The sun was slowly rising over the eastern mountains, heralding the beginning of a new day. Normally, it would be the signal for the village to wake up-the roosters would crow, the dogs bark, and the sleepy villagers get up, preparing for yet another boring day of field work.

However, this time no one woke up, because no one went to sleep in the first place. Crying and lamentations played a symphony among the ruined buildings, and the deafening sound of rubble being cleared away played its own tune, as yaren servants of the Shuangshan sect desperately looked for survivors of the gruesome battle that enveloped Chenfei this night.

Alas, at this point, anyone who could have been saved, had already been escorted to the medical facilities on the top of the eastern hill. There was nothing but ruins and corpses to find now, assessing losses, mitigating any further damage to surviving livestock and food stockpiles…

All because of the accursed Wuyun sect!

Zhanzhan gritted her teeth, audible clattering echoed through the ruined building she was scavenging. It’s one thing they assassinated master Lan when everyone was busy with the competition, but after that, instead of retreating like assassins ought to, they entrenched themselves secretly in the village, and ambushed the group sent in their pursuit!

The catgirl remembered well how it looked from top of the eastern hill-she reached it just in time to witness a sudden outburst of explosions in the village below, and soon enough, several fires broke out, consuming the wooden houses like a giant bonfire.

Having realized that the group sent in pursuit of the villains was most likely killed, Bai Lianfei gathered all cultivators capable of turning their life energy into elementally charged projectiles, and not letting herself fall in the enemy trap again, wisely ordered them to relentlessly bombard the burning village with a storm of fiery, frozen and electric bullets.

It was like a sight straight out of ancient battlefields….

Unfortunately, the enemy set up invisible force barriers, already so familiar to Zhanzhan, and answered fire with fire. For a while, the Shuangshan cultivators on the hill, and the Wuyun group entrenched in the village, continued barraging each other with bullets, with seemingly no end in sight. Despite their numerical advantage, the Shuangshan warriors were mostly novices compared to the black cloud delegation, and the strongest of them had already been exhausted after expending most of their strength over the course of the martial tournament.

A noble event designed by Lan Caolu, meant to strengthen the bonds of cultivators in the spirit of sportsmanship, was exploited by the heartless villains and used to their advantage! Truly, there was no better day to attack the village than today….It’s just that, no one expected that.

Ah, if only Zhanzhan treated Fengli’s warning more seriously, perhaps this disaster could had been avoided! She was certain she kept dibs on the black robed group that took custody of her, but how naive it was of her to presume that was all of them…after all, that woman who found her sneaking around, Mei Rulan, approached somewhere from behind! Without doubt, there must had been a second group hidden somewhere, and they secretly carried out their nefarious plan while the main delegation spectated the tournament.

She walked over a corpse adored in what looked like remains of a black robe with black cloud patterns sewn into it. The original body, chopped into pieces, was scattered chaotically over several meter wide radius. She spat to the side. Serves him right.

Not paying a deceased enemy any more attention, she continued replaying the events of tonight over and over again, obsessively, as if looking for some answer or justification within the memories still so freshly burned into her soul.

The impasse lasted for a while. Neither side could get the upper hand over the other, and it seemed that the battle will last for all eternity.
However, Bai Lianfei personally led a small detachment of her most loyal red ribbon warriors, and taking advantage of the chaos, encircled the enemy, catching them in a surprise pincer attack.
Supposedly she killed several black-robed devils personally, but Zhanzhan, of course, wasn’t there to witness that…like many other servants and villagers, she was safely on the hills overlooking the village, watching powerlessly as hell itself devoured her homeland.

Unfortunately, not all the villagers escaped the carnage. The oldest and weakest people, who couldn’t make the journey uphill, didn’t participate in the tournament festivities, and stayed home, never suspecting the disaster that was about to befall them. They were the unfortunate causalities, who unwillingly got caught in the crossfire between the superhuman warriors, alongside their houses and livestock.

Zhanzhan could only hope their deaths were quick and painless. Alas, in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, she knew it was just her wishful thinking.

The catgirl glanced at the charred corpse in front of her. She just finished clearing the rubble that covered his partly crushed, partly charred body. Despite the tremendous damage it suffered, she could still make out the facial features of old man Mo. And the ruined building it was buried under…was none other than his famous bakery.

If Zhanzhan wasn’t tired, stressed, and on the verge of mental and physical collapse, she’d probably cry now. Like many villagers, she loved the famous pastry served at his stall, and had many happy memories associated with it. The old man was an old man for as long as she could remember, and perhaps he even surpassed master Lan in age. And now, just like the former sect grandmaster, he was gone, forever.

And not a single tear was spilled over his mutilated body. Zhanzhan calmly called the servant responsible for making burial preparations and reported her discovery. The name of the deceased, known living relations and former household address were meticulously written down, and a messenger was dispatched uphill to order another makeshift coffin.

Zhanzhan bowed and, having finished the task, moved on to the next house, continuing her grim search.
Just as she was about to try lifting a particularly heavy stone lodged on what looked like remains of bedding made for a newborn child, she felt a strong, muscular hand pat her on the back.

“Allow me…”

Without saying anything further, she stepped back and allowed Ming Libai to do the heavy lifting. Because of the injuries sustained during the tourney, he did not participate in the battle, but was all too eager to make up for that by helping yaren servants clean up the aftermath of tonight’s bloody events.

And not far away sat Wang Shunji, looking over the relief and cleanup efforts wordlessly. His otherwise raven black hair were now adorned with white strands, and if Zhanzhan was in a better mood, she’d probably joke about how similar they look to her own now. Alas, she was not feeling it right now, so she just wordlessly nodded at him. Noticing her beacon, he equally wordlessly nodded back, and rode towards her.

“You are…” he stopped mid-sentence, apparently struggling to recall her name. Not that he and she had that many interactions in the past anyway. “…Fengli’s friend, right? Have you seen her?”

Zhanzhan shrugged and replied dismissively, but truthfully.

“I haven’t seen her since yesterday.”

A shadow of grief stained his otherwise perfect facial features, but he didn’t say anything else and bowed politely. They continued sitting around for a while longer in solemn silence, that would have felt quite awkward if the circumstances were any different.

Finally, Ming Libai finished his physical labor, and waved to Wang Shunji enthusiastically, grinning like an idiot.

That enthusiasm is something that, frankly speaking, annoyed Zhanzhan immensely. What was he so happy about, why was he acting so energetically, if he had this much vital strength left, why didn’t he help out during the fighting!? Suddenly Zhanzhan’s calm facade collapsed, and she mentally hurled a lot of insults towards the muscular young man, exercising all of her remaining willpower not to vocalize them.

She bent over and hid her face in the palm of her hand, hoping that the mad wagging of her tail won’t be noticed.

…………………..

Fortunately, Ming Libai was completely oblivious to how his overly sunny disposition affected the catgirl. He waved her goodbye, and, steadily pushing the wheelchair forward, was now cheerfully humming some playful tune. Their job in the village was done, now all that’s left is to go back to the headquarters and report on everything that was happening down here.

Since they were injured, miss Bai ordered them to stay hospitalized, and only help in most menial, administrative tasks.
However, Wang Shunji insisted he wants to see the ruined village with his own eyes, and since he was now rather immobile, his friend took it upon himself to escort him down. It would be really bad if he fell and injured himself even more, especially since miss Bai was lenient enough to pardon him and forgive his qi deviation incident if he agreed to follow her lead from now on!

Despite having received such a favor, Wang Shunji looked quite depressed. What could be the reason for that? Ah, of course, his injuries!

“Oh don’t worry” Ming Libai chirped “I’m sure you will walk again in no time!”

“….”

Hmm, that didn’t quite work. Ming Libai didn’t quite know what to say in this kind of situation, so after a short moment of rather awkward silence, he started narrating whatever was on his mind for the last several hours, hoping that his stream of consciousness, straight from his heart, will work better.

“I know what! After you get better, I will personally recommend you to be admitted among the ranks of miss Bai’s red ribbons!”

“…”

“..I have a ribbon now too, and you know what? Even as she succeeds her grandfather, miss Bai intends to keep those especially loyal to herself close by, forming a circle within the circle so to speak!” He puffed his chest, proudly “This ribbon is here to stay!”

Hearing that, his friend finally smiled. Although his smile was ever so gentle, it was quite a progress, and the muscular young man considered his efforts to be successful.

“Say…” started Wang Shunji, looking up at him sheepishly, with the very same faint smile not escaping his lips for even a single moment “when did you become so enamored with miss Bai?”

This question caught him unaware. When?

“Isn’t it obvious…? Alwa…” he stopped mid-sentence. Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t actually always. When did he realize how great the new leader of Shuangshan is?

After pondering this question for a while, he finally attempted to give an answer once again, trying to make himself sound as convincing as possible. He wouldn’t like to disturb his injured friend by giving him a half-hearted and dishonest reply, especially regarding such an important subject!

“It must have been during my fight with her. I just realized…that there is something fundamentally different between us, like I was staring at some incomprehensible, godly power…you know?” he glanced at Wang Shunji, looking for affirmation.

His friend giggled lightly and nodded back.

“Same here!” he answered slowly, carefully selecting his words, as the injuries he sustained made speech somewhat difficult “when I lost control fighting her, I realized how inferior I am. When she pulled her sword from my thigh, all I could think of was how humbled I am in front of her majesty…”

“Right!”

That was exactly right! That’s exactly how Ming Libai felt, too!
Reaffirmed in the validity of his newfound beliefs, he continued chatting cheerfully, talking about a lot of things that Chen Mengyao shared with him earlier this night.

About how the world of cultivation, devoid of virtue, marches steadily towards self-destruction. How yaren, despite being of equal intelligence as humans, are mistreated and abused in the south. How dangerous demonic artifacts are mistakenly sealed away in hidden vaults all over the world, instead of destroyed.
And finally, how a flying white lotus will soar proudly in the sky, showing a new way forward for the entire middle kingdom.

So lost he was in his own words, that after a while, he stopped paying attention to Wang Shunji’s feedbacks, which mostly consisted of smiling and nodding silently.

Thus, he didn’t notice when that gentle smile slowly turned back into a neutral, emotionless expression his friend had back in the ruins of the village.

*ancient wooden wheelchairs were slightly different from modern ones, but they served the same purpose