After the victory, there always came the silence, Xiulan reflected. She would have liked to just sit for a moment, to let the calm wash over her, and center herself… perhaps talk to Jin and Meiling, but they had immediately departed to aid Tianlan. The hornet’s tribulation had done a lot more damage than they had realised at the time, destabilizing the already damaged Dragon Veins. There was no moment of respite. She was the Grand Marshal. And in the lull after the storm, she had her duties. She marched through the clearing, flanked by Yin and Tigu, with heads dipped. Exhausted cultivators stood and greeted her and her companions. “Grand Marshal.” “Captain.” “Commander.” They were ragged-looking, utterly spent from the titanic battle they had been a part of, but they still stood out of respect and pride in their own accomplishments. Everyone knew that but two years ago a plague like this would have likely destroyed the entire Azure Hills. Without such a unified and swift response… it did not bear thinking about. While less personally dangerous to her than the battle on the solstice, this was still the largest fight Xiulan had ever been a part of. That all of them had been a part of. It had transpired over thousands of Li, and it had been a brutal, fast-paced, running battle that left little time for rest. They had trained for something like this—a battle (...)