Breathing to Recover Health

North Nether, Qingxuan Continent, Taibai County!

In a dark, gloomy sewer, a young man lay sprawled, suffering from grave injuries.

A mechanical voice echoed in his ears.

[You have performed a deep breath, obtaining a mouthful of foul air.]

[Air Quality: Extremely Low]

[Note: As this air quality is far below the extraction threshold, the system is extracting life energy at the minimum value.]

[You have obtained 0.01 life energy.]

[--Current Status--]

[Status: Near Death]

[Life Energy: 1.01/100]

[Note: Life energy has exceeded 1%. Consciousness is being restored.]

Li Sanshun gradually regained consciousness.

The moment he opened his eyes, an uncontrollable agony awaited him!

"Ah..."

Li Sanshun's pupils constricted as he let out a heart-wrenching wail.

He felt as if every meridian in his body had been severed and his bones shattered; the pain was simply unbearable!

As he struggled, his mind was filled with confusion.

Why was he here?

Why was he in such pain?

Suddenly, two distinct sets of memories flooded his mind, one after the other.

The first was the memory of his past life.

He had been driving home when he was involved in a car accident, plunging off a suspension bridge and sinking to the bottom of the river.

The second was the memory of his current life.

He was Li Sanshun, a villager from Linshui Township, Taibai County, in the North Nether region of the Qingxuan Continent.

Orphaned since childhood, he had been raised by an old scoundrel who found him in a trash heap. He made a living by cleaning temples and clearing garbage around the village.

Today, he had been lucky enough to find a sack of jade fragments in the trash. He had intended to take them home to treat the old man who had raised him for so many years.

Unexpectedly, he had been targeted by other beggars in the village. Not only did they rob him of the jade, but they also beat him to the brink of death and threw him into the sewer to rot.

Recalling these events, Li Sanshun clenched his fists and gritted his teeth!

Zhang Laosan, Chen Laowu, Wang Laoliu!

Those bastards!

He had never provoked them, yet they had resorted to murder for a sack of jade fragments!

"Just you wait! If I don't avenge this, I am no man!"

Li Sanshun gnashed his teeth in hatred, desperate to fight them to the death right then and there.

But he was severely injured; he couldn't even move a finger, let alone fight.

After struggling for a moment, he realized he couldn't move and lay on the ground in despair.

Could it be...

Was he really going to die in this stinking sewer?

Having lived two lives, was he to die in such a pathetic way?

As he cried out in silent, bitter frustration, a foul, rotting stench assaulted his nose, even forcing its way into his lungs!

"Ugh..."

[You have performed a deep breath, obtaining a mouthful of foul air.]

[Air Quality: Extremely Low]

[Note: As this air quality is far below the extraction threshold, the system is extracting life energy at the minimum value.]

[You have obtained 0.01 life energy.]

[--Current Status--]

[Status: Critically Injured]

[Life Energy: 1.02/100]

[Note: Please perform deep breaths to ingest life energy as soon as possible, or you will fall back into a coma.]

Li Sanshun blinked in surprise.

He immediately understood what this voice was!

He knew the heavens wouldn't treat him so poorly!

As a transmigrator, how could he be without a golden finger?

Deep breathing to ingest life energy?

Did that mean he just had to breathe?

Breathing to recover health?!

He was saved!

With that thought, Li Sanshun held his breath, focused his mind, and took a massive, deep breath.

Inhale...

The various rotting odors of the sewer instantly flooded his nose.

"Ugh! Cough, cough, cough!"

In an instant, Li Sanshun nearly fainted from the stench.

This smell... it was too damn pungent!

It was even worse than the canned herring he had challenged in his past life!

The sewers of this cultivation world were truly outrageous!

But as disgusting as it was, it was effective.

[You have performed a breath, obtaining a mouthful of foul air.]

[Life Energy: 1.03/100]

Li Sanshun looked at the 0.01 life energy increase in his vision, his heart filled with bitter misery.

A single deep breath only added 0.01; how many mouthfuls of this stench would he have to inhale to recover?

But to save his life, he had no choice but to endure the stench and continue breathing deeply.

Deep breath...

"Ugh!"

Another deep breath...

"Ugh!!!"

In this murky, dark sewer, every breath was a new experience.

Decay, rot, stench, sourness—if you could imagine it, this place produced it.

Li Sanshun swore that once he recovered, he would drag those three thieves here and tie them up.

He would make them taste this living hell!

About an hour later, after over four hundred deep breaths, Li Sanshun finally raised his life energy to 5.

He checked his status bar again.

[--Current Status--]

[Status: Critically Injured]

[Life Energy: 5.01/100]

Li Sanshun felt miserable.

Although he had moved from "Near Death" to "Critically Injured," the recovery efficiency was abysmal!

Was there no way to speed up the recovery?

He moved his head and looked at the sewer entrance a dozen meters away.

He couldn't help but think that perhaps the air in the sewer was too foul, slowing his recovery.

If he could get out, maybe he would recover faster!

With that thought, he began to drag his body like a worm, struggling to move.

With 5 points of life energy, he was capable of slight movement.

But his progress was agonizingly slow!

He could move at most one centimeter at a time; any extra effort pulled at his wounds, causing him excruciating pain.

Yet, he did not give up.

Crawl!

Crawl to the outside!

He would never die in a godforsaken place like this!

He crawled while continuing to breathe.

Finally, as night fell, he reached the sewer entrance.

Once he crawled out, the quality of the air changed.

Li Sanshun leaned against the wall and took a deep, long breath.

[You have performed a deep breath, obtaining a mouthful of fresh air.]

[Air Quality: Low]

[You have obtained 0.1 life energy.]

[--Current Status--]

[Status: Critically Injured]

[Life Energy: 5.15/100]

Li Sanshun's eyes widened.

He had never realized that breathing fresh air could be such a blissful experience!

He gasped desperately, and with every breath, his body regained a fraction of its health.

In just over thirty deep breaths, he had already moved from "Critically Injured" to "Severely Injured."

The recovery speed was many times faster than before.

However, before he could rejoice for long, a figure suddenly appeared nearby.

The person saw the filthy, disheveled Li Sanshun and was startled.

"Mother of god... a ghost!"

The person who shouted was none other than one of the men who had nearly caused his death: Wang Laoliu!

Wang Laoliu was one of the dozen or so thugs in Wushui Township who spent his days idling about.

At noon that day, he had seen Li Sanshun at the dilapidated temple north of the village, finding a sack of jade fragments in the trash, and had conspired with a few of his brothers to go and demand a "share of the luck."

Who would have thought that when Li Sanshun refused to hand over half the jade, Wang Laoliu and his two companions would join forces to teach him a lesson.