Chapter 408 — The Heart Blossom

CHAPTER 408

The Heart Blossom

“A flower?” Elder Fen Yi said. “You want a flower.”

“One flower,” Shi Feng said. “The Heart Blossom.”

The elders' hall went silent.

It was a long room of dark wood and pale paper windows. Seven elders sat along a low table, and on its head, in place of the Valley Master, lay a jade seal on a green cushion. Bai Chenxi stood against the back wall with her arms folded. Su Wanning, who had appointed herself Shi Feng's assistant, sat beside him with a tray of teacups. So far she had given him tea three times, and each time it had been a different herb.

“Explain,” Elder Fen Yi said. She was a tall, stern woman with a staff across her knees, and she did not waste words.

“The Withering is a refined poison,” Shi Feng said. “I said so in the garden. It was made by someone with a furnace and a recipe. Now I know what the recipe was made against.”

“Against what?” Elder Fen Yi asked.

“The Valley’s flowers,” Shi Feng said. “They come from the Heart Garden’s seed beds, and those descend from the Blossom. The poison targets that line. I need a living sample to understand what it attacks. Dried herbs and old seed won’t show me. One bloom will.”

“Living,” Elder Fen Yi said.

“A single bloom,” Shi Feng said. “I'll take nothing from the root.”

Nobody moved. Then three elders began speaking at once.

“The Blossom has not been touched in four hundred years!”

“That is the heart of the Valley! One careless move and the whole game is lost!”

“A guest from a poor sect asks to cut it?”

“A guest from a poor sect,” Su Wanning said loudly, to the room at large, “has been right about everything so far! He said it was a poison! You said it was a blight! Who was right? And I only got three herbs wrong this week, which is practically perfect—”

“Su Wanning,” Bai Chenxi said from the wall.

“I'm only saying!” Su Wanning said, and shoved a cup of something green into Shi Feng's hand.

He didn't drink it. He was watching the elder at the far end of the table.

Hua Rong raised a hand, and the elders quieted. He’d listened with apparent concern. Now he looked sorrowfully from Shi Feng to the jade seal, making sure the others were watching before he spoke.

“Alchemist Shi,” Elder Hua Rong said. “This old man does not doubt your skill. Everyone has seen what you did for us at the gate. But think of what you ask. Think thrice before acting, as the saying goes. The Heart Blossom is not a herb. It's a living treasure. If it dies, the Valley dies with it. And on what do we stake it? A guess.”

“It's not a guess,” Shi Feng said.

“A reasoned guess,” Elder Hua Rong said kindly. “Based on soil, and sap, and a taste. Brilliant, I'm sure. But a guess.”

“Elder Hua Rong,” Elder Fen Yi said, “three disciples are dead.”

“And we mourn them,” Elder Hua Rong said. “But we have other roads. Martial Palace has offered physicians. Good ones. If we accepted their help with proper caution—”

“Their physicians,” Bai Chenxi said, without moving.

“Proper caution,” Elder Hua Rong repeated gently.

Shi Feng kept silent. Mu Shuyun had the wax, and he had no proof to lay before these elders. He’d been told to investigate, not announce his suspicions. Instead, he listened closely to Hua Rong’s objections.

Elder Hua Rong had said the word “guess” four times. He had mentioned the Palace's physicians once. He had called the Blossom a treasure twice and had never once asked what the antidote would do.

The difference troubled Shi Feng. Hua Rong defended the Blossom without asking whether the poison could be removed. Protecting it from the alchemist seemed to concern him more than protecting it from the Withering.

I'll remember who's arguing, Shi Feng thought. And how kindly.

“The Valley Master's seal is on the table,” Elder Fen Yi said at last, thumping her staff. “She is too ill to rule on this. I won't cut the Blossom on one man's word, and I won't refuse the only cure we have been offered. The vote is deferred.”

“Until when?” Shi Feng asked.

“Until the Valley Master can stand,” Elder Fen Yi said.

“She hasn't stood in a month,” Shi Feng said.

“Then until she does,” Elder Fen Yi said, and her staff came down once more. “The hall is dismissed.”

The elders filed out. Elder Hua Rong stopped at the door and bowed to Shi Feng, with real warmth, like an uncle.

“No hard feelings, Alchemist Shi,” Elder Hua Rong said. “We are only careful.”

“Of course,” Shi Feng said. “So am I.”

When the door had closed, Su Wanning exhaled all at once and grabbed his sleeve.

“I told you he was helpful!” Su Wanning whispered, seizing his sleeve. “He even writes the whole night watch himself. Which gate, which night, who goes where. Nobody else has to do a thing. Isn’t that convenient?”

“The watch sheet?” Shi Feng said.

“All of it!” Su Wanning said. “And he said the nights are getting dangerous, and only Big Sis Qingzhu has the stamina to feed the array. So it's been her every night for three weeks. She says it's fine. She says it's always fine.”

Shi Feng thought of grey nails hidden inside a sleeve.

“Who else sees the watch sheet?” Shi Feng asked.

“Just him,” Su Wanning said. “And whoever he tells.”

“Where is she tonight?” Shi Feng asked.

“The array platform,” Su Wanning said. “From dusk. Why?”

Shi Feng put the green tea down on the table, untouched, and stood.

“I'd like to check something,” Shi Feng said.