Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

"This Miss Qin is quite a nice person." Xia Dong carefully put away the letter, feeling a surge of emotion.

In this world where immortals and mortals are separated, since the other party has already been valued by the immortal sect, they can completely disregard the old mortal agreement. Not only did they annul the engagement and send generous gifts, but now they have even sent a letter of apology and a legendary "spirit stone".

Such demeanor and conduct are truly impeccable.

Xia Dong turned around and took out the spirit stone that Miss Qin had given him from the wooden box.

The spirit stone was only the size of a thumb, with a translucent, warm jade-like color. When held in the palm of his hand, it had a faint, refreshing coolness. He examined it repeatedly under the oil lamp, and then tried to circulate the faint "qi" within his body, nurtured by the Crane-shaped stance, and slowly infuse it into the spirit stone.

However, it was like throwing a stone into the sea.

The wisp of vital energy dissipated the moment it touched the surface of the spirit stone, making it impossible to extract even a trace of the legendary "spiritual power" or special substances from this magical stone.

"It seems that the artifacts of the immortals are indeed beyond the reach of ordinary martial artists." Xia Dong shook his head, not feeling discouraged.

Since he couldn't figure out the trick, Xia Dong simply followed Miss Qin's instructions in the letter, placing the thumb-sized spirit stone under his pillow before lying down fully clothed.

As night deepened, all was quiet.

After a day of rigorous training, Xia Dong quickly fell into a deep sleep. Just as he drifted off, the spirit stone beneath his pillow suddenly emitted a faint glow. Then, as if drawn by some unseen force, the glow transformed into wisps of pure mist, silently seeping into the back of Xia Dong's head.

Deep within the sea of ​​consciousness.

The mottled bronze bell, which had been silently suspended, absorbed all the foreign spiritual energy, as if it had been rained on after a long drought.

hum.

A faint sound, yet imbued with a certain ancient joy, quietly reverberated deep within the soul.

In his dream, Xia Dong felt his consciousness being pulled into a strange, hazy space. Here, he seemed to transform into thousands of white cranes, endlessly repeating the movements of the Crane Stance. Hundreds of repetitions and tens of thousands of breaths finally condensed into a single, brilliant point of light.

The "window paper" that was preventing him from continuing to rise was ruthlessly pierced by this sudden and enormous external force!

On the bronze bell, the crimson, distorted characters reappeared and changed:

Name: Xia Dong

Code name: Unearthing

Talent: One certificate for life

Spiritual Root: None

Martial Arts: Crane Stance (Limit Break)

Immediately afterwards, a massive flow of information surged into Xia Dong's mind like a sudden awakening. The mysteries beyond the perfection of the Crane Form Stance, under the blessing of "Breaking Limits," transformed into an extremely profound martial art.

This is a secret technique specializing in leg techniques and lightness skills—Crane Shadow Step.

It not only contains extremely sharp leg power techniques, but also a unique method of light-body qi circulation. After practicing it, his legs will be like the long feathers of a crane, giving him the excellent ability to fly over rooftops and walk on walls; and because of his extremely high utilization of qi and blood power, he can greatly reduce consumption, allowing him to run extremely far and have extremely long endurance.

The next morning.

Xia Dong suddenly opened his eyes and jumped up from the bed.

He subconsciously lifted the pillow, and the once warm and lustrous spirit stone had now turned into a small clump of grayish-white powder, which, when blown by the wind, completely lost its mystique.

"So, the energy of the spirit stone can be directly absorbed by the ancient bell and used to deduce and break the limits of martial arts!"

Xia Dong was overjoyed.

Without hesitation, he immediately pushed open the door and went into the courtyard to verify what he had dreamt about the previous night.

The morning dew had not yet dried in the small courtyard.

Xia Dong took a deep breath, his leg muscles tensed violently, and the Crane Shadow Step technique surged into his body. He lightly touched the blue bricks with his toes, and as if weightless, he was lifted more than ten feet into the air!

"Whoosh!"

He suddenly exerted force from his waist and abdomen in mid-air, and with precise push-off from the courtyard wall, his figure resembled a nimble white crane, landing lightly on the top of the jujube tree. The slender branches rose and fell with his weight, yet he moved as if on flat ground, exceptionally steady.

"What an impressive and powerful movement technique!"

Summer and winter cheered, and then the branches snapped instantly.

"Cough cough." Xia Dong got up from the ground in a disheveled state, patting the dust off his clothes.

Fortunately, the tree wasn't tall, so no one saw it.

It's not his fault; the feeling just now was so wonderful that he really thought he was a white crane dancing gracefully.

However, he can finally breathe a sigh of relief now.

With this martial art skill, he should have a certain degree of self-defense ability in the secular world. In the future, when he travels and encounters ordinary bandits, he can fight if there are fewer of them, and run if there are more!

Riding freely through the world, roaming the land at will.

Xia Dong gave a soft hum.

Although I can't cultivate immortality yet, the feeling that martial arts brings is already wonderful.

In the following days, Xia Dong temporarily postponed his plans to investigate the market and find ways to make money, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cultivation of "Crane Shadow Step".

In the early morning, he moved nimbly between the dry well and the courtyard wall, leaving behind trails of shadows; at night, he was like a ghost in the dark, silently passing over the rooftops of the alleyways.

My proficiency with the Crane Shadow Step has steadily improved over the past few days.

With each leap and landing, Xia Dong could feel his body's control over his qi and blood becoming increasingly refined, almost instinctive. However, as his martial arts skills continued to improve, the desire emanating from his body also became clearer.

"As expected, the poor study literature while the rich practice martial arts; the energy expenditure from martial arts training is just too great..."

Xia Dong stood in the courtyard, touched his empty money pouch, and sighed deeply, "If I were to cultivate immortality in the future, the resources I would need would be immeasurable."

On this day, Xia Dong had to stop practicing the Crane Shadow Step.

There's nothing I can do, I'm really out of money.

The fifty taels of silver and old ginseng left by the Qin family had already been almost entirely consumed during the previous extreme "physical enhancement" phase. In the past few days, in order to maintain the high-intensity accumulation of Crane Shadow Step, he had completely exhausted his remaining resources.

His energy and blood are now far beyond that of ordinary people, and his daily food intake is several times greater than before. The most critical thing is that he must eat meat. Ordinary people can survive on bran and wild vegetables, but his body, which is like an oven, cannot be satisfied by eating only coarse grains.

The coarse grains and noodles I ate were like a few dry straws thrown into a blazing furnace; they burned up in the blink of an eye and were simply not enough for my martial arts training. Over time, they could even deplete my body.

Looking at the nearly empty rice container in the kitchen, Xia Dong couldn't help but feel a little melancholy.

He couldn't just sit and wait to die; he had to find some way to make a living. So, he began to carefully investigate the market in Pingyang County.

With the halo of a newly appointed scholar, when he walked down the street, neighbors and vendors would politely stop and respectfully call him "Master Xia." This official certification from the court was indeed useful, at least it spared him from harassment by many local thugs.

However, when Xia Dong really wanted to find a way to make money quickly, reality quickly threw cold water on his plans.

After wandering the streets and alleys for several days, he discovered that Pingyang County was a very murky place. Those lucrative and quick-money-making businesses—such as salt and iron, bulk medicinal herbs, pawnshops, grain merchants, and even underground banks and brothels—had long been tightly controlled by the county's large and small gentry families and gangs, with intricate and intertwined chains of interest.

Behind them were even the shadows of county magistrates or powerful figures in the prefectural city, leaving no room for a poor scholar like him with no background to get involved.

If one uses the privileges and status of a scholar to help others write petitions, handle lawsuits, or work as a tutor in a wealthy household, doing these kinds of stable "small jobs," one will indeed be respected and will never starve in this life.

But this was barely enough to make ends meet, far from what he needed to train in martial arts.

"Isn't this just like in my past life...?"

Xia Dong stood at the end of the bustling street, watching the carriages and merchants dressed in fine silks and satins, feeling lost and melancholy.

Social stratification is indeed a persistent problem in every world.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Xia Dong tightened his collar, a sense of defeat welling up inside him. If he didn't break this deadlock soon, this scholar with exceptional skills might not even be able to scrape together enough money for meat tomorrow.

Xia Dong stared at the bookstore not far away, where people were coming and going frequently, and a flash of inspiration struck him.

"Looks like I'll have to become a plagiarist for once."