Chapter 57: Chapter 55 - A True Yin Fiend
"Master Song!" Alchemist Chu protested. "The Medical Saintess didn't send the woman Master wanted," he said, pulling his blade closer to Ao Wen's neck and spilling a trace of her blood. "But this whore is even better than the slut Master asked for! She's the adopted daughter of Cong Houzi. Taking her will bring us infinitely more returns than taking Cong Houzi's ninth disciple," he cried.
He'd endured so much to bring his master's target here, the constant belittling, humiliating tasks, the constant prattling about doing things for the common folks. All of it had made Alchemist Chu increasingly sick of the disdainful way that everyone in Ao Wen's party looked down on him, just like his teachers had always looked down on him, just like the sect elders had looked down on him! Only Headmaster Song Yufeng had seen how brilliant he could be. Now, his master was looking down on him. He couldn't bear it! His master had to know that he'd not only done exactly as he asked, he'd brought an even greater prize!
"So I see," Song Yufeng said, his voice reverberating off the walls of the stone building, piercing the ears of listeners until it felt like blood would flow from torn eardrums. "Perhaps she can be of use to us," he continued, his mind rapidly calculating the changed circumstances. Taking the daughter of that Holy Dragon would doubtless provoke a different response from the so-called Medical Saintess, perhaps more intense than the one he had intended. Still, that too could be used for a slightly different purpose. "Of course, she cannot replace my Qi Yue as my future Empress," the fiend in human form continued. "None are so exquisite as her, but this little morsel you've brought me can find a place as my concubine until my Qi Yue can be retrieved."
Ao Wen's eyes burned upon hearing the intentions this fiend had for her beloved senior sister. It was no different than the way Mo Yan looked at Feng Xi, only he'd taken his depravity to even greater depths to possess the object of his twisted desires. "Is that why you did this?" Ao Wen spat, glaring at the fiendish headmaster. "Just so you could take my senior sister as your woman?"
"Of course not," Song Yufeng spat his aura surging in barely contained anger at the perceived insult. "What jade beauty could be worth so much effort simply to warm my bed? You women think far too highly of yourselves," he sneered. "Do not mistake my desire to savor the sweet taste of delicious fruits as a mindless pursuit of such pleasures."
"Then explain it to this silly little girl," Ao Wen said, her fingers moving slowly within the folds of her robes as she stalled for time. "Let me know what true intellect is capable of and what such a mind truly desires," she added, hoping to appeal to his vanity.
"No," Song Yufeng said. "And your impertinent mouth has cost you a companion," he added, reaching out with a clawed hand and grasping at Feng Hou's chest from a dozen meters away as though he could pierce through space itself to grasp the Champion's heart.
Feng Hou's face paled as he felt tremendous constricting pressure around his heart. Blood thundered in his ears, his eyes bulging with pressure as blood surged in his chest. Flames erupted from his golden-hilted sword and the cry of a tortured crow split the air. Blood slipped from his lips Feng Hou pointed his burning sword at the seeming avatar of corruption. "Golden. Crow's. Final. Cry," he spat, igniting his soul to pour every last breath of his life into a final defiant strike. Flames surged along his blade as the fire of life left his garnet eyes. At the point of his sword, a crow formed of flame given life lept from the blade, its resounding cry and blazing wings racing towards the heart of the fiendish headmaster.
Twitching his hand with contempt, Headmaster Song attempted to brush aside the blazing three-legged crow only to scream in an otherworldly pain as three taloned claws of flame pierced into his forearm, the flames of its wings raging around his head as the fiery incarnation of Feng Hou's soul buffed the twisted figure of Song Yufeng.
Moving rapidly to take advantage of the distraction provided by Feng Hou's death, Ao Wen pulled the black silk fan given to her by Qi Yue from her sleeves, summoning a wisp of flame from deep within her soul. The flame burned with her fury at Feng Hou's death, blazed hotter with her rage at the monstrosity that coveted her loving senior sister, and erupted into conflagration with her murderous fury for the traitor that held her hostage. All of this burning rage fed into an intense flame that spilled from the tip of her fan to the lock she'd been filling with highly reactive elements. Pushing off the ground she slammed her head backwards, pressing the stunned Alchemist Chu against the lock that she'd just sent a flame into.
A heartbeat later a violent explosion tore through the lock sending splinters of the wooden door and hot melted shrapnel from the lock itself deep into Alchemist Chu's body. Several other splinters and pieces of hot shrapnel from the lock also pierced Ao Wen's flesh but the light wounds she suffered paled in comparison to the ghastly mangled mass of flesh and bone that had been Alchemist Chu's back.
As Ao Wen struggled in Alchemist Chu's grip, Champion Bo charged after the Golden Crow, the earth shaking under the weight of the man's charge. At a gesture from the fiendish headmaster's unencumbered clawed hand, the earth sheathed again, grasping hands of the fiends who had fallen into the chasm surging from the earth to tear at Champion Bo's legs, slowing his charge and attempting to pull him beneath the soft soil.
Shi Tan's eyes flickered as her mind raced, dozens of plans considered and discarded in an instant. Placing her faith in the Celestial Fairy to handle the traitorous alchemist she restored the snowstorm barrier to provide them with a layer of protection from the actions of the horrifying headmaster. With a glance at Ao Wen, Shi Tan settled on the most destructive of the plans her mind had conjured, drawing out brilliant flame-colored formation flags twice the size of the ones she had used to construct the barrier and four times as numerous. "I need one hundred breaths of time," she called, her voice crisp, clear and decisive.
"Then you'll have it!" Champion Bo bellowed, drawing deep on the power of his Iron Body, his skin taking on the appearance of fire-forged iron, fire and metal energy pouring into his muscles and flowing into his iron staff as he swung a crushing overhand strike at the fiendish scholar.
"YOU WILL NOT," Song Yufeng bellowed in reply, the blackened claws of his fingers tearing apart Feng Hou's flame energy with a surge of dark corrupting flames. One clawed hand darted above, catching Champion Bo's glowing iron staff with a single hand despite the sound of crunching bone that accompanied the action. With his other hand, black taloned nails clawed at the air, sketching the characters for 'Corruption' and 'Flame' before he gathered the remnants of Feng Hou's Golden Crow flames and began forming them into a twisted bird of flame that changed from brilliant gold to a light devouring black.
Ao Wen's eyes glanced at Shi Tan's swift practiced movements as she followed the instructions Ao Wen had provided her before entering the city, laying out a formation that would unleash an island-consuming conflaguration, subconsciously impressed by how smoothly the woman worked at a pace that would complete the formation in exactly the amount of time she'd estimated. From there, she glanced at the earth-rending fight between the Yin Fiend Headmaster and Champion Bo. Dark burns had begun to pepper the champion's flesh, penetrating even his iron skin defense as the combined attacks from the Yin Fiend and Dark Flame Bird seemed more than he could resist. Thus far, the headmaster hadn't managed to lay a claw directly on the Champion's skin but he was slowly losing ground as burns accumulated on his flesh.
At Ao Wen's feet, Alchemist Chu clung to life, black fiendish blood spilling from his lips and pooling on the ground beneath him. His dark eyes trembled as his hands clawed at the pouches strung along his belt for some pill or elixir that could save his life.
"What a pity," Ao Wen said coldly as she stepped on his hand, allowing her soul flames to flare with the step as they would when she danced, searing his flesh and pulling his focus back to Ao Wen's murderous eyes. "The medicines that can save the life of human cultivators can be poisonous to Yin Fiends like you. Did you truly dare to bring medicine that could heal a Yin Fiend with you on this mission? I doubt it," she said, kneeling down next to the dying Alchemist. "You have twenty breaths to give me a reason to help you live. Fifty breaths after that, nothing outside this circle will be alive. Do you want to be inside the circle, or outside with your master?" Ao Wen asked, her voice as cold as Shi Tan's ice barrier.
"You'll never defeat," his voice choked thickly as he coughed up more black blood. "Master. Only ten of you. Soon," he coughed, spitting black blood at Ao Wen's face. "Soon, only eight."
"So that's it," Ao Wen said, waving her fan rapidly as though fanning herself, letting soul flames wash over her to burn away the poisonous blood. "You're after the Holy Healers who can reverse Yin Fiend Transformation," she spat, turning the fan in her hand to snap it closed. All this death, all this carnage, just to draw out her or one of the other direct disciples. Rage couldn't begin to describe what she felt at knowing how many innocents had died just so these monsters would have the chance to kill or capture her!
Orange-crimson soul flames gathered along the fan as she poured the essence of dragon fire into the fan before snapping it back open and unleashing a wave of dragon flame that completely consumed Alchemist Chu's body before he could scream in agony. His death, Ao Wen felt, was far quicker than what he deserved for his part in this atrocity but she had no more time to waste on him.
"Twenty Breaths," Shi Tan called as she placed the final formation flag, beginning to gather energy to activate the formation. "Celestial Fairy," she said looking at Ao Wen. "I'll be counting on your flames."
Ao Wen nodded sharply, turning to look at Champion Bo as he struggled with the Dark Flame Bird and the Fiendish Headmaster. "Knock him out and get back here!" Ao Wen shouted. "You have fifteen breaths!" Feet moving quickly, Ao Wen began an intricate dance, a second fand appearing in her left hand. Each fan had been a gift from her newfound family. In her right hand, was the black silk fan that Qi Yue had given her when she began to learn the Flame Wind Dance. In her left hand, an orange-crimson silk fan emblazoned with a golden dragon in flight snapped open, a gift from her adopted mother Cong Houzi. Robes billowing with the hot energy of her fierce desire to protect her newfound friend, Ao Wen spun faster and faster. Each time one of her fans aligned with the Dark Flame Bird another fan-shaped wave of fire struck out, battering the dark bird again and again and again giving Champion Bo room to focus on just the fiendish headmaster.
The towering disciple's chest heaved, much of his flesh covered in burns from the Dark Flame Bird. From a scant four meters away the dark eyes of Headmaster Song bored into Champion Bo's soul. Grisly memories of Yin Fiend Transformation sickness consuming his body from his feet to his waist flashed vividly before his eyes as Headmaster Song drew the tiniest sliver of yin poison that he'd planted in the larger man deep into Bo's mind where it blossomed with past pains and horrors.
"I. Am. Not. AFRAID!" he bellowed, charging forward with his iron staff spinning rapidly, building momentum to knock the fiend away and buy him time to return to the safety of the circle with Shi Tan and Ao Wen.
"Foolish brute," Song Yufeng said, his one functioning hand twitching rapidly as he clawed out the characters for 'Rust' and 'Corrosion' in the air, grasping them as though he were grasping onto Champion Bo's staff.
The giant disciple's eyes widened in horror as his trusted partner, the iron staff he'd carried from battlefield to battlefield, began shedding flakes of rust, crumbling away within his hand moments before striking Headmaster Song. With no weapon to fight with and time slipping away he let loose a mighty shout. "DON'T WAIT!" Champion Bo cried, leaping forward and tackling the Yin Fiend with his iron body, locking him in place and bearing him to the ground.
"Ready," Shi Tan snapped, wintery eyes turning to Ao Wen to provide the Dragon Fire that would ignite the formation.
Spinning rapidly in her dance, Ao Wen shifted her focus from dispelling the flame bird to the formation built by Shi Tan. Both hands snapped their fans closed as she pointed at the formation core sending a thick blast of orange-crimson Dragon Flame towards the formation. A breath passed, then another. Dark Yin energy hammered at Shi Tan's Snowstorm Barrier as Song Yufeng raged at being restrained. A third breath passed. Before a fourth breath could be drawn, orange crimson flames poured from the formation like the unfolding petals of a vast flaming lotus. Wave after wave of searing flame poured forth, incinerating everything in its path, and purifying the island in a terrifying inferno.
The bodies of students and teachers at the academy vanished in the flames without a trace of ash left behind. Feng Hou's body melded with the flames, adding a golden flaming highlight to the tip of each lotus petal as though a flock of Golden Crows would take flight when the lotus finished unfolding. Champion Bo clung onto Song Yufeng with all his might as the all-consuming flames turned both men into burned and blackened husks, burnt corpses locked in the final moments of their struggle. Outward the flames spread, decimating once luxurious academy gardens, boiling decorative ponds, inniting trees like torches and sending elegant buildings crumbling to the ground.
At the center of the conflaguration, two women stood unscathed, watching the world burn. A dozen breaths passed and then a dozen more before the flames reached the furthest edges of the island, consuming even the faintest wisps of Yin fog. Only when the flames began to recede did the world itself recede from Ao Wen's eyes, returning her to the Alchemy chamber of the inner world she'd entered nearly three years ago.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JustJae
JustJae Thus ends the Yin Fiend Arc. I hope everyone enjoyed it, I know this one has been ROUGH on Ao Wen and everyone else reading!
We're getting close to the halfway point of Volume 1, is everyone looking forward to seeing folks back in Turning Leaf?
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