Dance of the blades

Chapter 12 Red Hairpin

Hearing the demon's loud complains Lan Sizhui could not help but feel disgusted by the demon's rambling about the girl's taste. But just as Lan Sizhui was ready to cut down the demon another voice caught his attention.

"Calm down already. We have already eaten many girls before we got this one. " behind Lan Sizhui another one of the demon's clones re-emerge from the ground.

"Well I'm not satisfied! I want to eat more, lots more!" the first demon yelled, his hands gripping into fists, punching the ground in frustration.

"You monsters! Stop your stupid bickering and return my fiancee to me!"  Lan Sizhui glanced to his side to find A-jue with tears following down from eyes, shanking in uncontrollable anger. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for him, knowing that most likely his fiancee was-

"Your fiancee huh, maybe you should give a better description like what she was wearing for instance"  before Lan Sizhui could finish his thought, the demon reached towards the side of his sash, opening his robes to show a hidden compartment.

A-jue eyes widen and breathing intensify, his gaze was glued on the red hair ornament among the woman accessories that was kept in the demon's robes. Seeing the young man's reaction, Lan Sizhui couldn't help but feel the dread of his conclusions being true.

"If her hair accessory among the collectables in here then I must have already eaten her" the demon clone said while showing off his collection with pride.

Lan Sizhui could feel the within him blood boil at the blatant disregard of human life from the demon. The grip on his sword had tighten tenfold as he was reminded of his dad's lifeless corpse and his father's blood stained wounds. Before he knew it, Lan Sizhui's body moved on its own, the second clone demon was sliced in half.

The third demon clone took the chance while Lan Sizhui was dealing with the second and appeared behind him, swinging his claws towards the boy's head. Moments away from reaching Lan Sizhui, the door of the box the boy was carrying suddenly burst open. The third demon was then flung into the air from Lan Wanji's kick, forcing the demon to retreat back into the black liquid.

"Why would a mere human be accompanying a demon?" the second demon stated confused as to why a demon would team up with their natural enemy.

Spotting the second demon, Lan Wangji sprinted towards him with accelerating speed and swung his arm to punch him, only to be met with the rock hard ground as the demon disappear into the black liquid again.

"A-die!" hearing his son calling Lan Wangji ran back to where his son was standing. But just as he reached his son, a puddle of black liquid appeared in front of him, two hand emerging out of it, trying to grab onto Lan Wangji. Noticing this, Lan Wangji accelerated his running speed and jumped over the black puddle, just as the demon's hand tried to reach him.

As a demon Lan Wangji was faster and stronger than the average human. With this new found strength Lan Sizhui should not have felt as worried as he was when he spotted the demon puddle approaching, but the irrational fear of losing his father still bore fruit. Seeing that his father could handle himself, Lan Sizhui decided to focus on fighting the demon while instructing Lan Wangji to protect A-jue and the unconscious girl.

Without taking another step, the sound of water moving could be heard as a puddle of black liquid appeared under Lan Sizhui. Acting fast Lan Sizhui moved away from the puddle as the first demon emerge from it, attacking Lan Wangji who was in front of him with his claws and missing. 

Looking down Lan Sizhui noticed that even as the demon had emerged fully from the black puddle, it still hadn't disappear yet. 

"A-die can you protect those two while I go underground to deal with the other two demons?" Lan Wangji nodded his head at his son's request continue to face off the first demon.

With the signal he needed from his father, Lan Sizhui walked into the black puddle, fully submerging his body into the demon's domain. Inside the black bog, Lan Sizhui could see the remains of the victims clothing eerily floating around. The air around him was paper thin, and with his movements restricted the two demons believed that they had the higher ground.

Gleefully laughing at the boy's predicament, the two demons swam towards Lan Sizhui, attacking him from both sides. Not showing an obvious reaction to the demons' mocking behavior, Lan Sizhui moved his body as well as he could in the black bog and prepared to attack.

'Breath of the Flame fourth form'  Lan Sizhui put more arm strength into his sword, using his momentum to create slashes in the water.

'Blooming Flame Undulation' the slashes he had performed had cut off many parts of the demons' limps, tearing them apart. Their disfigured bodies floated in the bog before dissipating into ashes.

Now that the two demons were dead, Lan Sizhui quickly swam towards the surface as the air in his lungs was starting to diminish. Swimming nearer to the surface, Lan Sizhui could hear the sounds of his father fighting with the first demon and A-jue's loud breathing. When he exited the bog, he was greeted with the sight of Lan Wangji kicking the first demon straight into a wall.