Revelations Of The Loving Heart

-Yunlan / Shen Wei-

The village leader was talking nonstop, but Zhao was barely hearing his words after asking the more pressing questions he needed to try to find the artifact. The reason? He was too distracted with Shen Wei's absence to fully concentrate in his endless chatter. Just where are you Shen Wei? Washing your face shouldn't take more than a minute or two right? Yet, ten minutes have already pass since he leave him in their room. Should he find an excuse and head back to see if something happen? What if he fell or something worse?

He was about to voice an excuse to the village leader when Shen Wei finally show up at the entrance of the dining room, but as Zhao gave him a deeper look, he knew right away that there was something wrong with him. He could see beyond his usual calm face and there was a hint of panic burry deep within those beautiful eyes.

"Hum, please excuse me. I forgot there are a few things I need to prepare for tomorrows trip to the mountains. However, Lin can answer any question you may have about us, it will be his pleasure, right Lin?" Zhao asked, half smiling, when say man almost shoke with his own food.

"Oh, right..." You owe me one, Chief, was the look the monk gave Zhao, just before he walk away to meet Shen halfway.

"Shen Wei, what's wrong?" He asked right away.

"We need to talk. Come with me." Shen guided Zhao outside and seen that the small corridor was empty, he open a portal to transport Zhao somewhere else. When Zhao realize where he had been take too, he arched an eyebrow.

"Why back home?" Zhao asked curiously as he found himself back to his apartment.

"Your wards here are one of the best, it should be safer to talk here than back in the village." Zhao frowned.

"Okay, tell me what happen? Why the urgency?" Zhao asked, taking a sit on his couch.

"I just receive a message from Hell. Things had turn out worse than expected. Apparently, someone else is looking for the artifacts to use them to destroy both the human realm as well as the celestial one." He bluntly said.

"That's impossible. The human realm, yes, we are fragile little things, but the realm of the gods is unreachable as far as I know."

"There was a time when the gods were at war Yunlan, it's hard for common ghost or even demons, but not impossible for another fallen god who seeks revenge."

"Okay, babe. I think is time for you to tell me the whole story. Just what happen in the first war? Is it related to what you are telling me now?" Zhao asked.

"Yes and no. Yunlan... if I tell you everything, there is a chance you may hate me."

"Not a chance."

"This involve someone from my past."

"I too have other relationships."

"This is different..."

"Shen Wei, I know somehow your story is related to mine. The way you look at me, treat me, protect me, open yourself to me, let me tease you or even let me kiss you and I may dare say, even the way I know you love me... none of them is what I would call normal. The same happens to me too. I have this nagging feeling that I know you for a long time ago, but I'm sure I never met you before the case at your dorm and merely ours later I became a love sick bastard that chase you until this point. Just tell me truth, did you know me from a past life?" Zhao asked, already having his answer when seen the surprise in Shen's eyes.

"Yes." He finally admitted, sitting by Zhao's side. It was going to be a very long explanation.

"How far in the past?" He really wanted to know the answer to that one, because Shen Wei sometimes showed a kind of devotion that was hard to explain in the short time he knew him.

"A few millenniums..." Zhao coughed in shock at such revelation. He was expecting a century or something, but that long?

"What? That long? Just how many times I have reincarnated?" He asked still in shock.

"Quite a few." Shen whisper, looking down.

"Did we have a relationship before? I mean, that many times and..."

"No. After you enter reincarnation, I only watch you from afar, never daring to come closer. This is the first time I have a more intimate relationship with you."

"How so? So many centuries and you never dare? That's hard to believe, please explain to me. Why didn't you approach me before then, but did it this particular time?"

"The first time I saw you, I fell for you probably at first sight, but back then I was a kid that followed you everywhere you go. My respect for you was great and you were too high up for me to grasp you and even if I knew you loved me back, I could not let myself taint you, being nothing more than a soulless ghost. Then, the war happen and I was cursed. The curse triggers every time my emotions takes the better of me, causing me pain..."

"Wait, what?" Zhao asked in horror, standing up, while unconsciously remembering those time he saw Shen in pain. Every time, he had been the reason?

"Zhao that's not important..."

"Of course it is! I tease you so many times. Oh gods... just how much pain have I inflict on you this far?" Zhao asked with some despair.

"I was willing to take it."

"Are you crazy? Why did you allow me to hurt you? Did you loved me that much to suffer to this extent?"

"Yes. Zhao..." Shen way also stood and came closer, but Zhao immediately retreated.

"Don't, just don't..." Still, Shen keep approaching him until Zhao had reached the wall.

"I loved you for way too long, but I never touch you. I became content with only watching you from time to time, always making sure you were safe. But then, I was forced to meet you as you are now and you were quite free to flirt we me at every chance. That awoke all the repressed feelings I held back for centuries, in a way, your straight forward personality made me fall for you all over again and this time, you were within my grasp, you were closer to me than never before. I can finally let myself be yours."

"Yes, sometimes it was painful, but Yunlan, I assure you it was worthy. I wanted to finally have my chance, to finally be able to hold you back and feel your warmth and even your passion. I had sacrifice many things for the human's sake, never asking for anything in return, except you. If you can't love me back because of who I am, being a half ghost, a tainted creature that doesn't even have a soul, something that truly belong to the darkness of the underworld, then that's fine. You are also free to choose and I will never impose myself over you when you no longer want me, but you will not run away from me because of a curse that can be held back or even be removed when the time is right."

At all this, Zhao was simply speechless and stoned by Shen's many revelations. That man... that man longing and devotion was simply too great, too deep for him to even try to give back. Never before he had been loved that way and Zhao was sure that Shen Wei did love him for who he was, not because of what they were in a distant past.

"Okay, then... your silence is more than enough. I will take care of things on my own, you will not see me again, unless necessary. Please take care of yourself." Wait, no!! Zhao thought in desperation when seen Shen's portal manifest in the living room.

"Wait!! Where are you think your going?" Zhao mage to said before Shen could have the chance to enter.

"To the underworld, after send you back to River Village." Shen sadly said.

"You have to be kidding me right? After you confess to me in such a way, why the Hell you believe I don't want you back anymore?"

"You didn't said anything..."

"I was too stunned to even process half of what you said. Just give me a break. I honestly have no idea of why you seem to find me so high up centuries ago, but this time there is no way that I will let you go... please forgive me for this, I just can't hold myself back." He pull Shen to him and go right ahead and kiss him without restrain.

He understood now why he was so inexplicable attracted to a perfect stranger, not matter how handsome he looked. His soul knew better than his forgetful memory. He may not remember what he was in past lives, but he was sure now that he had been waiting for Shen to find him, so they could finally be together and if unforeseen circumstances had force Shen Wei to meet him again, then he had no doubt they were meant to be. He didn't need anything more, as that empty void that had always being there, even when in a relationship, was finally filled with his rightful owner, his other half. After a few heated kisses, Shen moaned against Zhao's lips and Zhao pulled back, letting him go.

"Sorry, are you in pain now?" Zhao asked, trying to decipher whatever of not his uncontrolled desire had greatly cost pain to Shen.

"Not exactly..." Shen flushed, trying to put back in place his wrinkled shirt as Yunlan had done his best to pull it out, doing so only partially.

"Then?"

"Haven't you notice?" Shen asked, forcing Zhao to focus. It was then when he notice that he had unconsciously crush Shen into the wall he had previously being corner and half pull his shirt. Then he laughed.

"Sorry babe, did it hurt?"

"No, but never mind that. We really need to finish talking, Yunlan. As much as I have been waiting for this, I still have a duty to protect your world from being destroyed." Zhao sighed.

"Go ahead and fire away. What else is there for me to know?"

"My story."

"Okay... I'm listening." Zhao said taking back his place on his couch.

"A long time ago, there was a water god who had a quarrel with another and they fought, the water god losing the fight to the other one. After that, GongGong, held a grudge against all gods and went down to earth, years after Nuwa had created humanity, stealing Kunlun's fire to make its own. Once on earth he secretly created another realm underground, thus the underworld came to exit. Its purpose was to hide in there those creatures he created with the gods fire, to rise a rebellion against the gods. I was the first ghost that the flame gave birth, along with my twin brother."

"Wait, twin brother? I never heard the Ghost Slayer had any brother, let alone a twin one."

"That's because Ye Zun always wear a gold mask and he was the one who leaded the first war." Shen half smiled when seen Zhao's confusion.

"When GongGong divided the fire in two, my brother and I inherit different aspect of the fire. He became darkness, I became light. Giving the difference in our nature, we separate ways, when Ye Zun decided to follow our creator's footsteps and go against the gods. That's when I found you. Back then you were... looking for the stolen fire and find out about the underworld. When Nuwa was told of that, she decided to seal the underworld and GongGong along with it. Because he was a full god, they stripped him of his powers and sealed him deep within the lowest level. There, he was rumored to be killed by a vicious demon he had created with his own hands."

"After a few centuries, my brother raised against the gods and the war began. We fought as enemies instead of brothers during that period, but we never really intent to kill each other. I try to convince him, it was futile to go against the gods, whose powers were at a different level of our own, yet he was too blind by rage and vengeance that he didn't listen. The first war lasted two days and in that second day the gods themselves intervened, and Ye Zun was set in killing Kunlun and almost manage to do so, if I have not get in his way. I took the stab meant to pierce the god, which almost turn me into ashes if the god didn't gave half his divinity. After that, Ye Zun was sealed in Hell and I was appointed to be the underworld guardian, giving birth to the Ghost Slayer leyend." By now, Zhao's heart was beating faster than never before.

At the mention of the name Kunlun, something inside him had stir and now he knew why. All the pieces of the chaotic puzzle were revealed to him as clear as day. Shen confessing the one who loved was too high to grasp, finding him when he was a child, never approaching his reincarnations, the golden ink, which he had mistakenly thought belong to the leaders of the Order, when in reality the color belonged to the gods, his ability to summon celestial fire and thunder, his wards exceeding the normal strength even the highest priest cold create, becoming a Guardian at such young age. All of them were hints that he was indeed more than just an ordinary human, because he had been a full god at the very beginning.

"Yunlan?" Shen asked in worry, when seen him gone pale suddenly.

"Am I that god you save? Was I the one who turn you into a half god? Am I Kunlun's human reincarnation?" Zhao whisper the questions in some kind of autopilot, because he was all mess up inside and a big headache was beginning to assault him. Shen look at him for a while before finally giving him the answer.

"Yes..." Shen confessed and Zhao closed his eyes. He honestly wasn't expecting that one. He was always full of himself, but he never thought of him as a former god. "Are you okay? Should I give you space to let it all sink...?"

"No, don't go. Come here..." Zhao said, moving so Shen will be able to sit just behind him and when he did, he recline himself over his chest, closing his eyes. Shen froze for a moment, however, as Yunlan needed his support after so many revelations in such a short amount of time, he embraced the former god, tightly hugging him and he keep doing so until Yunlan fell asleep in his arms. Then, he gently transport him back to their room, in the River Village and place him on his bed.

"Rest well, I will join you shortly..." He whisper before going out. Soon enough he found Chu waiting for him.

"So you are finally back." Chu said first.

"Any signs of demons?" Shen asked.

"None so far." Chu responded.

"Good, we still have time. Old Chu, you said that back in the underworld palace there was a rumor of someone soon to be awaken?" Shen asked.

"Yes, why? Did you find something else? Or perhaps find out of who they are referring?"

"It's GongGong. The demons are planning to bring him back." Old Chu went cold with shock for a second.

"That's impossible. First of all no one knows what happen with his body, second, there is no reviving whatever in Hell or somewhere else."

"There is the sundial of reincarnation..." Shen added.

"Oh Hell..." Chu cursed.

"Indeed." Shen agree.

AN: Thanks for reading.