180 Chapter 178 - You’re a Woman?
The following day, Ao Wen and Ma Xiaohua withdrew into Ao Wen's alchemy lab to begin refining the components Ao Wen would need to attempt to align herself with the dangerous manual. While she had little to actually contribute, Feng Xi accompanied the two alchemists. Thus far, Alchemist Ma had been nothing but genuine with her, and Feng Xi trusted her perception of the other woman's emotions enough that she wasn't worried that she would somehow harm Ao Wen during this process. Still, her heart was distinctly unsettled at the notion of leaving the two alchemists alone together. Since neither of them objected to her presence, she settled herself into the corner and watched a different sort of artistry unfold.
"How far did you make it with your own attempt to use the manual?" Ao Wen asked as she set out her cauldron and several other vessels for each stage of refinement she'd be working through.
"Not far," Ma Xiaohua admitted. "The ritual requires eight refinements of the Dark Weaver Spider's venom. Each refinement is more demanding than the next one. The resulting venom is so potent that a single drop of it would be fatal to most cultivators beneath the third stage. I only managed the first six refinements. I tried learning the Eight By Eight Flame Grid art contained in the manual," she explained, flipping through the tome to the relevant section. "It's just that it requires a very docile flame and I could never make myself tame enough to use this art."
"I don't think it needs a docile flame," Ao Wen said, looking over the high level flame control art. She'd be a fool to attempt to use it without spending a considerable amount of time practicing first, but that didn't mean she looked down on it. The art was just as high grade as her own Master Grade Eight Trigrams Flame Control art. "The Dark Whisper Venomous Binding emphasizes Dominance as one of its core concepts," she explained. "I think the challenge of this art is to dominate your own flames and to achieve such overwhelming control of them that even the most rebellious and explosive of flames become docile in your hands."
"If I was that kind of person," the older alchemist said, "I'd never have allowed Lord White to dominate me the way he's come to. I'm far too yielding to achieve success this way."
"There's strength in yielding," Feng Xi chimed in from the corner. "So long as you bend rather than breaking and hold true to yourself, there's nothing wrong with yielding when you must."
"So I keep reminding myself," Ma Xiaohua said with a smile. "I choose there's strength not only in yielding but in enduring. Perhaps I'm just making my stubbornness grand, but as long as there's the slightest hope, I'm going to keep moving forward toward my dreams," she promised with a subtle glance at Ao Wen.
"Oh good," Ao Wen said, smiling as she placed a hand on the older alchemist's shoulder. "I could use some company that's a bit stubborn. My close ones take issue with how stubborn I can be at times," she teased with a wink at Feng Xi. "It'll be good to have a friend around who sees being stubborn as a strength!"
"You'd consider me a friend?" Ma Xiaohua said, looking at Ao Wen in surprise.
"Of course I would," the younger alchemist responded. "You think I'd go so far for someone I didn't like? You're a good person Xiaohua," she said firmly. "I hate seeing good people treated the way you've been treated. You deserve better. If that means I have to give destiny a nudge to make sure you get the kind of life you deserve, so be it. After all, my master always said that Alchemists are here to change destiny. I like you and I dislike what destiny has brought you so I'm going to do something about it."
Ma Xiaohua hid her face as she bussied herself in her work, focusing intently on the ingredients that would supplement the Dark Weaver Spider venom in the ritual that Ao Wen would be undertaking. Focusing on the precise measurements and the careful preparations helped to still her beating heart even as her mind kept replaying Ao Wen's voice saying 'I like you' over and over again.
"Xiaohua," Ao Wen said, placing a hand on the sash that secured her dark black and red robes in place. "You're comfortable with the acupuncture technique for this?"
"I am, Lord Ao," she answered, her ears burning slightly as she realized that the young lord would need to strip to the waist for her to place the sixty-four needles in his flesh after dipping each one in the refined Dark Weaver Spider venom. "It's just sixty-four needles. I'm comfortable with techniques that use up to eighty needles, this is well within my reach."
"Good. Before we begin though, you should probably check my pulse," Ao Wen said, offering her wrist to the older alchemist.
"You're healthy and strong," Ma Xiaohua said, her fingers gently taking Ao Wen's pulse. "Your Earth Dragon bloodline surges but it seems like you have it well under control," she continued in her assessment, calmly detached as though Ao Wen was just another patient. "Wait," she said with a frown before turning her gaze to Ao Wen's amber eyes. "You, you're a woman!"
"I am," Ao Wen admitted readily. "It's easier when traveling if most people don't know that. It lets me be a better protector for Xi and prevents all manner of trouble from finding me. Still, some trouble always finds a way," she said with a faint smile. "So, now you know my secret," she added mischievously. "Does it change anything for you?"
For several moments, Ma Xiaohua just stared at Ao Wen's shining amber eyes as her mind reconstructed her image of the Novice Alchemist. Not a Young Lord but a Young Lady. Did that really matter to her though? Certainly, Ao Wen's delicate features and short stature would be considered rare among men and much more common among women but it had never been Ao Wen's looks that preoccupied her mind.
When Alchemist Ma thought back over what drew her to Ao Wen's flames like an ill fated moth, none of them vanished when she learned that Ao Wen was also a woman. She was still a brilliant alchemist, a talented cultivator following three paths and demonstrating brilliance in all of them. She was still courageous and caring, risking her very soul to cultivate this dark manual, just so she could rescue a woman she barely knew but was willing to call a friend. Against all the things that drew her to Ao Wen, did knowing that she was a woman really change anything?
"No," she said after several moments of contemplation, glancing briefly at Feng Xi before turning her one eyed gaze back to Ao Wen. "It doesn't change anything."
