Chapter 184 - Embracing Darkness

In Ao Wen's clinic, Feng Xi and Ma Xiaohua sat at a small table while they waited to see if Ao Wen succeeded or failed in her attempt to unlock the manual. Alchemist Ma had prepared tea to drink while they waited but after the first cup, neither woman had paid any attention to the tea, allowing it to cool completely while they gazed at Ao Wen. 

"It's been half a day," Feng Xi said, looking at Ao Wen's sleeping figure. If not for the fact that Ma Xiaohua had checked several times over the past few hours, one could easily mistake Ao Wen for a corpse. Her breathing had become shallow and faint, her chest only rising and falling once every several minutes, and when it did, it barely moved. Her skin had taken on an unhealthy pallor and and for a time, her cheeks had become sunken and gaunt as though she hadn't eaten for days. Health had returned to her not long afterwards but it was clear that the struggle Ao Wen faced in the vision also left its own mark on her body. "How much longer do you think this will take?"

"I don't know," Ma Xiaohua said, looking at Ao Wen and standing to check her pulse once again. "Something is changing though," she said, moving to the opposite side to check her pulse again and confirm her findings. "She's warmer than she has been, her heart beat is stronger and her breathing is deeper even if it's still infrequent. It seems like she's gaining strength, we just need to hang on while she finishes this. I believe in her," the older alchemist said, gently brushing a strand of hair away from Ao Wen's sleeping face. 

"I believe in her too," Feng Xi said from her seat at the table. "But I hope whatever she's gaining, she's not paying too high a price for it." 

In the Vision Hunt, Ao Wen slipped through the darkness like a fish moving through water. She might not have achieved the Hidden Night Steps but it didn't matter to her as long as her technique worked. She'd reached the spot on the opposite side of the clearing from where she'd started and from the look of it, the massive Dark Weaver Spider hadn't detected her presence, or at least, it still occupied the same position in the large tree, facing toward its collection of broken bodies and severed souls. 

Slowly, Ao Wen crept across the open space of the clearing. There was no place to hide so Ao Wen didn't bother to crouch low to the ground or any similar silliness. She'd come this far to achieve her goals, she wasn't going to slink foolishly along the ground when it would do her no good. Instead, she strained her ears and her eyes, choosing each footstep with care to make as little noise as possible. Her progress across the clearing was slow but inexorable, each step narrowing the gap between her and her objective. 

Reaching the base of the massive tree, Ao Wen began ascending the thick, pitch covered branches. Dark and sticky pitch clung to her hands, instantly covering them in a layer of loose bark from the tree and anything else that stuck to her. Strands of webbing hung all over the tree, the dark silken threads turning a simple ascent into a dangerous maze. At first, she continued to use the method she had used previously, taking a thin branch up the tree with her to clear the dark stands away. It was only when she was half way up the tree that she realized the limitations of her technique. 

Placing a hand on the next branch to climb up, Ao Wen's fingers suddenly encountered a remnant of dark webbing on the top of the branch she grabbed. As soon as her fingers touched the sticky black thread, her vision went dark at the edges and the sounds of chittering movement filled her ears. The sensation lasted only a moment but in that moment, Ao Wen felt connected to the massive beast in the tree. It was all she could do to not frantically flatten herself against the tree trunk in the hopes of not being seen. Haste, panic, running for cover at the first sign she might have been seen, these weren't the actions of a predator, they were the actions of prey. Ao Wen refused to fall into such traps, even as fear of discovery surged within her heart. 

Looking beneath herself in the tall tree, Ao Wen realized that her attempts to clear the dark webbing from her path on the ascent had left many broken strands behind, clinging to a portion of the branch that had been hidden from her view when she first struck out at the webbing. She'd cleared the immediate threat of strands that barred her ascent, but she'd left countless remnants behind where she'd have to avoid them on her descent or risk accumulating the dark and oppressive strands that clung to the soul itself when she made her escape. 

"I can only live with the mistake," Ao Wen thought. "If I try to do anything about it now, I'm just going to add to the risk of being detected. If it makes my escape harder, then fine, but I can't change what's already done and trying is just going to make things harder."

Slowly, she resumed her climb, carefully clearing the webs as she went, this time making sure to completely remove webbing from each branch as she did so. Finally, she reached the height where her mother had been hung from a branch, wrapped up in dark threads like a burial shroud. "Say nothing," she whispered to her mother. "I'm here. I've got you. It'll be over soon."

Pulling out one of her knives with a pitch covered hand, Ao Wen began cutting through the cocoon enveloping the illusion of her mother. Despite knowing it was fake, the helpless and pleading look in her mother's eyes tugged at her heart, bringing back memories of the hurt and frightened eyes she'd seen from her mother when they last spoke. Then, worry about Ao Yang's injuries and hurt at what must have felt like betrayal from her own daughter clouded the once kind eyes that gazed at her. Now, she saw a different kind of fear swirling in her mother's eyes, along with hope that her daughter could save her from this beast! 

Finally, when she'd cut away the dark webbing binding her mother, she was able to pull it off of the older woman in a single sheet of dark and sticky spider silk. Wrapping her arms around the other woman in a tight embrace, she let the darkness in her heart flow outwards, wrapping her mother in the same warm darkness that she'd filled her own heart with. "I've got you," she whispered to the illusion of her mother. "I'm going to take you away from here."

"Oh Wen'er," the illusion of Hou Jia said. "And you were doing so well." Suddenly, Hou Jia's hands shifted in her embrace of Ao Wen, a small knife appearing in her hands before she slid it effortlessly between Ao Wen's ribs, piercing deeply into Ao Wen's body and puncturing one of her lungs! "So close, and yet, so disappointing," the illusion said, smiling wickedly at the latest predator to become her prey.