Further conversation was interrupted when two women entered from a door near the front of the lecture hall. The first and most attention-catching was the shorter of the two, dressed in elaborate scholar's robes and gold-rimmed spectacles. She wore a sash that bore a single alchemy flame similar to Yu Tao's and a hint of mirth twinkled in her eyes as she laughed with the woman escorting her into the hall.
It was the other woman, however, that demanded Yu Jinqi's attention. She wore a stunning dress in midnight blue trimmed with golden beast fur that Yu Jinqi had only seen once before. Moreover, as the woman entered the hall, a small Golden Crow hopped off the shoulder of the Alchemist, and onto the shoulder of the woman in blue who took a seat in the front row that seemed to be reserved for her.
"Does Aesthete Wu… have a sister?" Yu Jinqi whispered as he looked at the enchanting woman with the Golden Crow on her shoulder.
"Oh?" Yu Tao said, quirking an eyebrow at his enraptured nephew's gaze. "And here I thought you were immune to the charms of women when you ignored the bounty offered by this academy," he said with a light laugh. "Do you know this woman?"
"No, I, maybe," Yu Jinqi stammered. "She reminds me of an Artist I met not long ago. He also had a Golden Crow companion, he said that he painted it. If he's painted one for a sister, that would explain why two of those rare birds showed up at the same time," he rambled as he craned his neck for a better look.
"The fur on her dress is extraordinary too," the young man continued. "It comes from a Burning Yang Sun Bear that was altered by the eclipse. Aesthete Wu must value his sister to give her something so extraordinary. I wonder if she's an alchemist too? Uncle, did you see an alchemy flame on her person when she walked in?"
"No, I didn't," Yu Tao said with a shake of his head. "But she has a seat reserved at the front of the lecture and she entered with the alchemist giving the lecture, so she probably shares our profession. Do you want me to inquire about her after the lecture?"
"No," Yu Jinqi blurted, his voice nearly too loud as the hall quieted for the alchemist to begin her lecture. While he appreciated his uncle's offer, he felt that it would be better to find out directly from Wu Ling instead of approaching through his uncle.
As much as the young alchemist wished he could obtain a better look at the young woman as soon as she'd taken a seat, the alchemist she accompanied strode up to the stage and began to address the crowd. When she spoke, Yu Jinqi tried to banish all thoughts of the striking young woman from his mind as he prepared to take notes during the lecture.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming to our humble Amber Lily Academy so early in the morning," the alchemist began in a light voice that nonetheless reached all the way to the back of the lecture hall. "I am Alchemist Huang Yeyan and I served as the Lead Scholar for the Amber Lily Academy's recent expedition into the mountains during the Lunar Eclipse. Today, we have several topics that are relevant to alchemists covering both the altered Flora and Fauna we were able to collect during our trip," she began.
"As a special treat, thanks entirely to the efforts of the brave guardians of our expedition," she continued. "We will be able to share insights about two very rare Spirit Beasts. The Blood Moon Mist Wolf and the Burning Yang Lunar Bear are rare mutations you likely won't encounter more than once every five centuries, however, we were able to return with complete specimens of each of them in this single expedition."
"While it wasn't possible to return with live specimens like we were able to obtain for a few smaller spirit beasts," she said. "We nonetheless were able to complete dissections, harvesting, and some experimentation on the samples we did obtain."
Huang Yeyan's words created an explosive commotion among several of the alchemists closer to the front rows. Perhaps the extraordinary cultivators in the Inner City would treat encounters with such rare beasts as an opportunity, but to the far more ordinary cultivators of the Outer City, encounters with empowered spirit beasts were fatal more often than not!
To have returned with any samples was an extraordinary opportunity. While one or two of the most senior attendees of the lecture might bemoan the lack of an opportunity to study a live specimen, most were thrilled just to come into contact with such rare materials.
"Excuse me, Alchemist Huang," an older Scholar with salt and pepper hair and a single alchemy flame on his robes interrupted. "Will any samples from those creatures be available in today's auction?" Seeing them was all well and good, but what the older alchemists truly valued was a chance to use them in their own research, or, better yet, in their own concoctions.
On the stage, Huang Yeyan shared a brief smile with Wu Ling in the front row. The spoils of fighting those beasts belonged almost entirely to him and Su Xiang but she'd promised that she'd help the two young cultivators extract the greatest value from their victories. Today, she intended to make good on her promise!
"The beast cores of both specimens are complete and without damage," she told the questioning alchemist with a smile. "We also have a number of other components that have been preserved or pre-processed for the auction today including the bear's heart and the marrow of the wolf," she said, listing off some of the rarest and most valuable materials they'd brought back.
"Fauna, however," she said, bringing her lecture back on track, "will have to wait until later in the lecture. To begin, we'll begin with an overview of the energies unleashed during the eclipse and then we can discuss the ways in which it impacted living things bathed in the light of the eclipse…"