Chapter 109 - Laughter Between Friends

By the time Ao Wen and Feng Xi had concluded their tender morning half the day had already been spent. While the two blushed somewhat awkwardly about their late start to the day, given the events of the previous evening, no one begrudged them any of the extra time. Still, neither of them wished to idle away the entire day and both had plans to make use of their time in the days to follow. With firm plans in mind, the two young women gathered along with Tang Jin and a pleasantly surprised Zhang Bai at the Feng family residence's training ground and archery range. 

"I'm glad last night wasn't too strenuous for you Father Feng," Ao Wen said after completing a checkup on the recovering soldier. "Two more weeks of treatment," she promised. "At that point, you'll be almost as good as you were the day you were injured. All that's left after that is normal rehabilitation. It'll be time to get back to hunting and cultivating that you haven't been able to do all these years."

"That I'm walking again is already a miracle," Feng Lieren said with a warm smile. "Perhaps in two week's time I can join you four on a hunt to ease back into things. I'm sure by then that Xi'er will have some new skills of her own to practice as well."

"I'd love that Father," Feng Xi said with a smile. How long had she dreamed of going on a hunt with the first hero in her life? To carry a bow into the Thundercloud forest with her father to keep Turning Leaf town safe… it was a simple dream but one she'd all but given up as each year passed without any sign of improvement in his injury. 

"So, while Xi spends her time with Father Feng, I have something else in mind that I need the help of two strapping young soldiers for," Ao Wen said with a teasing smile at Tang Jin and Zhang Bai. "Think you can help a poor little girl find her way?" she said, acting cute and spoiled as she batted her eyelashes at the taller young men. 

"Don't, don't you dare," Tang Jin said, nearly hurting himself as he held back his laughter. "Poor little girl? My Lady," he responded with an exaggerated kneeling bow of his own, appearing for a moment to have returned to his days as a privileged young master. "This humble lord will undertake your every whim, I'll slay every door mouse that disturbs your beauty sleep and crush any spider that dangles near your beautiful head," he said in mock seriousness. "Simply state your demands and this Tang will move very small hills of sand as far as his arm is able to stretch!"

"Brat!" Ao Wen said, hitting him lightly as everyone but Zhang Bai fell to vigorous laughter. "Oh come on Bai," Ao Wen said, noticing that the young lord felt isolated from the rest of them. "Jokes are good. I'm sure you know some good ones," she added with a smile. 

"I…" Zhang Bai started then hesitated. "Fairy Ao, it's not,"

"Wen," Ao Wen interrupted. "Sister Wen if you have to like Jin does, but you've spilled blood beside me and that means something to me," she said in a firm tone. "What I want to say is that I invited you here today both because I genuinely want your help and because you've shown yourself to be the kind of friend we can all rely on. Part of that friendship is about names, and part of that is laughing with the people you'll also be fighting with. My martial brother Jun Yang played the strong silent type but most of us figured it was because he knew he wasn't the sharpest saber in the bunch and that if he spoke without thinking things through we'd all think less of him than we thought of Jun Ben. You're not dull, so don't hide behind this… whatever this is," she finished, waving her hand at his stiff and awkward posture.

"I'm just worried that you'll find my humor a bit… crude," Zhang Bai confessed awkwardly. 

"Bai…" Ao Wen paused, leaning against her sheathed saber in an exaggerated manner. "You know what they say about men who swing two-handed blades the size of my Wildfang and your Jade Edge?"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tang Jin said, shaking his head and stepping away from the smiling Ao Wen. 

Zhang Bai on the other hand laughed and answered smoothly. "It takes a tripod to stay stable swinging that much metal," he replied, adding a crude thrust of his hips for emphasis. "I didn't think Sister Wen would have heard such a sordid joke." 

"Please," she replied, glancing from the blushing Feng Xi to Tang Jin who simply shook his head over it. "For all the things saber wielders will say about you flower picking, tea drinking, wand-waving sword wielders, it's not like we can't find our own ways to gather around common things. I'm sure Jin here has just as many dirty jokes about people who need two hands for a weapon as I have about people who can't keep their left hand out of their pants long enough to place it on the hilt of a blade," she added with a teasing smile. 

"Oh come on," Tang Jin said challengingly, unwilling to take a loss in this exchange. "This Tang has shown great restraint to dedicate his right hand to the sword when traveling with not one but two empire-toppling beauties. Truly, I've suffered these hard days and harder nights," he teased, swooning dramatically with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead. 

"See? Lighten up," Ao Wen said with a smile. "We're all friends here, no one should need to be guarded about their words or hide their real self."

"Okay, I yield, I yield," Zhang Bai said, raising his hands in surrender. "But where did the Celestial Fairy of the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple hear jokes like that?"

"Pfft," Ao Wen laughed. "Bai, healers go everywhere. Everywhere. If you want crude humor, the women of a brothel will give the men in the barracks a good run for second place worst jokes to get through a bad time with." 

"Second Place?" Feng Xi asked, unable to hold herself back. "Where do you go for worse jokes than that?"

"Oh," Ao Wen paused with a smile. "I thought everyone knew, no matter how bad a joke is, once it enters the medical tent, no one will let it die!" 

For a moment, everyone blinked followed by several groans. "And here I was worried about you after last night," Feng Xi teased.

"I'm fine, really," Ao Wen said, giving a genuine smile and a reassuring squeeze to Feng Xi. "Now, we should let you and Father Feng get to work while I take these two out into the rain and shake things loose a bit."

"Sister Wen, you never did answer, why did you want me to come along?" Zhang Bai asked. "And why in the rain?"

"I have a problem. Jin does too. We both managed to advance our body cultivation without our techniques keeping up," Ao Wen explained, striding into the wet training yard amidst several splashes as she made no effort to avoid the puddles formed by several days of rain. "Last night, I saw some similarities between your sword art and the second technique of my saber art. The idea behind Impenetrable Claws," she explained, "is that I use the full length of the saber, tip to pommel, in a braced posture, like a scorpion shielding itself with its claws. With good use of earthen energy, I should be able to root firmly in place and resist or deflect most attacks."

"That does sound similar to the Six Sided Sword Shield technique I practice," Zhang Bai said. "And you want to use the rain to make it harder to root to the ground?"

"Something like that," Ao Wen answered with a teasing smile that masked the real reasons. Jun Biyu had trained in the desert. Cong Daiyu had never trained the saber at all. Instead of throwing herself back into Jun Biyu's memories of cultivating the Obsidian Night Scorpion Saber Art to progress her own cultivation, Ao Wen decided to build her own memories of developing the style. Her Rending Pincer already diverged because of her Earth Dragon bloodline. Now, she wanted to do more, to build memories training with the saber that couldn't be mistaken for Jun Biyu's. She'd do the same with alchemy, building her own memories that diverged from things Cong Daiyu had done as much as she could. 

Last night, she'd truly come to see what it was like to lose herself in a life that wasn't her own. Today, she'd start building a foundation that belonged to her and wasn't just an imitation of her predecessors.