Dance with you

Chapter 49

It was as if someone had thrown oil into the fire that was the Sunshot Campaign.

Battles became even more frequent and Wen soldiers that managed to survive one battle told tales of cultivators with the eyes of hungry predators piercing their souls, a rage so primal and merciless that it shook them to their very core. Even the Wen soldiers who had witnessed Wen Rouhan be angry before were frightened.

A monster of many colors, that had been hidden in the shadows, finally rearing its head and eliminating everything that dared to try and stop it.

Every morning when the sun had risen far enough to glimpse over the mountain tops that seemed to separate Qishan from the other territories, it only revealed burned plains, destroyed forests, ruins still glimmering from the fights that may have taken place there the night before. The wild animals that had called Qishan their home had long since fled from the disastrous clash of these two forces.

It took them about a month of continuous straining battles to reach the heart of Qishan, Nightless City.

Well they didn't reach it quite yet, but they could see it clear as day on the horizon.

Along the way, many Wen soldiers had been disposed of. Sadly many of their own cultivators had shared that fate, sacrificing their lives to pave the way to their goal.

It was the day after Nie Mingjue had brought back the head of Wen Xu to have it be ceremoniously burned that they decided to move their camp closer to Nightless City.
Wen Xu had been the strategist behind the bloodiest battles and with him out of the way, it wasn't as dangerous to advance. It also solved the problem that the longer their ways to the battlefields became the more tired they were when they arrived.

A squad scouted ahead and decided that the best spot would be hidden in a deep forest with trees as big as houses, their wood as dark as the night. It was one of the last spots with still living nature, a place the fires hadn't reached yet.

The trees provided so many possible hiding spots that they were able to almost conceal their entire camp, each tent hidden in its own little nook between thick and twisted roots.

During the move, cultivators with injuries so severe they could no longer fight on were left behind to guarantee their safety and to lighten the load they had to carry.

Who was not left behind however, were the four children who had made their home in the ranks of the battle-hardened warriors.

Of course they had tried to convince them to stay back.

The further they advanced the more danger was waiting for them.

Many people voted for them to be left behind, for many various reasons.They couldn't spare people to babysit them, they didn't have enough resources to feed extra mouths that didn't actually contribute anything to their cause, etc.

Some were more rational and understandable than others.

Some thought that in Liu Xiaolin's "absence" the children weren't protected.

They had thought wrong.

And although Wei Wuxian, Jin Zixuan and Lan Xichen would have liked to see the little ones safely behind the front lines, they clearly remembered Liu Xin's words.
If they didn't take the kids with them, they would follow them in secret anyway. And then, protecting them would be nearly impossible.

So the three boys took it upon themselves to split the responsibility amongst themselves and care for them.

They didn't have to do much. The kids were all very independent, claiming and organizing their rations on their own, keeping out of the way and meditating together daily. The Jiang cultivators the four had been staying with before were definitely not 100 percent convinced this was the right choice, but they readily offered the space in their tent to them.