ARCHIVE OF DIXING | English 镇魂 Guardian Fanworks Directory

After it's all over, Shennong's Bowl says goodbye to Kunlun and departs from Zhao Yunlan's father forever. But where does he go then?

Or: In which Shennong's Bowl gets a vacation, a mojito, and some gender, as a treat. Not necessarily in that order.

“I bring an offering,” he starts, feeling the oddness of the words on his tongue. This is not an offering, not exactly. It’s not incense and gold worthy of a god, it’s not a string of worshipful words either, and yet with who they are, The Ghost King has no other word for it.

There is nothing else a ghost can offer to a god.

"They're-they're monsters!"

So he truly hadn't even been able to distinguish the ghosts from the Dixingren, when neither wished to reveal themselves.

"And? You were happy enough to attempt to extract their powers," Zhao Yunlan said coldly. He was glaring, and though he too was still fully in his human form, Shen Wei could faintly feel the rumble of mountains in the echo of his voice.

Or: What if the underworld was just as real in Haixing and Dixing as it was in the Guardian novel 'verse? What if Haixing scientists were foolish enough to meddle with it?

There was no such thing as 'loving too much'. He was sure that he could always love Shen Wei a little more every day. For all the love Shen Wei had been deprived of for millennia. Kunlun would have lived just to love him, if that had been possible.

...
Stand-alone.
This fic has Art.

"I think I told you to quit smoking about ten years ago," Shen Wei breathed warmly against his husband's cheek, "And then I forgot to say it again." His tone was so soft and pleasant, Zhao Yunlan only laughed quietly.
"It can't kill me anymore."
"It's still a bad habit.”
...

UPDATE: Art was reuploaded in better quality

This fic is a stand-alone.

Sitting in the armchair by the window, he turned the page of the book, paying attention to the notes that the previous owner had made on the edges. It was curious to him how one could get to know a person just by reading what they chose to highlight and comment on in the text of a work. Shen Wei had several books that had once belonged to that same person. It was like an intimate friend he had never met. Maybe that person was already dead, but that thought didn't make Shen Wei sad or happy. It was just the fortune of being human. Shen Wei didn't know if that fortune now also belonged to him. After all, part of him was human too.

...
Stand-alone

Zhao Yunlan remained silent for a while, reflecting, as the smell of chocolate began to fill the apartment.
"Does your family know about us?"
“My family besides Xiao Hua who watched our drama in the rain live?”
"Yeah, the others who weren't eating popcorn during our drunken romantic cliché."

...

“It has been a long time since someone other than Xiuxiu or Xiazi has stayed in this house with me. Sometimes I think it’s a bit too big.” Xiao Hua stared at the fire ahead, the fireplace warming the room that usually turned cold when Shen Wei wasn't hiding his true nature.

Zhao Yunlan spends his first day alone with their newborn daughter.

Wu Xie wanted for Shen Wei to try - just try - to be seductive.

“Interesting … and in non-professional settings?”
“What?” As soon as Zhao Yunlan thought he had Wu Xie figured out, the other continued in a direction he hadn’t expected. Sure, Wu Xie had given control of their dance over to Yunlan, but there was no doubt that Wu Xie was still very much in control of their conversation.
“If I wanted to see you again, would you mind?” he reworded his question.
---
Zhao Yunlan is finally unable to avoid going to a fancy dinner, but it's pleasantly surprised by a stranger he spots across the room. What started as a mundane and boring night ends up being one that Zhao Yunlan will never forget

Zhao Yunlan had missed the Ghost Slayer for four years. And so, he had been intrigued for months by the strange relationship that seemed to exist between him and Wu Xie.
Maybe he wasn't prepared for the consequences of a little piece of the complex truth.
Shen Wei wished he could protest. But it was too late.

"That... everything? Get that blanket out of here, your mouth was much better than that,” he whimpered.
"Oh my, Xiao Wei,” Wu Xie chuckled, “I know you're weak to alcohol, but remind me not to let you even look at the bottle next time."

When facing Shen Wei, Xiaoge felt the weight of duty in the blade that struck his own. And each time they trained together, that weight dropped a little more.
Little by little, Shen Wei's blade was becoming lighter, in the understanding that there was no opponent there. There was no master or apprentice between them. Xiaoge didn't remember his masters. Shen Wei had only had two, but only one was warrior-forged and had led him in the practice of dao.
In the absence of the upper hierarchy, with just the two of them in their silent mutual decision of equality, they had become what neither of them had before: martial brothers.

Zhao Yunlan is not the only one who didn’t feel the inherent terror of the Ghost Slayer's presence. Pangzi looked up briefly, observing Liu Sang and Xiaoge, who were as calm as him. Respectful, as the occasion required, but calm nonetheless. Covered in black, bringing cold and mystery or whatever, it didn't change anything for them. This was the Shen Wei they knew in everyday life, talking passionately with Wu Xie, cooking with Pangzi, sword training with Xiaoge, learning how to better use a cell phone with Liu Sang. If they were supposed to inevitably feel the same way everyone felt about what Shen Wei was, then perhaps the effect of that would have been broken by them knowing who he was. Shen Wei was their friend.
...
On an autumn night, the Ghost Slayer visits SID headquarters.

What returned to Shen Wei was not just the pendant with Kunlun's soulfire. What was being recovered was much more than what he knew he had lost.
He was unwilling to lose it all.

Shen Wei had to admit that Wu Xie was correct. If he were to attempt to recover his pendant himself, it would be easier for him to be killed or imprisoned again and the contents of the pendant discovered by Hell's Court than for him to succeed. But what would become of Zhao Yunlan now if Shen Wei still couldn't even get close to him without causing him harm, if he lost Wu Xie so soon?
Once, under a sky as starry as tonight, Shen San had told Shen Wei that he could make wishes if he saw shooting stars.

Wu Xie, lying on the rug with the book, the blanket not quite wrapped up but tangled in him, stopped his attempt at reading again. That shy contentment that Shen Wei occasionally showed about something, casually about his own thoughts, was always - always - charming.

"Never again turn your back on me. Don't run away from me. Kill me first, but don't try to abandon me.”
That was when the Ghost King understood, despite everything he still couldn't be clear about, he was perfectly capable of understanding that. Because the Fire God had spoken his language. And because the very land where they lay and forcibly intertwined was now what was left of what had once been Zhurong's great friend. The realization hit the Ghost King harder than the fear he had felt before: Zhurong was, in a peculiar way, like him - completely alone.

The boyfriend from his past that Wu Xie found inside the tomb was now everyone else's problem.
While everyone in the team had doubts and theories, Shen Wei was embarrassed.