Dance of the blades

Chapter 13 Mission Success

The demon slowly used his hands to push himself up from the blow he had just received. Looking at Lan Wangji, the demon pondered how a demon that has not yet mastered his demon blood art become so strong. 'He must of had gotten a lot of blood' the demon thought, trying to summon the black liquid puddle to escape back into the bog.

Noticing the black liquid forming, Lan Wangji swung his hand towards the demon, causing him to pause his actions and deflect the oncoming blow. Growing used to Lan Wangji's repeating attacks, the demon slipped passed Lan Wangji's defenses and aimed his hand onto Lan Wangji's head.

The demon's attack was stopped by Lan Sizhui emerging from the black puddle and slicing his hand clean off. The demon's second hand was also cut off when he tried to attack Lan Sizhui with it. The momentum of the cut caused the demon to fall onto the ground, Lan Sizhui stood in front of him with his blade drawn but moving to kill him.

"How many did you kill?" the boy asked the demon while pointing the tip of the blade at his neck.

"Why should I tell you! Besides if those woman live any longer they would just turn ugly and taste bad"

"No one would want them then"

"So we kill them for their own good!"

Listening to the demon's rambling, Lan Sizhui silenced him from speaking anymore by cutting the side of his mouth with his sword. With his mouth wounded and blodied the demon's glaze was met with the unforgiving cold stare of the boy. Anger was written all over the boy's face as the veins popping out from his face were visible.

"I see I should have known the lives of your victims were meaningless to you"

"Then let's proceed with a new topic shall we"

"Tell me all you know about Wen Ruohan" the demon immediately flinched at the mention of the name. The demon's body began to start shaking violently, sweat could be seen running down his face. His mouth opened but no words came out, instead he violently shook him head.

Bewildered by the demon's reaction, Lan Sizhui hesitantly raised his sword closer to the demon's throat and repeated his question.

But the demon only shook his head again, he seem terrified, not at Lan Sizhui but at the topic of their conversation. It was almost as if some invisible force was preventing him from mentioning the name of the first demon.

Lan Sizhui had first heard of Wen Ruohan from Boashan Sanren, the only demon with the blood to create other demons, the first demon that walked the earth. And unfortunaly Wen Ruohan was the only lead Lan Sizhui had to turn his father back into a human again. Thus the boy had no choice but to try and find any clues relating to him.

"I can't t-tell you" the demon stated with his voice as low as a whisper.

"I can't tell you" the demon repeated again, louder than before. The demon then kept repeating the same phrase over and over again. His body shook even violently as his chanting became shouts.

The intense reaction of the demon made Lan Sizhui ponder on the character of Wen Ruohan and how much control he had on the demons he created. But the boy was soon broken from his chain of thought when the demon started to regenerate his limps and attack the boy. Reacting fast, Lan Wangji kicked the demon in the stomach, giving Lan Sizhui enough time to slice the demon's neck while he was paralyzed from the blow.

As the demon's headless body slowly disappeared, Lan Sizhui felt disappointed at his failed attempt at gathering information. Deciding not to dwell on it the boy turned his attention towards A-jue and the unconscious to check for injuries. As he approached the two, his eyes were greeted with the sight of A-jue on kneeling down on the ground while the unconscious girl was sitting at his side, using the wall as support.

"Gongzi, are you alright?" Lan Sizhui asked A-jue with his voice as low as a whisper.

Hearing the boy's question, A-jue slowly tilted his head upward, his hands shakingly clenched into a fist.

"I've just lost my fiancee" 

"How can I be alright?" at the young man's statement Lan Sizhui remained silent while watching tears fall from A-jue's eyes.

"Gongzi" Lan Sizhui said while lowering glaze to the young man's clenched fist.

"In life, you will experience loss one way or another"

"And you will feel pain"

"You will grieve"

"You'll want be left alone, never to face the reality of your loss"

"But no matter what y-we do, the dead can't come back"

"So for your sake, keep living on" 

Lan Sizhui finished saying before A-jue stood up and grabbed his collar in frustration. Seeing this, Lan Wangji moved closer to the two, wanting to separate the young man from his son. His steps only paused when Lan Sizhui raised his hand to stop him.

"What the hell does a kid like you know!" A-jue yelled, pulling harder on the boy's collar. 

Responding calmly to the young man's actions, Lan Sizhui gently removed A-jue's hand from his collar and showed the young man with a melancholic smile. Seeing the boy's reaction, A-jue loosen his hold on the boy, sobbing while whispering a soft apology to the boy. 

"I think I should be going now" Lan Sizhui stood up and reached for something in his robes.

"Here take this" A-jue's eyes had widen when he spotted the red hairpin in the boy's hand.

"I believe that this is your fiancee's" Lan Sizhui guessed from the young man's reaction as he handed him the hairpin. Taking the hairpin in his hands, A-jue gently caress it while putting it closer to his face and cried.

"A-die we should get going now" Lan Sizhui lowered the wooden box to the ground, gesturing Lan Wangji to go inside.

Finally gathering himself together, A-jue looked up at Lan Sizhui's disappearing back before realization sunk in about the boy's words. 

"So you've been through it too?" the young man's question remained unanswered as the boy disappeared into the distance.