The fire seemed to die a little as if unsure of itself, unready to devour the new sticks. So Dzong turned his attention back to the embers, and added more wood, blowing slowly into the red ashes, all the while the three companions continued with the account of their long and hellish ordeal since they had escape the imperial prison. Li Ji attempted to wipe away her tears with the back of her sleeve.
Within minutes the glowing embers leaped and twirled in a fierce dance, twinkling like dying stars in the hot swirling air. The fire flared, spatting, blazing, and wounded itself around the rotten logs like a hungry snake, devoured the frigid air. The light cast by the flames projected their emaciated figures into long and spindly shadows across the dark jagged walls, twisted in obscure shapes; and the flames themselves were pulsating, leaping, seemingly moving in rhythm with the infernal story of their survival, matching every bitter and vengeful dip in their voice, every sorrowful sweep of the hands.
As soon as their story was told, a plaintive silence surrounded them. Ashes began to float around and sprinkled onto the ground like dirty flakes of snow. Every word had touched his heart, and So Dzong felt quite emotional.
Jian flicked some ash off his sleeves, and to cheer everyone up he suggested: "Now, I should like to tell you an amusing story."
"It has been a while since we have heard your funny stories. Go right ahead!" urged Shufeng, putting on a more cheerful mask as he glanced at Li Ji's face in the flickering light, a shade between sadness and despair threatening to overwhelm her—more so than he had ever seen.
"There once was a minister who had four daughters to marry," began Jian. "The first one had only one eye, the second only one ear, the third only one lip, and the fourth had no flaws but she was dumb…"
Suddenly Shufeng was shaken by a severe fit of coughing and specks of blood spattered his hands. And Li Ji had rushed to his side and wiped off the blood with a washcloth.
"Please, Your Highness, you should take more care of your health, resting and eating more, and..."—she took his cup away—"…drinking less wine." She admonished him tenderly, looking with anxiety at the fatigued face of her prince.
"I know well that you get frightened every time I happen to spit out a little blood. But it is really nothing. Why do you worry so much when I do not so? Am I not in the best healing hands?" he smiled with brotherly affection. "Jian, tell our Li Ji to stop nagging me."
One fiery glance from Li Ji and Jian casually filled his cup instead, and Suroyi's as well.
'Oh why would you not cease to deceive me regarding your condition?' Li Ji lamented in her heart.
"Your Highness, as your physician it is not only my right but also my duty to keep an eye on you, if you are not behaving properly regarding your health."
He sulkily bent his head for a moment and remained defiantly silent.
She continued: "Fine, if you say it is nothing, I believe you and I won't burden you by overly reacting." But her hesitant tone and her tear-stained eyes betrayed her.
"You should take him to bed," she whispered to Jian, "it is time to sleep and rest, for all of us."
He responded: "No-one wants to hear what happened to the four daughters?"*
So Dzong chimed in and advised gently: "My friends, you have suffered a lot to come here. It is nearly morning, tomorrow is another day. It is time to rest your weary bodies and leave your burden behind."
The whole night through they could not sleep, tossing restlessly from side to side and their vigilant ears full of fear listened to the strange noises echoing from within the mountain.
On the second night they fell into an uneasy half-sleep.
When at last, on the third night, for the first time in three weeks they gave way to their exhaustion. They were sleeping soundly but it added to their grieved state for they were having dreams, bad dreams on a never ending loop, following their mind even when they were awake.
And seven days slipped by, resting and healing, cocooned in the embrace of the earth. Inside the underground chamber, darkness was eternity. Light, day, sun, the moon and the stars held no sway or meaning in this place where the passage of time stood still, and it only deepened their melancholy.
Jian often roamed alone, looking out for his Uncle's return and his pet owl ZingZing, hiking around the waterfalls and watching clouds arise with the autumnal breeze against the pale light of dawn, and at night he had no companion but the doleful moon.
Every morning So Dzong taught Shufeng the practice of Neidan, a meditative practice controlling mind, breath, and fasting the heart, depriving it of senses of the emotions; to better circulating and consuming Qi.
As for Li Ji, she appointed herself as The Alchemist's disciple, and solely focused her time on acquiring new healing skills. She pried open the door to secret formulas for medicinal elixirs, but So Dzong's mind was forthcoming anyway.
Li Ji was utterly awestruck witnessing such unheard-of knowledge, but there was a mysterious radiance, something otherworldly in his eyes that warned her that he wasn't an ordinary man.
"Grind the herbs evenly with balanced strength, like this." Then So Dzong handed her the pestle and she took over. He pursued: "The powder shouldn't be too rough, neither too light or dark yellow… well done."
He had flicked his purple sleeves and Li Ji observed that the embroidery was not of the usual patterns, but showed on the hem a series of sibylline written characters she had no inkling of the significance. She believed she also had a glimpse of naked figures resembling demons embroidered inside the sleeve, into the lining, or was she mistaken?
"Now, sieve it carefully to remove impurities… You are making Qi Fostering Secretion Tonic, it will stimulate Qi formation at an exponential rate. Be patient and simmer it until five incense coil turns to ash." They were now sitting around the hearth. "The intensity of the heat and timing must be precisely right before removing the pot from the stove." He carefully sealed the pot with the lid and his voice grew very solemn, asking: "How long has he been vomiting black blood?"
"For the past two weeks."
"And what about the nightmares? In his sleep, I've seen how he clenches tight at the clothing at his chest, suffocating for air, twisting in pain, screaming with no sound, crying with no tears."
"The nightmares… they never left since that demoness stabbed him!"
While Shufeng was training hard his swordsmanship with Jian by the river, Li Ji revealed a piece of information purposely omitted by Shufeng who was still in denial to the hard truth.
The Alchemist felt thoroughly perplexed and discombobulated, coiling strands of his beard around his wizened finger while Li Ji filled all the holes of the story with Emika.
"… She meant so much to him that even after she tried to kill him, she is a blight to his existence. She is a spell that cannot be broken."
"Umm… You have said much to enlighten me as to what is the deep rooted cause of his condition… Indeed, last night he seemed greatly distressed by the thunderstorms... after he fainted I read his pulse. The connection between his Xing-Qi-Shen energies is broken, the imbalance mainly coming from his Shen. The heart and mind festering with frightened and anguished thoughts, refusal to deal with painful emotions, and without release of grudges, contribute to stagnant or erratic Qi flow, with the potential for continued worsening of his condition. I notice that you have been treating him every day with acupuncture, and you have been feeding him fine medicinal decoctions. You are indeed a great apothecary too.
"Young Miss, you are an honour to your profession and your father. This isn't a small feat to force someone alive."
"You knew my father?"
"Your father, in whom my dear Soyong confided, was also my trusted friend."
She wanted to delve deeper into the relationship he had with her beloved father, however, his diagnosis was an issue of greater importance right now.
"What do you mean by 'forcing him alive?'"
"My relative would have died without you. Shen contributes to calmness, control and maintain our whole being in harmony, but his Shen is greatly distressed. The spirit can be harmed by external factors such as a physical trauma or an illness; Shen can also be harmed by internal factors, mainly excessive emotions, depression, or a psychological trauma.
"The lack of freedom of the mind influences how the body react to external trauma and can cause ill-effects on the person's vital energy.
"Nothing can revitalise the vigour of the heart and mind on the brink of death. Water, once emptied out of a vessel, cannot be gathered up again, so it is with Qi depletion."
She felt alarmed when she heard his words, and furthermore, his voice sounded like a curse.
"Are you certain of your diagnosis?"
"Little girl, if you were aware of Who. I. Am,"—So Dzong had emphasised each word with a slight vexation but with no less arrogance—"you would not dare questioning my diagnosis."
Li Ji shifted a step away to steer clear of his gaze which was like sharp needles to jab at will at her eyes.
So Dzong pursued: "The last three days I have taught you how to make Qi Fostering Secretion Tonic in case his condition worsens. However this tonic is to be used when, and only when the eight points of his pulse are in total contradiction and disarray with each other. Be mindful that this tonic is a double edged-sword, an overdose has irreversible side-effects: irrational thoughts, mental madness, disintegration of the organs and of Qi energy."
All of a sudden, there seemed to be too much breath in his voice for the amount of tone.
"One more thing, spells can be broken…"
Li Ji jolted her eyes to So Dzong faster than a lightning bolt. The glint in her gaze and her silence clearly meant that she understood the meaning behind these words.
"In days of old there was a forbidden scroll—"
He was interrupted in his talk by the thin strains of a gentle flute music penetrating through the mountain mass, travelling the snaky meanders of the tunnels until it reached the underground chamber.
The Alchemist held a breath and sharply stood up.