He admiringly stared at the other, with a playful smile on his lips.
"But, pardon me for saying this; Rules are sometimes made to be broken."
"If everyone travels within the bounds of given rules, no horizons will be expanded. But rules aren't nec...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hejian Front looked like something out of this world, well, maybe not considering this is a world where ghosts, ghouls, and monsters, people flying on swords, exist. Meng Yao gave no second thought that it would be beneficial to stay behind for battlefield cleanup seeing as the mess of corpses scattered around were more than a dozen.
He squatted down next to the body of a cultivator from the Nie Sect whose eyes were closed, and Blood oozed out of an open wound in the middle of their chest, getting their robes soaked in the deep red hue. Meng Yao reached out to check for a pulse on their wrist, seeing as they didn't seem to be breathing.
No pulse.
His eyes scanned the body from head to toe, keeping a straight face as if he wasn't bothered by the gruesome sight that welcomed him.
The cultivator had wounds minor than that on his chest all over his body, clothing tattered as a result of the constant swinging of swords against one another, and scratches of various sizes, both large and small, on his arms.
Meng Yao didn't want to damage the cultivator's body any further by improperly picking them up, but it proved to be challenging to accomplish this task when no carts were nearby, or no one was willing to help him.
Other cultivators helping out in cleanup of the aftermath (which was rare since some of them seemed to be a bit full of themselves and instead decided to leave the dirty work to those deemed below them) had some company to help. Meng Yao, however, had to endure the judgemental words of others who were quick to spread nasty rumors about his life instead, while picking up after the others; solely.
The rumbling sound of wheels against the soiled rocky ground caught his attention. He looked up to see a tall, lean cultivator dressed in f/c robes pushing a cart meant to pick up the deceased's bodies. The Nie sect had reserved medical stretchers made of wood and canvas for the injured only.
Said cultivator made a stop in front of Meng Yao. His e/c eyes eyed him with concern evident underneath.
A smile spread upon Meng Yao's lips, his eyes softening once noticing that his friend was okay. Sure, a few injuries were visible, but he was glad to see that he lived another day.
Meng Yao was about to speak but was interrupted by Y/n's gentle yet firm voice, "I will help you."
"It's alright; I'm certain I can manage." Meng Yao replied.
He was met with a glare from those piercing e/c eyes of Y/n, "Stop it, you cannot. Not alone, hurry; hold onto the clothing by the neck, support the head."
Y/n squatted down in front of the dead cultivator, and his hands went underneath to the legs of the body. "At the count of three, we lift."
"one..."
"two."
"three!"
Y/n and Meng Yao carefully placed the body onto the cart with an inaudible thud; the carriage's wood made a creaking noise as they moved the cultivator to the edge of the cart, which was blocked off by a wooden sidewall to avoid any accidents.
Using the back of his hand, with his sleeve, Y/n cleaned off some sweat from his forehead.
It took a while, but they managed to pick up a few bodies together and take them to the doctors at the camping site around evening.
Various tents set up outside of Nie Mingjue's quarters in almost a radial manner. Meng Yao and Y/n made their way to their designated tent in a calm demeanor, chatting amongst themselves about the eventful day they had. This battle wasn't their first, but it certainly wouldn't be the last.
Meng Yao, "We can drink outside. I would rather not dirty the sheets considering the state we are in."
Y/n, "Of course."
Meng Yao lifted the covers to the tent entrance and did not even take a step in; two flasks made out of bamboo sat inside the tent, next to the entry. He crouched down and picked each of them, one in each hand. He stood back up and held out one of the bamboo flasks towards Y/n.
"The brushwork is unrecognizable." Meng Yao said, referring to the design Y/n had painted onto the flask a few days ago when they had time to rest. It was that of a fox laying into what he assumed to be snow, the fox seemed to be staring at a thing with knowing eyes, yet all the viewer could see was a tree with its branches reaching out, nothing out of place appeared to be.
Y/n took the flask and took a sip. "Thank you."
In the distance, someone called out for Y/n. Meng Yao knew every time they called for Y/n; It wouldn't be to waste time.
As if they were in a drought, Y/n immediately drank all of the water he could; some of it trickled down on the corner of his mouth. Meng Yao could only tighten his grip on his flask as his eyes couldn't look away from Y/n, he knew it was rude to stare, but images he shouldn't see, let alone remember, re-appeared on his mind.
Y/n, "I will be right back, don't wait for me; do what you need to do." he said with a smile.
Meng Yao blinked twice before taking Y/n's flask. "Of course."
With that, Y/n bowed slightly in Meng Yao's direction before he walked away.
"You!" a soldier approached Meng Yao with several bamboo flasks in his arms.
━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━
Notes; In ep 6 of the second season of MDZS audio drama, Nie Mingjue mentions that Meng Yao is "always at the frontlines" I'm assuming Meng Yao took part in the fighting as well. Feel free to leave your thoughts below! :) ^^ I hope you enjoyed it!
e/c: Eye Color, Y/n: Your Name, f/c: Favorite Color
