From the depths of the heart to every bone in the body, there is nothing that is not completely free.

"For what?"

Looking at Jiuniang, Ning Xiu slowly spoke, "I want your Loulan ancient cultivation technique."

"I know you certainly have it, and for something so important, you must carry it with you. So Jiuniang, let's not waste any time here. As long as you hand the technique over to me, I will let this girl go back immediately."

Having witnessed Jiuniang's strength, Ning Xiu knew clearly in his heart that the path of martial arts had not been cut off. Dragging Wang Danfeng on a wild chase across the desert for all this time was entirely for this very moment.

"I can give you the technique, but how can I trust you?" Jiuniang looked at Ning Xiu, a mocking expression appearing on her face. "And how can you trust me? Aren't you afraid I'll just give you a fake manual?"

"Whether the technique is genuine or false, do not trouble yourself; I have my own judgment."

With a calm expression, Ning Xiu paused for a moment, and then continued, "As for you, you have no choice but to trust me!"

Although this was his first time engaging in kidnapping, Ning Xiu performed it with exceptional skill and seasoned ease, making him wonder if he had some inherent talent for playing the villain.

"Fine!"

Without a trace of hesitation, Jiuniang agreed. With a wave of her sleeve, a scroll of bamboo slips broke through the air, shooting directly toward Ning Xiu.

His expression unchanged, Ning Xiu caught the bamboo slip with one hand, opened it, and glanced at it.

Reaching out to pat Wang Danfeng's shoulder, he didn't say another word. His entire body immediately retreated in a flying leap without the slightest hesitation.

What he did not expect, however, was that instead of catching Wang Danfeng, Jiuniang pursued him directly.

A pitch-black shadowy phantom streaked across the sky, instantly covering more than ten meters. Relying on her speed, she overtook him even after starting behind, and simultaneously, Jiuniang raised her right hand and struck a palm toward Ning Xiu's back.

"Where are you going!"

Jiuniang shouted loudly, her face unable to conceal her rage.

Just as the palm was about to strike, Ning Xiu abruptly whirled around and met the attack with a palm strike of his own.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, a terrifying aura erupted violently, and the shockwave rippled outward in a circle.

The wine jars and porcelain bowls placed by the merchants on both sides of the street shattered simultaneously in that very instant.

"The green mountains remain, the flowing waters endure; we shall meet again."

Ning Xiu laughed heartily. Leveraging the rebounding force, he executed a few agile bounds, quickly blending into the distant, dense crowd and vanishing from the sight of Jiuniang and her companion in the blink of an eye.

Jiuniang stared fixedly at the ceaselessly flowing crowd in the distance, her brows locked in a tight frown.

"Miss, I'm sorry..." Wang Danfeng had already risen from the ground at some point and walked behind Jiuniang, her head lowered like a child who had done something wrong.

The Hill of Chaos had a complex terrain.

Furthermore, it was a melting pot of dragons and snakes, harboring all sorts of people from every walk of life. Finding Ning Xiu again would be no easy task. Besides, from their brief exchange just now, Jiuniang could sense that the opponent's strength was not far inferior to her own.

Yet, in her perception, Ning Xiu clearly had not yet reached the Mortal-Shedding Realm, a detail that was utterly bizarre.

Initially, at the Loulan ruins, Jiuniang had assumed Ning Xiu belonged to the Moon Wheel Temple.

She simply hadn't expected that this fellow was actually a daring and lawless ordinary martial artist. Since when did such an ordinary person dare to harbor designs on Loulan?

Thinking of her fallen country's former prosperity and might, Jiuniang felt a mixture of anger and sorrow in her heart...

After successfully obtaining the cultivation manual, Ning Xiu did not leave the Hill of Chaos; instead, he chose to stay.

The most dangerous place was often the safest. No one would expect that, after creating such a massive commotion, he would remain right here.

Moreover, this truly was an ideal place to hide.

At this moment, he was standing in an inn room, looking at the scroll of bamboo slips in his hand, the corners of his lips curling up slightly.

This was the genuine article.

The reason Ning Xiu had not explicitly stated his purpose to Jiuniang and the others from the very beginning was to prevent them from making any preparations. For something as crucial as an ancient cultivation technique, Ning Xiu believed Jiuniang would surely carry it on her person.

Of course, there was a certain risk involved, but he had no choice left except to take the gamble.

To him, this was the safest course of action.

Jiuniang had not failed to consider that her opponent might be targeting their ancient Loulan cultivation technique, and she had even thought of forging a fake. At the entrance of the Loulan ruins, she had witnessed with her own eyes how Ning Xiu slaughtered his way through to break out of the encirclement. Therefore, in her view, a fake could not possibly fool a master of Ning Xiu's caliber.

It was precisely because she had witnessed Ning Xiu's strength back then that she dismissed this notion, believing he wasn't after the technique at all. Who could have imagined that when face-to-face, she would discover that his cultivation realm remained trapped in the so-called Grandmaster Realm?

This created yet another illusion for her, leading her to believe that even if she handed the technique to Ning Xiu, she could still execute him on the spot.

Because of all these accumulated factors, Ning Xiu finally achieved his long-cherished desire.

Standing by the window and watching the colorful evening clouds spread across the distant sky, Ning Xiu tilted his head back and took a swallow of fiery liquor.

The setting sun resembled blood. He stretched out his palm, letting the wind and sand slip between his fingers, before suddenly clenching his fist tightly.

...

The technique given by Jiuniang was called the Purple Moon Art.

After reading through this manual, Ning Xiu couldn't help but sigh in admiration that the Heavenly Heart Master, who had burst onto the Great Qian pugilistic world three hundred years ago, was truly a genius.

The Supreme Realm was indeed above the Grandmaster Realm, but there was still a major realm sandwiched between them—the very Mortal-Shedding Realm they spoke of.

No wonder that after forcibly breaking through to the Supreme Realm, the Heavenly Heart Master turned to ashes and dust almost immediately afterward.

According to what was written in this ancient text, in ancient times, the cultivation realm possessed no such classification as the Grandmaster Realm.

It was divided into three realms in total: the Mortal Realm, the Mortal-Shedding Realm, and the Supreme Realm.

Unblocking all three hundred and sixty-five major acupoints across the human body marked the peak of the Mortal Realm, after which one would shed mortality.

The nine heavens of the Mortal-Shedding Realm; every single heaven was a rung on the ladder for a mortal to step away from the mundane and ascend toward the Supreme Realm.

"The hundred bones, the nine apertures, the six inner organs—they all coexist within us; with whom shall I consider myself akin?"

Ning Xiu recalled a phrase spoken by Zhuangzi from his past life.

The Mortal-Shedding Realm corresponded precisely to this statement. The primary task of the Mortal-Shedding Realm was to refine the bones of the entire body, then clear the nine apertures, and finally connect the six inner organs. Only in this way could a person fully withstand the impact of the external heaven and earth when the ancestral aperture between the eyebrows was completely opened.

The first heaven of the Mortal-Shedding Realm was the tempering of the body's bones, while the final heaven was connecting the heart organ.

At that point, a complete inner universe could be formed.

From the heart down to the hundred bones, every part achieved absolute freedom.

From then on, one would transcend the mortal world and attain true carefree liberation.

"No wonder the path of martial arts in the Great Qian martial world was severed; the cultivation method for an entire major realm was lost right in the middle. Unless one possessed the startling talent of someone like the Heavenly Heart Master, who could possibly achieve it?" Ning Xiu murmured softly.

And just as Ning Xiu finished reading the Purple Moon Art from cover to cover, a deafening roar suddenly echoed within his mind.

Immediately afterward, he received the notification that the "God of War" system was about to undergo an update.