Been so close to the man he loves, feeling his even breathing, the firmness of his body under his hold, the softness of his long silk hair flowing down his slender back, with his beautiful relaxed face right over his heart and the faint warm that escaped from Bing Yi's energy, Zhu Yan, of course was unable unable to fall into blessed slumber, even when Yi Chen had long since fallen asleep on his chest.
The temptation was great for the great demon, because that sleeping beauty holding him back, placing his leg between his in an innocent search for comfort and warmth while he rested, was nothing more than pure sin for his unbridled heart. How could he have even thought that sleeping next to Yi Chen was a good idea? Because it was more torture than anything else when his mind and body were overloaded trying to contain that fever that refused to die, even after hours of failed meditation.
"Xiao Zhuo... you were too cruel when inviting me to share your bed. You're too tempting for my weak heart. Were you seeking revenge by casually suggesting it?" Zhu Yan whispered to the sleeping man on his chest and sighed, still unable to rest. For restraining his passion alone, someone out there should be offering him the greatest treasure in all the realms. Yet, what he gets is an aching heart and more body heat than he can handle, even with Yi Chen's cooling energy encircling him.
In the end, unable to calm down, Zhu Yan decided that he needed to get away from that death trap called Zhuo Yi Chen and very carefully, he untangled himself from his demon hunter and walked away, hoping to get his mind back on track while his lover rested.
So he wandered around for a while until he saw a figure dressed in white, whom he knew like the back of his hand, sitting on a rock, gazing into the distance as if lost. Her melancholic expression was such that Zhu Yan wondered what could have caused it. Despite his predestined love for Zhuo Yi Chen, he still felt the same affection for the goddess as he did for her Master, Zhao Wan'er. So, he silently joined her and sat down beside her, taking her by surprise, almost making her jump in fright.
"Zhao Yuan Zhou, you scare the hell out of me!" She said as she put a hand over her heart to try to calm down, but the great demon only smiled mockingly at her.
"You shouldn't be here alone. The Wilderness is not a safe place and you should know that." He said as he watched her more closely. Her complexion was paler than usual, but so much had happened to them in such a short time that it was not surprising, but something felt out of place.
"I know, but this place has always been a safe haven for me until that tragic day..." She looked up at the night sky.
"Wen Xiao... I'm sorry for taking your Master away from you..." He said with an aching heart as tears threatened to fall down his face.
"It wasn't you, Xiao Zhao. I know better than anyone how much my Master meant to you and how hurt you are that you were forced to take her life. Your pain is as hard as mine..."
"It is. Zhao Wan'er was special to me. She was the sister I chose to have, my best friend and confidant, and her death at my hands is impossible to make up for. As long as I live, that guilt will cling to me like a second skin, just like the death of Yi Chen's family..." He said, and Wen Xiao gently took his hand in hers in a gesture of friendship and tenderness.
"Please don't tell me you still want to die. Xiao Zhuo will be heartbroken if he hears it." She said, and he gently shook his head as he looked away.
"Not anymore. Back then, I had no reason to live. All I had left was that endless guilt eating away at my heart, but then he came along..." He smiled softly. "He came and shook my world and my resolve. My fated enemy, my fated killer, my reason for wanting to die at his hands... he changed everything, and instead of giving me release, he gave me love and brought me back to life."
"That sounds romantic... who would have thought that you have in you?" Wen Xiao joked.
"I truly love him." Zhu Yan confessed.
"I know, but your love is too passionate and dramatic..." She say as a way of teasing, but the great demon at her side sighed as if defeated by fate itself.
"It's too passionate alright... I can't even lie down next to him without feeling the fire burning me from the inside out... too much fire, he is so hot that I find it too hard to resit..." He said naughtily and she pushed him away in fake disgust, making him laugh for a moment as he sat down again.
"You know, I'm kind of jealous of you too." Wen Xiao close her eyes feeling the night breeze on her pale face.
"Why? Aren't you and Pei Si Jing in love too?" Zhu Yan asked curiously.
"We are, but our love is not fated, like yours."
"What's so great about predestined love? To be honest, it carries a lot of pain within it red string. Nothing you want to experience firsthand, trust me."
"Yes, but it's also strong and relentless, deep and unbreakable, fearless, loving, passionate, reliable, unimaginable, always ready to resurface again and again with each new opportunity at life. I wish I'd known Pei Si Jing before all her tragedies and mine. I wish we had that same instant connection that would give us more time..." She stopped, realizing that she had carelessly let her secret slip out in front of a cunning great demon and Zhu Yan grabbed her hand this time.
"What's wrong with you, Wen Xiao? You have all the time in the world to build the relationship you want with her." He said, reading her pulse, which seemed irregular, as if she were... poison...
"Xiao Zhao..." She withdrew her hand, but it was too late, as he was already aware of her condition.
"How did this happen? When? Wen Xiao, you... that story you made up... it wasn't made up completely. You were already poison."
"Xiao Zhao, please don't tell anyone, especially Xiao Jing or Xiao Zhuo, or they'll waste our only chance to restore the sword."
"What kind of poison is this?"
"I don't know. When I spoke with Bai Yan alone, I told her about the strange feeling I get when using the Baize Flute and asked her to check it, and she found it was poison, but she didn't know which one."
"So that's why she went out on such a sudden errand?"
"Yes, she's trying to find out more about it and see if there's a cure."
"How long will that take her?"
"I don't know, a few days maybe..."
"We don't have that much time to waste." He said as he stood up to leave and she did the same but to stop him as she grabbed him and turned him so he was facing her.
"Please, Xiao Zhao, don't be too hasty, we still have time. She said is slow, that it deepens with each use of the token."
"Then you are forbidden to use it until is strictly necessary."
"I know that, just don't tell the others."
"They will find out eventually and then how will you explain it to the huntress that you deliberately keep it from her?"
"I think she already suspect that there is something wrong with me."
"Then she is better than me, I should have notice before. This is Li Lun's doing, right? Well, more my doing for let it happen, for been the reason it happen..."
"Xiao Zhao, it's not your fault!"
"Yes it is and it serves me right. We still have a contract and if you die, so will I..." He said as he turned to leave, but once again he was stopped, this time with words.
"No we don't, I tore that contract to pieces when I was told about the poison." Hearing that Zhu Yan felt anger rising up his throat.
"Wen Xiao! You... do you really want to die? That contract will keep your life as a priority no matter what happen."
"And who said I want that priority now? If you are forced to keep me alive, forced to even choose between Xiao Zhuo and me in a worse case scenario, then that contract is nothing but a burden I don't want!"
"I will never let things go far enough for me to have to choose between the two of you."
"Yes, but even I know that if something like this ever happens you will choose the one you love and I want you to chose him above all, so that's why I said nothing. If the sword is not restored, his life will still be at risk and I rather die than let that happen. So, Zhao Yuan Zhou, you better say nothing or you will be the one losing Xiao Zhuo..." Wen Xiao demanded and Zhu Yan for once wanted to cry his heart out.
Why was everything so complicated? Just hours ago they had averted one disaster and now they were thrown back into another and the worst part was that he was powerless to stop it... so much for his claim that he wasn't going to let it get to that point when he had it right in front of him to slap him in the face.
"I will keep quiet for now, but I won't make a promise that they won't find out on their own..." He said and this time he stormed away without turning back.
Elsewhere, Ying Lei was feeling restless, so he went for a walk and returned to Kunlun Mountain, where he felt more comfortable in the cold night air of the snowy mountains. Despite his years running away from there, Kunlun Mountain was still his home, and he was its protector. Thus, he sat right in front of the Wilderness Gate and gazed at the box in his hand. It weighed very little in physical terms, but in terms of responsibility, it weighed as much as the mountains surrounding him. In his hand were the lives of Bai Jiu and Zhuo Yi Chen, and it was something he had asked to carry, so he couldn't afford to fail.
However, just then, when Ying Lei was lost in his thoughts and responsibilities, he hears footsteps behind him and something else that he actually expected not to encounter so soon. So he looked back to find his commander standing there for no reason at all. There was nothing out of place in his appearance, no hair out of place, no demon tattoo left out, no indication that his strong presence as a full demon was fake... the only thing that was different from the real Zhuo Yi Chen was the smell. Oh, she was indeed improving.
"Commander Zhuo... why are here?" Ying Lei whisper as he hide the box behind his back and ready himself for what look like an inevitable fight.
"I was worry about Li Lun showing up, so I came to keep you company."
"There is no need to worry about that. The scale is safe, I assure you that."
"But it wouldn't hurt for me to take a look, right?" The one in front of him said it in a way that seemed almost flirtatious. How dare she act like that with that appearance? It was girly at best and sinful at worst.
The commander would have blushed with anger to see himself acting like that when everything about him was seriousness and control. So, when she tries to approach, he wastes no more time pretending that she was the commander and unsheathes his huge knife to defend himself.
"Ying Lei, what does this mean?" She asked in a weird way.
"Oh, come on. Stop pretending, it's a little creepy."
"Creepy how? Isn't this the way I always am?"
"You wish. He'll never flirt, not even with the great demon... And besides, your scent gives you away, Ao Yin!" He screamed as he attacked her, but she avoided his first slash, which he expected, however, he was already making his second, that she stopped with her bare hands and use her demonic energy to strike back, making him fall dropping the box in the snow, which she grabbed and ran. Ying Lei run after her once he left a warning for the others.
Zhu Yan needed more than water or fresh air to cool himself this time, so he too chose to cross back into the Kunlun Mountains to think of another way out of this new mess, when he saw signs of a fight right there as if just happened and became alarmed, looking around to find Ying Lei's warning shining brightly on a wall.
"Oh, come on, why can't anything go right tonight?" Zhu Yan wondered. He was about to follow the young mountain god when someone stopped him behind him.
"Xiao Zhao! Where are you going? We still have to wait for Bai Yan to return." Said Wen Xiao, who had just arrived from the Gate.
"We have a new problem. Ying Lei is in trouble." Zhu Yan said, pointing at the characters on the wall.
"Ao Yin? Did she come for the scale?" Wen Xiao asked in alarm, but Zhu Yan simply took a few steps forward, only to be called again, this time by someone who made his blood run cold. It was curious how his body reacted so strongly to Yi Chen, when it was sometimes too hot to stand it and sometimes freezing cold making him tremble.
"Yi Chen..." Zhu Yan whisper as he turned to look at him in all his glory. For how long he had been awake or how much he had hear or find out it was unclear, but judging by his hard expression it was not something promising for him.
"Would you mind explaining what's going on behind my back?" He asked coldly and Zhu Yan hoped it was some kind of jealous accusation or something equally simple to explain.
"You were fast asleep, right?"
"I was until you got out of bed. Do you think I wouldn't notice you leaving no matter how gently you do it?" Asked Yi Chen, and Wen Xiao rubbed her forehead a little wearily.
"Xiao Zhuo, let me explain..." Wen Xiao try...
"I'm not prone to spy my own people, especially the ones I trust, Wen Xiao. I know why he left, so this is not about you two talking, is about that..." He said as he pointed at the wall.
"Ao Yin took the scale, we were about to go after Ying Lei..." Wen Xiao explained, but Yi Chen's gaze never left Zhu Yan.
"Is that true, Zhu Yan? Did Ao Yin take away the scale from Ying Lei?" He asked and something inside the great demon told him that this was not the time lie.
"I never said that, Wen Xiao did..." Zhu Yan corrected him with a kind of calm he wasn't really feeling.
"Yes, she assumed, just like the rest that Ying Lei got the scale to guard when he didn't."
"So you notice, Xiao Zhuo? I guess you deserve my deepest praise."
"I deserve no praise, I let you do it, because I thought you will worry about him letting Li Lun take it."
"And he did... well, not the scale, but the box anyways."
"But you didn't warn him that the box was empty? What's wrong with you two?!" Wen Xiao asked in exasperation.
"Ying Lei's life will not be in danger by Li Lun's hand. Despite everything that happen in the past, he respect the old man too much to harm his grandson which is the only thing left of him in the world."
"Then were you going to rescue Ying Lei or something else?"
"Yi Chen, what is this? What makes you suspect me after everything we have been through?"
"I can ask the same or will you rather deny that you are hiding something from me right in my face." At that even Wen Xiao hold her breath as a moment of silence make them all tense.
"I am hiding something from you, but not by my choice. If you want to know why, then ask her that..." Zhu Yan said as he pointed at Wen Xiao, who closed her eyes, now unable to avoid telling Yi Chen about her poison.
"You are too cunning, Zhu Yan..." She accused him.
"Don't blame me Wen Xiao, I told you I will keep it, but I will not be responsible if others find out on their own."
"You stupid monkey, you practically corner me."
"They deserve to know."
"It not necessary at a time like this."
"You also told me to choose him above all, so if he wants answers he gets them." Zhu Yan remained her and Yi Chen could not help himself but to blush a little.
"Fine! I was poison when using the token back when Li Lun possessed Bai Jiu in full." She bluntly confessed, making Yi Chen speechless for a moment.
"What?" He asked in astonishment.
"She is poison." Zhu Yan responded.
"I head that!"
"But you asked, Xiao Zhuo..."
"I was in shock!"
"Guys, please, no more fights."
"What kind of poison?" Yi Chen asked.
"I don't know."
"Wen Xiao..."
"I really don't know... I was told of the poison by Bai Yan and she is still out there looking for answers, so until she comes back, there is nothing much I can tell you." She insisted and Yi Chen have no other choice than to accept her words.
"Fine, then we talk about this tomorrow, I need to go look for Ying Lei."
"Xiao Zhuo, he is going to be fine." Zhu Yan said as he grab his arm to prevent him from leaving.
"I not having that. You said Li Lun respect the old man, but that was before he became this vicious."
"Li Lun wants the scale and he will find out Ying Lei doesn't have it and guess what he will do next?" Zhu Yan asked softly as he rubbed Yi Chen's arm.
"He will come back." Yi Chen said as he calm down.
"Yes, he will be back the same as Ying Lei... we just need to wait." Zhu Yan said as he pulled him closer.
"Then we wait..." Yi Chen responded as he walked down the stair and sat in wait for both answers and a friend.
AN: Thanks for reading, I hope you like it.