Chapter 40 - Meeting with the Medical Saintess

The camp of the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple presented a stark contrast to the city that Ao Wen had been living in for the past several days. Not only were there many pristine large white tents in neat rows, but the sect seemed to have brought along multiple actual buildings that formed a sort of "town square" in the middle of the camp. The largest of these buildings stood three stories tall and was adorned with gold-covered statues of the sect's sacred flame emblem along with phoenix-adorned cauldrons.

Seeing Ao Wen's reaction to the large manor, Cheng Chuntao offered an explanation. "That's the Medical Saintess' Traveling Manor. It not only holds rooms for her concocting and reference library, but also places for receiving guests, hosting banquets, giving lectures, and the hundreds of other things that she might need to do while traveling in her capacity as the Medical Saintess of the Sacred Flame Celestial Temple. The cauldron with the phoenix on it is the emblem of the sect's Alchemy Hall. Any disciple you see with that emblem is at least an Alchemy Novice through their emblem will be a gold cauldron with a white phoenix on white robes since they can't practice alchemy independently yet."

"Everyone in robes with gold emblems is a cultivator?" Ao Wen asked, her mind reeling at the size of the sect's camp. Between the guarded entrance to the camp and the central plaza, she'd seen more cultivators at the second stage or higher than existed in all of Turning Leaf town. At home, a second-stage cultivator would be a noted figure around town, someone who would be invited to grand events and wield significant influence. Here, she saw second-stage cultivators standing as door guards or running about the camp on basic-looking errands.

"Since the Saintess is here, we don't require a large force for this mission," Cheng Chuntao explained. "In total, there are less than twenty-five hundred mortal workers here and only five hundred cultivators, most of whom are outer disciples in the second or third stage. A majority of them are Soldiers and Warriors in case we have to contain any escaping Yin Fiends."

"Only," Ao Wen said quietly. As many cultivators in this camp that wasn't a "large force" as there were in all of Turning Leaf town… and all of them were at least second or third stage.

Arriving at the building to the left of the Saintess' manor they were stopped by an outer disciple guarding the door. "I'm sorry Senior Sister Cheng," the man said. "The only patients receiving treatment in this hall are dire cases or ones the Saintess has personally requested be sent here. Without her or one of her disciples with you, I can't let you in here."

"This is a special case," Cheng Chuntao explained. "This is Initiate Yu from the sect's orphanage chapter. She's been managing the orphanage and she's been serving as the attending alchemist for the children of the orphanage."

The guard's eyes widened as he looked at Ao Wen's haggard face, emaciated frame, and torn robes. "This little one has been managing the orphanage? She's the attending alchemist?"

"The last of the senior sisters died ten days ago," Ao Wen said flatly. "There was no one else to do it."

"She taught herself alchemy to make medicine for the younger orphans," Cheng Chuntao added from the side. "She's only awakened recently but you can see how remarkable she is. Do you think the Saintess would want her brought here?"

"Taught herself… Yes!" the guard responded. "Yes, I think the Saintess would want her brought here. Please wait while I fetch an appropriate Alchemy Novice," he said before ducking inside.

Moments later a graceful man? woman? The person who exited the building possessed an undeniable magnetism, immediately commanding everyone's attention. Dark hair cascaded over slender shoulders in lush waves. Sharp but refined features held an alluring androgynous beauty, wide shimmering eyes, sculpted cheeks, and full lips traced ever-so-faintly in rouge.

His lithe frame was draped in rich brocade robes that swished softly with each graceful step. The fabric parted occasionally to showcase a decidedly masculine chest, yet his coquettish mannerisms and calculated gestures skewed distinctly feminine, keeping observers doubting their first impression.

Intricately carved wooden hairpins secured his inky tresses in an elaborately braided style. Matching rings adorned long, nimble fingers that moved with hypnotic elegance. Overall he presented an intoxicating blend of masculinity and femininity, subtly sensual but projecting utmost dignity.

Those doe-eyes surveyed the people gathered at the entrance to the building, missing nothing, and a smile quirked his lips as though privy to delicious secrets. Rapt interest exuded from his every pore, in the gathering, the setting, and especially the young woman's wide-eyed scrutiny. With a flamboyant bow, he purred, "I'm Alchemist Huang Yuze," in a voice that had a rich, almost smoky timbre. "Perhaps in the future, you will call me Senior Brother Huang. Little Yu can follow me," he said looking at the two disciples who had brought Ao Wen here. Both women seemed to be gazing at him with a look between desire and adoration. "Junior Sisters can rest assured that she will be safe in our care."

"Se-Senior Brother Huang," Cheng Chuntao began, stammering slightly as her heart raced at the sight of him. "May I, may I continue to accompany her? She's been through a great deal and a woman should be present with her."

"Junior Sister Cheng need not worry herself," the handsome man said with a tone that was both gentle and firm. "This is a hall for alchemists to treat patients. Little Yu is afflicted by Yin Fiend Transformation, which makes her a patient before anything else. Between doctor and patient, gender does not exist," he said, teasing slightly. To Ao Wen, she wasn't entirely sure that gender existed to him no matter where he went! "In our halls, no patient needs to fear for their safety. If you need, I can send word when she is either ready to depart or can receive visitors."

"Apologies Senior Brother," Cheng Chuntao said, cupping her hands as she bowed. "Initiate Yu, it looks like this is where we part. I'll come visit you when I can."

"Senior sister has been kind." Ao Wen said, cupping her hands before turning to the alchemist. "I'm in Alchemist Huang's care."

Following the Alchemist she was taken to a small room to change in. "Do you have any personal items that you treasure?" Alchemist Huang asked.

"None," she replied simply. "I expect most things will be burned to contain sickness."

"Exactly so," he replied. "Remove your clothing here and leave it. The door at the back leads to a washroom. After you've washed, go to the room on the opposite side where clean clothing will be awaiting you. Ring the bell there when you're ready. I shouldn't have to explain to an Alchemy student but wash very thoroughly with the soaps there, including your hair. When surrounded by death, other diseases spread from things that feast on corpses. Fleas or other pests can be as dangerous as open sores and wet coughing, understood?"

"Yes, Alchemist Huang," Ao Wen said simply as she began to undress.

Closing the door as he left, Huang Yuze shook his head sadly. Alchemy could remedy many afflictions but a broken soul wasn't one of them. Even if cured of Yin Fiend Transformation, if they couldn't revive her spirit, she'd never truly leave this place.

Ao Wen took the time in the small washroom to truly clean herself for the first time since she'd woken to this life. She hadn't realized how filthy she'd become until she saw the dark color of the water pooling around her feet on its way to a drain in the corner. Tugging at the knots in her hair she quickly gave up on the idea of recovering the mess. Finding a pair of nail scissors, she cut roughly in line with her jawline and threw the knotted remainder in a bin to be burned with her old robes. It wasn't elegant but what remained was short enough that she could comb through it with relative ease to ensure she carried no pests.

Finally, she arrived at the other room where a clean set of initiates robes awaited her along with a simple cot and a short stool. Moments after ringing the bell a stunning woman entered the small room Ao Wen had just entered.

The woman exuded agelessness, neither old nor young, with lustrous auburn hair spilling over slender shoulders unbowed by time. Faint creases framed eyes that pierced through mortal veils, missing nothing. Within those tiger-gold depths swirled ancient wisdom transcending generations alongside primal hunger that could never be sated.

Everything about her sang of power at rest, from unadorned robes hinting at curves beneath to the relaxed set of her delicate jaw. No ornamentation was needed to announce her presence when she commanded any room through sheer force of will. At the same time, a surprising warmth also lurked in her bearing as though she had gathered many lives under vast protective wings.

That compelling aura clung to her like a second skin, echoing in her graceful movements and the cadence of her rich voice. She seemed accustomed to having others orbit within her radiance, helpless against her magnetic pull. As she drew near, Ao Wen detected wisps of herbs and medicinal fragrances wreathing her in a perpetual healing halo.

This woman had strode countless battlefields turning blood into salvation, Ao Wen realized, humbled by the scope of relief she could unleash with a gesture. When their eyes locked, recognition jolted through her very bones. Something that slumbered deep within Ao Wen recognized this woman, not precisely as an individual but as… kin?

"So this is the child that taught herself alchemy in the middle of a plague. Not much meat on you is there?" The woman's voice might have been light but her words landed heavily on Ao Wen making her feel small and insignificant before such an overwhelming presence.

"This Initiate is called 'Yu'," she said, dropping to the stone floor and kneeling towards the woman with her hands pressed to the floor in supplication. "My, my skills are lacking," she managed to stammer, trying to force out the words she had to say more than anything. "Ha-half of my charges died before Medical Saintess could arrive. I beg the Saintess to save the six who still live," she finished in a rush, eyes fixed on the floor, afraid to look up and see condemnation in the eyes of this radiant woman.

The red-haired woman stood there for several moments before sighing. "Let me demonstrate for you what the treatment method is for Yin Fiend Transformation. Stand up and give me your left hand." Taking Ao Wen's left hand between her hands, the Medical Saintess paused for a moment. "This will be mildly unpleasant," she said.

Slowly, heat began to build as orange-crimson flames appeared between the Saintess' hands, enveloping Ao Wen's disfigured hand in heat like plunging it into hot sand.

"Now we begin," the woman said, opening her amber eyes wide, her body pupils turning into vertical slits, a mighty aura filling the room. Ao Wen's eyes opened wide in shock, feeling the aura of a powerful dragon from the Medical Saintess! Her shock, however, was quickly replaced by the most agonizing pain she'd felt in three people's lives. Worse than having her arm broken by the Rage Queen, Worse than having her flesh torn by Wind Howl Coyotes, the pain of being burned alive from the inside out surpassed any agony she'd ever felt!

Visible flames began to blossom along her body. Everywhere there was strange flesh on her body erupted into flowers of orange-crimson flames, blistering the flesh until it blackened, intensifying until the blackened skin became brittle as charcoal, cracking and falling away from her body as she trembled in bone-searing flame. The torture didn't end when her blackened flesh fell away. Instead, the flames within her intensified, searing away marrow within her bones, flowing from acupoint to acupoint turning into dozens of small flames that burned with the energy of her own cultivation as fuel.

Still, the treatment hadn't finished! "Drink this," the woman said, holding a small vial to Ao Wen's lips. The liquid felt like ice, freezing her jaw in place as frost covered her lips. Gulping painfully, an icy aura swirled around the flames, extinguishing them and coating her bones, blood vessels, and five viscera in a layer of pure ice. "Last part," the woman said, producing another vial and using a slim rod as a dropper. "Look up, don't blink," she said, dripping a thick green liquid onto each of her eyes.

Everything in the world became murky, coated in a thick green haze. The liquid seeped into her eyeballs, flowing like roots seeking the earth as the energy burrowed into her brain stimulating dozens of her darkest impulses. Images flashed past her eyes of herself fighting Qing Chen only this time, instead of humiliated, she left him dead on the stage, walking away to force Tang Jin to submit as her servant or face the same. Another flash, this time responding to Mo Yan's taunting by beating his face until the once handsome man could only be described as a hideous thing. A third flash showed Feng Xi in her night clothes, tied to the posts of a bed as Ao Wen approached her to…

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Ao Wen shouted, shattering the vision as she struggled to free her hands from the Saintess as though to claw out her own eyes!

The Saintess lifted her by the hands, dangling the struggling Ao Wen like a fish on a line. "You can open your eyes now," the Saintess said. "You've completed the purge. Look," the Saintess said, directing Ao Wen's gaze to a mirror in the corner. Half of her body was covered in burnt and blackened skin, the other half showed visible signs of frostbite while green veins flowed from her temples to her neck and vanished beneath her scorched robes. "This is the recovery you would give those children. Only your case was mild compared to theirs. Even if they had the same level of contamination as you, the flames would have to burn ten times longer to make up for the lack of cultivation energy. They'd have to consume ten times the vials of Aether Snow Drops, swallowing each one down within a minute of the previous and they'd have to have Dark Yin Dew dripped on their eyes ten times, each time immediately after they broke out of the vision. Failure to keep up with the treatment would either end in death or would turn them completely into Yin Fiends. Now tell me, little alchemist," the Saintess asked, pulling Ao Wen's face within inches of hers. "Do you think treatment would succeed for those children? Before you answer that, know that Dark Yin Dew is very hard to refine to this level, there's not much to go around. Would you treat ten cultivators or one child?"

Ao Wen trembled in the Saintess' grasp. How could she answer this? She knew the answer the Saintess wanted but could she give it? Could she sacrifice a mortal child to save ten cultivators? No, that was a trap, she realized. Could she trade ten innocent lives for one. Cultivators weren't more worthy of living than mortals. Ten adults who had lived decades and had centuries ahead of them or one child? Also a trap. Cultivators included young people like her, not far out of childhood herself. Anything could be equalized but the numbers. Ten for one. No… worse. She'd learned from her failures that not every attempt succeeded. Her success rate with simple fever reducer was one in six. The Saintess made it clear that not every child would succeed. How many? One in six? The odds were better for cultivators. What would the final ratio be? One for twenty? For thirty?

"Initiate Yu apologizes for her ignorant request," she forced out through bitter tears.

"Good," the Saintess said. "Now we can truly begin."