ZHAO YUAN ZHOU
The moment Bing Yi's pure demon blood entered Zhuo Yi Chen's forehead and was absorbed into his mind, Zhu Yan knew that things would turn from bad to an epic disaster that could kill Xiao Zhuo faster than the broken connection with the Cloud Light Sword that was previously endangering his life. Just seeing him lying on the bed unconscious and in pain was bad enough on its own right, but now adding a demonization on top of it was even harder to swallow and impossible to reverse, not to mention it was once again his fault.
It seemed that even if the last thing he wanted was to cause more calamity to Zhuo Yi Chen, it seemed that he was destined to harm him in every way possible before ending his life in his hands. Of course, it was completely unfair to Zhuo Yi Chen and at this moment he was beginning to believe that the fate between them was really a curse that he didn't know how to lift to save him. If he hadn't lost control of his malicious energy and crack the sword when Yi Chen had try to save him, he wouldn't be lying on that bed with death lurking at his feet.
In bed, the handsome face of Xiao Zhuo reflected the pain he felt while the demonic blood of his ancestor ran through his veins, poisoning his human cells and transforming him from the inside out. At that moment, Zhao Yuan Zhou perfectly understood Cheng Huang and his obsession to go back in time to save the woman who he loved more than his life. Being honest with himself, if he could change the past, he would have already done so, starting with getting rid of the oath that Xiao Zhuo made to the heavens influenced by his proposal to teach him the true way of using his sword and ending for not being manipulated to lose control of himself and hurt him to this point.
"Xiao Zhuo... I'm sorry... I never wanted this to happen... I never wanted to see you suffer like this... it's too painful to see and I can't help it," Zhao Yuan Zhou whispered to the unconscious man in bed just before leaning down to kiss him gently on his forehead and resting his own over his.
"But not matter what it takes ... I will try to keep you alive, even if for a couple of days or weeks. There must be something that at least can restore the broken sword and the link that you two share. The restoration may not save you completely, but at least it will give you more time to try something different. My core... if it became the only way to your salvation, it is yours to take it... I have no regret in exchanging my life for yours. From the beginning it was always on your hands." He said softly as he carefully press his lips into Xiao Zhuo's.
His intention was not exactly to kiss him, although he gently part Xiao Zhou's lips, but to give him a some of his energy, so that he could fight the changes that Bing Yi's blood was doing in his weak body. However, for someone else who just came inside the room, it really seemed like he was taking advantage of Zhuo Yi Chen while he was sick and that was exactly what Wen Xiao thought when she entered the room, barely illuminated by the faint fire of dying candles and the moonlight.
"Zhao Yuan Zhou! What are you doing? He is sick, for heaven's sake! Get a hold of yourself, you pervert monkey!"
"Ape, I am an ape." He sighed as he looked at the enraged goddess.
"I don't care if you are an ape or monkey, you are a pervert either way! Get away from him!" She demanded as she stormed closer.
"No can do, I'm transferring energy to Xiao Zhuo before his body is completely taken by Bing Yi's blood." He say calmly as he look back at the sleeping beauty.
"Transferring energy? Do you think I will believe that excuse? Don't make me laugh. Since when do you have to kiss someone to transfer energy? Last time you didn't dare do it that way, otherwise he would have killed you on the spot!" She shouted at him as she reached out to grab the big demon's arm and give him a piece of her mind, but her hand bounced off as it touched a protective barrier around Zhou Yi Chen's bed.
"My apologies, my dear goddess, but this time, Xiao Zhuo is in no condition to sit and enjoy the transfer with my hand all over his back. His condition is not to be joked about and I owe him that. The less energy he has to restrain the demonic blood, the closer he will be to falling under Bing Yi's influence. If I don't act now, as perverted as my path may seem, he is more likely to awaken like me in the blood moons." He explained and Wen Xiao swallow the rest of her insults and sighed, getting a chair and sitting at the border of the barrier.
"Will he really become like you if the process keeps up?" She asked worriedly.
"Yes. A full human is not meant to carry the blood of any demon, let alone one as powerful as Bing Yi, even if he is his descendant. His connection to the sword may have slow the process if whole, but not so much when its broken. I'm afraid Zhuo Yi Chen is in great danger now."
"Will he survive this?" She asked.
"He has to... I can't let him die without a fight. The restoration of the sword is our only hope for now, but eventually, if we don't find another way, he will need a core to survive becoming a full demon and that will only happen with the sacrifice of another great demon's core. I will gladly offer him mine..." He whispers.
"Zhao Yuan Zhou!" She shouted his name for the second time as she stood up in protest, but he only smiled kindly at her.
"No matter how much you hate it, the fate Zhuo Yi Chen and I share can't be changed, just because he is less inclined to keep his promise now. Since the beginning he was meant to kill me and he had good reasons to do so. I deserve to die at his hands or give my life for him."
"You both are important to me, Xiao Zhou. As a goddesses I will find a way for you two to bypass that cursed oath!"
"It's not just the oath, Wen Xiao... our connection is deeper than that. At first, I didn't think much of it. He was easy to tease and I liked to do it just to make fun of him." He said smiling tenderly, remembering all those times he made him blush or angry. "But after we became closer, I realized there was more to our story than we thought. Your father said it himself at the time when I first came here. He told both of us that my death at the hands of Xiao Zhuo was not a prophecy, but a curse. You know that, right?" He asked her.
"Yes, but..."
"Then ask yourself why killing me, the demon who stole the lives of his father, his brother and his fellow demon hunters is a curse. For him, it shouldn't be a curse at all, but a blessing from the heavens, shouldn't it?"
"Well, if you put it that way, it would seem so, but..."
"But, it's still a curse, why?" Zhao Yuan Zhou asked her again.
"I... well I don't know the answer to that, but..."
"It's because we were destined to get close enough to each other for it to become a curse, for it to become a burden instead of a release. It's a curse because he will doubt, because he will hate it with every fiber of his body, because I too will realize that what I am asking of him is too cruel, because next to him my resolve will waver and my desire to die will begin to crumble because we are bound together in a way that the two of us never will be, Xiao Xiao." He said as he watched her hold her breath in surprise at his words, even as she herself had realized that her true feelings were closer to someone else than Zhao Yuan Zhuo.
"But what we have is still there..." She pressed.
"What we have is the bond of the goddess token. The bond that the magic that binds us together makes us feel so that I am compelled to protect you rather than kill you, as I was about to do at that time when I lose control and kill your master. We have known each other for many years before that and yet we never developed a feeling deeper than affection and friendship, but after the token split, we began to wrap ourselves in its magic. I didn't mind it then, but it's different now that Xiao Zhuo is dying because of me, because I'm destined to break him one way or another and I hate it. I'm really starting to feel the weight of this curse and it hurts like hell, as much as when I lose control over myself. I don't know what really happened between Bing Yi and Ying Long, other than their known legend, but if they name this a curse, maybe they also went down this road way before us."
"Xiao Zhou... are you... do you love Yi Chen?" She dare ask, although she was not that surprise this time. At that Zhao Yuan Zhou stood up from Yi Chen's bed and came closer to the goddess, quite ready to open his heart to her like he had never done before.
"Love? I'm not really worthy of his love, no matter what I think it is, but I feel our bond deepening, especially now that Bing Yi's blood is coursing through his veins, now that he is becoming a demon himself. It's like a wake-up call, as if his blood is calling me to respond, to be honest with myself, to surrender to what had been brewing deep inside me, little by little, by my own choice, by my own desire, I can't run away from that....." Zhao Yuan Zhou started to say but was interrupted when at that moment, Yi Chen's eyes opened to reveal a pair of bright blue eyes that turned to look directly at them.
"Xiao Zhuo!" Wen Xiao shouted as if surprised by the sudden move when they were having such a heart to heart conversation, however, Zhuo Yi Chen looked directly at Zhao Yuan Zhou as if he was trying to see as deep into him as his soul and Zhao Yuan Zhou trembled under his bright blue eyes, realizing that just as he had feared before, the one in front of him was not his adorable Xiao Zhuo the Demon Hunter Commander, but Bing Yi himself, or the remnants of his soul anyway.
"Ying Long..." Yi Chen whispered to him.
"Xiao Zhuo, this is Zhao Yuan Zhou, don't you remember him? Zhu Yan, the great demon?" Wen Xiao asked, not realizing that he was no longer his childhood friend and try to hold him to get him back on bed forgetting that the bed had a barrier and the one on her arms was an awakening demon.
"He is not Xiao Zhuo, get away from him!" But at that moment, Bing Yi acted on instinct and to push her away from him, he grabbed her by the neck with force and threw her away as if she was made of paper. With his demonic speed, Zhao Yuan Zhou was able to catch her before she could fall to the ground, but in doing so, he let Bing Yi pass him by the side.
"Freeze!" He commanded with his one-word spell which of course, failed miserably, only causing Bing Yi to look at him with a smirk.
"You have to do better than that, Zhu Yan." Bing Yi said before walking out of the room as if he owned the place.
"Wen Xiao, are you okay?" He asked as he touched her neck with his healing hand.
"Forget about me and go after him before he can hurt someone else."
"Let me heal you first."
"Go! He must be stopped before he leaves the Bureau!" She yelled pushing him away.
"I'll take care of him, then I'll come back and finish healing you."
"Don't be noble now, he's the one you really love."
"Right." He whisper as he stood and ran after his possessed demon hunter, turned great demon.
By bad luck, just as Bing Yi was coming out in the rain, near the pound where his blood has rested for eons inside the five-colored stone at the bottom of that pound, Ying Lei saw him getting soaked in the rain and with curiosity and concern at the same time, called out to the Commander.
"Mr. Zhuo, you are already awake. That's good, but why are you getting wet out there? You should go back to rest..." Ying Lei innocently suggested without expecting what came next, which was a strong surge of cold energy hitting him all over his body, sending him flying backwards towards the offering table, spitting blood and gasping in deep pain.
The commotion, of course attracted the attention of Pei Si Jing, who ran toward the pound upon hearing someone screaming in pain with her short sword in hand, as she did't have her bow and arrows at hand at that time of a quiet night.
She expected some kind of intrusion from outsiders, but what she witnessed was far worse than she could have ever imagined. Her Commander stood in the rain with glowing blue eyes, like a majestic ice god emanating waves of energy so strong it was difficult to even breathe, let alone get close enough to attempt anything. On the ground, Ying Lei clutched his chest with one hand and tried to shield himself from the deadly cold energy with the other.
"Pei Si Jing, get away!!" Ying Lei yelled, but how could she leave him alone when he was hurt?
"ZHUO YI CHEN! What are you doing?! STOP IT!!!" She screamed as she pointed her dagger at his right shoulder and threw it with all the force she could muster under the pressure of the demonic energy, but the dagger was easily repelled by a simple flick of the Commander's finger. His gaze then focused completely on her, and despite her training as a warrior and her combat experience, she had to admit that his gaze was terrifying. As if she were standing before a sacred mountain along with all the rivers of the world trying to crush her under their weight.
"Get lost." The Commander whispered, and for a moment she thought she would die at the hands of the greatest demon she had ever met, because this demon could not be her kind and caring Commander. He was too great, too terrifying in power and majesty to be anything less than a great demon or even a fallen god.
Whatever it was, Pei Si Jing was certain that with just a flick of his fingers, she would die, and she regretted not being able to see Wen Xiao and her brother one last time. Then, the next wave surged toward her, and she closed her eyes in resignation, just as her brother manifested in front of her to protect her with his own wood body. Zhao Yuan Zhou interposed himself between the Commander and the two of them with his own thick barrier of malicious energy to stop the wave.
The collision of the two forces created a huge water bubble that froze around them all and instantly shattered, scattering ice fragments everywhere. If the great demon hadn't protected Ying Lei like he had the Pei siblings, he would have died right there.
"Bing Yi! Release Yi Chen from your control or you'll kill him! He still has a mortal body without a core and the Cloud Light Sword just broke! He's already dying, your descendant, the product of your flesh and blood! Please, have mercy and release him now!!" Zhao Yuan Zhou appealed to the great demon's sense of filial duty, and to his surprise, the elder demon have a better look at himself and frowned at the result of his quick check of it.
"The sword must be reforge. Go to my Clan forbidden area, it will be his only hope... the curse, you must find a way to break it this time Zhu Yan." Bing Yi said and fainted as he released the weakened body of the awakened young man.
Zhao Yuan Zhou got a hold of Yi Chen before he could hit the cold and wet stone floor of the Demon Hunting Bureau and lift him bridal style close to his body.
"Ying Lei, you are seriously hurt, follow me and I will heal you as soon as I put Xiao Zhuo back in bed. He is already too weak to wake up for the next coming days, so there is no need to take any action for what just happen. He was possessed by Bing Yi's blood and not even I could defeat him even if he possessed a human body." He said to both Ying Lei and Pei Si Jing, because she was the kind of woman who will seek justice above all, but luckily, Bing Yi's control have only affected them, not anyone outside their team, which was a relief.
At least until his Xiao Zhuo wake up and find out what had been done in his absence of mind. That even if he had not kill anyone, he had hurt his close friends and family.
"It will be alright... I will be there for you..." Zhao Yuan Zhou whisper to the man in his arms before he kiss his forehead and walked back to his room, to resume his energy transfer, although he will not dare to use the same way in front of the others. He sighed at the thought of the look his dear goddess would give him after their previous conversation. Yes, maybe he was a perverted white ape... or as everyone called him... a perverted white monkey.
AN: Thanks for reading.