Scions of Heaven - Calamity

Chapter 9

Dijun has always valued the people who fought alongside him during prehistoric times. - Pillowbook 1

------------------------------------------------Zhe Yan------------------------------------------------------------

Zhe Yan had known, even as he was speaking, that what he was asking was a desperate, futile endeavour. Even so, Mo Yuan had unhesitatingly agreed and Zhe Yan was grateful.

This had to be done silently, without letting any of the Bai family know; was there anything more cruel to give everyone hope, only to take it away in the next breath?

And so while Zhe Yan had stayed in the Fox Den and put his full effort into healing, Mo Yuan had travelled swiftly to Fanyin Valley, to a particular tree inside the grounds of Qinan Palace. This tree still cradled the essences of what used to be Fengjiu and Dong Hua's shadows, Aranya and Shen Ye.

An hour later Mo Yuan returned silent and stone faced, and the final flicker of hope Zhe Yan had been harbouring faded.

Mo Yuan had appeared just as Zhe Yan had started to grind various herbs and powders into a paste. When hot water was added it would suffuse a room with some of the medicinal effects; this was kinder on the lungs than incense.

So while he ground the herbs, Mo Yuan explained the details of his findings in Fanyin valley.

And so Zhe Yan learned that Dong Hua had not made a single error when he'd severed both his and Fengjius' shadows from their intended fate. Whatever method Dong Hua had used had worked perfectly, it was likely he was the only one who could do whatever he did. One day those two potential-nascent souls might one day enjoy a kinder fate in another lifetime. After separating their shadows, Dong Hua had placed them in a tree sapling, as an anchor, a sort of living womb. This was the same method Fushen had used when he Ye Huas primordial soul in the golden lotus to one day be born.

What Zhe Yan had hoped for was not possible, there was no way to use Aranya's spirit as an anchor to resurrect Fengjiu. The Aranya in the tree existed was only a hypothetical possibility, a potential existence. A million years in the future, maybe it was possible for 'Aranya' and 'Shen Ye' to enter the six paths of reincarnation as fully realised, living beings. Even that hypothetical, million years in the future existence was an entity that was completely and utterly separate from Fengjiu.

Him asking Mo Yuan to look into the possibility of Fengjiu' soul being recoverable had been unfair. If Zhe Yan were being honest with himself, he'd known what the outcome was going to be. It had been cruel and cowardly to make Mo Yuan be the final bearer of that news. Mo Yuan had left soon after explaining the details.

In the ten hours since Fengjius death there had been a lot of movement in the fox den. Zhe Yan finished placing the thin paste in a wide bowl, then went to the room Fengjius' mother was currently lying in an unconscious state.

The shock of seeing her daughter dead had been too much, both mind and spirit had refused to accept it and she had collapsed into unconsciousness. One more patient and Zhe Yan might as well declare the Fox Den to be a healing ward.

His first action after entering the room was to check Fengjiu's mothers' spirit, then her pulse, both stable, good. As he placed the medicinal bowl on a side table and added water to it, there was only one thought in his mind, 'There would be a reckoning'.

The fact that none of them knew who had killed Fengjiu was the only reason he and the Bai family were not currently tearing the world apart as retribution. Zhe Yan supposed there was also the fact that most were still feeling the effects of his calming tea. Even that would wear off soon, and then there would be little to stop them from enacting vengeance on whoever had caused Fengjiu's death.