Chapter 83 - Incompatible Cultivation Method

Ao Wen spent several moments considering before a suspicion began to form in her mind. Reaching out to examine Wan Yue she provided a brief warning. "I'm going to press on several of your acupoints. It may disrupt your energy and some of them may be uncomfortable. Please don't resist and if something is uncomfortable please tell me. The places that are sensitive and tender are places where your energy isn't flowing properly. I need to know all of them to treat you so no holding back or downplaying how much something hurts, okay?"

Receiving a nod from Wan Yue, Ao Wen's strong fingers went to work, first removing the concubine's outer robes and then tracing delicately over her body to press at each of her acupoints in a sequence that left the concubine baffled. Ao Wen's fingers seemed to flit from leg to arm, neck to abdomen, coming round again to previously skipped points on the leg she'd started with before moving somewhere else entirely. Several times when Ao Wen's fingers touched a point across her hips, chest, armpits, or abdomen, Wan Yue winced in pain, almost curling like a shrimp on more than one occasion as the pressure brought as much pain as the contractions of childbirth! Finally, Ao Wen stopped her examination, allowing the gasping older woman to recover herself before she offered any explanation. 

"So," Wan Yue finally managed to say after sitting for several minutes to recover from the examination. "Have you found the problem?"

"Maybe," Ao Wen said, still wanting further proof of her suspicions. "You said you have to know a figure well in order to invoke them. If I tell you about a legendary person, can you make an attempt to use that knowledge to draw on their power?"

"Of course," the older woman said with a slight frown. "But I'm not sure how it would be instructive."

"Just humor me," Ao Wen said with a slight smile. If she was right, it would be hard for the other woman to accept. Much like Senior Brother Huang had once deceived a small child to get the truthful answers he needed for diagnosis, she needed to build acceptance within Wan Yue before she could prescribe treatment. "I happen to have studied someone who you may find easier to invoke. Her name was Cong Houzi, titled the Medical Saintess of the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple," she began. "Don't let her title fool you though. The Medical Saintess wasn't known only for her accomplishments as an Alchemy Lord but also as a Martial General and Vieled Mystic. I'm going to tell you about her battle against Yin Fiends and the wars that raged across her native mortal realm…"

It took Ao Wen an hour to narrate enough of the events of the Medical Saintess' life for Wan Yue to build a suitable invocation. Most of what she described were events that she'd read about or heard about directly from her adopted mother. Only once did she tell the story of a battle that she and her Senior Sister Qi Yue had been present for. She'd barely managed to repress her sadness at her separation from both people who'd meant so much to her in that life and her eyes had misted towards the end of the tale. Thankfully, Wan Yue mistook the mist gathering in her eyes for being moved by the tale itself without realizing its personal significance to Ao Wen. 

"Do you, by chance, have any more books about this legendary woman?" Wan Yue asked after composing her incantation. "The way you describe her, you've clearly invested considerably in your study of her, well enough that it's like you know her. I'd love to read what you've read to gain such a deep understanding of this amazing woman."

"As I told City Lord, there are some things I can't share about what I inherited but I returned with no books, scrolls, tokens, or treasures, only memories and knowledge," she answered somewhat vaguely. "Maybe I could tell you more stories later if this works," she offered up after a moment's hesitation. She didn't want to bring the City Lord's concubine into her own circle and she didn't want to share too many personal things but… no other legendary figure came to mind that could fill the role in this experiment that Cong Houzi could. Ao Wen felt it was worth baring a bit of her own heart if it would resolve things for Wan Yue and gain her justice against Mao Ailum but it didn't need to go any further than that. 

"Okay," Wan Yue said, clearly perceiving that there was a great deal Ao Wen wasn't saying but choosing to let the younger girl keep her secrets. "Let's see if this works," she said, beginning to recite her hastily written incantation.

"Exalted Medical Saintess, Cong Houzi of the noble Fire Dragon clan! For thousands of mortal lifetimes, your compassionate heart has cared for the downtrodden and despairing. As wicked Yin Fiends spawn from a miasma of vile darkness spread wide death's pall over a once-vibrant empire, your fiery wings unfurled over the suffering masses. Grievous wounds you endured shielding helpless peasants as those abominations that once were men vomited baleful clouds of toxic yin poison. Yet never did bright scales stain or tarnish enduring even the claws of enormous fiends!" The more she spoke, the more an orange-crimson flame in the silhouette of a dragon began to wrap around Wan Yue, proud wings serving as a mighty shield while a fierce-eyed head swung atop a serpentine neck in search of enemies to burn to ash!

"When twin talons forged from purest flame rent the land with almighty blows, fiendish hordes learning the bitter taste of ruinous defeat scattered before a True Dragon's wrath! With a healer's nurturing heart, you sheltered the battered masses 'neath gentle wings turned the color of a warm home's hearth fire. By your indefatigable compassion were multitudes granted sanctuary." The manifestation of the dragon became more tangible, resting it's claws gently on Wan Yue's shoulders and placing its head next to hers to survey the world that she gazed on. Feeling like this power drew closer to her than any she'd attempted to manifest in years, Wan Yue charged into the final verse. 

"Noble lady of the eternal flame, heed my call! Incinerate all wickedness before me and teach all who would plunge the world into darkness that flames light the way to salvation!" As the incantation finished, the fiery orange-crimson aura of a Fire Dragon descended fully onto Wan Yue, pulsing forth in brilliance before it too crumbled away, much closer than anything that she had reached in the past ten years but still a hairsbreadth away from becoming power she could wield. 

"That felt so very close," Wan Yue said, her voice filled with bitterness at her failure. "Why doesn't any of this work anymore?" Tears of frustration and disappointment began to gather in the corner of her eyes as she looked at Ao Wen with a pleading gaze. Clearly the young alchemist understood something for her to suggest this method that came so much closer to working. What was it? Why did she keep failing at the last moment?

"How did you get your cultivation method? It doesn't seem to be part of any traditions I'm familiar with in Turning Leaf town," Ao Wen asked gently. 

"Husband acquired it for me as a betrothal gift when I awakened," she said, smiling wistfully at the memory of those days. She'd worked hard to catch his eye, studying his games of chess and the topics of history he most enjoyed discussing. When he'd told her about the method he'd purchased from a sect branch in Holy Sails City she'd been moved beyond measure and fell happily into his household even though she'd only hold the position of Second Concubine. It didn't matter as long as she had his love and his gift of a cultivation method that perfectly suited her showed just how much he valued her. "He was only able to purchase the first three sections of the manual from a sect in Holy Sails City," she explained. "But this should have allowed me to progress to Independent Scholar and either seek out the sect to progress further or to form my own path from there. I shouldn't be failing to advance past Initiate!" 

"But you had no mentor or guide in this method," Ao Wen observed, the final pieces falling into place. "No one to warn you about the dangers of selecting the wrong kind of figures to invoke. Guan Yu is a legendary warrior that fought for the woman he loved, but how could Guan Yu fight for another man's woman, a mother at that? You kept reaching out for the power of men who weren't just mighty warriors but who had reputations for being good to women and when you were young, that worked, but when you became a mother, you became someone who couldn't receive their affection," Ao Wen explained. This didn't just touch on the body but the soul as well. Without her lessons from Qi Yue she'd probably never have seen the problem so clearly. "You said ten years ago it became nearly impossible, but wasn't that just a year after your daughter was born? Your identity as a 'mother' had become a driving part of who you are. You need to call upon powerful women who fight for their own family and children, not the power of men who are fighting for the target of their affection," she explained. 

"But if that's true, why couldn't I invoke the power of Medical Saintess Cong Houzi? Didn't you say she had an adopted daughter? Isn't she mother enough?" Wan Yue asked in confusion. She was smart enough to see the wisdom in Ao Wen's deduction but the last piece felt incongruent with what she'd explained. 

"No, it's not that she's not mother enough." Ao Wen said, almost defensively. "It's that your meridians and accupoints are clogged with rich masculine warrior energy from earlier in your cultivation, preventing you from fully connecting to the power of a mother like Cong Houzi."

The young concubine's eyes opened wide as she realized what she'd done to herself with her choice of historic figures to draw on. She'd always been drawn into the romance of these powerful warriors and they were the kinds of men that even her husband could admire for their military strategy and martial acumen but it wasn't a power she could inhabit! She'd borrowed what she wasn't instead of looking for a more powerful form of what she could be. No wonder it had manifested as pain in acupoints around her womb and the breasts that had fed two children. These weren't things that could belong to the masculine figures she channeled and they also marked her as 'off limits' as a target of affection! 

"So, what do we do about it? How can we fix this?" she asked softly. Deep inside a fear started to take root that she'd done damage that couldn't be restored, severing her own cultivation journey before it really began. 

"Well, there are two methods we can take…" Ao Wen started as she gathered her thoughts on how to solve the problem that the young mother faced.