Chapter 158 - Infatuation

For Alchemist Ma Xiaohua, everything that happened after Ao Wen unleashed his mixture of four colored flames to treat Kui Chong passed in a blur. It wasn't until halfway through Ao Wen's treatment of Chou Chai that Ma Xiaohua realized she hadn't taken any notes on the treatment method Ao Wen used to regress the middle-stage Brawler's cultivation without harming him. Instead, she'd been gazing at the delicate young man's face as emerald and azure light reflected off his features while he prepared a custom concoction. 

The older alchemist's eye had followed Ao Wen's graceful refined movements as he added ingredients to his cauldron or delicately balanced the intensity of his flames in three distinct groupings but nothing Ma Xiaohua was observing would let her learn the technique. Instead, her eyes took in the calluses on his slender hands and wondered how many years of holding a saber it had taken to form them. If you told her that the calluses were actually from helping Ao Yang in his workshop, it would doubtless shake the already trembling heart of the lonely alchemist. 

Ao Wen, she realized, wasn't someone who belonged in this little part of the world. Clearly, he was an accomplished sorcerer, an experienced fighter, and a masterful alchemist. To do those things required that he had reached at least the third stage in one cultivation path or another before whatever tragedy befell him forced him to wander the world. Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe he wasn't just out on a tempering trial. Whatever sect he was a member of, he wore no sect badge, not even a sect alchemy badge. Neither did any of the companions he'd arrived in Lantern City with. 

Ma Xiaohua fell deeper into contemplation as she watched Ao Wen work. She'd served him Ghost Wailing Radish that she prepared personally. She'd managed to force down a single piece while taking tea with Ao Wen but the young man had eaten several. A person who had never spilled innocent blood would immediately bleed from their seven orifices eating just one piece but Ao Wen ate several. The most savage of bandits and murderers among Lord White's men could easily eat as many pieces of radish as Ao Wen had but somehow, Ma Xiaohua couldn't reconcile her experiences with those men with the focused healer standing before her. 

There was nothing left of kindness or gentleness in the eyes of those brutal men. In Ao Wen's eyes, she saw not only kindness and gentleness but the gaze of a healer who still worried over their patients. While Ao Wen was charging a substantial sum for his services, it was also substantially less than they would have to pay for an alchemist like Ma Xiaohua to concoct pills to treat their conditions. Moreover, she'd heard the way the delicate young scholar had spoken of a Martial Champion who saved his life. Whatever bond he'd shared with his 'good brother,' it clearly still mattered to him. 

The more she turned things over in her mind, the deeper the image of Ao Wen sank into her heart like a seed sinking into fertile soil. Each facet of the diminutive scholar she witnessed presented her with more questions and each question she asked showed her another mysterious and enchanting facet. 

"Alchemist Ma?" Ao Wen asked for a second time, breaking Ma Xiaohua out of her contemplation. "Did you have any questions? Was it all clear?"

"What? Oh," Ma Xiaohua said, shaking her head and desperately shoving her still-swirling emotions down deep within her. "No, I don't have any questions," she managed to say. "Do you mind if I examine Brawler Chou?" she asked, more to buy herself a few moments than out of genuine curiosity. Her mind was still far too scattered to take in much with a basic examination. 

"Be my guest," Ao Wen offered with a gentle smile. "He'll need to rest here for some time before he's ready to travel home this evening. If Brawler Chou permits, I'll leave you with him while I tend to the others."

Once Chou Chai had given his consent and Ao Wen had left the room, Alchemist Ma began to examine the ailing Brawler in the hopes of getting her disturbed mind back on track. "How do you feel after treatment?"

"Very warm," Chou Chai admitted. "And weak. My muscles feel like water and I'm as thirsty as if I'd run a dozen li. It'll be a bit before I want to drink again though," he said with a grimace. "If all healing elixirs that can do the work of pills taste so foul, it's no wonder people prefer pills, just to avoid the flavor."

"You're not in any pain though?" Ma Xiaohua asked, more out of professional curiosity than from a deep concern about Chou Chai. He was one of Lord White's underlings. Even if he hadn't done anything worse than rigging fights in the arena while he'd been a fighter there, there were limits to how much her healer's heart could worry about such a man. 

"No pain," Chou Chai answered readily. "Honestly, and I mean no offense to Alchemist Ma, as weak as I feel, I've never felt so… pure after a treatment before. Every elixir I've ever consumed has left behind at least a little bit of something that my body rejected, some more than others, but his concoction was…"

"Made for you," Ma Xiaohua supplied when Chou Chai couldn't find an adequate word. "His concoction was precisely tailored to you, your ailment, and your bloodline. It's an absolutely terrifying level of skill," she said in admiration. 

"I'm lucky," Chou Chai said. "Hey, do you think," he started only to trail off moments later. After mustering up his courage, he finally managed to ask the question that had been on his mind since Ao Wen proposed regressing his cultivation and starting a new cultivation method. "Do you think he'd let me acknowledge him as my Master? He mentioned teaching me a saber art. If I could follow someone like him…"

"Careful Brawler Chou," Alchemist Ma warned, pressing on his tender flesh to interrupt him before he could say something he shouldn't. "Remember who's man you are. I'll suggest to Lord White that you spend some time as Novice Ao's saber student, assuming Young Lord Ao will teach you. You know the kind of price Lord White may demand for allowing you to serve at someone else's side," she cautioned. "Are you willing to pay that price?"

"No," Chou Chai said. "Maybe there's a chance if Novice Ao joins the Severed Shadows. Without that, all I'd become is a trap that could ensnare my benefactor."

"Good that you understand," Ma Xiaohua said. "Still, you should find out what kind of saber art he's offering you and what kind of price he wants for the manual. I'm sure Lord White will cover the expense and if he doesn't, I will."

"You would? Why?" Chou Chai asked, confused at the generous offer from the half-blind alchemist. 

"Because," she said softly. "I don't want to see someone harm Young Lord Ao either. It's good if you're able to learn from him. It's better if it gives you the strength to be of use to him. Better for all of us," she said, the last sentence so quiet that Chou Chai wasn't entirely sure he'd heard it.