WangXian Untamed

Chapter 43 - Plan

How to remove powdered Yin Iron from a living body?

The Yin Iron in question was too fine a powder to separately address each particle. Even the tiny amount within Lan QiRen was comprised of many thousands of particles. As miniscule as the metal was, it would take days and days to remove each particle separately. Only the most perfect control could see them teased back out the track they took to gain entry. Each exit would have to be separately managed, unlike their mass consumption in pellet form. It would take meticulous attention, great ability and almost limitless strength. Wei WuXian knew he didn't have the energy this would take, and no one else had the skill. There was no realistic way to forge the motes together to remove en masse, either.

Wei WuXian threw himself back on the pillows, dropping one arm across his eyes, the other hand picking at the bedclothes in frustration.

How could the particles be removed? He could draw them straight out of the body, but then they'd be forced through tissues thick with blood, which would trigger the Yin Iron. Yin Iron is rapacious. It has a voracious appetite for resentful energy and is a powerful, negative element. So few people could resist it, even fewer command it. Even as particulates, Yin Iron was almost unthinkably dangerous. That quantity of bloodthirsty Yin Iron left freely in the atmosphere without another body to contain it...

Wei WuXian's mind stumbled to a halt as his body froze. The seed of an idea slowly bloomed within his mind.

The Grandmaster was a strong and otherwise healthy man. Other than this highly irregular case of forced Qi deviation, he was in excellent shape. If free to work as it should, free to respond to his command, his Core could easily heal bodily wounds. Even thousands of tiny, pinprick piercings. If the Yin Iron were brought out of his body, the Grandmaster would survive. Would recover.

He turned to his side, drawing the quilt about his shivering shoulders.

Wei WuXian tossed ideas through his mind, rejecting each possibility in turn. There was no good way to manage Yin Iron that had tasted blood. If he had been in full health with a strong and energetic Core he could have attempted to cleanse the Yin Iron sufficiently to entrap it, perhaps submerging the powder in the near-freezing waters of the Cold Cavern. He did not have that energy. He was not strong enough to make the attempt. Another alternative would be if the Yin Iron could be held within another body. The activated Yin Iron would need a host. A body accustomed to resisting its seductive wiles. It would take someone capable of commanding Yin Iron to host the powder once removed from Lan QiRen. It would have to be a host right in the room, it was far too dangerous not to be housed as close to instantly as could be done. No Lan had worked with Yin Iron. No Lan had commanded Yin Iron. No Lan had experience with resentful energy and bending it to their bidding. There was no way any Lan could hope to confine it.

But Wei WuXian was not a Lan.

Desperately he considered his idea, hoping an alternative would come to mind. None did. Point one, if the Yin Iron was to be removed in time to save the Grandmaster's life, it had to be done soon. Point two, removing it would activate it. Point three, the Yin Iron would be ravenous for power and require a host capable of restraining it. Point four, the only candidate was himself. Wei WuXian was literally 'It'. There was no one else. No one with the experience. No one who could hope to handle Yin Iron. No one who knew how to resist Yin Iron, and its sweet, dark siren call.

For a moment Wei WuXian remembered discovering himself alive once more, animate in Mo XuanYu's body, bearing the wounds of the Soul Summoning that had dragged him back to life. I took on the burden of resolving Mo XuanYu's grievances then. Not that I had a choice, but still, I managed, he thought. And I gladly took on the curse from Jin Ling after his misadventure on XingLu Ridge.