Xiao Hua
Going down the stairs, the Master of the Xie family felt a bit deflated with having to go back home pretty much empty handed. Perhaps the real treasures and secrets were hidden inside the meteor, but as Hei Xiazi insistence, maybe the effort to find that he was looking for inside was not really worth the trouble. The man in glasses also seems to have a few mysteries under his belt and he trusted his judgment, given that those same mysteries were also something he knew far better than him.
Xiazi look at him with a warmly smile pasted on his tempting lips , as he probably felt his disappointment and Xiao Hua couldn't help himself but to smile back at him. Yeah, he may had not gain much out of that hellish place, but at least he was not going home with his hands fully empty, as he was sure that Hei Xiazi was going to shadow him for pretty much a good part of his life and offer him more than he may need at this point.
Regardless of what he was sure will happen between them once back to civilization, the fact of him bringing home something other than loses was a plus on his favor, not to mention he had found his lost uncle as well. Wu Xie by the other hand had lost quite a lot in that journey and is yet to see what will happen with Zhang Qiling inside the meteor and if he ends up really going back to him.
"Don't worry, Yaba Zhang is not meant to stay here. The young Master Wu will have him back in no time." Xiazi reassure both Xiao Hua and Pan Zi.
"Then let's go back to Xie Lian Huan and get back home. We had wasted too much time here already." Xiao Hua said and they went on their way, while leaving marks for Wu Xie and Pangzi to follow, once Zhang Qiling comes back to them.
What they didn't expected, thought, was to find Xie Lian Huan gone for good. They looked around for a while, trying to see if he had gone ahead on his own, after resting or something else had happen, but found no signs of his whereabouts at all.
"Could had he been taken by the snakes?" Xiao Hua asked as he moved around in desperate search.
"I don't think so. Master San had survived far worse than snakes and leave to tell the tale." Pan Zi said, hoping that his was the case as well and that his Master had go ahead for some unknown reason and not had fall to be the prey of some snakes.
"He is right. Master San... I mean, Xie Lian is very cunning. He will not meet his end in a place like this and as long as we don't find a body, we can presume he is still alive." Xiazi reassure him as well.
"I agree. We should keep moving. Perhaps he went ahead and is waiting for us to catch up with him at some point." Pan Zi added and Xiazi take the chance to guide his beloved Master Hua ahead, giving him no chance to look back or stay behind like Wu Xie did.
Pangzi
The waiting became hard to take, even after betting all kinds of things for the first few hours and at the end they just sat on the ground and waited. Pangzi had a personal grudge against a falling drop, so he collect it on a bottle.
"Tianzhen... I will be serious now... once this bottle filled... we will need to go." Pangzi said and Wu Xie looked at the bottle like it was cursed, but he understood Pangzi's request. It was a fair one for him and it was not like they could stay there waiting forever, even if he wanted to.
"Alright..." Wu Xie whisper and looked up once again, hoping that Xiaoge will go back before their time runs out.
They waited in silence for a while, only hearing the drop falling into the bottle, which at some point lullaby Wu Xie into a sleep, who was already mentally exhausted. He had keep his fears burry inside his chest as the hours passed and Xiaoge remained inside the meteor.
Pangzi for his part saw the water bottle fill once and looking up, then looking at this side to the tired man resting by him, he empty the bottle and put it back in place again, to be filled a second time or perhaps a third or a fourth. He could had wake up Wu Xie and make him fulfill his promise, but he knew better than to keep Wu Xie away from Xiaoge and he was not really one to leave a brother behind, knowing that his other brother will suffer a great deal his absence.
The young man was really head over heels for Zhang Qiling and now more than ever, after finally getting together on their journey there. He was not sure that their story was going to end been an happy one or not, giving the mysteries and uncertainties that Xiaoge seems to carry along with him, but he wanted for both of his brothers to live the best life they can. A happy life if possible, perhaps in a remote town in where no one could disturb their peace while they retire from all the madness of tomb raiding.
"A retirement... why the hell I'm thinking of that now? I'm still too young and handsome to think myself as a single man for the rest of my life to retire with a male couple...." Pangzi whisper to himself, while Wu Xie mumble a Si Pangzi from his sleep.
Pangzi snorted at Wu Xie calling him idiot, but then again, perhaps he really was one, because despite all, a retirement on his old age with really them didn't sounded that bad. Tianzhen was his brother and best friend and he had certainly go to the extremes to keep him safe. Xiaoge was also his brother and even if he was in the quiet side, he had save his life time and time again and he was sure that he will never leave him to die and rot in the forsaken tomb, no matter the danger he was to face to keep him alive.
Xiaoge was very protective, not only of Wu Xie, although Wu Xie will always be his priority and in a way. All three of them in combination made quite the triangle... an iron triangle that was already respected by all the tombs raiders in China.
"The Iron Triangle... that's sounds about right..." Pangzi whisper, as he looked up to the entrance of the meteor. Sometimes, he thought that someone was watching them from above, but every single time he illuminate the entrance, he only saw dark green stones.
Inside The Meteor
He was most like the man he was looking at right now. A man with no real past or future, a man that had born from the blood of another and to keep going backwards and forwards almost endlessly. He was not his own, even if he had try his best just to be himself.
"I know you may resent me for doing this, Zhang Qiling... but to destroy the Wang Family for good and set you free from your burdens, your beloved needs to pass through his trial." He said to barely conscious Zhang Qiling, resting over the stone jade altar in the middle of the room, inside the pagoda in where he had carry him.
"Don't... don't need to be free..." Zhang Qiling whisper in true distress.
"Oh, yes you need it, trust me... I have seen how you end with Wu Xie fulfilling his promise inside the gate as well as how it ends with you taking his place. I can tell you that Wu Xie will not come back from the Bronze Gate if he enters it and if you force your entry with the ghost seal, what you will find, will no longer be the man you love and respect now."
"I don't want... to harm Wu Xie... please... Qi Yu..." Qiling pleaded to the one he now remember was on that fatal expedition in where everything went down to hell for pretty much all of its members, as the effects of his blood and the meteor where too much to take at once. The meteor was a kind of poison that trigger an effect on his blood, making him lose his memories. The more he struggles to keep them, the more pain it will bring to his already pained mind.
"A bit of hurt will bring you eternal happiness later, I assure you, so bear with it for a while longer. I am him too, you know... I was born from his blood in that bronze tree in where his blood was spilled over the corpse cocoon in where I was lying dormant... waiting for the right time to absorb the element that will wake me up for good. The ancients knew far more of the future that both you and me could imagine... they knew my corpse cocoon was needed to be at the very center of the bronze tree in were the magnetic field was the strongest, so I could go back and forward in time..."
"So it was really you... below Wu Xie... at that time... we connected..."
"Yes... by then you had forget about me and Wu Xie was brought to my cocoon, to give me his essence."
"It was all..."
"Planned, yes. To keep the Ultimate safe and you the last of the main branch as well, many plans have been put in motion for centuries. The Zhang's were not strong enough to resist the Wang Family on their own... which is why the Mystic Nine were involved and thus me... or more so Wu Xie..."
"Please spare him... please..." Qiling pleaded, but the man simply smiled, so alike his Wu Xie, kind and warm.
"Don't worry, he will be rewarded for his sacrifice too. When the time comes... when you will be called by your beloved and be told he is dying, you will be granted his salvation... and that salvation will be arranged for as long as you live... now, it's time to forget... you will meet Wu Xie again very soon."
"No... please wait... why did you mean... by dying? Wu Xie can't... I will not... let it... happen..."
"Of course not, I agree... like I said, there is no need to worry. He will live as long as you... that's why you came here for, to save him from what's to come in the future. Now, it's time to go." Qi Yu whisper as he saw Zhang Qiling faint from pain once and for all.
He put the pill that was going to save Wu Xie's life on Qilings pouch, on his backpack, inside the safety of where he keeps his herbal remedies that he had inherit from the Zhang's when he still remember the recipes and place it amount the others. They all looked alike to normal people, but he was sure that Zhang Qiling was going to recognize his price when the time was right without fail.
The pill alone was useless, it was when the content was mixed with the golden liquid that the perfect combination of the Qilin blood Wu Xie had already received years ago, the pill that activates the healing and the golden liquid that it will set in motion the body transformation for true longevity. The very same process that Qiling went through as a child.
"I promise you a happy ending Zhang Qiling... you deserve it more than anyone else... so no matter what, keep this pill safe until is needed. Remember that Xiaoge... do not lose it, or your life will end as well in a more painful way than any torture you had endure this far. You will know as soon as you see it... keep it safe and remember, you are running out of time. Keep moving... just keep moving until the time is right, then everything will be over and you can finally rest and live and I mean truly live by the side of the one you have come to love as much a your own life." The man said as he carry the Zhang Qiling back to where he truly belonged.
Wu Xie
He was not really sleeping, only resting his eyes for a while. He had no longer any idea of how long they had stay there waiting, but the little food that was left, was now mostly gone, so perhaps it had been days, he could not be sure when day and night was spend into semidarkness.
"Xiaoge... why would you not come back? Pangzi and I will really starve here soon..." Wu Xie whisper as he came out of his daze.
"Yeah... we will truly starve here... Those shrimps don't look so bad now, right? " Pangzi moaned, still with his eyes closed.
"They will have to do..." Wu Xie whisper back.
"Hum. Get some sleep... the more you sleep the less you feel hungry." Pangzi advice and soon enough, they were once again set in silence.
However, at some point, as he dozed, he hear a falling sound coming from in front of him and Wu Xie open his eyes, faintly seen a figure dressed in black... a figure that looked so much like Xiaoge.
"Great... I'm hallucination with him now..." Wu Xie told himself... but as he open and closed his eyes a few times and the figure didn't disappear, as the illusion tend to do, he finally realize that the one that was laying on the floor right in front of him was truly Xiaoge, he jumped back to energy coming from adrenaline alone to have Xiaoge back on his arms.
"Xiaoge... you finally came back! What took you so long? Are you okay?" Wu Xie asked, but it was now obvious that there was something wrong with him. He looked pale and still in pain, as well as lost.
"Xiaoge! Xiaoge, look at me!" Wu Xie yelled, as Pangzi wake up for good and join him.
"What's wrong with him?" Pangzi asked.
"Xioage! Zhang Qiling!!" Wu Xie yelled, his name, seen that he was not responsive of his nickname and then, Qiling looked at Wu Xie, but to his horror, not with real recognition, but with confusion, as if he was trying to figure out who he was.
"Tianzhen... could it be that he really lost his memories?" Pangzi asked in dread.
"No... that cant be! Not again, not this time... not when we finally..."
"Tianzhen... he is already struggling. It's plain to see he is either in pain or scare to death of both combined."
"Zhang Qiling!!" Wu Xie yelled again, now quite taken aback, because Qiling had warned him that he may lose his memories before he went inside the meteor. His yelling make Xiaoge look at Wu Xie.
"Keep it safe... out of time... out of time..." Xiaoge whisper.
"He is truly scared... whatever happen there had traumatize him." Pangzi said.
"Just what the hell is in there?! What happen to him?" Wu Xie asked and out of fury, he left Xiaoge in Pangzi's care as he try his best to see what was inside the meteor that hurt his man to that extent and as he jumped to have a clearer look, he could swear he saw a man with long hair look back at him.
The surprise alone make Wu Xie stumble and fall on his ass in shock and fear, because just for a moment, it looked terrifying just like him. Like the man he had seen in that video that had been used to lure him there.
"Tianzhen! What..."
"I saw a man there..." Wu Xie manage to spill out, even if not the resembling part as well.
"What? A man? Xiaoge was the only man that had went in, you must had seen it wrong. Perhaps it was Chen Wenjin... or an illusion." Pangzi asked as he too try to see if he could have a glimpse, but failing to see nothing but dark rocks.
"There is no one there..." Pangzi said, looking back at the shaken Wu Xie.
"Forget it! Let's take out Xiaoge and never look back to this cursed place. Let's go!" Wu Xie shouted, then took Xiaoge on his back and headed out in haste back down the stairs and into the pool.
When inside water, even if you want to run at full speed, it was pretty much useless as you will still move as in a slow motion and everything seems to be happening just like that, as once again, the room was shaken and this time what went out was not just a snake... but the mother of them that was not that different from a damn dragon.
"You had to be kidding me... I rather had the little ones..." Pangzi whisper as they backed away from the insanely huge monster.
"Snake Mother..." Wu Xie mumble in even more shock as he slowly backed away.
"Run!!!" Pangzi yelled, but how could Wu Xie run and give the monster Xiaoge's back?
If the thing actually attack him while he run while carrying Xiaoge, it will take him first and he rather die than let Xiaoge be harmed just to save his own skin. So he keep backing away, until reaching the border, then he carefully lay Xiaoge on the dry stone and stood his ground with the only thing he had at hand, a knife.
The huge snake slither closer and closer until it was just barely two meters or so away from them and when the thing was going to throw at them, Wu Xie backed again and fall, as his leg hit the border of the stone. The action make the white jade pendant on his neck to fall into the stone at the same time the snake stop it advance toward them.
"Take it... it may save your life." Xiaoge had said to him at the time he had give it to him and so Wu Xie muster the courage he didn't know he had and take the jade on his hand to show it to the Snake Mother.
"Tianzhen... what are you doing?"
"Whatever it takes to keep him safe... you too." Wu Xie whisper as he moved forward with the jade pendant swaying on his trembling hand and to his luck, or perhaps fate, the Snake Mother backed off as he moved ahead.
The pendant belonged to the Queen Mother, which was the Master of that place, so it was fair that the snake will not harm whoever posses it. That's why Xiaoge had give it to him... to save him, when he was unable to do it with his own hands.
"Oh Xiaoge... I promise I will bring you back home safely, where you belong. This time I will protect you." Wu Xie whisper more to himself than to anyone else and once the Snake Mother fully retreated, he stumble on his own feet and Pangzi catch him before he could fall.
"That was horrible. That was horrible..." Wu Xie mumble on Pangzi arms.
"You were the bravest just now. I'm impress..." Pangzi praised and Wu Xie sighed.
"Don't mention it... I almost wet my pants." Wu Xie whisper as he panted.
"You both are awesome. Even in his current state, Xiaoge is still capable to help us... and your love for him, pretty much did the rest." Pangzi tapped Wu Xie's back in pride.
"Let's just get out of here while we still can." Wu Xie said.
"Agree." Pangzi gladly conceded and after Wu Xie took back Xiaoge on his back, they were once again on their way to get out of that hell.
AN: Oh well, I hope you like this one, with my little theory here. I used the chance of the lost tomb explore with the note part one, to theorize that the one in the cocoon was actually the man that looked like Wu Xie, while been dormant. Absorbing the blood, he became a kind of clone of Wu Xie that could travel in time, using the magnetic field of the bronze tree. Also, just like in the picture bellow, Qi Yu was with Wenjin and Huo Ling when they wake up in the sanatorium, so according to this drama version, he was with all of them in the Parcel Islands. Remember that, this is only a fanfiction, so everything is possible in this crazy version of mine. LOl. Thanks for reading and see you next time, if you are willing to stay here for a while longer.