Luo Qingyang was able to move much faster on her own than with the forces moving toward Dafan. Even still, she found herself pushing herself to go just a little bit faster. A few less breaks than she would normally allow herself. A few more meals eaten while in transit. A few less hours of sleep. Maybe more than just a few less hours of sleep.

She couldn't help it. The nervous energy had gotten to her before she left to scout ahead. Jiang Yanli had done her best to conceal her nerves, but Luo Qingyang could tell she was worried. The situation was time sensitive. There was no way to know how long Nie Mingjue might be able to lay low in Dafan without being discovered. This was only made worse by how delayed their departure had been.

Jiang Yanli was not the only one nervous. Lan Xichen's face looked pinched. His normal calm and reassuring smiles looked tight and uncomfortable. He radiated anxiety in a way that was as uncomfortable as it was surprising. Lan Xichen had always been rather good at maintaining his outward calm. Sometimes the calm would be tinted with another emotion, but overall calm was still the primary feeling he would exude. Even when Nie Mingjue was first captured, Lan Xichen's devastation only slightly dampened that calm. This was the first time that Lan Xichen was radiating a completely different emotion. Anxiety seeping out of him despite the thin veneer of calm he was trying to mask it with.

All of that on top of the QingheNie sect cultivators was too much for Luo Qingyang to ignore. Nie Huaisang was so focused on getting his ge back that Luo Qingyang was surprised he didn't just take the QingheNie cultivators and go. The disciples themselves were eager to charge into battle and reclaim their sect leader.

Luo Qingyang had looked forward to distancing herself from all that nervous energy. Unfortunately now that she was moving ahead of everyone else, it seemed that nervous energy had decided to come with her. Luo Qingyang found herself travelling long past when she would normally sleep. She was too anxious and wound up to rest, so she might as well keep moving. Eventually she grew tired enough to stop and sleep for a few hours before heading out once more.

She reached Dafan in the early afternoon. Luo Qingyang had approached cautiously, unsure what she might find. It was clear her caution was unnecessary. The evidence of battle was everywhere. Burned houses, discarded swords, and bodies. The dead littered the ground. Some of them were civilians, others wore the robes of the QishanWen sect's army.

Luo Qingyang remained cautious. A battle was fought here recently and there were many dead soldiers. Luo Qingyang could not afford to assume what the outcome was. As far as she knew there were only three allied soldiers in Dafan. Wei Wuxian, Hanguang-jun, and Chifeng-zun were all practically legends on the battlefield. Three legends versus an entire army is still not very good odds. Especially when one of them was being held by the QishanWen sect until very recently.

Luo Qingyang noticed people seemed to be slowly gathering the dead. From what Luo Qingyang had observed in the past, The QishanWen sect didn't usually bother with cleaning up the aftermath unless they intended to use the space. Even then, they usually burned them rather than perform burials. Luo Qingyang observed the direction they carried the bodies and cautiously circled around towards the other end of the village.

Just outside the village a group of people appeared to be digging a series of graves. The group comprised mostly of elderly men and a few middle aged women. Luo Qingyang closely observed their robes. They were wearing QishanWen sect colours. Luo Qingyang could tell their clothes had once been of good quality, but they were worn and faded past the point of needing to be replaced. Luo Qingyang could imagine what the fabric would have looked like, but now that same fabric was worn thin. The colours faded and fabric stained more grey brown than white.

"Chifeng-zun, you don't need to help us with this." An older man bowed to Nie Mingjue as he spoke. "You are not recovered yet." The man was being very polite. His posture and tone were nervous.

"Chifeng-zun, if San-yi catches you straining yourself..." One of the younger women began speaking, but was interrupted by a sharp voice.

"What's this 'if'?" A woman with dark brown hair, dusted with greys marched into the area. "If I noticed one of my patients was not where they were supposed to be? Who do you take me for?" The indignant voice and stern gaze were accompanied by a dignified tilt to the woman's chin.

'Oh my god. Wen Qing, this is exactly how you're going to look when you're older.' Luo Qingyang actually blinked twice to make sure she wasn't imagining the similarities. This was one hundred percent someone related to Wen Qing. Probably someone close to her, maybe even helped raise her. The way they carried themselves and their tones of voice were too similar to ignore.

"Sect Leader Nie, you are not my only patient. I don't have time to be chasing you around." The woman, San-yi presumably, gave Nie Mingjue a pointed look.

"No one said you had to chase me anywhere. Tend to your other patients." Nie Mingjue dismissed gruffly. The woman arched her eyebrow in a way that Luo Qingyang remembered seeing Wen Qing do before going off on someone.

"One of my other patients is a toddler on bed rest. Can you imagine trying to keep a toddler on bed rest? Amazingly he is a compliant angel compared to you. Which is why I am having to come find you in the midst of intense labour, which you are not supposed to be doing. In order to drag you back to your room, where you were supposed to be in the first place. So that I can perform your next round of acupuncture, which I would be half down with by now if you had been where you were supposed to be." San-yi's voice carried clearly across the area.

Luo Qingyang noticed several men and women glancing at Nie Mingjue in something like pity before returning to their work. Luo Qingyang had to hold back her laughter. It seemed everyone except Nie Mingjue had known this would be coming. Luo QIngyang took a few breaths and schooled her expression before stepping out from where she had concealed herself.

"Excuse me." Luo Qingyang tried to keep her voice light and non-threatening while still being loud enough to be easily heard. Despite her efforts Luo QIngyang saw several people flinch at her sudden appearance. Nie Mingjue's tense expression cleared immediately.

"Luo Qingyang. Were you scouting ahead?" Nie Mingjue inquired, likely already noticing the answer.

"Yes, Sect Leader Nie. Would you like me to head back and let them know they don't need to rush?" Luo QIngyang inquired.

It was clear, however incredibly, that the battle had been fought and won. She very much wanted to hear how that had happened. Once the graves in process were accounted for mixed with the bodies Luo Qingyang had already seen, the number of enemies seemed too many. She had been on enough battlefields with Wei Wuxian to have an idea of how many corpses he usually controlled. Though that number had been steadily creeping up, it was not enough to account for how three soldiers would defeat this many cultivators.

"How many are coming?" Nie Mingjue asked.

"Zewu-jun and Jiang Yanli are both travelling with a contingent of cultivators from their respective sects. Nie Huaisang is heading here with the entire force of the QingheNie cultivators that had been stationed at base camp." Luo Qingyang reported.

"Huaisang... He should be back in camp. Or in Qinghe..." Nie Mingjue muttered.

"He must be related to you. He is apparently equally bad at being where he is supposed to be." San-yi's voice cut in, sounding so much like an older Wen Qing.

It was giving Luo Qingyang a bit of nostalgia. She had liked Wen Qing. Once Jiang Yanli managed to get the girl to relax a little bit, she was fun to hang around. It was refreshing not being the only person in the friend group unwilling to put up with bullshit.

Jiang Yanli had been fond of Wen Qing too. Luo Qingyang had been nervous about what all that meant with a war going on, but Jiang Yanli seemed convinced that Wen Qing would not support the war willingly. Luo Qingyang hoped that might mean there was a future where the three of them could go into town again for a girl's day out.

Nie Mingjue huffed with a thread of irritation. He turned back to Luo Qingyang, seemingly intent on ignoring San-yi. Luo Qingyang did her very best not to smirk at seeing Nie Mingjue teetering on the edge of getting scolded by someone.

"Stick around. We've already dealt with one force sent here. I don't expect they will send another, but just in case it is better to have the reinforcements. If nothing else they can help bury the deceased." Nie Mingjue stated as he looked over at the cluster of elderly men and women with a complicated depression. Luo Qingyang nodded in acknowledgement.

"I will assist them while Sect Leader Nie is receiving acupuncture. I can provide an update on what has been happening during your absence afterwards." Luo Qingyang elevated her voice slightly toward the end, making it more of an offer than a statement to preemptively smooth any ruffled feathers that might come from giving Sect Leader Nie something too close to an order. Luo Qingyang's efforts were rewarded with a pleased nod from San-yi.

"Smart girl. Now let's go." San-yi stated firmly. Nie Mingjue narrowed his eyes at San-yi.

"Aren't healers supposed to be gentle?" Nie Mingjue said the words, but it was clear he only half believed them. San-yi shot him the look that that statement deserved.

"If you want nice you go to Wen-popo. If you want someone who can do something about that..." San-yi's words paused to make a pained gesture towards Nie Mingjue. "Mess, that is your qi... You go to me. I am not nice but, short of A-Qing, I am the best healer you're going to find. Now hurry up, you're not my only patient."

Luo Qingyang valiantly held back her laughter until Nie Mingjue was out of sight. Then she doubled over in belly deep laughter, nearly falling over. One hundred percent this woman helped raise Wen Qing.