Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Back in the secret chamber of Tiger Hill Cave, Xia Dong quickly calmed himself and began his secluded cultivation to create talismans.

With the help of the "Netherworld Seed" within his body, he found that the process of drawing low-level talismans became easier than ever before.

As the pen moved across the paper, the harmony between his magical power and divine sense was astonishingly high, as if the talisman seed was precisely controlling the flow of every bit of spiritual power for him, making the strokes flow smoothly and effortlessly.

However, Xia Dong was also aware that this Netherworld Seed was still far from reaching the perfection of the first stage. Moreover, for the Seed to transform and enter the next stage, it would require at least the foundation-building stage's mana and divine sense as a basic support, and would also need to incorporate precious five-element spiritual objects and employ many auxiliary methods.

Given Xia Dong's current circumstances, there's no need to consider this too much for the time being.

Moreover, the "Taiping Yinfu Scripture" that he obtained from Zhang Ping's cave only contains cultivation content for the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment realms. The road ahead is long, and there's no point in rushing it.

Xia Dong skillfully wielded the talisman brush while carefully sensing the subtle changes within his body.

He discovered that as the talismans were being drawn in succession, the Netherworld Talisman Seed was also quietly absorbing the "talismanic nature" emitted by each talisman as it took shape.

This is an extremely special and mysterious aura, and it is also one of the "foods" that nourish the growth of the talisman seed.

Xia Dong looked inward at his dantian and saw the gray-black talisman seed slowly absorbing and releasing its talismanic properties. He couldn't help but have a strange feeling: nurturing this talisman seed felt like raising a spirit silkworm.

As long as you keep making talismans and feeding it, one day it will spin its cocoon, eventually break free, and usher in the next stage of magnificent transformation.

As Xia Dong's talisman-making skills deepened, he successfully created a highly practical auxiliary talisman using talisman seeds—the Spirit Nourishing Talisman.

The biggest drawback of low-level talismans is that their spiritual energy is easily lost, making them difficult to preserve for long periods. However, with this Spirit Nourishing Talisman, the situation is quite different. From now on, for any newly drawn batches of low-level talismans, Xia Dong only needs to place them in an ordinary jade box, attach an activated Spirit Nourishing Talisman inside, and casually place a low-grade spirit stone as an energy source, and the talismans will be preserved perfectly for a very long time.

Moreover, Xia Dong also discovered that the low-level talismans made with the blessing of the talisman seed, although not as powerful as the "blood talisman" he had drawn with the talisman ink made from his own blood essence, were still significantly stronger than the talismans he had made before.

More importantly, the spiritual power of this talisman is more restrained, and the rate at which spiritual energy is lost is also slower.

It is definitely a great value for money.

Xia Dong looked with satisfaction at the pile of talismans on the table.

Goods of this quality would be extremely competitive once they entered the market for low- to mid-priced monks.

Fortunately, the improvement in power and quality is just right, so that it can be sold at a good price without seeming too abrupt.

After securing the talisman for delivery, Xia Dong took advantage of his free time to bring out the rare Yin Spirit Jade he had obtained from the Ghost-Faced Spider's nest.

He carefully carved the jade. It took a lot of effort to complete a simple and perfectly fitting jade vase.

He finally had an excellent container to store the "Mysterious Yin Divine Water".

Yinling Jade inherently contains extremely heavy pure Yin energy, but as the saying goes, "when Yin reaches its extreme, Yang is born," within its pure Yin, there is a trace of subtle Yang energy that is not easily detected.

When Xia Dong slowly dripped the Mysterious Yin Divine Water into the jade bottle, a miraculous reaction occurred.

The Xuan Yin Divine Water not only did not lose any of its spirituality, but the aura of creation it emitted seemed to be nourishing the Yin Spirit Jade Bottle in turn.

However, the storage time is still short, so no obvious changes or effects can be seen yet.

If improvements are made consistently, the Yin Spirit Jade Bottle might one day become a magical artifact.

Looking at the Xuan Yin Divine Water lying quietly in the jade bottle, and feeling the divine consciousness in his sea of ​​consciousness being tempered and made more solid, Xia Dong finally digested the huge gains he had made during this period, and his heart was at peace.

After resting for a while and restoring his energy and spirit to their best condition, Xia Dong lit the fire again and started refining ordinary Qi Gathering Pills as well as his unique Xuan Yin Qi Gathering Pills.

In the process of opening the furnace and collecting pills time and time again: whenever he added that drop of precious "Mysterious Yin Divine Water" to refine the Mysterious Yin Gathering Qi Pill, not only was the quality of the pill excellent, but even the heavy bronze furnace itself showed obvious signs of being deeply tempered.

In the common knowledge of the cultivation world, alchemy is an extremely expensive and resource-intensive profession that consumes a great deal of magical artifacts.

Because every failed alchemy attempt, the conflict between the medicinal liquids, the surge of spiritual energy, or even the explosion of the furnace, would cause irreversible and severe wear and tear on the inner wall and array patterns of the furnace.

Conversely, if the alchemy is successful, the warm "alchemy energy" emitted at the moment of alchemy completion will nourish the alchemy furnace.

Xia Dong's success rate in alchemy has remained steadily at an astonishing 90%.

Looking across the world, it's estimated that no other alchemy furnace receives the same level of treatment as his.

It should be noted that this bronze alchemy furnace originally had a dim spiritual light, and even among low-grade magic artifacts, it could only be considered to be of the lowest quality.

Now, nourished by the accumulated "elixir energy" of summer and winter, it has long since shed its former mottled and rough appearance. Its surface is now covered with a layer of warm and thick spiritual light, making it stand out among low-grade magic artifacts of the same level.

Especially under the continuous tempering of the pure creative energy of the Xuan Yin Divine Water, Xia Dong had a vague premonition that perhaps one day, this alchemy furnace would be able to completely break through the shackles of its own material and naturally advance to a mid-grade magic weapon.

This is absolutely unbelievable.

Because apart from the "natal magic weapon" that cultivators nurture day and night with their own essence and soul, very few ordinary magic weapons can continue to advance on their own after being crafted and shaped by a weapon refiner.

It can be said that the alchemy furnace in Xia Dong's hands is absolutely unique among the thousands of low-grade alchemy furnaces in the world.

Looking at the bottles of pills that had accumulated beside him, and touching the increasingly spiritual alchemy furnace in front of him, Xia Dong felt an indescribable sense of peace.

The feeling of reaping rewards little by little through one's own hard work is simply wonderful.

His current stage of spiritual practice can be perfectly explained by the principle that diligence is rewarded by Heaven.

As long as you're heading in the right direction, all your efforts will be worthwhile.

Every talisman drawn, every batch of pills refined, and every increase in magical power after each cycle of energy circulation all contribute to enhancing his foundation.

This is a positive feedback that can make people feel extremely happy.

Nourished by the new Profound Yin Gathering Qi Pill, Xia Dong's lost innate Qi has finally recovered to some extent, but it is still far from the previous accumulation.

He needs even better elixirs.

Xia Dong knew that refining the Yin Spirit Pill couldn't be rushed. He hoped he could get what he needed at the upcoming auction, such as the Fire Control Technique.

He suppressed his urgency and prepared to return to the county town to see Zhao Ting first.

The reward for my last contribution should be arriving soon.