Fortuitous Encounter

At noon the next day, the sun blazed overhead. It was the time when yang energy was at its strongest.

Xia Dong planned to investigate the inside of the Withered Well.

He made thorough preparations, then instructed Xiao Hong to keep watch beside the well. If the rope he lowered showed any movement, she was to pull it up at once or run outside and call for help.

Once everything was in order, Xia Dong slowly climbed down along the well wall.

As he descended, the light gradually dimmed. But the water at the bottom of the well had become crystal clear, and the eerie green glow that had made his heart quail the previous night was gone.

Xia Dong planted both feet on a raised rock at the bottom of the well and carefully felt around. Before long, he found a hidden horizontal passage two feet above the water.

The passage was just over half a person's height and completely dry. Xia Dong crouched and slipped inside like a nimble cat.

The passage wasn't long. After crawling about a dozen steps, the space ahead suddenly opened up.

He had somehow entered a square underground chamber!

What amazed Xia Dong was that, despite being buried deep underground, the chamber felt neither stuffy nor rotten. The air was remarkably fresh. Even more astonishingly, the moment he stepped inside, a soft glow sprang to life on the walls at all four corners, illuminating the entire space. Yet there was no source of light to be found—not a candle, nor a luminous pearl.

Is this some kind of cultivator's technique? Xia Dong wondered.

By the gentle glow, he saw the scene in the center of the chamber at a glance.

A pale skeleton sat cross-legged there, its clothes long since weathered to dust. On the smooth stone slab in front of it lay twenty sparkling, translucent Spirit Stones, neatly stacked!

Xia Dong's breath caught.

Besides the Spirit Stones, there was a dark green jade slip beside the skeleton, along with a battered little black banner.

Suppressing his excitement, Xia Dong didn't reach for the Spirit Stones right away. Instead, he carefully picked up the jade slip. He had seen plenty of these things in the xianxia novels of his previous life. They were usually used to record information.

But he had no Spirit Root or spiritual power. How could he open it?

Xia Dong tried pressing it to his forehead. Gathering all his concentration, he attempted to sense it with his own "mind."

Buzz.

A faint stabbing pain throbbed through his mind, as if much of his soul's strength had been drawn away.

At the same time, a jumble of information surged from the jade slip into his mind.

So, once a person entered the martial path, their vigorous qi and blood would nourish their body in return. When the spirit was full, the qi would be abundant, and vice versa.

This meant that Xia Dong's soul was far more resilient than an ordinary person's.

So although the jade slip was easy for a cultivator to read with their spiritual sense, an ordinary person with a sufficiently strong soul could still force their way into it with their mind. It was simply extremely draining.

Massaging his temples, he quickly digested the information in the jade slip.

It was actually the introductory section of a demonic cultivation technique called the Profound Yin Scripture!

What delighted Xia Dong even more was that ordinary people could practice it too.

The Profound Yin Scripture leaned toward the ghostly arts.

It could also be used to capture yin souls, ghosts, or the living souls of people and refine them into a magical artifact known as a Yin Gathering Banner.

As long as the cultivator kept nourishing and refining it with their own blood essence, even a mortal without a Spirit Root could control the Yin Gathering Banner and command the wraiths inside to fight martial artists and cultivators.

Moreover, the Profound Yin Scripture contained an extremely overbearing secret art for refining the spirit. It could directly refine and absorb the power of ghosts and living souls, using it to strengthen the cultivator's own soul!

If they absorbed enough, even a mortal could forcibly awaken the spiritual sense that cultivators only gained upon reaching the "Qi Refining Fourth Layer."

With spiritual sense, one's perception would undergo a qualitative leap, and there were many other benefits as well.

However, the jade slip issued a stern warning: absorbing ghosts and living souls would inevitably draw their resentment and baleful intent into the body as well.

Over time, these negative emotions would torment the cultivator, causing their qi and blood to disperse, their cultivation to fall, and them to suffer cultivation deviation until they ultimately lost their reason.

Unless they used "pure yin-soul power" to aid their cultivation.

This pure yin-soul power contained no resentment whatsoever. Absorbing it not only had no side effects, but also produced an aura indistinguishable from that of orthodox immortal soul cultivation. There was no need to worry about being mistaken for a demonic cultivator.

Reading this, Xia Dong remembered the two "Yin Evil Pills" the Bronze Ancient Bell had refined the previous night.

The ghost's resentment and baleful intent had been thoroughly refined away by the bell. Perhaps the pills contained pure yin-soul power.

Suppressing his excitement, Xia Dong looked again at the battered little black banner beside the skeleton.

The terrifying shadow that had climbed out of the well the previous night had actually been the spirit of the Yin Gathering Banner left behind by the skeleton in life!

Unfortunately, that fierce spirit had charged headlong into the Bronze Ancient Bell, which had refined it on the spot. With its spirit gone, the vicious Yin Gathering Banner had become nothing more than a damaged low-grade magical artifact.

Xia Dong took a deep breath and bundled the jade slip, the battered banner, and all twenty Spirit Stones into his robes.

Then Xia Dong retraced his path, quickly climbed out of the Withered Well using the hemp rope, and sent Xiao Hong away.

After several days spent studying the Profound Yin Scripture, Xia Dong gradually gained some confidence and began trying to practice its secret art for refining the spirit.

However, mastering the Mysterious Yin Spirit Refining Method required refining yin-soul power, so he still had to take a Yin Evil Pill.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, pulled a pitch-black Yin Evil Pill from his robes, tilted his head back, and swallowed it.

The pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth. It had none of the bitterness of ordinary herbs; instead, it became an intensely cold, pure stream of energy. This energy didn't sink into his dantian. It shot straight toward the sea of consciousness between Xia Dong's brows!

Xia Dong didn't dare slack off. He immediately shut his eyes and began cultivating according to the visualization and breathing methods of the Mysterious Yin Spirit Refining technique.

Boom!

The cold stream of energy burst open in his sea of consciousness, but carried none of the resentment or savagery of evil spirits. It was as pure as the clearest winter spring, rapidly nourishing Xia Dong's soul.

Xia Dong felt an indescribable clarity and lucidity rise within him, as if his soul were soaking in cool spring water, being stretched and tempered again and again. His five senses rapidly sharpened. Even with his eyes closed, he could clearly "hear" the path of a withered leaf drifting down in the courtyard; he could even sense Xiao Hong's steady breathing in the neighboring room.

Half an hour later, the medicinal power was completely absorbed.

Xia Dong slowly opened his eyes and walked outside. Now, even the specks of dust on the ground and the patterns in the jujube tree's branches sprang vividly into view, as though they held endless secrets waiting to be explored.

The little world of the courtyard suddenly seemed much "wider."

Xia Dong knew very well that he was still a long way from the "spiritual sense" that the jade slip said cultivators only gained at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer. But he had truly crossed the threshold of the Profound Yin Scripture.

This pure strengthening of his soul left him increasingly tranquil and made his determination to pursue the Dao ever firmer.

Next, Xia Dong planned to strike while the iron was hot and try practicing the Five Animals Health Fist he had obtained from the county office.

However, after practicing the movements for half an hour, he reluctantly stopped.

"Although this Five-Animal Boxing is comprehensive, it feels stiff and awkward when I use it." Xia Dong furrowed his brow.

With his soul strengthened, he had gained even greater control over his muscles and awareness of the qi and blood inside him. He could clearly sense a subtle friction and resistance between the Five Animals Health Fist and the Crane Stance he had been practicing.

Xia Dong shook his head and decisively gave up on the Five-Animal Boxing. He bent his knees, spread his arms, and resumed the Crane Stance he knew best.

With his powerful soul guiding him with pinpoint precision, this Crane Stance was now so flawless it seemed perfect!

He also realized that the Crane Stance was practically tailor-made for his body. The two fit together perfectly.

Even though the Crane Stance had been locked at the "Limit-Breaking" level, leaving him unable to comprehend any new moves, it could still steadily build up his foundation of qi and blood day after day.

What surprised Xia Dong even more was that the medicinal power of the Yin Evil Pill still lingering in his body reacted strangely as his surging qi and blood battered it!

One cold, one hot; one yin, one yang.

This clash of forces didn't damage his meridians. Instead, with the flawless Crane Stance harmonizing them, it kept stimulating and tempering his skin.

Xia Dong felt waves of tingling and stinging across his skin, as if countless tiny grains of iron sand were scouring his flesh. When he finished, a thin layer of gray, dead skin had rubbed off his body. The new skin looked fair, but felt far tougher. Even when he dragged a fingernail across it with force, he could leave only the faintest white mark.

"The Yin Evil Pill's extreme yin medicinal power can actually take the place of poisonous medicines and iron sand used in external training, helping me temper my skin!"

Xia Dong took a deep breath. With nothing but the lingering medicinal power of a single Yin Evil Pill, he had somehow crossed the threshold of the second stage of martial arts, the "Skin Grinding Realm," as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Over the next few days, Xia Dong swallowed and refined the remaining Yin Evil Pill.

His soul grew ever steadier, and his skin grew tougher under the alternating tempering of heat and cold.

Meanwhile, as his practice of the Crane Stance deepened, the qi and blood within his body grew stronger and stronger.

At the slightest clench of his fist, the veins in his arms bulged like horned dragons, and his whole body brimmed with a violent strength that seemed ready to burst out of his skin.

"My qi and blood are too abundant. The Crane Stance can keep nourishing them, but it's meant more for lightness and health. It lacks any offensive techniques to unleash and temper this violent power."

Standing in the courtyard, Xia Dong suddenly threw a punch into the air. The force of it shook leaves from the jujube tree ten feet away.

He realized that the qi and blood inside him were like a giant serpent lying in wait. He needed to find a way to control his vigorous qi and blood so he could put his martial cultivation to full use in actual combat.

The martial arts made public by the imperial court were far too crude to meet Xia Dong's needs.

Xia Dong thought of Miss Qin. A cultivation sect like the Qixia Immortal Sect surely wouldn't lack martial arts techniques. After all, martial artists were likely the kind of "talent" the sect urgently needed in this era.

So Xia Dong picked up his brush and began writing a letter.

He was writing back to Miss Qin, his former fiancée and fellow cultivator pen pal.

The letter began by saying that if his future child had a Spirit Root, he would make sure the child traded with her for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

He had no Spirit Root, after all, so he couldn't get his hands on a Foundation Establishment Pill himself.