An Elder's Revolution - The Art of Sect Politics

Qingge's foot caught on something she had failed to see in the mud and she stumbled forward, barely managing to avoid falling over. Panting, she looked over her shoulder to see what had tripped her, wincing when she had found it: It was a loose head, body nowhere to be found, and she had kicked it several meters forward through the mud.

"Is everything alright?"

Yang's shout cut through the relentless pattering of rain, filled with concern.

"Y-yes, I'm okay.", she answered. Well, at least as okay as the circumstances allowed it, she thought to herself. "Let's keep going."

The downpour had turned the battlefield into a swamp, the mud clinging to Qingge's feet with every step as she trudged forward, trying to conserve the little strength she had left as she followed Yang across the battlefield.

"They have to be somewhere over there!", Yang shouted. They had gotten separated from Elder Shi's unit in the midst of another cavalry engagement. Before they had been able to reunite with them, they had run into another group of enemies and had to run. Ever since then, they had been trying to follow their sect-member's tracks.

With the sun hidden behind the thick curtain of rain, Qingge had no way of knowing how long the battle had been going on, but it felt like an eternity. The sounds of battle still rung in the distance, though they were muffled by the rain.

They had marched uninterrupted for a while when Yang raised his arm, signaling Qingge to stop. After a moment of confusion, she spotted what he had seen: The silhouette of a rider that was approaching them. Qingge's muscles tensed and she put her hand on her sword's hilt.

When the rider was close enough to make out details, her fears were confirmed: this was one of the Roaring Thunder Sect's men. Clad in dark grey steel and wielding a nasty-looking halberd of the same material, the aged man was clearly a seasoned warrior – moreover, from the way Yang was eyeing him, it was clear that he had to be in the Dao Attunement Realm as well.

The man didn't immediately charge them, instead keeping his distance and eyeing them, probably trying to gauge whether they were worth attacking or not. Qingge felt his Soul Sense prod her and his expression hardened as he realized she wasn't on his level. 'Turn around!', she wanted to scream at him, but she could practically see his resolve building in a different direction. The momentary standoff ended as he spurred his horse on towards them.

Qingge drew her sword and raised her shield, while also supplying Qi to the formation on her pauldrons. It was that last move that saved her life a second later when a spear of lightning crashed into the barrier that had just flickered into existence, shattering it instantly but dissipating in the process.

While Qingge was still stumbling backwards from the sudden explosion right before her eyes, Yang was already rushing forward to meet the attacker's charge. Distracted by his failure to evaporate Qingge, the man's halberd thrust was lackluster even to her eye and Yang easily ducked below it, his movement not at all hindered by the deep mud. In the same motion, he brought down his greatsword on the horse's front leg, severing it cleanly. With a gut-wrenching scream the animal fell, the rider jumping off right before it hit the ground and tumbled through the mud for several meters before coming to a halt.

He had regained his balance before he even hit the ground, whirling his halberd around to fend of Yang, who was already upon him. The two exchanged a flurry of blows with neither of them having a clear advantage. Qingge revived her Qi barrier before she joined in on the attack. She wasn't as quick or strong as either, even with her armor, but being attacked from two sides was enough to force their opponent into the defensive.

They kept the pressure on as well as they could and when he took a step backwards, Yang pulled the ground away from below his feet. He stumbled and Qingge feigned an attack with her sword, only to pivot and instead swing the metal edge her shield against his head. The force of the impact wasn't enough to hurt him through his helmet, but it was enough to fully tip over his balance. He fell over, losing grip of his halberd and though he managed to roll out of his fall, Yang was over him before he could get back up.

Qingge could already see the Greatsword carve his head from his shoulders when, instead, bolts of electricity crackled across his arm. Before Yang could react, a bolt of lightning struck him square in the chest, sending him flying. Qingge wanted to scream, but instead she charged forward, sword raised.

The man had just retaken his halberd barely managed to block her strike, but Qingge wasn't his match. Their exchange was short, and Qingge was immediately on the defensive. She managed to redirect a couple of his thrusts, but then he delivered a wide arcing stroke that she could only face head on. She could feel her shield shattering as the force of the blow shook through her. She was in no condition to defend against the thrust to her abdomen that followed.

Qingge crashed into the mud several meters away, but she barely felt the impact – the feeling in her belly was a dozen times worse. Was this it? Was she going to die? Her opponent apparently thought so, because through her blurred vision she could see him turn around to face Yang, who had only just managed to rise to his feet again.

But as she breathed rasped breaths of air into her lungs, Qingge could feel the pain retreating almost as quickly as it had come. The halberd hadn't pierced the armor; she had only been hit with the blunt force. In fact, the armor seemed to be barely dented, when she felt over it with her hand – the craftsmanship of a cultivator much stronger than her opponent.

As Qingge slowly rose to her knees, she could see Yang struggling under a relentless assault. The halberd-wielder brought his weapon down again and again in powerful strikes that he could barely hold off. Qingge wanted to rush to his aid, but when she took the first step, her vision went black. She barely managed to stay upright through the sudden onset of dizziness.

So, instead of running, Qingge inched her way closer step by step, as fast as she could handle. Their opponent didn't seem to notice at all, focused entirely on beating down her friend. And before Qingge could reach them, he succeeded. Yang's broadsword was swatted out of his hands by a strike with the halberd's grip and the next moment, a mighty swing fell onto his shoulder.

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Yang wasn't as fortunate as Qingge was with her armor: Blood sprayed through the air as the blade carved through his armor and into his shoulder and the force of the blow brought him to his knees. Once more Qingge felt the urge to scream and once more, she resisted it – she didn't have enough breath to scream and act.

Gritting her teeth and summoning strength she would have denied having, Qingge jumped forward, raising her sword. As she sailed through the air, her vision went black again, but she fought through it and thrust her blade…

Perfectly hitting her target. In a mix of instinct, desperation and sheer luck, the point found its way through a gap in the man's armor, piercing deep into his side. He shouted out in a mix of pain and surprise, whirling around to see his assailant. He raised a fist to strike at Qingge, but that was a mistake – his last one: Yang, having gripped onto the halberd still stuck in his shoulder, twisted it out of the one remaining hand the man held onto it with and whirled it around in the very same movement. Before he could react, the halberd was buried in the man's neck, ending his life.

Yang stood up as if unfazed, kneeled next to the corpse and pulled the gauntlet off it's right hand. From under it, he retrieved the man's spatial ring and handed it to Qingge who accepted it, as if in a daze. Next, he picked up his greatsword and walked to the horse that was still writhing in the mud. With a single thrust through the head, he ended its struggle. Then he collapsed to his knees again.

This was enough to force Qingge out of her trance and she ran to his side as fast as she could manage.

"Yang…!"

"It's nothing… a shallow wound."

Qingge struggled with the pouch she was carrying, fumbling to pull out a healing pill. Injuries to the shoulder were a terribly serious matter, especially for a swordsman. At least the fact that he'd still been able to use his arm boded well, but she wasn't looking to take any chances.

"Here, eat this.", she told him, handing him the pill as she searched for a healing salve. Luckily, people without spatial rings kept them in wooden containers, exactly for surviving falls like Qingge's.

"Show me your shoulder."

Yang didn't object. Having peeled away the broken armor above it, Qingge got a look at the wound. It really wasn't that deep, but it certainly was nasty. Several metal splinters from the armor had lodged themselves into it.

"This is gonna hurt…"

Yang winced as Qingge pulled out the splinters, but he kept still enough. When she had taken out everything she could see, Qingge applied the salve and bandaged the wound with the cleanest piece of cloth she could find in her pouch. It wasn't great, everything was drenched in rain, mud and blood, but it would do. Yang was a Dao Attunement Realm cultivator, and the healing supplies came directly from the Alchemy Hall.

"Thanks, Qingge."

She nodded. "We did it."

"Not yet. We still have to get out of here."

Yang rose to his feet, but almost immediately stumbled.

"Damn it. That lightning…"

Qingge slipped his healthy arm over her shoulder to support him.

"Think you can manage like this?"

"I'll have to."

Slowly, the two got moving again. Qingge had lost all sense of direction she'd had before the encounter, but staying wasn't an option. The rain kept pouring mercilessly as they inched forward, obscuring their view and impeding their progress.

They had walked like this for a long time when suddenly, less than thirty meters away from them, a woman fell – or rather: shot down – from the sky. She crashed into the ground and slid several meters through the mud before coming to a halt. Visibly hurt, but not incapacitated, she rose up slowly, only to dive to the side, dodging a massive boulder that crashed down where she had just been.

Wind began swirling around in her palm but before she could retaliate, a massive double-bladed axe whirled through the air and buried itself in her chest, pinning her to the ground. The next moment, a man clad in thick golden plate-armor that would have befitted a sect patriarch dropped right on her face. He then stomped down several times, just in case she'd have survived until then, all the while belaying her with a slew of vile curses.

When he was done turning his opponent's face into mush, the broad-shouldered man clasped the grip of his axe and yanked it free from her chest before propping it on the ground resting on its hilt to catch his breath. When he looked around, Qingge could see his face and confirm what the curses had already clued her onto – it was Elder Peng!

A massive burden fell off her shoulders. Jiang Peng was one of the Pillar Family heads she disliked the most, but in this moment, Qingge could only feel relief. She was about to call out to him when she felt Yang's grip tighten around her shoulder. Her bodyguard pulled her down to the ground with haste and immediately used his Dao to make them sink into the mud deep enough they could barely still breathe.

Before Qingge could understand what was happening, a bolt of lightning lit up the entire area in bright light as it struck Elder Peng.

"Found you.", A cold, yet somewhat soft voice rang through the rain.

The lightning had thrown Elder Peng down to the ground and now he was struggling to get up again.

"You didn't think you would get away with it, did you?"

Before Elder Peng would have even had a chance to respond, another bolt of lightning struck down towards him. This time, he managed to raise his axe to block it, but he was blown back several steps, nonetheless.

"You know, I promised myself to make you bleed for it. To make you scream."

Another bolt of lightning. This time, a massive slab of rock shot out of the ground to intercept it, and was promptly shattered.

"And unlike you, Song Fan always keeps his promises."

A slim man descended from the sky, slowly, almost casually, but in his hands, he held a chain on the end of which hung a gruesomely shaped curved blade that he was slowly letting spin at his side.

"Bastard.", Jiang Peng spit on the ground. "I'll…"

Another bolt of lightning struck him before he could finish his sentence.

"No more talking. No more stalling." The soft voice trembled slightly, revealing a glimpse of the cold rage that was hidden beneath it. "Your time has come, Jiang." Then, Song Fan rushed forward.

What followed was not so much a battle as it was an execution. Elder Peng's mighty axe couldn't touch Song Fan a single time. His golden armor kept him safe for far longer than his strength could, but it was torn away piece by piece by his opponent's gruesome blade.

Song Fan kept his promise – Jiang Peng bled. Jiang Peng screamed. First for help, then for mercy, then for death. None of his pleas were answered. In the end, he was only quietly whimpering. Then, Song Fan lifted him up by the once proudly worn beard and severed his neck. The body slumped to the ground with an unceremonial thud.

The head still in hand Song Fan turned around, a sadistic smile on his lips. Then, suddenly, his eyes met Qingge's. Her blood froze in her veins, but he merely let out a quiet chuckle and turned away, taking to the air. Qingge couldn't help but follow his path with her eyes.

Not too far away, another figure was waiting for him in the air with crossed arms. The towering man was not fighting anymore, like he had been when Qingge had noticed him in the beginning of the battle. Instead, he was watching over the battlefield like a herald of death and destruction. He accepted the head and examined it with an unfazed expression. Then he lifted it above his head.

Electricity began swirling all around him, so intense that it lit up the entire battlefield and for a moment, all eyes were drawn to him. Then he raised his voice in a thundering shout.

"Jiang Peng is dead. Look upon me, Lunar Peaks Sect, and despair!"