Chapter 60: Fragrant Leaf

I cast [Identify] as my eyes swept the room, searching for anything out of place.

[Grim Shui Haiwu, Darkwind Scion Path Cultivator, Core Formation Realm]

[Shui Mingyun, Darkwind Scion Path Cultivator, Core Formation Realm]

The tension left my body all at once. I leaned back to the wall, sliding to the ground.

Shui Yuhai stared for a moment. I tilted my head back, causing Littlebird to hop across it. He chirped, still fussing over keeping the hair out of my eyes. He refused to touch me elsehwer since I had winced at his last hop onto my shoulder.

My lungs still strained at the damage they had sustained.

“Drink?” Yuhai asked, breaking the silence. Her two cousins stared at each other for a moment.

“Please.” I said.

I rested my head against the wall as Yuhai pulled a tea cup from the cabinet and filled it with liqour before handing it back to me. I recoiled at the first smell of it; it felt like it singed my noise.

Then I threw the glass back and swallowed. I ended up coughing in spite of my constitution. Yuhai laughed.

“I’m surprised you’re all awake.” I said.

“Everyone is up. Didn’t you hear that noise?” Yuhai asked. She was inspecting my arm.

The noise? I couldn’t hear anything over the wind, but the sound of Wen and Bai’s clash must have been audible from in here.

“Our attendants fought.”

One of Yuhai’s cousins, Mingyun, gasped at the news. She had startlingly golden hair — not shock blonde, but shiny and reflective like metal.

“Let’s see what we can do about your arm, and then you can tell us what happened.” Yuhai offered.

I nodded. Yuhai pulled free bandages from her spirit ring, helping tie my arm into a sling.

“What did… do you know the details of the second trial?” Mingyun asked, stalking over to the room and sitting cross legged.

I nodded, a grim expression on my face.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” I started. “Jin said that the second trial was a trap.”

Shui Yuhai’s third cousin, Haiwu, was rooting around in physical bags that they had stashed in the back of Yuhai’s bedroom before pulling free a smaller canvas sack and stepping over. She opened a bag full of bird feed, lifting a palm full of it up to Littlebird. Her eyes seemed to glow white in the dim room.

He peered at the seed suspiciously before hopping down. I tensed as I felt the qi in the air shift; Yuhai’s third cousin performed some kind of technique. I felt a gentle nudge into the bond that connected Littlebird to me. She looked impressed.

“The bond you have with your Spiritbeast is phenomenally stable. Did you hatch him yourself?” Haiwu asked.

I paused. I was about to reveal something very serious to them and they were focusing on Littlebird. He ate a piece of the grain experimentally, then chirped, and started feasting as fast as he could.

“Sort of.” I said.

“You bonded with him before he hatched? I didn’t know the Feng practiced Spiritbeast taming.” Haiwu said. “In the Shui empire, it is said that the nature and trust built into the bond of a master and their tamed beasts can speak volume of their character.”

“You sound like my dad.” Yuhai said, groaning.

“It’s true enough.” Haiwu shrugged. “Okay. I trust him. So, this trap?”

“The blood of the Omen Alligators — Jin said it leaves some kind of marker on everyone it touches.”

“Right. Not terribly uncommon for beasts being bred to fight.” Haiwu said. “Not a problem for us. All three of us tamed one.”

I frowned.

“The Second Trial will involve diving into the lake below us — the one full of Omen Alligators. Everyone who slew one would be in terrible danger…” I trailed off.

The Shui elder chose a trial that specifically benefitted Shui Scions over everyone else. Stronger trialgoers might be defeated by weaker Shui beasttamers.

“Each cultivator has to gather a stalk of Dead Sea Flower from the lakebed. You know of the blood marker. Do you know how to remove it?” I asked Haiwu, hopeful.

“We know how to remove it. But again, there’s no need, is there?” She leaned back. “Less competitors for us is a good thing. And besides that, it’s expensive.”

Yuhai raised a hand, halting Haiwu mid sentence. Yuhai leaned toward me, her untied hair falling forward toward her face. In the dim room, her eyes glittered with the greed only a cultivator could possess, and a wide smile split her face. She looked maniacal.

“You’re both thinking about this all wrong. There’s a way to play this to benefit ourselves more and to help the other Scions.”

A few minutes later I was outside of yet another bedroom. Yuhai pounded a fist on the door.

“I know you’re in there.” Yuhai said, leaning outside of the door. We spent more time sitting in the hallway waiting for the door to open than we had walking here.

There was a dinging noise from inside, followed by a pungeant smell, like caramelizing sugar. I stepped back when I realized a soft pink mist was actually wafting around my feet. Then the door swung open, and smoke poured out in coils.

A shirtless, sweat covered man opened the door. His face looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. When I used identify, I felt my lip curl back in distaste.

[Yin Yexiang, Second Realm Darkwind Scion Path Cultivator]

“Feng Sai! My favorite customer!” Yexiang was wire thin, and his hair was cut short. He had a face like a rat.

“Ye.” I said, forcing a smile. This was not who I was expecting to meet today. I hadn’t even known that he was a Darkwinds Scion; he hadn’t been at dinner.

He was a prodigy of his sect; a tiny cultivation sect, vassal to another nation, but able to match their economic power purely through the medicine they produced.

I knew him from when I had given up on cultivation.

Yuhai grabbed him, shoving him into the room. I stared over at her cousins, who just shrugged and followed after. I shut the door behind us.

Littlebird sailed across the room to where two cauldrons sat. One of them was pouring out the pink smoke that flooded the room. Across from the other, another Yin clan Scion was passed out. He was only in the First Realm.

“Elder Sister, I didn’t do anything wrong!” Yexiang yelped as he was pushed backwards into the room.

Yuhai smiled. The more I saw her smile, the more I noticed how sharklike it was.

“What are you making?” Yuhai asked.

Yexiang threw his arm up, trying to swallow whatever was in his hand. I hadn’t even noticed his hand clutched around it. Yuhai smacked it out of his hand, sending a tiny, prismatic sphere rolling across the floor. Yuhai frowned at it.

“Party pill. Going to be up all night!” Yexiang said. Then he scrambled back and toward the pill.

I bent down and picked it up, examining it.

[F Grade Spirit Medicine, Party Pill, made by Yexiang, fusion of multiple F Grade Spirit Recipes. Minor Poison, hallucinatory.]

“Poison?” I asked in surprise.

Yuhai released Yexiang, who immediately grabbed the pill out of my hand and threw it into his mouth. He shivered.

“Only insomuch as any medicine is poison!” He declared happily. “Now, are you here to buy something? I need to build quite a portfolio. We can’t all tame a Spiritbeast before we even arrive.” Yexiang squinted at me. Then, an expression of fear flashing on his face, doubled back. “Of course, I would expect nothing less of Senior Brother Sai.”

“You’re older than me.” I said, circling the room to stare at the qi deprived alchemist in the back. “Is he alright?”

 “Oh, he’s fine, just ran out of qi. It’s good for him! Neither of us are making it through the First Trial, let alone the second, so we’re building a portfolio! We’ll get into the Alchemist faction of the servants. Then, we can earn enough merits to become Outer Sect members.” Yexiang paced the room as he spoke. He licked his lips, then dove into the pile of bags leaning against a wall and began pulling out various bottles.

Littlebird flew out of the cauldron. He had jumped inside of it at some point. Yuhai reached in, grabbing one of the pink medicine balls before shoving it into a pocket.

“That’s what we’re here to talk to you about.” Yuhai said. She eyed her cousins. “Can you make a Blood Scent Cleansing Pill?”

Both of them were huddled near eachother by the door, as if they were preparing to run.

“Hmmm?” Yexiang asked. “Of course I can. Can you afford it?”

“If you can make them for us, we’re willing to do the work of the First and Second Trial’s for you.” Yuhai said.

Yexiang paused, looking up and making eye contact with Yuhai. Then he made eye contact with me as if to ask if he was really hearing what he heard. Yexiang stared up at the ceiling, pausing for a moment.

“This is going to help you clear the Second Trial somehow.” He said after a deliberation. “But how many do you need?”

“Eighty.” I said. “No, a hundred.”

Yexiang shook his head no.

“There’s no way you can afford that, not even with every Spiritstone you brought here between you. Plus, I’d run out of materials. I’d need a detoxifying plant and blood with the scent you’re cleansing on it.”

“We’ll get the resources back in exchange for trading the pills to the other Scions.” Yuhai said. “Plus, some profit for us. Are you in, or should I ask the Taiyang young master?”

“The Taiyang? Them? They couldn’t make a medicine once in ten times. They couldn’t discern a Bleeding Lotus from a Red Lotus. They — ” Yexiang continued to prattle.

“Your party pills aren’t going to be impressive enough.” Yuhai said. “This is your best bet, working with us.”

“They impressed Sai plenty!” Yexiang said.

I coughed. Yuhai raised an eyebrow at me.

“So you’ll work with us?” I asked.

“Of course! Anything to show up that Taiyang brat.” Yexiang stomped up to me, looking me up and down. His pupils were dilated.

He jammed a finger into my chest, and a pulse of qi followed. I stepped back, eyes widening, as Yexiang muttered rapidly to himself. Then, with a showy flourish, he spun and tried to shove a pill into my mouth. I caught it, looking down at it.

[E Grade Spirit Medicine, Bone and Flesh Stitching Pill, made by Yexiang]

“Take this. You should heal within a week with that. Instead of two.”

I stared at the pill then back at Yexiang. I wondered if he would give this to me sober. And if I would heal faster than he expected due to my constitution. After a moment of deliberation, I swallowed the pill.

It melted before even hitting my tongue, exploding into life-qi that spread through my body. Immediately, my wounds began to itch as my body started stitching itself together even faster.

“What are you waiting for? Bring me the ingredients!” Yexiang said, stomping back to his pile of storage and rifling through his storage.

“We could use your connections with the other Scions to help facilitate the deals.” I said.

“Then just come here in the morning! Half of the Scions are visiting me over the day. Now go get me that blood!”