Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

As dawn broke and the first light of day appeared, the bright moon in the sky finally faded away, disappearing its last rays of light.

The vortex of spiritual energy beneath the cliff gradually subsided, and Xia Dong's strange joint cultivation with the giant snake came to an end.

Xia Dong slowly retracted the crane-shaped stance, exhaled a long breath of turbid air, closed his eyes and concentrated, and began to carefully observe the changes in his cultivation within his body.

To his surprise, he found that after a night of breathing exercises, the amount of magical power in his dantian had not increased much, but it seemed to have undergone a pure tempering from the inside out, becoming more solid and exuding a mysterious charm.

His original cultivation of the Profound Yin Magic Power has become visibly more refined.

The purer the magical power, the more solid the foundation.

Xia Dong was well aware of his shortcomings—most of his magical power was built up by consuming a large number of Qi Gathering Pills. Although the progress was gratifying, his foundation was inevitably somewhat unstable.

After being cleansed by the moonlight and spiritual mist last night, my magical power was repeatedly purified, and the hidden dangers and side effects of consuming too many pills were greatly reduced as a result.

My whole being, from body to mind, felt completely purified, clear and flawless, and I felt indescribably refreshed.

What surprised him even more was that even the "Changchun Xingqi Jue" Divine Treasure Chapter, which had been progressing at a snail's pace, had clearly made a slight progress under the nourishment of the moonlight.

Xia Dong looked at the giant snake beside him, and a startling thought surged in his mind: "Could it be that breathing in and out moonlight together with this giant snake that possesses the bloodline of the Black Water Serpent is the true and correct way to cultivate this 'Mysterious Yin Scripture'?"

Filled with excitement, Xia Dong forced himself to stay in the cave for a whole day.

As the sun finally set and night fell again, with stars twinkling in the sky, Xia Dong excitedly ran to the giant snake, wanting to repeat the process and cultivate with it by inhaling and exhaling moonlight.

However, the giant snake lazily coiled its enormous head inside its body, refusing him without any mercy.

Xia Dong was slightly taken aback, but then realized what was going on through the mental connection they had established.

It turns out that the profound cultivation method of drawing upon the essence of heaven and earth and the moon to condense the inner elixir is extremely taxing on the mind and vital energy. At the current level of the Great Serpent, it can only be done once a month at most.

After that night of frenzied devouring, the giant serpent was now utterly exhausted, exuding a lazy and listless air, not wanting to move at all.

In contrast, Xia Dong showed no signs of fatigue; on the contrary, thanks to the purification of his magical power, he was full of energy and radiant.

Xia Dong was somewhat skeptical, so he went to stand in the moonlight and practiced the Crane Stance breathing exercise. However, he found that without the guidance and resonance of the "unformed demon core" of the giant snake, he could not enter that miraculous state of absorbing moonlight again. He could only barely absorb some of the faint spiritual energy in the night breeze.

"Forget it, cultivation of immortality is a slow and steady process, it can't be rushed." Although Xia Dong was a little disappointed, he quickly adjusted his mindset.

While the path of immortal cultivation is slow, Xia Dong's progress in martial arts has been rapid and significant recently.

He could clearly feel that his training in the "dirty training" stage of martial arts was nearing perfection.

Especially after the "Kidney Water Divine Palace" of the Profound Yin Kidney Refining Technique was completely forged, Xia Dong's blood and qi surged like a river, and his essence was often overflowing. It seemed that he had inexhaustible strength in his limbs and bones.

This state of abundant and continuous vitality is extremely beneficial to martial arts, a practice that hones the physical body.

Xia Dong sat cross-legged in his cave, introspecting on himself. Although he had now entered the path of immortality and was nearing the perfection of his martial arts training, his actual combat ability was still far from sufficient when it came to fighting skills.

After all, real combat is often accompanied by life-or-death crises. Xia Dong has always been cautious and treads on thin ice, and he is unwilling to risk his life outside just to gain experience.

In the Eagle Wolf Guard of Pingyang County, colleagues at most sparred with each other on some basic external skills. If he were to reveal his true strength, he would easily expose his trump card and cause unnecessary trouble.

But things are different now. Looking at the enormous serpent with its deep aura, a glint of light flashed in Xia Dong's eyes—wasn't this a ready-made, absolutely confidential, and incredibly powerful "gold medal sparring partner"?

After patiently waiting for the giant serpent for several days, and once it had recovered much of the energy it had used to absorb the moonlight that night, Xia Dong solemnly extended an invitation to the serpent for a "friendly sparring match."

The giant snake flicked its scarlet forked tongue, its cold, vertical pupils staring at Xia Dong for a long while.

Whether it was because staying in this deep mountain forest was too boring, or out of a bit of indulgence towards the two-legged beast that had been "feeding" it pills for so long, the giant snake actually nodded its huge head slightly and did not refuse.

Having received the giant snake's approval, Xia Dong not only did not relax, but instead felt as if facing a formidable enemy.

He clearly remembered how the giant snake had brutally strangled a ferocious black eagle in the mountains last time.

Xia Dong had made thorough preparations for this sparring match. He didn't hesitate to put on his close-fitting "Mysterious Serpent Inner Armor." Afterward, he dug a pit nearby and hid healing pills and Qi-restoring powder to ensure everything was in order. After all, if he lacked the energy to open his storage pouch, he could immediately retrieve the medicine.

"Brother Snake, we have a deal: stop when you've reached a point of no return, and please hold back!"

Xia Dong stood on the open ground below the cliff, took a deep breath, and his blood and qi surged through his body instantly.

The giant snake lay languidly coiled in place, a hint of human-like mockery flashing in its vertical pupils.

"Excuse me!"

Xia Dong let out a low shout and took the initiative to attack.

With a swift movement, he unleashed his fully mastered "Crane Shadow Step." In an instant, several afterimages of Xia Dong seemed to appear in the arena. His steps were light and ethereal, his figure like a white crane flitting through the forest, moving left and right, his dazzling afterimages surrounding the giant snake, attempting to find blind spots in the snake's vision and perception.

Xia Dong believed he had mastered this set of movement techniques to the extreme. Just as he circled around to the side and rear of the giant snake, preparing to probe with a deadly move,

"Snapped!"

A piercing explosion suddenly erupted in the air!

The giant snake didn't even turn its head to look at Xia Dong's afterimage. With a casual twist of its massive body, a thick, tree-like tail covered in bluish-black scales swept out like a black whip tearing through the air, accompanied by a suffocating gale!

There were no fancy moves or complicated variations; it was just a simple and unadorned "Dragon Tail Swing".

"Not good!" Xia Dong's pupils shrank sharply. Before the overwhelming force could even reach him, the strong wind had already made his cheeks sting.

His prized Crane Shadow Step was utterly a joke in the face of such absolute power and speed.

With no way to avoid it, Xia Dong could only frantically circulate his internal energy and cross his arms to protect his chest.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, Xia Dong felt as if his arms had been struck by a massive hammer. Like a kite with a broken string, he was sent flying backward without any resistance, tracing a tragic arc in the air before crashing heavily into the bushes in the distance.

"Cough cough cough..." Xia Dong got up, covered in dust and dirt. He felt his blood and qi churning inside him, and his internal organs were shaking violently. He felt a sweet taste in his throat and almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

If it weren't for the Xuan Snake Inner Armor dissipating most of the terrifying force, coupled with his powerful physique nearing completion of his cultivation, that tail strike would have likely broken several bones in his body.

"Really...perverted..." Xia Dong wiped the dust from the corner of his mouth and clicked his tongue in disbelief.

He clearly felt the snake suddenly pull back some of its force just as its tail was about to strike him. Even so, it still left him completely defenseless.

A mutated monster at the late stage of Qi Refining possesses terrifying strength!

Faced with overwhelming power, any fancy techniques seem pale and powerless.

However, this attack also completely ignited the ruthlessness in Xia Dong's bones.

"Again!" Xia Dong swallowed a healing pill, suppressed his surging blood and qi, regulated his breathing for a moment, and once again used the Crane Shadow Step to rush forward.

For the next two weeks, every day at the foot of the cliff outside Tiger Hill Cave, Xia Dong was brutally crushed by the giant snake.

From being instantly killed in one move at the beginning, to barely managing to dodge a serpent's tail sweep; from blindly moving around by relying solely on the Crane Shadow Step, to learning to predict the trajectory of attacks in advance by observing the contraction of the serpent's scales and the writhing of its muscles.

Xia Dong's practical experience is rapidly increasing in this hellish "sparring" environment.

He gradually abandoned the unnecessary feints in the Crane Shadow Step for the sake of aesthetics, making his movements more concise, lethal, and closer to actual combat.

He learned how to remain absolutely calm under terrifying pressure, how to use others' strength against him, and even how to use the terrain and blind spots to buy himself even the slightest bit of breathing room.

Each time he was knocked away, each time his blood and qi surged, his fighting instincts were constantly being honed.

Xia Dong was like a rough, stubborn piece of iron. Under the constant forging of the raging iron hammer of the giant serpent, he gradually shed his original roughness and superficiality, revealing the cold and sharp edge that truly belonged to cultivators and martial arts masters.