Guardian: The Broken World

-Yunlan-

As Shen Wei insisted, they go out of the room to walk toward the main temple holding the flame of the gods. It was still a bit dark and quite cold, but they did the gods the honors to be there when they arrived. The first one going out of the flame was Rong and soon after, Zillah came. Shen Wei bowed first and elbow Zhao to follow his example, which he reluctantly did, for Shen's sake.

"You haven't change that much Kunlun..." Rong said.

"I was a god myself... bowing is not really my thing." Zhao said back in defiance.

"Yunlan, please... they are here to help us." Shen pleaded and Zhao relaxed.

"Wake up the others, it's time to go. The sooner we deal with this, the better. Hell is not an easy place, even for us." Zillah added.

"There is no need, they are already awake." Lady Yue said, coming in and just like Zhao, slightly bowing to the gods.

"Lady Yue, it had been such a long time, since I last saw your beauty." Rong said, coming closer to kiss her hand.

"Don't waste your time with me little fire, it was because of your endless chase of women that the sundial of reincarnation was stolen." She said, making Zhao laugh and Shen sigh.

"Lady Yue, that was a bit rude..."

"My little ghost, rude, maybe, but no less truthful." She added.

"It's okay, Shen Wei, that's indeed right, my most sincere apologies, my Lady." Rong said.

"I hope you make it up for your mistakes. If my little ghost gets hurt in hell, I will hunt you down, remember that." Both Zhao and Rong shudder at her words, as her rage was hard to subside.

"Don't worry, Lady Yue, I will make sure the Ghost Slayer will not get hurt by any demon." Zillah intervened.

"Ah, little golden one, please make sure of that." She said.

"Of course, special one." Zillah reply, bowing to her. Seen that, Zhao came closer to his beloved ghost.

"Special one? Why is Zillah bowing?" Zhao whisper to Shen ear.

"She was one of the first to learn how to cultivate both mind and body, to achieve a higher plane and change form. She helped a few potential to be gods, to become what they are now, so the Jade Emperor is quite found of her. He see her as a daughter. No god will dare to openly disrespect her, because they all know, no one survives the Jade Emperor's rage." Zhao swallowed hard, thinking in how lucky he was, staying out of the radar of the supreme ruler of the gods.

"Shen Wei, maybe you should cut my hair now, before she can be tempted to do it again... I rather let you do it, instead of letting her use her sharp claws." Zhao whisper to Shen again, making him smile.

"That's not necessary, she knows now that I'm fully yours. She will not do it again, just behave a little bit and she will approve of you soon enough."

"Do I really need her approval, even in our current stage? You know, we already had cross the red line a few times." Zhao said, making Shen blush.

"Yes, even so... she is also special to me." Shen reply, trying to empty his mind from last night red line crossing.

"Ah, then I'll do my best to behave, you have my word." Zhao added.

"You better keep that promise you idiot, you have no idea how scary she can get..." Da Qing suddenly said from behind him, making Zhao jump in surprise.

"You damn cat, don't scare me like that!" Zhao protested, as the human shaped cat, laughed.

"Serves you right, huh, Shen Wei?" Da Qing asked.

"Indeed. Welcome, are the others coming?" Shen asked.

"Yeah, but I told my sister to stay here, if you don't mind. Hell is far worse than what we face underground yesterday." He said.

"Don't worry, I understand. I would also have ask her to stay as well if I were you. This is a matter of life and death, although, we have two gods helping us this time." Shen kindly said, smiling at a younger Qing, which became mesmerized by said smile for a second.

"Hey, don't go looking at him with shining eyes, you fat cat." Zhao protested.

"Stupid Zhao, I'm not a cat right now and I'm not fat."

"Yes, you are and I forbid you to take human form back at home, Shen Wei is mine."

"We all know that, there is no need to be such a jealous bastard... I wonder what he sees in you, with such grumpy temper, I bet he will leave you in less than a month."

"I'm quite awesome and have both the looks and the brain to keep him interested, right Shen Wei?"

"Yunlan please, behave, remember? We are not alone." Shen said a bit embarrassed to be at the center of their most recent dispute and Zhao instinctively glanced at the lady fox, who was staring at him, not too pleased and her words about hunting him down to the end of earth, came back to him with full force. He then nervously laughed it all. He didn't care about the annoying look on Zillah's face, nor the amuse one on Rong's, he only wanted the lady fox to spare him the pain.

"It was a joke. We do this all the time, it's the way we show we care, right Da Qing?" Please don't kill me... he thought as he put his right arm over Da Qing shivering shoulders.

"Of course Chief, we are family, after all." Da Qing reply as nervous as his boss, making Shen smile. Both of them feared the lady enough to stop their bickering instantly. Once everyone had gather, Shen Wei open a black portal, leading to the underground first. That gave the humans time to see the world through their third eye only. Some crows came at them, when Shen send his energy in search for Ye Zun, but Zillah's time shield, make them freeze in midair, as they cross the thick golden barrier.

"Shen Wei, can you sense him?" Zhao asked him seriously.

"His energy is repressed right now and the little I can still feel, is far down, to the lowest levels."

"You think he was capture?" Da Qing asked.

"I would say no, but honestly I can't be sure. He was hiding, so the deeper he goes, the less chances he had to be found, but..." Shen hesitate.

"But what?" Zhao wanted to know.

"GongGong is sealed in the lowest part." Zillah answer for Shen.

"So... he may be joining the crows?" Lin asked and Zhao closed his eyes hoping it wasn't the case, otherwise it will become a huge blow for his Wei.

"I don't think so, but it's hard to predict what he may do if he does find GongGong's body." Shen said, hoping it didn't come for the two of them fighting in different sides again.

"Shen Wei, not matter what, I will stand by your side, you know that, right?" Zhao asked.

"Yes, I know... I will try to portal us as far down as I can. Prepare yourselves for a battle, because it may come to that as soon as we are at the other side." Then he portal them straight to hell.

-Ye Zun-

As the king of hell, he knew his territory like the palm of his hand, with the only exception of the lowest level, for which he had no interest before. However, out of impulse, more than anything else, he had go quite far down, killing whatever vicious demon came his way.

Halfway, he had sensed a strong energy coming from the last level he had fail to notice for centuries, but now it was quite unmistakable. At first, he thought it was a trap set by that purple haired schemer, but then he had hear a voice he thought he will never will hear again, even if it was nothing more than a whisper in the wind. The voice of his creator and father. He sensed nothing else around.

He probably became conscious with the closeness of one of the holy tools and stirred inside his seal. He was quite sure now that GongGong was not killed centuries ago, but simply stripped from all his cosmic energy, which was the source of his godly powers and put to sleep under a heavy seal, to make sure he will never wake up again. But it was just his luck, that his bastard son cared a bit for him or maybe, he was more after his powers, which could also be transfer by the holy tool.

Either way, GongGong had become conscious again, even if it was for short periods of time. Now, he was probably trying to pull him back to his old ways, back at the time in which he fought against Shen Wei and almost kill him with his own hands. He should have known that his other half will intervene when seen he was going to strike a fatal blow to his lover, but it was already too late for regrets.

As he keep coming down, he came to find the entrance of an strange cave and out of curiosity, he followed the path that leaded him to a huge chamber, in which he could hear loud and clear a lot of screams and m.o.a.ns. The path he was following was at the top of some king of dark temple, with a huge statues of a demon with four hands holding a rainbow oval seal, he knew it had GongGong's body.

"You came…" A voice said inside his head and Ye Zun's heart accelerate.

"GongGong…" He whisper, as he looked down to hundreds of zombie like demons trying to reach the orb, pulsating with the formed god stirring.

"Brake my seal and I will grant you any wish, even getting rid of Kunlun for you…" The voice said, making Ye Zun laugh.

"You couldn't even defeat Rong back when you have your full powers, what can you do against Kunlun now? Even as a human, he is still stronger than you right now." Ye Zun said.

"You have a holy artifact with you. Give it to me and it will make me ten times stronger than before." GongGong said.

"If that's the case, then I better use it on myself, why give it to you?" Ye asked a bit amused.

"Because you don't have another choice!" A female voice said, from his back, which took Ye Zun by surprise, turning too late, as a blast of lighting hit him straight in his c.h.e.s.t. As he fell to his knees, he only thought in Shen Wei, which ironically he had sense it coming to the upper levels a second before being stroked by the traitor vixen of the gods. She had obviously hide both her cosmic energy and that of his lover, making him fall into their hands.

"I'm sorry, Shen Wei…" He whisper right before closing his eyes and fall to the ground.

Above, as soon as Shen Wei go out of his portal two levels above GongGong's cave, he also fell to his knees in shock and pain and Zhao kneeled at his side, to see what was wrong with him, but right at that moment, Shen's intense scream which echo inside the tunel with such sorrow it was heart breaking, make it quite obvious for everyone. Something bad had happen to Ye Zun, which mean they had already fall into their trap.

AN: Wait! Don't panic, nor curse me for killing Ye Zun... He is not death yet, I promise!