Once they left the room, Zhuo Yi Chen was very attentive to Zhu Yan's every move, from the way he walked to the feel of his waning Demonic Energy and his mocking expression. He observed every detail that could indicated he was unfit for what they were about to attempt. He was confident he could pull it off, just as Bing Yi had taught him personally, and he would never risk Zhu Yan's life knowing it was destined to fail, so he was confident it would work. What he wasn't so sure about was whether Zhu Yan could withstand any more damage to his weakened body or not.
"Xiao Zhuo, if I can endure being burned alive, I can endure a sword stab, so don't look at me like I'm going to faint at any moment, because even if I'm weak, I'm still a great demon." Zhu Yan pointed out, and Yi Chen sighed despite himself. It seemed he had always been too transparent and unable to hide even a simple concern.
"I'm that obvious, huh?"
"You always have been, which is why you're such a terrible liar."
"I guess you're right... I just don't want to make things worse. I know we're in a bit of a hurry, but if you're not in shape..."
"Xiao Zhuo..." Zhu Yan stopped and took Yi Chen's hands to pull him closer, so that their gazes were also close. "I love how you love me, believe me, but you need to have more confidence in my abilities as a great demon. I've suffered far more than a little hurt over the years, and I'm strong enough to do this small thing for the greater good. Can you trust me a little more?" He asked as they stared at each other and, with a slight blush, Yi Chen nodded.
"I'm sorry... I trust you... maybe it's just that I want to protect you so badly..." Yi Chen try to explain what he really couldn't with just words, but Zhu Yan stop him when giving him a feathery kiss.
"I know... it's in your blood now like I said before, but you shouldn't let it cloud your resolve. We'll do it, because two lives depend on it and even if it fails, which I don't think it will, considering you're going to try in the first place, it's something that must be done... and as recompense for causing you so much anxiety, we can finish what we started before leaving the room... to whatever extent you want it to take it..." At that Yi Chen blush escalate to a new level of hotness.
"Must you always end up embarrassing me like this?" Yi Chen protested as he felt the heat raise under his intense gaze even more.
"Of course. I am mischievous by nature, been a white ape great demon and all..." He smiled as Yi Chen chuckle.
"Monkey... a troublesome monkey..." Yi Chen said as he kiss him this time, not with just a touch meant to quiet him, but with everything he had.
There was something awakening inside him every time they become more intimate, something he couldn't put a name to, couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was, but it raised along with his love for Zhu Yan. Whether that was what the great demon said he needed to know later, he couldn't be sure, but certainly, their relationship grew stronger, their bond tightening with each trial they faced.
"Yi Chen... if you keep kissing me like this... I'm afraid we will never go anywhere but back to bed..." Zhu Yan murmur between heated kisses.
"You start it..." Zhu Yan laughed.
"If I did, then let me be the one to stop it before it gets impossible to refuse..." Zhu Yan said as he hugged him tight in pure blissfulness. "You have no idea of how much this mean to me, Yi Chen or how much I have come to love you... but in moments like this I fear it is only a dream..."
"Is not..." Yi Chen responded while he gently parted from his hold to cup Zhu Yan's face in his hands. "I may be new to love and this may not have start easily, but what we got now is as real as you and I standing here, surrounded by the faint light of candles in a stone hall that will lead us to yet again another test of our resolve."
"It's not a test this time... it's a life exchange, my Xiao Zhuo. Come or we will lose our chance before morning comes." Zhu Yan took his hands and gently pulled him toward their final destination. Ying Lei had brought some wine from Mount Kunlun, so they took one of the bottles and went to the stone table to taste it under the dimness of the place. It suited their romantic mood perfectly and more so when Yi Chen used one of his jade pedants in their drink and serve it, to show Zhu Yan how much he cared for him.
"I think this is the first time we drink wine alone." Zhu Yan said who received the cup with happiness from Yi Chen's hand.
"Not exactly. We have a previous chance to have a drink together in privacy before this." Yi Chen corrected him, but no matter how hard he tried, Zhu Yan couldn't recall such an occasion. Yes, they had drunk before, and in that place not long ago, but they had been in the presence of others, not alone.
"When? I do not remember been alone with you like this before. That one time in your room back at home, but it was tea." He said as he stared at the full cup.
"When you lost control of yourself, back when your senses were sealed, I came to your house with two jars of wine. I sat across from you, hoping to have a memorable time before we faced each other. I didn't know if I could stop you or if I would be forced to kill you, so I came prepare for the worst. In the end we couldn't have that drink and you know the rest and how it all turned out." Yi Chen told him, recalling that endearing but terrible moment when things could have gone worse than they did.
"Oh...I don't remember much about that time. The last thing I recall is you calling out to me before everything else went red and silent. Still... it's best that we never have that kind of experience again. The malicious energy had hurt us both for long enough... so this drink you just poured me is for the chance we were given to go through all those hardships and still be able to be with each other and have this drink." Zhu Yan said with affection in his soft voice.
"We've traveled such a bumpy road to get to this point, but that's in the past..." Yi Chen really felt that way. It wasn't that all was forgotten, but that he could live with the guilt of loving his enemy, because he knew from his own experience how hard it was to become a puppet in your own body, unable to do anything about it. After hearing that Zhu Yan smiled faintly.
"Yi Chen..."
"I mean it. I know we will both live with some level of guilt and regret, but even though part of me still hates you, the other part of me loves you just as much. When I first saw you, I was thrilled to finally have the chance to avenge my family. My brother and father were very loving and their loss inside my pained heart was too great to let go, even when I realized that you did it under the control of malicious energy." The sadness in Yi Chen's voice as he uttered those words broke Zhu Yan's heart but he kept his silence until Yi Chen have his repressed feelings all out.
"Then I became a demon by force, out of my own control and hurt those close to me. Wen Xiao, I almost strangled her with my own hands, even though she had always been a beacon of light in my dark life, I hurt her without even realizing it. Ying Lei, who had always been there, supporting us, giving everything he had for our sake, I also hurt him with just a wave of my hand... Pei Si Jing, I could have killed her just like all of them. It is a terrifying experience that I now know well. So you had no choice back then and although it doesn't atone for the sins committed, at least it gives room to healing and move on. To love... and be loved..." Yi Chen finish as tears run down his face, making Zhu Yan so moved that he wanted to simply embrace that beautiful man for life. He truly didn't deserve it, but he was beyond glad to have it for however long that lasted.
"Having a soul mate makes this life worthwhile. Zhao Wan'er once told me that someday I would find that person who would make me want to live... and she was right. I have no words to describe what I feel right now, but it is nothing less than a strong devotion for someone I don't deserve, but love with everything I have anyway. Xiao Zhuo... my beautiful Yi Chen, you have changed and healed me in so many ways that I don't even know how I can ever repay you in this life, let alone the next one. I know that love is simply not enough to match your kindness and caring heart, yet if Bing Yi were a third of what you are I can understand why Ying Long loves him so much and how his descendants bright like stars."
"You don't need to compensate me any more than you already have. It is thanks to you that I am still alive and that this sword was reforged at the cost of your suffering and depleted energy, not to mention your damaged core. You said I am kind, but your kindness knows no bonds either. You cared for an elder mountain god, who loved you so deeply that he gave his life to save yours, even Zhao Wan'er in her last moments had cared for you dearly enough to give you half of her token to protect you and Wen Xiao, your endless pain is heartbreaking, just like all your sacrifices to protect us every step of the way, hurting yourself instead. You will go to any extreme to save others and love mortals as if they were your own kind. It is you, being the vessel of the malicious energy, no... it is the cruelty of the curse that Chaos has cast upon you that has robbed you of your otherwise perfection."
"Perfection is what describes you so flawlessly..." At that Yi Chen blushed and with a smile on his face raised his hand to toast to all that was said open-heartedly. Zhu Yan, in turn, raised his and drank from his cup, not taking his eyes off his bewitching dragon. There was no need to say more, only to do what they had come to do.
"Are you ready?" Yi Chen asked and Zhu Yan simply stood up and open his arms.
"No matter how things turn out... whether this works out or not... I... I'm glad I crossed paths with you and even be blessed with something I could only dream of. Thank you... and I love you..." He whispered as tears of deep love threatened to fall down his face.
"No need to thank me... this is something I can't and will not fail, for you, for Wen Xiao and for Bai Jiu."
Yi Chen said as he unsheathed his sword and infused it with his power, causing the cold steel to glow bright blue in power and his energy to soar, while his hair flowed like strands of silk in the wind, affirming his beauty.
Under such a spell, Zhu Yan watched his lover make his sword fly towards him and pierce his skin with a kind of grace that he thought, would make time stand still around them and completely mesmerized by his precise elegance, the pain he felt paled in comparison to the magic of his sword absorbing the fire from his core and out along with some blood rushing out his mouth. By fate or simply bad luck, Wen Xiao had stumbled upon such an ethereal yet deadly scene of seen two of her most precious men kill each other, that made her scream at the top of her lungs.
"Zhuo Yi Chen! What are you doing?!" She rushed towards them as if her life depended on it, just in time to catch Zhao Yuan Zhou before he fell onto the nearby stone seat. Her fury and sudden appearance were shocking, causing Yi Chen to freeze for a moment in surprise. She wasn't supposed to see this encounter between them, much less when it seemed like Yi Chen was about to exact his revenge, which was far from what he was doing.
"Zhao Yuan Zhou!" She cried as she helped him sit up and looked at the blood he had spat out of his mouth. She wiped it away with the sleeve of her white dress before glaring at Zhuo Yi Chen, as if the Yi Chen of her entire life had transformed into something she didn't recognize.
"What the hell was that for, Zhuo Yi Chen?! Did you lost it! He's your lover and no matter how much you hate him, he wasn't in control of his actions when he took away your family! I know that pain too, but I know better than to blame him for something he didn't know he did!" She screamed as tears streamed down her face from both rage and pain that although they have a deep love for each other it turned that hatred won out.
Shocked by her sudden accusation, Yi Chen was unable to defend himself, so Zhu Yan grabbed her hand and forced her to look him in the eye.
"Wen Xiao! I'm fine, this isn't what it seems. Calm down." He said in an attempt to calm her down, but the shock of seeing Yi Chen strike Zhu Yan with his sword was too great.
"Stop being stubborn! I just saw him almost kill you with the very sword you forged!" She exclaimed furiously, and this time, Yi Chen finally reacted.
"He is not being stubborn Wen Xiao, he really is fine. I know coming to see such a shocking scene scared you, but you should know that I would never kill him with my own hand after we became lovers." Yi Chen could not hide the accusation in his voice, which made Wen Xiao look at the great demon doubtfully.
"Is true... what we did was very dangerous but it was planned between us." Zhu Yan said still weaker than Yi Chen liked.
"What do you mean? Explain yourselves!" She demanded, still angry with both of them this time.
"Yi Chen was teach by Bing Yi how to extract the Ever-Burning fire from my core and we try it just now and succeeded." Zhu Yan said as he looked at the red fire dancing around the sword Yi Chen was still holding, then as if suddenly realizing that the fire was still on the sword, he transferred it to the wood inside the box Zhen Mei offered them for the true fire.
"Have you two gone mad? Is this something you try so casually? What if it failed?" She asked as she looked from one to the other.
"I will not risk his life casually. The only reason I even try it was because I was confident I could pull it of." Yi Chen defend himself as Zhu Yan smiled at him quite pleased.
"He is so amazing..." The great demon whisper and Wen Xiao rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Zhao Yuan Zhou, you are so wiped out by love that is hard to believe you are a great demon. You two scare the hell out of me! Apologize!" She claimed and seen that there was no way around after scaring her that badly, both of them did.
"This is mostly for you, Wen Xiao. We can now exchange the fire for the antidote and detoxify you. Is a win win situation, that not even you can turn down. It was just unexpected that you have come when you did, which make me realize, are you alright? Is so late in the night, why are you still around instead of resting?" Zhu Yan asked and Wen Xiao relaxed a bit.
"I couldn't sleep... and now I will have nightmares after this..." She pouted which was more cute than intimidating, making Yi Chen's heart soften, as usual.
"I'm sorry... perhaps I can help you with your lack of sleep." Yi Chen offer as he came closer to her.
"How?" She asked and just as he had practice before, Yi Chen concentrate his inner energy and whisper a one-word spell to her.
"Sleep." He commanded with his power and catch her falling figure before she hit the ground, lifting her on his arms like she weight nothing.
"That was well done. Go ahead and put her back to bed, otherwise Pei Si Jing will have your head. I will wait for you in back in our own room." Zhu Yan said as he close the box and took the Cloud Light Sword in his hand, feeling only a tingly sensation, as if the sword was just playing with his recognized energy.
"Alright, I will be back shortly, have some rest, you deserve it..." He suggested, but he forgot of how his mischievous great demons was.
"Is not resting what I have in mind..." Zhu Yan whisper on his ear as he pass him, leaving him behind with a fainted goddess in his arms and his body feeling the heat.
AN: This is my favorite scene in the whole drama, so I hope I give it justice. The drama make it so precious and beautiful is hard to get it even close. I loved the bond of those two in this scene that, sorry Wen Xiao, I don't believe Zhu Yan was really invest in you as his true love. Of course, that's my personal view. Hope you like this version and a warning for maybe next chapter, that may contain adult reading. I will place three flames 🔥🔥🔥 in such chapters to give you a hint of what to expect. Thanks for reading, see you next time.