Dance of the blades

Chapter 57 Reunion

Alarmed by the loud piercing scream, Lan Sizhui swiftly threw the map in his hands into his sleeves and stumbled closer to where Lan Jingyi was standing. His heart jumped against the ribcage of his chest as he stared horrified at scene.

Protruding through the newly created rip was the decaying hand of a corpse, it wriggled and thrash through the window in an endeavor to grab Lan Jingyi's throat. The white robed boy nearest to it had fallen to his knees with his face was now of a similar shade to his clothes, a stark paler.

Uncertain who moved first, the trail from a sword's beam was all Lan Sizhui could saw before the detached corpse hand was flung into his direction. 

"Run!" was the last thing Lan Sizhui heard as a cold hand grasped onto his own and forcefully drove him away from the scene. Not a minute later, a piercing shriek penetrated through the desolate night. The handless corpse that was just struggling earlier now banged its body against the wooden door, bursting out into a frantic run. 

To Lan Sizhui's absolute horror, hundreds of corpses had emerged soon after the first. From the darkness corners of the forest and houses, the strong stench of decay permeated through the air. 

Lan Sizhui forced himself to keep his eyes wide open as the horrid scent emanated from the reanimated bodies threaten to invade his nostrils and simulate tears to fall between his eyelids. 

The route ahead was blocked by a horde of the rotten corpses, each one pushing and shoving forward to reach the young boys. Unable to leave the village until their assignment was completed, they had no choice but to hurl themselves to the nearest empty house and seal the door shut behind them.

Under the guise of the moonlight, the sound of the door banging seized when the agitated corpse eventually determined that there was no movement within. Nonetheless the horde of partially decomposed corpses remained guarded near the entrance until the moon had advance nearer to the west. 

Unbeknownst to him, a sigh of relief Lan Sizhui had escaped from his crisped lips. His body slid against the wooden door frame, plummeting gently to the ground with a thud. Exhausted Lan Sizhui laid weaky by the wooden door frame, not bothering to even straighten the loose ends of his hair ribbon, letting it fall and hang above his shoulder blades.

Dazedly Lan Sizhui remembered the company he still had, thus adjusted his posture appropriately. His friends had caught on as well and hasten to pull themselves together before twisting their glaze to the shrouded figure in the corner.

In his haste Lan Sizhui had not gotten a clear view of the man hauling him to safety as his focus was aimed at avoiding countless feral hands lunging forward to grasp and scratch him. But now under the protection of the ligneous four walls sheltering them, he could finally catch a glimpse of the mysterious stranger.

The man long since released his hold, leaving behind a fleeing sensation of frigidness against the palm of Lan Sizhui's hand. The stranger adored in pale snowy robes stood tall amongst the young boys surrounding him, his shoulders far exceeding them by inches. 

His back faced Lan Sizhui, leaving only his slender and well toned build visible to the boy's eyes. He had a rather refined and dignified aura around him as if he was an immortal among heavens that had descend to the mortal realm. 

Due to the positions of their placing, Lan Sizhui was force to strain his neck to extend his glaze higher to the man's head.

As if perceiving the foreign glaze, the man instinctively turned his head to face the owner of it.  Once the entirety of the man's face was revealed to Lan Sizhui, his face twisted into that of surprise, astonishment and finally leveled to pure joy.

"Shixiong!?" Lan Sizhui exclaimed, startling the man to miss a step and slip on his feet. Despite the milky woven fabric obscuring the slight twitch of his brows, the stillness of his body gave away the evident shock at the familiar title.

The young boys around them also convey a similar state of bewilderment. Their eyes going back and forth between the two, eagerly anticipating the man's reaction. The tension in room resonated through the silence of the night, making even the sound of a needle's fall a possible distraction from it all.

"It really is you, isn't it shixiong. I can't believe I would meet you here again. How have been recently?" Lan Sizhui stride forward, suddenly overcome with more confidence now that he had conformation of the man's identity. 

In the mist of his animated babbling, he wholly missed the subtle change in the man's discomposure before it was brisky masked away under the cover of a pleasant smile. 

"Of all thing I had anticipated after undertaking this task, a reunion with a martial junior was certainly the least I expected. Though I wouldn't say an unwelcomed one" as the man said this he gave a dazzling smile to the boy's direction.

The man or rather Xiao Xingchen was the senior martial brother of Lan Sizhui. They had trained under the same master, dwelled within the same mountain and shared a rather similar temperament. Despite the fact that they both sworn an oath to trail the path as a demon slayer, they paths have almost never intertwined.

In fact had it not been for the chance counter of meeting Xiao Xingchen under that stary, winter night; Lan Sizhui wondered if he would have ever known the existence of his martial siblings with as tight lipped as his master, Baoshan Sanren was when it came to her past.

So in truth while he had martial ties connecting him with this man, they were still merely strangers in each other's eyes.

However the distance of this wavering connecting thread was naturally not known apart from those from the mountain. To the rest of Lan Sizhui's friends the only confirmation they knew was their friend's association to the man.

Thus they could not restrain their feet and hastily grasped their friend by the shoulders, cornering him with their peering glaze. Something about their reaction tells Lan Sizhui that Xiao Xingchen might be a more well known presence then he had expected.