Chapter 103 - Cleaning Up The Wreckage

 Standing up from the unconscious alchemist, Ao Wen gestured to a group of nearby servants. "Take him to my courtyard, I have a treatment room there," she instructed. "Wu Lin," she called in a commanding tone, turning to the high table where her parents, the Zhang family, Tang Jin and Feng Xi stared at her, a myriad of emotions written across the faces of the group. "I could use your assistance in treating your Master and I'm sure he'll feel better knowing you were there to watch over him," she said calmly, as though there were nothing disturbing about the injuries she'd inflicted on Alchemist Wai Dan or the prospect of treating them. 

"Of course, I'll go at once," he said, turning to the City Lord and bowing slightly before he began to move, not for a moment questioning Ao Wen's request. Something in her voice expected obedience and in his current state of shock, he was ready to do whatever she commanded. 

Lifting a pair of broken table legs, Ao Wen moved to Chen Xiong next, quickly bracing his broken leg and providing him with an elixir to dull the pain. "I'll take care of you, I promise," she said softly, looking into the wounded young man's eyes. "You'll be running and wrestling bears again in no time." 

"Worth it," he squeezed out between pained winces. "Would fight. For you. Again," he managed haltingly. 

"Not like this you won't," Ao Wen teased, seeing her elixir carrying the young man off to a more pain-free sleep. "But maybe one day soon," she added, giving him a reassuring smile as his eyelids gave up their struggle to stay open. 

"Do you need help with Tao Juan," Zhang Bai asked, looking over their most injured teammate. The young knife fighter was already petite and frail to begin with and the force of Tong Fan's hammer throw had crushed several ribs leaving the young man drawing rattling, shallow breaths and unable to cling to consciousness. 

"No, you stand here," she said, waving over additional servants and instructing them to transport the two young men before she turned back to Zhang Bai. "Now, take that outer robe off," she commanded, ignoring the shocked looks from some of the more conservative women in the audience. "Tunic too, let me see the damage," she continued sternly, her healer's voice allowing no argument. 

Slowly, with stiff movements, Zhang Bai stripped off his rich green and silver robes before following with a blood-stained tunic until he stood bare-chested in the middle of the grand hall. Walking around him, Ao Wen's eyes took in every yellow and purple bruise, every cut and stab wound that he'd suffered when he allowed attacks against the barrier to harm his own body rather than allow the barrier's protection to crumble. Gently, she traced firm muscles, her fingers feeling the strength that lay hidden beneath his peacock-like attitude and public persona. Hours of training and dedicated practice had forged a body nearly one hundred and eighty centimeters tall into a refined weapon, capable of withstanding any assault. 

"Do you see this everyone," she said loudly, completing her inspection and coming to stand in front of the battered Soldier. "This is what it costs when a cultivator protects you," she continued, pitching her voice to the mortals at the back of the room. "This is the young lord of Turning Leaf who suffered these blows to protect a woman of Turning Leaf he hasn't known for a full moon. Patriarch Zhang, Lady Ju," she said, turning to Zhang Bai's parents. "You've raised an amazing future protector of our Turning Leaf that he stands without hesitation and bears all this without complaint. Without his resolve," she concluded, placing a hand lightly at the center of Zhang Bai's chest. "I'd have failed today. My thanks to the Zhang family for keeping me safe."

Not one to miss an opportunity so readily delivered, the City Lord smiled broadly with genuine pride at his eldest son. Finally, the young man seemed to have found his way out of the fog that had clouded his mind in the days after he met Ao Wen and he'd set his feet to a much stronger path forward from here. "The Zhang Family has protected the people of Turning Leaf for generations, from the time of my grandfather and his grandfather. It does this father proud to see his son pick up the mantle of protector so well," he praised. 

"Now," Ao Wen said, pulling out one of the bottles she'd recently filled with Alchemist Wai's modified Heaven's Dew Restorative Elixir. "This was made in haste and it's only Ordinary Grade," she explained. "But you're to drink it all down and then head directly to bed."

"It's fine," Zhang Bai protested, holding up his hands as though to ward off the medicine. 

"No, it's not fine. You feel fine now but in a little bit the excitement will wear off and you'll hurt like hell," she chided. "Besides, like I told Alchemist Wai, his modification to the recipe induces drowsiness. I have enough for you and the three men who stood for him, they aren't too badly injured, but after you all take your medicine, I need to help the more seriously injured. Don't make me fetch your mother," she added in a tone that was half teasing and half genuine threat. 

"Patriarch Zhang," Ao Wen said, turning back to the high table after tending to her various charges. "I apologize for disrupting the banquet. If you can grant an indulgence, I'll return within an hour once I've stabilized the wounded."

"Did you disrupt the banquet?" Patriarch Zhang asked with a smile, still elated with his son's breakthrough in this confrontation. "I had thought that you brought out champions of the younger generation to help entertain our guests," he offered smoothly. "Take the time you need. Honored Guests," he continued, turning to address the crowd. "While the clouds have spoiled any view of the moon and stars, lights and decorations along with warm plum wine await in the Moon Viewing garden so if you will follow my lovely Wan Yue we'll straighten up the main hall and return here in an hour or so to resume the proper banquet."

As Ao Wen moved to her own courtyard and people began shuffling toward the gardens, voices could be heard discussing the spectacle that had just occurred. 

"The Zhang family just acquired two second-stage cultivators in less than a moon," an elegantly dressed mortal who dealt in rare timber and other products from the Thundercloud forest said softly to his wife and eldest son. "Come spring, just you wait! Young Lord Zhang Bai is going to explode into the forest and open up new territory for logging and harvesting. We have to be ready to take advantage when the time comes!"

"Forget Young Lord Zhang Bai," his wife said earnestly. "Did you see how much better Soldier Feng looked? I think Alchemist Ao is going to have him back on his feet in no time! Maybe she'll even help him break through to Warrior the way she helped Lady Wan break through to Novice," she gushed. "With her here, who knows how many miracles we'll see."

"You mean how many disasters," an older first-stage artist said as he drew even with the mortal family. "Every year when more than a few young ones awaken, things get dramatic but this is the first time I've ever seen someone all but murder our town's only real alchemist in broad daylight, right before the City Lord! Behind Alchemist Wai is the Alchemy Consortium. Offending them could mean that traveling alchemists are banned from Turning Leaf for a century," he continued, clearly exaggerating but to mortals who didn't know how the long-lived cultivators thought, perhaps it was the cold truth! "We could find our alchemists without supplies, assuming that Alchemist Wai Dan is willing to stay after this incident. Who will we turn to for elixirs if he's gone? Who will heal our brave cultivators if they have to stand against a beast tide from the forest?"

"Won't we have Alchemist Ao?" the mortal woman asked. "She seems to care more for the common folk than Alchemist Wai ever did anyway. Who cares if the fussy consortium can't be bothered to help our Turning Leaf? We help our own!"

Walking next to Wan Yue, Hou Jia couldn't help but feel nervous at the many conversations she overheard from the crowd as they walked toward the garden. "My little Wen has made trouble for your family hasn't she?" Hou Jia asked, voice heavy with concern and apprehension. 

"In a way, she has," Wan Yue said gently. "But, don't think that she was as reckless as she may have appeared. Not all the trouble she created is a bad thing after all…" she began to explain.