61 Chapter 59 - Searching in Thundercloud Forest

Neither woman wanted to leave Tang Jin alone in their improvised camp but they were left with no alternative. Feng Xi didn't know what herbs Ao Wen might need and Ao Wen couldn't harvest anything that required two hands or even strenuous movement to get to. 

"I wish I'd learned almost anything about formations while I was in the sect," Ao Wen said as they stepped into the forest to search for the materials they needed to treat Tang Jin. "I was so spoiled. There were useful formations all over the sect and if I needed a Formation Master for a mission I just had to ask for one. Being able to set a defensive formation to protect camp while we hunt for herbs would be a godsend right now," she sighed wistfully. 

"You don't mean that literally right," Feng Xi said, picking her way over storm-tossed branches as they moved into the Thundercloud Forest. "You just mean a scholar who specialized in formations, not an actual fourth-stage cultivator like City Lord Zhang right?"

"Formation Master Shi Tan," Ao Wen said, ducking under a low-hanging branch as she spoke. "Fourth Stage Master Scholar, also a First Stage Drifting Mystic who cultivated some form of ice and wind mysticism that we never really discussed. I only knew her for a few days," she said as they continued along the rough path through the forest. "I also had two Champions for the mission, one of them surnamed 'Feng','' she added, slight sadness tinging her voice. "He was a sword cultivator, married to a Golden Crow. He and Brother Bo died at the end of our mission."

"Brother Bo?" Feng Xi asked gently. "Not Martial Brother Bo, just Brother?"

"I," Ao Wen started, pausing a moment to close her eyes and collect herself before she touched the more painful part of the memory. "I told him that he could call me Sister Cong and I would call him Brother Bo because we'd both survived the same disease. My Senior Brother Huang was the one who purged the curse from him, a few years after my adopted mother purged the same curse from me. Xi," Ao Wen said, pausing to place a hand on Feng Xi's shoulder and staring deeply into her eyes. "I hope that our realm never sees a cursed disease like that one. It's one hundred percent fatal to mortals," she started, "but cultivators' chances of survival aren't much better. With treatment from a Medical Saintess like Mother, if the disease was caught early enough like it was for me, the chances of survival were only as high as five in ten." 

"That sounds terrifying," Feng Xi said, trying to imagine a disease killing every mortal in Turning Leaf town and half of the cultivators. "It kills half of all cultivators?"

"No, it kills nine hundred and ninety-nine in one thousand cultivators," Ao Wen said grimly. "In the entire mortal realm, besides my mother the Medical Saintess, only ten other people could cure the disease. I was the latest one she taught how. I called him Brother Bo because to meet another survivor was so rare," she said. 

"No wonder you could command fourth-stage cultivators!" Feng Xi said in wonder. Part of her wanted to ask for more, there were parts of the story of this disease that Ao Wen clearly wasn't sharing, but Feng Xi kept her focus on the parts Ao Wen had chosen to share, leaving the rest for when she was ready. "At least if it ever does come here, we have you. But since you commanded fourth-stage cultivators, how high was your own cultivation? Was it actually higher than it is now?"

"It feels like it," Ao Wen said as they resumed their journey through the forest. "I was a middle stage Novice Scholar before but now I'm just at the beginning of the Novice stage rather than halfway through it. At least that won't affect my Alchemy much," she said. "If I lost a year of preparing for the Independent Alchemist Exam I don't know what I'd do! I'll still need to recover my cultivation to where it was and go even further to be able to concoct pills, but concocting feels a thousand times easier than all the other things I had to study."

"Did you study the saber any more while you were in that life?" Feng Xi asked. Ao Wen already possessed a terrifying saber art in the form of the Obsidian Night Scorpion Saber Art, if she'd learned more capable arts in this sect she talked about… how overwhelming would she have become?

"No," Ao Wen said, shaking her head ruefully. "I was tempted. There's a Twin Saber Flame Dance art that I thought would compliment my Flame Wind Fan Dance art, but I never got around to it," she said wistfully.

"Wait," Feng Xi said tugging at Ao Wen. "You learned a dance art? You became an Artist?" Feng Xi couldn't believe it and at the same time, she was immensely excited. Visions of playing her zither while Ao Wen danced with fans flitted through her mind and made it very difficult to contain her enthusiasm for the idea. 

"Nope," Ao Wen said teasingly, taking a few graceful steps away and allowing whisps of flame to form along with her footsteps. "Not an artist. Sorceress. These are Soul Flames," she said with a smile. "Though it feels like my cultivation has diminished there too. I can still recall the first three stages of the Fan Dance but my flames seem to have regressed to the middle stage Drifting Mystic from the late stage." 

"Doesn't matter," Feng Xi said with a delighted smile. "You can dance to my music, that's all I care about!"

Ao Wen laughed musically, falling into a vision very similar to the one Feng Xi likely had. "Yes," she said with a smile. "If it's for you, I'll dance to your every tune," she added with a wink. "Ah, but right now I have to put you to work," she said, pointing with her good hand towards a cluster of Thundercloud Plums hanging in a nearby tree. "It looks like we're in luck, that's three right there," she said with a smile. 

On the opposite side of the Thundercloud Forest, Zhang Bai had gathered several young cultivators in their late teens and early twenties to set off into Thundercloud Forest in search of Fairy Feng and Fairy Ao. While many regarded Fairy Ao as a potentially dangerous target of courtship, there still existed a few men who saw her as a dangerous prize to conquer and eagerly joined the hunt in the name of rescuing the fairy from the supposedly wicked Tang Jin who had drugged her and Fairy Feng. 

Little needed to be said about the throng of admirers who would flock to the woods in search of Fairy Feng. In difference to Mo Yan, Zhang Bai had only invited those whom he felt had the least chance of successfully courting Fairy Feng. Zhang Bai himself had no interest in either Fairy as he preferred dancers or women with considerable domestic skills to brutes like Fairy Ao and overly refined women like Fairy Feng. In a case like this, doing Mo Yan the favor of helping him be the best available suitor when they rescued the fairies would place the handsome younger cultivator squarely in his debt, potentially for years to come. Whether Mo Yan succeeded in his ambitions as a martial cultivator or took over his family's business empire, keeping Mo Yan indebted to him would be worth the investment. 

For his part, Mo Yan couldn't be happier with how events were turning out. He hadn't expected that Zhang Bai would give him the opportunity to come along to arrest Tang Qui but the look of frustration and outrage on Tang Qui's face when they told him that he would have to close his beloved family restaurant served as a delicious appetizer to his revenge against Tang Jin for betraying him to side with that detestably common Ao Wen. The sooner both Tang Jin and Ao Wen were put in their place, the sooner Mo Yan felt he could progress his life with the enchanting Feng Xi. 

Just when he had begun to savor the fantasy of separating Feng Xi from the bottom-feeding wretches who clung to her elegant skirts Mo Yan scowled as a blast of hot air heralded the arrival of the impetuous Alchemy Novice Mao Ailum. Flickering ambers wreathed the young man like a cloak, emitting wisps of smoke hinting at a fiery temper barely leashed. Everything about him seemed designed for spectacle over subtlety.

Where Mo Yan carried himself with elegant poise, Ailum stalked with coiled intensity. Little wonder given Ailum's infamous hair-trigger volatility. Insults imagined or overheard swiftly incited explosive retribution from those boulder-sized fists. Even without flexing his alchemical skills to summon searing orange flames, no sane person dared provoke this smoldering brute.

Which made his unannounced presence approaching Zhang Bai so shocking. Adept at charming influential mentors, Ailum often wormed into proceedings uninvited. Yet he typically avoided crossing paths with heirs of power like Zhang Bai or himself. But the hunger consuming Ailum's squinted eyes sparked a realization in Mo Yan - this interloper fixed identical desire upon fetching Fairy Feng!

Before Mo Yan could speak to voice his objections to the brazen Alchemy Novice's presence, Mao Ailum's haughty voice boomed out. "Are these the only hunters brave enough to rescue dear Fairy Feng from the Thundercloud Forest and that deceitful bastard Tang Jin's clutches?" Mao Ailum said with a sneer. "It's fortunate for you all that I've come today! Not only will I be able to purge any intoxicating drugs from the unfortunate Fairies, I'll be able to provide this sorry lot of amateurs when they stumble into trouble in the forest. Truly Brother Zhang," he said, looking at the eldest son of the City Lord before turning his gaze directly to Mo Yan. "Can't we at least leave the newly awakened pups behind on this mission? I'm afraid their bumbling will only delay us in rescuing the fair damsels from the dangers of man and beast."

"Brother Mao," Zhang Bai said cautiously, not wanting to offend one of only three alchemists in Turning Leaf town, even if he was only an Alchemy Novice. "I hadn't hoped to be able to invite such an esteemed personage as yourself for such a minor mission," he said, attempting to both butter up the arrogant alchemist and downplay the importance of the mission enough that the alchemist would be justified in not accompanying them.

"Nonsense," Mao Ailum said, cracking his knuckles and sending sparks into the air. "Where the virtue of young women is concerned, no man can hold himself too important to make a move in their defense. We should hurry," he said, impatience radiating off his broad shoulders in a visible heat mirage. "The longer we delay, the more perilous things become for Fairy Feng," he said, failing to mention Fairy Ao at all in his haste to claim his prize. 

More importantly, Mao Ailum had used the excuse of going in search of the missing Fairies to pay an early visit to Feng Lieren, providing him with a new batch of medicine. By the time they found Fairy Feng and he returned in glory, Feng Lieren should have one foot halfway into the grave, needing only the smallest push to ensure that Fairy Feng landed in his hands!