Chapter 4: The Trade of the Devil and the Maiden
Lin Feng took a slow, deep breath, silencing the primal scream of the Scarlet Venom Core by sheer force of will. He had two choices: violently breach the wall and devour her essence, which would turn him into a mindless puppet of the beast will, or use his mind to create a necessary exchange.
He chose the latter. He needed her Silver Essence refined and stable, not raw and scattered.
"Silence your sword," Lin Feng said, his voice strained but cold and low, carefully modulating his tone so no trace of the dark, chaotic Qi would leak through the stone. "I am not your pursuer, and this seal is stronger than your current condition allows you to break."
Su Mei's razor-sharp sword remained fixed on the wall, her beautiful face a mask of suspicion. "You are hidden behind a sealing formation in the heart of a forbidden forest. Why should I trust a voice in the rock?"
Lin Feng used his Aura of Essence Sight to focus on her injury—a deep slash across her torso that had caused significant internal bleeding, but more dangerously, had destabilized the delicate flow of Qi into her unique Icy Lotus Spiritual Root.
"Because I can tell you exactly how you are about to die," Lin Feng countered, injecting just a hint of detached, clinical knowledge into his voice. "The laceration is secondary. The true threat is the subtle Qi cascade caused by the hit to your Meridian Delta Point. Your Icy Lotus Root is beginning to freeze, and within the hour, your Spiritual Sea will shatter."
Su Mei gasped, the tip of her sword wavering. That was information no ordinary pursuer would know, not even her opponent. It was a cripplingly obscure point of weakness unique to her root type. Only a master healer or a highly specialized alchemist could diagnose it.
"Who… who are you?" she whispered, fear finally replacing suspicion.
"A reclusive alchemist," Lin Feng lied smoothly, his heart hammering against his ribs. "I was refining a batch of high-grade pills when Elder Lei's attack sealed me in. I cannot escape until his presence fades, and you, resting on my seal, are collapsing the last remaining air pockets. We are currently a problem for each other."
He pressed his hand against the stone, channeling a minute, controlled pulse of dark Qi outward, making the rock vibrate slightly. "I have exactly what you need: a Cleansing Obsidian Pill. It will stabilize your root and perfectly halt the Qi cascade. In return, I need a single favor."
Su Mei hesitated for a long moment, the silence broken only by her ragged breathing. She was calculating the odds. The pill was real—its scent, a subtle mix of earth and refined spiritual herbs, had already begun to waft faintly through the cave cracks, a small bait Lin Feng had wisely prepared beforehand.
"What favor?" she demanded, dropping her sword arm slightly.
"I need to borrow a small portion of your refined Silver Essence to finalize the creation of a breakthrough pill I am synthesizing," Lin Feng said, the lie rolling off his tongue like velvet. "Think of it as an infusion of pure, stabilizing energy. It will only weaken you slightly, but the Obsidian Pill will negate the loss completely."
The Core pulsed, its cold will satisfied by the cleverness of the deception. He wasn't consuming her; he was trading for a pure, clean sample, which would stabilize his Core without the brutal savagery of the Sunder-Heart Sutra. This was the difference between a monster and a predator.
Su Mei swallowed hard. "A trade, then. The Cleansing Obsidian Pill for a single measure of my Silver Essence. Swear on your Spiritual Heart, Alchemist, that you will not harm me once the seal is broken."
Lin Feng felt a vile thrill. Swearing on his Scarlet Venom Core meant nothing to the orthodox world, but it was binding to her. "I swear on my Spiritual Heart that I will only take the portion of essence we agreed upon, and I will not harm you during the exchange.
A moment later, Lin Feng activated the hidden mechanism, retracting the massive earth seal. Stone and dirt slid aside, and the dark entrance was revealed.
Su Mei stood there, defiant, and bleeding, bathed in the sickly green light of the forest, but still looking beautiful. She stared at Lin Feng, his robes tattered and stained with the residue of the stolen essence, his eyes intense and unsettlingly focused. He didn't look like an Alchemist; he looked like danger.
He held out the black vial containing the Cleansing Obsidian Pill. "Take it. Then, we honor the trade."