Chapter 782: Healing

On the Dao path, a single wrong step can lead to eternal damnation; one might have to reincarnate and re-cultivate to start over.

However, if one’s cultivation is not enough at this moment…

Shen Shuibi frowned slightly.

But in that moment of hesitation, she suddenly coughed: “Cough, cough…”

The coughing was accompanied by some phlegm.

“Deficiency of both Qi and blood, with external evil invading and producing phlegm…” Shen Shuibi immediately diagnosed her own problem.

Only then did she realize that the time she had to support Li Qi’s loophole was running out.

It was no good, there wasn’t enough time; her essence and Qi were almost depleted, and she couldn’t sustain it any longer.

She immediately took out a small cauldron from her mustard seed bag, which was full of Medicinal Pills for replenishing Qi.

These Medicinal Pills were all Reverted Pills of seven turns and above, extremely valuable. In the outer domains, one pill could easily be exchanged for a sixth-rank world, making them Shen Shuibi’s personal stash.

She first grabbed two and ate them, circulating their effects, then, while eating, she sent a message to Zhu Fengdan.

“Master, please come to my aid quickly. I need magical power, a large amount of magical power,” she said to Zhu Fengdan.

As she spoke, she continued to suppress the chaos within Li Qi’s body. The silver needles gradually turned red, and her fingers also made a sizzling sound as her skin and flesh split open, changing from pink to white.

A Mortal gripping a hot iron would feel something similar.

Moreover, her face began to rapidly turn pale, all color draining away. Her skin, once rosy and glowing, became sickly pale, and the faint blue veins on her neck and cheeks were visible—a sign of excessive blood loss.

But she paid no attention to these things, instead listening nervously for Zhu Fengdan’s words.

She believed that with Zhu Fengdan’s Divine Ability, he would surely be able to hear her voice easily.

However… a full minute passed, and the Medicinal Pills in the cauldron were almost all consumed.

But Zhu Fengdan still did not respond.

Her magical power was rapidly depleting, and Li Qi’s condition showed no improvement…

What was going on?

She immediately thought of a possibility…

That was, while Li Qi and Qiu Zhi were fighting desperately, Zhu Fengdan was also busy. One must know that the Human Dao also had a third-rank expert, and that was the Grand General of the Southern Command…

Can it work?

She couldn’t help but feel a little anxious.

If Li Qi and Qiu Zhi lost their battle, then Baiyue would fall directly, and there would be no need for the fifth-rank experts below to fight.

Similarly, if Zhu Fengdan and the Grand General of the Southern Command lost their battle, then there would be no need for anyone else to fight.

But… it couldn’t be, right? The Shaman Gods should have perfectly arranged similar combat strengths for both sides. The Shaman Gods’ wisdom was sufficient to make perfect decisions. The competition between the two sides was actually about improvisation and a little bit of unexpected variation.

Shen Shuibi’s lips grew paler and paler. If Zhu Fengdan didn’t come soon, she would probably have to forcibly Breakthroug, otherwise she would die with Li Qi.

Or… she could abandon Li Qi, release her grip on the silver needles, and save herself.

But even if she didn’t have enough magical power to replenish Li Qi’s Qi, she couldn’t let go.

At worst, they would reincarnate together.

They should be able to reincarnate… right?

Forget it, don’t think about those things.

Just as Shen Shuibi was intensely applying the needles, she calculated that she could probably hold on for another seven seconds.

After seven seconds, either she would forcibly Breakthrough regardless of her Dao foundation, or both of them would be buried here.

However, perhaps by luck, a voice suddenly came: “Sorry, Disciple-in-law, I was delayed.”

As soon as the voice appeared, a vast surge of magical power descended from above Shen Shuibi’s head, instantly filling her depleted magical power, making her Qi and blood abundant and her energy robust.

This was virtually infinite magical power, enough for Shen Shuibi to do everything she wanted without worrying about consumption.

She immediately set up three times the number of silver needles, moving her fingers like lightning, constantly inserting and withdrawing them from Li Qi’s body, either clearing, blocking, diverting, accumulating, or detonating. The chaotic Qi within Li Qi, under such continuous manipulation, slowly began to become orderly.

About half an hour later, Shen Shuibi finally let out a long sigh of relief.

It’s stabilized.

This was… difficult.

With her own stored Medicinal Pills and magical power, she could only last a minute at most, yet it took her half an hour to stabilize the situation.

Thankfully, she had a strong backing, otherwise, something serious would have happened this time.

After she sighed in relief, she looked at Zhu Fengdan beside her and said, “Thank you, Master, Master…?”

Her words were filled with astonishment, as she saw that Zhu Fengdan only had half of his head floating behind her.

Truly, half a head…

Most of his body had been destroyed, and the left half of his head was torn apart, leaving only half of his brain. His injuries seemed even more severe than Li Qi’s.

“It’s fine,” Zhu Fengdan said casually. “For now, there’s no need to worry about the opponent’s third-rank expert. The Grand General of the Southern Command… Tsk, I didn’t expect it, the Human Dao still has capable people. But thankfully, no one at the third-rank can defeat me. It’s just that I also need to rest for a while. Li Qi’s injuries… can you handle them? I’m not good at healing.”

“It should be fine. Once he wakes up, after a diagnosis and with his cooperation, there shouldn’t be any problems. Master, you should go heal first,” Shen Shuibi immediately said.

After all… Zhu Fengdan looked like he was about to die.

“Minor matter, the foundation isn’t damaged, unlike him. His inner body spirits are only left with the Nascent Soul. After you’ve regulated these, help me tell him to simply discard this Physical Body and Inner World, and stabilize his spirit with the Spirit Dao. Once these matters are concluded, I’ll help him get some emperor fluid paste to reshape his Physical Body, so he can avoid reincarnation and re-cultivation,” Zhu Fengdan said.

“Mm, I’ll tell him,” Shen Shuibi nodded.

Zhu Fengdan said no more and disappeared from his spot. He indeed needed to recuperate; the Grand General of the Southern Command’s skill was truly beyond expectation.

And Shen Shuibi, on her side, also knew what would happen next.

The third-rank and fourth-rank experts were both severely injured, and Qiu Zhi’s injuries might even be more serious than Li Qi’s…

So, the next method to determine victory would be the conventional battlefield.

She stood up and used a spell to address the various Baiyue Kingdom Lords: “Fellow Country Lords, prepare yourselves. The Human Dao army is about to march, be wary of the Heavenly Palace.”

The various Baiyue Kingdom Lords immediately sent back messages, indicating that they understood.

Shen Shuibi told them to handle it themselves and prepare to resist the Human Dao army’s assault, then ended the conversation.

After that, Shen Shuibi began to care for Li Qi, hoping he would wake up quickly.

And on the other side—

The Baiyue Kingdom Lords looked at each other in the communication spell.

“What should we do? The commander seems to be seriously injured, and even that great expert, Moon Essence, is half-dead,” the Lord of Nine Rivers frowned and said.

“Thankfully, we didn’t lose. It should be a mutual defeat. Look, that fourth-rank commandant on the Human Dao side is also on the verge of death. It’ll take a while for him to recover his combat strength, I imagine,” the Lord of Xuju said with a hint of relief.

“Moreover, this may not be a bad thing. You see, Moon Essence isn’t skilled in command, nor does she seem like a general. She has also handed over the command of the troops to us. This way, our authority has not only not diminished but has actually increased,” the Lord of Fuzhong said, with a hint of barely suppressed joy in his tone.

“Exactly. Now that the fourth-rank experts have finished fighting, it’s our turn. We now have the Grand Ritual map given by Young Master Li Qi, occupying a strategic advantage. We just need to collectively withstand the Human Dao’s offensive, and no one can control us…” The Lord of Zhuxu spoke, his voice gradually trailing off.

The Baiyue Kingdom Lords all realized something.

At this moment, the Lingxiao Kingdom Lord suddenly said, “Since it’s such an important juncture, Great Deer Kingdom Lord, I remember there’s a third-rank fingerprint within your territory. Normally, you keep it tightly guarded. In this situation, it’s probably inappropriate to continue hiding it. Could it be opened up to us as a strategic resource?”

The Great Deer Kingdom Lord immediately frowned: “Lingxiao, when have I ever kept it tightly guarded? Don’t slander me. Since the ruins appeared, haven’t I opened up quotas for everyone every year?”

“That’s true, but the quotas were only for viewing from afar. In this situation, we definitely need to utilize this item. I have a grand formation here that, when powered by that ruin, might produce miraculous effects,” the Lingxiao Kingdom Lord said, her tone normal, but with a hint of slyness.

Following the Lingxiao Kingdom Lord’s statement, another Lord of Juting said, “Oh, by the way, Lord of Lingyang, I heard that on your side… there seems to be a Divine Tree, transplanted from Fanghu, right?”

“I heard that the Lord of Wulou has a small garden formed from the aerial roots of a Peach of Immortality? Now, with a great enemy before us…” another Country Lord said.

Because the Lingxiao Kingdom Lord started it, the Baiyue Kingdom Lords seemed to have fallen into a situation of mutual threat.

However, Shen Shuibi was completely unaware of these developments.

For her, Li Qi’s condition was more important than anything else. The Human Dao army’s attack was a catastrophic disaster for the Baiyue nations, and the Country Lords should be doing their best.

And she only needed to quickly awaken Li Qi to gain an advantage in the battle.

She continued to check Li Qi’s condition.

However, as she checked, she suddenly discovered something ominous.

“The Nascent Soul is damaged… along with the Spirit Soul and consciousness. This is bad.” The rabbit was startled.

Human consciousness is composed of several elements: virtue, Qi, life, essence, spirit, soul, corporeal soul, heart, will, intent, thought, wisdom, and deliberation.

What is from Heaven in me is virtue; what is from Earth in me is Qi. Virtue flows and Qi disperses to create life.

Therefore, the coming of life is called essence; the collision of two essences is called spirit; what comes and goes with the spirit is called soul; what enters and exits with the essence is called corporeal soul; what can manipulate objects is called heart; what the heart remembers is called will; what the will holds is called intent; what changes due to intent is called thought; what longs for distant things due to thought is called deliberation; what handles things due to deliberation is called wisdom.

And Li Qi now, his spirit had no home, his deliberation was unsettled, thus his Qi was chaotic. She had only treated the symptoms before, smoothing out the chaotic Qi, but she had not healed his consciousness. Therefore, Li Qi would not only not wake up for a while, but the Qi within his body would also become increasingly chaotic, until it reverted to its previously injured state.

Because the root cause of the illness had not been removed.

“The spiritual injury must be repaired.” Shen Shuibi thought, first using silver needles to seal Li Qi’s Baihui acupoint to calm his spirit slightly.

Then she immediately opened the furnace, put in the Materials, and prepared to refine several tranquilizing Medicinal Pills.

With the spirit calm and the soul settled, one can naturally be brought back from the dead.

She put in the medicinal ingredients, with musk fat as the main ingredient.

Musk can clear passages, calm the heart, and tranquilize the spirit. However, the dosage is difficult to control; occasional use is fine, but prolonged use can be detrimental. Then, she added pithy adenia, spiritual flowers, mugwort leaves, and poria.

Poria, named ‘Fuling’ (Hidden Spirit), is where the spirit hides. It tranquilizes the spirit and also drains dampness and benefits the spleen.

These were naturally not ordinary medicinal ingredients; ordinary ones wouldn’t have enough potency or enough effect on Li Qi’s body. They were all fifth-rank medicinal ingredients, some even refined from the remnants of dead fifth-rank great demons.

She mixed the medicines with seventeen auxiliary ingredients and calcined them nine times with four yin and six yang fires.

After refinement, the Medicinal Pills were set aside to cool.

After a while, the properties of the medicine began to change, even ‘reversing,’ and transforming back into the appearance of raw medicinal ingredients.

However, many unnecessary medicinal properties had already been calcined away.

Medicinal Pills refined using this method are called ‘Reverted Pills.’

This means refining the Medicinal Pill into a semi-finished product, then using a technique to restore it to its raw material state, and then refining it again. Each cycle of this process is called ‘a turn.’ The terms ‘three-turn Reverted Pill’ and ‘nine-turn Reverted Pill’ refer to this.

Medicinal Pills made this way have fewer Medicinal Pill toxins and purer medicinal properties. The more turns, the more Impurities are removed. Normally, reaching nine turns means the Medicinal Pill toxins are completely removed, so typically, a nine-turn Reverted Pill is the highest quality Reverted Pill.

This situation is also common in daily life, such as with rice, where there is a concept of ‘reversion.’ Starch becomes loose after cooking, but if left to cool for a period, the structure of the starch molecules will restore, making the rice become ‘hard’ again, similar to a ‘raw’ state.

This kind of rice has more resistant starch and a smaller impact on blood sugar, making it healthier.

And what a pill Master needs to do is to bring all these Materials into this state.

The benefits of Reverted Pills are so numerous that their refining difficulty is naturally extraordinary. To make cooked meat revert to raw meat requires exquisite control over the heat and complete mastery of the medicinal properties.

However, none of this was a problem for Shen Shuibi.

Moreover, this time, Shen Shuibi chose ten turns.

For no other reason than Li Qi’s body being too chaotic at the moment. Having lost his inner body spirits, he was now suffering from severe kidney and liver failure, and his body had absolutely no ability to process toxins and Impurities.

A ten-turn Reverted Pill was not a simple matter even for Shen Shuibi. She sweated on her forehead, meticulously handling it.

Fortunately, her cultivation had reached the threshold of the fourth-rank, even allowing her to conjure a Ruin by hand. This level of micro-control enabled her to handle these subtle medicinal properties.

After a laborious and careful ten turns, it was complete.

Rubbing her red, dry eyes, she placed the refined Medicinal Pill into Li Qi’s mouth.

The next moment, Li Qi’s Spirit Soul was suddenly stimulated.

Shen Shuibi’s Yang Spirit immediately left her body and entered the ‘Soul Emergence’ state.

What she refined was not an ordinary tranquilizing Medicinal Pill; such a pill would be useless for Li Qi.

Now, this Medicinal Pill’s effect was to allow the Spirit Soul to open up, just like in a dream.

Then, her Yang Spirit directly entered it.

To awaken Li Qi, she had to personally make a trip inside.