Chapter 230

A person who has lost their cultivation must reopen their meridians, spiritual roots, and dantian to resume cultivation.

All three are indispensable!

To reopen these three, one needs three specific elixirs.

They are: Opening Meridian Elixir, Nourishing Spirit Elixir, and Expanding Spirit Root Elixir.

These three elixirs are not high-grade—they are all second-rank elixirs.

However, the difficulty lies in the fact that all three are probabilistic elixirs.

Just like the Foundation Establishment Elixir taken during Foundation Establishment, consuming it does not guarantee entry into that realm.

The Opening Meridian Elixir is the same—taking it does not guarantee meridian opening.

It has a certain probability.

Depending on the elixir's quality, the success rate may be thirty, fifty, or eighty percent.

Moreover, after losing one's cultivation, there is only one chance to reopen the meridians; if it fails, the meridians will close permanently.

The same applies to the Nourishing Spirit Elixir and the Expanding Spirit Root Elixir.

Therefore, to resume cultivation, one must succeed with all three in a single attempt.

Any single failure means total failure—and once failed, one will never again walk the immortal path.

Thus, after losing cultivation, ninety-nine percent of cultivators face failure in their revival attempt.

Only one percent of the lucky few can retread the path of cultivation.

And once they do, their cultivation will progress far more quickly.

After all, they have cultivated these paths before.

"Sister… waaah…" He Pingsheng hugged Qiao Huiyu, weeping uncontrollably.

"Stop crying!" Qiao Huiyu's bloodied face cracked into a faint smile: "Don't worry—once I succeed in my revival, I'll become as beautiful as before. Your beautiful wife will return!"

"Waaah…"

Hearing this, He Pingsheng cried even louder.

"Stop crying, younger brother. We must think of how to evade their detection!"

"We can't stay here any longer!"

Qiao Huiyu, surprisingly, was now comforting He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng nodded and said: "Alright… let's leave this mountain first!"

After returning to the cave to gather their belongings and dismantle the array, He Pingsheng unfurled the 【Cloud-Piercing Boat】, carried Qiao Huiyu into the void, and headed toward 【Ji Xi City】.

He Pingsheng's plan was simple: he wore the 【Brocade Flowing Treasure Robe】, which easily concealed his cultivation and appearance; now that Qiao Huiyu's cultivation and appearance had changed drastically, she could safely enter Ji Xi City.

"Wait…"

Mid-flight, Qiao Huiyu suddenly reached out and said: "Younger brother, look over there!"

He Pingsheng halted the flying boat and followed her gaze.

On the hillside lay a relatively flat patch of land.

Beside it stood a few thatched cottages!

A single glance revealed this to be a peasant household.

"This…" He Pingsheng said: "You mean…"

Before he could finish, Qiao Huiyu nodded: "Let's go down and take a look. For hiding, a remote peasant home is easier than a city!"

"Alright!"

He Pingsheng guided the flying boat and landed instantly on the flat patch of land.

To avoid disturbing the peasants, he landed at a distance from the thatched cottages, then supported Qiao Huiyu as they approached the dwellings.

There was no proper courtyard.

Before the cottages lay a flat open area.

Below it stretched roughly several dozen mu of farmland!

Two sturdy yellow oxen were tied to trees beside the field.

The oxen lowered their heads, grazing on the grass beneath them.

Nearby, several hens clucked lazily as they pecked about for food.

Perhaps hearing the commotion, an elderly man with white hair emerged, leaning on a cane.

He saw He Pingsheng and Qiao Huiyu and immediately panicked.

Before he could speak, He Pingsheng said: "Old man, don't be afraid—we're not bad people. We've come just to ask for a drink of water!"

The old man was skeptical.

He gripped his cane tightly.

A small yellow dog ran out of the house and barked incessantly at He Pingsheng and Qiao Huiyu.

He Pingsheng made no move—merely swept his spiritual sense lightly, and the puppy immediately lay still on the ground.

A cultivator's aura still affects ordinary animals.

At that moment, another girl emerged from a thatched cottage to the west.

She appeared sixteen or seventeen, clean-faced and fairly pretty, but limped as she walked—her right leg was crippled.

He Pingsheng's spiritual sense swept over her!

Both the old man and the girl were ordinary mortals—no trace of cultivation on them.

Moreover, besides these two, no one else was present.

"Water?" The old man asked again, leaning on his cane.

He Pingsheng nodded: "Yes, old sir—we'd be grateful for a drink."

Qiao Huiyu spoke too, looking at the girl: "Miss, could you bring me a bowl of water?"

The girl said nothing in response to Qiao Huiyu's request.

The old man hurriedly said: "Don't ask her—she's deaf… can't hear. Oh… she's both deaf and mute… sigh…"

As he spoke, the old man sighed repeatedly.

Deaf and mute?

He Pingsheng glanced at the girl, his heart filled with pity: Her fate was truly cruel—crippled, deaf, and mute.

The old man himself fetched a bowl of water and respectfully offered it to He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng took the water but did not drink immediately; instead, he asked: "Old sir, may I ask your surname?"

The old man replied: "My surname is Cheng!"

"Oh…" He Pingsheng nodded, handed the water to Qiao Huiyu, and helped her sit on a large stone roller beneath the tree. "Old Master Cheng, I'd like to ask you something."

"Why are you the only one farming in this remote wilderness?"

The old man sighed: "I wasn't alone. My son and daughter-in-law and I fled here to escape disaster—we were a whole family."

"Then my son and daughter-in-law passed away, leaving only my granddaughter and me."

"And the girl is disabled."

"Sigh…"

"I don't have many years left."

"When I die, what will become of her?"

"No one will marry her…"

As he spoke, the old man's face was etched with sorrow.

He Pingsheng asked: "Is her disability congenital?"

"Yes," the old man nodded. "Her deafness and muteness were born with her. Her leg injury happened later—that's how it became like this."

Hearing this, He Pingsheng said: "Old sir… I can cure your granddaughter. But I'd like to ask you for something in return."

For He Pingsheng, external injuries were nothing.

As long as it wasn't a congenital defect, a single 【Healing Blood Elixir】 would fix it.

A supreme-grade Healing Blood Elixir, swallowed, could restore the girl's crippled leg within half a day.