Chapter 144 - An Alchemy Exchange

"So," Ao Wen asked, leaning back and nibbling at one of the sweet cakes that Initiate Hu had set out. "What kind of arrangement did you have in mind?"

"Let's start with the first thing you came here to ask about," Ma Xiaohua said with a slight smile. "I won't endorse or recommend your treatments and I won't refer anyone to you for your services, but I won't stop you from offering them either. Officially, the Alchemy Consortium is unaware of any business dealings you have with the practice of Medicine and Alchemy in Lantern City," she offered. "That being said, if someone comes with allegations of mistreatment or suffers at your hands and pleads their grievances before the Consortium, I can't remain willfully ignorant. You have to bear the responsibility for the consequences of any mistakes or failures yourself and I won't shield you from those consequences. Does that sound reasonable?"

"That's very reasonable," Ao Wen said with a nod. She couldn't expect anything more given the circumstances and what she'd achieved was already a considerable victory. She wouldn't be able to be prolific in advertising her services but if word got around in the right circles then she was sure to find a few clients who could help fund her studies. "I'm sure you have something more than that in mind though," Ao Wen observed. "What else were you thinking about in this arrangement?"

"You told Little Fan that you came from a large sect on the mainland so you may be unfamiliar with the alchemy traditions practiced in more rural areas," Alchemist Ma said, sipping her tea. "When alchemists from differing traditions meet, there's an opportunity for exchange. I have recipes for medicines and elixirs you may not be familiar with along with research notes on substances that can only be harvested locally. You clearly have recipes I've never seen and expertise that's outside of my own areas of study. I'd like to propose an exchange of knowledge. Of course, I understand that you're looking for supplies to fund your studies as well," she added. "While I could follow custom and offer to exchange ingredients from my collection for ingredients from yours, I think you'd find it far more beneficial to barter knowledge for materials."

"I think we could come to an arrangement there," Ao Wen said, working hard to prevent eagerness from spilling into her voice. This was exactly the sort of deal she needed! She just couldn't afford to let herself be taken advantage of. "I need to impose a condition though. I won't give your notes or recipes to my sect, in exchange, while you can use any knowledge or recipes I give you, they can't be given to your consortium. This has to be a deal between you and I and it can't involve others." 

"I respect your caution," Ma Xiaohua said easily. "But you don't need to worry too much. It's to my advantage to be one of the few alchemists in the area that could concoct an elixir like the one you showed me. If I gave the information to the Consortium, I'd have little opportunity to leverage that knowledge to rise above my current station. The Alchemy Consortium isn't like a sect, we don't owe the same kind of loyalty to the Consortium that you owe to your sect," she explained. "You can think of us as business rivals who have agreed to be bound by rules that protect our shared profession. While I'm the designated representative of the Consortium in Lantern City, I'm here to run my own business. In places like Red Moon City you'll find a number of alchemists running independent businesses of their own entirely separate from holding responsibilities to the Consortium. It's only in small places like this and Turning Leaf where there are barely any alchemists that someone has to wear both hats this way." 

"In that case, I'd be happy to exchange with you," Ao Wen said with a genuine smile. "Should I assume that the first thing you're interested in is the elixir I showed you?"

"I'm intrigued by it," the older alchemist admitted readily. "What is its name and purpose? I felt that it was strongly attuned to fire but I couldn't discern its purpose from my examination."

"I call that 'Dragon's Tongue Firebreath Elixir," Ao Wen explained. "It will alow any cultivator at the first stage or above to breath a jet of flame several meters long that has the power to kill cultivators or spirit beasts at the second stage. The higher the grade of elixir you manage to produce, the closer you'll get to having the power to threaten a third-stage cultivator but even an Extraordinary Grade version of the elixir won't allow a first stage cultivator to harm a third stage cultivator unless they're using the elixir in combination with a flame art of their own," she said, making both the extraordinary power of the elixir and its limitations clear. "The ingredients required by the concoction aren't very expensive so it can be produced in large quantities if you're skilled enough, but gaining that much power from humble materials takes significant skill in refinement. As my Master once said, defying destiny isn't easy, a price has to be paid somewhere."

"Still, if it can allow first stage cultivators to cross a stage in battle, it has the potential to substantially bolster the strength of any force that has access to a sufficient amount of the elixir," Ma Xiaohua said, impressed by the recipe being offered. "I'm afraid that I don't have anything so extraordinary of my own to offer but I think you'll be interested in what I do have nonetheless," she said. "I've been in Lantern City for nearly thirty years and in that time I've accumulated numerous notes on the uses of the sap, pitch, leaves, roots and even the burned ash of the Darkwood tree. With the exception of pill recipes that won't be of use to you right now anyway, I'd be happy to provide you with my notes, including a handful of elixir recipes, in exchange for your Dragon's Tongue Firebreath Elixir recipe and concoction method."

"Easily done," Ao Wen said. "But I have a feeling that the next thing I'll need is a large quantity of the extracted sap, pitch, and other elements of the Darkwood tree to make use of those notes," she said, clearly seeing the other alchemist's plan to draw out more knowledge from her. Ao Wen didn't mind it though. This was, after all, exactly what she needed, and giving up knowledge to a single alchemist in a small town she didn't intend to linger in wouldn't harm her much at all. The deal was already very favorable to her. "I happen to be an expert in the treatment of Yin based poisons and Yin diseases," she explained. "Do you know the method of flame based purification of Yin ailments? I imagine that in a place so rich in Darkness energy, there's no small demand for treating Yin ailments." 

"Flame based purification?" Alchemist Ma asked. "Do you mean using alchemy flames in place of medicinal ingredients? I thought that those techniques were all but fatal to the patients, often crippling them in exchange for preserving their life. Are you telling me that you have a method to prevent flame based healing from producing crippling injuries?"

"The secret is in providing proper supporting and shielding medications to prevent crippling injuries," Ao Wen explained. "The most common is an elixir that shields the meridians and viscera from the flames, but sometimes it is necessary to shield the marrow, flesh, or other parts of the body. I'm willing to offer the flame purification technique and the recipe for three shielding methods that cover the most common areas of the body attacked by Yin ailments. In exchange, I need a large supply of materials from a Darkwood tree."

"Done," Ma Xiaohua said instantly, her fingers twitching with a barely suppressed instinct to touch her eye. If that man refused to restore her vision after delivering this young alchemist, perhaps she'd be able to use this flame purification technique to remove his curse by herself, or even with this young man's help. It was clear though that he was holding back on her when he said that he'd only provide three shielding methods. If there wasn't one appropriate to protecting her blinded eye, then she'd either have to barter for one or extrapolate one from the knowledge Ao Wen was willing to offer and the latter option was far too risky. "I wonder if you might be willing to offer additional shielding methods in exchange for the ingredients you need to form pill seeds? Say a rate of ingredients sufficient to make one hundred pill seeds per shielding method?"

"Two hundred pill seeds worth of ingredients per shielding method," Ao Wen countered. "The more advanced shielding methods are worth more than the basic ones I'm offering, but I promise you that you'll find them powerfully useful when facing the worst of Yin ailments, particularly when time is short and conventional treatments are unavailable."

"Let's talk though it then," Alchemist Ma said carefully. "If you can describe the different shielding methods, I can let you know which ones interest me and we can total the price." 

"Alchemist Ma is very fair," Ao Wen said with a smile, pulling out a small stack of parchment and writing tools from her cosmos sack as she began to write out the details of what she was offering. So far, this morning was giving her everything that she needed, she could only hope that her visit to Understudy Lau in the afternoon would go as well.