Chapter 117 - Self Destruction Takes Hold

"I'm going to wrap it around the Rage Queen's beast core to envelop the beast core in his aura and as much of his Earth Dragon bloodline as I can get," Ao Wen said, her voice hollow, her eyes half vacant. "Some dragons, when they die, will pass their dragon core to one of their children so that their power might be inherited by the next generation. There's a ritual for that. Mother showed it to me once," she explained. "She even told me that if anything happened to her, I could take her core and refine it as my own."

"You're going to turn the Rage Queen's core into a false Dragon Core to absorb its power?" Wan Yue said, stunned at the outrageous notion. 

"Sister Wen," Tang Jin spoke up from his place next to Zhang Bai at the door. "I struggled to absorb all the power from Blood Rage Cougar cubs… this isn't just an adult, it's a Rage Queen. What happens if you can't handle all that energy?"

"I can't handle it," Ao Wen said flatly. "That's why, when it's done, you'll have to take father home for me," she explained, looking at Feng Xi with strange yet determined eyes. 

"What happens when you can't handle it," Wan Yue asked, disturbed by the increasingly grim aura hanging over Ao Wen. 

"When I perform the ritual, the cores will try to meld. For a short period of time, I'll be able to draw on the power of the Rage Queen's core through my father's dragon aura and I can use my own dragon core to channel that energy as a True Dragon's strength, toughness, everything. Enough to kill Long Ma," she said with fierce certainty. "But father never awakened, his dragon bloodline is thin. When the aura is consumed, the cores will reject each other. Violently."

 "Be honest," Wan Yue asked, pressing forward. "How many chances in ten do you have to survive this?"

"Three, four," Ao Wen said without a moment of hesitation. She'd done the math, her scholar's brain wouldn't let her escape it. So much of alchemy was about math and chances. She'd just decided that it didn't matter. "If I can use up enough energy from the core to reduce the force of the rejection, maybe as good as five chances in ten. Better odds than my father has right now in Long Ma's hands. Xi," she said, looking into her lover's misty emerald eyes. "Let go. I need both hands." 

"Wen, you can't do this. You can't," she pointed at the severed hand on the table. "You can't do THIS THING. If you do… are you really still Ao Wen?"

"Xi, my father doesn't need Ao Wen right now, okay?" Ao Wen exclaimed, hot tears spilling down her cheeks like a dam had been burst as all the trapped feelings of powerlessness overwhelmed her. "My dad needs Jun Biyu or Cong Daiyu or Immortal Empress Mei Lien or anyone but the stupid willful daughter who's going to get him killed if she doesn't find a way to kill Long Ma! So this is all I can do," she wailed. "I use up all of Daiyu's alchemy and turn myself into the best imitation of Biyu that I can for long enough to rend that sea serpent into a dozen pieces and then, if Ao Wen doesn't walk away from this, then that's what…"

SLAP! 

The sound of Feng Xi's hand across Ao Wen's face resonated through the small alchemy lab like a strike of lightning on a cloudless day. Feng Xi's chest heaved, her face flushed red and tears stung the corners of her eyes as she watched a trickle of blood flow from Ao Wen's split lower lip. "Don't. You. Dare," she spat. "Don't you dare do this all by yourself. This," she pointed an angry and trembling finger at Ao Yang's severed hand. "Isn't your fault. You didn't do this to him, Long Ma did. You aren't responsible for this mess." 

"Sister Xi is right," Tang Jin said from the doorway, stepping forward to rest a hand on Ao Wen's shoulder despite the intense wave of heat that seared his hand for doing so. "You mocked me just as publicly as you mocked Long Ma at the banquet, but I didn't go mad and capture your father even though he could never have fought back against even a newly awakened cultivator. If this is his reaction to some public taunting, he's genuinely unhinged."

"I agree with Brother Jin," Zhang Bai said, stepping to directly block the doorway in case Ao Wen attempted to force her way past. "Long Ma isn't so petty as to mutilate someone's family over a spat at dinner, especially given how much younger than him you are. It would reflect exceedingly poorly on him as a member of the older generation and he didn't become a candidate for Deputy City Lord by being impulsive and vindictive."

"Alchemist Ao, I promised you, in this life you are my benefactor," Wan Yue said. "Please, let me repay a portion of my debt to you now and help you save your family. Bai is right, Long Ma is targeting you and right now, HE'S BEATING YOU," she said sharply. "Look at how scattered and desperate you are! Don't, don't let him manipulate you like this."

"Don't you all think I don't know that?" Ao Wen said, anguish distorting her face. "I know why he's doing this to me. I know what he wants. That's why I'm using this method," she said, pointing at the severed hand and beast core. "Because even if I don't kill him, I'll destroy the part of me that he's after."

"What part of you is he after?" Feng Xi asked, suddenly confused. 

"He knows Xi," Ao Wen said urgently. "He knows because there's no way anyone with a Flood Dragon bloodline as strong as his wouldn't be able to smell it on me. The one thing a Flood Dragon wants, craves, desires more than life itself, is the chance to leap the Dragon Gate and ascend to become an actual True Dragon. He wants my Dragon Core Xi," Ao Wen said, looking deeply into her lover's eyes. "That's why it's my fault. Not because I said anything or did anything. Because just by existing, I made everyone around me a target and I'm not strong enough to protect my family. That's why I have to do it this way. Because whether I survive the rejection or not, defeat him or not, it'll shatter my dragon core in the process, denying him what he needs to gain the strength to stand against the Zhang family as a Warrior with an awakened dragon bloodline. See why it has to be like this?"