With her head pounding, Lin Songmei began losing track of time as the battle continued to drag on. Fighting alongside Yan Mingqing, although fun, had been more painful than ever. With every body part screaming as if it was a twenty year out-of-service mechanical part, Songmei’s battle ability had begun to nosedive as the battle went on. 

Her initial thoughts about having pressure taken off blew away like her childhood dreams too. All the other underworld bosses were about even, which meant Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth provided help about as often as Songmei saw her parents. 

Well, they did provide help... so Songmei’s little comparison didn’t quite hold up, but it’s what the battle felt like. 

Yet, she and Mingqing were holding up quite well. Everyone in the battle, to say the least, was struggling to keep it going. The mayor, as Mingqing and Songmei’s opponent, had seemed to suffer the most. 

His Qi was flowing with about as much smoothness as a middle school boy trying to talk to a group of girls. His swings had become labored and slow while his eyes had become unfocused as he just fought to stay standing. 

Well, Songmei, herself, was fighting to stay standing as well, but that was beside the point. She just... wanted it to all be over. Why did everyone have so much stamina?

With the other battles slowing down though, Songmei’s life became easier. Pride, Avarice, and Envy had all stopped targeting her and focused on their own respective battles. The stray attacks too, had disappeared for the most part as everyone conserved their Qi and used more focused, targeted attacks. 

Able to stand still, Songmei’s legs had cooled off and solidified like solid lead. However, without movement, Songmei was able to focus more on her own offensive capabilities. Her attacks had continued to land, showering Gao Kunshan in a downpour of attacks and hampering his ability to move. 

Watching Greed get pummeled into the ground by a bloodied Sloth out of the corner of her eye, Songmei felt a prick of satisfaction as she focused back up. Mingqing—who Songmei really had to give both her praises and her condolences—was still hacking away at the mayor while dealing with his slow crashing blows. 

Why... Why did it have to be so hard though? 

With the afternoon sun high in the sky, Songmei furrowed her eyebrows, let out a long sigh, and dug in for the upcoming grind of a battle. 

Tuning out everything but her own actions, Songmei lost track of everything as the battle dragged on. Her own body moved like someone chained it down to the ground and she was starting to lose track of all the pain her body told her about. More than just a lot of pain too, there were so many types as well... 

Muscle pain, bone pain, eye pain, hungry pain, and the dreaded ‘emotional want to lay in bed and be a snail after all this hassle’ type of pain. 

Letting loose another arrow, Songmei grimaced as it missed its mark. Watching it hit and encase the mayor’s arm instead of his shoulder, Songmei scraped out a little more Qi from her near dry reservoirs to make another arrow. 

When was it going to end?

Firing what felt like another couple dozen arrows, Songmei’s tired eyes threatened to close as she began pondering the possibility of taping her eyelids like a children’s cartoon. Kicking back to dodge a rare attack sent her way from the mayor, Songmei felt her stomach contort and churn with nausea as she began forming another arrow. 

With her speed having slowed down to half, or even a third, of what it was before, Songmei bought herself a little more time with some half-alive strafing. Her eyes widened and breath halted, though, as she watched a blazing spear fall from the heavens, landing another blow on the mayor. 

Interjecting a new shot of life into the battle, Zhao Liying’s laughter could be heard as she called her spear back and leapt down from the warehouse rooftops. With Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and the rest of the direct disciples in tow, Liying ran forward sending a net of spear strikes at the mayor as she waved for Mingqing to retreat.

“You all look horrendous!” Liying laughed, partnering with Taigang to occupy the also shocked—and also close to passing out—mayor. “C’mon let’s wrap this battle up!” 

Watching her friends grind through the battlefield in a systematic wave, taking down the mayor, Pride, Avarice, and Envy one after another, Songmei could only fall back onto her butt. Amazed, Songmei felt bursts of laughs escaping her lips as a smile formed on her face. 

Of course, not a second after smiling, Songmei had to stop as she felt her lips crack open in a couple different parts from how dry they were. 

Splayed out like a starfish washed up on a beach, Songmei tossed her bow aside as she opened and closed her hands a few times. “It’s... over...” 

Whatever way the situation proceeded from here, Songmei didn’t care. Their opponents had been defeated, Songmei’s plan was to hole up and pawn all the annoying work off to Youhong, Taigang, and Liying. 

She had an excuse too! Her body felt torn apart! And... judging from how much blood she could see on her clothes, it probably was torn apart... 

Feeling Mingqing slump down and lay down near her, Songmei smiled and coughed as she looked over at Mingqing. “We... We did it!” 

“You can say that again,” Mingqing groaned, closing her eyes as she shut out the world around her. 

Laying beside each other in silence, Songmei and Mingqing let the others clean up and subdue the enemies as they rested, digested their gains, and suffered from the aftereffects. 

Closing her eyes, Songmei circulated the last bits of her Qi as she sank into her internal cultivation world. Feeling the pain dull and fade into the background, Songmei opened her eyes in what felt like a new world. 

Looking down and seeing a faint outline of her body, Songmei moved it around with curious eyes. She still wasn’t used to it. Having checked out this ‘internal world’ of sorts the day prior under her master Liu Xueli’s guidance, Songmei knew this place was... inside of her. 

Dissecting a dead cultivator’s body wouldn’t reveal a path to this place because it was spiritual and mental, but it was ‘inside’ nonetheless. 

Wading through the ankle deep water—something Xueli had just brushed off as Qi—Songmei looked around. 

Unlike yesterday, where it was just a flat, never-ending plane in all directions, the area had seemed to take a little shape. The sky, of course, was still just one dull brown-yellowish color mirroring a dust storm but without the dust—something Songmei was looking forward to changing as she advanced. 

The biggest change though, was the appearance of a new pair of double doors. Raised on a small stone platform, it towered over Songmei and stretched up almost two stories tall. 

Making her way over to take a closer look, Songmei grimaced as all the pain her real body was feeling came rushing back as she was yanked out of her little world and back into the real one. 

Esiyx

Don't got much to say as usual these days...
been enjoying Ado's Odo song recently thoughhh

Other than that, have an interview tomorroww, so that's funnn 
thanks for reading~!!
Take care reader friends <3<3