Chapter 161 - Choosing Investments

Two days after treating Brother Gau and his friends, Ao Wen stared at the small pile of spirit crystals she'd accumulated along with the heavily warded jade box in a mixture of awe and disbelief. As Cong Daiyu, she'd never given much thought to wealth. When she was the Orphan Yu, she had nothing so wealth was beyond her considerations. As the direct disciple of Medical Saintess Cong Houzi and core disciple of the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple, she'd never lacked for wealth. Her monthly allowance in the sect of one hundred spirit crystals was paid in medium rather than small crystals, a staggering sum worth more than just ten times their number in small spirit crystals. 

Now, however, she held over six hundred small spirit crystals as a result of a few day's work to treat a few patients. For Cong Daiyu it might not be much money, but for the stone cutter's daughter Ao Wen, it was more wealth than she'd ever possessed! The disturbing part, however, was that she knew it wasn't enough. Just to engage Understudy Lau's services would require more than half of her recently acquired wealth and that was just the deposit! The final price of her new saber wouldn't be determined until they settled on the properties of the rare blade. 

Since she wouldn't be able to settle the final bill, Ao Wen was in no rush to return to Understudy Lau to place the deposit either. She'd originally planned to place the deposit yesterday but her plans had changed when Alchemist Ma returned to pass on the beast core from the Matriarch Dark Weaver Spider. When Ma Xiaohua presented the dark sphere the size of a goose egg, Ao Wen had to fight very hard to resist the temptation to push other work aside to study the potent relic. Even Alchemist Ma seemed captivated by its layered properties, eagerly explaining her own observations on the beast core and providing Ao Wen with several of her own notes. It hadn't been until Feng Xi came to collect Ao Wen for dinner that evening that the alchemist awkwardly departed. 

Ao Wen's observations on the Matriarch's beast core had shown her several critical things. First, even with her emerald phoenix flames and the powerful Eight Trigrams Flame Art, there was no way she could safely refine such a dangerous object. The earliest she felt that she could safely make the attempt was at the very end of the second stage, but more likely, she would have to be a genuine Independent Scholar before she could overpower the beast core's nature without either destroying it or succumbing to its corrupting influence. 

The second thing she'd learned is that Dark Weaver Spiders had more in common with Obsidian Night Scorpions than she'd first imagined. Ao Wen knew that the black blades of the Jun clan were forged using materials gathered from the famously deadly scorpions but it wasn't until she saw the beast core of the Matriarch that she realized she might be able to substitute the Dark Weaver Spider for the Obsidian Night Scorpion in the construction of her next weapon. 

While she was currently focused on learning about Darkness so she could break through to the second stage and learn Hidden Night Steps, beyond that lay Toxic Sting, a venomous attack that could be strengthened with a poisoned blade but which used a cultivator's own energy to poison the body of their opponent. The Jun clan relied on their poisoned blades to bring out the potency of this deadly skill but Ao Wen had assumed all along that she would need to engage her Alchemy instead. Coating a blade with poison was primitive in comparison to infusing it with toxic and corrosive venomous energy but it was at least obtainable with her current skills and resources. 

Now that Dark Weaver spiders had entered the picture, however, it opened the door to obtaining elements that could be used in the creation of her own poisoned blade, one that came from a creature that offered enough points of congruity with her own cultivation methods that she felt she could be highly successful with it. The only question seemed to be whether or not she could successfully hunt weaker Dark Weaver spiders to obtain the materials to craft her new weapon. 

"Excuse me, Young Lord Ao?" Shuli said from the door to Ao Wen's office at the clinic. "I have the information you asked me to collect."

"Come in," Ao Wen said, smiling at the young woman. While it was obvious to all of them that Shuli was looking for space in Zhang Bai's heart that may not exist, that didn't mean she hadn't made herself immensely useful to the group of friends as they worked to establish themselves in Lantern City for the winter or longer. When Ao Wen had realized the potential of Dark Weaver Spiders, she'd drawn up a list of things that might help their group in hunting them and asked Shuli to see what could be obtained readily. "What did you find?"

"There is good news as well as some bad news," Shuli said honestly. Hearing that this young lord had performed miracles of healing in his clinic that even Independent Alchemist Ma Xiaohua paid to observe had significantly raised her estimation of the young lord and she didn't want to disappoint him, especially since she was due to receive an acupuncture treatment from him in the near future. Still, no matter how hard she searched, she couldn't find what wasn't there. 

Bracing herself, Shuli began to explain her failures, hoping that Young Lord Ao wouldn't judge her too harshly. "I spoke with Understudy Hong and Aesthete Fung but neither of them have any skill in creating 'Soul Warding Amulets', the most that they could offer against the venom of a Dark Weaver Spider was a 'Venom Ward' and Understudy Hong said he'd need one thousand spirit crystals and three beast cores from a Dark Weaver spider for each ward you wanted created." 

Ao Wen hissed with a sharp intake of breath at the exorbitant price. If the local Artists wanted that much money just to protect the body from venom, the price they would charge to protect the soul was undoubtedly at least five times greater. As the group's only sorceress, she'd hoped to reduce the burden on herself to protect everyone from the more subtle attacks of the spiders but it sounded like she'd be on her own to keep the group safe from mystical attacks. "What about the Sacred Heart Pearls? Any luck there?" Ao Wen asked. 

"None," Shuli answered with a shake of her head. "I even combed the markets and the hawkers. I couldn't find any White Holly leaves either. There is some good news though," she added, hoping to turn the conversation around. "There's a hunter at the Loose Cultivator's Association by the name of Biang Ki, he's very familiar with making bows from Darkwood tree lumbar and said that he could ready one for Understudy Feng as soon as he receives a payment of one hundred spirit crystals. I also spoke with the local chapterhouse of the Holy Light Abode," she continued. "While they only have a few disciples here led by a late-stage Wanderer, he was willing to part with four Blazing Sunstones if you'll either make a donation of fifty spirit crystals for each stone or provide a batch of Pure Grade Awakening Incense attuned to Mystic cultivation." 

"How large of a 'batch' does he expect for those Blazing Sunstones?" Ao Wen asked, uncertain whether it would be worth concocting to trade with the local branch of the Holy Light Sect. She'd made a very small set of premium Awakening Incense for Wan Yue before leaving Turning Leaf but that had only been enough for six attempts at awakening. 

"He said that they would want at least one hundred sticks of incense if you desire all four Blazing Sunstones," Shuli answered. "Young Lord Ao, it may be presumptuous of me to say this, but I don't think it's a fair deal. Attuned incense is so rare on the peninsula that even if it's being traded at a price of two spirit crystals per stick, its actual value is priceless. Moreover, the Wanderer in charge of the local Holy Light Abode likely won't offer it to young hopeful cultivators unless they come from powerful or wealthy families that can offer more than just money for the chance to follow the path of a Mystic. You'd be giving him a tremendous tool that would last him for several decades at the rate he'd be willing to dispense the incense."

"One hundred is far too much to make for him anyway," Ao Wen said. When she'd considered a 'batch' she'd been thinking of ten to twenty. One hundred was outrageous. "What about techniques? Were they willing to part with anything that would be useful to Jin?" 

"They weren't willing to part with any full manuals," Shuli said sadly. "But, since Soldier Tang Jin is a sword cultivator, they did offer up a technique called the 'Edge of Light.' According to the Holy Light Abode it would envelop Soldier Tang's sword in light and bestow it with an edge that could cut through almost any armor or the tough carapace of beasts like the Dark Weaver Spider. They want one hundred spirit crystals to teach Soldier Tang the technique and he isn't allowed to take a written copy away from the chapterhouse of the sect, he has to study it there."

"That's fine," Ao Wen said, scooping up the spirit crystals and the beast core and depositing them in her cosmos sack. "We should talk to the others. As eager as I am to hunt down a few of these spiders, the danger isn't small. Everyone needs to have a chance to speak up."

"We, my lord?" Shuli asked. 

"Of course," Ao Wen said with an inviting smile. "Shuli, I know you like Bai, we can all see it," she said plainly. "I don't know how he feels, but you've been very genuine with us ever since you started helping to manage this place. Maybe, when we leave, you'll come with us. Maybe one day, you'll be venturing into dark places to fight beside us. I can't say what the future has in store for you and Bai, but we can give you space to find out. So, come along, let's see what everyone has to say."

"Yes Lord Ao," Shuli said with a deep bow. "And thank you."