Chapter 177 - Taking Risks

That evening, Ao Wen gathered with Feng Xi, Zhang Bai, Tang Jin and the surprising guest Alchemist Ma Xiaohua to discuss whether or not Ao Wen would attempt to help Lord White and further, whether or not she should risk cultivating the manual. 

"As I see it," Zhang Bai said, "there are three separate issues. First, Alchemist Ma is trapped under the thumb of a brutal man. I think we're all in agreement that we'd like to ensure her safety and freedom," he said, placing the greatest importance on the captured woman. "Second, this Dark Hound is trapped by an insidious, venomous curse. Lord White wants help in rescuing him from his plight and he'll resort to coercive methods to do so. If we refuse his current 'polite invitation' he's likely to become more forceful as long as he believes that doing so will help his lover."

"If you don't agree to help, I'll tell him that it's because you couldn't help," Ma Xiaohua insisted. "There's no reason for him to believe that Lord Ao can do anything for the Dark Hound's condition as long as I report back to him that he failed to unlock the manual. You don't need to fear that he'll target you further." 

"I don't think that's true," Feng Xi disagreed. "The way you've described Lord White to me, he's not the kind of person who relies on only one source of information. I'm afraid that if you tell him that Wen can't help and one of his other spies reports something different, Lord White will take out his anger on you," she said, placing a hand gently on the alchemist's hands. "There's risk involved in trying to divert Lord White's attention from Wen." 

"Which brings us to the third thing," Zhang Bai said. "It's possible that cultivating this manual will solve all of the problems. It has a cure for the Dark Hound's ailments, if the Dark Hound is cured, Lord White should let Alchemist Ma go free and that should be the end of things. The problem," he said, staring at Ao Wen, "is that it's a very dangerous manual to cultivate."

"I'm not worried about whether or not I can cultivate the manual," Ao Wen said confidently. After spending a day studying it, the techniques were certainly advanced but it wasn't any more challenging than her Eight Trigrams Flame Control art. Advanced didn't mean impossible, it just meant that she would have to be careful and diligent when approaching the manual. That's why she felt it would take at least six months of study to be able to execute the technique that Lord White wanted her to use. "It's not a question of 'can'," she continued. "It's a question of whether or not I should. If I touch this manual, it will change me," she explained bluntly. "There's no way to avoid that. Mysticism isn't something to be taken lightly. To use the manual, I have to align my innermost self with either Darkness, Predator or Dominance." 

"Will any of those replace your Fire?" Feng Xi asked. "Does this replace something that's already a big part of you or does it add to it?"

"I should be able to add as long as I can break through in this process to become a Wanderer. Mother Cong cultivated 'Dragon' and 'Saintess'," she explained. "Those are much more challenging words to hold two of than Fire and one of these three. No matter what though, I have to change to take one of them in." 

"Let's step back from the manual for a moment," Zhang Bai interjected. "I called out the three problems for a reason. Using the manual is one way to both save the Dark Hound and to free Alchemist Ma from Lord White but it may not be the only way. Now that you've studied the manual, can you defeat the curse affecting the Dark Hound without using the manual?"

"Not a chance," Ao Wen said flatly. "I know I do things that most Alchemy Novices can't do, but it would take someone like my Senior Brother Huang to forcefully break this curse, and I don't think he could have done it before he became a Master Alchemist. It would take a Blessed ranked technique or better to remove the curse and the venom without becoming infected by either. That or an incredible treasure. I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"What if Alchemist Ma helped," Tang Jin offered from the side. "The two of you combined should be better than apart, right?"

"It's not that simple, Young Lord Tang," Ma Xiaohua said kindly. It was clear to her that the young Soldier was out of his depth in this conversation and she didn't want to discourage the young man from offering any help he was able to. "While I'm sure Lord Ao and I could come up with more ideas by working together, and we could test them faster, or even apply more advanced techniques that required two healers to cooperate, we're still lacking in power and capability when facing a venomous curse like this one. Lord Ao said he doesn't even know where to begin. I've spent two years on this and I don't have any answers either. If I wasn't so incompetent, maybe things would be different but," she began, lowering her head in shame, only to have Ao Wen interrupt. 

"You're not incompetent," Ao Wen reassured her. "We're both just out of our depth against this problem. We're lucky to understand it as well as we do since we have the manual that the technique originates from. Imagine how much further behind we'd be without the time to study the manual. Your two years of study have only given me greater conviction to use the manual since searching for an alternative is likely futile." 

"We still don't have to use the manual," Zhang Bai reminded everyone. "We don't have to save the Dark Hound if we can free Alchemist Ma without giving in to Lord White's demands." This was the biggest point he wanted to make with everyone and especially Ao Wen. When her father was in danger, she'd been willing to throw away everything to save him, even if she risked destroying her own Dragon Core in the process. She'd latched onto one idea, one plan, one method and dove head first into executing it. Right now, he wanted to pull her back to see if there were other ways to accomplish their goals. 

"Impossible," Ao Wen said flatly, shaking her head at Zhang Bai. "Lord White is so far ahead of me in Witchcraft that I can't begin to see the corner of his robes. Whatever he did to Xiaohua's eye, I can't unravel it and if I try to burn it away, I'll most likely burn her along with it. Not only will I be unable to recover her sight, I'll hurt her far worse than what he's done to her and that might not even get her free." 

"He's really that powerful," Tang Jin asked. He'd overestimated himself more than once, the last thing he wanted to do was draw the ire of someone that he knew he stood no chance against.

"He's that powerful and more," Ma Xiaohua said with a shiver. "Even the Lord Mayor doesn't dare to confront him directly. If I leave Lantern City, he'll know and he'll use the curse he's placed on me to drag me back. I, I tried running away once," she said quietly, her face burning with shame at the memory. "Once I crawled back to town, he dragged me back to the furthest point I'd reached and chained me to a tree there so I could feel the pain of his curse long enough to understand just how, how horrible it is," she choked out. "I'm able to move about Lantern City freely with the curse but it doesn't change the fact that I'm every bit as chained to this place even now as I was chained to the tree that night."

"So there really is no way other than using the manual," Zhang Bai said with a sigh. He'd been hoping for an alternative but it seemed like there weren't any that they were powerful enough to grab hold of. 

There was, of course, another option. They could all turn their backs on Alchemist Ma. This wasn't really their problem. They didn't have to go so far for someone they'd only just met. Yet none of them would voice the option. To turn away from her would be to turn away from themselves and the people they hoped to become. Everyone knew it, but no one said it. 

"Thank you," Ma Xiaohua said, bowing deeply to the group of young cultivators. She might be older than them, but the way they approached this, unflinching and without the slightest thought of refusing to help, she couldn't help but feel that Lord Ao wasn't the only extraordinary person here.