Chapter 90 - An Extraordinary Elixir

In a small garden on the grounds of the City Lord's manor, Ao Wen sat numbly on the bench of a small pavilion, numbly watching the rain and leaning against Feng Xi. She'd only meant to take the time it took to brew a cup of tea to collect herself but it had already been countless minutes longer than that. "Xi," she finally said softly. "That's not how I wanted to tell you. It's just, with everything when we got home, there hasn't been a moment…"

"Is that what you're worried about?" Feng Xi said softly, holding Ao Wen tightly. "I'm an Artist remember? I knew it was bad when you first woke up. I promised didn't I? I'll always be here."

"I know but… Xi, I," Ao Wen's voice broke off as her throat siezed. "I killed children. It told them I had medicine for them and I…"

"You did the kindest thing you could in an impossibly cruel situation," Feng Xi interrupted. "You told me that almost no one survives the disease. Did you think I'd hate you for doing something that must have hurt you terribly because it was the only way to ease their suffering? The people who spread the disease are the ones who were cruel. You," she said, touching Ao Wen's nose lightly with a fingertip. "You were kind, to everyone but yourself."

"Thank you," Ao Wen said, burying her face into Feng Xi's generous chest. "I messed up in there," she sighed in frustration. "They must think I'm a monster."

"I don't think they do, but we won't know until we go back," Feng Xi said, standing and offering Ao Wen a hand up. "Let's go. If there's a problem, we'll figure out how to deal with it. If we need to come back later or give up on the whole thing, that's all fine. Even if Mao Ailum gets away," she said firmly. "As long as we can care for Father and keep him safe while he recovers, then it doesn't matter what happens to…"

"No," Ao Wen said fiercely. "No one hurts your family and gets away with it. Let's get this over with so we can see justice done."

When the young women returned to the central hall they found it surprisingly emptied of people. Only the City Lord, his wife Ju Tse, Lady Wan Yue, and Alchemy Novice Wu Lin remained along with the materials to concoct the elixir. Mao Ailum, the guards, the servants, and even Zhang Bai had all been sent away. 

"Holy Healer," the City Lord said, cupping his hands for the first time and bowing slightly to the young alchemist. He wouldn't apologize for the way he'd used his cultivation to bully her before but he at least understood where her pride and apparent arrogance had come from. In the realm she'd left behind, perhaps he'd only have been fit to be one of her guards. It served as a much-needed reminder to the City Lord that while he ruled atop his hill here, he did so with impunity because he'd left behind a much larger world in which men like him served still greater masters. 

"Don't call me that," Ao Wen said almost reflexively. "I'm sorry City Lord, please," she asked, looking at him with large pleading eyes. "There are no Yin Fiends here. The world doesn't need a Holy Healer to fight their curse. Without the Yin Fiends to fight against, I'm just an Alchemy Novice," she explained, giving an excuse that sounded reasonable. In truth, she simply didn't want constant reminders of the things she'd seen and done as Cong Daiyu. She didn't want to be pulled back into those memories. 

"You may reject the title," City Lord Zhang said gently, "but please don't reject the respect that your deeds are due. In the matter of Mao Ailum, I'm left with no reason to doubt your ability to detect his attempts to poison Feng Lieren. It is still necessary to determine if anyone else assisted him but you have nothing to prove to me," he said, reducing the pressure on Ao Wen and committing to help her obtain the justice she came to him for. "I still hope that you'll concoct the elixir for my Wan Yue," he continued with a soft gaze at the young concubine. "I promise you fair remuneration for your work."

Taking a deep breath, Ao Wen cupped her hands towards the City Lord. "How about we discuss such things afterward? I've been unsightly this morning and Lady Wan is still waiting for her elixir. Everything else can come after that's complete."

"As you wish," he said, gesturing for Ao Wen to resume the work on the elixir that had been interrupted by Mao Ailum's questions and Ao Wen's own outburst. 

Stepping up to the cauldron, Ao Wen noticed that Wu Lin looked considerably more comfortable taking the role of an herb boy, paying respectful attention to her instructions without the faintest trace of his earlier arrogance. "The core component would usually be refined last," Ao Wen explained to Wu Lin. "But in this case, I've asked sister Xi to harvest the womb of the Rage Queen as the key ingredient in this elixir. Because of its properties to nurture and grow something within it, we'll be starting from there and then following a more normal process with subsequent ingredients."

With a wave of her hand, Ao Wen set four small azure flames at cardinal points around the cauldron and a single large crimson one within it to begin refining the womb of the Rage Queen. Her emerald flames should have been more suitable than the azure flames but Cong Daiyu never possessed emerald flames and Ao Wen had no practice with them. Rather than risk such an important concoction on a potentially superior flame for purifying, she chose to use the steady and docile azure flames for two parts of the trigram and an intense crimson flame for the final part since the heat of the azure flames lacked the intensity needed to burn away the impurities within the womb of such a powerful spirit beast. 

Once the first component had been refined, Ao Wen moved through more than a dozen ingredients, each time altering the trigram of flames, blending small and large, azure and crimson until she arrived at the final component - the Pure Yin Lunar Jay Tail Feather. "The problem that caused Lady Wan's cultivation is that she has drawn in excessive masculine energy that conflicts with her nature as a mother. It isn't sufficient to simply expel the excess yang energy, though the earlier ingredients will help with that. We need to provide a purifying yin force that will help her to drive away the irrelevant attributes of other components of the elixir and emerge as the woman she's destined to become."

"Do you see a special destiny for my Wan Yue?" the City Lord couldn't help but ask when he heard Ao Wen's words.

"Everyone has a destiny," Ao Wen replied, tossing the feather into the cauldron and adjusting the intensity of her flames as she began to meld the many ingredients within. "Lady Wan has chosen to defy hers and to use this elixir to seize the destiny she desires. One where she can accompany her husband and family for centuries to come," Ao Wen said with a smile. Slowly, as the final ingredient melded with everything else in the cauldron, Ao Wen began to feel that the cauldron was actually giving birth to the elixir, and maybe, given the nature of the concoction, it truly was. The cauldron felt like it wanted to bring this elixir into being and for Ao Wen, who had walked through so much death as Cong Daiyu, the feeling of giving birth to anything felt like a balm on her wounded soul. 

Reaching out with a hand holding a polished jade bottle, Ao Wen guided the gleaming liquid of the elixir into the bottle before placing a stopper on it lest any of the medical essence leak. "This elixir has no name," Ao Wen said, handing it first to Wu Lin. "But I wonder what fellow Novice Wu makes of its quality." 

Taking the jade vial the older novice briefly removed the stopper to swirl the liquid in the vial and inhale its fragrance. Eyes wide in shock he stared at Ao Wen, jaw slack, raising and lowering like the bucket of a well before he could finally speak. "I haven't seen enough Extraordinary grade elixirs to be sure, but if it was anything less than the best of Pure grade I'd eat my cauldron," he swore. 

"The womb of a Rage Queen, the tail feather of a Pure Yin Lunar Jay and the Hundred Year Old Inkstone used only to record history that City Lord contributed from his personal collection are all outstanding ingredients," Ao Wen explained, passing much of the credit to others. "Lady Wan," she said, presenting the elixir. "Your destiny awaits," she said, unable to resist the touch of theatrics. 

Seeing an Extraordinary grade elixir, no one present thought Ao Wen's words were exaggerated. The room itself felt heavy with the energy of the elixir and the promise of change as Wan Yue reached out with trembling fingers to take the small jade bottle, removing the stopper and drinking it like fine nectar. 

Feeling the gentle power of the elixir sweeping through her, cleansing the masculine energies from her body as though they were toxins, a growing strength began to gather within her. It prowled through her veins, stalked through her meridians, and hunted down anything that didn't truly belong to the destiny she'd chosen to embody. The slender body of the scholarly concubine began to exhibit subtle signs of lithe muscles under her silk-soft skin and her movements acquired a distinctly feline grace as she felt the power of the elixir course through her. Slowly, a warm protective aura spread from her, like a stalking cat looking over her cubs. Layered within that aura came an inky blackness as though the cat would leave behind ink-smudge footprints where it passed before fading away, leaving nothing but the lingering scent of clear night air on the eve of a full moon and the faint musty odor of old books. Finally, the power faded as gently as it had come, leaving a transformed and awed Wan Yue standing at the center of the hall. 

"Congratulations Novice Historian Wan," Ao Wen said with a smile that broadened as she noticed something else in the young concubine's aura. "Or, I could congratulate you as a newly awakened Brawler if you'd prefer. It seems that the Extraordinary grade elixir allowed you to gain some strength to protect your cubs that belongs to you alone and isn't borrowed from the legendary figures in your books." 

"Transforming destiny indeed," Ju Tse said softly, looking from her sister Wan Yue to her husband, finding his gaze unblinking, riveted to the radiant figure of his youngest concubine, just like they'd been the day they'd met. Perhaps another woman would have been jealous seeing their husband gaze that way at another member of his harem but all Ju Tse saw were the many years of worry falling away from his eyes and the joy of knowing that this moment had given them countless moments more to spend together in the centuries to come.