-Guardians-
"Just what the hell is happening down there?" Lin asked as he looked down. Just a few minutes ago, they heard a strange sound, like that of chains moving in the distance, then there were some lighting flashes inside the hole as well as gunshots that followed. All of them had moved to look down, to see if they could distinguish something, but apart from the lightings, they could not see anything inside the deep darkness.
Chu, Guo and Da Qing were just beginning to go down the cliff, which will take them a while to reach the bottom. So it was up to them to help their Chief in time of need, but as the gunshots keep up under their feet, only Wang was calmed and collected.
"Chief!" Zhu Hong yelled, but a lighting muffle her scream. Lin had moved to took one of the torches to throw it down, like they did with the cliff, but creepily enough, as soon as he hold it, the thing simply extinguish itself on his hand. Maybe, because the supernatural powers working on those mountains had been the reason why the chief had told them not to throw any to the hole. They simply had no idea of what could be down the hole.
"I'm going down, the Chief and the professor are in deep trouble." Zhu said, checking her own gun.
"You will not do such thing. None of us will, for that matter." Wang said, making Zhu quite angry and Lin arch an eyebrow in confusion as to why Wang didn't want them to help their boss. It was so unlike her...
"I don't care what you said. I'm going down and there is nothing you could do to stop me." Zhu said and passed by Wang side, daring her to even try stop her, but a few steps away from the calmed shaman, Zhu found herself completely paralyze by a surge of a strange force pinning her in place, with her bracelet shining, like the one with the professor. Then, her knees simply became too weak to sustain her body and she fell on her hands and knees.
"Wow... Zhu Hong!" Lin shouted, seen her fall and came to her aid immediately.
"Who said I was the one who will stop you? It's the will of the gods." Wang said back, earning a nasty look from both Zhu and Lin. Sang then was immediately at her side, like he wanted to shelter her from Zhu's bad humor.
"Just what the hell did you did to me?!" Zhu panic and Lin try to help her get up, but was simply unable to help her move from the spot.
"I had done nothing. I told you is the will of the gods..." Wang insisted. Then Lin saw the faint glowing.
"She may be right, Zhu. Just look at your bracelet... is shining, the same way it did when the professor fainted." Lin notice and Zhu looked down her arm in surprise.
"Just desist the idea to go down and I guess you will be free to move again. I can sense both the Chief and professor Shen's energy moving around the cave bellow and that's not a place for us right now. There is nothing we can do to help them... We can only wait." Wang said. Zhu then found herself free from the spell, in the moment she stop thinking of going down. She sat over the snowy floor, with Lin rubbing her back, sitting by her side and sighed.
"Don't worry Zhu, you know the Chief is the god of luck... they will be fine, no matter what. Let's just wait..." Lin said to her and she couldn't help but smile. He was right, their Chief was the luckiest man alive and if it was fated, then she will wait until the time was right.
"Have some fun then, Chief..." She inwardly whisper and waited, while Lin stay by her, discretely holding her hand and they stayed that way until a handsome man dressed in black showed at the border of the hole, taking them all by surprise.
-Yunlan/Shen Wei-
"Are you sure you are okay?" Zhao asked to Shen Wei while he try to get rid of some of the ashes that had fall on his lover silky hair.
"Yes... just a bit tired." Shen smiled to reassure him, coughing a bit when some ashes fall on his face.
"Sorry... so, is it really over then?" Zhao asked again.
"There are no more demons in this cave... outside, it's another matter. We need to keep going. More demons will come and we need to find a safer place to spend the night. I don't think we will be reaching the tower tonight."
"And does such place exist? This is now the land of demons..." Zhao said.
"There is a place no so far from here." A new voice said, taking both of them by surprise. Instinctively, the Dao sword was back in Shen Wei's hand, while Yunlan pointed his gun up front. There was a strange man standing a bit ahead of them. He was tall, dressed in black and silver, with his long hair tied up on a ponytail with a blue long ribbon. He deeply bowed to them and Shen Wei lower his sword and also make Zhao lower his gun with his hand as well.
"It's okay Yunlan. He is on our side." Shen reassured him.
"Babe, I hope he is no charming you with his good looks, because he is a damn stranger to me." Shen smiled, taking Zhao's hand on his, in the moment his sword disappeared.
"Don't worry about that... I will never look at someone else but you." That of course pleased Zhao so much that he took Shen Wei by his waist and forgetting about the stranger, he go right ahead and kissed him, although both of them broke the kiss almost immediately because they were all cover with demon ashes, including their faces and lips and the taste was quite...
"Ah, damn that was..." Zhao begin, trying to clean his face a bit.
"Gross, I know..." Shen finished for him, also trying in vain to clean himself. Then they looked at each other and started to laugh. The stranger move his head to one side and watch them in amusement for a few seconds.
"My Lords... are you both alright?" He asked, halting their momentarily loss of reality.
"Just who are you?" Zhao asked, earning a raised eyebrow from the stranger.
"Pardon me my Lord, but didn't you call for me before, twice?" The stranger asked back.
"Did I?" Zhao asked surprised, looking at Shen Wei for confirmation, because he didn't remember to have summon anyone at all.
"You did Yunlan. While we were falling you mutter his name and he responded to your call." Shen Wei explained.
"You mean, he is the dragon who save us?" Zhao asked now quite amused.
"Indeed. I'm the human form of the lighting dragon you summon. My name is..."
"Lóng Hún..." Zhao whisper unconsciously.
"Yes, I'm glad you remember now." Zhao smiled a bit forcedly, then moved closer to Wei to whisper at his ear.
"Isn't this getting a bit weirder? Fire bats, demons that looked like deformed werewolves, a lighting dragon coming to our aid and both you and I gaining some... strange 'powers', not to mention those ghosts who summon the fire that killed the rest of the demons."
"Those were guardians from the tower. They had volunteer to keep watching the sealed door to hell and even in death, they had keep their bow with their spirits." Shen clarified.
"Like I said, weirder... what will come next? Zombies?" Zhao joked.
"Who know? I guess the professor didn't have time to draw everything that escaped the tower." Shen said sadly.
"Well I can tell you how many demons crossed the seal, but we really need to move on. Outside is already later than you think and to be honest... both of you need some cleaning. You reek at demons, which would attract more demons in no time." The dragon said, hoping not to offend the reincarnated gods. Zhao laughed.
"Well, if you have a hot tube, then bring it to me and I will do the honor..." Zhao joked.
"As you wish, my Lord... although it's not exactly a 'tube' nor hot, but it should do the trick. Please forgive the rudeness." He said discreetly opening a portal just behind them.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Zhao asked a bit confused, but a second later, both he and Shen Wei found themselves suspended in midair above a deep pound next to a long waterfall for a single second, then they free fall over it. As his body touched the cold water, Zhao cursed the dragon and his terrible sense of humor.
"Damn you Lóng Hún! I will get you back for this..." Zhao yelled as soon as he surface. The water was not as colder as it should in that freezing fridge called Mount Kunlun, but it was still cold enough to make him shiver. Shen Wei surfaced soon after, shivering as much as him.
"Yunlan! Are you okay?" He asked swimming to get closer.
"Yeah, you?" He asked back, removing a cleaner lock of hair from his forehead.
"Yes... that was unexpected." Shen smiled as Yunlan keep passing his long fingers over his hair, trying to comb it.
"Yeah, stupid dragon... however... he said we should bathe, right?" Zhao asked, giving Shen Wei a deeper look that make the professor blush to his very core.
"He did suggest it..." Shen reply, not minding Yunlan pulling him closer.
"Then... we can bathe together right? It will be warmer that way..."
"Indeed..." This time, when his lover kissed him, it didn't taste of ash, because both of their faces were clean of it when they swang back to the surface.
"Yunlan..." Shen Wei moaned over the passionate kiss.
"Well, I guess it wasn't all that bad to be thrown in here... I may not have a soap with me, but I can scrub your back... along with the rest of you..." Zhao said before kissing the professor again, making him even hotter than before.
"You are such a pervert..." Shen Wei whisper, enjoying been on his lover's arms, despite the cold water.
"You don't seem to mind..." Zhao whisper back.
"Mm, not at all..." Shen Wei said before Yunlan kiss him senseless again. However, a sound of yelling coming from the near shore, make Zhao curse again as he let go of his Wei. The idiot dragon had also thrown the rest of the team along with them, only that he make them fall over the sandy shore instead of the cold water.
"Damn it, he doesn't have a sense of humor at all..." Zhao cursed again, making Shen Wei smile.
"Hey Chief! What the hell are you doing there?!" Da Qing yelled and Zhao sighed, just before swimming his way back to the shore with Shen Wei right after him.
AN: Don't worry Zhao, you may have another chance later. LOL.