10: Finding the source of life between life and death

The injured man was carefully carried into the Main Hall and placed beside the bluestone formation base where Li Muchen usually practiced his Cultivation. Under the dim light of the oil lamp, that young but deathly pale face and the mangled left leg appeared exceptionally shocking. The scent of blood, mixed with the smell of earth, spread through the air, diluting the tranquility brought by the heart-clearing grass.

The woman stayed by his side, clutching her mouth and sobbing softly, not daring to make too much noise. Her eyes were fixed on her son, filled with despair.

Zhao Desheng quickly found a few pieces of relatively clean old cloth and then went to the side hall to start a fire and boil water. That dark-skinned man—the injured man's father—tremblingly drew a clay jar of ice-cold spirit well water from the well.

Li Muchen took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. He first reached out and placed his fingers on the injured man's right wrist. The pulse was weak, rapid, and erratic—his life force was as thin as a thread. He had lost too much blood, and combined with the intense pain and shock, his vitality was rapidly fading.

He couldn't wait any longer!

"Hold him down!" Li Muchen barked at the father. Simultaneously, he held his right fingers together like a sword and struck several major acupoints above the wound on the left leg with lightning speed!

True Qi surged from his fingers, carrying the intents of "Seal," "Suppress," and "Congeal," forcibly cutting off the main blood flow around the wound to slow the bleeding.

This was a rudimentary point-sealing technique he had comprehended from Guiding Qi to Unblock Meridians and the Basic Guidance Technique. He had never used it on such a severe injury before, relying entirely on a surge of ruthlessness and his increasingly refined control over True Qi.

The injured man's body convulsed violently, and a muffled groan of pain escaped his throat, but the rate of bleeding slowed down visibly to the naked eye.

Sweat immediately broke out on Li Muchen's forehead. Point-sealing was extremely taxing on True Qi and required constant maintenance. With his left hand, he grabbed a handful of warm salt water—which had just been boiled, cooled, and mixed with a bit of spirit well water—and poured it without hesitation onto the gruesome wound, washing away the surface dirt, gravel, and blood.

The salt water stimulated the wound, causing the unconscious man to spasm again.

"Go find Sanqi, Madder, Bletilla, and Drynaria! Fresh! The faster the better!" Li Muchen shouted at Zhao Desheng without looking up.

These were herbs recorded in the basic medicinal herb identification atlas that might grow in the nearby mountains, possessing the effects of stopping bleeding, regenerating flesh, and knitting bones. The atlas had simple diagrams, and since Zhao Desheng gathered herbs year-round, he should recognize them.

Zhao Desheng responded and rushed out of the Taoist temple, running toward a familiar spot on the Back Mountain.

At this moment, Li Muchen could only rely on himself to buy time. His left hand continued to carefully clean the wound with salt water, while his right hand maintained the output of True Qi for the point-sealing. Meanwhile, his mind sank into his body, communicating with that speck of Light of Merit.

The pale golden speck of light seemed to sense his strong desire to save a life and the immense pressure he was under. It brightened slightly, emitting an even stronger sense of warmth and tranquility. It quietly bolstered his mind, allowing his nearly exhausted willpower to reconsolidate, and his control over True Qi seemed to become a fraction more proficient.

However, the Light of Merit could not directly replenish True Qi, nor could it heal the wound.

After cleaning away most of the debris, the condition of the wound became clearer. The flesh was torn open, deep enough to see the bone, with broken bone fragments protruding and the surrounding tissue severely bruised. Just looking at it was enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Li Muchen gritted his teeth and extended his left hand, hovering it about an inch above the wound. He closed his eyes, sank his entire mind into his body, and circulated the rudimentary "Nourishing Vitality" method from the Basic Guidance Technique. This was not an offensive or healing Spell, but a technique for guiding one's own vitality to gently nourish oneself.

Now, he reversed this method and projected it outward!

Carefully, as if silk from a cocoon, he stripped away wisps of the purest and most fundamental life essence from his Dantian Qi Sea, from the Meridians of his limbs, and even from the warm aura emitted by that speck of Light of Merit. This was the vitality contained within his True Qi, the vigor accumulated through his Physical Body cultivation, and it also carried a faint sense of "blessing" bestowed by the Light of Merit.

These wisps of essence were as weak as a candle in the wind, yet they carried all of his current thoughts—healing, growth, connection, and life!

He guided this weak but resilient "Vitality Qi," slowly channeling it into the man's mangled wound.

There was no instantaneous healing, no miraculous glow.

But Li Muchen keenly felt that the chaotic, dissipating, and deathly aura at the wound seemed to be injected with an extremely faint trace of activity.

The bleeding almost completely stopped. The mangled flesh at the edges of the wound no longer seemed so full of Death Qi. The broken capillaries seemed to show extremely faint, instinctive signs of contraction and seeking to reconnect.

This change was minute in the extreme; if his mind were not connected to that wisp of Vitality Qi, it would have been almost impossible to detect.

But this was enough! This external wisp of Vitality Qi was like a spark falling into embers that were about to go out. Although it couldn't make the flames roar back to life, it temporarily preserved the last bit of warmth, delaying the process of complete extinction and buying precious time for subsequent real treatment!

However, the drain on Li Muchen was immense. Stripping away one's own vitality was ten times harder and a hundred times more painful than simply outputting True Qi! He felt as if a piece of his body had been hollowed out. Waves of weakness washed over him, and his face quickly became even paler than the injured man's. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, dripping onto the bluestone floor.

Yet his gaze remained firm. His right hand dared not relax its point-sealing in the slightest, while his left hand maintained the slow infusion of that wisp of Vitality Qi. He seemed to have become a bridge, one end connected to himself and the other to the injured man's fading life, forcibly holding onto that thread of life with his own Foundation and will.

Time passed slowly in this ordeal. Inside the hall, there was only the woman's suppressed sobbing, the occasional crackle of the firewood, and Li Muchen's heavy, labored breathing.

After an unknown amount of time, hurried footsteps and shouting came from outside the hall.

"I found them! I found them!"

Zhao Desheng rushed in, panting like a bull, holding a large bundle of fresh herbs stained with mud and dew. They were indeed Sanqi, Madder, and the others.

"Quick! Crush them!" Li Muchen's voice was hoarse, almost squeezed out of his throat.

Zhao Desheng and the injured man's father quickly found clean stones and mixed the herbs together, desperately pounding them into a paste.

The medicinal paste was finished, carrying a strong scent of grass and earth. Li Muchen signaled them to carefully apply a thick layer of the paste onto the cleaned wound, especially where the bone fragments were exposed and the flesh was most mangled. Then, they wrapped it tightly with clean cloth strips. During the application process, the injured man's body twitched slightly, but his breathing seemed a tiny bit more stable than before.

Only after finishing all this did Li Muchen slowly withdraw the True Qi from the point-sealing and the wisp of infused Vitality Qi. His vision went black, and his body swayed. He almost collapsed, quickly using his hand to prop himself up on the ground.

"Temple Master!" Zhao Desheng cried out in alarm, wanting to support him.

"I'm fine," Li Muchen waved his hand, his voice weak. "Let him lie flat, don't move him. Keep him warm. Go... go get some more well water, boil it, let it cool to a warm temperature, and feed it to him bit by bit once he wakes up."

He glanced again at the injured leg wrapped in thick herbs. His Vitality Qi and these herbs had only temporarily stabilized the injury and kept him alive. The fracture needed to be set, the wound required further treatment to prevent infection, and the blood loss needed to be replenished... None of these were things he could fully resolve right now.

But at least, the most dangerous moment had passed for now.

He struggled to sit cross-legged. Before he could even reach the best position in the Spirit Gathering Formation, he gripped his last Low-Grade Spirit Stone and began to frantically regulate his breathing. This exhaustion far exceeded any previous time; it was not just True Qi but an overdraw of his life Origin. Although the Light of Merit warmed his weary mind, it could not make up for this deep-level deficit.

The night grew deeper. Zhao Desheng and the injured man's parents took turns watching over him, feeding him water, and checking the wound. Li Muchen was immersed in deep breath regulation, constantly circulating his Cultivation Technique, absorbing the Spiritual Qi gathered by the Spirit Stone and the Spirit Gathering Formation, trying to repair his own losses.

It wasn't until the eastern sky began to turn grey that Li Muchen slowly opened his eyes. The True Qi in his body had recovered slightly, but the sense of weakness from his life Origin being stripped away still followed him like a shadow. It would likely take a long time to recover.

And the injured man actually woke up faintly at dawn!

Although still weak, with a pale face and vacant eyes, he was indeed awake! He felt the sharp pain in his leg and the unprecedented weakness in his body, but his consciousness was clear.

"He's awake! My son is awake!" The woman wept with joy.

Zhao Desheng and the injured man's father were also incredibly moved.

Li Muchen walked over and checked the pulse again. The pulse was still weak, but it had stabilized significantly, no longer having that sense of crisis where it might stop at any moment. The herbs on the wound had taken effect, and combined with the "spark" from his wisp of Vitality Qi, the injury was temporarily under control.

"His life is saved," Li Muchen said those four words tiredly.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Desheng and the others thanked Li Muchen profusely again, almost kneeling once more.

"But the leg injury is too severe; it's only temporarily stable," Li Muchen cautioned. "He must be sent to the town hospital as soon as possible to have the bone set, further debridement, and a blood transfusion. If delayed, he might lose the leg, and there's even a risk of infection."

The joy on the parents' faces immediately turned back into anxiety. How could they not know they needed to go to the hospital? But the mountain roads were rugged, and their son had only just been pulled back from the brink of death. How could he withstand the jolting?

"Temple Master, could you... please use your immortal magic again..." the father stammered, his eyes full of hope.

Li Muchen smiled bitterly and shook his head. "My abilities are limited; I already did my utmost yesterday. The most important thing now is to transport him safely to the doctor. I can use my True Qi again to help stabilize his injury and ease some of the pain, but the transport must be careful and as quick as possible."

He once again expended his remaining True Qi to soothe the man's breath, temporarily relieving some pain and reinforcing the point-sealing effect.

Eventually, Zhao Desheng went back to the village and called over several young men. They used a door panel and cotton quilts to make a more secure stretcher. Seven or eight people took turns, very carefully carrying the injured man down the mountain to the Town Health Center.

Before leaving, the parents knelt and kowtowed three times toward Li Muchen and the Taoist temple.

The clamor faded, and the Taoist temple returned to silence. In the morning light, Li Muchen stood alone, leaning against the doorframe and gazing at the empty mountain path.

Fatigue washed over him like a tide, but this time, that speck of Light of Merit deep in his mind was brighter and warmer than ever before. It wasn't just nourishing him; it seemed to be... growing?

Could it be that saving a life is truly so meritorious? This Karma... is actually so bountiful?

He slowly walked back to the Main Hall and sat down cross-legged. Although his body was weak, his Dao Heart felt as if it had undergone a trial, becoming even more transparent and resilient.

He had saved a life.

In this ruined temple on a barren mountain, with his meager cultivation, he had performed an act that defied fate.