Flipside

Chapter 31

Cloud Recesses erupted into screams and shouts, everybody ignoring the no-loud noises rule in favour of panicking. Tch,  they should have seen this coming.  The idiots. Well, at least he and Wei Ying set up some protection wards.  

Oh, the irony, the cruel cruel irony. He wanted to disarm the talismans and let them burn the place to the ground. But, there wasn't any time for revenge, at least not at the current moment. Right now, all he had to do was survive.

He could hear screams and shouts coming from the main building, along with a few people barking orders, their voices strained and frantic. 

Right. Well, he knew where he wasn't going to go. 

"Well, ladies first," Wangji said to Cotton. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, but just non-committally wiped it on his sleeve. 

Cotton meowed, and they both went in the opposite direction of the noise. Cotton's sharp nails made a clicking noise on the wood. More shouts and screams, and the smell of burning pine wood was rife. Did they get to the Jingshi? No, he had fireproofed it, but what if they did? Then, should he try to go to the Jingshi?

He could hear the sounds of people coming his way, and a brief flash of red was all he needed to change directions. 

Wangji paused as he was now face to face with what must have been about fifteen Wen cultivators. The two sides stood there, dead still, not sure what to do.  The other group had made its way over to him, and he soon found he was cornered. 

The man leading the group looked more confused than confrontational. He was on orders to slaughter any Lan in sight, but this person... 

"Outta my way; I'm busy." Wangji broke the silence, a crazed snarl on his bloodstained lips.

Unfortunately, the threat didn't seem to work on this particular group, as they had their swords out and surrounded him. 

"Hey? What's this about?" Wangji tilted his head to the side, his arms hanging at his side, veins popping out of his neck and forehead. His mouth wildly twitched, as though he couldn't even control it. 

"You're coming with us!" A Wen cultivator bravely and oh so foolishly stepped forward, sword at the ready, but fear on his face. 

"I SAID I WAS BUSY!" Wangji clawed at his eyes, before kicking him to the ground. 

Blood sprayed like a fountain as the cultivator gave a guttural scream as he fell. Wangji had clawed his eyes so badly that pinkish clear eye fluid dripped down his hands as he had to keep his eyeballs from falling out of his head. 

The attack sent the Wen cultivators into a frenzy in trying to contain this unknown psychopath. 

He fought back with swift, precise strikes—elbows and fists meeting flesh with brutal force. Blood sprayed and bodies collided in a storm of raw violence. 

But he could only keep it up for a time. He slightly stumbled, and one of the men managed to get him in a headlock. In his mania, Wangji bit down on the Wen's arm, blood filling his mouth until he choked. The man threw him down to the ground and stamped on his ribcage. A sticking shatter was heard, but Wangji didn't even seem to care. 

 With a literal blur, he had disappeared from his place on the floor and took the sword of the first man he injured. With a crazed, almost marionette-like swing he struck down Wen whose arm he'd bitten. The man slashed out before he hit the ground, barely missing Wangji's ear.,

Wangji was somewhat aware of a large chunk of his hair falling to the floor, but he had bigger things to deal with. 

The blade handle felt unfamiliar and heavy in his hand, a brief moment of respite amidst the turmoil.