Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

clang!

The ancient and desolate sound of the bell echoed in my mind.

Hearing this long-awaited sound, Xia Dong's tense nerves finally relaxed completely, and he felt incredibly at ease.

Our biggest trump card has finally been recovered.

He carefully contemplated the subtle changes in the ancient bronze bell within his sea of ​​consciousness, and then suddenly realized the truth.

It turns out that after the ancient bronze bell exhausted its power and fell into a deep silence, it actually needed the pure essence of the moon to be restarted.

Moreover, the conditions are quite stringent; it must be on a full moon night, with the serpent brother, a strange and powerful demonic beast, spitting out his demon core to personally guide the yin moonlight down.

It seems that after he forcibly controlled the bronze bell to fight off enemies once, it would only need to wait a month at most, and it would be restored to its original state on the night of the full moon.

However, Xia Dong also knew that without Brother Snake guiding the Yin Moon Essence, it was still unknown whether other conditions or rare treasures could awaken the dormant ancient bell.

Fortunately, it has finally recovered smoothly.

At the same time, the giant serpent coiled not far away, absorbing the moonlight, seemed to faintly hear the bell ringing that struck straight to the soul.

Although it was just beginning to develop intelligence and did not understand what the bell meant, its massive body followed the instincts in its bloodline, slowly turning its head and bowing its huge head in the direction of Xia Dong, just as respectfully and devoutly as when it worshipped the moon earlier.

Xia Dong focused his mind on his sea of ​​consciousness and observed carefully.

He discovered that the bronze bell itself did not actually absorb much of the rich, misty lunar energy in the air.

For it, the moon's radiance was more like a "catalyst" to break the state of deathly silence.

However, as the ancient bell fully awakened, Xia Dong keenly sensed its extremely intense thirst for spiritual energy.

To prevent the ancient bronze bell from falling into silence again due to a lack of spiritual energy, Xia Dong dared not be negligent in the slightest.

He quickly opened his storage pouch and took out handfuls of spirit stones, continuously supplying them to the ancient bell for absorption.

The spiritual energy was frantically drained away, and the hard spirit stones turned into dull dust that fell down in a flurry.

It took hundreds of low-grade spirit stones, plus several precious mid-grade spirit stones, before the bronze ancient bell's face began to glow with a warm, gentle light again. The greedy hunger gradually subsided, and it was finally completely satisfied.

Looking at the significantly reduced wealth in his storage pouch, Xia Dong couldn't help but sigh, secretly feeling a pang of regret: "The price for actively using the ancient bronze bell to make a move is truly considerable."

Suppressing the slight pain from consuming a large number of spirit stones, Xia Dong quickly noticed the anomaly in his sea of ​​consciousness.

This time, the bronze bell was revived under the guidance of the moonlight and absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy. Xia Dong clearly felt that the mental connection between himself and the bronze bell had become closer than ever before.

Previously, this ancient bell was merely a mysterious "object" quietly residing in his sea of ​​consciousness, which he could only passively use to deduce cultivation techniques and absorb spiritual energy.

Now, he vaguely sensed a real sense of control within this connection.

A realization dawned on Xia Dong: when he faced the Ghost-Faced Spider in the abandoned mine, his reckless and self-destructive "control" of the bronze bell, despite the draining of his magical power and innate energy, was perhaps not only the heavy price of using it, but also the opportunity to truly begin "refining" the ancient bronze bell.

In the world of cultivation, the more powerful a magical artifact is, the more it requires cultivators to constantly refine and polish it with their essence, blood, magic power, and divine sense.

The ancient bell's initial draining of his power was perhaps an extremely domineering process of recognizing and refining him as its master.

Having figured this out, Xia Dong suddenly felt enlightened.

With her trump card revealed, Xia Dong was finally at ease.

Without wasting any time, he directly retrieved the jade bottle containing the Yin Spirit Pill from the deepest part of his storage pouch.

Xia Dong poured out the second Yinling Pill and swallowed it.

The elixir melted upon entering the mouth, transforming once again into that familiar and pure cool energy that rushed straight to the spiritual center.

This pill, refined from the essence of a ghost or demon at the late stage of Qi Refining, has an incredibly powerful nourishing effect on his current spiritual cultivation.

Xia Dong immediately closed his eyes, held his breath, and guided the immense cooling medicinal power, fully activating the "Mysterious Yin Refining Spirit Technique".

The night passed in the blink of an eye.

As the morning mountain breeze rustled through the woods outside the cave, Xia Dong slowly finished his practice and opened his eyes. A glint of shrewdness, almost tangible, flashed in his dark eyes.

After just one night of refinement, his spiritual cultivation had taken another big step forward within the sixth level of Qi Refining.

He didn't even need to deliberately release his divine sense to naturally perceive the subtle sound of the giant snake's scales rubbing against the rocks not far away, as well as the faint fluctuations of spiritual energy emitted by the spiritual plants in the spiritual field.

However, Xia Dong did not become complacent because of the surge in his spiritual power, nor did he rush to swallow the remaining third Yin Spirit Pill.

He understood very well the principle that haste makes waste.

Taking pills continuously to elevate one's spiritual cultivation will inevitably lead to the newly formed spiritual consciousness becoming superficial and lacking refinement.

Feeling the vast yet somewhat loose spiritual power within his sea of ​​consciousness, Xia Dong clarified his next plan.

For the next few days, he only needed to stay in the Tiger Hill Cave and devote all his energy to making talismans and refining pills.

Whether it's using talisman seeds and essence blood to draw special talismans, or opening a furnace to refine pills that require meticulous control of the heat, both consume a great deal of spiritual energy, making them the best "grindstones" for spiritual progress.

Through daily high-intensity consumption and recovery, he can gradually refine and solidify this surging divine consciousness, solidify the originally unstable foundation, and completely transform it into a power that he can perfectly control.

...

...

As evening fell, the mountain mist gradually rose, shrouding the dense forest surrounding Tiger Hill Cave in darkness.

Xia Dong was sitting cross-legged in the cave, consolidating his newly surged spiritual consciousness. His immense spiritual power spread outwards silently like ripples on water, and he could perceive every movement within a hundred feet.

Suddenly, his expression shifted slightly.

At the edge of the illusion array surrounding the cave, a familiar yet slightly anxious figure appeared.

It's Xiaohong.

Xia Dong had a sudden thought.

In a moment, he emerged from the secret passage of the pool, his figure instantly transforming into a gentle breeze, silently passing through the array of the spirit field, and appearing directly in front of Xiao Hong.

"Xiao Hong, what happened?" Xia Dong appeared, his brows furrowed, and his heart tightened slightly.

According to his previous agreement with Zhao Ting, Xiao Hong would only risk going into the mountains to inform him if something extremely urgent happened.

Could it be that the matter of the "Snake Taoist" of the Xuan Yin Sect and the empty coffin has escalated so quickly that it has backfired?

Countless thoughts flashed through Xia Dong's mind in an instant. To be honest, he really couldn't bear to abandon everything and run away.

This Tiger Hill Cave is not only extremely secluded and safe, but also protected by a giant snake and has spiritual fields inside. Once you embark on a journey of escape, it will be almost impossible to find such a safe, comfortable, and resource-rich cultivation paradise again.

Seeing Xia Dong suddenly appear, Xiao Hong, who was panting and covered in sweat, seemed to have found her pillar of support. She hurriedly cried out, "Young Master, something terrible has happened! Something has happened to the Qin family! Old Master Qin... has passed away!"

Upon hearing this, Xia Dong felt a sudden weight lift from his heart regarding the "Snake Taoist," and his tense emotions eased, followed by immense shock.

He stared at Xiao Hong in disbelief, asking repeatedly, "What? You said Uncle Qin passed away? When did that happen?"

You should know that when he met Master Qin at the Fuqingshan Cemetery two days ago, he could tell that although the other man was somewhat frightened, his blood and qi were stable and his body was very healthy, with absolutely no signs of sudden death.

How could someone be gone so quickly after only a short time?

Xiao Hong nodded vigorously, her eyes slightly red: "It was about last night. When Lord Zhao received the news, he immediately sent someone to inform me to go into the mountains to find you. Lord Zhao's idea is to let you prepare first, and then you can set off together to the Qin residence to pay your respects early tomorrow morning."

"No, go back and tell Lord Zhao that I'll go there tonight!" Xia Dong's face darkened slightly, and his heart tightened suddenly.

He keenly sensed that something highly unusual was going on behind the scenes.

No sooner had someone taken Master Qin hostage and dug up his parents' graves, revealing the secrets of the Xuan Yin Sect; then, Master Qin, a key figure and insider, died mysteriously on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

What a coincidence!

If we wait until dawn to slowly go and pay our respects, the body and any traces at the scene may have already been cleaned up by someone with ulterior motives.

Once you lose the initiative to understand the truth, you are very likely to fall into a passive situation where you are led by the nose.

He must investigate the true cause of Master Qin's death as soon as possible.

Moreover, putting aside these conspiracies and schemes, the Qin family has shown Xia Dong a great deal of genuine kindness over the years.

Whether it was taking care of his parents' funerals back then or later doing the ancestral rites on their behalf during festivals, Master Qin did everything he could to be kind and righteous.

Now that the person has died and the lights have gone out, he should go there as soon as possible to send Mr. Qin off on his final journey.