain description he had seen in the Eagle Wolf Guard's files and his divine sense, Xia Dong quickly discovered a large patch of suppressed, foul-smelling bushes under an extremely hidden cliff.

From deep within the bushes, a series of heavy, unsettling breaths could be faintly heard.

"Found it."

Xia Dong suppressed his vital energy and, like a ghost, lurked within the canopy of a towering tree. Through the dense foliage, he cautiously probed the area with his divine sense.

Beneath the cliff, coiled up a terrifying giant python, as thick as a water bucket and covered in bluish-black iron scales. It was lazily basking in a ray of sunlight filtering through the leaves.

This is the demonic snake that even Zhao Ting's entire team couldn't defeat.

Xia Dong did not act rashly.

This serpent has thick, tough skin and immense strength. It can not only spew poisonous miasma, but also has extremely tenacious vitality.

Although he has now reached the pinnacle of the Bone Forging Realm in martial arts, and has magic power and the Wind Control Technique at his disposal, he still lacks long-range attack methods.

This is also a major weakness of martial artists compared to cultivators. Even if a martial artist cultivates to the Transcendent Realm or even the True Intent Realm, if they are outpaced by a cultivator wielding a powerful magical artifact, they can easily be worn down and killed.

Therefore, Xia Dong highly values ​​the methods of cultivators.

This is why he was willing to take the risk of seeking the inheritance of talismanic arts.

The ancestors of this world have already paved the way to immortality over the long years. What he needs to do is to make the most of the power of the ancient bronze bell, to adapt these immortal techniques to his own use, and to find a path that is most suitable for him.

...

...

Faced with this giant snake, Xia Dong decided to outsmart it.

He took out several specially made ceramic jars from his medicine box.

This contains "Soft Tendon Powder," a formula he painstakingly prepared using rare herbs and based on the toxicology section of the "Changchun Medical Classic."

The most important effect of this medicine is not to kill the snake demon, but to make it sluggish in terms of blood and qi, extremely sleepy, and unwilling to move in a short period of time.

The monster's vitality was too strong, and even though it had been hit by the muscle-weakening powder, Xia Dong did not intend to kill it directly.

This could very well provoke a desperate, last-ditch counterattack from it.

Therefore, Xia Dong's task is to first lull the serpent into a false sense of security, giving himself time and space to find what it wants.

Xia Dong crushed a pig's heart that he had prepared in advance, spread the medicinal powder evenly on it, and then used the skillful force of the Dragon-Capturing Hand to silently throw it to a downwind spot dozens of feet away from the demon snake.

Before long, the smell, a mixture of blood and strange fragrance, wafted over.

The serpent, which had been dozing, suddenly raised its head, its tongue hissing. It was quickly attracted by the fragrance, and slithered over with its massive body, swallowing the piece of meat containing the medicine in one gulp.

Summer and winter waited quietly in the treetops.

About half an hour later, the demonic serpent crawled back down the cliff, but its movements were noticeably slower. It coiled its body into a circle, its huge head drooping limply on the ground, and its breathing became increasingly heavy.

"The medication has taken effect."

Xia Dong was overjoyed and immediately leaped down from the treetop, using the Crane Shadow Step to silently bypass the sleeping demon snake and sneak into the depths of the cliff.

At the bottom of the cliff, there is a huge cave.

The cave was dark and damp, filled with a strong stench of snakes. Xia Dong spread his divine sense like a spider web, carefully searching every corner of the cave.

However, to his disappointment, apart from the mountain of animal bones and some shed scales of demonic snakes, there was no trace of a cultivator's cave, let alone any inheritance.

"Could I have guessed wrong? Or have Zhang Ping's belongings already been obtained by this snake demon or some other cultivator?"

Undeterred, Xia Dong withdrew his divine sense and decided to personally explore the deepest part of the cave.

The further you go in, the narrower the cave becomes. In the end, it's so narrow that only one person can pass sideways.

Just as Xia Dong was about to reach the end, the power of the "Mysterious Yin Scripture" that had been lying dormant in his dantian suddenly became agitated without warning.

This magical power seemed to be responding to some kind of call from the same source, surging and surging through his meridians.

Something's fishy!

Following the guidance of this magical power, Xia Dong's gaze locked onto a seemingly ordinary, hard stone wall at the end of the cave.

When his divine sense swept over the area just now, it didn't detect anything unusual because the stone wall was too thick and lacked penetrating power.

Xia Dong stepped forward, placed his hands on the stone wall, and his internal energy and blood suddenly erupted, unleashing the divine power of the perfected Bone Forging Realm without reservation.

crunch.

With a dull groan, he actually managed to push a crack open inwards from the seemingly solid stone wall.

This was indeed an extremely well-hidden mechanism and secret door.

Xia Dong squeezed through the hidden door, and the sight before him made his pupils shrink slightly.

This is a not-so-spacious underground chamber. Its layout and the array patterns on the walls used to isolate the aura are exactly the same as the secret chamber under the dry well in his own yard!

In the center of the secret chamber, a stark white skeleton sat cross-legged.

On the stone platform in front of the skeleton, a yellowed jade slip and a palm-sized, dusty cloth bag were placed quietly.

Xia Dong stepped forward, but instead of touching the cloth bag, he picked up the jade slip first.

A moment later, Xia Dong put down the jade slip, his eyes filled with emotion and enlightenment.

The owner of this skeleton was none other than Zhang Ping, the legendary talisman master who was devoured by a snake demon.

According to the last words recorded in the jade slip, Zhang Ping was expelled by the government and then established his own secret cave in Tiger Hill.

At that time, an enemy happened to be tracking them to this place. In order to avoid being killed, Zhang Ping simply turned the tables and set up the scene, using the snake demon's fake death to escape.

This secret chamber not only has a concealment formation, but also another hidden passage leading to the outside world. So, on the surface, the snake demon and its offspring have become the natural "gatekeeper monsters" guarding the outer cave for Zhang Ping.

What truly surprised Xia Dong was that Zhang Ping confessed in his last words that he was actually a branch successor of the demonic sect "Xuanyin Sect"!

This is why Zhang Ping's cave layout is so similar to the dry well and secret chamber.

However, Zhang Ping did not cultivate the "Mysterious Yin Refining Spirit Technique" in the "Mysterious Yin Scripture" that could easily lead to demonic possession. Instead, he honestly relied on his daily arduous cultivation to break through his realm and increase his spiritual consciousness.

Xia Dong then looked at the dusty cloth bag on the stone platform, and a thought struck him.

According to the jade slip, this cloth bag is called a "storage bag," which is a Sumeru magic artifact used in the cultivation world to store items.

However, before his death, Zhang Ping placed a restriction on his storage pouch. Only those of his fellow disciples who possessed pure "Mysterious Yin Power" could sense the existence of the secret chamber.

Furthermore, before opening the storage pouch, one must use both divine sense and magical power to refine it; otherwise, if it is forcibly broken open, the contents inside will be instantly shredded by the power of space.

Without hesitation, Xia Dong immediately separated a wisp of his divine sense and, together with the profound Yin power in his dantian, slowly injected it into his storage pouch.

About half an hour later, Xia Dong felt a strange physical connection established between himself and the storage bag.

With a thought, he quietly opened the mouth of the storage bag.

Inside is a separate space, about three feet square.

There were no earth-shattering magical treasures in the space, only about a hundred neatly arranged low-grade spirit stones, and another dark green jade slip emitting a faint black light.

There was nothing else besides that.

"One hundred spirit stones!"

Xia Dong was slightly excited.

Then, with a thought, he took out the dark green jade slip.

boom!

A much larger flow of information than before instantly flooded into his mind.

"The Taiping Yin Fu Jing..."