“Are you planning to use it?” Li Che looked at the exquisite golden lotus, “Wait a minute…” He seemed to finally realize: “Is this really the Karmic Fire Red Lotus?!” Li Che gasped, “The legendary Karmic Fire Red Lotus?!”
“Yes,” Meng Qi responded nonchalantly.
“Can I take a look?” His attention completely drawn to the lotus, Li Che reached out his hand towards Meng Qi as he asked. The small, beautiful golden lotus was placed in his hand. Up close, he could see the nearly transparent flames burning from within its petals. The lotus itself was strangely icy cold, though, and holding it felt like grasping a piece of thousand-year-old ice. Within moments, Li Che’s palm started to pain from the cold.
“Karmic Fire Red Lotus…” he marveled, “According to ancient legend, this lotus can withstand one-tenth of the Comprehending Perfection tribulations. Meng Qiqi…” Li Che looked up at Meng Qi, “Are you really going to use it now?”
“Um,” Meng Qi nodded.
Li Che’s expression was a bit odd. He seemed excited, yet a bit reluctant. “Aren’t you going to save it for your future tribulations?” he asked. “My master told me that even when your cultivation is high enough, each tribulation is harder than the last.”
“Then which tribulation should I save it for?” Meng Qi returned the question with a slight smile.
“Hmm…” Li Che pondered, “Using it during your breakthrough to the Great Ascension would certainly be the most worthwhile.”
“What if I can’t even reach the Comprehending Perfection stage?”
“Then shouldn’t you use it when breaking through from the Void Comprehending to reach the Comprehending Perfection?” Li Che suggested.
“What if I had the chance to reach the Great Ascension? Since I had used the lotus during my Comprehending Perfection tribulation, I couldn’t use it again. Even worse, If I feel regretful during the Great Ascension tribulation, it might even kill me.”
“Well…” Li Che scratched his head, “That does seem difficult.”
“So let’s use it now,” Meng Qi said, “If I can’t get through this challenge, there’s no point talking about future tribulations, let alone something as far as Great Ascension.”
“That’s true.” Li Che thought for a moment and then nodded heavily, “Any spiritual materials, no matter how rare, precious, or legendary, only show their value when used.”
“So let’s use it.” There was a clear determination in Meng Qi’s voice as she spoke without hesitation.
“Alright,” Li Che didn’t say anything more. He kneeled on the other side of Yan Xuan, just like Meng Qi, focusing intently on the unconscious young man.
“Let’s reconnect Yan Xuan’s meridians first,” Meng Qi started. “His injuries are too old—we need to sever his meridians once more before reconnecting them again.” She looked up at Li Che, “The faster we move, the less pain he will endure. So it’s best to work simultaneously.”
“Of course,” when it came to healing and treating patients, Li Che’s face turned serious, his gaze becoming extremely focused, showing no signs of the previous self-doubt and apprehension.
“The reconnecting balm.” Meng Qi took out a small box from her storage pouch, “Fifth realm.”
“Mine is given by the sect. One of our elders personally refined it,” Li Che also took out a box and placed it on the ground, “Seventh realm reconnecting balm.”
“Alright,” Meng Qi nodded, “Let’s use yours.”
“To reconnect his meridians, in addition to the reconnecting balm, we also need to use ice silk and the reconnecting spell to sew his meridians together,” Meng Qi said. She pointed to herself. “Fifth-realm reconnecting spell.”
“I’m third realm,” Li Che said, embarrassed. Meng Qi’s cultivation was clearly lower than his, and her sect wasn’t as prestigious as the Canglang Academy, but the level of her medical cultivation and spell proficiency was higher than his.
“Ice silk.” Li Che thought for a moment and then asked, “Do you have any?”
Meng Qi shook her head and took out a golden cocoon from her storage pouch, “We collected a lot of silkworm threads from the myriad corpse silkworms before. Let’s refine some now.”
“Okay.”
While speaking, Meng Qi casually summoned her Five Spirit Cauldron. Each time it was stored in her spiritual sea and then summoned again, it would sway and rub against Meng Qi before obediently hovering by her side, awaiting her instructions.
Meng Qi threw the golden cocoon into the Five Spirit Cauldron, stood up, and looked around. Not far from them, there was a large patch of blooming waterless flowers in excellent condition. “I’ll go pick some waterless flowers,” Li Che said, jumping up and turning toward the patch of small white blossoms.
He was swift and soon returned with about a dozen flowers. He then took out several types of spiritual plants and placed them into Meng Qi’s cauldron, finishing by pouring in a bottle of cold spring dew.
Next, Meng Qi embedded a few spirit stones into the bottom of the cauldron, starting the refinement process. Shortly after, the medicinal liquid in the cauldron began to boil, completely soaking the silkworm threads she had thrown in.
Li Che knelt back down on the grass and suddenly stated, “Ice silk can actually be refined from ordinary silkworm threads, but the threads from the myriad corpse silkworms are of superior quality. Given Yan Xuan’s severely damaged meridians, we are lucky to have the option to make ice silk using the myriad corpse silkworm threads.”
He looked up at Meng Qi and continued, “We rarely use ice silk, so neither of us had it prepared. Is it a coincidence that we obtained the myriad corpse silkworm threads in the Ten Absolute Mountains…”
“I can’t help but feel like every step we take is part of someone’s plan.” Li Che murmured.
Meng Qi remained silent, and Li Che did the same. They both sat quietly on the ground, watching the cauldron without a word.
The medicinal liquid continued to bubble in the cauldron, gradually transforming the silkworm threads from their original golden hue to a transparent shade. When the last trace of gold disappeared into the liquid, the flames under the cauldron were also extinguished. The nearly transparent ice silk flew up and fell into Meng Qi’s palm, delivering an icy sensation to her hand.
“Let’s begin,” Meng Qi said.
“Alright,” Li Che nodded.
With a wave of Meng Qi’s hand, the Karmic Fire Red Lotus landed on Yan Xuan’s forehead. The lotus slowly rotated, releasing nearly transparent red flames that eventually enveloped Yan Xuan.
Meng Qi looked at Li Che, who nodded firmly.
Medical cultivators could hesitate, struggle, be haunted by self-doubt, or even succumb to fear at other times… but when facing a patient in need, they were the most resolute.
Li Che moved quickly and precisely, his nimble fingers starting from Yan Xuan’s left hand, following his meridians. Streams of spiritual aura turned into blades, precisely cutting into Yan Xuan’s old wounds and severing his meridians in one swift motion.
“Ugh…” The unconscious young man jerked up. Yan Xuan still had his eyes tightly shut, but beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He writhed like a dying fish—his body arching and falling heavily. His fingers, resting by his side, curled as if trying to grasp something, only to release weakly.
Meng Qi’s movements were equally swift. Almost at the moment Li Che began, her fingers were already smeared with the reconnecting balm. The ice silk, guided by her spiritual aura and carrying the slightly pungent scent of the balm, penetrated Yan Xuan’s skin.
Wherever Li Che’s fingers passed, Yan Xuan’s meridians were severed. Wherever Meng Qi’s fingers touched, the meridians were reconnected.
The two of them certainly hadn’t just met, but it was the first time they had cooperated to treat a patient since entering the Ten Absolute Mountains. Yet, it was as if they had worked together thousands of times, every move perfectly synchronized. Li Che wasn’t too slow, and Meng Qi wasn’t too fast. The neatly trimmed nails and clean fingers were their tools of trade, moving with precise and perfectly timed actions across Yan Xuan’s body, resembling a dance with a unique rhythm.
It was a dance of fingers.
Also, a dance of medical skills.
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