Violet Heart

by Patrick Laplante

  “All right,” Jin Huang said. “Let’s draw up a contract.” Though the situation seemed sketchy to say the least, he was tired of getting ripped off.

  “A contract?” the man said. “You wound me! We operate on the basis of trust. Just pay me a month in advance and give us two weeks’ notice if you want to leave. If you break it, you fix it. If you kill someone, let’s not go there, because it won’t end well. No other agreements are required.” A key appeared in his hand. “What do you say? Are you interested?”

  Jin Huang’s jade eyes darted to the artificer, who walked back to his bench and began working on another device. Though it was faint, he could sense merit coming from the artificer. Meanwhile, though Brother Hei probably wasn’t being totally honest, he wasn’t a murderous psychopath. Thinking about the seventy high-grade stones a month in difference, he finally nodded. He tossed out fifty high-grade stones to the man, who placed the key in his palm.

  “I hear you’re also able to sell pills… covertly,” Jin Huang said.

  “That I am,” Brother Hei said, eyes twinkling. “I was going to bring this up with you in a couple of weeks, but there’s no time like the present.”

  “How does that work?” Jin Huang asked, worried. Each of his pills was affixed with his seal. Given that most of his pills were gold-seal works, it would be difficult to avoid unwanted attention.

  Brother Hei pulled up a chair and waved at Jin Huang to take a seat at a small table. He summoned two pill vials and placed them on the table. “Tell me what you think of these,” he said.

  Jin Huang unstoppered the jade vials, and a medicinal scent wafted from both of them. He felt his qi flowing slightly faster, like the walls in his pathways had smoothed out to accommodate additional flow. “They’re similar in quality but made by different alchemists,” he said, looking at the pill seals.

  “Yes, it looks that way, doesn’t it?” Brother Hei said. “One of them is a poor alchemist that barely makes ends meet. Since he’s trying to advance his alchemist grade, he makes a variety of products for research purposes. His output is low, but it’s all worth it for the sake of advancement.”

  Jin Huang’s eyes widened in realization. “I take it this other pill shouldn’t even exist in the city.”

  “It’s an illegal import sold through an illegitimate middleman,” Brother Hei said, nodding solemnly. “The alchemist who made it is unknown, untraceable. Fortunately, the middleman does his job well. He sells directly to consumers, who are happy with the cheaper prices. The customers are happy with the twenty-point discount they get compared to Evergreen’s outrageous prices, while the alchemist is happy with the twenty points more he gets for his services. The middleman is satisfied with the twenty points he makes in a market he normally doesn’t have access to. Fortunately, he has very little regulatory and staff overhead. He only needs to pay a few bribes, but that’s a small price to pay for easy money.”

  “Imagine that,” Jin Huang said. “They seem like two completely different people.”

  “They are two completely different people,” Brother Hei said. “Since you’re new here, I suggest you keep yourself preoccupied with advancement and research. Safety inspectors seem to take pity on hardworking people who’ve been mistreated by the system.”

  “That sounds like a splendid idea,” Jin Huang said. “By the way, I have a friend from Quicksilver who would love to make your acquaintance.”

  “Then as your friend, I’d be happy to receive any mail he might want to send my way,” Brother Hei said. “You can leave it on the desk at the back, properly labeled. But I’ll have to trouble you to forward any replies to him. I’m a busy man, you know.”

  Then Brother Hei stood up and walked to the back of the room. He inspected a small device on the artificer’s bench and slipped it into his pocket before heading out the back door.

  “Enjoy your day, gentlemen,” he called as he left.

  “My name’s Jin Huang,” Jin Huang said to the artificer.

  The short, skinny man paused what he was doing and nodded.

  “Bai Xiaolong,” the artificer replied. “Please don’t blow anything up if you know what’s good for you. Otherwise, this entire building will come crumbling down on us.”

  “A building meeting the city’s strict safety codes wouldn’t fall so easily,” Jin Huang said, laughing.

  “That’s right, it wouldn’t,” Bai Xiaolong said before turning his attention back to his device.

  What did I expect? Jin Huang thought as he set up his workbench. The thrill of delving into the financial underworld fresh in his mind, he turned to a much more illegal and highly reviled activity: poison-making.

  Chapter 17

  Yue Bing heard gentle moaning as she walked through the infirmary. Now that the life-eating vine had been destroyed, the beds in the military hospital were filling up. It was a cause for celebration, but Yue Bing was far from happy. The mysterious man had escaped, the generals were discussing how to pursue him, and she was stuck in a hospital. A hospital where cultivators would rather lose a limb than be treated by her.

  Since she’d saved the general using blood arts, allied troops began treating her like an unwelcome stranger. Patients refused to see her, and everyone avoided her. All save one person—Gu Guo.

  “You can’t let this pull you down,” the young doctor said as he healed a bone using his spiritual force. While it looked like he was working alone, Yue Bing was covertly assisting him, teaching him as he worked. “You’ve saved hundreds of cultivators with your healing, potentially thousands of soldiers by locating and destroying the vine, and many more by saving General Lai. They’ll see it eventually. I’m sure they will.”

  “If only it were that simple,” Yue Bing said, smiling wryly. “These people have lost friends, family, and comrades at arms to blood cultivators. When they see me, they don’t see a doctor; they see a target for resentment they’ve been accumulating, for months if not years.”

  “Just wait a while longer,” Gu Guo said reassuringly. “Maybe they’ll have a special role for you after the meeting.”

  “I’m sure they’ll think of something to get me out of here,” Yue Bing muttered. “I’m bad for morale, so keeping me in the infirmary is out of the question.”

  “This isn’t like you,” Gu Guo said, stopping mid-mending, his patient clenching his teeth in pain. “Now, instead of moaning, why don’t you tell me why this bone is so damned difficult to put back together.”

  Yue Bing spread her incandescent force into the patient’s leg and surveyed the damage. It wasn’t long before she found the crux of the problem. “The fracture was caused by an axe wound, and you’ve located all the pieces,” she said. “Tell me, soldier, did you practice body cultivation when you started cultivating?”

  The man’s eyes darted around nervously. “Please have mercy on me, Miss Yue,” he said, his voice trembling. “I have a family. I don’t have enough vitality to satisfy your needs.”

  “I don’t want your vitality,” Yue Bing said, gritting her teeth. “Just answer the damned question.”

  “The sixth stage,” the soldier stuttered. “I cultivated the sixth stage. Please, for my family. Please, Dr. Guo, say something for me.”

  “I’ve had it with this,” Yue Bing said bitterly. She stormed over to a desk and retrieved a vial and threw it hard at Gu Guo, who caught it. “You needed a stronger bone-growth concoction to compensate for his stronger constitution. Don’t screw up.” She then walked into the staff room, where dozens of dissatisfied spirit doctors glared at her.

  “What are you looking at?” she barked. Though they said nothing to her face, she knew what they told each other behind her back. She was a witch. A demoness. Frustrated, she walked over to Supervisor Meng’s office. She ignored the protesting assistant and forced open the door. To her surprise, not only was Dr. Meng there but General Lai as well.

  “It’s great to see you, Dr. Yue,” the grizzled general said, getting up and bowing with reverence.r />
  Doctor, Yue Bing thought. It’s been a while since anyone called me that.

  “We were just about to call you over,” Dr. Meng said, getting up. Unlike General Lai, he looked at her coldly and indifferently. “Please have a seat, Yue Bing,” he said, motioning to a small chair at the side. No tea or snacks awaited them. It was strictly a business meeting, in and out as soon as possible. And she’d definitely noted the absence of her honorific.

  “Dr. Yue, I’ll get straight to the point,” General Lai said, cutting through the tension. “We, in conjunction with the marshals, investigated the enemy’s escape. We concluded that the unknown perpetrator didn’t have the ability to pass through walls. Rather, he was gifted in illusions and disguise. He crossed the wall by posing as one of our soldiers.

  “We were only able to spot the discrepancy by performing an audit of personnel entry and exit. He used the identity of a missing sergeant to pass through security checks, and before they could properly investigate, he was already gone. Normally, having a single enemy north of the wall wouldn’t be a big deal. However, considering the carnage he’s capable of…”

  “Might I know if you’ve guessed his identity?” Yue Bing asked.

  “We haven’t, which is very troubling,” General Lai said. “Based on the actions in the field alone, I’d guess that the fugitive was the devilish alchemist, Mo De.”

  Yue Bing frowned at the mention. The name wasn’t unknown to her, as she’d almost died at his hands a year prior.

  “But we’re hesitant to conclude this,” he finished.

  “And why is that?” Yue Bing asked frostily. “Murdering countless people to fuel his mad experiments seems in line with his personality.”

  “Prior experience, I see,” the general said, quirking his eyebrow. “Although the actions seem to match his modus operandi, and since feeding blood vitality to raise medicinal ingredients isn’t uncommon in the south, we need to consider that Mo De is known for his strong body and his skills in poison. The man we saw didn’t display any of these things. Instead, he showed us blood techniques when fighting and illusory techniques to get past the guards.”

  Supervisor Meng coughed lightly at the mention of blood cultivation.

  “Is there a problem?” General Lai asked.

  “No, not at all,” Supervisor Meng said.

  General Lai frowned at Dr. Meng. “While I understand that you have some negative experiences with blood cultivators and poison masters, I will not have you sowing discord after all the trouble you’ve caused. We neglected the possibility of anything but poison because you were so insistent that it was, and it cost us lives. If you aren’t sensible enough to finish this discussion like an adult, you can excuse yourself right now, and I’ll continue the conversation with Dr. Yue. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal,” Supervisor Meng said frostily.

  “Good,” General Lai said. “Now, I cannot leave the wall for obvious reasons, and neither can Supervisor Meng. I’ve discussed this with the generals and marshals, and we’ve determined that it’s best to send someone with firsthand experience to help track down the fugitive. We’d like you to go, Dr. Yue. Would you be willing to head to the capital and meet with a royal delegate to investigate this matter?”

  “I’d be honored, General,” Yue Bing replied dispassionately. Just like I thought. They’re desperate to get me out of here, and they have no reason to arrest me. Their solution is to send the problem off on a wild goose chase.

  “When can you leave?” General Lai asked.

  “I’m not terribly busy,” Yue Bing said. “I’ll leave right away.”

  General Lai nodded slowly. “Good. Then allow me to escort you to the entrance.”

  Yue Bing sighed and followed him out of the room. She heard relieved whispers and speculations as she walked toward the gates with the general.

  “You think I’m sending you out of here because I don’t want you causing trouble,” General Lai said. It wasn’t a question.

  “It’s not like I didn’t see it coming,” Yue Bing said.

  “You need to give yourself a little more credit,” General Lai said as they neared the north exit. “The people on the wall are distrustful, and I won’t lie, it will be positive for morale to have you gone. But you should know that you weren’t the first person they wanted to send on this mission. At first, they wanted to send Dr. Meng. Frankly, I found the idea laughable.”

  “He wouldn’t find the culprit if they were standing right in front of him,” Yue Bing said.

  “That’s what I told them,” General Lai said. “I pointed out the fact that you were the only one who saw the tendrils, and that Supervisor Meng had sent us on a wild goose chase by withholding crucial information. That shut them up.”

  “What about my blood arts?” Yue Bing asked.

  “That’s part of the reason why I need you there,” General Lai said solemnly. “It’s clear to me that you could see those tendrils because of your blood arts. Now, I don’t know where you studied them—and I won’t ask—but what I do know is that you’re someone I can trust. You’re a friend with a valuable skill.”

  He gripped her by the shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “You saved my life. You saved hundreds of people through your healing. You saved thousands of cultivators in a short span of time, and you foiled a madman’s plot to gain quick power. I don’t know what other people call that in their books, but I call that being a hero.” He tightened his grip. “Those maniacs from the south aren’t capable of being heroes. They see living beings as nothing more than cattle for slaughter. In time, the people on the wall will understand this. But until then, I need your help. Can you do this for me? Can you find him?”

  General Lai’s words invigorated Yue Bing. Despite having moped about all day, she now felt her confidence return, if just a bit. “I won’t disappoint you, General,” she said.

  “I know you won’t,” General Lai said. He released her from his grip and placed a jade token in her hand.

  “What’s this?” Yue Bing asked.

  “It’s my deputy token,” General Lai said. “I only give it to people I trust. If anyone gives you trouble, any at all, use it. Show them you have backing where it matters.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Yue Bing said, stowing the jade. Then she turned to the gates, which were open and waiting for her. She didn’t look back as she headed north toward Songjing, the capital of the Song Kingdom.

  Yue Bing’s good mood only lasted the rest of the day. Though she could see General Lai’s point, and he seemed genial enough, by sunset, his words were nothing more than a hollow memory. Meanwhile, Supervisor Meng’s cold disapproval, her coworkers’ reluctance to even speak to her, and the wariness of the soldiers on the wall dug into her heart like a serrated dagger. They cut into her weary spirit, allowing little to no rest as she traveled along the peaceful road to the capital.

  To make matters worse, it rained on the second day. Though weather like this normally mattered little to a cultivator, who could repel rain on a whim, it dampened her spirits even further. She couldn’t be bothered to bring up a qi shield, so she let the rain thoroughly soak her body and soul, matching the physical world to her ghastly mood.

  It’s time for a rest, she thought when she spotted a small town in the distance. She flew to its entrance, which didn’t even have a proper gate, and received a warm welcome. To them, she was practically royalty. But would they treat me this way if they knew what I could do? She thought. She was tempted demonstrate her devilish talents, to show them what she truly was. But facing rejection twice in a short timespan would crush her wavering confidence. No, some things were best kept secret.

  “A pitcher of spirit wine,” she said as she walked into the bar. The barkeep, obviously used to such straightforward customers, brought two jugs out onto the counter.

  “Were you looking for a fine wine, ideal for a delicate lady like yourself, or something a little more robust?” he asked, eyeing her soaked figure. />
  “The stronger one,” she said, pointing to a bottle at the back.

  The barkeep chuckled and brought over the deep-red flask. “I’d be careful with that if I were you,” he cautioned. The flask contained a strong liquor with a light-violet hue. The alcohol in question was imbued with medicinal ingredients and spiritual energy that made it effective even on body cultivators.

  Yue Bing placed a mid-grade spirit stone on the bar and took a long, deep swig of the flask. Every gulp burned her throat and numbed it simultaneously. Despite drinking enough to knock out five initial-foundation-establishment cultivators, it did little more than dull her senses and calm her overly active mind. She recovered from the stupor after an incense time and repeated the process.

  It seems getting drunk is much harder than it used to be, she thought as she analyzed her body’s metabolism. Though she didn’t have frightening strength like her brother Ling Dong, her fist strength was now a thousand jin. In compensation for the lower level of power, she’d gained frightening regenerative abilities. Should anyone ever try to sneak attack the medic—a common practice in both the battlefield and small skirmishes—they would be in for a rude awakening.

  Unbeknownst to her, a tall man wearing a black cape entered the bar. He took a seat beside her and ordered something she couldn’t quite make out. Sometime later, just as her consciousness was recovering, a gentle fragrance tickled her nostrils.

  “You’re lucky I’m not an enemy or the man you’re chasing,” he said. “Otherwise, you’d be nothing more than a cold corpse in a nameless bar.”

  Yue Bing looked up suddenly and stared at the man who’d just arrived. She recognized him. Though he wasn’t wearing his black-and-gold marshal’s cape, he emanated an imposing but friendly aura.

  “Marshal Feng, who would have thought that you’d be the royal envoy they spoke of?” Yue Bing said. “I see that you’ve misplaced your marshal’s cape again.”