The Spiritual Pivot of Mortal Cultivation

After returning from Xiling, Bai Xuanxin's importance within the sect increased by half an inch.

That half inch isn't on the lips.

The side office tasks were delivered to him even faster than before; some old books in the pharmacy that shouldn't have been casually flipped through were no longer deliberately covered up with sleeves by anyone; and even tasks like patrolling the border, providing support, and reinforcing the medicine routes, as long as they didn't involve the deeper secrets of the sect, Instructor Li would sometimes casually assign him a task.

That's enough.

To outsiders, this simply means that the family is starting to see him as someone who can be used.

For Bai Xuanxin, however, it meant something even more valuable—

He was finally able to appear more naturally in the area outside God's Hand Valley.

I don't go in there every day.

It's not something done out of thin air to dazzle people.

Instead, he used seemingly ordinary pretexts such as collecting medicine, handing over tokens, inspecting the paths outside the valley, and keeping track of the cooking temperature for the side hall to gradually familiarize himself with that area.

What he wanted was never just "to take a few more glances".

Instead, he meticulously condensed what he already knew into a method that could both save lives and kill people that night.

So for the next few days, what he did was extremely monotonous.

Look at the valley.

Bird watching.

Watching the wind.

Watching the smoke.

Look at the lights.

Observe when people enter, when they leave, when they should make a sound, and when they should not make any sound at all.

He looked at things very slowly and very carefully.

The first day, at 9:00 AM.

As dawn broke, most of the dampness in the mountains had dissipated, but the slope outside Shenshou Valley still retained the lingering coolness of the previous night. Bai Xuanxin didn't get too close, but stood behind a higher stone slope outside the valley, using a few old pines and scattered rocks for cover, and looked down from above.

At this hour, the valley is at its quietest.

The fire in the medicine stove hadn't really gotten big yet, and the smoke wasn't thick. Han Li was probably walking back and forth between the front of the house, the medicine shelves, and the small pharmacy. If Mo Juren was there, he would probably be inside the house.

Birds are the clearest.

Bai Xuanxin lay hidden behind the stone, his breathing extremely even, and first looked at the old pine tree behind the house.

Not long after, the gray figure emerged from the depths of the pine branches.

No trading.

No beating around the bush.

It swept across the medicine shelf beam in a very short time.

It paused for a few moments, then rose again, finally landing on the sloping eaves.

Old pine.

Crossbeam.

Sloping eaves.

He had already checked the area once before. But back then, he mostly just knew that these three places existed. Today, however, he wasn't just looking for whether they existed or not, but rather—

How often should it be changed?

When changing points, which side should you look at first?

After landing, turn around and decide whether to repair the area in front of the house first or the entrance to the valley first.

Bai Xuanxin watched with extreme stillness, but in her mind, she meticulously timed everything.

The old pine tree was the one that stopped the longest.

The beam is the shortest.

Once the eaves are down, the fastest way to catch up is when the eaves are lowered.

What does this tell us?

This shows that the bird's true strength lies in the old pine tree. The crossbeam is merely a bridge, while the sloping eaves are more like the tip of a knife, specifically designed to cut through that fleeting gap.

Bai Xuanxin suppressed all of this in her heart, not in a hurry to leave, and took another look around the valley entrance and side walls following the wind.

At 9:00 AM, the wind was light and the smoke was thin, making everything in the valley appear exceptionally clean.

And the cleaner the place, the less likely there is a path.

Because they see things too clearly, they have no openings to exploit.

After watching this round, Bai Xuanxin had already made up her mind about one thing:

During the daytime at 9:00 AM, it is permissible to look but not to enter.

The next day, at the hour of You (5-7 PM).

The sky began to darken, and the wind gradually picked up in the mountains.

The Divine Hand Valley at this hour is more vibrant than at 9:00 AM.

Living on smoke.

Living on fire.

They lived on Han Li's steps as he added firewood, took the pot off the stove, and collected the dregs.

This time, Bai Xuanxin didn't look from the high slope, but instead went to the area of ​​rocks on the western side of the valley. It was lower here, and the view wasn't as comprehensive as from the high slope, but it was closer and more suitable for seeing those things that "seemed trivial but were actually deadly."

At the first quarter of the hour of You (5-7 PM), the smoke was still rising straight.

At the second moment, as the wind subsided, the smoke began to cling to the eaves.

By the third quarter, the fire in the stove was fully fueled, and the smoke from the medicine was at its thickest, making the entire area in front of the house look as if it were wrapped in a layer of white gauze.

Just then, the bird moved again.

It begins with the old pine tree, then descends diagonally to the horizontal beam.

The crossbeam paused for less than a moment before moving to the sloping eaves.

This path remains unchanged.

What has changed is the smoke.

As the smoke thickens, the view from the sloping eaves is no longer as "transparent" as it was at 9 am. It is still looking, but the way it looks is more like looking through a veil. First, you have to distinguish the figures in front of the house, the outline of the medicine shelf, and the opening and closing of the doors and windows from the smoke, and then fill in the valley entrance and the side wall.

And that will be a step behind.

Bai Xuanxin lay hidden behind the rocks, her gaze gradually darkening.

Being a little slower is enough.

But we can't rush it yet.

Because he quickly discerned the second layer—

The "emptiness" at the hour of You (5-7 PM) is not always there.

It only appears for a very brief moment when "firewood is added, the stove is turned over, the smoke is at its heaviest, and the bird happens to move from the crossbeam to the eaves".

It was as short as half a grain of dust on the tip of a needle.

If you're a little slow, a little inaccurate, or a little greedy, you won't even have time to think before that beast has already pulled its head back, let alone cut in.

Bai Xuanxin looked at that sliver of sky, feeling no restlessness whatsoever, but rather growing even calmer.

Because what he fears most now is not that the flight is too short.

There's simply no free time.

If it exists, it will always be measured.

After this round at the hour of You (5-7 PM), another thought weighed on his mind:

It is permissible to cut at the hour of You (5-7 PM), but only the first layer can be cut.

The third day, at the beginning of the Xu hour.

This round is the most important.

Because by the beginning of the Xu hour, the valley is no longer filled with just smoke.

There are also lights.

Lamp and smoke are two different things.

Smoke will obscure your vision.

The lantern festival is a scam.

As soon as the light shines inside, it becomes dark under the eaves;

If a light is lit in the pharmacy, the other end of the side corridor will actually be even darker.

Once people get used to the warm yellow light in front of the house, they are most likely to overlook the darkness creeping out inch by inch behind the light.

This time, Bai Xuanxin was moved to the low shrubland on the south side of the valley.

It's more dangerous there, but also closer.

The night wind whistled through the air, the blades of grass rustling against the hem of his robe. Bai Xuanxin lay there, his entire being seemingly flattened by the darkness, even his breath feeling as if it were buried in the earth.

Not long after, lights were lit in the valley.

A lamp in the front room.

A side pharmacy.

The back room isn't always bright.

Bai Xuanxin's eyes flickered slightly.

This is yet another clue.

If the back room is sometimes lit and sometimes dark, it means that Mo Juren is still active inside at times; if the back room is dark all night and people can only move around in the front room and side room, it means that he is deliberately drawing people into the outside world's sight while he is hiding elsewhere.

Bai Xuanxin made a mental note of it, not in a hurry to push it further.

He was looking at birds again tonight.

Sure enough, as soon as the light came on, the beast's gait changed slightly.

The old pine tree is still there.

The crossbeam is still there.

The sloping eaves are still there.

But it lingered on the eaves longer than during the day.

Because once the lights are on, the shadows in the valley become even more chaotic, so it needs to catch a few more glimpses.

And it is precisely because of this that another void arises—

As long as the lights in the front house are on and the side pharmacy is also lit, and the birds on the eaves are looking towards the front house, the narrow shadow against the low wall on the right back of the stone house will briefly "die".

It's not that it's completely invisible.

But:

The old pine tree was broken by a line on the roof ridge.

The crossbeam was partially obscured by the medicine rack.

The sloping eaves were further obscured by the lamplight, smoke, and the movement of people in front of the house.

With the three lines misaligned, the narrow shadow on the right rear becomes a blind spot.

Bai Xuanxin stared at that spot for a long time without moving.

We finally found it.

It's not a blurry patch that's "almost big enough to hide".

Rather, it is a dead corner where people can stand, bend down, and suddenly cut into the short corridor between the front house and the side house.

At this moment, the picture in his mind truly grew from "a few lines" into a complete "strategy".

For the next three days, he no longer watched for only one hour.

Observe the general outline at the hour of Si (9-11 AM).

Watching the smoke at 5 PM.

At the beginning of the month, we watched the lanterns.

After watching it three times, I went back and used charcoal to draw paths on old paper in the house behind the mountain.

It's not about drawing a map.

Instead, it's about drawing steps.

Which stone to start with?

Where does it end at the medicine shelf?

When the smoke rises, should you move half a step faster or half a step slower?

If the bird lands on the crossbeam first, you should wait a little longer; if it lands on the eaves first, you should use the shadow of the lamp in front of the house to cut to the right.

Even if someone else had his piece of paper, they probably wouldn't understand these things. Because what's truly valuable isn't "knowing there's an old pine tree, a horizontal beam, or a sloping eave," but rather—

Do you know which brick that night should have started with?

Whether you know which bluestone you're approaching or not, you should first pull yourself in half an inch.

Do you know whether, if the front door suddenly opens, you should stop behind the water vat or immediately climb into the shadow of the medicine urn?

This is the real tactic.

These nights, Bai Xuanxin spent her time either practicing her martial arts or working on this.

Ruo Mo Juren turned hostile inside the house—

That means cutting in from the narrow shadows on the right rear, using the darkness at the end of the short corridor to first capture the line of sight outside the door. The first strike cannot be aimed at the front; it must be aimed at the side profile most easily exposed when the person goes out, turns around, or flicks their sleeve. If successful, it will disrupt their rhythm; if unsuccessful, immediately retreat between the water vat and the medicine shelf, letting Han Li force the person out.

Ruo Mo Juren turned hostile outside—

Then we can no longer take the short corridor; we must use the smoke rising from the outer edge of the medicine shelf to cut diagonally from the left rear. The water vat, the old mortar, and the woodpile in front of the house can block the line, but they will also obstruct our movement. The truly usable place is not a place where we can "hide," but a place where we can "hide briefly and then immediately start moving."

and so--

The water tank may be borrowed, but it should not be left there for long.

A pile of firewood may confuse the eye, but it is not a place to entrust oneself.

The most reliable spot is the shadowy low wall behind the stone house on the right.

But if Qu Hun attacks Han Li first—

Bai Xuanxin went over it in her mind dozens of times.

Should we loosen the knees first, or loosen the shoulders first?

Should we first disrupt their attack, or first block their pivot point?

If it is not afraid of pain or numbness, then which of my hands is the shortest, which hand is the most ruthless, and which hand can make it "unable to go any further" in an instant?

He didn't just start thinking about these approaches now.

He's been pushing this ever since he started modifying "The Great Catching Hand" into a "structural dismantling" technique. But it wasn't until these past few nights, after solidifying the birds, roads, lights, and houses one by one, that these techniques truly came down to "where it appears, how it appears, and why it appears here."

At this moment, Bai Xuanxin truly felt that she was no longer just someone who "knew the plot".

Instead, he was compressing his knowledge inch by inch into a blade that could save lives or kill people that night.

On the seventh night, just after the beginning of the Xu hour.

Bai Xuanxin crouched behind the low bushes again.

This time, he didn't count how many times the birds changed their spots, nor did he check how the chimney in front of the house moved. He simply walked the route silently in his mind, based on the number of steps he had taken over the past few days.

The old pine tree has been replaced.

The crossbeam fell.

The sloping eaves were repaired.

The shadow of the lamp in the front house is half an inch to the right.

If the side pharmacy door is opened, the shadow on the ground will extend a foot outwards first.

If I start from behind this cracked rock, it takes three steps to the low wall, five steps to the narrow shadow, and seven steps to reach the front of the short corridor.

After going through this process once, he slowly opened his eyes.

The wind is still blowing.

The lights are still on.

The bird is still changing its stop along its old path.

But Bai Xuanxin had already made up her mind.

The ambush point, finally dead.

Not probably.

Not nearly the same.

Rather, it's that one point that's truly fixed.

Right behind the stone house, between the low wall and the short corridor, in that narrow shadow, only three and a half steps wide, yet enough for him to press his whole body into a line and then suddenly be thrown out.

That was where he was to lie prostrate.

Bai Xuanxin remained hidden in the shadows, motionless for a long time, until the lamplight in front of the house flickered slightly, and the gray shadow once again swept from the old pine tree to the crossbeam. Only then did the light in his eyes gradually dim.

From that moment on, that night in Shenshou Valley was no longer just a vague mess in his mind.

Instead, it was a chart that he had actually disassembled, measured, and determined the starting and exit points for.

All that's left is to wait.

Wait until Mo Juren boils that pot of fire until it's at its hottest.

When Han Li is forced to that point.

Once he has mastered martial arts and stabilized his skills even further, he can further improve them.

By then—

He entered from here.