Even if they were chowing down on instant noodles in the middle of the street—with no cover, no scouts, or general regard for their own safety—Lin Songmei, Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and Zhao Liying couldn’t deny they had a good time.

With each of them holding a steaming bowl of noodles, they had all sat in a circle while in various states between ‘indistinguishable from a corpse’ to ‘actually sitting upright.’ Slurping, sipping, and downing their noodles with no regard to the potential heart problems the extreme amounts of salt could cause, they all chatted, forgetting any of their worries for the future for just a little while.

With their beyond-early lunch over, the five cultivators sat around, leaning against various pieces of rubble—or each other—while passing the time with idle conversation. At one point Youhong and Mingqing played some video games, at another Taigang somehow managed to pull himself to do another upper body workout.

And so, eleven in the morning came and went, noon came and went, and one in the afternoon came and went.

Without too much to do, everyone began mulling around. They couldn’t leave, of course. Surrendering their reward after all the fighting would’ve been about as close to a catastrophic fatal error as one could get.

It wasn’t until later, just a little past one when interesting things started to happen once more. With a shockwave, Songmei bolted to her feet as she watched three figures fly by. Scrambling to pull out her bow as everyone else in the party searched for their weapons, Songmei watched as Avarice, Wrath, and the mayor all climbed out of the rubble of a building.

With her halberd in hand, Wrath stood a few steps ahead of the mayor while facing Avarice. Avarice, with his customary smug grin, twirled around a pair of twin blades while the mayor readied himself, extra-large great-sword in hand.

Backing away from the battle, Songmei slid her way next to the others as they watched from a safe distance. They couldn't make out the exchange of words but... some heated words were being hurled no doubt.

Stroking his chin, Youhong provided some dead-pan color commentary while looking at the scene. “As we can see here, Wrath and the mayor have put themselves in a favorable position, pushing Avarice out into contested territory where his subordinates can’t support.”

“Here, Avarice is faced with a couple of avenues of action,” Songmei hopped in, draping an arm over Youhong’s shoulder. “Avarice can either run or fight.”

“Oh... my... what a dire situation,” Liying hopped in, deciding to act as an amazed audience member, “Run or fight?? So crazy... I can’t imagine... cultivators? Such ascendant beings.”

Pushing an invisible set of glasses up his nose, Taigang, in the most nasal voice he could, added in as well, as a classic know-it-all. “Don’t you know? In a situation like this, the only correct action is to begin running. Since the chances of winning are so slim when fighting against two other people in the same realm as you. You have to be some sort of cultivation novel genius in order to win. And we all know those don’t exist in reality. Heh.”

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Raising an unimpressed eyebrow, Mingqing just turned away. Crossing her arms, Mingqing continued to watch the scene in silence, leaving her four friends to crumble into heaps of laughter.

With Wrath, Avarice, and the mayor raising their weapons once more, everyone fell into silence as they raised their own weapons as well. Songmei, snapping an arrow into existence, sent some Qi into her eyes, causing a deep amethyst color to fill her irises.

Watching their Qi signatures flare up, Songmei squinted her eyes to block out some of the discomfort. Yet, contrary to her all expectations, Songmei watched as Avarice lowered his swords, stowing them before running.

It wasn’t out of her expectations Avarice would run; however, Avarice running towards Wrath and the mayor without weapons was a little strange.

With everyone in the party confused, the silence became a thick goo. Eyes widened, jaws dropped, and hesitant backward steps were taken.

Squelch.

That... was... a lot of blood.

With Wrath screaming, Songmei covered her mouth as she watched the mayor’s great-sword puncture straight through Wrath’s armor like it was wet tissue paper. Coming out the other side with a healthy—well, unhealthy if looking at the situation—dose of blood and chunks of what seemed to be... intestines, the mayor’s sword was dyed red as the mayor grabbed Wrath from behind.

“The... the what just happened...” Youhong murmured, quiet as Greed and the mayor walked towards each other, giving each other a high-five and handshake.

“We gotta do something.” Taigang interrupted in a hushed whisper, pulling everyone in close as he began rapping out some orders. “Okay, we have to rescue Wrath. Songmei uses that arrow to crystalize the mayor’s sword into Wrath so he can’t pull it out. Then we’ll rush them, get Wrath, and book it to the hospital.”

With everyone giving a short “yes!” Songmei took a couple steps back, rotating to try and get a better view of her target. She’d only have one shot. Taking a deep breath, Songmei drew her bow back as everyone else did a weird... well, stealthy, half-crouched run towards their own positions.

In.

Out.

Relaxing her shoulders and lining it up just a little more, Songmei let the arrow loose, channeling a ton of Qi into it as fast as she could. The more she channeled the more crystal it’d blossom into.

With her arrow zipping through the air, Songmei did a fist bump as the arrow found its mark, encasing the sword and a little bit of Wrath’s torso.

“GO!” Taigang shouted not a second later, bursting out from behind a rock and charging at the now bewildered duo. Drawing all the attention to himself by illuminating himself with his main technique, Taigang glowed golden as he trucked the mayor, giving him a newfound appreciation for the pavement he walked on everyday.

With the rest of the party using their most powerful techniques right off the bat, Songmei followed suit. They just needed to stave the mayor and Avarice off as fast as possible and book it to the hospital. They couldn’t win a protracted battle, not yet at least.

Snapping arrow after arrow into existence, Songmei let them loose, bothering Avarice and the mayor for a few moments so they couldn’t pull out their weapons. With Youhong and Liying’s most powerful attacks crashing down on Avarice, they pushed him back while Mingqing sent her own barrage of attacks onto the now possibly concussed mayor.

“Taigang, you're in charge of Wrath!” Mingqing growled, holding off the mayor as he scampered backward, trying to find a moment to climb to his feet. “Liying! You’re rear! Songmei! Middle!”