Qingge lay in the mud and didn't move. Despite her armor's temperature regulation and her reformed body, she could feel the cold creeping into her body, but she didn't move. She didn't want to move.

Time passed by like it didn't know her, didn't concern itself with her. Had it been moments? Minutes? Hours? She didn't know. She didn't care.

The splashing of hooves in mud drew close. They rode past them, riders, how many? She didn't know. Soon, the sound vanished back into the darkness.

The sounds of battle had grown quieter. Was it the fighting coming to an end? Or was she just starting to tune them out?

Qingge didn't want to continue. She didn't want to fight. How could they fight such power, such terror?

If her master was here… She thought of the light that had pulled her out of the darkness beneath Moonlake City. The fire that had protected her against the man that was now leading the army she was a part of.

'Lying down is not an option…'

"…If you won't be getting the chance to stand up again.", Qingge muttered, completing the words of Master Wei that had popped up in her head and feeling a little warmer as she did so. It was one of the phrases he liked to repeat during training sessions whenever she wanted to give up before she had pushed herself to her limits.

Her master wasn't here right now. He was half across the peninsula, with no idea what was happening here. She was all alone in the darkness, with only herself to pull her back up.

Would her participation even make a difference? She was just one girl, one weak girl in the soul realization realm. 'You'll change nothing!', a voice in her screamed. It wanted her to stay here, to wait until everything was over. To live with the outcome, whatever it may be, but to live. 'Stay where you are! You're all alone here!'

No, that wasn't true. Yang was right next to her. He had fought shoulder to shoulder with her just moments… or minutes… or hours ago. There were comrades and allies still fighting right now, fighting a battle that she was still a part of. There was Daiyu, still waiting on the ship. The ship that the Roaring Thunder Sect would take, if they lost here.

What did it matter how little a difference she made? If the others weren't running, weren't hiding, what right did she have to do so? If she hid away, not doing everything she could, and they lost here, could she live with that? If they trampled her home, could she live with that? If they took Daiyu, could she live with that? Qingge clenched her fists. She couldn't live with that.

She heaved herself out of the mud, first to her knees, then to her feet. Yang was already standing next to her. They exchanged looks, then he nodded. No words needed to be spoken. She took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. Grey, all around, but no longer black. Was the rain letting up?

There was a small hill not too far from them and since they had nowhere else to go, they decided to head there for now. Yang was already able to walk by himself again and he insisted on doing so, even though his legs still looked a little shaky.

At first Qingge had wondered why no army had occupied the hill, but now that they were scaling the muddy slope for themselves, that question readily answered itself. Trying to march an entire army up here in this weather would probably prove futile – Without the formation on her shoes providing adhesion, Qingge would have slid down again before taking a dozen steps.

As they climbed, the rain continued to let up. Soon, the downpour had turned into a drizzle and as she looked around, Qingge saw the first rays of sunlight that were making their way across the horizon. Now her exhaustion made a lot more sense; the battle had gone on for the entire night and into the next day!

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With the rain no longer muffling the sounds of battle, they could now clearly hear that they were coming from just beyond the hill. Qingge's mind flashed back to the moment they had crossed that other hill with the army just yesterday, at the start of the battle. The first look beyond the hill had proved a shock then…

And this one didn't prove any better. Just below them, at the foot of the hill, the Lunar Peaks Sect's army was making its last stand. Their allies had formed a rough square, that had been completely enveloped by the enemy, and were fighting in all directions to stave them off.

Above them, many elders were still fighting as well, though the numbers had dwindled on both sides. Amongst them, Qingge could make out Elder Shi, who was occupied fighting three other cultivators. Just this moment, a blade of wind caught her by the foot, and she was sent swirling through the air before catching herself.

Not far away, Elder Bai was unsuccessfully trying to hold off Song Fan. Even from this distance, Qingge could see the exhaustion in his movement. Xing Zhou was outside the fighting, hovering above his army and occasionally throwing massive bolts of lightning into the fray.

It took a moment for Qingge to process what she was seeing, but then it hit her: This was nothing they could change anymore. It was over – the battle was lost. The realization drained all remaining strength from her limbs, but strangely didn't hurt. She had no room for more despair. It was almost cathartic, just standing there and witnessing the last moments of the Lunar Peaks Sect's defiance.

A strangely warm breeze of wind from the west blew away the little rain that remained and caressed Qingge's skin, as if to console her. She welcomed the warmth but the longer it remained, the more it perplexed her. Was the spring arriving just this moment? Qingge looked up from the battle, turning her head westward after the wind, just in time to witness a second sun rise above the horizon!

As if arrived to herald a second dawn, a resplendent figure wreathed in white and golden flames shot across the sky. Qingge's wonder turned to marvel, then to an unbelievable feeling of relief as they traversed a distance that would have taken hours to walk in mere moments. Her master had arrived.

As Liu Wei closed in, Qingge felt like she could see the scorching rage in his eyes, though it was likely little more than her imagination. Even as he approached, lances of flame formed around him, like rays of sunlight ready to turn any challenger to ashes. Soon, more and more people noticed the new arrival and for just a moment, the battle below stalled…

Then he was upon them, crashing into the enemy rows like a meteor before immediately surging into the sky again, heading for their elders. His fire burned so bright that Qingge could barely make out what was happening. And then, on the other side of the battlefield, just below Xing Zhou who was gathering a storm of pure lightning around himself, the earth split apart.

Riders were thrown off their horses and buried beneath masses of soil and rock as an arm of rock the size of a tree trunk shot out of the ground, already swinging at Xing Zhou. The latter interrupted his channeling to dodge sideways, only to be grabbed by the leg by another hand four meters away.

With deceptive speed, a true titan of stone emerged from below. The Roaring Thunder Sect's patriarch who had seemed such a massive figure looked like a little child next to the colossal construct.

Before Xing Zhou could free himself from its grip, the giant tackled him with its full body, wrapping its arms around him to keep him in place. Then it dashed forward, parting the enemy line like blades of gras in its path. Soon, it had cleared the field of battle, but it didn't stop dragging the patriarch away.

In the meantime, Liu Wei had already singlehandedly felled several of the enemy elders above. Now, as the construct was disappearing into the distance, he disengaged and dashed after it. Only now did Qingge understood what they had planned; They were separating Xing Zhou from his army. As she watched her master fly off into the distance, she felt a twinge in her side – this battle was not won yet.

But now this knowledge didn't fill her with fear anymore, but with determination.

She studied the enemy army that was still in complete disarray from the sudden intrusion, just at the foot of the hill. Then the hill itself, covered in thick mud. Then she turned to Yang, who was standing next to her, determination burning in his eyes.

"Think you could cause a landslide?"

Yang stopped and looked at the hillside, contemplating for a moment.

"I've mostly regenerated my Qi… May be worth a try."

Qingge took a deep breath, then she grinned at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"Then let's make a memorable entrance of our own."

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