Breakthrough

Magistrate Yang was set to step down this year, and he did not want his political record to look too dismal.

He forcibly apportioned the task of setting up over a dozen porridge sheds to the wealthy gentry within the city, barely keeping the refugees alive to avoid a mass death toll from starvation.

At the same time, he issued a proclamation organizing the city's physicians to conduct free clinics both inside and outside the city walls.

Such a thankless, exhausting task that carried the risk of contracting plagues was naturally avoided by the pampered old doctors in the city, who made every excuse to shirk their duties.

Xia Dong was, of course, on the invitation list. Unexpectedly, not only did he not refuse, but he agreed immediately. However, he made a small request to Magistrate Yang: he wanted to operate outside the city alone.

Over the past three years, Xia Dong had served as a medical officer for the Eagle-Wolf Guard, and occasionally, he had been "forced" to reveal a few clean martial arts moves.

Magistrate Yang knew that this Scholar Xia was not only divine in his medical skills but also possessed some prowess in hand-to-hand combat, making him more than capable of self-preservation, so he did not try to dissuade him.

On the other side, over these few years, Xia Dong had not only expanded his own residence into a grand three-courtyard mansion, but he had also moved the Changchun Medical Hall to a bustling street-front location in the city.

The daily operations of the medical hall no longer required his personal attendance.

In recent years, Xia Dong had recruited many children from impoverished families as apprentices for free. As long as they were sharp and willing to endure hardship, Xia Dong taught them everything he knew.

He broke down complex medical theories into simple, easy-to-understand terms. After just a few months of training, his apprentices could skillfully master prescriptions for colds, injuries, and common plagues, returning to their villages to become respected barefoot doctors.

These graduated apprentices would return to the city every month without fail to ask their fellow disciples at the medical hall for the latest "Lecture Notes" written by Xia Dong, continuing their advanced studies.

With this move, Xia Dong not only made medical care affordable for the commoners at the bottom of Pingyang County, but he also squeezed the business of other old-fashioned medical halls to the point of desperation.

After all, Doctor Xia had excellent medical skills and was gentle and humble—he was practically a living Bodhisattva descended to earth!

In addition to teaching apprentices, Xia Dong also helped the He Family improve their processes for selecting raw materials and processing medicinal herbs, raising the quality of the He Family's stock by an entire grade.

In exchange, the He Family had to scour the land for those ancient, extremely rare, and precious medicinal herbs for him.

Xia Dong now only treated martial artists who had suffered severe injuries or people of significant wealth, and his fees were exorbitant. If a martial artist lacked money, they paid with their insights into martial arts.

He had set a small goal for himself: he hoped to collect all the martial arts and immortal cultivation techniques in the world and build his own Langhuan Blessed Land!

The Changchun Medical Hall was now managed by his apprentices, while Xiao Hong served as the accountant and manager, keeping the Xia Family's assets in perfect order.

Although the family business had grown, spirit stones remained too difficult to obtain.

Spirit stones, the hard currency of the cultivation world, were rarely circulated among the common people and primarily traded among high-level martial artists and cultivators.

And these people, once they engaged in combat, were usually drained of their essence and had their souls refined or spirits snatched upon defeat; they rarely had the chance to be "severely wounded but left with a breath to run to a doctor."

It was even less likely they would seek out a physician in a county town.

Therefore, Xia Dong's desire to earn spirit stones was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Taking advantage of this free clinic, Xia Dong arranged for his apprentices to distribute medicine in the city while he carried his medical kit and headed outside the walls.

When the city folk heard of this, they praised him incessantly, all saying that Doctor Xia was truly a benevolent physician.

After leaving the city, Xia Dong would provide free treatment during the day and quietly seek out newly formed, relatively weak haunted sites in the dead of night.

After some time, Xia Dong had silently rounded up those weak, newly condensed ghosts and stuffed them all into the Bronze Ancient Bell within his mind.

Refined in an instant!

Over these three years, Xia Dong had gained a deeper understanding of the Bronze Ancient Bell.

Although he lacked spirit stones, he could use his divine sense to forcibly draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to "feed" the ancient bell, allowing it to slowly accumulate spiritual power. Drawing energy for ten days or half a month was roughly equivalent to the spiritual power of one spirit stone.

However, as time passed, the Bronze Ancient Bell would also consume a portion of its spiritual power, and this "base consumption" rate showed a trend of increasing.

If he had ready-made spirit stones to toss in, this would naturally not be an issue.

Thus, Xia Dong's demand for spirit stones grew ever stronger.

After sweeping through the area outside the city and obtaining a sufficient quantity of Yin Evil Pills, Xia Dong slipped back to the secret chamber beneath the withered well in his own residence, feeling quite satisfied.

Over these three years, his martial arts had steadily progressed to the perfection of the Bone Forging Realm. His blood and energy were terrifyingly robust, and with the addition of magic power to nourish his divine sense, the burden of his divine sense on his physical body had become extremely light.

It was the perfect time to use the Yin Evil Pills to break through.

Xia Dong sat cross-legged, and with a thought, he tossed an ink-black Yin Evil Pill into his mouth. The Mysterious Yin Spirit Refining technique instantly operated at full speed.

The pure, flawless power of the yin soul surged directly toward his sea of consciousness between his brows.

However, Xia Dong had still underestimated the difficulty of breaking through to the divine sense required for the "fifth layer of Qi Refining."

As he refined each Yin Evil Pill, Xia Dong touched the bottleneck of the next layer of divine sense cultivation.

Yet, his first attempt to strike the bottleneck only caused that invisible barrier to tremble slightly.

He did not hesitate and swallowed the Yin Evil Pills one after another.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Under strike after strike, the iron-hard bottleneck of his divine sense finally loosened.

Now is the time!

The massive blood and energy of Xia Dong's perfected Bone Forging Realm surged and boiled.

At the same time, the "Qi" condensed deep within his heart by the Evergreen Qi-Conducting Art moved, winding around like a silk thread to assist his blood and medicinal power in a deep-level refinement and fusion.

The cold, dark magic power of the Profound Yin Scripture within his dantian darted out like a black spirit snake, firmly protecting the acupoints between his brows.

Using blood and qi as firewood, innate qi as the spark, and Profound Yin mana as the cauldron.

Crack.

An exceptionally crisp shattering sound exploded within Xia Dong's mind.

In an instant, Xia Dong felt as if the entire world had been set to "slow motion."

His divine sense expanded instantaneously, passing through the secret chamber and out into the courtyard.

He could see the trajectory of flying insects' wings, the wriggling of earthworms beneath the soil, and even the rise and fall of dust motes in the air; they were all rendered in his mind with perfect clarity, as if he were observing the lines on his own palm.

Not only that, but this divine sense had become more solidified and resilient.

Divine sense of the fifth level of Qi Refining, achieved.

Xia Dong continued to consume the remaining Yin Evil Pill.

However, he soon discovered that while his speed in refining the Yin Evil Pill had increased, the effects brought by the pills were simultaneously weakening.

So, there's drug resistance now? Xia Dong's brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed.

Over these past few years, he had come to understand that refining the spirit was far more difficult than refining qi.

Moreover, he had always sought out low-level ghosts to refine into Yin Evil Pill, and even the artifact spirit of the Yin Gathering Banner he had refined at the very beginning had been in a severely damaged state.

Later on, he could try seeking out more powerful vengeful spirits and ghosts.

Regardless, the Yin Evil Pill still had an effect for now.

However, with his divine sense breaking through to the fifth level of Qi Refining, the burden on his physical body had become apparent once again. Refining the spirit, refining qi, and refining the body—they truly must advance in tandem.

For the next period of time, Xia Dong began to familiarize himself with his fifth-level Qi Refining divine sense, then made full preparations to seek out the inheritance of Zhang Ping.