Chapter 157: Rest and Recovery

An hour later.

As Li Qi walked into Clear Mist City, holding Jin Buhuan's severed head with his Tang Dynasty saber, the entire city fell silent.

After a while, the whole city erupted in commotion.

Some people panicked and fled in haste.

Others were overjoyed, singing and cheering, unable to contain their happiness.

Some sighed deeply, their faces twisted with mixed emotions, perhaps due to some connection with Jin Buhuan.

Others looked worried, frowning as they sank into deep thought.

Some politely approached Li Qi, congratulating him and inviting him to join feasts.

Others wept and rushed forward to kowtow to Li Qi, calling him their savior.

And there were those who gritted their teeth at Li Qi but dared not approach, swallowing their anger.

A thousand faces for a thousand people, and within Clear Mist City, millions of faces reflected countless emotions—how many were happy, how many angry, how many worried.

Jin Buhuan's death would lead to a major reshuffling of all the forces in the city; naturally, it was a mix of joy and sorrow.

But one thing was common among them all.

It was the awe and respect for Li Qi.

Even Eighth Rank cultivators, when looking at Li Qi now, could only feel awe.

Li Qi walked straight ahead, carrying Jin Buhuan's head, under the watchful eyes of countless people, until he reached the inn's door.

At the inn—

The place was in ruins, bodies littering the streets.

Shen Shuibei's formation had suffered considerable damage, but fortunately, no one had breached it.

After all, Shen Shuibei was someone Li Qi trusted greatly.

While Li Qi was out dealing with matters, there were bound to be attacks on this place and attempts on his own life.

As Li Qi moved through the streets, countless hidden guards protected him, while numerous others sought to kill him. Every time he turned a corner, four or five people would fall dead.

Blood flowed from the alleys, and occasionally the glint of blades reflected off Li Qi's face. With each step he took, every knock on a door, he treaded upon blood.

These hidden power struggles were intense, but unfortunately, Li Qi had little time to delve into them.

That night had seen too much happen, even to the point of turning the world upside down.

Thankfully, everything had settled down.

When Li Qi appeared at the city gates with Jin Buhuan's head, all conflicts ceased, leaving only the redistribution of interests behind.

Redistribution—a peaceful-sounding word.

Yet, behind these three simple characters, how many families rose and fell, how many loves and separations occurred?

But those things had nothing to do with Li Qi anymore.

He walked to the inn's door and knocked three times.

With a creak, the door opened.

Shen Shuibei opened the door, smiling at Li Qi.

For a moment, Li Qi felt a profound sense of relief.

"Back?" Shen Shuibei tilted her head slightly, glancing at Jin Buhuan's head.

"Yeah... I'm back. I can't go on anymore. You take care of it..." Li Qi let out a long sigh, tossed the head aside, and collapsed.

Shen Shuibei quickly caught him, exclaiming in alarm, "Hey! Don't die on me! What happened?!"

However, the matter was finally settled.

Li Qi fell into Shen Shuibei's arms, narrowly avoiding hitting the ground.

"Really... what did you get yourself into, to end up like this?" Shen Shuibei sighed.

From Shen Shuibei's perspective, that night had been quite exhausting.

More than one Eighth Rank attacker had come at her, but she managed to fend them off. Others also intervened, preventing her from truly being in danger.

But there was one small issue.

While defending against the outside attacks, she had sent Piaoxu to prepare some late-night snacks.

Piaoxu's hands shook, making the food taste worse than usual.

Not pleased at all.

But it was understandable.

Still, not pleased.

Seeing her eat while defending against several Eighth Rank attackers, the other assailants withdrew, possibly because they saw how much she enjoyed her meal and wanted to have some themselves, so they left.

In this way, eating did have its benefits.

Waiting until morning, Li Qi finally returned.

She was initially glad, but he collapsed immediately upon returning. After checking his pulse, she found that Li Qi was barely clinging to life.

His injuries were incredibly severe, so severe that Shen Shuibei wondered how he had managed to return alive.

His heart meridian was shattered, his fire qi nearly depleted, causing the fire element to become chaotic, leading to the depletion of yang energy and the invasion of yin energy.

The wood qi was overwhelming, causing internal muscle spasms and liver disturbances. Yin descended into metal and water elements, indicating symptoms that... without treatment, he would die within a day.

Moreover, his body couldn't heal itself because his physical strength and qi had already been utilized within his microcosmic human realm, which had sealed off to suppress something.

This seal continuously drained his vitality to maintain the suppression.

With the five elements disrupted and his vitality constantly drained, it was indeed troublesome.

Outside, however, there were many herbs and medicinal flowers, along with piles of minerals and metals.

All gifts from Jin Buhuan the previous day.

They could be used.

Thinking this, Shen Shuibei pushed open the door, gathered what she needed, carefully carried them back into the inn, and closed the door.

Then, she set up Three Five furnaces.

Time to start refining elixirs, or else Li Qi would die.

She needed to hurry.

---

Two days later.

Li Qi sat on the bed, looking half-dead.

In front of him lay a table filled with delicacies, all highly nourishing foods.

However, Li Qi's expression suggested he wasn't particularly fond of them—

On the contrary, he was sweating profusely.

First was his favorite crab porridge, rich and creamy, with sweet crab roe, tender and smooth, chewy without residue, its deliciousness beyond words.

Next was a pot of spiritual flower soup, containing various ingredients like duckweed, lotus roots, bamboo shoots, ferns, fresh flowers, wormwood, chrysanthemums, cooked in chicken broth, with added clams, snails, and dried fish, seasoned with goji berries, exceptionally nutritious and beneficial for yang energy.

There was also a simple dish of scrambled eggs with leeks, fragrant and crisp, sweet like honey, better than fine meat.

These were relatively normal dishes.

What really made him sweat were the following items.

First was a pot of various animal penises soup, including ox, sheep, pig, dog, donkey, and most absurdly, tiger penis, cooked with mutton, raw rehmannia root, dried ginger, borneol, chicken blood vine, aconite, deer antler, angelica, then boiled together, looking at it alone made one's kidneys ache.

Then came a stir-fry of ginseng, cinnamon bark, tiger bone, quail, and goose legs.

Followed by stuffed pigeons with deer kidney, epimedium, and broussonetia papyrifera, roasted until crispy and then stewed.

In summary, just looking at this table made Li Qi feel uncomfortable...

"Piaoxu, is this really necessary? Who told you to make these?" Li Qi rubbed his temples, looking at Piaoxu, unsure of what to do.

"Well, Miss Shen instructed me to do this. She said your illness stems from your vitality being drained, lacking yang energy and fire qi, so you need to replenish yang energy to recover quickly."

"She originally planned to use elixirs directly, but since Mr. Li has already accumulated some elixir toxicity, food therapy is better," Piaoxu explained.

"No, you should understand I didn't mean it that way. Miss Shen might not know, but you should!" Li Qi, unable to stand, sighed helplessly on the bed.

Piaoxu covered her mouth, giggling, "But Miss Shen gave the instructions, I had to follow. Your health is important, sir, please eat quickly."

With that, she hurriedly left the room, covering her mouth and bending over, looking like she had stolen something.

Leaving Li Qi alone in the room, staring at the table of food, feeling both physically and emotionally conflicted.

"Sigh, Qiyaya, I can only move my hands now. If I really eat this, what should I do?" Li Qi tilted his head, asking the little fox on the windowsill.

"Meow?" Qiyaya tilted her head, confused.

The young fox hadn't understood a word, and since Li Qi couldn't move around, she jumped out the window, leaving him alone.

Now truly alone.

Oh well.

Might as well eat.

He picked up his chopsticks and started eating.

Most dishes were soups or stews, easy for him to consume.

This was his first meal after regaining consciousness.

Since returning, he had been unconscious for more than a day, and Shen Shuibei had spared no effort to bring him back.

Indeed, trying to handle two Eighth Rank golden qi simultaneously was too challenging.

But it was worth it, right?

Li Qi extended his hand, and the two streams of golden qi surged from his fingertips, slicing various penises into pieces, making them easier to chew.

Yes, those two streams of golden qi, using the microcosmic human realm as their center, combining yin and yang, merging into one, became Li Qi's own.

Usually separate, they could combine into one when driven by the microcosmic human realm, unleashing terrifying power, capable of moving ten miles in an instant, cutting through anything, under perfect control as long as Li Qi reacted in time.

However, Li Qi's current reaction speed couldn't perfectly control them. When fully unleashed, he couldn't control the range of destruction.

Because of this, Li Qi had temporarily changed his focus on cultivating his inner deities.

From Ninth Rank to Eighth Rank, one needed to cultivate twelve inner deities.

Five mountain gods representing the five mountains, four river gods representing the four rivers, two celestial gods representing the sun and moon, and one primordial spirit guarding the microcosmic human realm.

Totaling twelve, corresponding to the twelve earthly branches.

If practicing the divine branch of Wu Dao, one needed to cultivate ten inner deities, corresponding to the ten heavenly stems.

If practicing the ghost branch, one needed six inner deities, corresponding to the six spirits often mentioned in daily life, such as "bewildered spirits" or "unsettled spirits."

The ghost branch's inner deities had some relation to one sect of Daoism, mutually influencing each other yet forming distinct systems. The specifics, Li Qi wasn't very clear about.

After all, he practiced the earth deity branch.

The three branches of Wu Dao—divine, earth deity, and ghost—all had their unique focuses, despite some overlap. Li Qi noticed his textbooks lacked detailed information on specialized areas of other branches.

Probably copyrighted, hard to share.

Initially, Li Qi planned to start with the five mountains and four rivers to enhance the resilience of the microcosmic human realm.

But now, he decided to start with the primordial spirit. If he could cultivate it, he could perfectly control the two streams of golden qi, making them as controllable as his limbs.

Primordial spirit, represented by the character 'Yuan,' meaning initial, like 'Qian Yuan' signifies the beginning.

With the primordial spirit, he could perfectly control the two streams of golden qi. Even Jin Buhuan couldn't achieve this without damaging his lung meridians.

But now, with the balanced and harmonious nature of the microcosmic human realm, Li Qi could use these two powerful weapons without any side effects. Separately, they were mid-Eighth Rank; combined, they reached the peak of Eighth Rank. The difference was significant.

Within the same rank, the gap could be vast.

A newly promoted Ninth Rank cultivator would likely be killed within two or three minutes by someone like Li Qi or Jin Buhuan.

If he could fully control the two streams of golden qi, Li Qi could confidently claim to be among the top Ninth Rank fighters.

Not invincible, though. The world was vast, filled with heroes and talents, many possessing formidable trump cards. Li Qi no longer felt as arrogant as he did when he first started.

The more he knew, the smaller he felt.

Jin Buhuan and Elder Si's arrogance stemmed largely from their ignorance.

While thinking about these things, Li Qi controlled the golden qi to slice difficult-to-chew items into pieces, then ate them with his chopsticks.

Wondering what Jin Buhuan would think if he saw this.

Just then, the door suddenly opened, followed by a stifled laugh, "Pfft..."

Li Qi instinctively turned toward the door.

He saw a beauty, her delicate hand covering her mouth, having clearly tried to suppress a giggle.

Li Qi glanced at the tiger penis he was chewing, then at the person at the door.

His face darkened instantly.

The beauty composed herself and gracefully walked forward, "Sir seems quite knowledgeable about diet, surely a connoisseur of health preservation. Our Clear Mist Sect has some secret methods, might Sir be interested?"

"Elder, please don't... don't tease me," Li Qi blushed.

Honestly, it was embarrassing.

"This is natural human behavior, why be ashamed? Have you forgotten what business our Clear Mist Sect does?" The beauty smiled and sat opposite Li Qi.

Li Qi recognized her.

Equally beautiful as the leader of Clear Mist Sect, Hu Xian'er, but with a completely different aura. If Hu Xian'er was like a fragrant plum blossom, this woman was like a radiant peony, vibrant and captivating.

Her body was like polished jade, her waist slender, her eyebrows faintly arched, her eyes sparkling with charm, adorned with elaborate hairpins.

Beautiful beyond compare, making one want to touch her smooth skin, to experience the sensation.

She was the second-in-command of the Clear Mist Sect, another Seventh Rank demoness, Hu Meier.

Li Qi didn't know what to say, unsure whether to swallow the tiger penis in his mouth, and awkwardly sat on the bed.

"Sir is indeed magnanimous, treating these two streams of golden qi as mere utensils. Truly a high-level practitioner," Hu Meier smoothly continued the conversation, preventing an awkward silence.

"External objects are just that, nothing special," Li Qi recovered from his embarrassment, swallowed the tiger penis, and asked, "Why are you here, elder?"