Breaking the Limit

"Miss Qin was actually quite a nice person." Xia Dong carefully put away the letter, unable to keep a wave of emotion from rising in his heart.

In this world where immortals and mortals walked different paths, since she had already caught the eye of an immortal sect, she could have completely disregarded their old mortal engagement. Not only had she broken off the marriage and sent lavish gifts, she had now specially sent a letter of apology—and even included a legendary "Spirit Stone."

Such bearing and conduct truly left no fault to be found.

Xia Dong turned back and took out the Spirit Stone Miss Qin had given him from the wooden box.

The Spirit Stone was only the size of a thumb, its entire body a translucent, warm jade color. Held in his palm, it carried a faint coolness that refreshed the heart and mind. He repeatedly examined it beneath the oil lamp, then tried circulating the weak "sense of qi" nurtured by the Crane Stance within his body, slowly pouring it into the Spirit Stone.

Yet it was like a clay ox entering the sea.

The thread of qi and blood power dispersed the instant it touched the Spirit Stone's surface. He could not draw even the slightest trace of the rumored "spiritual energy" or any special substance from this miraculous stone.

"Looks like immortal objects truly cannot be stirred by the qi and blood of a mortal martial artist." Xia Dong shook his head, but did not feel discouraged.

Since he could not figure out its workings, Xia Dong simply followed Miss Qin's instructions in the letter. He placed the thumb-sized Spirit Stone beneath his pillow, then lay down fully clothed.

The night deepened, and all sounds fell silent.

After the day's tempering, Xia Dong quickly sank into an exceptionally deep sleep. Once he had fallen asleep, the Spirit Stone beneath his pillow suddenly emitted an extremely faint phosphorescence. Then, as though drawn by some invisible force, the glow transformed into threads of pure mist that silently seeped in through the back of Xia Dong's head.

Deep within his sea of consciousness.

The mottled Bronze Ancient Bell that had remained silently suspended there was like land parched by a long drought receiving sweet rain, absorbing every trace of that foreign spiritual energy.

Buzz.

An exceptionally faint sound, yet one carrying a certain ancient delight, quietly rippled through the depths of his soul.

In his dreams, Xia Dong felt his consciousness dragged into a strange, gray world. There, he seemed to transform into countless white cranes, endlessly repeating the movements of the Crane Stance. Hundreds and thousands of drills, tens of thousands of breaths and exhalations, ultimately condensed into a single point of dazzling spiritual light.

The layer of "window paper" blocking his further ascent was violently pierced through by this sudden, immense external force!

Scarlet, twisted words surfaced and changed once more upon the body of the Bronze Ancient Bell:

Name: Xia Dong

Codename: Gouchen

Talent: One Proof Eternal Proof

Spirit Root: None

Martial Arts: Crane Stance (Breaking the Limit)

Immediately afterward, a vast torrent of information flooded Xia Dong's mind like enlightenment pouring into his head. Under the blessing of "Breaking the Limit," the mysteries beyond the perfected Crane Stance transformed into an exceptionally profound martial technique.

This was a secret art specializing in leg techniques and lightness skills—the Crane Shadow Step.

Not only did it contain extraordinarily fierce methods of exerting force through the legs, it also held a unique method of circulating qi for lightness skills. After mastering it, his legs would become like a crane's long plumes, granting him outstanding abilities to fly over eaves and walk upon walls. Furthermore, because it made such efficient use of qi and blood power, it could greatly reduce consumption, allowing him to travel vast distances in swift raids with incredibly enduring stamina.

The next morning.

Xia Dong abruptly opened his eyes and sprang up from the bed.

He instinctively lifted the pillow. The Spirit Stone, once warm, smooth, and crystalline, had now turned into a small pinch of grayish-white powder. At the first breath of wind, it completely lost its mystical nature.

"So the Ancient Bell can directly absorb the energy in Spirit Stones, using it to deduce and break through the limits of martial arts!"

Xia Dong was overjoyed.

Without hesitation, he immediately pushed open the door and stepped into the courtyard, beginning to test what he had gained in last night's dream.

Morning dew still clung to the little courtyard.

Xia Dong drew a deep breath, and the muscles in his legs suddenly tightened. The method of the Crane Shadow Step roared to life within him. With a light tap of his toes against the blue bricks, his entire body rose more than ten feet into the air as though it had lost all weight!

Whoosh!

In midair, he fiercely exerted strength through his waist and abdomen. His toes precisely borrowed force from the courtyard wall with a kick, and his body, like a nimble white crane, lightly descended onto the crown of the jujube tree. The slender branches bobbed beneath his weight, yet he stood as steadily as if walking on level ground.

"What an overbearing movement technique!"

Xia Dong cried out in praise, and the branch snapped an instant later.

"Cough, cough." Xia Dong got up from the ground in a sorry state and patted the dust from his clothes.

Fortunately, the tree was not tall, and no one had seen him.

It was not his fault. The feeling just now had been too wonderful; he had truly thought himself a white crane dancing gracefully through the air.

Still, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

With this martial technique, he should now possess some ability to protect himself in the mortal world. When he traveled in the future, if he encountered ordinary bandits, he could fight if they were few and flee if they were many!

Riding through the roads of the martial world, heaven and earth were his to roam free.

Xia Dong hummed softly.

Though he still could not cultivate immortality, the feeling martial arts brought him was already wonderful enough.

Over the following days, Xia Dong temporarily put aside his plans to survey the market and find a way to make money, throwing himself wholeheartedly into cultivating the Crane Shadow Step.

At dawn, he darted and leapt between the Withered Well and the courtyard wall, leaving behind streak after streak of afterimages. At night, like a ghost in the darkness, he silently swept over the rooftops of the alleyways.

The Crane Shadow Step's proficiency steadily increased over those days.

With every leap and landing, Xia Dong could feel his control over qi and blood becoming increasingly precise, as natural as instinct. Yet as the martial technique continued to improve, the craving coming from his body also grew clearer.

"Sure enough, scholars may be poor, but martial artists must be rich. The consumption from martial training is just too great..."

Standing in the courtyard, Xia Dong touched his utterly empty money pouch and let out a long sigh. "If cultivating immortality comes later, the resources it requires will probably be beyond measure."

That day, Xia Dong had no choice but to stop practicing the Crane Shadow Step.

There was no helping it. He was truly out of money.

The fifty taels of silver and old ginseng left by the Qin Family had already been nearly exhausted during his previous extreme stage of "raising the physical body." Over the past few days, in order to maintain the high-intensity accumulation of Crane Shadow Step proficiency, he had completely drained the last bit of his reserves.

His qi and blood now far surpassed that of ordinary people, and his daily appetite had increased severalfold over before. Worst of all, he had to eat meat. Ordinary people could survive on bran and vegetables, but his body, like a blazing furnace, could not be sustained by coarse grains alone.

The coarse grain, rice, and flour he ate were like tossing a few dry stalks of straw into a roaring furnace—they burned away in the blink of an eye, nowhere near enough for the needs of martial training. Over time, they might even drain his body dry.

Looking at the nearly empty rice jar in the kitchen, Xia Dong could not help feeling a touch of melancholy.

He could not sit around waiting to die. He had to find some means of making a living. Thus, he began seriously surveying the market in Pingyang County.

With the halo of a newly minted xiucai scholar above his head, whenever he walked the streets, neighbors and merchants would politely stop and respectfully call him "Scholar Xia." This official seal of approval was indeed useful; at the very least, it spared him much harassment from local thugs.

But when Xia Dong truly tried to find a path to quick wealth, reality soon poured a basin of cold water over him.

After wandering the streets and alleys for several days, he discovered that the waters of Pingyang County ran deep. All those highly profitable trades capable of making money quickly—salt and iron, bulk medicinal materials, pawnshops, grain merchants, even underground money houses and Entertainment Districts—had long been firmly controlled by the county's gentry, Aristocratic Clans, and gangs of every size. Their chains of interest were tangled like intertwined roots.

Behind them, there were even shadows of the county magistrate or powerful forces from Prefecture City. There was simply no room for a poor scholar without any backing like him to insert himself.

If he used the privileges and status of a xiucai scholar to write legal complaints for others, handle lawsuits, or serve as a private tutor for wealthy households—doing such steady "small jobs"—he would indeed be respected and would certainly never starve for the rest of his life.

But that would only barely keep him fed. It was still far from enough for his martial training.

"Isn't this just like my previous life..."

Xia Dong stood at the end of the bustling main street, watching the carriages passing back and forth and the merchants dressed in silk and satin, his heart filled with melancholy.

Class solidification truly was a stubborn disease found in every world.

A cold wind swept past. Xia Dong pulled his collar tighter, a sense of frustration rising in his heart before he had even won his first battle. If he did not break this deadlock soon, this xiucai scholar with extraordinary skills might not even be able to scrape together tomorrow's meat money.

Xia Dong stared at the Bookstore ahead, where people constantly entered and left, and a flash of inspiration struck him.

"Looks like I'll have to play the role of a plagiarism scribe."