The absolute comfort of dim, warm nothingness wrapped around Ma Rong's mind in a soothing embrace, sweet like nectar. He dreamt of thick forests, bustling with all manners of life and blooming with a thousand different blossoms; of fields of flowers that stretched out to the horizon where they met with the majestic golden light of the setting sun; of the ever-turning circle of death and rebirth in the chaotic, beautiful mess that was life. Days could pass in a heartbeat and seconds could stretch out into years, for time was meaningless in this realm of sleep, of infinite possibilities and intrinsic meaning.

And yet, somewhere deep beneath, a mind began to stir. To question. To think.

This was not all there was. There was a world beyond, a world that deserved attention. It was a tiny world, ridden with imperfection, strife and pain, and yet it was more important than all the infinite dreams he could ever dream combined. And so, Ma Rong needed to wake up.

He didn't need to force himself this time, no outcry of conviction or great act of willpower was necessary. The dreams drifted away all on their own, like curtain of silk being drawn back by a gentle gust of wind, allowing him to leisurely drift back into the real world.

The first thing Ma Rong registered was that he was no longer in the forest. He was wrapped in a comfortable bedding of silk and velvet, his head leaning on a pillow instead of the tree he had fallen unconscious at. A light but steady trembling from beneath cued him onto the fact he was on a cart before his soul sense spread out to confirm it.

Sensing that several people were in the cart with him, Ma Rong opened his eyes, a linen canvas coming into vision, and stretched his waking limbs. To his surprise, he didn't feel a single jolt of pain from his shoulder. On closer inspection, it seemed like it was perfectly healed, no stray splint of bone or other proof of the injury remaining. It was like he had never fought in the first place.

At his stirring, all attention in the cart immediately turned to him.

"Elder Rong!"

Within a moment, he was surrounded by half a dozen of his older hall members, all looking at him in a mix of shock, awe and relief and bombarding him with questions.

"Are you alright?"

"What happened to you?"

"Is your arm…"

"Out of the way! Hush, hush! Stop behaving like fresh disciples!"

A stern-faced old woman pushed her way through the crowd, silencing them with sharp-tongued comments. Ma Rong recognized her from sight, she was one of the Xia Family's senior healers, but he had never spoken to her as she was rarely seen outside of the Healing Hall.

"Elder Rong, good to see you have awoken. Please tell me how you are feeling."

"I'm feeling… good. Great, actually."

Now that he was paying attention to it, Ma Rong could not remember feeling this well rested in ages. Cultivators generally didn't need to rest outside of a little meditation now and then, yet he hadn't felt this invigorated ever since his last breakthrough.

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Speaking of that, his Dao Comprehension had advanced a considerable amount as well, his colorful dreams likely having been reflections of several epiphanies he'd received during combat and subconsciously absorbed in the time since. Apparently, pushing himself to his limits to a degree he hadn't in centuries had been rather worthwhile in that regard.

"Good to hear that. That's our Lady Xia's magic for you. All healers should strive after her perfection!"

"Seems like I owe Elder Xia my thanks."

"I'm sure she was glad to help you. She's always like that, an utterly pure, selfless soul."

Ma Rong smirked. It was funny how much views on someone could differ, depending on perspective and available information. He didn't doubt that this woman genuinely believed what she was saying: She was a skilled healer but didn't seem like a particularly deep political thinker, so she was most certainly not part of the Xia Family's inner circle. Still, if he had to describe Meixiu Xia in a hundred different ways, selfless wouldn't come to mind even once.

"I'll go and inform her of your awakening."

"No need. She's already on her way here." Their Soul Senses had already brushed against each other's. "If you excuse me…"

Ma Rong sat up in his bed, straightening his plain white patient robes before standing up. He bowed his head towards the old healer. "Thank you for attending my recovery."

Next, he turned to his hall members.

"I'll give you and everyone else who is interested a rundown of what happened later, but I'll have to speak to Elder Xia first."

With that, he turned and left, stepping out the backside of the cart right as Meixiu Xia landed next to it.

"Elder Rong. Good to see that you're awake."

"Elder Xia. I heard that I have you to thank for my recovery, though I admit I'm still rather confused about what exactly happened. Would you get me up to speed?"

"Of course. First off, it's been about three days since your fight."

"Three days?"

Ma Rong almost shouted in surprise. How had that happened? That was a long time for a cultivator of his level to be unconscious, much longer than he had anticipated. Had he still been in the forest, this might have put his live at serious risk.

"We artificially prolonged your sleep to aid your healing. I wanted to have you back at peak condition as fast as possible."

"Ah, I understand."

That made a lot more sense.

"How did you end up finding me in the first place?"

"When we had gotten a fair distance forward and you hadn't returned, I backtracked and followed the tracks myself. It didn't take long to find you from there; the site of your battle was hard to miss. I found two dead cultivators and one rather unable to escape her bindings. I interrogated her. She told me of the camp you had taken out and that another one had escaped after the battle."

"Yes, that's true. I tried to follow her, but I was too weak."

"Don't blame yourself for that. With how many wounds you had sustained, I doubt you even noticed most of them, otherwise I can't explain how you even managed to push through that far. Your subordinates almost dropped dead when they saw your state."

"Hmm… The captured cultivator. What happened to her?"

"Don't worry. I took care of both her and the camp. Neither will make any trouble for us anymore."

That was a rather uncreative euphemism for cold-blooded murder. Ma Rong supposed it couldn't be helped; war was war and not everyone had his penchant for leniency – though one should think that if anyone, the healers would be the ones to value life.

"And since then?"

"We're still marching towards the Serene Plains Sect as fast as we can. We don't try to hide anymore, since we've been discovered anyways, so we should arrive in around ten days."

"Provided we're not caught by an army before that."

Meixiu Xia nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes. Assuming that. We've also been preparing ourselves to fight a retreat, should it come to that."

"Have you already heard that the army the scouts belonged to is that of Song Fan?"

"Yes, I have. Our chances aren't looking great. In the best case, your elimination of three of their elders will make them hesitate for a while."

"Let's hope that happens."

The two went silent for a while. Spoken out loud, the bleakness of their situation was almost paralyzing. Ma Rong snapped out of it first.

"Well, I suppose keeping my tricks up my sleeve won't help us anymore."

Three balls of glass materialized in his hand.

"Let's see what we can come up with!"

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