Backlash Part 1

Chapter 170: Slow Persuit

It wasn't long after Wei Wuxian stormed out of the meeting that they finally managed to come to something like an agreement. A lot of people were unhappy with the agreement, but finally the details were ironed out. Unfortunately moving an army was not the same thing as two powerful cultivators racing off on their swords.

The troops that ended up departing were comprised, primarily, of QingheNie cultivators. Since the main goal was to rescue Sect Leader Nie, this wasn't really a surprise. What was surprising was that Nie Huaisang marched out with them. He stated fervently that he would be hanging towards the back and not engaging in the fighting, but he absolutely would not stay behind.

The rest of the troops were comprised of a portion of GusuLan cultivators and about a third of the YunmengJiang cultivators. This time Jiang Yanli led the YunmengJiang cultivators heading to battle, while Jiang Wanyin led those who remained behind. He was not happy about this arrangement.

Jiang Wanyin had been very adamant about keeping Jiang Yanli out of the fighting as much as possible from very early in the war. He'd only had limited success. He had mostly kept her away from the front lines, but that did not keep her out of the fighting. Jiang Yanli had still commanded the YunmengJiang cultivators in a number of battles defending territory that the allied sects had claimed.

Lan Xichen had made it clear that he was going to lead the rescue mission. With him and Sect Leader Nie gone the leaders of the minor sects were nervous about being without a sect leader of one of the major sects. When Jiang Yanli stated that she would go with the forces to Dafan, many sect leaders were quick to commend the decision.

Jiang Yanli's authority was roughly equivalent to Jiang Wanyin's in practice, but the title of Sect Leader Jiang still belonged to Jiang Wanyin. That meant something to the other sect leaders. Jiang Wanyin was left unable to protest.

The other sect leaders were asserting the wisdom of this decision, claiming they needed one of the major sect leaders to remain. Even if Jiang Wanyin had thought of a reasonable argument, he was stopped from using it because Jiang Yanli agreed with the minor sect leaders enthusiastically. It meant that to keep her in camp he would need to argue against the leaders of the minor sects and undermine Jiang Yanli in front of outsiders. Jiang Wanyin wasn't willing to do that.

"So, why this battle?" Luo Qingyang inquired as they set up a temporary camp for the evening. "You've mostly let Jiang Wanyin have his way. He goes off for all the offensive battles. You hang back to lead things more in camp and defend the territories we have reclaimed."

Luo Qingyang was technically not part of any of the sects going on this mission, but ever since Langya she had had enough of feeling useless. Nie Mingjue was thankfully sensible and did not believe in wasting resources. Luo Qingyang had been more or less part of the QingheNie contingent ever since.

"Dafan is Wen Qing's home. It's where her family lives." Jiang Yanli said quietly.

Luo Qingyang blinked at Jiang Yanli. She had expected this to be about Wei Wuxian. Luo Qingyang thought this would be about Jiang Yanli ensuring a comfortable distance between her two didis. There had been a few questionable exchanges between the two near the beginning of the war.

Luo Qingyang didn't think it was quite right to call them arguments. They might have been arguments, if Wei Wuxian had participated in them with anything other than slightly pained acceptance. Luo Qingyang had witnessed one of these exchanges and it was actually a little uncomfortable how passive Wei Wuxian had been during it. Jiang Yanli shared her thoughts with Luo Qingyang regarding the other supposed arguments. Luo Qingyang was at least grateful that Wei Wuxian seemed to become a little more assertive in defending himself.