Guardian 镇魂 Fic - Future Forged

Chapter 6

A wet tongue laps at his cheek. Zhao Yunlan sees a very large tiger standing over him.

"Mimi!" he says gleefully, and reaches his hand out to touch the Qiongqi. Mimi is now the size of a small horse, and lets out a purr as Zhao Yunlan scratches his chin.

The grass rustles with the sound of footsteps. Peng Junjie is sprinting to catch up with Mimi.

Peng Junjie looks about the same: hair pulled into a topknot, scarred eye, and doesn't seem like he's aged a day - but instead of his black robes, he's wearing jeans and an ugly orange shirt.

"By the Four Hundred Odes of Songzi," Peng Junjie says, a grin breaking out across his face. "Lord Kunlun. Or should I say Chief Zhao? I caught your broadcast earlier; the temple has Wi-Fi now. It's actually you. What on earth happened? The whole of Haixing had a mini-earthquake earlier."

Zhao Yunlan pulls himself to his feet. He's dizzy - the Lantern drained him rather badly, and making portals is always a migraine-inducing trial - and Peng Junjie has to run over to help steady him.

Immortality has clearly not weakened the former captain, and he half-carries Zhao Yunlan to the temple and forces an alchemical mixture down Zhao Yunlan's throat. It tastes foul, but it brings the strength back into his limbs and he doesn't feel like he's burning any more.

They sit underneath the pavilion together, drinking tea.

"Everything has to keep getting rebuilt, throughout the centuries," Peng Junjie observes. "It's an inconvenience. I've kept everything mostly the same - the temple and the pavilion - although I've added plenty of modern comforts. Wi-Fi, like I said. Plumbing, running water, a coffee machine, an Xbox. A lot has changed, but a lot of it feels... bland.

"I've traveled a bit - met other alchemists, taken on students, trained under other masters - but I think I miss having proper companions here. It was a crazy time, the war ten thousand years ago, but I appreciated that respite. You and the Envoy and Sister Anying and Master Ren and Mimi and Da Qing."

"Look at you, nostalgic like an old man," Zhao Yunlan says, shaking his finger at Peng Junjie. "Brother Junjie, it was just last week for me."

"Ah, but it wasn't last week for me," Peng Junjie says. "Or for Lord Envoy, either." At the mention of Shen Wei, he falters. "Tell me. What happened? The story of you and him has been an irritating mystery that's hounded me my entire life. Every time he visits, I expect you to be beside him - and now, here you are. What happened then and what happened now?"

Zhao Yunlan takes a breath. "It's a long, long story."

He starts from the beginning: seeing Shen Wei from the window of Dragon City University. The Hallows gathered after various cases. Ye Zun's manipulations and return. Zhao Yunlan's blindness and Shen Wei healing him, getting dark energy poisoned as a result. Time travel.

"When I first met Master Ren," Zhao Yunlan says, "do you know what his solution was for the dark energy corruption? He told me to learn his portal ability, put Shen Wei in a limbo dimension to delay the dark energy poisoning, and then travel the multiverse to search for alternate versions of our Hallows and gather energy from the Guardian Lantern's wicks.

"The energy had to be immense to stabilize our Hallows, so the Longevity Dial could heal Shen Wei without harming him or me further.

"Gallivanting across hundreds, thousands of dimensions - it sounds like an adventure, but I could easily get killed or stranded. Shen Wei isn't someone who would agree to be locked up in a void, either, even though he wouldn't have to wait long because of the limbo time manipulation.