Chapter 836 — Use Him

CHAPTER 836

Use Him

“He is my alchemist,” Long Caili said. “He talks too much. Use him.”

Then she sat down in the only good chair in the room, settled her veil, and poured herself tea, as if her part of the evening was finished.

Shen Yaoqing’s quarters were next door to her master’s sickroom. They were plain for a chief disciple’s rooms: a bed, a desk, a sword rack with one sword in it, and a window that looked out on the dark garden. A single lamp burned on the desk. Shen Yaoqing stood beside it in her white robe, with her hair down for the night, and looked at Shi Feng as if he were a piece of furniture the princess had brought in without asking.

“I saw you take the ash,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“I wanted to know where it went,” Shi Feng said.

“And?” Shen Yaoqing said.

“Somewhere else,” Shi Feng said. “May I see her again? Only from the door.”

Shen Yaoqing looked at Long Caili. Long Caili lifted the hem of her veil an inch and drank her tea.

“From the door,” Shen Yaoqing said.

She opened the inner door between the two rooms. Ye Wanqiu was asleep. The braziers had been filled, and the black crease down her neck lay quiet in the lamplight.

Shi Feng looked at it once. He didn’t need longer. He’d been thinking about it since the contest final, and the ash had told him the rest.

He stepped back, and Shen Yaoqing closed the door.

“Well?” Shen Yaoqing asked.

“The wound is a hole into space,” Shi Feng said. “Not a big one. But anything that goes into her falls through it, a little at a time, the way water leaks out of a cracked jar. That’s what the void rot is. She isn’t rotting. She’s leaking.”

“Her physicians said the same thing in more words,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly. “Go on.”

“First,” Shi Feng said, “Grandmaster Qu’s pill was Perfect, and Perfect isn’t enough. A Perfect pill is finished when it leaves the furnace. It sits still. The wound doesn’t. It pulls, and a pill that sits still gets pulled through.”

Shen Yaoqing said nothing.

“Second. A pill past nine clouds calls its own tribulation. If it lives, it’s stronger than its grade, and it’s alive in a way other pills aren’t. It fights to stay whole.” Shi Feng held up two fingers. “So it has to survive its own lightning while it’s held inside a real fold of space. The fold teaches it to hold space. Then, when it goes into her, it won’t fall through. It closes the hole from the inside.”

The room was very quiet. Long Caili had stopped drinking.

“Third,” Shi Feng said. “I can’t do it.”

Shen Yaoqing’s eyes went cold as frost.

“Not yet,” Shi Feng went on. “Folding space belongs to Shattering Void. I’m at Deity Transformation. My tribulation comes in seven days. If I live, I’ll need about two more days before I can make a fold that doesn’t slip. That’s nine days.”

“If you live,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“If I live,” Shi Feng agreed. “I don’t plan to do anything else, but I won’t promise you what isn’t mine to promise. The sky makes its own decisions.”

Shen Yaoqing looked at him for a long moment. Then she turned away to the window.

“Grandmaster Qu Hanshan is a half-step 6 Mark,” Shen Yaoqing said. “Eight clouds on his register. Fifty years at the furnace. He failed in front of me today.” She didn’t turn round. “You are a 4 Mark. Why should a 4 Mark touch what a half-step 6 Mark couldn’t?”

“Because he failed for a reason he can’t fix,” Shi Feng replied. “His furnace doesn’t fold. His fire doesn’t fold. And at his age, he isn’t going to learn. I am.”

“That’s arrogant,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“It’s only arrogant if I’m wrong,” Shi Feng said. “If I’m right, it’s just a schedule.”

Long Caili set her cup down very gently. It made no sound at all.

Shen Yaoqing turned back from the window. Her face was as composed as ever, but she was looking at him properly now, the way she’d looked at the furnace in the hall.

“And your fee?” Shen Yaoqing asked.

Shi Feng didn’t answer.

The silence stretched. Long Caili looked at him over her cup, and her eyes had the sharp interest of a woman watching a merchant refuse to haggle for the first time.

“I asked you a question,” Shen Yaoqing said.

“I heard it,” Shi Feng said. “I haven’t made the pill yet. I don’t sell things I haven’t made.”

“Then I’ll name it,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly. “I won’t be in anyone’s debt, and I won’t be bargained with over my master’s bed. I’ll pay you what is in my purse on the day the pill is made. Not one coin more.”

“Done,” Shi Feng said.

Shen Yaoqing frowned. “You don’t want to know how much is in it?”

“You’ve given your word,” Shi Feng told her. “That’s enough. Whatever’s in it is the price.”

Long Caili picked up her cup again. “You didn’t haggle,” Long Caili said.

“You told me to be used,” Shi Feng said. “I’m being used.”

Long Caili opened her mouth. Then she closed it and drank her tea.

It was the first time in their acquaintance that she had nothing to say back.

Shen Yaoqing walked to the inner door and laid her hand flat on it, lightly, without opening it.

“Her physicians gave her a number this afternoon,” Shen Yaoqing said, not looking at either of them. “After the ash.”

“How many days?” Shi Feng asked.

“Eleven,” Shen Yaoqing said.

Nine for him. Eleven for her. Two days to spare, if the sky was kind, and the sky was famous for not being kind.