Chapter 163: Memories

Shen Shuibi seemed very displeased with Hu Xian'er's messing with Li Qi's Physical Body, so she took over all of Li Qi's treatment, complaining, "Quack!" and "How could it end up like this!" while carrying Li Qi to the kitchen.

Li Qi didn't understand at first.

Then, Shen Shuibi emptied the pot and put him inside it.

"Shen Guniang, this is?"

"Shut up! It took me so much effort to clear your Qi, and you let a quack mess it up again. Don't talk to me, I need to focus on sorting it out!" Shen Shuibi said to Li Qi in a rare, exasperated tone.

Li Qi remained silent; he couldn't move anyway.

However, this feeling was indeed...

He felt a lingering fear. If other highly skilled doctors had seen his Physical Body, would they also have been able to, like Shen Shuibi, easily disperse and injure the Physical Body that Qingwu Sect Master had sutured, just by patting it?

This kind of risk... would also affect his future cultivation. No wonder Shen Shuibi was so angry.

It seemed he really couldn't trust outside doctors from now on.

Their intentions might be good, but their medical skills truly couldn't compare to the one in his own home.

Thinking these thoughts, Li Qi lay in the pot, submerged in a pot of water poured by Shen Shuibi. She then cast a Fire Incantation, started boiling the water, and began to stew Li Qi in the iron pot.

Then, she busied herself, conjuring the Three-Five Furnace and beginning Alchemy. She then threw the refined medicine into Li Qi's pot, where it gurgled and boiled.

Fortunately, the current Li Qi was no longer affected by ordinary boiling water, so he obediently waited to be cooked.

While boiling, Shen Shuibi said to Li Qi, "You're not unaware of the Human Body as a Small Heaven and Earth, so why did you let someone tamper with your Physical Body?"

"The Human Body as a Small Heaven and Earth: the head is like Heaven, the feet like Earth. Heavenly Qi permeates the lungs, Earthly Qi permeates the throat, Wind Qi permeates the liver, Thunder Qi permeates the heart, Grain Qi permeates the spleen, and Rain Qi permeates the kidneys. The six meridians are like rivers, the intestines and stomach are like seas, and the nine orifices are the Qi of water flow. Heaven has four seasons and Five Elements, with the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang, cold and heat as its rules. When harmonious, it becomes rain; when angry, it becomes wind; when condensed, it becomes snow; when spread out, it becomes a rainbow—these are the constant numbers of Heaven. Humans have four limbs and five organs, with the ebb and flow of breath, the circulation of Qi, the rising and falling of essence, and the endless coming and going of Qi. The two Qi of Yin and Yang disperse to form the Ying and Wei Qi, the Bloodline manifests to form complexion, and it expresses as sound—these are the constant numbers of humans."

"If the correspondence between Heaven and Man is off, and your Human Body as a Small Heaven and Earth is already out of balance, then artificial suturing might seem to fix it, but in reality, it creates a subtle discrepancy with the external celestial timing. Your Human Body as a Small Heaven and Earth was originally formed using Shaman Dao methods, borrowing the Qi of Heaven and Earth, and shaped by the laws of the four seasons. The mountains, rivers, soil, gold, stone, grass, and trees within it, all things have already grown. Even the hair, skin, muscles, Bloodline, meridians, and bone marrow, all need to correspond one-to-one with the external Heaven and Earth. If they don't, the inner body spirits you refine will be distorted. When it's time to advance, they'll all have to be discarded and re-refined. Constantly messing around, do you really not cherish yourself?"

"Furthermore, the person who helped you repair it, only possessed craftsmanship but lacked understanding of the Dao. It serves him right to be stuck at the seventh rank his entire life!"

The more Shen Shuibi spoke, the angrier she became. In the end, she simply increased the power of the Fire Incantation, and instantly, steam flew everywhere, and the entire pot of water evaporated within two or three seconds.

"Hot!" Li Qi nearly flipped out of the water.

Unfortunately, he couldn't move.

"A lesson for you!" Shen Shuibi said, then cast a Water Drawing Incantation. With a whoosh, a circle of cold water again submerged Li Qi, directly covering his mouth and nose, making him gurgle and blow bubbles in the water.

But despite her words, she still diligently refined the medicine and placed it in the water to re-regulate the chaotic Qi within Li Qi.

She even rolled up her sleeves and directly massaged and kneaded Li Qi's entire body again.

Li Qi lay in the pot, eyes narrowed, feeling the hands moving across his body.

Was this... a blessing in disguise?

All in all, Li Qi was forced to rest for another day, and it wasn't until the next day that he regained his ability to move.

However, they finally set off.

Old Ma had eaten very well these past few days; his fat had returned, and he had become a horse with a double chin again.

Li Qi also acquired a good item: a Mustard Seed Bag.

He bought it with the gifts Jin Buhuan had given him.

The gifts he sent were truly valuable.

The Mustard Seed Bag wasn't very large, roughly the size of a room.

Actually, there's not much space inside this item; it's just an entrance. The principle is to designate an area outside the domain, similar to a cage, then protect it with Talismanic Incantations, and then open a small opening leading to the Mustard Seed Bag's mouth. Throwing something in means placing it inside that cage.

Because this cage outside the domain is directly exposed to the vast extra-domain space, it can only hold inanimate objects, or living creatures with exceptionally strong Life Qi, strong enough to survive outside the domain. Time inside is also normal; food placed inside still has an expiration date. All in all, it's a readily accessible safe, but the environment inside is extremely harsh. The extra-domain is a vacuum environment, with no temperature at all, no light, no shadows, and water placed inside would certainly turn into ice.

When Li Qi bought this, he also learned an interesting anecdote.

That is, the earliest Mustard Seed Bags required Great Powers of the fifth rank or above to refine.

Because designating space outside the domain was too difficult, and opening a fixed spatial rift for teleportation was not something ordinary people could do.

But later, a Great Power started this business. He designated a huge space outside the domain, countless millions of miles wide, then divided it into countless portions, leasing these smaller portions of space to different alchemist Schools, allowing lower-rank alchemists to also open Mustard Seeds in the space he designated. This is how low-rank Mustard Seed Bags came into existence.

And that Great Power also used this to collect rent from countless forces. He was like a huge cloud storage space, selling different sizes of space to different accounts. You could store things in the cloud and retrieve them when needed.

Low-rank alchemists are merely utilizing this Great Power's cloud storage space; they are completely incapable of manipulating this item. Different Mustard Seed Bags are just different accounts, possessing different space sizes.

This also made Li Qi sigh with emotion.

Truly good at business...

Based on the size of the space leased by their own School, the extra-domain space these alchemists can designate also varies, meaning the cages come in different sizes. Li Qi's was considered moderately priced, enough to buy a Tang Dao, which was very expensive.

However, it was still much more convenient; at least he didn't have to carry a back basket anymore.

Thanks to Young Master Jin; without the eight hundred Spirit Flowers he sent, Li Qi's injuries wouldn't have healed so quickly, and without the other jewels and gold he sent, Li Qi wouldn't have been able to afford a Mustard Seed Bag.

However, while the leased online cloud storage was convenient, if you didn't want to use cloud storage, you could also use a portable hard drive, which would be a Cave Heaven Spiritual Artifact.

Cave Heaven Spiritual Artifacts are far more advanced than Mustard Seed Bags. Although Cave Heavens are all empty, they can be freely modified.

For example, Qingwu Sect's main Sect Mountain Gate is a very large Cave Heaven. Everything inside was moved from the outside world and then reshaped.

As long as the environment is suitable inside a Cave Heaven Spiritual Artifact, anything can be stored, and their volume is also much larger. However, the price is unknown, Li Qi certainly couldn't afford it, and Qingwu City didn't even have any for sale.

After loading the Mustard Seed Bag with a pile of frozen Piao Xu kitchen products and buying some of Piao Xu's homemade cured meats and sausages, they had prepared enough food for their journey.

Li Qi led the reluctant Old Ma, who was still chewing Piao Xu's food, and accompanied by Shen Shuibi, bade farewell to Qingwu City.

On the way, Qi Ya followed them. After much deliberation, Li Qi gave her a copy of "Song of the Unrivaled."

It was a gift out of affection, after all, this little red-furred fox was quite cute.

Having done all this, they had truly said goodbye to Qingwu City.

They set off.

However, when they reached the wilderness, Li Qi suddenly reined in his horse and stopped.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Shen Shuibi, sitting in the back, tilted her head, not knowing what Li Qi was up to.

Li Qi looked around, confirming that there was indeed no one nearby.

Then, he took out a porcelain bottle.

"Oh, right, Shen Guniang, this is a gift for you. It wasn't convenient to take it out in the city, but there shouldn't be any problem here," Li Qi handed the porcelain bottle to Shen Shuibi.

Shen Shuibi looked at the porcelain bottle, not knowing what Li Qi's intention was.

Then, she pulled out the stopper.

Suddenly, even though it was daytime, a clear, spiritual moon rose gently.

A dense Yin Qi swept over.

The beautiful moon like a white hook, ethereal light smoke, the long Yin first converging, the rain clearing the sky, the cool moonlight, the desolate demeanor of the wind.

Li Qi's eyes widened.

Ah, the books didn't say that a Moon Soul Fragment would cause such a commotion, did they?

Was he misunderstanding?

Li Qi looked at Shen Shuibi, who was frozen in place, with confusion.

No, this definitely wasn't something caused by the Moon Soul Fragment!

He grabbed Shen Shuibi.

However, the icy touch on his fingertips was like being dampened by morning dew; a cool breeze swept by, leaving him cold all over.

The surrounding scene changed, becoming like a faint blue halo, as if they were underwater.

Li Qi struggled to get up, pulling Shen Shuibi.

The moment she moved, the surrounding world seemed to instantly clear up, as if returning from underwater to the shore. His Physical Body re-integrated, returning to its original state, and his senses were no longer blurry.

But, near Shen Shuibi, a moon still glowed.

And, she cried.

Holding that small porcelain bottle, the rabbit began to sob.

Although she sometimes lost her composure, she had never cried like this before.

Pearls of tears wet her face, her jade hairpin gently fell, her voice mournful, as if holding resentment.

The long sky was clear, the light rain sorrowful, pitying her delicate state, thoughts lingering.

This never-before-seen sight made Li Qi stare in a daze.

While feeling heartache, he also only felt.

So beautiful.

Fortunately, he didn't remain dazed for too long. He quickly reacted, stepped forward, and took Shen Shuibi's hand: "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing..." Shen Shuibi wiped her face, but no matter how much she wiped, it wouldn't come clean. Finally, she simply plopped down on the ground, pulled out the stopper again, and peered inside.

This time, she was no longer silently sobbing, but truly whimpering.

Although she tried her best to keep her voice down, it was still clearly audible.

Li Qi stepped forward again, squatting in front of her. He didn't speak, just waited, his face full of awkwardness.

Li Qi, who was usually articulate and eloquent, was at this moment unable to say a single word.

After a long while, Shen Shuibi gradually stopped her tears.

Tear stains still wet her face, and she remained kneeling on the ground. She raised her face, and even though water droplets were still falling from it, she still asked Li Qi, "Li Qi, you... you know everything?"

Li Qi was bewildered.

What do I know? I don't know.

However, he didn't show it. Instead, he silently took up his sleeve and helped her wipe her face.

Shen Shuibi finally stopped crying. Sitting on the ground, holding the bottle, she said in a soft but somewhat joyful voice, "Thank you, Li Qi... You actually even helped me find something from Mount Luofu."

The brilliance in her eyes made Li Qi turn his head away for a moment.

Li Qi felt that it was an expression rarely seen on her.

"No... no need to thank me for this, it's nothing major," Li Qi reacted quickly and immediately replied.

He looked up at the sky, thinking to himself.

Green Mountain Kingdom Lord.

Good brother! You went to great lengths.

Li Qi dried Shen Shuibi's face, touching the skin of her cheek, feeling a softness.

Shen Shuibi seemed not to notice Li Qi touching her face. She opened the porcelain bottle and said to Li Qi, "This thing is the core of the Moon Soul of Luofu Grotto Heaven; it's where I used to live."

Li Qi also sat on the ground in front of her, listening to her speak.

Unexpectedly, Shen Shuibi seemed to be overcome with memories and began to tell Li Qi stories from the past.

"At that time, Yang Ning particularly disliked me. Because Yin and Yang are difficult to harmonize, the Yin Qi on my body made her very uncomfortable, so she always hit me... and I couldn't beat her. I wasn't good at fighting to begin with..."

"One time, after she hit me, I ran to Mother and cried. Mother called her over and asked her why she hit me."

"She looked up proudly and said to me, 'I've disliked her for a long time; I've wanted to hit her for a long time! If Mother hadn't said it was bad, I would have done it two years ago!'"

"Pfft..." Li Qi couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

"It's funny, right? After hearing that answer, Mother hung her on the osmanthus tree and blew her with Yin Qi for four hours until the fire on her head was extinguished."

At this point, Shen Shuibi's tone became melancholic: "However, when the Commissioner came to deliver the final ultimatum, Yang Ning and I were intercepted, and it was she who threw me out to cover my retreat."

"That's why I ended up wandering alone and got separated from Mother and the others..." Shen Shuibi's voice became forlorn as she spoke.

"Alright, let's not talk about those things. Let me tell you about my childhood. When I was little, I lived inside this. This fragment of the Moon Soul was personally retrieved for me by Mother from above the Great Yin."

"Inside this, I secretly carved several murals. I'll take them out for you to see. They were all carved when I was very young. This bottle is a small Mustard Seed Bottle. Wait for me to decipher it."

Shen Shuibi excitedly told stories of her childhood, while Li Qi listened carefully beside her.

Flying clouds dim the sunset, night scenes gaze upon each other, how can one bear to count, years passing, reminiscing about the past.

Old Ma snorted, rolling his eyes, and wisely ran off to eat grass in the distance.

It seemed Li Qi's journey would be delayed for another night.

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