Dance of the blades

Chapter 18 Cuju Balls

"Hahaha you were right Cheng Ming! The house really was hidden by the wall!"  The girl laughed, she looked at the house in front of her with glee. Beside her, her companion, Cheng Ming frowned as the dust from the debris sullied his robes. 

"Your methods are still as immature and destructive as before, Li Yue. My robes are covered in dust" Cheng Ming sighed in exasperation, his reaction only caused Li Yue to playfully stick her tongue out at her companion. 

"Oh would stop complaining already! We found them thanks to my cuju balls so quit yapping and help me catch the boy, Ming Ming~" Li Yue teased. She turned her head to face the four people inside the room through the hole she made.

On the other end of the room, Lan Wangji whom was in a protective stance in front of his son, growled viciously through his muzzle at the two intruders. Pure rage was visible in those golden eyes as his body was shaking in what Lan Sizhui presumed was fear. But it was not fear for Lan Wangji himself, no, it was fear for Lan Sizhui. Lan Sizhui gently squeeze the hands of his father to confront him. Even after everything his father still tries to protect his grown son, Lan Sizhui could not have been more grateful to the man he calls father.

Focusing his attention to the two demons, Lan Sizhui pondered to himself on the reason for their attack. It didn't seem logical for them to have just stumbled upon the house by chance with the enchantments surrounding. No, they must have specifically tracked them down here. But the question was for what? Food? No, there were hardly any humans here. Then were they here for Wen Qing and Wen Ning? Were they send by Wen Ruohan to eliminate them?

As the boy was lost in his thoughts, Li Yue set her cuju balls to the ground and kicked them with force towards the four. Seeing the balls heading near his sister, Wen Ning stood up and pulled his sister behind him to protect her. Before being able to turn his head, the both cuju balls hit Wen Ning in the head and stomach, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"A-ning!" Wen Qing shrieked, cradling her brother's headless body. Lan Sizhui witness the scene in horror, Lan Sizhui unsheathe his sword and stood up to face the demons. Lan Sizhui grimaced, anger coursing through his veins as Li Yue laughed and pointed at Wen Ning's headless body.

"I found him Cheng Ming! The boy with the red hair ribbon!" the demon said as the cuju balls mysteriously returned back to her hands almost as if they had a mind of their own.

'So they were after me?' the boy thought confused. Why would Wen Ruohan specifically send demons after him? Even if Lan Sizhui had angered him during his confrontation, it shouldn't have caused Wen Ruohan to go after a junior demon slayer. Granted this junior demon slayer did uncover Wen Ruohan's disguise, which would have warranted any sensible person's paranoia. 

"Wen Guniang!" Lan Sizhui called Wen Qing's name to get her attention. He stood in front of the two siblings in a protective stance, the grip on his sword tigtening.

"Please get Wen Xiansheng to a safe place to hide! I'll handle the two demons" the boy said as he stepped closer to the demons. But upon noticing the approaching presence of Lan Wangji, he stopped.

"A-Die don't worry about me I can handle this on my own. Go protect Wen Guniang and her brother, they need it more" hearing his son's request Lan Wangji made a small noise of displeasure before reluctantly staying by Wen Qing's side.

"You're lucky we need you alive kid" Li Yue said as she looked at the boy approaching her. "But Master never said you had to be in one piece!" the girl threw her cuju balls with force, aiming for Lan Sizhui's legs.

Seeing the approaching cuju balls, Lan Sizhui raised his sword to follow their trajectory and inhaled a large amount of oxygen into his lungs, feeling the flow of his blood accelerate.

"Flame breathing first form Unknowing Flame" Li Yue and Cheng Ming watch Lan Sizhui dashing towards the incoming cuju balls, he raised his sword above his head and simultaneously slicing into the center of both the balls. His sword was held into the ground, stopping the cuju balls from moving.

'Success!' the boy thought but just as he was about to release his hold, the cuju balls started to shake rapidly. Li Yue smirked when the cuju balls Lan Sizhui had penetrated with his sword escaped his hold, causing the boy to be flung to the ground. 

 Lan Sizhui huffed in frustration from not being able to hold down the cuju balls and got up on his feet. The movement of the balls were too unnatural. The cuju balls did not seem to spin in any special way but they could move as if they had sentience. Was the demon girl controlling them with her Blood Demon Art? But if so how?

"J-jie j-jie" Lan Sizhui perked up upon hearing the mumbled voice. He turned his head behind him to find the half formed face of Wen Ning shuttering incomplete words to his sister. Lan Sizhui bit his bottom lips to prevent himself from puking at the horrifying scene.

"A-ning!" Wen Qing cried, one of her hands cradling her brother's half formed face.

"I-I'm sorry j-jie. My i-illusions w-weren't strong e-enough t-to hide all of u-us" Wen Ning struggled to apologized to his sister, feeling guilty for his illusions failing to protect them from the two demons.

"Enough, what are you apologizing for? You should focus your energy on regenerating your head, not needless talking." Wen Qing said in a reprimanding tone. Hearing his sister's reply Wen Ning did as he was told and focused on slowly regenerating his upper jaw, nose then his eyes. It wasn't long until his entire head was formed with strands of hair regrowing.